Editorial May 1, 1943 Issue

"Come forth!"

Evelyn F. Heywood

Mankind thinks of itself as sometimes awake, sometimes asleep, according to human evidence. Accepting the theory that life begins with mortal consciousness and ends with mortal unconsciousness, called death, it is unaware that the whole of human experience is a dream from which there must one day be an awakening, with the coming not of death, but of life.

"Our friend Lazarus sleepeth," Jesus said to his disciples, "but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep." Had Christ Jesus accepted the world's estimate of death, he would not have been able to break its mesmerism for others, or finally for himself. Within the sleep of mortality, awakening does not take place; it must be sought where there is no divided authority, where eternal Life is understood to be the only Life. Men begin to awaken when they learn that Life is not mortal but immortal; that however seemingly logical, consecutive, and persuasive human existence may appear, its every phase partakes of a dream, climaxing in what is termed death.

The purpose of Jesus in going to Bethany to call forth his friend from the grave, was not to inaugurate another period of human living, but to awaken Lazarus and others from the sleep of mortal existence, of which death was the inevitable consequent. The sleep might call itself disease or sin, loss or death, but it was traceable to the same source, submissive to the same pattern, obedient to the same rules.

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