Article November 4, 1922 Issue

Being, Not Seeming

ETTA M. GILBREATH

When Jesus told his disciples to "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees," he was warning them against one of the most subtle temptations which beset mortal existence; namely, the temptation to seem true rather than to be true. The reason this temptation is so common, and the reason it seems so difficult for most people to know whether they are seeming to be true or being true, is that they do not know the difference between material sense and spiritual sense. Material sense is always a pretender. Being merely a counterfeit, it imitates; hence it merely seems good, and becomes a hypocrite; while, on the other hand, spiritual sense is essentially sincere. In every case spiritual sense knows the truth and lives the truth; hence the true motive and the correct expression are in complete harmony.

The Pharisees in their observances of ceremonial rules were trying to do the very thing that all should do,—namely, worship God; and the error that beset them was material sense, which drags everything into the dust. They attempted to work out their problems materially; consequently, the real problem, spiritual existence, the very thing they should have seen, they left untouched, and the original motive of existence was lost to them. Thus blinded by their own mistakes, the light of Truth could not be seen; and instead of being a guide, it became a "stumblingblock." On the other hand, Christ Jesus took the better way. Not only was his aim spiritual existence, but his method of working was the correct, spiritual method. The consequence was that he achieved the success the Pharisees failed to gain; and he also saw the very thing that their blinded eyes could not see. He saw "the way, the truth, and the life;" while they sought the same thing in the opposite direction, and hoped only for their own personal success, "the pride of priesthood," which Mrs. Eddy tells us in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 270), "is the prince of this world. It has nothing in Christ."

Thus, stumbling over the difference between the "pride of priesthood" and an understanding of the Christ, the Pharisee kept the Sabbath sternly and strictly. He not only insisted on doing no work on that day, but quibbled over hair-splitting differences where the work of others was concerned. Jesus looked away from the flesh. He saw the glory of God as the sunlight falling in gentle benediction over and around all. His Sabbath gave him an opportunity to forget the oppressive error,—even the tiresome evasion of Truth which arose from the Pharisee's caviling,—and an occasion to rejoice in the fullness of God's mercy.

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