The Christian Science journal
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Spppncugup; ‘♦fr* ^ftr '"i 1 i fH'Jf 7 ■»t ■* f v »• t * iipM* t<»:4 ... -»• . . . •♦ . • • t .M J» ■ ..,!•, . «| « . . , , ■ ,1 , q . 14. <Nl)|t»| •«• l.il<«li^.(tU.i«i> <rf* »• #••• • 1*4. m t *■•! •■ .#• f> * »• il .« • • • THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY C2LH tMi, ) Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign https://archive.org/details/christianscience2619unse THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE JOURNAL “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal , but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds ” Volume XXXVIII April, 1920 Number 1 INFINITE SUBSTANCE HAWLEY O. TAYLOR THERE are times in nearly every one’s experience when the bond¬ age of matter seems intolerable; when there is an impelling desire to strike for freedom — if one only knew where to strike! And then, perhaps after a fruitless effort, the sigh fol¬ lows, “How long, oh, how long!” These experiences are really tokens that there is a glorious land of free¬ dom which man should now be en¬ joying. Mrs. Eddy says in “Science and Health with Key to the Scrip¬ tures” (p. 22 7): “Slavery is not the legitimate state of man. ... All men should be free. . . . Love and Truth make free, but evil and error lead into captivity.” While one is still laboring in uncertainty, however, the thought may come that it is impos¬ sible to realize the heart’s desire — for the present at least; and he may settle down into his routine of sub¬ mission to the material laws which seem so relentless in their govern¬ ment of his every movement. Rebelling against that which seems to limit him in the realization of his hopes, one person may wish for money to free him from his narrow round; another pines for health and strength; another yearns for ability and opportunity; another for beauty and grace; and all seek for an open door leading out of the deep darkness of the prison house. That which, un¬ der this spell, seems their only hope of deliverance is clearly their most cruel taskmaster — matter. Are not their bodies flesh, and their food and homes material? Do not their pas¬ times partake of material things, and must they not work for material sus¬ tenance? To such mentalities how real matter clearly seems to be — solid material bounds, as ever present as the little atom, whose mark appears on everything which the five senses pass down as man’s heritage. Cannot some way be found to elude them? That is the problem — to obtain freedom from the sense of matter as substance. But would it be a prob¬ lem if there were no solution? The i 2 THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE JOURNAL consideration of this question reveals another view, and a gleam of light dawns. Is it true that matter holds a governing position in human affairs? Are these material bodies, material homes, material means of exchange, the masters which control us? In order, however, to be free from them — from matter — something else must not only be recognized as the con¬ trolling factor in our lives, but must actually be more real to us as sub¬ stance than matter now seems to be. And what is this “something else”? It is that which really impels us to seek freedom, though we may know it not; it is Spirit. In other words, matter must be to us insubstantial, and Spirit must be known as the sub¬ stance of all things. What is Spirit and how can it free us from the grasp of matter? In the great war a mighty will to dominate presented itself. The enemy of free¬ dom, at the beginning, could see no reason why it should not win: its preparation was complete. But at the outset, although not at first apparent in the fortunes of the battle field, the war was lost to this war machine, — lost on blunders, lost through the ac¬ tivity of its own evil mentality. On the other side, it was quickly seen that it had become necessary to de¬ fend the world against the domina¬ tion of evil, and there arose the spirit of righteousness which knows no de¬ feat, with the result that the in¬ truder was finally swept from the field. The spell of materialism or control through matter, was broken by the spirit which proclaimed right¬ eousness as the ultimate controlling factor in the affairs of men. In individual affairs, things of the same general nature are taking place and the word of Truth is bringing to pass the same overturning whereby matter is seen as impotent and Spirit is recognized as the substance of which all things consist. In this over¬ turning, the atom, considered at one time as the indestructible basis of matter, is now regarded as made up of an aggregation of electric charges revolving at high velocities in tiny orbits. The charges themselves have been explained as tiny ether vortices, from the centers of which the ether has been thrown away by the force of the whirl, and these vacant centers were each regarded as the focus of an electric charge. Thus matter, or in¬ ertia, according to this explanation, consists of holes in the suppositional ether, brought about by the action of force. Since, however, certain important experiments performed in recent years have failed to prove the exist¬ ence of the ether medium* there is now forging to the front another way of explaining matter — the relativity theory — which has grown up because of some striking features of new dis¬ covery that seem to suggest the aban¬ donment of the hypothesis of action propagated through an all-pervading medium, ether, and to point to the necessity of a new material theory, relativity, which explains force action between bodies as taking place at a distance without the intervention of a medium. The relativity theory is thus antagonistic to the ether hypoth¬ esis, and the adherents of these two theories must soon try conclusions. To the human mind* which* above 2 C.H INFINITE SUBSTANCE all, desires to find a resting place, how disconcerting are these speculations! Instead of satisfying that craving for a real, solid basis for existence, the material basis is retreating farther and farther away! Is it not clear that substance will never be found when sought for in matter? Yet the mate- " rial premise of being, with all the in¬ tricate detail built thereupon, shift- i ing sand though it is, constitutes the * present status of human knowledge! 4 But can that be termed knowledge which is here to-day and gone to¬ morrow? Is it not rather gross igno¬ rance of the great facts of being, which are ever present and unchangeable? “Substance,” Mrs. Eddy says on page 468 of Science and Health, “is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay.” The whole material system with its intricate superstructure of education and gov¬ ernment is becoming top-heavy and may soon totter and fall of its own weight. Eternal Spirit, Life, will then be seen above the ruins a beautiful vision, and matter will be recognized as simply a mist or illusion which served to obscure substance rather than to constitute it. Spirit, which once seemed misty to us, will appear as the solid actuality of being, and in¬ finitely more active than is the atom with its lightning-speed electron. But one may say, Even though substance is shown to be Spirit, may not Spirit be both good and evil? Evil is an apparent condition of dis¬ cord, and discord always gives place i to harmony when the truth of a sit¬ uation is found, as when the truth concerning an error in mathematics is applied. Thus ultimately Truth 3 only will remain, and therefore, ac¬ tually, only Truth exists. Truth and Spirit being thus synonymous, Spirit can result in the outworking of noth¬ ing but good. Thus there need be no fear that Spirit can ever work evil, discord, or vengeance: these things seem to exist only to those who are voluntarily or involuntarily enter¬ taining a wrong thought of reality. Spiritual substance thus stands out as the sole basis of all existence, as in¬ finite good, all-pervading activity, the abiding truth, all of which qualities are necessarily included in divine in¬ telligence or Mind. The impelling force of an ideal which, in the case of a great artist, may be witnessed as the spirit of art, cannot be defined but is known solely by what it does. Far less can Spirit, the fundamental basis of all real being, and capable of unbounded achievement, be defined. It must be known by what it does, and is mani¬ fested in every one to that extent which his understanding and capacity to appreciate make possible. This leads us to ask where man’s place is in the eternal substance of Spirit. Since Supreme Being cannot exist unexpressed, the expression of real being is inseparable from Being it¬ self : ideas are inseparable from Mind. This expression, this idea of Mind, is man. Thus man’s place in infinite substance is vital and can never be lost, since Spirit is eternal; indeed, man is the expression of all real be¬ ing, and is spiritual and immortal. It is inevitable, then, that as the mist of ignorance gives way before the light of Truth and Love, and man gains a clearer view of himself as 6.17235 4 THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE JOURNAL God’s image and likeness, he becomes inspired by the spirit of all that is good, — by the spirit of strength, of life, of wisdom, of intelligence, of love, — and when he is thus imbued, material obstacles and ambitions melt away and man is carried to dominion on the wings of Christly achievement. Thought becomes spiritualized as the sense of dependence upon matter as substance is replaced by the con¬ viction that ever present Spirit is the substance which constitutes the uni¬ verse; and when this regeneration takes place, harmony is increasingly experienced as love, affluence, health, strength, ability, opportunity, beauty, grace, freedom; and the iron bands which once seemed to fetter so merci¬ lessly, loosen and fall away like bands of sand. Where is now the limitation which once seemed so depressing — those solid walls which seemed to baffle every effort toward freedom? Jesus said, “It is the spirit that quick- eneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” THE GIFT OF IMMORTALITY VIOLET KER SEYMER THE passing of time is powerless to rob man of his birthright of life and intelligence, derived from divine Principle, Love, and forever renewed and replenished. Life and intelligence are never obtained through matter, and are never lost in Mind. One who believed his life and intelligence to be inherent in the material body would be making the double mistake of thinking that he first gained and then lost these facul¬ ties, through one and the same me¬ dium. According to that belief, he would