Today the Holy Ghost is rousing the world, awakening mortals from the dream of life in matter to the infinite possibilities of Life as Spirit. Everywhere we see signs of peoples stirring, seeking to throw off the yoke of materialism with its limitations and bondage. It is true the effort appears to be mostly along the lines of materiality; nevertheless the awakening is going on, and it will not cease until the supremacy of Spirit is fully recognized.
What is this Holy Ghost, this spiritual power which the world so sorely needs? On the Day of Pentecost, described in the Book of Acts, it was an overwhelming influx of spiritual light—a light so great that those of many nations who had gathered to hear the apostles preach were enabled to hear and understand the sacred message each in his own tongue.
The Holy Ghost is a term which came into use in the New Testament, though the apostles refer to it on more than one occasion as the source of illumination of the seers of the past (see II Pet. 1:21, Hebr. 3:7, Acts 28:25). By the Holy Ghost, the Virgin Mary conceived her child; to Zacharias came the promise that his son, later known as John the Baptist, should be filled with the Holy Ghost; Jesus was baptized of the Holy Ghost and was so filled with it that wherever he went the sick were healed, the sorrowing comforted, and sinners reformed. As the apostles grew in spirituality, they received the Holy Ghost and were endowed with its power. And to all mankind the Master promised the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.
Mary Baker Eddy defines "Holy Ghost" in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 588), as, "Divine Science; the development of eternal Life, Truth, and Love." The word "development" indicates action. "The development of eternal Life, Truth, and Love" is an irresistible force. It cannot be arrested, stopped, or interfered with. Because God is infinite and God is good, all development is good. There is no subtle, hidden development of evil, no development of latent, pent-up error, but only the development or action of Life, Truth, and Love. This development never leads to darkness and despair, but to light and glory. To develop an idea is to evolve its possibilities, to give it form, to bring it to fulfillment. The word conveys the thought of expansion and achievement.
The divine Science, which in its application to humanity Mrs. Eddy terms Christian Science, did not originate in human speculation; it is not the product of a so-called human mind. In "Retrospection and Introspection," Mrs. Eddy describes in touching eloquence her own emergence into light, whereby she learned the nothingness of matter and the allness of Spirit. She describes the cup she drank as Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, the cup which she says all her followers must taste. She describes the glory of the revelation and the way in which this Science developed itself to her. Christian Science is exposing the latent, hidden forces of evil, uncovering the lust, licentiousness, and brutality of sin, breaking the barriers of materialism, and revealing a spiritual power the world has never dreamed of.
Mrs. Eddy was not just a person writing about the things of God. Her discovery was the very appearing of these things. That is why her word is law, her work infallible, and her writings inspired. Every page of these writings was dictated by God; every line glows with glory; every By-Law set forth in the Manual of The Mother Church is God-given and must be obeyed. From everlasting to everlasting, this Science will continue to unfold as it glows in ever fuller effulgence, for it is "the development of eternal Life, Truth, and Love."
Are we who are living in this age of the second appearing of the Christ, this age of the coming of the Comforter, duly aware of our responsibilities, our opportunities and obligations? Are we fulfilling our duty to God, to our Leader, and to mankind? We are building for eternity. Let us be wise and consecrated master builders.
Mrs. Eddy says in "Unity of Good" (p. 52): "This Science of God and man is the Holy Ghost, which reveals and sustains the unbroken and eternal harmony of both God and the universe. It is the kingdom of heaven, the ever-present reign of harmony, already with us."
Now the Holy Ghost confers a baptism. This baptism is more than a baptism of human repentance; it is a great spiritual quickening, a new birth.
Baptism was the first event in the ministry of the Master. In this baptism the very heavens opened, and the Holy Ghost descended upon him as a dove, in a peace which enabled him to hear the Father's benediction, "Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased" (Luke 3:22). Was not this voice from heaven the eternal Ego declaring, "This is the radiant reflection of my own infinite individuality"? The abiding conviction of his absolute inseparability from the Father identified Jesus as the Christ. Jesus never lost his conscious oneness with God. Therein lay his power.
Mrs. Eddy tells us that the angel spoken of in Revelation, whose feet are described as pillars of fire and who had in his hand a little book open, brings the baptism of the Holy Ghost. The angel brings this baptism to each one of us—not one escapes it. Through it is demonstrated the coincidence of the human and divine. To human sense, this baptism often appears as suffering, but this only means that the dross of materialism is being consumed. From out the flame white-winged peace assures us of our true identity in God's likeness, and deep down in our heart we hear the Father's benediction, "Thou art my beloved Son."
The Apostle Paul said (I Cor. 6:19), "What? know ye not that your body [your spiritual identity] is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" He enlarged upon this thought and declared (II Cor. 6:16, 17): "What agreement hath the temple of God with idols [with corporeality]? for ye are the temple of the living God. . . . Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing"— stop thinking of yourself as a mortal; stop compromising with matter, with material ways and means; stop accepting material verdicts, and be ye separate.
According to human belief, all sorts of things may be developing in the body; but the only real development is "the development of eternal Life, Truth, and Love." If mortal mind says that disease is developing, we can meet this false argument fearlessly by claiming the spiritual fact. Christian Science refutes all the seeming development of error by making manifest the immortal, spiritual law of Truth, the development of harmony. In reality there is no disease to develop and no place for it to develop in. Only the quality and condition of Soul, God, are reflected in body, for man is God's image. There is nothing about body that can generate poison, deteriorate or decay, be congested or inflamed.
To understand our true identity as the temple of the Holy Ghost lifts thought above matter to the calm conviction of our Leader's prophetic words (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 307, 308), "But the divine Love will accomplish what all the powers of earth combined can never prevent being accomplished—the advent of divine healing and its divine Science." Mrs. Eddy makes this dynamic assertion in referring to the gradual emergence from material theories, which led her finally to the great discovery of divine Science.
The world is facing tremendous problems, problems for the solving of which it has no precedent. But the Holy Ghost, "the development of eternal Life, Truth, and Love," holds the solution. Let us remember that the influx of light can be sudden, as it was with our Leader; but if this is to be experienced, our lives must grow in the stature of Christliness.
Paul wrote to Timothy (I Tim. 6:20), "O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called." And Mrs. Eddy throughout her inspired writings is virtually pleading with each one of us to keep pure the Science which is committed to his trust.
The enemy may whisper, "You don't understand enough to counteract the subtle attacks of evil and to maintain the prosperity of our Cause." Are we listening to this falsity? Or have we received the Holy Ghost? Are we ready for the influx of Pentecostal glory? It is at our door. Let us cleanse our hearts in the baptism of Spirit and open our eyes to behold this glory. No defiance of materialism, no barrier of language, nationality, creed, or race, can stop the irresistible spiritual power which is divine Science, "the ever-present reign of harmony, already with us," the universal advent of the Holy Ghost.
