"COME AND SEE"

ROBERT ELLIS KEY

ONE day when Jesus noticed two of John the Baptist's disciples following him, he turned and asked them (John 1:38), "What seek ye?" They replied, "Rabbi, . . . where dwellest thou?" He answered, "Come and see."

The dwelling place to which Jesus invited them was surely a state of mind. We do not read of his living in a luxurious material dwelling. He was continually moving from place to place, healing and teaching. In response to one who expressed a desire to follow him wherever he went, he had said (Matt. 8:20), "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head."

His mental dwelling place was the Father's house—the house of many mansions in which he told his disciples he would prepare them a place. It was the abode of Mind, reflecting the light of Spirit, secure in Principle, and quiet and calm in the gentle radiance of Love. His material dwelling place did not appear to be of much concern to him. Jesus was familiar with his mental abode in the Father's house, for he continuously dwelt there. He remained in spiritual consciousness under all circumstances. Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 209), "Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to understand God."

When the lawyer tempted him, Jesus expressed spiritual wisdom. When the hungry required bread, his spiritual affluence supplied it. When the sick called for his aid, the doors of his spiritual consciousness were opened so that they could see the beauty of holiness and enjoy the fruits of it.

It was the spiritual view of man's dwelling place in Mind that lifted the sick and the sinning from the slough of despair and suffering. Jesus told them in no uncertain terms that what he expressed spiritually they could also share with him. Christian Science teaches there is one Mind, and one only. All true consciousness is Spirit, expressed individually in health, wisdom, power, holiness, and love. Jesus told his followers with the assurance of spiritual conviction, "Ye are the light of the world" (Matt. 5:14). This gave them a wonderful assurance. They possessed, or reflected, the beauty of holiness, the unassailable peace, health, and spiritual affluence which they found in him.

The disciples of John had followed the Baptist into the wilderness. John lived frugally and thought righteously. He preached the need of evangelization, the necessity of repentance, of turning away from the ways of the world towards the highroad of holiness. They had followed John so far, but in Jesus they recognized one who could give them a more satisfying home. He opened to them their sonship with God, which the mortal and material sense of existence had denied them. No wonder they were satisfied with what they came to see and were willing to forsake all in order to frequent the mansion in Mind he had revealed to them.

The dwelling place of a mortal is far removed from the dwelling place of man. Let it be understood that man, the son of God, has no mortal origin, mortal environment, or mortal history. He does not dwell in mortality. Belief may say otherwise, but spiritual sense instructs us with truth, and Christian Science reaffirms the Master's invitation to all who are crying out in the deserts of material dearth. It says: "Come and see. Come and I will show you man as God's likeness, safe in the ever-presence of Love. You live, move, and have your being in the Mind which is God. You are your Father's child, not born of mortal parents into a dark and dangerous world, but a son of God, a fellow citizen of that spiritual habitation which Jesus loved and in which he lived continuously."

This is a consciousness of home, or heaven, which is for us to enjoy here and now. It is brought to light by the spirituality of our great Leader, Mrs. Eddy, who with tender persuasion has assured us that we may enjoy what she found, namely, man's inseparability from God, expressed in health, holiness, and life eternal.

Like our great Master, our Leader has opened the door to our home, or heavenly consciousness. We enter the sanctuary of Spirit through the door of obedience to God. We pass the threshold from matter to Mind, not through death, but through life. We are glad to leave our illusory house of clay in mortal mind. We enjoy the sunlight of Truth streaming through the windows of enlightened consciousness, and in our new-found health and freedom we can repeat to others the Master's joyous invitation, "Come and see."

ROBERT ELLIS KEY

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