Article January 15, 1910 Issue

HOW GOD SPEAKS TO MEN

E. D. DALE.

It is claimed by many religious teachers that the Scriptures are the only revelation of God to humanity; that the divine Mind is expressed only through the book which we call the Bible. This teaching has been and is a stumbling-block to many students who are sincere seekers after truth. No one, however, claims that those who determined the canonicity of the Scriptures were in any special way inspired, hence their decisions cannot be held to fix the bounds of inspiration. The central purpose of the Bible is to give men a revelation of God, to help them in the attainment of a knowledge of Him whom, as we are taught in Christian Science, "to know aright is Life eternal" (Science and Health, Pref., p. vii.). Divine provision is made for this admitted need by a continuous unfolding of God's spiritual creation, which those who are spiritually alert are able to comprehend and interpret correctly, though to many "the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."

In the epistle to the Hebrews we read: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son." God had spoken not alone through the human Jesus, but through the Christ, the spiritual idea, of whom Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I am." Before the canon of Scripture began to be written, God had spoken to men. He spoke to Moses "face to face," on delivering the tables of stone, and all who read those wonderful commandments with the new understanding gained by the study of the Bible and of Science and Health will testify that, like the disciples on the way to Emmaus, their hearts have burned within them as they listened to the voice from heaven that talked with them.

God and His Christ are "the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." Divine Truth is speaking to us now through the "still small voice," but too often our dull ears fail to catch the harmony of the heavenly voice. God speaks to us through His creation. The flowers teach us of His love, the stars instruct us in His wisdom. The message of the hills, the rivers, the sky, should not be meaningless to us. In the blade of grass is revealed the law that governs the universe; the harvest-fields testify to His bounty, and the tree that "bringeth forth his fruit in his season." The psalmist says: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge;" and Job declared that the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, the fishes in the sea,—all the earth,—testify "that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this."

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