Editorial March 26, 1932 Issue

"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.

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