LADY JANE GREY once said that "all amusements are but a shadow compared with the pleasure of reading the Bible." Can professing Christians of to-day echo this sentiment concerning the great "Book of books"? Are there not too many who will tell you that they have to force themselves to read the Bible, and more from a sense of stern religious duty than from a feeling of real pleasure or satisfaction? Will not these same individuals tell you in all seriousness that they have earnestly and studiously endeavored to love the Bible, but failing in their efforts, have time and time again turned away from it to find pleasure and consolation in other directions?
Many will also tell you that they were compelled by their parents to memorize whole chapters in the Bible, and to attend Sunday School where nothing was said or heard about a God who healeth all our diseases; and that as they grew into manhood and womanhood they had even turned away from the church of their fathers, half doubting the existence of the God about whom they had read. Many there are to-day who are yearning to know something more tangible and practical concerning the God they are sincerely striving to worship, and why has not this knowledge, so essential to their happiness and general welfare, been revealed to them in their study of Holy Writ?
Christian Science answers this query, and does it in such a practical way that they begin to read the Bible in a new light; the scales of ignorance, superstition, and doubt fall from their mental vision, and for the first time in their Christian experience they can truthfully say that they love to read the Bible. A prayerful study of Science and Health, the Christian Science text-book, has given them a new and more spiritual view-point, and they turn to the sacred Word and find it teeming with practical, life-giving, and health-bestowing promises, all of which can be made available in daily living. The veil of the flesh, the five so-called physical senses spoken of in Hebrews, has been rent and the gates of heaven thereby disclosed. This simply means that the Christ-idea has entered human consciousness, revealing the continuous operation of that divine healing Principle made known by the great wayshower.
