Article January 16, 1915 Issue

Viewed in one way, the Bible contains a record of man's...

G. W. Allan

Ottawa (Ontario) Citizen

Viewed in one way, the Bible contains a record of man's growing concept of God. As the finite sense of Deity yielded its grosser elements, men's concept of God approached truth. We note in the Scriptures that God has been conceived to be a being of human form, a god of wrath, a warrior, a sovereign, a judge, and on in an ascending scale to John's revelation and Jesus' demonstration of God as Love. Human development in understanding is from the partial to the more inclusive truth, and it is only as we grasp the more inclusive truth that we realize the falsity of the former concept. While we held to the Ptolemaic theory in astronomy, we were blind to its limitations or falsities; but when we grasped and accepted the more inclusive truth of the Copernican theory, we saw not only the limitations of the former concept, but also the reason for our acceptance of it.

Even the casual reader of authorized Christian Science literature will early discover that God is therein defined, not as possessing the grosser elements of the carnal mind, but in terms expressing the highest qualities of which we are conscious, e.g., infinite Life, Truth, Love. It will be conceded here that there is no return to positions outgrown in the realm of religion, any more than in the realm of astronomy. When we grasp and accept the fact that God is Love, we realize the falsity of any lower concept of God, and could no more teach that lower concept as our religious belief than we could now teach the Ptolemaic theory as our understanding of astronomy.

It is being more generally recognized that "the one important interpretation of Scripture is the spiritual." Indeed, Mrs. Eddy goes farther and states, "Take away the spiritual signification of Scripture, and that compilation can do no more for mortals than can moonbeams to melt a river of ice" (Science and Health, pp. 320, 241). It is this "spiritual signification" of the Word, today made known through Christian Science, that is making the Bible an open and loved book to thousands who had cast it aside; a text-book for their daily study; a practical guide to their feet and a light to their path, and an inspiration in their warfare to lessen evil and disease. The study of the Bible with the aid of our text-book, which has proven itself a veritable "Key to the Scriptures," has reformed sinners and healed the sick in untold instances. The evidence of the "fruits" of Christian Science is now so abundant that any one desiring to be informed, cannot long remain in ignorance of either the quality of the fruit or the character of the tree.

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