Article September 1, 2013

Principle not person

Originally published in the 1915 pamphlet titled “‘What went ye out for to see?’”

Nineteen centuries have elapsed since the star stood over Bethlehem and proclaimed the coming of the man who was to bring "on earth peace, good will toward men." Any one reading the gospel story of that night must be impressed with the vastness of the vision which came to those wise men who, perceiving an idea far larger possibly than they could themselves interpret, came bearing their gifts to the young child. They told Herod that Bethlehem was not the least among the princes of Judah, because out of it should come "a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel" The Discoverer of Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy, declares that "the Wisemen were led to behold and to follow this daystar of divine Science, lighting the way to eternal harmony" (Science and Health, Pref., p. vii).

These wise men did not expect to see the prophecies of the Old Testament work out immediately, in the visible manifestation of a world of men, good and at peace, made so merely by the arrival of the Messiah. The spiritual enlightenment that brought them to Jerusalem must have been sufficient to reveal the reception which the Christ-idea, or spiritual idea, was destined to receive before it could be generally accepted. They knew what Isaiah had declared, that the man who announced the truth would come unto his own, and would not be received by them; in other words, Isaiah foresaw that the coming of the spiritual idea, or truth, would not be welcomed by materiality.

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