THE CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS

Text:  Mathew xxii.29: "Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God." Mrs. Eddy said that the scriptures cannot properly be interpreted in a literal way. Herein people err now as they did in the days of Jesus, it is not the literal but the metaphysical meaning or suggestions of scripture that can instruct and build us up in our religious life. The truth of scripture must be spiritually discerned before its message can be fully borne to our minds and hearts. Many persons eminent in the study and knowledge of the scriptures have in recent times arrived at the conclusion that scripture has a dual meaning. Thus many passages capable in their literal import of teaching nothing valuable are, when the moral suggestions are regarded, found to be full of significance. Neither the scholarship of ancient times, nor that of modern philosophers and merely ethical teachers, bring us to the full meaning. The carnal mind cannot discern spiritual things. Illustrations were drawn from the common idea of hades and baptism; and so, said she, it is of the elements of the communion service. The eating of bread and the drinking of wine but symbolize the communion of spirit which is the reality behind the symbol. Jesus himself so interpreted it; and speaking with reference to material food he said: "I have bread to eat which ye know not of." Not less explicitly he said: "The fathers ate of the manna of the wilderness and they are dead, but whoever eats of the bread I bring to him shall never die." The passage, "Let the dead bury their dead," was explained by the preacher in a similar way.