Article November 20, 1920 Issue

The Sanctuary

M. LYDIA BUTZBERGER

Who has never felt the need of taking refuge from the world, the need of casting off a burden, the need for healing, for rest and peace? Surely such is the longing of many a human heart and for such a one there is a promise of comfort. Help has always been at hand and the way to avail ourselves of it has been proclaimed of old by seers and prophets, and to-day is again fully revealed in Christian Science, a teaching which is giving to the world a knowledge of God through the spiritual interpretation of the Scriptures and the demonstration of Immanuel, "God with us." This enables every sincere seeker, every one that hungers and thirsts after righteousness, to enter into the sanctuary.

The word sanctuary is derived from the Latin sanctuarium, sacred, holy, and is used to designate a consecrated place. Most people to whom it is familiar connect it with that part of a religious building in which the altar is placed, or with the temple, the building itself. But in the light of Christian Science the word takes on a much broader meaning and the material symbol gives place to the true idea which gave it birth. The human is limited at all points and it is only as we acquaint ourselves with the divine decree concerning man that we begin to understand our true relationship with God and enter into our heritage of freedom.

The Bible teaches us the allness of God, His ever presence and all-power, and Christian Science is showing us how to avail ourselves of His help in all circumstances. Acknowledging God as Mind, Spirit, we cannot limit Him to any particular place, for Mind, Spirit, implies intelligence, entirely independent of matter. Matter, therefore, is no medium for the worship of God. This was made very clear by him who spake as never man spake before, when, answering the woman of Samaria, he said: "The hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what ... God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Spirit and truth, therefore, are God's sanctuary, the place of His dwelling, and we shall always find Him and know Him through the spiritualization of our own thought. This is done by laying off the mortal, with all its limitations and false claims, the "old man" as Paul calls it, and putting on the "new man," the Son of God, the Christ. This means regeneration, or being born again, but of Spirit, a process which the Master declared was absolutely necessary in order to enter the kingdom, or realm, of God.

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