Editorial November 2, 1912 Issue

"OUR ONLY PREACHERS."

Annie M. Knott

ALL students of Christian Science are familiar with the words of the "explanatory note" found on page 4 of our Quarterly, and read at every Sunday service before the Lesson-Sermon begins. It commences with the statement: "The Bible and the Christian Science text-book are our only preachers." In the Manual of The Mother Church we read that "the correlative Biblical texts in the Lesson-Sermon shall extend from Genesis to Revelation" (Article XIV, Sect. 2), and it is hardly necessary to tell Christian Scientists that the inauguration of this form of service has brought about the most painstaking and thorough study of the Scriptures ever undertaken by any body of Christian people, the healing and reformatory effects of which cannot be overestimated. Nothing could be more touching than the testimonies which tell of sorrowful experiences, of long years of suffering, and, saddest of all, of waning faith in God because of failure to find in the Bible, as ordinarily interpreted, the way to Him. Then we are told of the great change,—the awakening to Life and light, the healing, and the opening up of the Word of God, which is no longer to them the letter that "killeth," but the spirit which "giveth life."

Those healed in Christian Science with few exceptions become students of its text-book, and devote daily a portion of the time once given to toil for "the meat which perisheth," to a search for "the living bread" which the Master declared would give life unto the world; nor do they seek in vain, for in Science and Health they have the "key" which opens up to them the rich treasures of the Word, and the better the student comes to know the Bible the more he loves it. Our revered Leader says, "The Scriptures are very sacred. Our aim must be to have them understood spiritually, for only by this understanding can truth be gained" (Science and Health, p. 547). Until this sense is gained the Bible appears to be full of contradictions, even the words of Christ Jesus is materially interpreted would appear to be so; as, for instance, when he said that not a jot or tittle should pass from the law till all was fulfilled. Then we find him citing certain portions of the law, and adding, "But I say unto you," etc., which to material sense would seem a denial of the law's authority, but when spiritually understood the words conveyed a demand so high that only through spiritual sense could humanity respond to it.

It should never be forgotten by students of the Lesson-Sermons that the purpose of these Lessons is to illuminate all human experience, to light the way, as it were, from sense to Soul, and to this end the entire Bible is brought into requistion—not alone those passages which are obvi ously in line with the teachings of Christian Science, but the whole record of human experience, because it serves to illustrate the struggles of mortals under the heavy burden of belief in materiality and in the asserted power of evil. Mrs. Eddy makes this clear on pages 501-502 of Science and Health, and if a student of the Lesson is ever in doubt as to the use of certain texts, he will find it very helpful to read these pages and note her statement that "the crude forms of human thought take on higher symbols and significations, when scientifically Christian views of the universe appear."

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial

SCIENCE AND DOGMATISM