"Come forth"

Violet Ker Seymer

When Jesus, standing beside the tomb, called to Lazarus, "Come forth," he roused him from the mesmerism of death through his understanding of the law of eternal Life. And Lazarus came forth. With like authority Christian Science is rousing the sick, the sinful, the sorrowful, the dying, with the clarion call of Spirit, "Come forth"; and multitudes to-day are being called out of bondage into spiritual freedom. This spiritual behest is ringing in human consciousness, and each one's necessity is to respond to it.

On page 179 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy writes, "We can only come into the spiritual resurrection by quitting the old consciousness of Soul in sense." "The old consciousness" includes errors which, because of their long indulgence, may perhaps have been overlooked as though they were trivial, among them hasty temper, gloomy feelings, irritability, mental haziness, and even the fog of sorrow. The practice of Christian Science calls for present resurrection from these entombing beliefs. In proportion to our response to the call of Spirit, we reflect spiritual ideas and qualities which shed their light on the uplifted consciousness. "When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up." Through this lifting up, the Christian Scientist emerges into purer happiness, freer thinking, wider loving-kindness; and every big or little victory over material sense lessens the burdensome beliefs of the flesh.

In the face of the constant command of Spirit to "come forth" from bondage to evil, the counterfeit cry may be heard, "I am shut up, and I cannot come forth." This insidious suggestion of passivity in error is in direct opposition to the call of activity in Truth, and both cannot be accepted. In the omnipresence of eternal Life, no one is excluded from the free, pure, spiritual consciousness which alone is actually real and present. Christ, Truth, is the spiritual power which reverses the lie against God and our true identity. "I am shut up" is but the cry of fear—fear of sickness or of sin; and a purer, more childlike and obedient trust in the power of divine Love can silence all fear. Good is unbounded, and there is no real occasion for anyone to be or to remain the prisoner of false belief.

"Let us come into the presence of Him who removeth all iniquities, and healeth all our diseases" (ibid., p. 174). This coming is mental, and one whose healing is delayed would do well to demonstrate increased obedience to the "come forth" of Spirit. The loyal Christian Scientist refuses to acquiesce in error's suggestion that he is shut up in fear, discouragement, mental stagnation, or any other discord. He is a law to himself that he knows too much about God and man to stay in the old sense of bondage to matter and personal sense. He is ready to declare that error cannot render him oblivious of man's perpetual unity with his God.

Through countless healings Christian Science is leading mankind to drop error and come into the peace, the power, of true consciousness. It is proving that the most obstinate belief in evil as real can in no case make it real. No law, no thought of divine Mind, no decree of divine Principle, gives any support to sin, sickness, or death. The ceaseless activity of spiritual law is always on the side of him who prays and strives for a fuller recognition of spiritual man. All that is needed for the consummation of any demonstration is continuously increased spiritual enlightenment, coupled with fidelity. The gain of the true must go hand in hand with the surrender of the false.

Man in God's likeness is conscious of the full truth about himself, and no false belief of suffering has ever attached itself to him. Then, even though fear and mortal ignorance may assiduously argue that one cannot come forth out of some of his old beliefs, and even though, to his untutored gaze, the glory of God and man may still seem dim to the student of Christian Science, he nevertheless allies himself only with the truth of being and patiently severs error from his thinking. So he finds himself being gradually loosed from the swaddling clothes of traditional beliefs; true thinking becomes more natural to him, and more fruitful in his daily experience.

There is no bondage in spiritual law, and therefore no law for bondage. Through being mentally law-abiding an individual demonstrates the harmony of spiritual law. Doubts, fears, and forebodings form no part of the Eastertide consciousness which is calling all mankind into full freedom from fleshly beliefs. Man in God's likeness is not in a dream; he is awake to the truth of his own identity. As a result of knowing this, "Mortal Man, no longer sick and in prison, walked forth, his feet 'beautiful upon the mountains,' as of one 'that bringeth good tidings'" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 442).

Violet Ker Seymer

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