Editorial December 17, 1927 Issue

"They saw God"

Ella W. Hoag

"THEY saw God, and did eat and drink." Thus was it declared of the ancient prophets; and from that day to this Christians have thought much about what it means to see God, and have wondered much as to how such seeing was to be brought about. Those who have believed that God is corporeal, and that all seeing is confined to the material senses, have been quite certain they could never see Him until heaven was reached—a heaven which they have imagined to be situated in some far-distant clime and which they have considered His home. Still, the Bible tells us that the patriarchs enjoyed the great blessing of seeing God in the very midst of their daily living. And what was possible to them must surely be equally possible to men to-day. Such sight must, however, involve far other vision than that of material sense testimony.

Since it must, therefore, be granted that it is possible to see God to-day, there but remains the necessity of learning how this sight is to be gained. Jesus declared, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God;" hence a primal necessity to this spiritual vision must be that heartfelt purity of thought and life which is the direct opposite of all things sensual and material. To see God, who is Spirit, can without question be compassed only through spiritual sense. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 505) Mrs. Eddy writes, "Spiritual sense is the discernment of spiritual good;" and she adds, "Spiritual understanding unfolds Mind,—Life, Truth, and Love,—and demonstrates the divine sense, giving the spiritual proof of the universe in Christian Science." Then to discern spiritual good, as revealed in Christian Science, not only means to see God, but it also unfolds the universe of His spiritual ideas.

When one begins to think in accordance with the teachings of Christian Science, it is not difficult to arrive at such conclusions as the foregoing. While to state properly the letter of this Science is undoubtedly a very great privilege, such stating is of comparatively little value unless its practical application is discerned and demonstrated. For instance, it is one thing to say that perfect purity of thought and life will reveal God to us, and quite another so to bring this purification into daily activity that we shall see God in the midst of all the simplest minutiae of daily experience.

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