It is both interesting and instructive to look up, with the aid of a concordance, all the passages in the Bible which refer to understanding, knowledge, and wisdom, especially those which point out the necessity of gaining or acquiring these qualities. One of the most striking passages is to be found in the first chapter of Ephesians, where Paul speaks to the members of the church at Ephesus of his constant prayer for them, that they might receive "the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him [God]," and that the eyes of their understanding might be "enlightened."
In view of this text, and many others of similar import, it seems very strange that Christendom has to such a large extent been satisfied with blind faith, and that Christian sermons have laid so little stress upon the need of gaining spiritual understanding. Mrs. Eddy clearly discerned this shortcoming, and she more than any other religious teacher since the time of Jesus and his apostles has pointed out the insuffciency of blind faith. "If we rise no higher than blind faith," she writes, "the Science of healing is not attained, and Soul-existence, in the place of sense-existence, is not comprehended" (Science and Health, p. 167). Not only, however, has Mrs. Eddy pointed out to us the necessity of gaining spiritual understanding, but she has also shown us how we may attain it. She has truly given us in our textbook the "Key to the Scriptures," which when rightly used opens up to us this storehouse of spiritual wisdom.
Is it not downright mental laziness which causes so many well meaning Christian people to be satisfied with what is merely blind faith? They find it so much easier to allow some one else to do their thinking on religious subjects for them; so much easier to accept without questioning the religious beliefs inherited from their fathers, than to "prove all things" for themselves, and to "hold fast that which is good;" so much easier to say, The religion of our fathers is good enough for us, than to learn how to give "a reason of the hope" that is in them, as Peter admonishes us to do. How far would the world have progressed in the higher understanding of God, and how many of the blessings this understanding brings with it would the world be enjoying today, if men had not arisen from time to time who refused to remain on the beaten path of religious conservatism?
