THE BIBLE INTERPRETED

GERTRUDE SMITH.

Wyclif's translation of the Bible was not welcomed in England, and the New Testament passed through a trying ordeal when Tyndale interpreted it in English. The Government employed active agents to watch the seaports of England and seize every copy; and all that were found were promptly burned. For years after the English translation, the reading or even the possession of a Bible was "prohibited on the pain of death;" but divine Love overruled the savagery of carnal mind, and the Bible became in time the spiritual guide-book of the Englishspeaking world.

The Holy Bible! Our hearts stand still in contemplation of what this earth would be if bereft of the godly influence of the "Book of books." Above the chaos of creeds human opinions have neither lessened the utility of the Bible nor thwarted its purpose—it has shed a unifying light over all. Hundreds of books have been written about Christ Jesus; thousands of books have been written about the Bible; and does it seem strange in this enlightened day that the prayers of the Christian world for centuries should have been answered in still another book that exalts the Christ and pays highest tribute to the Bible? Not since the great bonfires of Bibles celebrated the translation of the Holy Scriptures into English has a book been written that has created the discussion, roused the prejudice, and brought forth such peans of gratitude as the little book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy.

Our hearts overflow with gratitude that God has sent a messenger to make the Bible more inspiring and help ful than ever before. Its portals are entered through "Prayer," and no earnest seeker for Truth can turn away from this first chapter of our text-book without a deep sense of the sacred quality of the book. The prayer of every Christian has been for a more perfect understanding of God, and how to assimilate and make the life of Christ Jesus his own. It has always been a wonder to the human mind that the child of God should be a creature torn by conflicting desires and impulses. For consolation in their bewilderment men have looked forward to death—and death, though fought against with every known material. means, has after all been considered the entrance into heaven, an eternity with God and the angels.

We are told that there were poor yeomen so anxious to obtain the Word of God at the time of Wyclif's translation, that they willingly bartered a load of hay for a few chapters of St. Paul! And what shall we barter for a scientific understanding of this one statement of the Master? "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." Science and Health has startled the world and moved the materially minded to rage by the denial of matter. Let us barter a moment of clear thinking for this verse from St. Paul: "Henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more." If man is not to be known after the flesh,—matter, material sense,—how is he to be known?

Throughout Mrs. Eddy's interpretation of the Bible we find unmistakable evidence of her adoration of the Christ. Much is made of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, and his triumphant exit from mortal view is extolled. There can be no thought, after an unprejudiced study of Science and Health, that its author is seeking to give a demonstrable interpretation of the Bible. She has simply thrown upon its sacred pages the clear light of her spiritual understanding, and revealed what has ever been the healing of the nations—the Mind of Christ. In Science and Health thought is constantly turned from the body, the material sense of things, to God. The student is emphatically shown that to look away from the body we must have the Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus," be concerned with that which is spiritual only. Gradually, through a clearer understanding of God, matter is seen to be unreal and temporal, or nothing to the Christlike thought.

Many who are still in the bondage of materiality are beginning to raise their heads and listen to the rejoicings of those who have been healed through the study of this wondrous book. The applied teaching of its interpretation of Scripture is blowing the trumpet in Zion; the Bible is being loved and studied as never before. The bonfires of prejudice and ignorance may flame up for a time, but they cannot destroy the truth. "The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." and the scientific interpretation of the Bible is showing the gathering thousands in the Christian Science churches "the tree of life."

Three names are given to a man; one by his parents, another by the world, and the third by his works—the one which is written in the immortal book of his fate. Which of these three names is the best? Solomon teaches us. when he says: "A good name is better than the sweetest oil."—The Talmud.

You are not simply a reservoir' into which so much truth, goodness, greatness, is to be poured, there to remain forever. You are a channel through which God-is transmitting His life and love to other men. That you are, or you are nothing.—J. F. Dutton.

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