Article May 28, 1955 Issue

"THE ACCUSER IS NOT THERE"

LINDEN E. JONES

Of vital interest to mankind are the occasions when evil insinuations, and not their victims, are cast down. Hence the spiritual significance of an incident which occurred centuries ago in the temple at Jerusalem. Seeking to smear Christ Jesus' name and entangle him with the law, certain scribes and Pharisees brought to the Way-shower a woman taken in adultery. Would he say that immorality should not be punished, so consenting to violation of the Mosaic law? No; instead of listening to their accusations, the master Metaphysician replied (John 8:7), "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." Thus he turned upon each accuser the searchlight of Truth.

Confronted by the consciousness of their own instead of another's misdeeds, the accusers soon left the scene. Describing the final act in this drama, the Bible concludes (John 8:10, 11): "When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more."

In this Christly method of handling sin there is no hypocritical "holier than thou" attitude; no condemnation of the sinner or condoning of wrongdoing; no hiding of the fact that, in human thought, wherever it appears, the wrong sense needs correction. On the contrary, through the understanding of the teaching of Christ Jesus, thought models of matter, disease, and sin are cast out as unreal. In their place we discern man in God's image, the immortal model of perfect Mind, sinless and complete. Therefore the admonition, "Go, and sin no more," was not merely a call to the woman to act rightly as a mortal. It was rather the demand of Truth for the appearing of her sinless selfhood, which includes nothing of which to be accused, but everything in which to rejoice.

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