Editorial December 19, 1908 Issue

"THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH"

Annie M. Knott

Toward the close of Jesus' personal ministry he told his students that they need have no regrets because of his departure from their plane of experience, because the Father would send to them "another Comforter," who was to abide with them forever. Never had sick and sorrowing humanity known such comfort as the Master had brought to those who groped in the darkness of material belief, seeking vainly, as it seemed, for the much-needed light. What experiences were those of the three years' ministry, when the joy of healing was brought to the lame, the halt, and the blind, when even the dark shadow of death was dispelled in proof that man has eternal life! Was it strange the disciples shrank from parting with the one who could work these wonders and who was teaching them how they were to do the same, and even "greater works."

Had Jesus' departure meant that the healing work and the knowledge it required were to be lost to humanity, his followers might well have been sorrowful, but the Master said they had no cause for sorrow, that "the Spirit of truth" would not only be their Comforter, but, said Jesus, "he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." What tremendous possibilities lie in that "whatsoever I have said"! Nothing of all the Master's wonderful teaching to be lost, but all it contained and all it implied to be revealed by the Spirit of truth. What more could humanity ask?

That this promise of the Master was ripe for fulfilment we learn from the book of Acts, in which we are told of the continuance for many years of the glorious ministry inaugurated by him; but, sad to tell, the time came when personal opinions were sought rather than the guidance of the Spirit of truth, until at length the "signs" which Jesus said should "follow them that believe" were replaced by creed and dogma that offered no proof of divine origin. But the need for the healing truth did not lessen with the coming centuries, and again it was met when Mrs. Eddy discovered the divine Principle of Christ Jesus' work and declared to the world that the Spirit of truth would lead us into all truth and enable us to repeat the demonstrations of that earlier day. Her statements have been supported by the healing of unnumbered thousands of otherwise hopeless sufferers in over forty years' experience, upon which God has set His seal in uplifted and purified lives and in the fact that the Holy Scriptures are again opened up and the hungry find therein the bread which giveth life unto the world.

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