FOR THE WORK'S SAKE

Archibald McLellan

When Jesus healed the sick on the shores of Galilee, in its towns and villages and by its roadsides, as recorded in the gospels, we can scarcely assume that he did this work simply that the sick might be healed, but rather because it seemed to him a necessary incident in exemplification of the gospel he preached,—a gospel which invariably heals the sick when it is understood and practised.

It would appear, from the great Teacher's primary instruction to the twelve, as he sent them forth on their world-mission, that his chief purpose was to establish in men the knowledge that the kingdom of God was at hand. It was inevitable that this knowledge of the omnipotence and omnipresence of God should destroy error and evil of every name and nature, and that his disciples who had listened to his instructions and had seen him perform those wonderful works of healing in exemplification of the power of Truth to heal from sickness as well as save from sin, should have come to regard the healing of the sick as part and parcel of their work. In other words, Jesus recognized, nor could his disciples fail to perceive, the need for convincing humanity by such works as these that the doctrines he taught, though new and perhaps startling in their departure from the "letter" taught by the scribes and Pharisees, were nevertheless not "vain babblings."

So far as the present need for a convincing presentation of the gospel is concerned, times and people have not changed in the slightest, and in that respect the first century of Christianity and this twentieth century are identical. Mrs. Eddy recognized this parallelism when she wrote: "Jesus proved to perfection, so far as this could be done in that age, what Christian Science is today proving in a small degree,—the falsity of the evidence of the material senses that sin, sickness, and death are sensible claims, and that God substantiates their evidence by knowing their claim" (No and Yes, p. 38).

Jesus' "great commission" to his followers was to heal the sick and to preach the gospel, and he made plain their coincidence when he named as a proof of "them that believe" that recovery should follow their ministrations to the sick. In view of the Master's direct statement to this effect, are we as Christian Scientists exceeding our privilege in declaring that only to the extent that Christianity is obeying the command of this "great commission" is it in fact Christianity? The kingdom of God is "at hand" now, even as it was when our Master impressed its immanence upon his immediate followers. It was through his perception of the all-power and presence of God and man in His image and likeness that Jesus healed the sick and the sinning, and thus taught, as Mrs. Eddy tells us, "that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy" (Science and Health, p. 477).

Jesus likewise impressed upon his followers the necessity to seek first the kingdom of God; not for the reason that all material things should be added to them, but rather for the kingdom itself, irrespective of any and all consequences; that the acquisition and possession of this "kingdom within" was the one thing to be desired and sought after, rather than the material possessions which like the bright-hued bubble vanish at a touch. He knew, however, and he made this point clear to his hearers, that it was an impossibility to gain the kingdom of God by an effort that had for its sole incentive the desire that the material things which he had enumerated might be acquired, and it must have been because of this that he laid such stress upon the search for the kingdom,—that the kingdom must be first, and that all material possessions were as naught when weighed in the balance against it.

Mrs. Eddy writes in "No and Yes" (p. 46): "Man has a noble destiny; and the full-orbed significance of this destiny has dawned on the sick-bound and sin-enslaved." When mankind seeks "first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness," in the sense that this seeking is for the sake of the kingdom itself, and every other desire is eliminated, then indeed will the kingdom of God be within men, and the sick will be healed as surely as they were in the earthly experience of Jesus. We need to keep continually before us the fact that work in Christian Science, to be certain and effective, must be for the work's sake,—must be unselfish, loving, and compassionate. Then, and then only, is the kingdom of God come nigh unto us.

Archibald McLellan.

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LAW AND OBEDIENCE

November 11, 1911

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