The great interest about the Bible is that it is the inspired utterance of Spirit, as well as the book of truth about human nature and human experience. The people in the Bible lived hundreds and thousands of years ago; perhaps they never lived under the familiar names by which we know them to-day, but their physical identity is immaterial, for what really is of value is their characteristics and the sort of lives they led and the kind of thoughts they had, and above all the experiences they passed through. Human need was the same then as now. There was never a moment then, as there has never been a moment in the intervening centuries, when men did not find their only real comfort and existence in some realization of the fact that man is the beloved child of God.
In the twentieth chapter of II Kings we read of an occasion when King Hezekiah felt "sick unto death," and in his extremity the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz, comes to him. When we remember what a very great and holy man Isaiah was that he was profoundly concerned with the history of Israel and Judah and that he exerted the greatest spiritual influence of his time in leading the nation back to the worship of God, we may conclude that Hezekiah had renounced the medical help of the period and was calling upon Isaiah's knowledge of Truth and Life to help him. Isaiah represented the very highest source of spiritual strength on which he thought he could rely. And what did this friend and guide say to him? "Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die and not live." These words must have sounded most desperately hard to Hezekiah. He must have felt that the man he expected to receive comfort and hope from, had failed him most miserably. There was no reminder of God's loving presence, no mention of His power to heal and to save, no assurance of the Father's perpetual goodness and mercy. Isaiah, the great prophet, the inspired teacher, the sublime poet, was at that particular moment of no more comfort than any ordinary worldling who had never heard of God at all. Moreover, he was pronouncing an awful doom and asserting the necessity and reality of death in a way which must have made poor Hezekiah feel a hundred times more sick than he did before. Small wonder that he "turned his face to the wall," that he turned away from the human person, and clung, in his extremity to God alone.
The story is a very old one but the circumstances are repeated afresh in modern life, alas, very often. To many of us perhaps, have come times of stress and difficulty which were rendered a thousand times more unendurable by one we relied on for spiritual light and encouragement suddenly failing us completely and throwing us still more deeply into the dark mists of erroneous belief. We can understand every throb of Hezekiah's heart as he lay there with his face to the wall, struggling alone for victory over grief and the grave, protesting with his whole being that he had always loved good and truth, that he had always tried to do right, that now, surely, goodness and truth would not desert him, that because God is good, God would save him.
Then a beautiful thing happened. As Isaiah was crossing the middle court he was arrested by a sudden idea, a new viewpoint, a something that made him retrace his steps and return to the king's room with a true and Godlike message for the sufferer: "Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee."
"I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee." This is the God we know in Christian Science, constant, ever present, unchanging Love, who will never forsake us, never condemn us, never withhold from us the power and opportunity to make a complete recovery from every ill. This is the true God, worth relying on. We may safely turn away from every human creature to infinite Mind's sustaining power. Every earthly prop may fail us, but God will never fail. How does God see our tears? He sees them by unseeing them! What God sees is not our broken hearts and our pain and despair, but the divine Mind sees man in Mind's own image and likeness, outlined in full perfection of being. Mind sees man with every need met and satisfied, rejoicing intelligently in the beauty and perfect adjustment of Mind's handiwork. Mind knows all the time that nothing has ever robbed or injured perfect idea or caused it to suffer, for there has never been a moment when identity is not embraced in the abundance of Love, and God knows that He is all the Love there is and that He is pouring it out in protection and understanding and communion all the time. Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings," page 102: "The sympathy of His eternal Mind is fully expressed in divine Science, which blots out all our iniquities and heals all our diseases. Human pity often brings pain. Science supports harmony, denies suffering, and destroys it with the divinity of Truth."
What then is the link between the unreal state of mortal mind that is wounded and suffering, and true consciousness which is spiritual wholeness and happiness? There is no link, but the very act of turning to God, the very cry for help is in itself a presupposition that help can be forthcoming. "I have seen thy tears," is a human statement of the fact that if we turn to divine Love, the realization comes that Love is with us in tenderness, and mercy, all the while. And when Love heals, it is complete healing.
It is certain that a fearless point of view which claims more of Spirit and less of matter, more of the infinite and all-inclusive, and less of the personally possessive and limited, will break the mesmerism of all human problems. Many are willing to theorize to this effect, but we should be willing to stand up and take the necessary steps that help to establish higher conceptions of living in line with progress, and prove the development of the spiritual idea in every walk of daily affairs. Mind's idea, reflecting good, is not selfish, timorous, or self-absorbed. This truth seen and maintained will reverse any seeming material evidence to the contrary. As dew softly melts away when the gracious, glowing sun shines out in kind glory over woods and fields, so will our woes disappear and the fierce tumult of heart and brain be stilled as the sunshine of divine Love's presence remains with us in healing and peace, when God has "seen our tears." Then when some noble man or woman is battling with the world, the flesh, and the devil, we shall stand by and hold aloft the lantern of the word of Truth, the unreality of evil, the allness of divine Love, as a light upon the path.
