A Wondrous picture—seen through the eyes of a mighty oriental king—is set forth in the Bible in the third chapter of Daniel. The king, Nebuchadnezzar, pagan and materialistic in his thinking, looked into a burning, fiery furnace, heated at his command seven times more than its usual heat, and saw through the flames the three Hebrews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, whom he had ordered cast into the furnace. According to the Bible, "The king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? ... Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."
The king's countenance, which moments before had been filled with rage toward the young men because they had refused to worship his god, was now lighted with awe and reverence. He had caught a glimpse of the Christ, the healing and saving power of God! To Nebuchadnezzar's materialistic thought, the Christ seemed to appear in the form of a man; at least, Nebuchadnezzar so expressed it to those around him. The words he used mattered little. He had recognized the presence of a holy, divine, redeeming power that was greater than any power he had ever before known; and he hastened to free the three Hebrews and to promote them to positions of honor and respect in his kingdom.
The Christ presence, which Nebuchadnezzar glimpsed so many centuries ago, is present with each one of us today to save and heal. One needs only to understand God and trust in Him with all his heart—as did the three Hebrews—to experience this redeeming power in his life. Mrs. Eddy has brought the revelation of the Christ, Truth, to this age so that all mankind may better understand God and prove for themselves the redemptive power of the Christ. In Science and Health she defines "Christ" as "the divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error" (p. 583).
