Article July 19, 1919 Issue

No one realizes more keenly than the student of Christian Science...

The Christian Science Monitor

No one realizes more keenly than the student of Christian Science what a loss the English speaking portions of the world had suffered from the fact that the greatest treasure house of drama, poetry, prose, and spiritual teaching in the language, or in any language, that is, the Old Testament, had become almost a sealed book, owing to the lack of that true understanding which conveys to the reader its vitality and power.

Take, for instance, the story of the shunammite, that "great woman" who entertained the prophet Elisha. With unerring art, the writer gives a perfect little picture of the circumstances, the surroundings, of the courtesy and hospitality shown to the man of God. In return, the woman's intense longing for a son is gratified, and the imagination is left to fill in the sketch of the time which elapses till the boy is old enough to go with his father to help in the harvest. Then the tragedy opens. The child suddenly cries, "My head, my head," and falls down. He is carried to his mother and lies on her lap till noon, and then dies. No Greek tragedy ever moved with greater dignity or pathos than does this simple tale as it tells of the mother's bearing under this blow. She takes the child and lays him on the prophet's bed, and then, commanding the servants to saddle the ass, she sets forth to find the man of God.

The prophet sees her from afar, and is distressed, for he cannot discern what the trouble is that has brought her; so he sends his servant with the inquiry, "Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child?" and she, with a trust in the goodness of God which has surely never been surpassed, answers, "It is well." Never, until the veil of the temple was finally rent and destroyed by Christian Science, and its spiritual light had searched and revealed the meaning of the Scriptures, has the full import of the Shunammite's declaration been understood. In these days, when from so many anguished hearts has gone forth the cry, "Is it well with the child?" and there seems to be no answer, perhaps a search into the Shunammite's faith may bring comfort and some measure of peace.

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No one realizes more keenly than the student of Christian Science...

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