Article August 31, 1918 Issue

What is the greatest lesson each and every one of us...

The Christian Science Monitor

What is the greatest lesson each and every one of us shall learn? It is this, that nothing can separate us from God nor come between us and Spirit, nor keep us from finding the Father, if we but turn to Him. The life of Christ Jesus has been interpreted to mean a great many things of more or less value to humanity, but the one thing that it means and shows forth supremely, so that the gospels are full of it, even as it were to overflowing, is that God and the real man coexist eternally, and that at no time was there anything between God and man, nor was God at any time hidden from men when they in sincerity and truth turned to Him. In countless ways, however, solely because men believe in a so-called human mind as a distinct entity, they express the belief that there is a separation between God and man and that for some inscrutable reason they cannot face God,—cannot turn directly to divine Love, but must have a mediator to act for them. Thus we forget that "there is no respect of persons with God," and that the Bible, from the law of Moses to the teachings of our Master himself, condemns having respect of persons.

Now the great fact, the helpful ray of light, that every one should remember is that the spiritual greatness of any worthy Biblical character, be it king, prophet, or apostle, is in the exact proportion in which he proved that he was in direct communion with God, that he was facing God, without any personality to mediate between him and Spirit. "The Soul-inspired patriarchs heard the voice of Truth, and talked with God as consciously as man talks with man," says Mrs. Eddy on page 308 of Science and Health. Did Abraham, for instance, need some one to work out his salvation or personally to mediate between him and God? Was not Abraham found faithful because he allowed no element of person, nor even of human affection, to come between him and God? It is not just a mere chance nor a mark of favoritism that all true Christians are to be accounted as of the spiritual seed of Abraham, for the characteristic of the true follower of Christ is that, through Truth, he finds the way straight to God and needs no other mediator than this same Christ, or Truth, that Jesus the Way-shower taught and demonstrated. If Abraham, then, communed with God, and was found faithful, are we not to do the same? Now what has been said of Abraham may also be said of Moses, of Hannah, of Mary, and of Christ Jesus himself, as well as of all other worthy men and women recorded in the Bible, whose very strength of spiritual understanding came from turning directly to God, having no need for an intermediary between them and Spirit.

Now, Christian Science clearly indicates that the veil of the temple is forever rent from top to bottom, that every man can enter the holy of holies here and now and be accounted a king and priest before God. "Like the archpriests of yore," we read in Science and Health (p. 481), "man is free 'to enter into the holiest,'—the realm of God." Christian Science, therefore, does exactly what the Christ that Jesus demonstrated, eternally does; it points the way to God and enables you to prove that you have communed with God, that you are at one with Spirit,—the at-one-ment that the carnal desires deny but cannot destroy, yea, that the human mind seeks to set aside by declaring that in order to come into the presence of God a personal intermediary is a prerequisite. Proving our oneness with God, therefore, is an absolute necessity in Christian Science, in which mere belief without understanding counts for naught. On page 37 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy tells us, "It is possible,—yea, it is the duty and privilege of every child, man, and woman,—to follow in some degree the example of the Master by the demonstration of Truth and Life, of health and holiness."

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