ST. JOHN relates that at a time when the heart of the Master was greatly troubled, he cried out in anguish, "Father, save me from this hour;" whereupon there came an answering voice from heaven, and some of the people who heard it "said that it thundered: others said. An angel spake to him." This incident serves to mark the contrasts presented in the interpretation of experience by different people, contrasts which indicate their relative sensitiveness to truth and the corresponding degree of gain they may realize when it is voiced. All mature people have had sufficient experience to be very wise, had they but been able to win from experience its deepest, truest meaning, to interpret it at its best; and herein lies the unmeasured value of that spiritual sense whose activity determines the true worth of every event, the richness, the worthiness, and the profit of our living.
To the average person experience is a passing pageant. He sees things, according to his own fancy, "as they are;" but in fact, only as they seem: he does not look beneath the surface. This is well illustrated by the superficiality of the gain attending the travels of the ignorant. Having no basis of apprehension, no capacity of interpretation, they see much, but garner nothing. The student, on the other hand, looks out upon life with a discriminating thoughtfulness: he perceives certain groupings and associations of events, divines the order of their sequence, the incidental or causal relation of things, and this gives rise to a philosophy, a theory of explanation which may prove more or less helpful as a working hypothesis.
Yet another body of observers have come to know the untrustworthiness of appearances, the falsity of deductions therefrom, and if they have learned the Principle of being, they begin to test testimony thereby, and to interpret experience from the highest point of view. Having planted their feet on the rock of scientific and demonstrable truth, they are able to find the real values of every proposition and presentment which life may bring them. These discover that trivial events may have a great wealth of disclosure, so that the commonplace becomes transformed. They have passed from the realm of symbolism to the realm of substance; they are reading things aright. Incidents and events are now judged in the light of a new perspective, with respect to a new basis of valuation, and as a result the whole area of history, of human achievement and of personal experience, is illumined. They are beginning to understand something of the meaning of the Master's words, "Howbeit when he. the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." They perceive -that there is a truth about everything, and that this is all that is worth while. They see that, apart from spiritual interpretation, nothing can be known for what it is: and, since the right idea is a constant and eternal factor of divine Mind, that all genuine interpretation is a revelation of Truth, — it is the coming of the Christ-consciousness. Realizing all this, one can but realize the present practical significance to life of Christ Jesus demonstrable teaching, as restated in Christian Science.
