|
- 29 -
sufficient moral courage. Christians must take up arms
against error at home and abroad. They must grapple
with sin in themselves and in others, and
continue this warfare until they have finished
their course. If they keep the faith, they will have the
crown of rejoicing.
Christian experience teaches faith in the right and disbelief
in the wrong. It bids us work the more earnestly
in times of persecution, because then our labor is more
needed. Great is the reward of self-sacrifice, though we
may never receive it in this world.
(The Fatherhood of God)
There is a tradition that Publius Lentulus wrote to
the authorities at Rome: "The disciples of Jesus believe
him the Son of God." Those instructed
in Christian Science have reached the glorious
perception that God is the only author of man.
The Virgin-mother conceived this idea of God, and
gave to her ideal the name of Jesus - that is, Joshua,
or Saviour.
(Spiritual conception)
The illumination of Mary's spiritual sense put to
silence material law and its order of generation, and
brought forth her child by the revelation of
Truth, demonstrating God as the Father of
men. The Holy Ghost, or divine Spirit, overshadowed
the pure sense of the Virgin-mother with the full recognition
that being is Spirit. The Christ dwelt forever
an idea in the bosom of God, the divine Principle of the
man Jesus, and woman perceived this spiritual idea,
though at first faintly developed.
Man as the offspring of God, as the idea of Spirit,
is the immortal evidence that Spirit is harmonious and
man eternal. Jesus was the offspring of Mary's self-conscious
|
