Article April 5, 1930 Issue

"Felt ye the power of the Word?"

ALICE MC CRAY MERRIELL

One of the most important demands upon every Christian Scientist is to learn how to apply the Word of God so that he may demonstrate the divine power. Throughout the centuries of creeds and superstition, the futility of a blind repetition of words or passages of Scripture was proved when the clear spiritual insight of our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, awakened human thought to the need of more than a blind faith in God if mortals were to experience the healing and saving power of the divine Word known to patriarch, prophet, and apostle. "Take away the spiritual signification of Scripture, and that compilation can do no more for mortals than can moonbeams to melt a river of ice," Mrs. Eddy tells us on page 241 of her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." This textbook of Christian Science is devoted to imparting to mankind an understanding of the spiritual significance of the inspired Scriptural writings, thus enabling every faithful student to perform in some degree the wonders wrought by Christ Jesus.

Certainly no one ever had more undeviating authority to voice the Word of his Father than had Christ Jesus. Yet, how often did he turn to the Scriptures for an answer which would satisfy his hearers! His frequent use of the words "It is written" indicates how naturally he trusted that the spiritual experience of those who had gone before, and had left their waymarks, could strengthen his own footsteps.

Our Master never spoke the familiar "It is written" in a controversial manner or to prove a human opinion; he used it always to bring to the thought of his listeners some specific law of God which he knew would heal the false beliefs that bound them. His use of Scripture is well exemplified in the story of his temptation in the wilderness. Mark records of this wilderness experience that Jesus "was with the wild beasts," signifying certain material beliefs which he knew must be overcome before he could begin his work among men. According to the fuller record of Matthew, after Jesus had answered the temper with a quotation from Moses, the devil tried to break down his defense by quoting Scripture himself. Jesus did not even waste a rebuke on this mocking use of Scripture, nor did he allow it to discourage his own confidence in the proved Word of God. Three times the enemy sought to confuse him, until at length the Master silenced forever the mortal beliefs which would have nullified his glorious work, by his full and complete reliance upon the divine truth revealed in the First Commandment, which he quoted in the words, "It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."

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