be subordinating himself ut¬ terly to what is termed matter. The Christian Scientist, on the other hand, dwelling constantly in the fact of man’s spiritual origin, rises above all belief in the decay and decline of faculties, in proportion as he grasps the fact that creator and creation are respectively Spirit and spiritual, and therefore immortal. He denies all belief in opposites, and strives for that spiritual singleness of vision which carries with it the Master’s promise that “thy whole body shall be full of light.” Realizing the great need of meta¬ physical study and of spiritualization of thought, the student expects gain rather than loss as the years roll by, and he is joyously bent on carrying out our Leader’s instruction with re¬ gard to “improving moments before they pass into hours” (Miscellane¬ ous Writings, p. 230). His whole thought is dedicated to the study of Truth and Love, to the quest of spir¬ itual life and its demonstration; hence day by day fear and materi¬ ality are losing their hold upon him. He gradually ceases to believe in or to experience the deleterious effects of time, because he has learned to deny mortal origin and to depend en¬ tirely upon his heavenly Father for every one of his faculties. He knows that God’s gift to His image and like¬ ness is that of complete and immortal reflection, and that life and intelli- THE GIFT OF IMMORTALITY 5 gence thus bestowed by spiritual re¬ flection are eternal gifts which never can be withdrawn. So he rejoices more understandingly in the apostle’s scientific declaration that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turn¬ ing.” Denying all supposition of de¬ crepitude, decay, and death in God’s perfect creation, he claims man’s birthright of continuous, harmoni¬ ous, spiritual unfoldment. Anyone yielding to the belief in mental apathy might imagine that time can bring him moral or other gain, without personal effort on his part. The Christian Scientist com¬ bats mental laziness . and mortal mind’s perpetual tendency toward procrastination, and he ceases to look to time either for any loss or any gain. Christ Jesus rebuked in¬ ert dependence upon time and physi¬ cal causation, so called, when he said so rousingly: “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to har¬ vest.” It was the knowledge that spiritual supply of man’s every need waits on no changing seasons, which enabled Christ Jesus to demonstrate food for the multitude the same hour in which they needed it. So, the obedi¬ ent student, seeking to emulate the Master’s example to the best of his understanding, knows better than to spend his time in idly temporizing with error or in expecting regenera¬ tion without striving to rise above fear and false belief. Thus nega¬ tively employed, “four months” would bring no one any nearer to Godlikeness; but the same period, earnestly dedicated to the study and demonstration of man’s true nature as God’s idea, witnesses definite progress. Praying for fidelity to Principle each hour as it comes, pre¬ vents that sense of discouragement sometimes engendered when an in¬ dividual looks too far ahead along his pathway, and so lets the present opportunities for victory slip away unimproved. A helpful lesson may be learned by briefly analyzing the average thought process, and recognizing that the cal¬ endar plays all too prominent a part in the thinking of mankind. Through purely material, astronomical calcu¬ lation, it is at present regarded as es¬ tablished that this earth revolves around the sun in a period known as three hundred and sixty-five days, which days, in their turn, are reck¬ oned according to the earth’s rotation on its axis. One may notice, inci¬ dentally, that each planet’s solar year would vary in length according to the size of the planets’ different orbits. Pitiful though it seems, nearly every one consents to reckon his age, hence his prospects, according to the revo¬ lutions of a planet. The sun’s splen¬ dor is undiminished, yet each solar year registers birthdays, with regard to which each person grows more and more reticent as the years glide on. In the silence of their own thinking, however, mortals regret¬ fully make another entry on the debit side of their life account, and in this way they limit and curtail their 6 THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE JOURNAL achievements to a few score of these solar years. Just as soon as man’s at-one-ment with his creator, eternal Mind, is recognized, the mesmeric effect of the calendar will commence to fade out of human consciousness. Re¬ generation taking the place of degen¬ eration, the effect becomes noticeable in the improvement of both mind and body. The hourly acknowledgment that Life and its faculties are spirit¬ ual, brings with it that vigor, that renewal, that replenishing, for which every Christian Scientist so con¬ stantly expresses gratitude. He knows that, were all belief in matter and mortal mind to vanish utterly, Life and man’s reflected faculties of sight, hearing, intelligence, would re¬ main intact. The prophet’s bugle call, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light,” calls for consecrated effort and implicit allegiance to divine Principle. When an individual awakens to the fact that, just in the same way as all loving-kindness is inspired and sustained by the one