For centuries, maps and charts have provided travelers and explorers the assurance of knowing where the boundaries of a territory are and what routes promise safe travel. They can also indicate what and where the hazards of the terrain or sea are and where safe havens can be found. They sometimes show paths that previous travelers have used to find their way out of dangerous areas. Drawing an analogy between such charts and the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health, "Acquaintance with the original texts, and willingness to give up human beliefs (established by hierarchies, and instigated sometimes by the worst passions of men), open the way for Christian Science to be understood, and make the Bible the chart of life, where the buoys and healing currents of Truth are pointed out." Science and Health, p. 24. The marginal note for this paragraph is "Life's healing currents."
The validity of this analogy has been proved in vivid ways for this writer, especially as he has tried to follow the way charted by Christ Jesus. The story, for instance, of Jesus' response to the Jews who brought to him an adulterous woman caught in the very act, has been particularly instructive. See John 8:1-11. After the scribes and Pharisees confronted Jesus with what they felt was convincing evidence and expert legal opinion on the requirements of the Mosaic law, Jesus acted "as though he heard them not." Jesus—the great teacher of the spiritual truths found in the Sermon on the Mount, the one who overthrew the money-changers' tables in the temple, the healer of the sick and injured, the one who clearly came in fulfillment of Scriptural prophecy—"stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground." It hardly seems an appropriate response. And yet, as the account points out, when the Jews pressed him, he was led to stand and speak a single sentence: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." Then he resumed his writing on the ground. The result: The accusers, convicted by their own conscience, departed from the scene; and the accused and Jesus were left standing alone. The report ends as Jesus lifts the accusation from the woman and sends her on her way with the guidance "Go, and sin no more."
What was Jesus thinking as he wrote on the ground? We can probably be certain that he was praying, perhaps with the prayer he had taught his disciples ("Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."). Or perhaps he was affirming, and rejoicing in, the spiritual truths ever at hand, always available to God's idea, man. We don't know exactly. What is certain is that he was keeping himself above the fray, demonstrating the authority of the Christ, which needed to be more clearly seen and felt in the situation. He did not become entangled in what was intended as a trap for him.
