Article December 30, 1933 Issue

"Silver and gold have I none"

ARTHUR A. CROSBY

Even before the beggar who, "at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful," asked an alms, and responded to Peter's words, "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk," the world had been gradually learning that money can buy neither happiness, health, nor harmony. For centuries, it has been seeking in the fields of human learning and endeavor that which silver and gold cannot purchase. Natural science, medical science, eloquent false theology, all have cried, This is the way! But tired humanity, surfeited with material theories, arguments, and preachments, has failed to find in them the longed-for panacea, which would satisfy the heart's desire. Long before the advent of Jesus of Nazareth, the prophet Zechariah proclaimed, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." Only in this way can salvation be achieved. Christian Scientists accept the fact that it is not by human methods, ways, and means, not by means of silver and of gold, that healing is accomplished, but by the loving spirit of "the Lord of hosts."

Now, in order really to comprehend this, we must see clearly what it is that accomplishes true healing. Some may believe that by virtue of some power or holiness of his own the Christian Scientist is able to accomplish these so-called miracles. This error Peter disclaimed. Referring to the Christ, he told his hearers that it was "through faith in his name" that the healing was wrought. But the priests and the Sadducees, blinded by false teaching, were reluctant to believe his words. And so it is today. Personal prestige, popularity, wealth, position often are presumed to endow one with power. Yet the sick, the sorrowful, the sinning are not healed by any supposititious, material power. "There is no power apart from God," says our Leader (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 228); and faith in other means and methods must go down before the Christ, Truth, which "is able even to subdue all things."

The question naturally arises, How does God heal? It may be answered that God heals as human consciousness by the message of Christ, Truth, is conformed to the divine. Human resistance is thus subdued by the ever present divine might. Thus it is that we put on Christ, become Christlike, for in the divine nature there is no evil, no finiteness. We know that Peter, spiritually endowed, gave the beggar evidence of that divine, Christly nature which silver and gold cannot buy. The beggar, responsive to this Christliness, was enabled to leap up and walk, and go into the temple, praising God. This is the truth about all real being—the truth which makes men free—the truth which Jesus of Nazareth lived and loved, taught and proved, in Judea, in Galilee, and in Samaria. It is the truth which is awakening men today through the teachings of Christian Science. It is the truth which heals the sick and redeems from sin. Money cannot purchase the truth; it cannot be bought. Each one must strive for it through spiritualization of thought.

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"Silver and gold have I none"

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