Christian Scientists all feel that they owe a debt of gratitude to Mrs. Eddy for giving them their textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." This book has thrown a new light on the Bible, and consequently has given them a higher and truer concept of God as Love, as divine Principle, in place of the old thought of a corporeal, manlike God who could be cruel as well as kind, who was as ready to punish as to bless. Before this book was given to them many Bible texts were so much misunderstood that instead of being helpful and comforting they seemed to be just the opposite. Take for example the text so often quoted. "Thy will be done; " we were always taught to say these words when it seemed hard. How much sickness and suffering has been submitted to with the belief that it was God's will, and what a joy it now is to know that God's Will for His children is not death but life; not sickness but health; not sorrow but joy,—all good. Knowing this, we no longer think it right to suffer for anything but wrong thinking and wrongdoing. In our textbook (p. 391) we read as follows: "Instead of blind and calm submission to the incipient or advanced stages of disease, rise in rebellion against them. ...It is error to suffer for aught but your own sins. Christ, or Truth, will destroy all other supposed suffering, and real suffering for your own sins will cease in proportion as the sin ceases." What comfort and happiness these words have brought to the sick and sinning; for they show that hot.h sickness and sin can be destroyed by Christ, Truth, and so proved to be unreal.
Then there is the belief that hered ity is a law of God. This has always seemed unjust and cruel. One hears it said, But the Bible tells us that the sins of the parents are visited upon the children "unto the third and fourth generation." The rest of the passage is generally omitted, else it would be seen that this only refers to "them that hate me [God]." Then follows the loving promise of mercy to them "that love me, and keep my commandments," showing a God of mercy and love. Another text . from the first chapter of Job, is one often quoted, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away;" but we shall see that this was a mistake Job made, if we read the book carefully. We find that it was not "the Lord" but "Satan" that took away Job's children and possessions. He, however, thinking it was God who had afflicted him, tried to be patient under affliction. Of course this belief made him afraid of God, and he suffered more and more until finally he said, "The thing which I greatly feared is come upon me." Later on Job was well advised by one of his friends, who said, "Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee." It was only when he saw that God could do no evil, that the wrong was in mortal belief and not in God, that his sufferings ceased, and then he was able to say, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee." Mrs. Eddy wrote in Science and Health (p. 390), "It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and the right understanding of Him restores harmony."
With reference to the text, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away," the sorrowing parent of today is comforted by the assurance in Science and Health (p. 206) that "instead of God sending sickness and death, He destroys them, and brings to light immortality." The Christian Scientist realizes that God, who is infinite Love and whose compassion never fails, could never be cruel, and that. God who is Life, could never cause death, since the belief in death obtains only in mortal mind. The Bible teaches that God is the giver of all good. The apostle James wrote in his epistle: "Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."
