Editorial May 1, 1954 Issue

JUST RECOMPENSE

Helen Wood Bauman

No one is actually at the mercy of the whims and the tyranny of mortals. Through Christian Science everyone may prove that God's law is just and is perpetually enforced. The demonstration of this law brings a realization of true recompense in every situation. The Scriptures teach this great lesson. Speaking of the New Testament narratives, Mary Baker Eddy says (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 501), "Jesus illumines them, showing the poverty of mortal existence, but richly recompensing human want and woe with spiritual gain."

The Master brought health and restored life to those who were unjustly suffering from the imposition of material beliefs. And for others he removed the penalties of so-called mortal mind by destroying the sins that had brought those penalties upon them. He demonstrated the larger justice that recognizes God as the only creator and man as His diseaseless, sinless image. Even on the cross Christ Jesus was proving the just recompense of a righteous Father, for he was rising into the realm of Spirit, where there is no blind ignorance and no resistance to good. This was the reward he sought; and can there be any higher? If Jesus had not consistently identified himself as the Son of God, the image of Spirit, and realized that he was perpetually in God's law-governed kingdom, he could not have proved the presence of justice on such a high level or with such complete consistency. We can well afford to trust his promise (John 12:26), "If any man serve me, him will my Father honour." Christliness always gains the recompense of Spirit.

Self-pity that frets over the human lot is silenced by joy, once one sees the occasion as an opportunity for receiving God's honor and His spiritual reward for righteousness. Mrs. Eddy made the best of such opportunities. She writes in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 166), "Life's ills are its chief recompense; they develop hidden strength." By this intelligent attitude our Leader destroyed the delusion that evil can harm the righteous. She measured her reward in terms of the good she accomplished and the spiritual strength revealed, always retaining her joy in the recognition of evil's unreality. And she received a recompense to human sense in the ever-widening appreciation of her mission and accomplishment as the Discoverer and Founder of the Science that is to bring full salvation to humanity.

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