Editorial August 26, 1950 Issue

THE MEDIATOR

Robert Ellis Key

IN the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy writes (p. 475): "Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique. He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas." Spiritual ideas are revealed to one who reflects God, divine Mind. There is no limit to their unfoldment. Each idea is complete and perfect and needs no cultivation or direction from mortals. Its motivation is intelligence; its purpose is to express its creator, God. God's ideas are not solitary or isolated; they are not dependent one upon another, but bear reciprocal relationship to one another, each and all being dependent on the one Mind, God.

Man, the idea of God, Spirit, is not visible to the material senses. Matter is not visible to Spirit, nor is Spirit visible to matter. Man never leaves the realm of Spirit to become matter. That which is seen as matter is not the real man. The mortal does not develop into the immortal. The kingdom of Spirit is distinct and separate from the suppositional and fictitious realm of matter; there is no bridge between the two. How, then, can humanity in its comparative darkness know anything about spiritual existence? The answer is that a mediator is necessary; that is, one who mediates, or interposes, between parties to reconcile them. A mediator must be appreciably aware of the supposititious earthly view as well as of the heavenly. A life link between the unseen and the seen, the spiritual and the material, does not imply the amalgamation of Spirit and matter, but it does make possible the recognition by humanity of the existence of Mind, God, and of life in and of Spirit.

Christ Jesus is this link. He is our mediator. Paul writes (I Tim. 2:5), "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." Mrs. Eddy says (No and Yes, p. 31), "Jesus cast out evils, mediating between what is and is not, until a perfect consciousness is attained." His spiritual origin equipped him for his mission of reconciling mankind to God. Partaking in some degree of the material sense of life, he was thereby appreciable to mortals. Aware of his spiritual origin and existence, he exercised dominion over the errors of the flesh and healed sickness, sin, and death through his spiritual understanding. Although assailed by the temptations of the material world, he was able to discern man's spiritual nature so clearly that the temptations of the flesh and the evils of mortal mind were powerless to influence him.

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