Article December 1, 1928 Issue

Christ Jesus was preeminently the wisest man who ever...

Cecil E. Benjamin, Committee on Publication for the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa,—Cape Town

Cape Argus

Christ Jesus was preeminently the wisest man who ever trod the earth, and there are indications that the world is beginning to realize that he was also the most practical. In his divine compassion he saw that the dire need of humanity was as much the healing of disease as the healing of sin. The Bible records that he was the most successful healer known; and history shows that his disciples, and followers also for about three hundred years after the ascension, healed the sick, and even raised the dead, in accordance with his teaching. This teaching penetrated the material seeming and showed causation to be spiritual, not material. In the year 1866 there occurred an event of importance unparalleled in the history of the world since the time of Christ Jesus, the tremendous significance of which humanity is only just commencing to grasp: it was the discovery by Mary Baker Eddy of the joyous fact that spiritual law, by means of which Christ Jesus and his followers availed themselves of the power of God, divine Love, to heal the sick, is an unchanging law, and that when rightly understood it is as accessible and effectual to-day as when the Master was on earth. She afterwards explained her discovery so clearly in her work, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," the Christian Science textbook, that many thousands of men and women have been able to understand this law and to prove its efficacy in healing all manner of sickness, including so-called incurable disease, after all other means have failed. Ample evidence is to-day available setting this fact beyond all cavil, and it has been admitted by numbers of eminent medical authorities. Mrs. Eddy's revelation unlocks the treasures of the Bible and shows the central fact of that wonderful Book to be the superiority of spiritual power over the so-called material; that the only real laws God has ordained are the laws of Life, Truth, and Love; that so-called laws of sin, disease, and death are, from the viewpoint of absolute truth, illegitimate and unreal, and are to be resisted and annulled, not obeyed.

The prayer of the Christian Scientist reaches out and up to God, and is perfectly logical; for it does not seek to change Him or His creation, but aims at awakening consciousness from the mortal dream to a realization of things as God made them and as they are, thus reconciling man to God, not God to man. Christ Jesus said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free;" and when men do awaken spiritually to "know the truth" that man really is now the son of God, made in His image and likeness, the fetters of sin, disease, and death fall away as naturally and necessarily as darkness disappears in the presence of light.

On page 14 of the Christian Science textbook Mrs. Eddy writes: "Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual,—neither in nor of matter,—and the body will then utter no complaints. If suffering from a belief in sickness, you will find yourself suddenly well. ... Hence the hope of the promise Jesus bestows: 'He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also.'" Christian Science proves true prayer to be the greatest dynamic force in the universe; for it not only heals the sick, but makes the power of God, infinite good, available for the solution of all mankind's other sore problems, great and small. This by no means suggests that the Christian Scientist claims to escape all difficulties or to work them all out in a moment; but it does mean that, while he is indeed conscious of his shortcomings, he rejoices in the assurance that he has found the divine Principle by which it is possible to obtain their solution, and that, to the extent to which he has understood and applied the teaching of Christian Science, he has found and proved that it does effectually heal and save. He will, however, invariably tell you he is even more grateful for its spiritually uplifting power than for physical healing. The coming of Christian Science to human consciousness is the promised Comforter, and is, indeed, a joyous experience.

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