Through the understanding of Christian Science one often gains new light on a familiar and loved Bible story enabling him to solve some present-day problem. Recently the writer found fresh inspiration while pondering Jesus' parable of the woman who lost one of her ten pieces of silver in her house, as recorded in the Gospel of Luke (15:8, 9). It was noted that the four steps taken to find the lost piece were not unlike those used in true prayer, or Christian Science treatment.
When the woman lost the piece of silver, she took the first important step to solve her problem: she lighted a candle. Does not the student of divine Science when confronted with inharmony quickly turn, without fear, self-pity, or condemnation, to divine Mind for spiritual light, because acceptance of the suggestion of loss breaks the First Commandment, which declares (Ex. 20:3), "Thou shalt have no other gods before me"? One can readily see that lack or any other discord, such as sickness, sin, loneliness, and so on, argues that there is another god or power besides the one infinite good, the perfect and only creator.
The woman then took the second step, that of sweeping out her house, or consciousness. Is not a Christian Scientist taught to deny place or power to the darkness of fear, ignorance, and incompleteness in his thinking, from which stems all evil? To see the nothingness of a false claim one impersonalizes it and separates it from place, person, or thing in much the same way as he denies value to an unattached zero.
