Throughout the Scriptures there are examples of the practical power of spiritual apprehension in human experience. The glimpses which Noah, Abraham, Joseph, had of spiritual reality gave them dominion over untoward circumstances. And of Moses it is said that "he endured, as seeing him who is invisible."
Christ Jesus taught and healed through his perception of the true God and man—in other words, through his spiritual apprehension. Similarly, the revelation of Christian Science came to Mrs. Eddy through her keen and steadfast spiritual apprehension of real being, which pierced the veil of the flesh and unfolded to her the eternal facts of existence. Referring to "the great discovery," she writes (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 28): "I had learned that thought must be spiritualized, in order to apprehend Spirit. It must become honest, unselfish, and pure, in order to have the least understanding of God in divine Science." Here our Leader enumerates three of the qualities through which we may grow spiritual enough to "apprehend Spirit." Honesty in Christian Science means something besides verbal and financial honesty; it means holding to the truth of spiritual being, undeterred by contrary material evidence. Honesty is therefore indispensable in all our work for the Cause of Christian Science.
Unselfishness means more than being an unselfish human being; it means turning away from the personal sense of self and demonstrating one's perfect spiritual identity. Without this high order of unselfishness, this dropping of the "old man," there can be little spiritual apprehension of the "new man." Therefore, albeit every false trait must be uncovered and destroyed by true thinking and living, the habit of deploring one's human shortcomings would delay the joy of spiritual apprehension, in which there is neither condemnation nor limitation.
