Editorial April 26, 1924 Issue

Spiritual Understanding

Duncan Sinclair

Spiritual understanding is a term often used in Christian Science. It refers to the understanding or knowledge of Spirit, God, and His spiritual creation. Christ Jesus, out of the plenitude of his understanding, had revealed the Father to an extent never before approached; but the meaning of his message became obscured with the passing of the years; and before many centuries had elapsed, it had become confused and uncertain, dogma and creed, ritual and ceremonial, all alike having tended to hide the simplicity and truthfulness of the Master's teaching. So that when Mrs. Eddy gave Christian Science to the world, the knowledge of God was vague and undefined.

About the middle of the nineteenth century, the teaching of the Christian religion was far from homogeneous. Certain of its votaries were separated as the poles from each other in their beliefs,—seemingly irreconcilably apart; and skepticism was rampant, for the natural sciences, so called, which had drawn to themselves many of the thinkers of the time,—men attracted to their study because they held out to them great possibilities in the acquiring of truth,—disputed the "miracle" or the demonstration of the power of God in the affairs of men; in fact, natural Science at that time, with its eyes riveted hypnotically on its own finite concepts of law, denied almost altogether the possibility of any other conception of God than a pantheistic one.

It was into that divided religious world, that skeptical religious world, Christian Science came, with its clarion call to men, inviting them to listen to the truth, to the absolute truth about God and His real spiritual creation. The discovery of Christian Science was an epoch-making event, a fact which the world is gradually but surely finding out. For Christian Science is revolutionizing thought along every line to-day, in religion, ethics, philosophy, and natural science. Not only are these branches of human knowledge being affected, but the arts also are feeling its tremendous influence, the arts of poetry, the drama, music, painting, and sculpture. It may be that the savants of these schools are not aware of the spiritual influence at work in the world through Christian Science, but the fact is none the less true. And before very long it will be universally and openly acknowledged.

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