In that wonderful poem, the book of Job, the writer tells us of the Mind that upholds the universe, "which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades;" then he adds, "Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not." How truly these words describe the condition of mortals, who are indeed surrounded with all the harmony, peace, and love of infinite Mind, God, yet who "see him not" because the material senses cannot know Him whom to know aright is life eternal. Through sorrow, sickness, and much turmoil, this patriarch of old patiently struggled with the seeming difficulties that are often overwhelming to mortals, yet in all his struggle we read that "Job sinned not." Though advised by his companion to curse God and die, he never yielded up his integrity or his confidence in God. As mortals, all of us come to know something of toil and struggle, many of us through bitter experiences have found the vanity of things material, and happy are we if these trials "turn us like tired children to the arms of divine Love" (Science and Health, p. 322).
What a relief it would be to millions of the human race if they only knew that it is not their heavenly Father who is afflicting them, but that their affliction is only the penalty of their false beliefs concerning God and man; that these bring seemingly real aches and pains, and so becloud the understanding that it is only through a blind faith they apprehend God at all. "He goeth by," yet they "see him not," and for the simple reason that the material senses cannot know God or come into His presence. As well might we attempt to bring darkness into light as to bring the false evidence of material sense into the presence of Truth, for as light destroys darkness, even so the sense of God, good, when understood and reflected, destroys the false sense of evil. Many wonderful lessons are found in the Bible when it is studied in the light of the teachings of Christian Science.
Paul says that "the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh [and hoping for rest or pleasure in it] cannot please God." If one did not understand the unreality of sickness and sin, he might indeed do as Job did, curse the day that he was born, not knowing that sickness, sin, and death are born of the false and not the true sense of being. If, however, we examine in the light of Christian Science experiences such as those that Job passed through, these lessons take on an entirely different meaning, for we soon learn that mortals can never see Spirit, God, though at all times God's children are surrounded by His presence, His love, His eternal goodness: but in the truth we begin to apprehend that man is the child of God here, now, and forever, and thus we begin to "put off the old man with his deeds," and to put on the new man which is Christ.
