Chapter II - Atonement And Eucharist
Individual experience
26:1
While we adore Jesus, and the heart overflows with
While we adore Jesus, and the heart overflows with
gratitude for what he did for mortals, – treading alone
his loving pathway up to the throne of
glory, in speechless agony exploring the way
for us, – yet Jesus spares us not one individual expe-
rience, if we follow his commands faithfully; and all
have the cup of sorrowful effort to drink in proportion
to their demonstration of his love, till all are redeemed
through divine Love.
Christ's demonstration
26:10
The Christ was the Spirit which Jesus implied in his
The Christ was the Spirit which Jesus implied in his
own statements: "I am the way, the truth, and the life;"
"I and my Father are one." This Christ,
or divinity of the man Jesus, was his divine
nature, the godliness which animated him. Divine Truth,
Life, and Love gave Jesus authority over sin, sickness,
and death. His mission was to reveal the Science of
celestial being, to prove what God is and what He does
for man.
Proof in practice
26:19
A musician demonstrates the beauty of the music he
A musician demonstrates the beauty of the music he
teaches in order to show the learner the way by prac-
tice as well as precept. Jesus' teaching and
practice of Truth involved such a sacrifice
as makes us admit its Principle to be Love. This was
the precious import of our Master's sinless career and
of his demonstration of power over death. He proved
by his deeds that Christian Science destroys sickness, sin,
and death.
26:28
Our Master taught no mere theory, doctrine, or belief.
Our Master taught no mere theory, doctrine, or belief.
It was the divine Principle of all real being which he
taught and practised. His proof of Christianity was no
form or system of religion and worship, but Christian
Science, working out the harmony of Life and Love.
27:1
Jesus sent a message to John the Baptist, which was in-
Jesus sent a message to John the Baptist, which was in-
tended to prove beyond a question that the Christ had
come: "Go your way, and tell John what things ye have
seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk,
the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised,
to the poor the gospel is preached." In other words:
Tell John what the demonstration of divine power is,
and he will at once perceive that God is the power in
the Messianic work.
Living temple
27:10
That Life is God, Jesus proved by his reappearance
That Life is God, Jesus proved by his reappearance
after the crucifixion in strict accordance with his scien-
tific statement: "Destroy this temple [body],
and in three days I [Spirit] will raise it up."
It is as if he had said: The I – the Life, substance,
and intelligence of the universe – is not in matter to
be destroyed.
27:17
Jesus' parables explain Life as never mingling with
Jesus' parables explain Life as never mingling with
sin and death. He laid the axe of Science at the root
of material knowledge, that it might be ready to cut
down the false doctrine of pantheism, – that God, or
Life, is in or of matter.
Recreant disciples
27:22
Jesus sent forth seventy students at one time, but only
Jesus sent forth seventy students at one time, but only
eleven left a desirable historic record. Tradition credits
him with two or three hundred other disciples
who have left no name. "Many are called,
but few are chosen." They fell away from grace because
they never truly understood their Master's instruction.
27:28
Why do those who profess to follow Christ reject the
Why do those who profess to follow Christ reject the
essential religion he came to establish? Jesus' persecu-
tors made their strongest attack upon this very point.
They endeavored to hold him at the mercy of matter and
to kill him according to certain assumed material laws.