Love, God, so all individualized life is the reflection of the one Life, God, he will rejoice in the fuller, freer manifestations of these gifts of God, which are the emanation of His own unending being. Even humanity un¬ instructed by Christian Science knows better than to believe that im¬ mortal Love can be reckoned accord¬ ing to the solar year, or that one’s ex¬ pression of love must needs diminish as he grows older. Why, then, should life be less boundless, since Life, Truth, and Love are one in cause and effect? It is to Soul alone, symbol¬ ized by the prophet as “the Sun of righteousness” arising “with healing in his wings,” that the Christian Sci¬ entist looks, with the expectation of proving himself a little nearer the realization of immortality at the close of each earthly day. If the Christian Science student is a business man, the effect of the ac¬ ceptance of this spiritual truth upon him will be that he will no longer ex¬ press hurry, flurry, and worry, and his gaze will no longer be riveted on clock and calendar. Instead, he will be learning to rely upon the unerring wisdom and the harmonious action of the intelligence of divine Principle in the execution of each day’s pro¬ gram. Equity, brotherly love, and cooperation are much needed in the business world, and when a man’s motive and practice are to glorify God and bless his fellow man, then his business will assuredly yield sat¬ isfactory results to all concerned in it. If he heeds Emerson’s lofty axiom, “Hitch your wagon to a star,” he is justified in regarding his business as the Father’s business, and himself as governed and guarded by His laws. In the Christian Science textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” Mrs. Eddy tells us (p. 494) that “to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies all good;” therefore every hour is de¬ voted to demonstration, and not one is wasted or defiled by indulgence in brooding, sorrowing, or listening to any other discordant suggestion of error. In the light of Love’s bless¬ ings bestowed every hour upon all, THE GIFT OF IMMORTALITY 7 no one will be beguiled into regret¬ ting the past or being apprehensive for the future. “The Sun of right¬ eousness/’ — man’s righteousness, — is shining through all the years and, be it observed, our future experience grows out of the good use we are making of our opportunities to-day. What mortals regard as past, pres¬ ent, and future, should yield to the one continuous reflection of Life, Truth, and Love. The young student may wonder how he may draw on his spiritual re¬ sources for life, intelligence, sight, hearing, and so forth. To this sin¬ cere query Christian Science re¬ sponds with the same tender message as that of the Master when he said that all who would gain heaven should “become as little children.” Throughout our earthly career we should depend upon our heavenly Father as trustingly as we once con¬ fided ourselves to the care of our earthly guardians. Since God is in¬ deed the fountain of our being, the source of our every true faculty, shall we not trust God to sustain and maintain that which He creates that it may reflect His own perfection? Mortal egotism, the false sense of independence, must be put away, and genuine humility cultivated and maintained. Christ Jesus sought not personal accomplishment, but spir¬ itual reflection. He desired to glo¬ rify his Father in all that he accom¬ plished. He triumphed without ceasing, because he prayed without ceasing. He never lacked support, because there never was an hour in which he did not depend upon God. Shall we not be spiritually childlike in grasping the outstretched hand of Love? Shall we not increase our ex¬ pectancy and our acceptance of those gifts of God, of which He ren¬ ders all His children worthy? When we are so doing, no circumstance and neither youth nor added years can avail to rob us of our own in¬ dividual fruition. In the fortieth chapter of his wonderful prophecy, Isaiah gives assurance of the all¬ knowing Love saying, “Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.” Reflecting this same light of revelation, we, too, can be seers, looking now into eter¬ nity; for, as our Leader tells us (Science and Health, p. 584): “Mind measures time according to the good that is unfolded. This un¬ folding is God’s day, and There shall be no night there.’ ” Why so long silent? Why not sing? Take down the harp of the silver string. Too long on the willows the harp has hung; ’Tis time again His praise were sung. Let the strings sound, the voice ring out: “Praise to the Lord!” in joyous shout. Margaret Troili Campbell. THE RISEN CHRIST EUGENIE PAUL JEFFERSON WHY is it that some cases under Christian Science treatment respond more quickly than do others under the same metaphysical process? Helpful articles in answer to the above question appear frequently in the authorized Christian Science lit¬ erature, and the following passage of Scripture recently quoted in one such article has been found most enlight¬ ening to the writer. In the fifteenth chapter of the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, the great apostle wrote, “If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.” And in the translators’ introductory note to the chapter (King James Version) we read, “By Christ’s resurrection, he proveth the necessity of our