Carmen Ariza

by Charles Francis Stocking

“I believe,” interposed Reverend Moore, “that the Epistle to the Hebrews contains statements of belief in a judgment after death, in a heaven, a hell, and everlasting life, not wholly consistent with your remarks.”

“The Epistle to the Hebrews,” returned Father Waite, “was not written by Paul, nor is it quite consistent with his letters. But, read Paul’s wonderful eighth chapter of Romans. Read his third chapter of First Corinthians. Read all his letters in the order in which I have mentioned them, which was as they were written, and you can not fail to grasp his marvelous expanding perception of the Christ-principle; the nothingness of the material concept; the impotence of the lie that opposes God, and constitutes all evil; and the necessity of right-thinking if one would work out his salvation from the errors that assail mankind. Paul shows that he passed through a ‘belief period,’ 141 and that he emerged into the light of demonstrable understanding at last. If men had followed him they never could have fallen into the absurd theological beliefs of foreordination, infant damnation, the resurrection of the flesh, and all the other theological horrors and atrocities of the centuries.

“Yes, the Bible is, as Arnold said, based on propositions which all can verify. The trouble is, mankind have not tried to verify them! They have relegated all that to the life beyond the grave. I fear a sorry disappointment awaits them, for, even as Paul says, they will be after the change called death only what they were before. It is like recovering from a case of sickness, for sickness and death are alike manifestations of mortal thought. We awake from each still human, still with our problems before us. We must break the mesmerism of the belief that the practical application of Jesus’ teachings must be relegated to the realm of death, or to the unattainable. We must apply the Christ-principle, and learn to hit the mark, for sin is always weakness, never strength.

“And remember this: having acquired a knowledge of the Christ, we are bidden to acknowledge him––that is, to act-our-knowledge. Many of the world’s philosophers have worked out great truths. But they have rested content with that. Many scientists, knowing that matter is unreal, nevertheless conduct themselves as if it constituted the one and only real fact of existence! Is error like truth? Decidedly no! It is truth’s exact opposite. Is truth real? Certainly it is! Then its opposite can not be real. The human mentality holds the belief that there is something apart from God, spirit. That belief becomes objectified in the human mentality as matter. And within matter is contained all evil of every sort and name. Evil is not, as the philosophers would have us believe, a lower form of good. It is not ‘good in the making.’ It is always error, the direct opposite of truth. And if truth is real and eternal, error can not be. See the grave mistake in which Emerson became enmeshed. He said: ‘There seems to be a necessity in spirit to manifest itself in material forms.’ Now follow that out to its logical conclusion. If spirit is synonymous with God, then God manifests Himself in both good and evil, fair and foul, life and death––and which is good, and which bad? All is alike the reflection of God. No, my friends, rather accept Jesus’ statement that evil is the lie, of which no man need be afraid, and which all must and shall overcome. And the ‘old man,’ with all his material concepts of nature and the universe, must and will be laid off, thus revealing the spiritual man, the image and likeness of the one divine Mind.

“Now, just a few words about miracles, the great stumbling 142 block to the acceptance of the Gospels. Are they, together with the entire Gospel narrative, legendary? If so, they must have arisen during those fifty years between Jesus and the recording of the narratives. But this very period is covered by Paul’s letters, which record his thought. And even the most relentless of Bible critics admit the genuineness of Paul’s authorship of the Epistles to the Romans, the Corinthians, the Thessalonians, and the Galatians. If the Gospel narratives are legends, they grew up and found acceptance in fifty years. A pretty fair miracle in itself, when we take into consideration the inherent incredulity of the human mind! As Dean Farrar says: ‘Who would have invented, who would have merely imagined, things so unlike the thoughts of man as these?’

“Now Paul must have been acquainted with men who had seen and known Jesus. And we are forced to admit that Paul was a very strong, sane man. These legends could not have grown up in his day and been accepted by him. And as long as there were men living who had known Jesus––and that must have been as late as the last quarter of the first century––the true events of Jesus’ life could hardly have given way to a set of childish legends. As a matter of recorded fact, the various Christian Churches had accepted Jesus within thirty years of the crucifixion. And, too, the words of Paul and the Synoptists were written at a time when the sick were still being healed and even the dead raised by the practical application of Jesus’ teachings. Hence, miracles did not astonish them.

“Our own inability to perform the works attributed to Jesus is hardly sufficient ground for denying the belief that he really did them. For what is a miracle? Certainly that the greater portion of the New Testament was written by a few fishermen, a publican, and a tentmaker is one of the most stupendous miracles on record! And the miracle of miracles is Jesus Christ himself! Because Jesus is reported to have healed the sick, raised the dead, and walked the waves, all in opposition to material laws––the so-called laws of nature––the world says the reports are fantastic, that they are fables, and that his reporters were hypnotized, deluded! And yet I tell you that he did not break a single law! He did act in defiance of the so-called testimony of the physical senses, which has always been accepted by mankind as law. We now know what that sense-testimony is––human, mortal thought. He did rise above human consciousness of evil. And because he did so, he instantaneously healed the sick. A miracle expresses, not the beliefs of the human mind, but the law of God, infinite mind, and makes that law conceivable to the human mentality. God’s laws are never set aside, for by very 143 definition a law is immutable, else it ceases to be law. But when the human mind grows out of itself sufficiently to perceive those laws and to express them to its fellow-minds, the result is called a miracle. Moreover, the ability to perform miracles is but a function of spirituality. A miracle is a sign of one’s having advanced to such a degree of spirituality as to enable him to rise above material consciousness and its limitations, which are called laws. The consciousness that knows no evil will perform miracles. The early Christians did great works. These works were the ‘signs following,’ and attested their knowledge of the allness of God. A miracle is simply a proof of God. Carmen––”

“Lewis!” protested the girl.

“Let me say it, please. Carmen knew that no power opposed to God could hold Sidney. And the ‘sign’ followed. Yes, she performed a miracle. She broke a human-mind, so-called law, a limitation. She proved God’s law of harmony and holiness––wholeness––to be omnipresent and omnipotent. And, mark me, friends, every one of us must learn to do likewise! Not only must the Church obey Jesus and do the works which he did, but every individual will have to do them himself.”

“His works were done for a special reason, Mr. Waite,” interposed Reverend Moore. “They were to testify to his messiahship. They are not required of us.”