Article March 22, 1919 Issue

The Word

FRANCES MACK MANN

The apostle John begins his gospel with the wonderful declaration of the divine nature of the Word: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." In Chaldaic this Word was called Memra, and in the Hebrew, Messiah. All of the miracles in the book of Exodus were accredited to this Messiah. It was the Word that created the world; that appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai, to Abraham in the plain of Mamre, and to Jacob at Bethel. In what was called the "Breeches Bible," published more than three hundred years ago, we read, "All things were made by it [the Word] and without it was made nothing that was made. In it was the life, and the life was the light of men." This use of the impersonal "it" conveys more clearly the original meaning of revelation.

Throughout the ages the Word has been given to men in various ways, as they were prepared to receive it. Many scholars believe that it was Apollos who wrote to the Hebrews, "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds." Notwithstanding the different times, peoples, and places through which the Word has been delivered to men, there is a golden chain, a spiritual unity, in the one grand idea of the final triumph of good in the affairs of men, running through the whole Bible.

Although the Bible, as it is translated to us, has come from an oriental people and therefore bears distinctly the stamp of oriental manner and speech, it rises above the local and temporal and, through a certain grasp of divine Principle, expresses Truth in an imagery that all people can understand. For this reason an innumerable company of human beings for thousands of years have lived, trusted, and hoped in the Word as thus revealed, and according to the measure of their spiritual understanding they have been guided by it in all their ways. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 363) Mrs. Eddy says, "The Bible is the learned man's masterpiece, the ignorant man's dictionary, the wise man's directory." When talking with the unbelieving Jews, Jesus said, "Search the scriptures;" and when praying for his disciples and all that should believe on him through their work, he said, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." Again, he declared that his prayers were heard always, and he proved this statement at the grave of Lazarus, showing that back of his utterances of truth was the eternal Word itself. The real individuality of Jesus is with us today as truly as it was present in the first century, thus his words and prayers are as dynamic with spiritual power now, when understood, as they were in the beginning of the Christian era.

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