Micawber, that embodiment of empty, unreasoning optimism, is probably one of the better known of Dickens' characters, doubtless because the habit of always expecting to find the longed-for good around the next corner is a state of mind with which most of us are familiar. "I shall be better off next month, next year; one fine day my ship will come home and I shall know security; I shall feel better tomorrow"; and so forth. Many of us indulge this sort of thinking before a knowledge of Christian Science opens our eyes to recognize the presence of God, good, right here and now.
Bible scholars have pointed out that the ancient Hebrew prophets, whose conception of Deity and thus of spiritual reality was far in advance of their times, occasionally spoke in the past tense of some desired objective as if it had already been provided long before its manifestation was humanly perceived. This, we are told, was their method of conveying their absolute certainty of fulfillment.
For instance, Cruden points out that the Sanctuary referred to in Exodus 15:17 as already established was not built at the time those words were uttered by Moses. Only many years later were the plans for the building of the Sanctuary conceived and directed as they unfolded to human comprehension. But the prophet had spiritually discerned that they had always existed as a spiritual idea in divine Mind.
