Article January 14, 1928 Issue

"Fear not, Daniel"

GEORGE WILKINS SHUFF

When viewed in the light of Christian Science, the experiences of the patriarchs and prophets of Israel, as related in the Old Testament, take on a new and more vital significance. The struggles and victories of those spiritually-minded men are seen to be protected by the operation of an infallible and unchanging law, a spiritual law which not only applied in the age when they strove and conquered, but has been equally applicable and available in every period of mankind's struggle toward the light. There is sometimes the temptation to view the problems of such inspired men as very far removed from the experiences of to-day; to see the long centuries which have intervened, and to feel that the difficulties which face the spiritual thinker in this age are different from, or do not coincide with, those of the earlier thinkers. However, as the student of Christian Science studies the Bible, with the aid of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, which is indeed a "key" to the Scriptures, he begins to see many similarities between the problems which confront him and those which the ancient prophets met and mastered. He sees, only dimly perhaps at first, that in their experience what to human sense appeared as a problem was finally seen to be the unfolding of a higher spiritual consciousness; what appeared for a moment as suffering or affliction was seen in retrospect as the travail of spiritual birth. In every period the steps from material to spiritual thinking are similar, being attended by much the same problems, which are solved by the application of the same spiritual law.

Approached from this angle, the tenth chapter of the book of Daniel is of special interest. Here is recorded Daniel's vision "by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel," of "a certain man clothed in linen." The description given is an endeavor, by the symbolic use of material terms, to convey something of the glorious apprehension of spiritual man, or the Christ, which dawned upon Daniel's uplifted thought. Mrs. Eddy has referred, in the Christian Science textbook (p. 264), to "the glorious forms which we sometimes behold in the camera of divine Mind, when the mental picture is spiritual and eternal;" and in Daniel's description of the man he beheld by the great river, whose face was "as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire," we have in figurative language such a vision of the spiritual, incorporeal man. This glimpse of reality revealed to Daniel the utter emptiness of materiality, and roused thought to measure good by a spiritual, not a material standard. There is a note of exultation in the passage where he declares that because of the vision his comeliness is turned in him into corruption, and he retains no strength. His metaphor describes how spiritual light, flooding consciousness, has revealed to him the incorporeal nature of the real man. This perception of spirituality sweeps away, as unworthy and undesirable, everything that does not stand the test of Spirit. Overcome with the sense of his own shortcomings and with an appreciation of the distance which still separates him from Christlikeness, Daniel falls overwhelmed to the ground. But the man whom he sees tenderly lifts him to his knees, commanding him to "stand upright." Then follows the reassuring message which the vision conveys: "Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words."

These experiences in the lives of the ancient prophets are of great interest, and full of helpful lessons to the spiritual thinker of to-day; for Truth is unfolded to us, as it was to them, by the operation of divine law. This unseen law underlies and actuates all those thought-processes whereby the truth becomes apparent to human consciousness. How often in our experience as Christian Scientists is it true that for days or weeks we are more or less conscious of certain throes of thought, the stirring of consciousness; and then, maybe in an hour of stress and turmoil, perhaps for the moment almost overwhelmed with our own apparent lack of Christlikeness, the veil falls away and to our perplexed thought is revealed a higher concept, a wider horizon, a more spiritual outlook, a more glorious vision of the Christ! Then we realize with joy that what to our human sense appeared as travail of thought was in reality the irresistible impulse of the divine Mind in our consciousness, and we understand, with Daniel, that from the first day we set our hearts to understand and to chasten ourselves before God, our words were heard.

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