Article September 30, 1922 Issue

The Cross and the Crown

MARY H. W. CARTER

On the covers of all the published works of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, are engraved the cross and the crown. Why did Mrs. Eddy choose these two symbols for so important a place? Knowing her wonderful insight and deep sense of all things spiritual, the choice indicates a vital significance attaching to them. A close study of the meaning of these symbols in the light of Christian Science is well worth while.

Christian Scientists have been called, and rightly so, an optimistic people; and daily and hourly they rejoice and give thanks for this same optimism, which is based on the knowledge of the one true God and of man in His image and likeness. This does not mean, however, that the pathway trod by the Christian Scientist in his journey through human experience is always one of ease and pleasure. The goal of full, final understanding of the blessed truth which alone makes free is ever before his gaze; but it is not reached, as Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 22), "through paths of flowers;" and on page 9 she clearly states, "There is a cross to be taken up before we can enjoy the fruition of our hope and faith."

Jesus trod the way of the cross; and we, in turn, as we awake from our dream of life and pleasure in matter, set our feet upon this same path. "Jesus spares us not one individual experience, if we follow his commands faithfully," Mrs. Eddy again reminds us on page 26 of our textbook; "and all have the cup of sorrowful effort to drink in proportion to their demonstration of his love, till all are redeemed through divine Love." The necessity for this deep experience was emphasized by Jesus in the various gospels, where he enjoins his followers to deny themselves, take up each his cross, and follow after him, even going so far as to say, "He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me."

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