"LINE UPON LINE"

John B. Willis

No fact respecting the truth is more interesting than this, that it is always fresh and new, it does not grow insipid, and it does not tire. If its reiteration becomes wearisome and begets a sense of being bored, the explanation is found in this, that we have not heard it as truth, but only as an oft-repeated statement, a mere succession of words. Indeed, to those who apprehend it as true the truth cannot be "repeated," for the reason that at every hearing something more of its inexhaustible content is communicated; and though we may have entertained it a thousand times, we have occasion to say, when it again enters the door of thought, "Why! it never appeared to me just like this before." Another facet of the jewel has been turned our way, and another flash of divine light has rewarded our gaze.

To human perception the radiations of infinite Truth are sadly obscured by the veil of material belief; nevertheless, their ever-new glories are disclosed, these "fresh-panoplied spring days," in a way that brings unmeasured delight. Though we have wondered and admired as we studied the veining and structure of a thousand leaves, the next we observe is none the less absorbing in its revelations of wisdom and of beauty; though we have delighted in the form and fragrance of a thousand roses, the next we pluck will seem all the more splendid and captivating, and we thus come to realize that in the measure of our responsiveness to its appeal every glimpse of the manifestation of Truth brings unfailing refreshment and joy.

All this has a very deep and practical significance to our spiritual life, since its continuous nourishment thus comes to afford us continuous pleasure. The discovery day by day of new values in the truths we have demonstrated, increases their welcome to our thought, and the companionship grows ever more gladdening and helpful. Our pleasures are thus enlisted in the interest of our need, and the most favorable possible conditions for growth are secured. The reiterated statements of truth now crowd upon us only as the flowers overflow our garden walks; their wealth of beauty and of fragrance is our exceeding joy, and we follow the familiar pages of the Bible as we would follow an ascending path which ever and anon opens up to us new and entrancing views. Our possible discomforts are lost sight of in exalted thought, and all sense of duty as an impelling force is forgotten in our embrace of a quickening privilege. We have learned what it is to delight in "the law of the Lord," and to rejoice in "the God of our salvation."

Further significance attaches to our appreciative welcome of the reiterations of truth in this, that the unconscious or subconscious realm of mentality, the realm of inherited and acquired material beliefs of which we are but half sensible or quite ignorant, but which in so large a part determine the physical conditions of all who are not spiritually alert,—this entire realm must be subjected to the rule of the right idea. Its every stronghold must be assaulted, its every asserted power overthrown, so that Christ may reign "in all the earth" of human sense, and harmony be established in the entire domain of human experience, "as in heaven."

Christian Scientists have not failed to divine in this connection the educational and corrective significance of Mrs. Eddy's provision of the Lesson Sermons. In their reiterated declarations of truth, their "line upon line" and "precept upon precept" of spiritual didactics, they beget and foster the habit of opening thought to that healing and redemptive "Word" which, when received in good and honest hearts, effects the renewal of the mind, the dethronement and expulsion of false sense. This is the achievement set before every aspiring soul, and Christ Jesus points the way when he says, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock,"—yes, at every door and at every moment Christ, Truth, would enter the channels and corridors of thought, that they may be cleansed and beautified until in the fullest and completest sense consciousness has become a "temple of the living God."

John B. Willis.

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