Page:Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1898).djvu/451

Rh Judge Medicine then proceeds to pronounce the solemn sentence of death upon the patient. Because of

loving his neighbor as himself, Mortal Man was guilty of benevolence in the first degree; and this has led him into the commission of the second crime, liver-complaint, which material laws regard as homicide. For this crime Mortal Man is sentenced to the torture until he is dead. “May God have mercy on his Soul,” is the Judge's solemn peroration.

The prisoner is then remanded to his cell (sick-bed), and Scholastic Theology sent for to prepare the frightened sense of Life, God, — which sense must be immortal, — for death, the Body having no longer any friends.

Ah! but Christ, the true idea of Life, the friend of Man, can open wide those prison-doors, and set the

captive free. Swift on the wings of divine Love there comes a despatch: “Delay the execution; the prisoner is not guilty.” Consternation fills the prison-yard. Some exclaim, “It is contrary to law and order.” Others say, “The law of Christ supersedes our laws; let us follow that.”

After much debate and opposition, permission is obtained for a trial in the Court of Spirit, where Christian

Science is allowed to appear as counsel for the unfortunate prisoner. Witnesses, judges, and jurors, who were at the previous Material Court of Common Errors, are now summoned to appear at the bar of Truth. When the case for Mortal Man versus Personal Sense is opened, his counsel regards the prisoner with the utmost tenderness; his earnest, solemn eyes, kindling with hope and triumph, are uplifted. Then Christian Science turns