Article January 10, 1920 Issue

Spiritual Interpretation

THORWALD SIEGFRIED

In correcting the traditional miseducation which is the world's great handicap, there is no greater opportunity than that offered in Christian Science of replacing the scholastic material concept of the Bible with its true spiritual import. In the report of a sermon by Mrs. Eddy (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 169), we read that "early training, through the misinterpretation of the Word, had been the underlying cause of the long years of invalidism she endured before Truth dawned upon her understanding, through right interpretation. With the understanding of Scripture-meanings, had come physical rejuvenation. The uplifting of spirit was the upbuilding of the body." On the next page of the report Mrs. Eddy's words are given verbatim. There we read: "The eating of bread and drinking of wine at the Lord's supper, merely symbolize the spiritual refreshment of God's children having rightly read His Word, whose entrance into their understanding is healthful life."

Anyone who consults the concordances to Mrs. Eddy's writings will find that the subject of the spiritual interpretation of Scripture is no less vital to the individual student and to the world at large than it was in her experience already referred to. A failure to understand the past experience of the human race, as recorded in the Bible, must necessarily becloud the outlook upon the present, and add the taint of fear to apprehension for the future.

The spiritual interpretation of Scripture, so vital to individual and national health, does not consist in a fantastic juggling of words, nor in the invention of strained or absurd meanings for words of common import. It involves rather the effort, and the successful effort, to look behind the material symbols usually associated with ordinary words in Scripture, and ascertain the real ideas which the writers sought to state. This effort attunes thought to catch the higher meanings of otherwise commonplace and often paradoxical statements, and thus does for humanity what Christ Jesus did for the disciples after the crucifixion when, after the walk to Emmaus, he opened "their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures."

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