IN the spiritual illumination of Christian Science the promise and fulfillment of the Scriptural record become radiantly clear. Even during the long ages when the Bible was in large degree a closed book, the living truths it contains permeated human consciousness, bringing blessings of comfort and cheer in the degree of individual receptivity. Today the Science of the Bible will shine gloriously forth for us, bringing into our lives the fruitage of Truth, if we will bring to bear upon its inspired truths the light of understanding which Christian Science offers us. In her Message to The Mother Church for 1902, Mary Baker Eddy makes this significant statement (p. 4): "Our thoughts of the Bible utter our lives."
As consecrated students of Christian Science we are engaged in the imperative task of learning to know God and of joyously proving and living our increasing understanding. As we come to understand God better, we learn progressively to know man as he really is—spiritual, upright, the dearly beloved son of the Father, who is Love. For this task we find that a clear, penetrating spiritual understanding of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is essential. For in the illumined Word we find the divine plan made plain and man's place in God's great design clearly defined.
The Bible is indeed a chart—not only for men in general, but for each individual specifically. It is your chart and mine, and in the light of Christian Science its guidance is unmistakable.
It will be recalled that at one time Christ Jesus, striving to awaken in his hearers a desire to look beneath the surface of material belief, spoke of the rebuilding of the temple and was misunderstood by his listeners. But his disciples had some measure of comprehension of his meaning, and John later explained (John 2:21), "But he spake of the temple of his body." Perhaps our work today of learning and demonstrating truth could be considered as the building up in thought of the right idea of identity. It is our effort to establish in consciousness the correct concept of man as wholly spiritual, the image and likeness of God, and to prove our growing comprehension step by step in our experience.
On page 169of "Miscellaneous Writings". by Mrs. Eddy we read: "Within Bible pages she [Mrs. Eddy] had found all the divine Science she preaches; noticing, all along the way of her researches therein, that whenever her thoughts had wandered into the bypaths of ancient philosophies or pagan literatures, her spiritual insight had been darkened thereby, till she was God driven back to the inspired pages. Early training, through the misinterpretation of the Word, had been the underlying cause of the long years of invalidism she endured before Truth dawned upon her understanding, through right interpretation. With the understanding of Scripture-meanings, had come physical rejuvenation. The uplifting of spirit was the upbuilding of the body."
He who earnestly searches the Scriptures in the light of Christian Science will find that throughout the Old Testament the children of Israel or their leaders, though their way sometimes appeared dark indeed and fear and ignorance often held them in bondage, expressed deep yearning for the things of Spirit. Solomon's concept of temple expressed humanity's deep thirst for Truth and was a mighty step in an unfolding idea that later was to attain clarity in Paul's words (I Cor. 3:16), "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?" Again and again the pages of the Old Testament narrative glow with rich prophecy as an apprehension of the nature of the fuller appearing of the Christ came to the unfolding thought of sage and prophet.
At one time a group of Christian Scientists, speaking to each other of the wonderful illumination this Science had brought into their lives, gained much inspiration when one of their number remarked: "I have liked to think of my experience before I began to comprehend Christian Science as my Old Testament experience. Viewed in the light of Christian Science, no portion of that experience can be found to be without meaning. Never, no matter what the human seeming, did it contain a retrograde step. Inexorably, human consciousness was being prepared for the Christly radiance that points the true way, just as the footsteps of the children of Israel, as recorded in the Old Testament, were guided upward toward the light of the Messianic coming."
The Old Testament pictures the journey of the children of Israel from one state of thought to a better one and is richly prophetic of the coming of the Christ to human consciousness as portrayed in the New Testament. The New Testament, with its insistent reference, especially in the four Gospels, to the older Scriptures, demonstrates the relation of the Old Testament writings to the Christian era. The New Testament seems to ring with the glad and commanding proclamation: This is the hour of prophetic fulfillment! Learn, understand, and know salvation! Here was the proof of living Truth traced on the pages of human consciousness in a way understandable to the children of men and in complete fulfillment of the God-reflected foreknowing of the ancient seers.
Although the Bible, with its imperative message of liberation, has been with men for centuries, the fullness of its meaning becomes unmistakable to each of us only when its spiritual meaning is comprehended. And this is what Christian Science, the promised Comforter, comes to do for us.
The student of Christian Science soon discovers that there is no greater adventure than to seek, find, and demonstrate Truth. Companioned by the Bible and its indispensable "key," "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, the student learns to know the spiritual events that transpire as the curtain rises upon the new birth, the progressive revelation of Truth that angelic voices herald. The advent of the Christ illumines the student's experience. The coming of Christ to individual human consciousness is an experience so exquisite, so all-important, that human language has difficulty even attempting to delineate it.
As each idea of Truth unfolds to us, we should not hesitate to lay claim to its full fruitage in our lives in a way we can understand. Are we not, as we perceive spiritual truths with ever-increasing clarity, literally seeing more clearly? As we learn to listen more consistently to God, are we not in very truth hearing more acutely? As the vigor of spiritual, right thinking becomes ever more dominant in our lives, strength inevitably is increased.
Jesus said (Matt. 13:16), "Blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear," and he opened the eyes of the blind and unstopped the ears of the deaf. He declared (Matt. 6:33), "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." He replaced lack with abundance, sickness with health, sorrow with joy, and death with life. Jesus commanded—and Christian Science reiterates that loving command — that we also do his works. The apprehension of Truth in consciousness is always accompanied by a more blessed human condition. Let us in deep gratitude lay full claim not only to the unfolding spiritual idea but also to its effective relation to our present experience.
As we reverently study the Bible, hand in hand with our Christian Science textbook, let us never for a moment lose the realization that here is our chart of life. Let us never permit a sense of dismay to enter our thinking because we do not at once comprehend the significance of some portion of the Holy Scriptures. As from hour to hour Truth unfolds in our consciousness, we shall find the spiritual import that is there for us. And as our understanding grows, so will our humility and gratitude increase as we perceive that to penetrate the depths of meaning in the Word of God is the work of eternity. No obscuration can blur our reading of the chart of life, for it is constantly illumined by the light of Truth revealed so unmistakably in Science and Health.
We shall indeed discover that the thread of divine Love runs throughout the Bible. Our joy will be deepened each time we ponder its message. We shall find that each progressive unfoldment it chronicles leads toward the summit of St. John's vision of "a new heaven and a new earth" (Rev. 21:1). And as we comprehend the Bible record of the unfoldment of the Christ, so shall we in some degree know in our own experience the same Christly unfoldment.
Lovingly Mrs. Eddy reminds us in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 178): "Your Bible and your textbook, pastor and ethical tenets, do not mislead the seeker after Truth. These unpretentious preachers cloud not the spiritual meaning of Holy Writ by material interpretations, nor lose the invincible process and purity of Christianity whereby the sick are healed and sinners saved. The Science of Christianity is not generally understood, but it hastens hourly to this end. This Science is the essence of religion, distilled in the laboratory of infinite Love and prepared for all peoples."
