FROM the depths of true repentance the Psalmist once declared, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." From his day to ours such sacrifices as these have been laid upon God's altar; and now, as then, they always result in the blessing of a rich and ever unfolding understanding of God's transcendent goodness and perfections. Indeed, men have been finding with greater and greater certainty that a sure way of approach to a true sense of unity with God is through this same "broken spirit" and "contrite heart."
Christian Science makes plain the reason for this, since it shows that human belief must be recognized as mistaken, and it must be relinquished before spiritual understanding can take its place. So long as mortals are content with the things of the flesh, they will not seek the things of Spirit. Satisfied with matter and its deceptive allurements, they will not reach out for Spirit and spiritual bliss. They must begin to awaken to the unsatisfactoriness of a supposititious existence in matter apart from God, Spirit, before they will seek for something higher and better.
The words of God in Isaiah's time are therefore as loud a call to men today to repent as they were when they were first uttered: "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." Here is the positive assurance from God that the blessed entrance into the holy of holies—into conscious unity with Him—is won by true contrition and humility.
