Article October 31, 1936 Issue

"Isles of sweet refreshment"

LAURA BROWN CROWELL

One of the great instances of healing in the New Testament is recorded in the third chapter of Acts. Peter and John went together to the temple at the hour of prayer, and as they approached the gate which was called "Beautiful," a lame man, crippled from birth, asked alms of them. Now Peter and John had naught of earthly riches to give this cripple, but they did possess much wealth of a spiritual nature, and this substance they shared so effectually that the lame man, "leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, ... praising God." On page574 of the Christian Science textbook our dear Leader writes, "The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares."

One of the definitions of the word "cripple" is interesting to note. According to Webster, it means "to deprive of strength, activity, or capability for service." How many of us can remember when we seemed to be crippled, deprived of the strength of spiritual refreshment, lost in material activity, incapable of serving the true God; when in our life experience the minor chords jangled unceasingly, and above the clamor and strife about us were heard the first faint strains of Truth? Then we too were at the gate Beautiful, for when the Christ, Truth, comes to an honest and loving thought in the dawning understanding of perfect God and perfect man, then indeed is one approaching the sanctuary of spiritual consciousness, the harmony and freedom, the activity and spontaneity, of the ever-operative spiritual law of God, good.

"The Lord is my shepherd," sings the Psalmist. "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters." The words of the twenty-third Psalm have brought comfort and refreshment to countless seekers for Truth throughout the ages. A scientific understanding of this beautiful hymn of praise renders it practical as a basis for healing and demonstration. Our Leader has substituted the word "love" to make the spiritual meaning clearer (Science and Health, p. 578). Love is one of the synonyms for God in Christian Science. When we accept God as Love, we turn away from any previous concept we may have erroneously entertained about Deity, and rise in consciousness to behold the divine attributes of our Father-Mother, God. Even from a human standpoint, the word "love" signifies tender care, affection, and protection. Discerned spiritually as God, Love is ineffable, infinite. A human parent loves his child dearly, but Jesus, in speaking of such love, asked, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"

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