Editorial August 18, 1951 Issue

THE CHRIST LEADS FROM SIN TO SERVICE

Robert Ellis Key

After the resurrection Jesus appeared to his disciples on many occasions. His first appearance was to Mary Magdalene, "out of whom he had cast seven devils" (Mark 16:9). It was natural and beautiful that one who had been repentant and redeemed should be the first to see the risen Saviour after his apparent death. The Master had met her when she was in the depths of degradation. He had rescued her from sensuality and death and revealed to her the purity of Love, its transcendent gentleness, peace, and spiritual power.

It is significant that Christ Jesus' first bodily appearance after death should have been to one who had been redeemed from sin. His primary mission was to destroy sin and redeem sinners. He said (Matt. 9:13), "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Because of his rebuke of sin and his sublime teaching concerning the purity and perfection of spiritual existence, Jesus had been persecuted, illegally tried, and afterwards scourged and crucified. But through resort to the Christ, his higher selfhood, he had worked out the problem of being, overcome death, and returned to comfort and reassure his disciples concerning the harmonious nature of life and its immortality.

His disciples in their turn became his missionaries to preach the gospel of Christ and spread the truth of spiritual being. The personal Jesus is no longer with us, but the impersonal Christ, the Comforter, divine Science, is always present and is revealed by Mary Baker Eddy in her writings.

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