Article September 30, 1916 Issue

Spiritual Discernment

FLORENCE DAVIS KELLER

WHEN Jesus healed the man born blind he made it clear that material eyes are not "the works of God." On page 505 of Science and Health we read that "spiritual sense is the discernment of spiritual good." Mortals believe that sight is dependent upon the eyes, although they admit without question that it is the mind which discerns, interprets, selects, or classifies the myriad impressions received from the world in which they live. Even in the realm of physical science, so called, it is held that the mind sees and hears, that all else is blind and deaf.

Christian Science, restating the pure Christ-teaching, not only accepts the works of Jesus as a basis for present possibilities, but tells how his works were accomplished. That Jesus should be superior to the whole belief of mind in matter has throughout the ages been accepted as logical, since he was believed to be endowed with special power from on high to perform miracles; but as humanity learns through Christian Science that this power was the understanding of an absolute Science with a perfect Principle and perfect rules for demonstrating this Principle, then the works of Jesus are seen in a new light,—a light which illumines the whole consciousness and, furthermore, presents practical proof in healing the ills of the flesh.

In the degree that Christian Science instructs the thought, uplifting and purifying it, in just that degree is the testimony of the so-called senses corrected with spiritual discernment. Spiritual discernment is the discernment of spiritual reality. The joy, the peace, the love, the harmony, the abundance of all good which enters one's experience, rests not at all upon the illusions of the five physical senses, but with the discernment of spiritual being. Spiritual discernment is the ability to see the truth respecting whatever enters one's consciousness, and to think rightly is to demonstrate the rule of Christian Science according to its divine Principle. We may, then, say of sight that it is normal and perfect in the degree that it is governed by spiritual discernment. The same may be said of hearing, tasting, smelling, touching.

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