resurrection.” This statement of the apostle is explained by Mrs. Eddy in the Christian Science textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scrip¬ tures” (p. 324), as meaning, “If the idea of the supremacy of Spirit, which is the true conception of being, come not to your thought, you can¬ not be benefited by what I say.” Neither the preaching of Paul nor the practice of a present day disciple can bring about a speedy recovery from the belief in sickness until the thought of the patient is healed. Whenever a belief in disease is changed through the understanding, in Science, of the alone reality of God, Spirit, and of the consequent unreality of diseased conditions, the body responds thereto. The words “in proportion” occur very frequently in the textbook of Christian Science, and a due consid¬ eration of their use will be found most helpful. “Why am I not healed?” mortal mind is asking; to which the answer is: Man made in the image and likeness of God does not need to be healed; give up your belief in a material selfhood and identify your real self with man as the spiritual idea of God. As to the element of time in healing, — let us learn a lesson from a corrupt tree, which, being without usefulness or beauty, is to be destroyed, root and branch. The process may be slow or fast, but the work must be thorough and properly executed. When laborers begin to sever the tenacious hold of the roots upon the soil, the effect of the first blow of the ax may not be seen, but it is just as necessary as the last; and although the tree may appear to the unobserv¬ ing passer-by to stand as firmly as ever, — just as a so-called stubborn case of disease may appear at first to remain unshaken by the metaphysi¬ cal process, — yet, in truth, its final destruction is certain. The final blow is struck when the taproot is severed, after which a sudden wind or a tug at the rope held in the hand of the workman to guide the tree in its fall, will send it down to the earth. So it is with the seeming tenacity of error. When the taproot, which may be called the belief of life and intelli¬ gence in matter, is destroyed, — in spite of material evidence which may try to argue that the work is not THE RISEN CHRIST 9 done, — when His mighty winds shall blow, even this belief shall fall into its native nothingness. This “tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” the fruit of which the parent thought of the human race is said to have eaten, must fall. Its roots are likened by ' Christian Science to illusion, panthe¬ ism, material knowledge of every sort. The life-giving understanding of the supremacy of Spirit, as revealed in Christian Science, may indeed be called the risen Christ. Scripture saith, “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” The resurrection of Jesus was from the so-called dead, but Chris¬ tian Science reveals the resurrection through the Christ as also coming to the so-called living. It is a moral and spiritual uprising, apparently evi¬ denced in the quickening of the hu¬ man mind and the healing of the mortal body. Standing before one of the stained glass windows in the original Mother Church in Boston, one may find an illuminating thought illustrating the difference between the resurrection of Jesus and that of Lazarus. The artist has pictured the raising of Lazarus, as he appears, still bound in his graveclothes, at the door of the tomb, in obedience to the voice of Truth. When Jesus emerged from his dark burial place, triumphant over death and “crowned with the glory of a sublime success, an ever¬ lasting victory” (Science and Health, p. 45), he had left his graveclothes behind. He stepped into the light free, in the glorious freedom of the Son of God. Jesus did his own work. Is not every Christian Scientist more or less bound while he is still depend¬ ing upon others to work out his own salvation for him? Jesus the Christ revealed the un¬ real nature of the belief of death — not only to Lazarus but to those who stood about the tomb believing the evidence of their material senses. Lazarus, while responding to the divine command, “Come forth,” was still bound, not only by his own ma¬ terial beliefs but evidently by those who stood about the door of the tomb; for immediately Jesus com¬ manded them to “loose him, and let him go.” May this command have meant, Take your material beliefs of life or death in matter away from man? Man, in fact, is the likeness of Life; therefore the unlikeness — death — touches not the child of God. It was not miraculous that Jesus, through his own knowledge of the truth, should have been able to free himself, — it was but divinely natu¬ ral; and by his example, the same understanding of the truth in this age is helping every earnest seeker after God to free himself from the winding sheet of erring beliefs and idolatries. Thus the resurrection of Jesus may indeed become the resurrection of every Christian Scientist. We read on page 232 of our textbook, “It is only when the so-called pleasures and pains of sense pass away in our lives, that we find unquestionable signs of the burial of error and the resurrection to spiritual life.” Christ Jesus, in fulfillment of the 10 THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE JOURNAL Scripture, “Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption,” left no