WHEN the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, finds its way to the heart and home of a new student, this invariably is the signal for an awakened interest in Bible reading and study. That sacred volume glows with new warmth and inspiration when read in the light of scientific truth. In fact, it was in the spiritually-illumined pages of Holy Writ that Mrs. Eddy found her healing and the Science of Christianity. She has stated plainly that in her search for truth her only textbook was the Bible. She writes in Science and Health (p. 547): "The Scriptures are very sacred. Our aim must be to have them understood spiritually, for only by this understanding can truth be gained." Then a little farther on she adds, "It is this spiritual perception of Scripture, which lifts humanity out of disease and death and inspires faith."
Considered literally, some Bible statements appear contradictory and productive of little practical help or inspiration for a sufferer. Take for example the oft-quoted declaration in Job (1:21), "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." Without a spiritual interpretation, the reader of this passage might assume that the Father of all in one instance gives life, health, and harmony to His children, and then without warning terminates these blessings. How many times have Job's mournful words been quoted at funerals, intended evidently to bring a spirit of resignation and doubtful comfort to the sorrowing, but having quite the opposite effect. Just how one can say wholeheartedly, "Blessed be the name of the Lord," while believing that God is responsible for a cruel accident or vicious disease eventuating in so-called death, taxes the imagination.
Now in Science we learn that God is infinite good, divine Love, whom the Apostle James describes as "the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17). As light begets nought but light, so God is revealed as the author only of good and harmony; and spiritual understanding of this truth takes away the belief in evil's seeming reality, heals the sick, and dispels the earth mists. Well may the enlightened Bible student then exclaim, "Blessed be the name of the Lord"!
