Article September 16, 1916 Issue

Steps on the Way

ELOISE INGALLS COOPER

My father's faithful watchfulness and constant, loving care of me as a little child, and all through the varied experiences of girlhood, would have left to memory a precious legacy but for one thing. As a minister he followed conscientiously the teachings of the Bible, guided by theological training; but the creed and dogma of his church made it a necessity for him never to fail in pointing out the constant danger of one's becoming an inhabitant of hell if his steps strayed in the least from the faith. Such teaching discolored all things, and brought such fear that for many years the Bible was rarely opened by me with any thought of comfort to be found within its pages.

Then there came to me a message of hope, brought to all mankind through one who expressed purity, love, meekness, and unselfishness, who with rarest bravery toiled year after year to give the world a "Key to the Scriptures" fashioned without a flaw, a key that can be grasped by the hand of the full grown man and by the tiny fingers of the lisping child as well. With it each can unlock the bounteous treasures of the Bible. Through Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, we have learned that each statement of the ancient Word is for us today in proportion as our spiritual perception is ready to receive it.

Well may we listen to the words of the beloved John when on the isle of Patmos the Spirit spoke through him, as we are told in the book of Revelation. He says, "I heard a loud voice saying in heaven." To his consecrated ear Truth could sound as "a loud voice" which to us could be heard only as a faintest whisper, if at all, for mortals know not the heaven or harmony which he had won by a love that never swerved. Part of the message reads, "Now is come salvation," which implies cleanliness in every thought, until purity of heart shall see Life, Truth, and Love as an eternal presence with us everywhere. Salvation wipes out all that is unlike God, and we are borne into a realization, even though faint at first, of Christ, "the divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error" (Science and Health, p. 583). Then we hear, as did John, these words: "For the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night."

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