Article July 29, 1916 Issue

The Key to the Kingdom

JULIA S. KINNEY

We have in the word "Key," in the title of the Christian Science text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, an example of our Leader's accurate use of words. Had she employed the term commentary, she would have left the half untold, for while her work is a commentary, since it makes comments on the Scriptures, it is much more than this, because it reveals the divine Principle, through the apprehension of which the miracles recorded in the Bible were performed, so that conscientious students of this book may gain the power to overcome sin, disease, and discord by the same method as that which was employed by the Master.

Mrs. Eddy does not claim that the study of her works can be substituted for the study of the Scriptures. On the contrary, the first tenet of Christian Science (Science and Health, p. 497) very plainly states, “As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.” All that she does claim, a claim that cannot well be denied in the face of the multitude of witnesses ready to support it, is that the study of her book gives a new interest in and a practical understanding of the Scriptures. A key without the lock it fits is of as little use as are treasures locked in a safe to which there is no access. This little word “Key” in the title of the text-book expresses the dependence of right understanding upon the spiritual exposition, while at the same time denoting that spiritual power accompanies this right understanding.

The Scriptures bear record to the power possessed by Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, as well as other patriarchs and prophets. Jesus, whose works were even more marvelous than theirs, constantly reiterated the assertion that those who understood his teachings would possess the power he possessed to cast out the evils of disease and discord. Thus pondering the Scriptural records, Mrs. Eddy reached the conviction that if God is indeed omnipotent and omnipresent, then in reality evil can have neither place nor power. She also saw that material sense evidence, which declares for sin and disease, must be unreliable and untrue. By taking a firm stand on the side of God's omnipotence and aganist the false evidence of these senses, she was able to unlock the seemingly lost treasure of the Bible and restore its healing power.

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