Editorial April 8, 1922 Issue

The Coming of Christ

Albert F. Gilmore

Almost from the time of the disappearance of the risen Savior, many Christian have looked with yearning hearts and eager eyes for his reappearance on earth "in the flesh." Throughout the centuries the attitude of keen expectancy of his coming in person has been held, although with widely varying views as to the time, place, and manner of fulfillment of his prophetic words as recorded in the gospel of John. Prophets of old, and in our own day as well, have foretold the return of Christ Jesus to establish his kingdom on earth. Sometimes these prophecies have been definite as to time and place; more often they have been uncertain as to these particulars, but none the less emphatic as to the certainty of his reappearance.

Perhaps there is no subject to which the teachings of Christian Science have brought more stimulating enlightenment than in regard to the character and mission of the Christ, to the relation which Jesus bears to the Christ, and, in consequence, to the whole question of the "second coming." With unerring spiritual insight, Mrs. Eddy clarified this important problem, and so altogether reasonable were her teachings that there has resulted a notable trend of thought among liberal Christians towards her views. On the other hand, some religious teachers holding tenaciously to the dogma of bygone days, still insist upon the early reappearance of Christ Jesus "in the flesh," apparently hoping through this means to stimulate their followers to greater spiritual activity.

Mrs. Eddy was the first to teach the dual nature of Jesus the Christ, with a discrimination so clear as to remove all doubt as to the truth of her conclusions; and she buttressed her teachings by actual demonstration. "Jesus," she declared in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 332), "was born of Mary. Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness." Thus she distinguished between Jesus as a human being and the Christ which he expressed. The title "Christ" was bestowed upon Jesus because of his marvelous manifestation of the spiritual nature of God. As the divine ideal, Christ, then, has never been absent from the universe of Spirit, the only, infinite, and perfect creation; hence, there can by no possibility be a return of divine Truth's expression, which is always present, available to heal, comfort, and regenerate mankind whenever the door of human consciousness is even slightly ajar to its admission. On page 7 of the Message for 1900, in answer to the question, "Is there more than one Christ, and hath Christ a second appearing?" Mrs. Eddy says: "There is but one Christ. And from everlasting to everlasting this Christ is never absent." In John's revelation on the isle of Patmos he saw the Christ always at the door of human consciousness, ever knocking for admission and promising to "sup with him" whose thought should be sufficiently spiritualized to receive God through His blessed Christ.

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