Once we've tasted spiritual inspiration, we never want to lose it.
Inspiration enables us to break out of belief in constrictive material life and projects us into the awareness of infinite Spirit. Inspiration—the realization and feeling of spiritual truth—is invaluable. And it's more available than the air we breathe, for it's as infinite as Spirit, its source. Inspiration is unfading because it is of God and is prospered and protected by Him.
We enjoy more inspiration, and enjoy it more consistently, as we realize it is the evidence of the presence of spiritual consciousness rather than a fluctuating state of human thought. True consciousness is as omnipresent and eternal as divine Mind, for these are inseparable.
So long as we think spiritual inspiration is a personal possession and merely a particular state of human mentality—a religious "high"—it is open to leakage. Looked at through the shimmering haze of personal sense, inspiration seems to appear and disappear. It may even be replaced by depression or desolation.
But through Science we can see it as the steady light of Spirit, belonging to Spirit and as omnipresent as Spirit. Then we experience that inexpressibly wonderful event that Mary Baker Eddy describes succinctly in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "Inspired thought relinquishes a material, sensual, and mortal theory of the universe, and adopts the spiritual and immortal." Science and Health, p. 547; In context this statement relates to the understanding of the spiritual essence of the Bible, but unquestionably it is just as valid in reference to our whole sense of being.
To relinquish "a material, sensual, and mortal theory of the universe" and take on a spiritually scientific outlook! What a difference this makes! We gaze on new vistas of reality and launch into tremendous progress. We realize the possibilities of metaphysical healing. We heal more successfully, consistently, quickly. We ourselves are healed and regenerated with immediacy and thoroughness. A surge of genuine inspiration, leading us to adopt immortal being as the only kind of existence, can at once snap the cords binding us to even the most resistant diseases or difficulties.
If we're hammering away ineffectually at some problem, we should stop and let in healing inspiration. We have a divine right to it. Inspiration pierces the illusory armor that would conceal and protect mortal belief, nullifying our metaphysical treatment by deflecting it. And when we cease battering at mortal belief by aligning ourselves with the Christ—Spirit's luminous power and presence—healing is inevitable, as the work of Christ Jesus confirms.
What we would describe as our own apprehension of God is proof of the presence of omniscient Mind, Mind knowing all true being. Hence inspired consciousness can never pale and fade, waver and die.
The scientific themes of the Bible evidence the inspiration of their authors, and inspiration is required to identify those themes and to demonstrate their truth. Mrs. Eddy's inspired understanding of the Bible and its pervasive Science is strongly evident in the Glossary of Science and Health. For instance, the prophet writes of his God-outlined purpose: "To comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified." Isa. 61:2, 3; (Incidentally, what a graphic description of the potential of spiritual inspiration!)
The implication is that those who are desolate can be brought the inspiration of real being. Having only a material and mortal sense of purpose and being, we might well feel desolate and empty. But to take on a spiritually scientific sense is to enjoy unlimited spiritual power. And these practical facts, in the background of this and similar passages referring to Zion, are consonant with Mrs. Eddy's explanation of "Zion": "Spiritual foundation and superstructure; inspiration; spiritual strength. Emptiness; unfaithfulness; desolation."Science and Health, p. 599.
Mrs. Eddy's own writings need inspiration to be understood. They may not seem comprehensible to the individual who is not in the least willing to drop some of his stereotypes and his conventional sense of man and existence. But real open-mindedness perceives both the strong spiritual logic and the practicality of those writings.
For example, Science and Health contains a lucid and compelling discussion of the dreamlike nature of material existence (see p. 250). Read and understood with inspiration, this can give us the basis of an entirely fresh way of thinking and a far more dominion-filled approach to life. Mrs. Eddy writes there, "Upon this stage of existence goes on the dance of mortal mind."
What practical results follow from realizing we don't have to set up a stage of consent to a fake dream existence, on which "the dance of mortal mind" can take place! Inspiration might lead us to see, on pondering this statement more deeply, that because there is no mortal man, no mortal existence, no mortal misconception in the allness of God, good, then we don't actually have the capacity to make place for or suffer from "the dance of mortal mind." Our real being is the expression of immortal Mind.
Through inspiration—the willingness to open your thought to scientific being—you can find immeasurable satisfaction and joy, beginning here and now. Christian Science can show how this inspiration is accessible to you.
