He is laid. This appeal resolves itself into these questions:-
Is our consciousness in matter or in G.o.d? Have we any other consciousness than that of good? If we have, He is saying to us to-day, "Adam, where art thou?" We [10]
are wrong if our consciousness is in sin, sickness, and death. This is the old consciousness.
In the new religion the teaching is, "He is not here; Truth is not in matter; he is risen; Truth has become more to us,-more true, more spiritual." [15]
Can we say this to-day? Have we left the conscious- ness of sickness and sin for that of health and holiness?
What is it that seems a stone between us and the resurrection morning? [20]
It is the belief of mind in matter. We can only come into the spiritual resurrection by quitting the old con- sciousness of Soul in sense.
These flowers are floral apostles. G.o.d does all this through His followers; and He made every flower in [25]
Mind before it sprang from the earth: yet we look into matter and the earth to give us these smiles of G.o.d!
We must lay aside material consciousness, and then we can perceive Truth, and say with Mary, "Rabboni!"
-Master! [30]
In 1866, when G.o.d revealed to me this risen Christ, this Life that knows no death, that saith, "Because he
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lives, I live," I awoke from the dream of Spirit in the [1]
flesh so far as to take the side of Spirit, and strive to cease my warfare.
When, through this consciousness, I was delivered from the dark shadow and portal of death, my friends were [5]
frightened at beholding me restored to health.
A dear old lady asked me, "How is it that you are restored to us? Has Christ come again on earth?"
"Christ never left," I replied; "Christ is Truth, and Truth is always here,-the impersonal Saviour." [10]
Then another person, more material, met me, and I said, in the words of my Master, "Touch me not." I shuddered at her material approach; then my heart went out to G.o.d, and I found the open door from this sepulchre of matter. [15]
I _love_ the Easter service: it speaks to me of Life, and not of death.
Let us do our work; then we shall have part in his resurrection.
Bible Lessons
_But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the_ _sons of G.o.d, even to them that believe on his name: which were born,_ _not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of_ _G.o.d._-JOHN i. 12, 13.
Here, the apostle a.s.sures us that man has power to [25]
become the son of G.o.d. In the Hebrew text, the word "son" is defined variously; a month is called the son of a year. This term, as applied to man, is used in both a material and a spiritual sense. The Scriptures speak of Jesus as the Son of G.o.d and the Son of man; but [30]
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Jesus said to call no man father; "for one is your Father," [1]
even G.o.d.
Is man"s spiritual sonship a personal gift to man, or is it the reality of his being, in divine Science? Man"s knowledge of this grand verity gives him power to dem- [5]
onstrate his divine Principle, which in turn is requisite in order to understand his sonship, or unity with G.o.d, good. A personal requirement of blind obedience to the law of being, would tend to obscure the order of Science, unless that requirement should express the claims [10]
of the divine Principle. Infinite Principle and infinite Spirit must be one. What avail, then, to quarrel over what is the person of Spirit,-if we recognize infinitude as personality,-for who can tell what is the form of infinity? When we understand man"s true birthright, that [15]
he is "born, not ... of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of G.o.d," we shall understand that man is the offspring of Spirit, and not of the flesh; recognize him through spiritual, and not material laws; and regard him as spiritual, and not material. His sonship, referred [20]
to in the text, is his spiritual relation to Deity: it is not, then, a personal gift, but is the order of divine Science.
The apostle urges upon our acceptance this great fact: "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of G.o.d." Mortals will lose their sense [25]
of mortality-disease, sickness, sin, and death-in the proportion that they gain the sense of man"s spirit- ual preexistence as G.o.d"s child; as the offspring of good, and not of G.o.d"s opposite,-evil, or a fallen man. [30]
John the Baptist had a clear discernment of divine Science: being born not of the human will or flesh, he
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antedated his own existence, began spiritually instead [1]
of materially to reckon himself logically; hence the im- possibility of putting him to death, only in belief, through violent means or material methods.
"As many as received him;" that is, as many as per- ceive man"s actual existence in and of his divine Princi- [5]
ple, receive the Truth of existence; and these have no other G.o.d, no other Mind, no other origin; therefore, in time they lose their false sense of existence, and find their adoption with the Father; to wit, the redemption [10]
of the body. Through divine Science man gains the power to become the son of G.o.d, to recognize his perfect and eternal estate.
"Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh." This pa.s.sage refers to man"s primal, spirit- [15]
ual existence, created neither from dust nor carnal desire.
"Nor of the will of man." Born of no doctrine, no human faith, but beholding the truth of being; even the understanding that man was never lost in Adam, since he is and ever was the image and likeness of G.o.d, [20]
good. But no mortal hath seen the spiritual man, more than he hath seen the Father. The apostle indicates no personal plan of a personal Jehovah, partial and finite; but the possibility of all finding their place in G.o.d"s great love, the eternal heritage of the Elohim, His sons and [25]
daughters. The text is a metaphysical statement of existence as Principle and idea, wherein man and his Maker are inseparable and eternal.
When the Word is made flesh,-that is, rendered practical,-this eternal Truth will be understood; and [30]
sickness, sin, and death will yield to it, even as they did more than eighteen centuries ago. The l.u.s.ts of the flesh
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and the pride of life will then be quenched in the divine [1]
Science of being; in the ever-present good, omnipotent Love, and eternal Life, that know no death, In the great forever, the verities of being exist, and must be acknowl- edged and demonstrated. Man must love his neighbor [5]
as himself, and the power of Truth must be seen and felt in health, happiness, and holiness: then it will be found that Mind is All-in-all, and there is no matter to cope with.
Man is free born: he is neither the slave of sense, nor a [10]
silly ambler to the so-called pleasures and pains of self- conscious matter. Man is G.o.d"s image and likeness; whatever is possible to G.o.d, is possible to man _as G.o.d"s_ _reflection_. Through the transparency of Science we learn this, and receive it: learn that man can fulfil the Scrip- [15]
tures in every instance; that if he open his mouth it shall be filled-not by reason of the schools, or learning, but by the natural ability, that reflection already has bestowed on him, to give utterance to Truth.
"Who hath believed our report?" Who understands [20]
these sayings? He to whom the arm of the Lord is re- vealed; to whom divine Science unfolds omnipotence, that equips man with divine power while it shames human pride. a.s.serting a selfhood apart from G.o.d, is a denial of man"s spiritual sonship; for it claims another father. [25]
As many as do receive a knowledge of G.o.d through Science, will have power to reflect His power, in proof of man"s "dominion over all the earth." He is bravely brave who dares at this date refute the evidence of material sense with the facts of Science, and will arrive at the true [30]
status of man because of it. The material senses would make man, that the Scriptures declare reflects his Maker,
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