ONCE a young student in Christian Science was telling a guest of the blessings which Christian Science had brought into her experience. "All that you say is very interesting," he replied, "but I cannot get over the fact that you people have a different Bible. The old Bible is good enough for me." "Would you like to see my Bible?" asked the student. She brought the Oxford Sunday school teacher's edition of the Bible, which she was earnestly studying with the help of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, and gave it to her guest. He looked it through carefully, and then returned it with the remark, "I cannot see any difference." "Look again," she said; "there is a difference." He took the well-worn Bible and said: "I see. You mean it has been very much read."
The Bible does become a new book to Christian Scientists—and why? To most churchgoers the experiences told in the Bible are events which happened in Bible times, times so far off and attended by so many miraculous occurrences that the experiences are of no value today. But once the door is unlocked by the "Key," it is seen that Bible times are no different from today, and that the experiences of the patriarchs, prophets, and disciples are the experiences of every one today, with the same healing Christ ever present, the same infinite, omnipotent God with us "yesterday, and today, and forever."
As we study the Bible in the light of Christian Science, we find that its great central thought is that whatever the human need, whatever the problem, God alone can supply the need and give the solution. We find that, those who had the experiences portrayed in the Bible knew how to get to God, and if we are to have the same strength, the same deliverance, we too must know how to get to Him. As we continue to study, we find that those who had these experiences were taught vital lessons thereby, and that our experiences come to us for the same purpose.
