"YE shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." These familiar words of our Master, Christ Jesus, recorded in the Scriptures (John 8:32) and written on the walls of many Christian Science branch church auditoriums, are very frequently quoted without sufficient respect being given to the import of their proviso. Jesus' stipulation, which is a condition to one's knowing what is true, is found in the preceding verse of this quotation, and it is that one shall continue in his word.
To continue, according to Webster, is "to be steadfast or constant in any course; . . . endure; persist.' Surely such an attitude of thought is usually requisite to acquire a knowledge of the truth about anything. There are times, however, when the student of Christian Science may experience a sudden surge of spiritual truth that stirs his whole being, and an influx of great light illumines his vision, demonstrating that the "quick understanding" of the Messiah, or Christ, spoken of in Isaiah (11:3), is possible and provable.
While attending a Sunday morning service, a certain student of Christian Science, who had labored long on a problem which threatened the peace of many, lifted her thought again in earnest prayer to God for light and leading. Her eyes rested on the words quoted in the first paragraph of this article. They seemed illuminated as they stood out in shining letters on the front wall before her. Had she really been knowing the truth about the discordant situation, or had she been accepting the morbid evidences of the senses? Had she held her thought faithfully to God and His idea, or had she been mentally up one day with the Christ, the true idea of son-ship, and down the next on the plane of mortal thinking? She must continue with greater persistence in knowing and applying the truth taught in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," as well as in all the other writings of Mary Baker Eddy.
