THE righteous prayers of the ages have been answered, for God's answer is ever ready; but mortals have not always correctly grasped the divine response. The failure to see all that should have been seen is due to ignorance of the Father and of what may be expected of Him as infinite intelligence and Love. Instead of looking ever to the future, under the illusion that spiritual redemption is outside of present experience, Christian Science enables one to correct the mistaken supposition that there is yet something for God to do, and intelligently to understand that God's answer is always present. This answer, however, does not consist alone of visible blessings. It also embraces the revelation of the truth by which mortals may work out their salvation. The unfoldment of this revelation is not an evolutionary process, in the sense that God's universe is in process of being completed or developed, or that man is being changed; it is the awakening to that which really is.
In tracing the record of divine leading from the time of Abraham, we see how the Israelites sometimes comprehended God's guidance in answer to their prayers to Him, and how, at other times, they were led astray by erroneous beliefs. We see how they looked to the future for the Messiah, although divine Principle was ever at hand, needing but to be correctly understood and obeyed. We see wherein God was plainly revealed, but wherein human obedience was not always equal to the simple requirement of accepting the perceptible good, thus preparing consciousness to receive more. After centuries of yearning by the Israelites, after much striving for the freedom which was ever at hand but not seen by the physical senses, Christ Jesus presented the religion of Love, the living answer which God gave; but his message was rejected by many, and much of its import was soon lost to humanity in general.
When Moses viewed the burning bush, as well as on subsequent occasions, he was conscious of the presence of Spirit, God. Paul writes of the experiences of the Israelites in the wilderness that "they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ." When Nebuchadnezzar looked into the burning fiery furnace, he saw a fourth form, unlike that of the three young Hebrews who had been cast therein. Elsewhere in the Old Testament there is the record of this presence, showing plainly that the Christ, the Redeemer, was manifested to men, though not fully understood, before the appearing of the human Jesus. By considering all these events together in prayerful meditation, the logical conclusion is that the healing, saving Christ is not a physical form, but is the living idea of spiritual Truth.
