Article July 19, 1952 Issue

THE AVAILABLE CHRIST

EARL ALBERT RUSSELL

Under the marginal heading "The divine life-link" Mary Baker Eddy makes the following thought-provoking statements (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 350): "'The Word was made flesh.' Divine Truth must be known by its effects on the body as well as on the mind, before the Science of being can be demonstrated. Hence its embodiment in the incarnate Jesus,—that life-link forming the connection through which the real reaches the unreal, Soul rebukes sense, and Truth destroys error."

Herod inquired diligently where the Christ should be born, believing, as did others, that Christ would be born of a human mother. Logically, therefore, Herod believed that if he could slay the child Jesus, he could destroy the Christ. It was impossible for such a materialist as Herod to know that the Christ, which Jesus exemplified, is the divine idea of God; that it is never born and never dying, but always alive and powerful. To the human consciousness the Christ seemed to be born, grow to manhood, and perform miracles. To the spiritually awakened human consciousness the true idea of God dawns, grows in clarity and potency, and as it is better understood brings healing to its possessor.

As the revelation of true sonship becomes more and more apparent to the human consciousness, it becomes obvious that the Christ, as the boundless effect, impartation, outcome, or expression of God, fills heaven and earth, giving proof or evidence of the kingdom, power, and glory of God. Our Leader says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (P. 164): "As the Wisemen grew in the understanding of Christ, the spiritual idea, it grew in favor with them. Thus it will continue, as it shall become understood, until man be found in the actual likeness of his Maker. Their highest human concept of the man Jesus, that portrayed him as the only Son of God, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and Truth, will become so magnified to human sense, by means of the lens of Science, as toreveal man collectively, as individually, to be the son of God."

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