Divine Mind rightly demands man’s entire obe-dience, affection, and strength. No reservation is made for any lesser loyalty.

21The devotion of thought to an honest achievement makes the achievement possible. Exceptions only confirm this rule, proving that failure is occasioned by a too feeble 24faith.

    Pale in the presence of his own momentous question, “What is Truth,” Pilate was drawn into acquiescence 27Pilate’s questionwith the demands of Jesus’ enemies. Pilate was ignorant of the consequences of his awful decision against human rights and divine Love, knowing 30not that he was hastening the final demonstration of what life is and of what the true knowledge of God can do for man.

49:1    The women at the cross could have answered Pilate’s question. They knew what had inspired their devotion, 3winged their faith, opened the eyes of their understand-ing, healed the sick, cast out evil, and caused the disciples to say to their Master: “Even the devils are subject 6unto us through thy name.”

    Where were the seventy whom Jesus sent forth? Were all conspirators save eleven? Had they forgotten the 9Students’ ingratitudegreat exponent of God? Had they so soon lost sight of his mighty works, his toils, privations, sacrifices, his divine patience, sublime courage, and unre-12quited affection? O, why did they not gratify his last human yearning with one sign of fidelity?

    The meek demonstrator of good, the highest instruc-15tor and friend of man, met his earthly fate alone with Heaven’s sentinelGod. No human eye was there to pity, no arm to save. Forsaken by all whom he had 18blessed, this faithful sentinel of God at the highest post of power, charged with the grandest trust of heaven, was ready to be transformed by the renewing 21of the infinite Spirit. He was to prove that the Christ is not subject to material conditions, but is above the reach of human wrath, and is able, through Truth, 24Life, and Love, to triumph over sin, sickness, death, and the grave.

    Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that 24ever trod the globe. He plunged beneath the material Jesus the Scientistsurface of things, and found the spiritual cause. To accommodate himself to imma -27ture ideas of spiritual power, — for spirituality was pos-sessed only in a limited degree even by his disciples, — Jesus called the body, which by spiritual power he 30raised from the grave, “flesh and bones.” To show that the substance of himself was Spirit and the body 314 314:1no more perfect because of death and no less material until the ascension (his further spiritual exaltation), 3Jesus waited until the mortal or fleshly sense had re-linquished the belief of substance-matter, and spiritual sense had quenched all earthly yearnings. Thus he found 6the eternal Ego, and proved that he and the Father were inseparable as God and His reflection or spiritual man. Our Master gained the solution of being, demonstrating 9the existence of but one Mind without a second or equal.

    The Jews, who sought to kill this man of God, showed plainly that their material views were the parents of their 12The bodily resurrectionwicked deeds. When Jesus spoke of repro-ducing his body, — knowing, as he did, that Mind was the builder, — and said, “Destroy this temple, 15and in three days I will raise it up,” they thought that he meant their material temple instead of his body. To such materialists, the real man seemed a spectre, unseen and 18unfamiliar, and the body, which they laid in a sepulchre, seemed to be substance. This materialism lost sight of the true Jesus; but the faithful Mary saw him, and he 21presented to her, more than ever before, the true idea of Life and substance.

6    Whosoever lives most the life of Jesus in this age and declares best the power of Christian Science, will The cup of Jesusdrink of his Master’s cup. Resistance to 9Truth will haunt his steps, and he will in-cur the hatred of sinners, till “wisdom is justified of her children.” These blessed benedictions rest upon 12Jesus’ followers: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you;” “Lo, I am with you alway,” — that is, not only in all time, but in all ways 15 and conditions.

24    To the materialistic Thomas, looking for the ideal Saviour in matter instead of in Spirit and to the testi-Material skepticismmony of the material senses and the body, 27more than to Soul, for an earnest of immor-tality, — to him Jesus furnished the proof that he was unchanged by the crucifixion. To this dull and doubt-30ing disciple Jesus remained a fleshly reality, so long as the Master remained an inhabitant of the earth. Noth-ing but a display of matter could make existence real 318 318:1to Thomas. For him to believe in matter was no task, but for him to conceive of the substantiality of Spirit — 3to know that nothing can efface Mind and immortality, in which Spirit reigns — was more difficult.

9    If the student goes away to practise Truth’s teach-ings only in part, dividing his interests between God and Divided loyaltymammon and substituting his own views for 12Truth, he will inevitably reap the error he sows. Whoever would demonstrate the healing of Christian Science must abide strictly by its rules, heed every state-15ment, and advance from the rudiments laid down. There is nothing difficult nor toilsome in this task, when the way is pointed out; but self-denial, sincerity, Christianity, and 18persistence alone win the prize, as they usually do in every department of life.

As the mythology of pagan Rome has yielded 21to a more spiritual idea of Deity, so will our material Basis of health and immortalitytheories yield to spiritual ideas, until the finite gives place to the infinite, sickness to health, 24sin to holiness, and God’s kingdom comes “in earth, as it is in heaven.” The basis of all health, sin-lessness, and immortality is the great fact that God is 27the only Mind; and this Mind must be not merely be-lieved, but it must be understood. To get rid of sin through Science, is to divest sin of any supposed mind 30or reality, and never to admit that sin can have intelli-gence or power, pain or pleasure. You conquer error by denying its verity. Our various theories will never lose 340 340:1their imaginary power for good or evil, until we lose our faith in them and make life its own proof of harmony 3and God.