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.
On page 581 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy defines "ark" as "safety;" also as "the understanding of Spirit, destroying belief in matter." The understanding of God as divine Mind, and man as God's idea, as taught in Christian Science, reveals God as the one ever-presence, and man's unity with Him. The consciousness of this wondrous truth is our ark, constituting our salvation from every erroneous belief of material sense. As the ark preceded the forward movements of Israel, so must our ark, "the understanding of Spirit," go before us in our journey out of the bondage of material beliefs, giving us safe passage through the waters of mortal, material sense, and enabling us to overthrow the entrenched beliefs of evil.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians, reminding them that they had been made "able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." If we have lost our ark, it is because we have been relying upon blind belief instead of understanding, or have placed our dependence merely upon the letter, without the spirit of Christian Science. As the Bible narrative says, the sacred symbol was returned to Israel after having been seven months in the country of the Philistines. By patient striving to obtain and retain the truth of divine Mind's presence and power, we likewise may regain the understanding—if it has seemed to be temporarily lost—with which we can meet and vanquish evil beliefs, manifested as sin and disease. All such must flee before the realization of ever present good.
Material sense, worldly systems, human theories, popular beliefs, are not the understanding of God. Reliance upon form and ceremony, upon creed and dogma, aid not in the warfare with evil. They are but the lifeless structures of materialism, overlaid with the deceiving gold of human knowledge. As Christian Scientists turn persistently away from material sense, patiently and lovingly demonstrating the power of divine Mind in the healing of sickness and sin, thus bringing to the world the true concept of God as ever present Mind, they will come into a larger understanding of the words of Mrs. Eddy, in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 188): "Your ark of the covenant will not be brought out of the city of David, but out of 'the secret place of the most High,' whereof the Psalmist sang, even the omniscience of omnipotence."
