THE study of Christian Science undoubtedly helps us to fit together the various pieces of the puzzle of human existence, and they have to be placed aright before they can form an harmonious whole. This is simplified, in great measure, by the constant application of spiritual understanding to each thought and deed. Many of the incidents related in the Bible, which we once considered either a demonstration of the divine will for some special circumstance, or else a record of some natural law misunderstood through ignorance or superstition, we now know contain a truth which, spiritually discerned, is able to help us today as at the time of its first revelation.
Revelation! What does that mean? We were wont to reserve that word, in a special sense, for the vision of St. John, or at all events for connection with the prophecies of the Bible, and we would have been diffident to apply it to any other persons or experiences. But both inspiration and revelation are daily happenings, and in proportion to the understanding we have gained, by so much are we able to apply spiritual knowledge to satisfy our temporal needs. Revelation means the discovery of something hidden and, in the form of spiritual discernment, it must necessarily be perceived by each individual before the kingdom of heaven can be humanly demonstrated. "Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it." This revelation is only the recognition of what is already there, of what has existed from all eternity, and must always exist, whether humanly discerned or not.
Even from the material point of view all invention or discovery merely shows the power to perceive or use what already has being, not the creation of a fact out of fiction. How many apples pattered to the ground before a statement of the law of gravitation was formulated? The north pole existed ere it was seen by human eyes, waves of electricity rippled over the earth before they were captured into service, and the world was a globe even when ignorance derided the assertion of its roundness. The only true system of education is that which uncovers each fact in such a way that it comes as a revelation to the learner, something grasped and understood as the expression of a law, so that it can never be forgotten even though the mere details may pass out of thought.
