“Arise, let us go hence”

After Christ Jesus had given to his followers the promise, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also,” he further stated that the Father would send “another Comforter.” After this he said, “Arise, let us go hence.” Mary Baker Eddy, our Leader, referring to the Comforter, on page 55 of “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” states, “This Comforter I understand to be Divine Science.” And she also says (ibid., pp. 574, 575): “Then thought gently whispers: ‘Come hither! Arise from your false consciousness into the true sense of Love, and behold the Lamb’s wife,—Love wedded to its own spiritual idea.’ ” To rise above materiality should be the goal of every individual.

A steamer rising in a lock to a higher level furnished a student of Christian Science with much food for thought. When the ship is in the lock, it is completely hemmed in; and to a passenger on board, ignorant of what is actually taking place, the situation presents a picture of helplessness. While still in the lock, the inflowing water raises the ship higher and higher, until presently, having been raised to the necessary level, it can go forward and successfully free itself from the narrow bounds of the lock. Without the rising process, due to the intake of sufficient water into the lock to lift the ship up, it could not possibly go forward.

Every human problem, rightly solved, leads thought to a higher level; and it is impossible to attain the higher level except by solving our problems. It is thus we escape from hampering beliefs. Therefore, their solution is of great importance. On the road from sense to Soul problems may be regarded as signboards bearing the word “Arise.” To human sense, our problems hold us in the lock of mortal limitation, until spiritual understanding raises us to a higher level of thinking and we are fitted to take the next step upward. Every earnest student of Christian Science knows that no honest effort is lost, even though mortal mind, so called, argues that the student is at a standstill. Persistent effort and confidence continue to lift us higher spiritually; and when our thinking has been sufficiently exalted, problems gradually cease to baffle us. Therefore, regardless of what material sense may affirm, we can go forward with rejoicing.

It is plain that spiritual understanding is mankind’s greatest need. Is not this what Christ Jesus implied when he said, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”? The great master Metaphysician overcame all manner of material conditions, including death, by understanding God and His Christ. This understanding will lift us out of materiality, or false consciousness, to “behold the Lamb’s wife,—Love wedded to its own spiritual idea.” With her usual clarity of vision, Mrs. Eddy succinctly sets forth Jesus’ method in the following words (ibid., pp. 476, 477): “Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick.” Emphatic words, revealing the panacea for every ill!

How are we to utilize and prove the truth of being? By realizing that God is the only creator, and that His creation is, like Himself, wholly good. Spiritual man is the full expression of God, embodying all the ideas of Mind, God. This correct understanding of God, divine Love, and His witness, man, is the Christ-idea which overcomes sin, disease, and death—all that opposes perfection, every discordant condition and circumstance known to humanity. Is not this a glorious revelation? Man in God’s likeness reflects all the qualities of God, including substance, intelligence, strength, health, love, peace, joy, mercy, tenderness, immortality—an abundance of all good; yea, perfection itself!

The opposites of these qualities are not, then, creations of God; hence, they were never created. That twice three is eight is not a fact; it is only an ignorant belief—a lie. As soon as we know that two times three equals six, what happens to the lie? Nothing really; for it never had any existence! We have merely replaced an ignorant or mistaken belief with the truth.

How can we increase our spiritual understanding? How can we get a better realization of “Love wedded to its own spiritual idea”? The answer is: By watching, working, and praying. By constantly striving intelligently to use every talent we possess for the purpose of expressing Love so simply and beautifully that all with whom we come in contact are thereby blessed. Let us, then, couple this with an intense desire for the childlike humility and gratefulness that ever expectantly await Love’s directing. Ever desiring and striving to keep both our giving and our receiving attuned to this standard, we are not only workers, but effective workers, in His vineyard. Simplicity, humility, and gratitude are three tools indispensable in our effort to chisel away the wrong concept of man; and they are always available for each one’s use.

“Arise, let us go hence,” never doubting the omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience of the all-loving Father, who is so plainly interpreted by Christian Science, the promised Comforter.