Article May 1, 1915 Issue

True Understanding

KATE W. BUCK

To possess spiritual understanding is to find one's self in touch with that which is wholly mental, and therefore spiritual, eternal, and complete. The creative Mind expressed in its ideas, each idea being complete in itself, is wholeness, entirety, rhythm, and unity, "God and His creation, harmonious and eternal" (Science and Health, p. 472). To come into some realization of this is spiritual understanding, for since Mind, the creator, is Spirit, then all Mind's ideas must be spiritual and cannot be anything else; consequently, spiritual understanding is the only true understanding there is.

Many people when beginning the study of Christian Science are in the habit of wanting first everything else there is to have which seems good, without giving much thought to the spiritual side of things. When they glimpse even faintly the great truth for which it stands, they come to realize that there is something to ask for that is higher, perhaps, than anything they had ever dreamed of, namely, spiritual understanding.

Awakening to this need, their next thought is how to get it, and more or less earnestly they seek for it. To desire is certainly the first step, but with that goes the admonition, "Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." It takes some of us a long time really to know just what that means. Some will say, "I do want spiritual understanding above all things else, because I know it is the only thing worth while," but even so, they are not willing to seek "first the kingdom of God." Still looking for happiness in material things, and very busy about it, they do everything else first, and then, if there is time, it may be at the tag end of the day, they study or read the word through which alone this blessed understanding comes. Going on in this way for a while, they wonder why their needs are not more quickly met, and this sometimes continues until, weary of waiting for what seem delayed blessings, sick of material attractions, disappointed at every turn in their fruitless search for happiness among the "flesh pots," they at last cry out, baffled and confused, "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him."

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