A MISTAKEN idea of what constitutes Christian Science demonstration often causes the student to entertain doubt, discouragement, and a sense of failure or confusion. Many times we find that we have been led to believe that if we do not have an instantaneous healing of sickness, lack, or inharmony, we have failed in our work. At such times we might very well consider, for guidance, some of the old Bible stories, that of the Israelites in Egypt, for example, or that of the Hebrew children in the fiery furnace, or that of Daniel in the lions' den. In none of these was there what is generally called an instantaneous demonstration; yet in each case there was manifested that which has lived through the centuries.
Did the Hebrew children do nothing more than step out of the furnace with not even the smell of fire clinging to them? Was the best demonstration that Daniel made the stepping forth from the den of lions unhurt? Was the marching into Canaan the biggest thing the Israelites accomplished? There is in each of these cases something far deeper and finer than these manifestations alone indicate. This greater work, which was complete previous to the demonstrated events, fills us with admiration, and instills new hope in us that when "through fiery trials" our pathway shall lie, we shall see that God's grace, "all sufficient," will be our supply. This work is less spectacular, but indicative of perhaps even greater courage; yes, and of a more demonstrable understanding of Truth, than, perhaps, the final acts themselves required. If there were no more to these stories than the final steps, we might be justified in sometimes thinking that we have not done correct mental work, and have failed to make our demonstration when the vigil has seemed to be long.
Daniel's greatest work was not in walking out of the den of lions. It was in being able to endure the whole night there; to know during every second of those long hours of darkness that God was present. Just so it was also with the Hebrews in the furnace. It was the ability to withstand the flames and the intense heat for hours without the slightest injury, rather than the mere act of stepping out of the furnace, that was their demonstration.
