Editorial April 9, 1938 Issue

Preparation for Easter

George Shaw Cook

It would scarcely be possible to overemphasize the gratitude Christian Scientists feel for the teachings and example of Christ Jesus. Therefore it is well that they should pause frequently in the routine of daily living to acknowledge the Master's unparalleled human sacrifice and to honor his unfailing demonstration of the power of Christ, Truth, to heal and to save mankind. Christian Scientists understand that gratitude and honor are not so well exemplified in a limited period of prayer and fasting, as in the continual daily effort to live in accordance with the teachings of the Way-shower. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 25), Mary Baker Eddy says: "Implicit faith in the Teacher and all the emotional love we can bestow on him, will never alone make us imitators of him. We must go and do likewise, else we are not improving the great blessings which our Master worked and suffered to bestow upon us."

A season of extreme lugubriousness followed by a day of exuberant gladness does not honor God or exalt the Christ so much as continuous self-sacrifice and a constant effort to subordinate the human to the divine, the material to the spiritual. And this commendable Christian endeavor may be undertaken and pursued in a spirit of unemotional but unfailing joy. Self-immolation should not bring sorrow and sadness in its train, since we know that it is through willingness to sacrifice a false, material sense of self that we are prepared to take possession of our true spiritual selfhood. And this should be a happy thing to do. Mrs. Eddy says (ibid., p. 324): "Gladness to leave the false landmarks and joy to see them disappear,—this disposition helps to precipitate the ultimate harmony. The purification of sense and self is a proof of progress."

When about to take leave of his disciples, even though he knew that the ordeal of the cross was not far off, and although he recognized the sense of sorrow that would try to engulf these faithful ones, because of that experience, Jesus said, "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." Obviously it was nothing in the existing circumstances—nothing superficial—that enabled Jesus to maintain his sense of joy, but a deep underlying appreciation of the enduring nature of that which is good, and of the fleeting nature of that which appears to be evil. His joy, then, had a substantial—an unshakable—foundation.

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