Editorial April 13, 1918 Issue

Scripture Study

Annie M. Knott

It was Christ Jesus who said, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." A thoughtful study of the gospels shows unmistakably that he himself was a most diligent student of the Old Testament, for we find that he constantly used its statements of truth in his work. It is also well to remember that in so doing he lifted thought above the material sense of the word and presented the spiritual demand which alone can bring out its fulfillment. He insisted that it was not enough to abstain from murder, but that hatred must be overcome, for otherwise the divine law would be broken; and he applied the same rule in the case of moral impurity, holding that nothing less than purity of heart really meant obedience to the law of God. In the twenty-first chapter of Matthew we find him making a strong demand for the spiritual healing which he declared to be the proof of the divine character of his ministry; and when the rulers asked by what authority he healed and taught the people, he answered first by a parable, and then pressed home its demand when he said: "Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?" There are perhaps very few who read these words in the one hundred and eighteenth psalm who readily relate them to the Christ-healing, but there is no other adequate interpretation for them.

It is becoming more generally known and more readily admitted that students of Christian Science love the Bible and seek in its teachings what the Master said we should find there, namely, eternal life; and students of Mrs. Eddy's writings cannot fail to notice that like him she was a close and careful student of the Bible. She herself tells us on page 109 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" that for three years after her discovery of the divine Principle of the Christ-healing she "searched the Scriptures and read little else;" and as a result of her study and demonstration of the truth found therein she says (p. 547), "The Scriptures are very sacred." At this point it is also well to remember her requirement concerning the work in the Christian Science Sunday school, as given in Article XX, Section 2, of the Manual of The Mother Church, where we read, "The Sabbath School children shall be taught the Scriptures." It goes without saying that the children should be taught the sacredness of the Scriptures, and they should see how great a value their teachers place upon the Bible because of their close acquaintance with it and because of the spirit which they manifest. We also find in the Manual a strict requirement that in their classes and associations teachers shall urge their students to study the Bible.

This appeal for a more careful study of the Scriptures does not point to so-called helps, although these are often found to be useful, but to the more earnest study of the Bible itself, and especially of the great characters presented therein, whose experiences show what is possible to the divine idea, God's man, in any age. Time was when only the learned could read the Bible, and that in a language unknown to any except scholars. Then came the day when the Scriptures were translated into English, but when there were so few copies to be had that one Bible often served the needs of a whole parish, and so it was chained in the church, where eager Truth seekers might go and read the book without taking it away. Now we have Bibles in almost every tongue, carrying to all people a message of the infinite goodness of God and the unvarying demands of divine law, which when understood and obeyed lead to health, harmony, and life.

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