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 hell 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
ingratitude, lust, malice, hate, constitute 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 thorny 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
compass 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 shines over the
Polar Sea.
The Saviour's Mission
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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