Editorial February 14, 1914 Issue

"Lift up thine eyes"

John B. Willis

How illuminating and significant it would prove if one were able to discern the full content of the psalmist's exclamation when he cried, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills." To perceive all of the past and of the future for which it speaks, would be to look upon all that lies between the Bethlehem and the Olivet of spiritual consciousness.

Naturally the noblest, most radiant moment of any life is its moment of most exalted aspiration. Then the better self which is born, "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God," and which is so unintelligible to mortal sense, surges to the front, as in the instance of Paul's appeal to Agrippa, and one is likely to be accounted beside himself sometimes, as was the great apostle. Such moments in any life are of universal value, for they bring assurance of one's responsiveness to, if not at-one-ment with, Him who is speaking ever "by the mouth of his holy prophets." We thus come to know something of "the communion of the saints," and can have that daring "confidence toward God" which is the essential equipment for an effective ministry.

The Scriptures are replete with these windows that are "open ... toward Jerusalem," these outlooks upon that larger life whose horizon fades into the infinite. Through them, if we but lift our eyes, we may often gain a vision of the highlands of revelation that will enable us to interpret God, and nature, and history, and human life in a demonstrably right, and hence satisfying and saving way. This is the purpose and end of Christian Science, to spiritualize, "lift up," perception; to correct, beautify, and give healing power to thought. As Mrs. Eddy writes, "It is the spiritualization of thought and Christianization of daily life, ... which really attest the divine origin and operation of Christian Science" (Science and Health, p. 272).

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