Part 6 (1/2)
Job's faith and hope gained him the a.s.surance that the so-called sufferings of the flesh are unreal. We shall learn how false are the pleasures and pains of material sense, and behold the truth of being, as expressed in his conviction, ”Yet in my flesh shall I see G.o.d;” that is, Now and here shall I behold G.o.d, divine Love.
The chaos of mortal mind is made the stepping-stone to the cosmos of immortal Mind.
If Jesus suffered, as the Scriptures declare, it must have been from the mentality of others; since all suffering comes from mind, not from matter, and there could be no sin or suffering in the Mind which is G.o.d. Not his own sins, but the sins of the world, ”crucified the Lord of glory,” and ”put him to an open shame.”
Holding a quickened sense of false environment, and suffering from mentality in opposition to Truth, are significant of that state of mind which the actual understanding of Christian Science first eliminates and then destroys.
In the divine order of Science every follower of Christ shares his cup of sorrows. He also suffereth in the flesh, and from the mentality which opposes the law of Spirit; but the divine law is supreme, for it freeth him from the law of sin and death.
Prophets and apostles suffered from the thoughts of others. Their conscious being was not fully exempt from physicality and the sense of sin.
Until he awakes from his delusion, he suffers least from sin who is a hardened sinner. The hypocrite's affections must first be made to fret in their chains; and the pangs of h.e.l.l must lay hold of him ere he can change from flesh to Spirit, become acquainted with that Love which is without dissimulation and endureth all things. Such mental conditions as ingrat.i.tude, l.u.s.t, malice, hate, const.i.tute the miasma of earth. More obnoxious than Chinese stenchpots are these dispositions which offend the spiritual sense.
Anatomically considered, the design of the material senses is to warn mortals of the approach of danger by the pain they feel and occasion; but as this sense disappears it foresees the impending doom and foretells the pain. Man's refuge is in spirituality, ”under the shadow of the Almighty.”
The cross is the central emblem of human history. Without it there is neither temptation nor glory. When Jesus turned and said, ”Who hath touched me?” he must have felt the influence of the woman's thought; for it is written that he felt that ”virtue had gone out of him.” His pure consciousness was discriminating, and rendered this infallible verdict; but he neither held her error by affinity nor by infirmity, for it was detected and dismissed.
This gospel of suffering brought life and bliss. This is earth's Bethel in stone,--its pillow, supporting the ladder which reaches heaven.
Suffering was the confirmation of Paul's faith. Through ”a thorn in the flesh” he learned that spiritual grace was sufficient for him.
Peter rejoiced that he was found worthy to suffer for Christ; because to suffer with him is to reign with him.
Sorrow is the harbinger of joy. Mortal throes of anguish forward the birth of immortal being; but divine Science wipes away all tears.
The only conscious existence in the flesh is error of some sort,--sin, pain, death,--a false sense of life and happiness. Mortals, if at ease in so-called existence, are in their native element of error, and must become _dis-eased_, dis-quieted, before error is annihilated.
Jesus walked with bleeding feet the th.o.r.n.y earth-road, treading ”the winepress alone.” His persecutors said mockingly, ”Save thyself, and come down from the cross.” This was the very thing he _was_ doing, coming down from the cross, saving himself after the manner that he had taught, by the law of Spirit's supremacy; and this was done through what is humanly called _agony_.
Even the ice-bound hypocrite melts in fervent heat, before he apprehends Christ as ”the way.” The Master's sublime triumph over all mortal mentality was immortality's goal. He was too wise not to be willing to test the full compa.s.s of human woe, being ”in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”
Thus the absolute unreality of sin, sickness, and death was revealed,--a revelation that beams on mortal sense as the midnight sun s.h.i.+nes over the Polar Sea.
The Saviour's Mission
If there is no reality in evil, why did the Messiah come to the world, and from what evils was it his purpose to save humankind? How, indeed, is he a Saviour, if the evils from which he saves are nonent.i.ties?
Jesus came to earth; but the Christ (that is, the divine idea of the divine Principle which made heaven and earth) was never absent from the earth and heaven; hence the phraseology of Jesus, who spoke of the Christ as one who came down from heaven, yet as ”the Son of man _which is in heaven_.” (John iii. 13.) By this we understand Christ to be the divine idea brought to the flesh in the son of Mary.