Many today are longing for the restoration of health, financial security, home. In Science and Health we find the solution to this problem in these words of Mrs. Eddy's (p. 242): "Mere speculation or superstition appropriates no part of the divine vesture, while inspiration restores every part of the Christly garment of righteousness." Since it is inspiration which restores, we naturally want to know who is qualified to possess this inspiration and how this restoration is to be effected.
Thousands of years of ignorance, fear, false education, human theories, and vague conjectures have given no hint of men's access to the unchanging love of God. Time alone would never bring to one the understanding of spiritual being. Where, then, shall we find it?
Moses learned to talk with God, face to face, and was so inspired by his conscious awareness of His presence that he was able to lead an entire nation to the worship of the one true God. Jesus received his inspiration directly from communion with the Father. There were times when the multitude so clamored for his presence that he had to go apart for this communion with the Father; on more than one occasion he went up a mountain to pray.
We too need to take time and careful thought to resist mortal mind's persistent arguments of lack of time, of ability, of interest, and so on. The claims may seem different today from those which presented themselves to Jesus, but error is still the same. It would deprive us of our conscious oneness, or unity, with the Father, and this alone inspires us to do the works which Jesus did. Through his mighty works, he restored many to health and holiness, and he left instructions that his followers must do likewise.
When our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, was injured and not expected to recover, she asked for the Bible and found in it the inspiration which enabled her to recognize that the Principle of spiritual healing is as effective and available today as in Jesus' time. Under the impetus of this newfound inspiration she was immediately restored to health.
Inspiration is always found through acquaintance with God and through a conscious awareness of His presence. It requires of us humility, obedience, and willingness to let the Mind of Christ rule in our hearts and lives and take possession of and govern every detail of our human experience.
Since man is God's image and likeness and has never lost this status, what needs restoring? Surely not man! It is only the human concept of man which needs to be raised to the divine level. Being clothed with the Mind of Christ brings divine inspiration, restoring to anyone who seeks Truth the awareness of his true selfhood, ever at one with the Father.
Paul put it this way (II Cor. 5:1, 2): "We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven." This dissolving of our earthly house is not a human process but the giving up of the belief of man as being of the earth earthy. The raising of one's head above the mist of mortal belief brings the recognition through spiritual understanding and inspiration of the fact that man is now clothed with "the Christly garment of righteousness," being spiritual, perfect, complete.
Our house is our daily abiding place; therefore in order to experience the heavenly harmony of the Christ-idea, it is necessary that we dwell in the consciousness of the presence of the Christ, which destroys the beliefs of the human mind and ills of the flesh. If we are to receive the needed inspiration, two of the essentials are the willingness to have the divine will accomplished in and through us and the habit of daily listening for the Father's guidance through communion with Him, infinite good, divine Love. In Miscellany, Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 248), "Your highest inspiration is found nearest the divine Principle and nearest the scientific expression of Truth."
How grateful the student of Christian Science is for the understanding that daily inspiration is not a supernatural power or influence bestowed upon a few favored individuals! Inspiration is a divinely natural consequence of the application of the spiritual understanding gained through the daily study of the Bible and of our Leader's writings. Through this study we entertain the angels of God's presence. Spiritual intuitions, which divine Love has furnished for our guidance, are available to all who seek them.
As the children of Israel gathered manna daily, so we must seek fresh inspiration daily. Inspiration is not something which can be accumulated today and left over to meet the needs of tomorrow. Since Mind is constantly unfolding its own immortal ideas, these infinite ideas are always available, simply awaiting our utilization. Inspiration is the revelation of the Christ to human consciousness.
From the human standpoint, it would seem reasonable to suppose that whenever a physical claim is to be dispelled, it should be handled from the standpoint of the claim itself. We know, however, that the human standpoint is never a reliable starting point in our search for Truth. Since it is always a false concept of God and His creation which needs correcting, and not a physical condition or a person, the perfect remedy in every case is to seek fresh inspiration, which comes through the childlike humility that bows to the divine will and always looks to Truth to uncover and destroy any error.
This was clearly brought out in the experience of a Christian Science practitioner, who, in response to inspiration sought and applied, realized after effecting the healing of several cases of the same physical difficulty that in each case the ideas which divine Love had sent were widely varied. This was naturally so, since the need was to correct the false belief of each patient individually and not a physical condition of the body which in each instance seemed to be exactly the same.
The need is always to behold the perfect spiritual man. In one instance the study of the allegory, beginning on page 430 of Science and Health, concerning the trial of the man accused of having committed liver complaint met the need. In another, the universal belief of race hatred was handled on the basis stated by Paul that God "hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth" (Acts 17:26). In still another case the Bible admonition, "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils" (Isa. 2:22), was utilized.
Human opinion or advice is entirely inadequate to direct us, for it is based on the mortal sense testimony. Spiritual understanding of our true identity, as being one with divine Principle, God, inspires us to seek and to follow the infallible direction of Soul, whose resources are infinite.
Our God-inspired Leader was so imbued with this Christly inspiration through a joyful willingness to do the divine will, coupled with earnest prayers for wisdom to know His will, that she was able to bring to the world the much-needed revelation of the Science of the healing Christ. And in her Message to The Mother Church for 1902 she reminds us (p. 8): "The spiritually minded are inspired with tenderness, Truth, and Love. The life of Christ Jesus, his words and his deeds, demonstrate Love. We have no evidence of being Christian Scientists except we possess this inspiration, and its power to heal and to save."
