Several days each week I serve in the Reading Room of my branch church in New York City. We're in a university neighborhood, and many of the residents around us attend the university. In a school setting, I've often found that college students and faculty members love to wrestle with ontological questions and are sincerely seeking answers to the deeper question of life. They are frankly curious about Christian Science, and they stop in with the most interesting questions. Serving here requires a lot of quiet alertness and spiritual listening.
Recently we had a visit from a woman who has been studying Christian Science during the past year. She explained that Christian Science was answering many of her questions about spirituality and helping her with physical problems. Nonetheless, she said that she was reluctant to part with her past experience as a biologist. She confessed, "I love biology. It is so fascinating. There are so many colorful life forms. How could I give up paramecia?"
A phrase immediately came to my thought"... the teeming universe of Mind." Turning to the Concordance to Mary Baker Eddy's writings, I found the entire passage in which these words appear in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. The statement reads in full: "Advancing spiritual steps in the teeming universe of Mind lead on to spiritual spheres and exalted beings." Science and Health, p. 513
