We have been told that Solomon was the wisest of men, and among all his sayings there is nothing of such deep import as these words, spoken at the dedication of the temple which was called by his name: "Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keep covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart." Again and again has the light of divine Truth dispelled the darkness of mortal sense for those who have eyes to see, and this illumination has always come through the spirituality of some one who, in this respect, has been far above his fellows. This was true of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and many of the prophets, up to the time of Christ Jesus, when it seemed as if the light would forever dispel the darkness: but, no, for at this very time John wrote, "The light shine in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." God has been unchanging Truth and Love throughout the ages, but this eternal verity has been uncomprehended, its tremendous practical significance denied, save by the prophets who have been stoned for declaring it.
It is true that in all ages people have been glad to receive blessings from the Almighty, but few have been willing to let go of that which has brought suffering upon them. God, unchanging good, has kept His covenant and mercy to a thousand generations, but men did not keep the commandments and the statutes delivered into them by the prophets, because the sensuous carnal mind preferred to cling to its delusions and then charge God with its miseries. When spiritual being is declared in any age, Truth calls for unconditional surrender upon the part of those who would still cling to the material. "Ye cannot serve God and mammon," said Jesus, who declared for the worship of God "in spirit and in truth." He was ever patient with faltering footsteps, but he made no concessions to those who would divide their allegiance between matter and Spirit, and can we call ourselves Christians unless we build upon his foundation?
As Christian Scientists we may rejoice that our revered Leader has recognized from the first the absoluteness of Spirit, God, and the consequent spirituality of this likeness, and that she has kept this vital fact uncompromisingly to the fore in all her teachings, although this brought inevitably the "awful conflict" between truth and error which she mentions in Science and Health (p. 226). At no point of Scriptural interpretation, or the application of the truth to human conditions, has she ever swerved from the position taken, viz., that the spiritual is real and the material unreal. From this vantage-ground she could consistently and reasonably stand by the Scriptural statements which are denied by so-called advanced thinkers, statements which could not be true if matter and material law were real or actual.
