THE fourth and fifth chapters of the first book of Samuel present an interesting record of Israel's loss of the ark of the covenant and its return. Studied from the standpoint of human experience, this record illustrates graphically the disastrous results which attend the failure to hold fast to the understanding of the ever-presence of God.
The children of Israel, attacking their old enemies, the Philistines, and seeing the tide of battle turning strongly against them, sent hurriedly to Shiloh and brought up the ark, in the hope that its presence with the armies of Israel would aid them to overthrow their enemy. To the Israelites, the ark was the sacred symbol of the presence of Jehovah. They had great reason to believe that with the ark to aid them, victory would be certain. In their earlier history, the ark had led the nation in its journey towards the land of promise. Before the ark, the waters of Jordan had parted, and Israel had passed over on dry ground. At the siege of Jericho, in obedience to God's command, the ark had led the triumphant hosts of Israel in their encircling movement of the doomed city. And so, beset by fear, at a crisis in the nation's existence, Israel summoned the ark as a last resort in the effort to avert disaster. But relying more upon the material symbol of God's presence than upon God Himself, the armies of Israel went forth to battle, only to go down in sore defeat; and, as if to give the final touch to the disaster which had befallen Israel, the record concludes, "And the ark of God is taken."
The experience of the individual Christian Scientist parallels in many ways that of the children of Israel. Have we not found, when we have paid heed to the voice of fear, that we have thereby invited the very consequences we feared? And for the very reason that a sense of fear claims to shut us out from God's presence, dispossessing us of the spiritual understanding which is vital to our demonstration thereof. Have we not found, too, that when we have relied upon the letter of Christian Science alone, we have not gained that clear realization of the all-presence of God we seek; and so have failed to overthrow the Philistines of belief,—doubt, discouragement, selfishness, and ignorance? Thus, we too, as did Israel, lose our ark, the consciousness of safety in the understanding of Mind's omnipresence.
