Article October 2, 1909 Issue

THE PRISM OF SCIENCE

WINIFRED ROOT

It must early strike even the superficial reader of the Christian Science text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," with what a wealth of metaphor and illustration its statement of truth is made—a statement which its author, Mrs. Eddy, has embodied in condensed but complete form in the eleven pages of text known as the "platform" of Christian Science (Science and Health, pp. 330-340), but which she has expanded and enriched to the extent of a volume of six hundred pages. Such resource of expression and definition, in its great variety cannot fail and has not failed to touch at some point every type of seeking thought. A more extended study of the letter of this Science soon discloses the pregnant value of each noun and adjective in its place and connection, revealing a veritable "new tongue." One loses the mere sense of the aptness of the figure or illustration in the spiritual intent expressed through the exact meaning of the words chosen.

In countless passages of the Bible and the writings of our Leader the word "light" is used as a symbol of spiritual truth. We read in the first epistle of John: "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all;" and the same writer defines the Christ as "the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Through an understanding illuminated by this ever-present light of truth, Mrs. Eddy has elucidated through her works the means by which mortals may awaken to and find harmony in the spiritual facts of existence which the Christ Science reveals. She says, "In divine Science ... God is revealed as infinite light. In the eternal Mind, no night is there." And further: "To mortal sense Science seems at first obscure, abstract, and dark; but a bright promise crowns its brow. When understood, it is Truth's prism and praise" (Science and Health, pp. 511, 558).

What is humanity's great need? To heed the "rainbow promise" contained in Jesus' words and works, and in patience and perseverance to use the "prism" of Christian Science in studying their purport, their application to daily wants and experience. To the unassisted human eye the sun's light seems to be simply a blinding white; but when its rays are divided by the triangular glass prism seven glowing colors appear, with tremulous suggestion of a yet greater gamut of beauty which the human sense is too dull to perceive. The white light of divine Mind illumines the universe, and is constant, unchanging, unclouded, and though mortals are blinded to this vital fact by their belief in darkness and chaos—light's opposite, by their belief in matter and sin—Life's opposite, the word is given by the psalmist that "in thy light shall we see light."

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