material body behind. What became of this body is a question which must be answered by spiritual understanding. Scripture saith, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,” which is proof that matter never ascended; it but disap¬ peared into its native nothingness; while the Christ-consciousness, or divine idea of man, continually as¬ cends to its Father-Mother God. As darkness is but the absence of light, and as the absence of anything is nothing in itself, might not the hu¬ man concept of man be called the seeming absence of the divine idea of God’s likeness? When the light of understanding appears, we do not have to do anything with the dark¬ ness of ignorance. If our mental house is dark, we have only to invite the sunshine of Truth to enter in, and the Christ will softly whisper, “I see no darkness — God is All.” WOMEN OF ISRAEL AS DELIVERERS MILLICENT HYMAN Throughout the Bible man and his achievements have so predominated that the human mind is prone to lose sight of the fact that “male and female created he them.” A question pertinent to this hour may well be asked: What part has woman played in Israel’s history? Woman has performed a most im¬ portant work in the emancipation and redemption of mankind. It is but just, therefore, to point out this fact and to elucidate it. First of all, let us inquire into those qualities possessed by all deliverers in com¬ mon. They include high courage, obedience to the light of Truth, and an intense, unselfish love. Whoever possesses these attributes helps to deliver mankind from some form of bondage, to the extent of his or her measure of these qualities. Each and every one is, according to his spiritual understanding, a deliverer and way-shower. With this fact in thought we shall select a few women from the Bible and endeavor to sub¬ stantiate our claim of their right to be called deliverers. Let Moses’ mother, Jochebed, head our list. First of all, Jochebed showed her¬ self to be a woman of courage. She feared not to defy the law of Pha¬ raoh which decreed that all Hebrew male infants be cast into the river. When Jochebed saw that Moses “was a goodly child,” the Scripture records that “she hid him three months.” During those three months she undoubtedly sought the Lord un¬ ceasingly, asking for light and guid¬ ance. And her prayers were an¬ swered. The Bible says that “she took for him an ark.” In the Glos¬ sary of Science and Health (p. 581) Mrs. Eddy defines ark, in part, as “safety; the idea, or reflection, of Truth.” The light that had come to Jochebed had revealed to her that Moses was safe with God, that He would encompass the child with ideas of protection. When the reve¬ lation of God’s wisdom came to her, she did not fear to obey the demands WOMEN OF ISRAEL AS DELIVERERS 11 of Truth, to trust the little one upon the water; for she knew that God cared for him. Foresight was displayed in the fact that she bade Miriam, Moses’ sister, watch the ark upon the water, reporting to her the outcome of this move. And did not events prove the wisdom of her actions? Miriam was thus able to see the princess, ap¬ proach her at the crisis, and propose to her a Hebrew nurse for the weep¬ ing child. The Bible states that Pharaoh’s daughter said to Joche- bed, “Take this child away, and nurse it for me.” So we see that the mother’s three months’ effort to lift her thought above fear for the child to faith in God’s protecting care for him, did not deprive her of the hu¬ man joy of her little one’s presence. Neither did she lack in other ways; for the princess said, “I will give thee thy wages.” It was inevitable that, from a mother of such character, Moses should receive a training in courage and trust in God that laid the foundation of his momentous life. Through his mother, Moses learned of the desperate condition of his fellow Jews. It was she who, through bitter experience, realized their urgent need of a deliverer from the inhuman treatment of Pharaoh, and she strongly impressed this fact upon Moses. Perhaps Jochebed, glimpsing the extent of the power that Moses as the adopted son of the princess would wield, tried to imbue him with a personal sense of respon¬ sibility toward his own people. In other words, it was Moses’ mother who instilled in him that love of good which awakened in him the de¬ sire to help his kind. Witness these words: “And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens.” All know what he did to relieve them of those burdens. Thus Moses’ mother, through courage, foresight, fidelity to God, and self-abnegation, deliv¬ ered Moses from death and trained him in those qualities which enabled him finally to deliver the Jews and to lead them. In as much as she was the deliverer of a deliverer, Jochebed may be accounted a “deliverer in Israel.” As Van Dyke puts it, “The woman who protects a precious life enriches the world.” At first glance it might appear far¬ fetched to number Ruth among the women deliverers of Judah. Not so much from the fact that she was a Moabitess who had been converted to Judaism through her great love for Naomi, as that the part she played was so modest, so bereft of the spectacular, might the title of “deliverer” seem a misnomer as ap¬ plied to Ruth. But such is not really the case. To begin with, Ruth not only delivered herself in changing to the religion of the Hebrews, but