Page:Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1898).djvu/363

Rh and preach the Gospel to every creature!” “Heal the sick!”

Why has this Christian demand so little inspiration to spur mankind to Christian effort? Because men are

assured that this command was intended only for a particular moment and for a select number of followers. This teaching is more pernicious than the old doctrine of foreordination, — the election of a few to be saved, while the rest are damned; and so it will be considered, when this lethargy of mortal belief, produced by man-made doctrines, is broken by the demands of Divine Science.

Jesus said: “These signs shall follow them that believe; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” Who believes him? He was addressing his disciples, yet he did not say, “These signs shall follow you,” but them — “them that believe,” and in all time to come. At another time he prayed, not for the Twelve only, but for as many as should believe “through their word.” Jesus experienced few of the pleasures of the physical senses, but his sufferings were the fruits of other

people's sins, not of his own. The eternal Christ never suffered. Jesus mapped out the path for others. He unveiled the Christ, the spiritual idea of divine Love. To those buried in the belief of sin and self, living only for pleasure, or the gratification of the senses, he said: “Having eyes ye see not, and having ears ye hear not; lest ye should understand and be converted, and I might heal you.” In other words, he taught that the material senses shut out Truth and its healing power.