In that wonderful paragraph on page 566 of the Christian Science textbook. '"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," where Mrs. Eddy so vividly describes the power of divine Mind to free men from bondage of every sort, it is stated that, as the children of Israel were emancipated through divine guidance and the anticipation of good, "so shall the spiritual idea guide all right desires in their passage from sense to Soul." Here are presented, in their proper sequence, the action of the eternal, guiding, divine Principle and that which must cooperate with it, namely, the human receptivity. God led; but the children of Israel had to follow: they must accept the good that God had for them; and the nature of this receptivity is clearly revealed through our Leader's instructive phrase, "anticipating the promised joy," which precedes the passage above quoted.
The word "anticipate" is derived from the Latin ante, meaning before, and capere, to take, to capture. Thus, the word literally means to take possession of, or to capture, beforehand; and to the Christian Scientist, who is learning that all so-called physical conditions are essentially mental, this process of reaching out in thought and taking into consciousness the concept of perfection, even before, to the material senses, there is any evidence of such perfection, is most important and practical.
No sculptor carves a beautiful statue until after he has taken into thought and cherished the concept of pleasing form, outline, and proportion. The architect builds every house in his thinking before its plans are displayed on paper; and the carpenter drives every nail in thought before it is struck by his hammer. Christ Jesus, whose work was so well done because he understood not only effects but causes, instructed his disciples: "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." He was indeed Master of the art of scientific anticipation; and his works of healing proved, in every instance, the correctness—even the fundamental necessity—of this mental process.
