The parable of Dives and Lazarus which Christ Jesus expounded, teaches a fundamental lesson of scientific Christianity. First comes the description of "a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day" (Luke 16: 19). Then we have the description of a poor man, Lazarus, who was sick and hungry and who sought the crumbs that fell from the table of the rich man generally called Dives. Both men died, and Lazarus found himself at peace in the bosom of father Abraham, whereas Dives was in a tormenting hell.

When Dives begged Abraham to send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and cool his tongue, Abraham replied, "Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed": and he declared that neither one could pass to the other.

At first thought the parable may seem merciless, but one must see in it an important scientific lesson. It points to the impassable gulf between the physical senses and the spiritual senses, the contrary elements in the so-called human mind. Dives had catered to the corporeal senses. Lazarus had suffered only pain and distress from them, hence his ability to abandon them and find heaven, or reality, typified in the parable by Abraham's bosom.

Christian Science shows that sensuous living drives an individual more and more deeply into the false belief of pleasure and sensation in matter. This mesmeric state of satisfaction in materialism is one means whereby mortal mind intensifies its claim to reality—a state of thought not easily shaken off by humanity. The lesson is plain: do not be deceived by the physical senses.

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 7:15, 16): "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits." Could not "false prophets," auguring pleasure but bringing pain and slavery to material sensations, refer to the deceitful physical senses?

Mary Baker Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 489), "Corporeal sense defrauds and lies; it breaks all the commands of the Mosaic Decalogue to meet its own demands."

In the Bible the third chapter of Genesis metaphorically describes a flaming sword that guards and guides human thought in the way of the tree of life, spiritual reality. Speaking of this figure, Mrs. Eddy says (ibid., p. 588),"Radiant with mercy and justice, the sword of Truth gleams afar and indicates the infinite distance between Truth and error, between the material and spiritual,—the unreal and the real."

One cannot reason far in Science without coming to the conclusion that the physical senses and the spiritual senses are infinitely separate and that the man made in God's image—the real self— possesses only spiritual senses. The physical senses are outside the realm of Spirit, God. They can neither see, feel, hear, taste nor smell God nor a single moral or spiritual quality.

One does not touch a person in order to find out whether he is truthful or kind or intelligent. One cannot see purity or goodness, cannot hear or smell intelligence. Material consciousness is insensible to the Godlike qualities, which characterize man. The bodily senses dwell in their own self-deceived state, but they continue their claim to existence and power only as long as the individual believes they are real and part of his individuality.

The intensity of the belief in matter's reality greatly varies. The sensualist wastes his time in looking for pleasure in matter when actually he brings to matter all the pleasurable sensations he seems to derive from it. The Spiritually-minded person has little interest in matter, much to the amazement of the materialist.

The genuine Christian Scientist humbly values his knowledge of the "great gulf" which separates material sense from spiritual sense. He rejoices in his Godgiven ability to identify himself with Spirit, its qualities and laws, its ideas and true sensations.

This ability leads the Scientist gradually to bring the physical senses under the control of Spirit, to prove through his knowledge of God's allness and government that the false senses cannot defy divine law or disobey it. But even while he is in possession of normally healthy senses through his dominion over them, the Christian Scientist knows their unreality and the "great gulf" between them and his real, spiritual consciousness. Eventually the false senses will no longer seem to be part of him because he will have spiritually outgrown them.

In his resurrection our Saviour fully subordinated the physical senses, which had endured the experience of the cross. In his ascension Jesus discarded those senses entirely and became conscious only of his absolute existence in Spirit as God's spiritual Son. The people who were with him when he ascended believed that he had departed; but he had only disappeared to their material senses. His last words were (Matt. 28:20), "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

Ascension above the deceptive senses is the goal the master Christian set for every follower. Christendom has stumbled toward this goal far too long. Now, to those who accept the Science of Christ, the physical senses are losing their ability to deceive, and they are beginning to fade from human thought. Man is being seen as spiritual and complete —as God makes and maintains him in His own kingdom.

Helen Wood Bauman