Article June 28, 1919 Issue

"Enter into thy closet"

EDGAR S. NASH

Anyone who follows the testimonies of healing through Christian Science as printed in our various publications or as given in the Wednesday evening meetings, cannot fail to have noticed the frequency with which gratitude is expressed for a fuller knowledge of the Word of God through a study of Christian Science. And this unfoldment of the Scriptures is as grateful a surprise to the lifelong student of the Bible as to the one who is studying its pages for the first time. On page 320 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy declares, "The one important interpretation of Scripture is the spiritual." If the Bible is read solely with the spiritual interpretation kept in view, the Bible student will see familiar passages constantly illumined with a new light and well-known extracts glow with a deeper significance as he progresses in spiritual understanding. The beginner, as the beauties of the Scriptures unfold new visions to him daily, will wonder why no one told him before of the wealth of promise and inspiration contained in the Bible, at which many scoff and which in so many homes has fallen into disuse.

Early in his progress in Christian Science the pilgrim learns to look behind the mere words to find the spiritual interpretation, which Mrs. Eddy declared was of first importance and which she grasped to such a remarkable degree. An instance in point was unfolded to the writer recently, and is handed on in the hope that it may prove of as much inspiration and help to some one else as it did to him. In reading that part of the Sermon on the Mount in which the Way-shower gives direct instructions regarding prayer we find these words: "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet." In commenting on this passage Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 15), "The closet typifies the sanctuary of Spirit."

One dictionary defines sanctuary as "a sacred or consecrated place, a place where holy things are kept. A place of refuge, shelter, or protection." Now if we look back into the original Greek in which the gospel of Matthew was written we find that the word translated "closet" in the King James Version is the word tameion meaning "treasury, or storehouse." The same word is translated "storehouse" in the twenty-fourth verse of the twelfth chapter of Luke. It was the word commonly used by Xenophon and Aristotle for "storehouse;" while both Thucydides and Plato used this word with the meaning of "treasury." Recalling the original Greek word, with its real meaning, we see with what deep intuition and inspiration Mrs. Eddy interpreted the word closet when she declared that "closet typifies the sanctuary of Spirit." Metaphysically, then, the closet may be the sanctuary, the sacred storehouse in which we find renewed supply from infinite Love, a new realization of the limitless source of inspiration. Here, when discouraged, we may retire and in sacred solitude with God count our blessings, re-fan the flame of love at our consecrated altar of infinite Love, and receive the anointing oil of renewed power.

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