she helped to liberate the human thought from its belief in the necessity of bondage to outgrown creeds and dogmas. She became an example of encouragement to all those who as¬ pire to a higher understanding of God, to all those who would cut the bonds of past ignorance. Love was the incentive which enabled Ruth to be delivered and to deliver. At first Ruth’s highest concept of love and goodness was personalized 12 THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE JOURNAL in Naomi. For love of her mother- in-law she gladly put away the re¬ ligion of her forefathers, went into a strange land, and worked unremit¬ tingly. She became unswervingly obedient to this concept of love. Then Ruth’s thought of love as¬ cended and broadened as a result of her sincere desire to be with the ob¬ ject of that love, Naomi. “Whither thou goest, I will go.” Her first thought had been just to be with Naomi, close to her. Then came the realization that a people that could produce a Naomi must be worth cherishing; for she said, “Thy peo¬ ple shall be my people.” Finally, like a burst of glory came the spir¬ itual perception of the true God, and her idea of love reached its pinnacle as she concluded, “and thy God my God.” Was not such spiritual in¬ sight meet to form a link in the golden chain of Jesus’ ancestry? Ruth’s really great attribute was obedience. Now, Jesus placed obedi¬ ence foremost in the list of virtues. His parables, examples, acts, all pointed to the necessity for unques¬ tioning obedience to Principle. “The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works,” and, “My Father work- eth hitherto, and I work,” he said. His every word emphasized this con¬ stant obedience to God. It took courage for Ruth to obey the behest of Naomi that she take the steps necessary to put the rather obscure levirate law into execution. We see, however, that Ruth proved herself worthy of the title “deliverer” be¬ cause of her unselfish obedience to the highest concept of love that she was capable of perceiving. By her unquestioning compliance with the wise dictates of farsighted Naomi, she put into motion that train of events which resulted in her becom¬ ing the honored ancestress of David. She became mother to Obed, grand¬ father to David, of the kingly line which Jesus finally graced. Esther stands out an epic figure among the women deliverers. Her love for the Jews was doubly unself¬ ish in that it was impersonal. Se¬ cluded in the king’s palace, isolated from race and kindred, yet was she ready to make the supreme sacrifice for her people when necessity arose. The occasion for her sacrifice was the decree which King Ahasuerus had issued at the instigation of Ha- man, his favorite, who was swollen with the pride of sudden advance¬ ment to a “seat above all the princes.” Through this decree every Jew in the kingdom was to be de¬ stroyed. Esther had the docility of a child, combined with an astute knowledge of human nature. The quality of docility is seen in this incident: When her guardian uncle, Mordecai, acquainted her with the decree against the Jews and demanded that she intercede for them to save them from destruction, Esther immedi¬ ately prepared to obey him. She fully realized the personal danger in such a mission. More especially was it hazardous in that she had “not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days;” an omission that foreshadowed her waning favor with the king. Her knowledge of human nature is displayed in the wisdom with WOMEN OF ISRAEL AS DELIVERERS 13 which she prepared for the presenta¬ tion of her petition to the king. She thoroughly understood that she had a capricious mentality to deal with. These words of Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health (p. 241) fit Ahasuerus well: “The sensualist’s affections are as imaginary, whimsical, and unreal as his pleasures.” Now the proposed destruction of the Jews was an out¬ come of the vagary of the king’s af¬ fections. Haman was at that time in the ascendant, and Haman had been offended by Mordecai, a member of the Jewish race. Therefore Haman had persuaded the king to destroy the entire race, that his pride and hatred might be appeased. So the task that lay before Queen Esther was formidable to the last de¬ gree. Not only must the supposedly unbreakable law of the Medes and Persians be reversed or aborted, but the idol of the king’s whimsical af¬ fections must be dethroned, — and all this to be accomplished by a queen who realized her waning influence! That she fully understood the grav¬ ity of her mission is shown by her request that all the Jews in Shushan, as well as her maidens and herself, should fast and pray three days. Esther was prepared to give her life to save the Jews, as these words witness: “And if I perish, I perish.” At the end of the three days of prayer, the first dangerous step was taken when the king admitted her, without invitation, to the inner court. Here she invited him to a banquet, and further displayed her wisdom in handling the situation by including Haman, the king’s favor¬ ite, in the invitation. The greatest sacrifice that she had to make was to present with dignity her petition in an environment so sordid. She was obliged to employ the means in her power, and that she laid aside queenly pride in so doing but en¬ hances the value of her sacrifice. 