Article April 6, 1957 Issue

"EXCEPT I SHALL SEE..."

HERBERT V. A. HALL

After the resurrection, when the disciples told Thomas (John 20:25), "We have seen the Lord," he replied, "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." When Jesus greeted Mary Magdalene with the salutation (verse 16), "Mary," she acknowledged unreservedly the fact of his resurrection with her response, "Rabboni," or Master.

Undoubtedly Mary, like Thomas and the other disciples, had been disturbed greatly by the crucifixion and the events leading up to it. But perhaps she had been told that Jesus had said to the disciples (John 2:19), "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." In any case, she had been humbly doing all that she could to respect the memory of her beloved Master, when Jesus appeared to her. Upon recognizing her Lord she had no sense of doubt, and with great joy she acknowledged the power of Truth, which the risen Saviour manifested. Her Lord alive and triumphant stood before her.

To a student of Christian Science who for many months had struggled faithfully to overcome an inharmonious condition of mind and body, the Thomas attitude towards the coming of the Christ, Truth, constituted a stumbling block. As the student struggled wearily with a sense of substance and reality in matter, he seemed to see slight evidence of the Christ, Truth, in his human consciousness.

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