A student of Christian Science had an experience which, translated spiritually, brought increased knowledge of the truth.

A washing machine after being set in motion, as had been done many times before, proved to be defective and clogged; and in a short time it broke down altogether. A workman who was called to repair the mechanism declared after a brief examination, "It only needs oiling." He applied a few drops of oil, and the difficulty was overcome.

One whose attention had been arrested by the words, "It only needs oiling," earnestly pondered this statement; and the spiritual interpretation of "oil," as given by Mrs. Eddy on page 592 of the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," engrossed the student's attention. It reads: "Oil. Consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heavenly inspiration." Looked upon materially, oil is a necessary and important product, possessing the quality of easing, loosening, and freeing that to which it is applied. Considered spiritually, as interpreted by our Leader, oil is the inspiration of spiritual knowledge and activity. Without spiritual oil, without consecration, charity, and heavenly inspiration, a merely theoretical knowledge of scientific rules is incapable of rising to the point of demonstration, that is, of becoming demonstrably beneficial.

In the chapter in Science and Health entitled "Christian Science Practice" Mrs. Eddy says on page 418, "By the truthful arguments you employ, and especially by the spirit of Truth and Love which you entertain, you will heal the sick." And in the same chapter, on page 366, she raises the following important point, which no Christian Scientist should ever overlook: "If we would open their prison doors for the sick, we must first learn to bind up the brokenhearted."

Very often, a problem may seem to be so complicated that, in spite of earnest and persistent endeavors, the solution does not appear. In such cases, is it not sometimes just the spiritual oil that is lacking? It may be that in the treatment not the smallest mistake regarding the letter of Christian Science has crept in; it may be that the student has sufficient spiritual knowledge to judge the case aright, and to apply the truth accordingly, but that in spite of this the solution is delayed. Is there, in belief, a deep-rooted bitterness; or, possibly, the remembrance of some disappointment which has been allowed to harden the heart? How often, in such an instance, has a loving, tender thought, warm sympathy, or a comforting word been able to dissolve the hardness, thereby rendering the consciousness of the sufferer promptly receptive to joyous, constructive thoughts, which quite naturally result in healing! In such cases, may not unselfish devotion and loving, compassionate help be compared with oil, loosening and healing thought, and bringing it into harmonious activity?

The student of Christian Science learns that the application of spiritual oil must take place in one's own consciousness; that it must be individually grasped and expressed by each seeker, in order that he may receive spiritual blessings. Jesus once said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." We all must learn what it means to ask aright; and we all must learn that asking aright is spiritual yearning, the desire to know and to do God's will.

In II Kings we read of a widow who was in such want that her creditors had come to take her sons to be bondmen. Elisha, to whom she turned for help in her great extremity, gave her a definite command. After he asked her what she had in the house, and she answered, "Not any thing . . . save a pot of oil," he told her to borrow empty vessels from her neighbors and to fill them with the little oil she had, and then set them aside. Although she may have expected some other form of help, the widow immediately obeyed Elisha's command and filled the borrowed vessels with oil. We are told that "when the vessels were full, . . . the oil stayed." And Elisha said unto her, "Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest."

In the case of the widow of Zarephath, who to mortal sense was destitute, Elijah required her to give of the meal and the oil that remained for her and her son. And what did she give? She gave charity, one of the spiritual qualities of oil as interpreted in the Glossary of our textbook. Through serving others and giving unselfishly she gained her spiritual freedom; so her former limited sense yielded to a higher recognition of God's constant providence. The blessing of her loving deed followed spontaneously, bringing to her and to others a true sense of freedom and abundance.

For every earnest seeker of Christian Science the questions arise, How can I receive heavenly inspiration? How can I express consecration, charity? In what way can I best serve my neighbor? Only by steadfastly repudiating every claim of a so-called material life and mind apart from God, and by refusing to acknowledge any creation or government other than the spiritual.

When we learn to know God as the only Life and Mind and to recognize and love man as His spiritual likeness, the perfect expression of divine Mind, the material concept of many persons and minds will vanish. A clear apprehension of God as Father-Mother, the one divine Mind, and of His presence and government, destroys all selfish desires and aims.

When Jesus took leave of his disciples, as recorded in the sixteenth chapter of John, he gave to them and to his followers in all ages the loving comfort and the assurance that, in our struggle and striving for good, the Christ, Truth, would never forsake us. He said, "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come."