WHEN Paul visited Ephesus he found certain Christian converts who, on being asked if they had received the Holy Ghost, said, "We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." Of these believers it is further recorded, in the nineteenth chapter of Acts, that after being instructed and baptized by Paul, "the Holy Ghost came on them." It would seem that to-day many people have advanced but little beyond the state of uncertainty expressed by these Ephesians when Paul first talked with them; for while Christians know full well that the Bible frequently mentions the Holy Ghost and describes the wonderful works performed by those who were blessed with its presence, yet do they really know what the Holy Ghost is, or expect to experience its advent to any marked degree?
It was while feeling this unenlightened condition of thought, even as reflected in the vagueness of his own concepts, that a student of Christian Science became filled with a desire to understand more fully what might be the nature of those experiences referred to in the New Testament accounts of the receiving of the Holy Ghost. In the search which followed, a comprehensive concordance to the Bible and the two concordances to the writings of Mary Baker Eddy proved of great assistance. Many hours were devoted to the uplifting quest; and the student's thought was filled with gratitude for the veritable treasure house of revealed truth made available to every earnest seeker through these concordances.
It was found that spiritual understanding is the divinely derived consciousness referred to in the Bible as the Holy Ghost. As stated on page 43 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy: "The magnitude of Jesus' work, his material disappearance before their eyes and his reappearance, all enabled the disciples to understand what Jesus had said. Heretofore they had only believed; now they understood. The advent of this understanding is what is meant by the descent of the Holy Ghost,—that influx of divine Science which so illuminated the Pentecostal Day and is now repeating its ancient history."
