"Give place"

When Jesus entered the house of Jairus and found, as we read, "the minstrels and the people making a noise, he said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth" (Matthew 9:23, 24). Then, "when the people were put forth," he went in and the maid arose. This action of the Master, metaphysically interpreted, has a message for us to-day. Erroneous beliefs must be "put forth" to make way for the incoming Christ. They must "give place" to spiritual ideas and their resurrecting power.

Mortal beliefs, apparently externalized as sentient matter, sin, and lifelessness, have no place in God, man, or the universe. They have no place in spiritual consciousness; therefore they are humanly evitable. To every enlightened thinker applies Isaiah's statement, "He will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them." In Christian Science the menacing arguments of error are put to silence by the intelligent and specific use of Mind's redemptive ideas. Divine Love exalts its witnesses above abasing material fears. The error that is excluded from an individual's thought cannot harm him, deceive him, or retard his growth.

Material fears are cast out by purity and spiritual enlightenment. Step by step material sense with its discordant evidence retreats before the mandate of Christian Science. Not only the belief in disease, but hate and resentment, make way for love and forgiveness. The cumulative exemption from error demonstrated by individuals heralds universal salvation through the coming of the Christ, Truth, in Christian Science, to every consciousness.

On page 282 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy writes, "Matter has no place in Spirit, and Spirit has no place in matter." The claim of duality asserted by material sense is without foundation. Whoever would discover his place in Spirit, as God's likeness, must denounce the suggestion that he, either now or at any time, lives in or by means of so-called organic life and physical organs. In the measure of his spiritual understanding he must increase his reliance on the eternal God, and withdraw it from the god of materiality. The proof of the rightness of this method is the spiritually restored health, strength, and intelligence of great numbers of individuals who have turned to Christian Science in their extremity. In each case material faith has had to "give place" to the spiritual faith which Christian Science awakens and rewards.

Divine Principle insistently commands every claim of human imperfection to withdraw before the established and immovable fact of the perfection of God and man. He who stands by this fact advances steadfastly towards its fulfillment in his own experience. He is not stampeded by the aggressive arguments of error, which leave untouched the scientific fact of true being in and of God.

"The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him." The stillness of humility can be felt only as the arrogance of self-justification is silenced. Humility demands that we cease arguing on the wrong side. Humility is allied to spiritual dominion because this divinely allegiant quality accedes only to God's demands.

Before raising Jairus' daughter, Christ Jesus "put forth" the false witnesses, the unbelieving thoughts which noisily argue for the reality of both life and death in matter. Christian Science also is calling upon the oppressive arguments of materiality to "give place" to the eternal dominion of Life and Love; and it is thereby enlightening and blessing human consciousness. The way to overcome and to prevent so-called death is to reflect the vital qualities of eternal Love, and to recognize Life as wholly spiritual, subject to no discord or destruction.

The Revelator declared that "the tabernacle of God is with men, . . . and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." This pure vision of spiritual sense is also dawning on the Christian Scientist. He too is learning to discern the immensity of Spirit, the majesty, purity, completeness of God, and His inseparability from His creation, collective and individual. It is the experience of the Christian Scientist that many a distressing discord has already "passed away" from his experience, and that he is gaining a clear, fearless sense of health and being.

In God's universe there is no place nor opportunity for materiality, and no medium for suffering or corruption. The discerning Elihu comforted Job with the fact that "there is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves." The unity of good is all-pervading. In it there is no pain, sorrow, nor emptiness. There is full joy and satisfaction. The Christian Scientist daily sees the tears of those who accept its message wiped away by the infinitely comforting vision of divine Love, which can never pass away, for God is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.

VIOLET KER SEYMER