Editorial October 16, 1926 Issue

The Rock, Christ

Albert F. Gilmore

In the forceful language which, in general, characterizes his letters, Paul wrote to the church in Corinth that the children of Israel owed their release from the many perils which attended their wilderness journeying to the fact that they "did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ." And he makes clear that those who afterward displeased God because of their unfaithfulness were overwhelmed. Thus Paul draws the lesson as to what mortals must do in order to escape the destruction which overtook the unfaithful among the Israelites.

Paul's constant cry to the brethren was for loyalty to the heavenly vision, that they turn away from idolatry, the worship of materiality in every form, in order to gain spiritually, and partake more fully of the Spirit manifested in Christ Jesus, his Lord and Master. He renounced materiality in every form, and was enabled to perform his great service to mankind because of his splendid courage in combating the claims of evil, and his unswerving devotion to the Christ, Truth. He, like the wilderness wanderers, drank deep drafts of the Rock, Christ, and those spiritual drafts gave him understanding and strength to carry on through difficulties which would have overwhelmed one less devoted to the heavenly vision. This accounts for Paul's victory over the flesh, where so many of the children of Israel fell before its temptations.

As Christian Scientists we may learn valuable lessons from Paul's letters. We may learn that we must emulate his high example if we would grow in spiritual attainment. If the Christ, Truth, is to become the dominant influence in our lives, the ways of the flesh must be abandoned. The kingdom of God is not won through the pursuit of fleshly desires: only as they are overcome, abandoned, do we drink of the Rock, Christ. What is the process? The abandonment of materiality is best accomplished by putting truth in its place in our thinking, substituting good for evil, reality for unreality. The establishment of Truth in consciousness precludes the acceptance of the erroneous and false as true. One knows so perfectly the facts of the multiplication table that he would never accept wrong computations as true. But instantly, when an erroneous number presents itself, it is dismissed, and the true concept put in its place. How simple is the process, the putting of truth in the place of error, of good in the place of evil! The basic necessity, however, is to become so cognizant of spiritual truth that it occupies our whole mental area—becomes, in fact, our consciousness. Thus prepared, the claims of evil or error in any of its manifold forms, whether subjective to ourselves or from without, find no lodgment, gain no degree of credence.

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