Article April 4, 1931 Issue

Easter

HENRIETTA G. LAWS

As the Easter season approaches each year, Christian Scientists need to ponder the following By-Law in the Church Manual by Mary Baker Eddy (Art. XVII, Sect. 2): "In the United States there shall be no special observances, festivities, nor gifts at the Easter season by members of The Mother Church. Gratitude and love should abide in every heart each day of all the years. Those sacred words of our beloved Master, 'Let the dead bury their dead,' and 'Follow thou me,' appeal to daily Christian endeavors for the living whereby to exemplify our risen Lord." If our Leader had seen a need for a special observance on Easter Sunday, would she not have made provision for it? It is evident that, on the contrary, she saw the need of warning Christian Scientists against this very thing, thereby protecting them from possibly falling into material worship.

If we are demonstrating the Christ, Truth, more and more in our daily lives, are we not exemplifying "our risen Lord"? Every physical discord corrected, every thought of hatred, malice, envy, dishonesty, jealousy, and strife overcome, means the further demonstration of the Christ in our own lives or in the lives of others.

When Jesus restored the daughter of Jairus, did he admit the reality of death? No! He said, "The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth." Christian Scientists need to be ever watchful, as was the Master, that they are not mesmerized into the belief of death as real. If we believe that Jesus really died and was brought back to life, we are believing just as we may have done before Christian Science came to teach us differently, and as even Jesus' disciples believed before they fully understood their Master's teachings and demonstration. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 44) Mrs. Eddy writes, "His disciples believed Jesus to be dead while he was hidden in the sepulchre, whereas he was alive, demonstrating within the narrow tomb the power of Spirit to overrule mortal, material sense."

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