Article May 25, 1929 Issue

Understanding Christ, Truth

FLORENCE E. B. DONALDSON

When searching the Scriptures with a desire to gain a better understanding of the way in which the true nature of God and His Christ has been unfolded to humanity, we cannot fail to note how slow the world has been to accept and to assimilate the truth. The deep spiritual significance of the first chapter of the Bible has been revealed through Christian Science. In the illuminating chapter entitled "Genesis," in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, explains this true record of creation. Furthermore, we have her inspired definition of "Christ" (ibid., p. 583): "The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error."

Although some vision of the Messiah had from time to time to patriarch, lawgiver, psalmist, prophet, and priest over a long period of years, the thought of those looking for a Redeemer had been more or less governed by the sense of human personality. When Jesus of Nazareth came to the world, few, indeed, understood the import of his teaching. The great revolution in religion which his teaching was to introduce was undreamed of by even the most spiritually enlightened Jews. Even the disciples of the Master had difficulty in grasping the purely spiritual character of the beloved Son of God, notwithstanding Peter's flash of insight when he voiced the great truth, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

When Christ Jesus told Philip that those who had seen him had seen the Father, he implied that those who had understood him and his works and had gained a perception of the truth he taught, had thereby gained through spiritual sense an apprehension of God as the healing and redemptive power. The material senses could never have had this spiritual vision. It could be congnized only through the Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus." In the same way, Jesus' reply to John's inquiry whether the Messiah had come, was based upon his demonstration of healing power, which proved that God was the power behind the healing works.

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