The account in Genesis of how God created man and the universe in six days, and rested the seventh day, is familiar to many; and while the story of Adam and Eve has been to many people merely part of a mental pattern woven together in childhood, with other allegorical threads, perhaps the ordinary workaday folks have, in general, left their problems to be thrashed out by the theologians. They accept the narrative as, in any case, providing them with a satisfactory reason for a Sunday rest, every seventh day of the week!
This being so, it is evident that this mental attitude, or rather the passivity of thought of so many people towards the stupendous problem of creation, is scarcely a promising preparation to the understanding of what Mrs. Eddy means when she writes in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 519), "Nothing can be novel to eternal Mind, the author of all things, who from all eternity knoweth His own ideas," and further says (p. 520): "Unfathomable Mind is expressed. The depth, breadth, height, might, majesty, and glory of infinite Love fill all space."
Here is a form of expression which cannot be conveniently classified as ancient fable or archaic fairy tale. Here is an atmosphere of thought which at once wipes out all the familiar landmarks of material sense,— time, space, and sentiment. Probably no one to-day understands all that Mrs. Eddy wrote in her scientific exegesis of the first book in the Bible; but glowing spiritual vision and spiritual understanding will lead mankind to apprehend more and more the truth expressed there,—the scientific truth of existence, which the world most sorely needs; for the human cry goes up constantly. How can we attain; how can we rise to see the glory of God's creation? The answer is delayed, because men appear to be so closely enwrapped in the mist of this mortal seeming that, although the lines,
Trailing clouds of glory, do we come
From God, who is our home,
may be applied to the innocence of childhood, still, as Wordsworth goes on to lament, the fresh program passes all too soon, until
At length the man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day.
In the morning of the world, however, it seems as if men's vision still held something of the fresh innocence of the child, which enabled them more easily to pierce the mist of materiality, gaining the exquisite glimpses of the radiance of divine Love. The world in which moved such figures as Moses, Abraham, Jacob, and Elijah was one in which holy men habitually communed with Spirit, the unseen God; and, further, the generations which produced such songs as the Psalms were neither indifferent to nor apathetic towards spiritual beauty and truth. It was tragic that humanity gradually let the perception of spiritual glory fade away "into the light of common day," until, under the paralyzing influence of the great Roman Empire at the height of its power, the truth about God seemed to all but disappear from human perception.
At this point, however, there appeared in the black night of materialism a light,—a star, which guided some wakeful shepherds to the birthplace of a young child; and this star of spiritual vision grew brighter with the growth of the boy Jesus, until it was proved to be, indeed, the reflection of God Himself. Christ Jesus so perfectly demonstrated the Christ, Truth, that he destroyed every evil known to mankind, including the lie called death, and finally ascended above human consciousness, demonstrating the eternal and spiritual nature of man, the true idea of God.
It is significant that once more in an age of great spiritual darkness, pushing towards more material power, in the year 1821, another child was born who was to manifest spiritual vision far in advance of her generation. This babe became Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, the author of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and the Leader of the Church of Christ, Scientist, a church built on the foundation of spiritual understanding, and established through proof or demonstration thereof by healing.
Mrs. Eddy was so alert to the things appertaining to man's true or spiritual nature that she could not but be aware of the hungering longing of many hearts for even a glimpse of God's real creation, and she felt herself to have been divinely led and equipped to unfold the glorious light of Truth which dawned upon her. When, in 1866, she was healed by divine power of an injury caused by an accident deemed fatal, she accepted this as a revelation of Christian Science; and she says in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 24), "I then withdrew from society about three years.—to ponder my mission, to search the Scriptures, to find the Science of Mind that should take the things of God and show them to the creature, and reveal the great curative Principle,—Deity." The fruit of this three years' search was the Christian Science textbook; and in this book there is taught the method of solving every human problem. As the student reads, and his spiritual understanding grows, he also will perceive with the great prophets and spiritual teachers that the dawn of the reflection of Mind's ideas has come to his own consciousness, as when God said, "Let there be light: and there was light."
Thus, a Christian Scientist may learn that true creation is always unfolding and manifesting itself; and that this is a living and continuous experience, through which men reach God and understand all "that was made." All beautiful, lovely, and good ideas, which come to us daily, teach more of God's universe, and of man and woman in God's image and likeness, reflecting His presence and power and His love. This is an inspiring sense of creation, because it is infinite. In the words of the psalmist: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge."
