Editorial November 1, 1924 Issue

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet"

Duncan Sinclair

Christian Scientists regard the Bible as indispensable to them. If the Psalmist, thinking no doubt of the Scriptures possessed by his people, which were treasured and read by them as the inspired Word of God, could say, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path," how much more can Christian Scientists declare the same of the Bible, which contains not only the sacred writings beloved of the Hebrew race, but also the New Testament, bearing the record of the inspired sayings and doings of Christ Jesus and of his followers of the early Christian Church. The Bible to them is indeed the Book of books. So much so, that, as Mrs. Eddy writes in the tenets of The Mother Church (Science and Health, p. 497; and Church Manual, p. 15), "As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life."

Now it was not always thus with those who are now Christian Scientists. Although many of them, before they heard of Christian Science, had a very warm corner in their hearts for the Bible, were appreciative of the marvelous literary beauty of much that it contained, and were grateful for the moral and ethical precepts which it unfolded and inculcated, still, they did not value it as in very truth the Word of God; they looked upon it, as a whole, more as a compilation of documents of great value, certainly, to mankind, but not absolutely essential to the future progress of world salvation. That has been changed through Christian Science; for now they look upon the Bible in precisely the way Mrs. Eddy has spoken of it in the tenet just quoted.

After Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, was instantaneously healed, through spiritual understanding, of a bodily condition which had been pronounced incurable by the physician in attendance upon her, she set herself the task of discovering in the Bible evidence of the divine Principle which had healed her, and which she felt sure had enabled the spiritually inspired, whose records are chronicled therein, to do the marvels, wonders, or miracles accredited to them. In this she was successful. And having discovered in the Bible this evidence of the divine presence and power, she lost no time in proving to herself that her understanding of divine Principle could be used to heal the sick and the sinning in exactly the same way as the Founder of Christianity, Christ Jesus himself, had done.

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