Article January 30, 1932 Issue

The Pool of Bethesda

ANN T. PORTER

A Sunday school teacher, desiring to convey to her class the spiritual message of the miracle recorded in the fifth chapter of John—the healing of the impotent man—prayed earnestly for illumination. After she had pondered the incident for some time, unfoldment came in the following manner.

One word that claimed attention was "pool," one meaning of which is "benediction and so prosperity;" and also "Bethesda," the original meaning of which is "house or place of kindness." Then the question presented itself, Who are the impotent folk? The answer was deduced from the scientific fact that evil thoughts, being unreal, have no power, while exalted thoughts of something finer, purer, than that which we so often find in the so-called human self, shared with the poor, the sick, and the sinning, reflect God, who has all power. Those thoughts which are blinded to the infinitude of God's love by the desire for material possessions; that state of thinking which halts between materiality and spirituality; the state of thought which allows the seeds of Truth that have been planted in one's consciousness to come to naught, instead of finding lodgment in fertile soil and bearing fruit in abundance—are not these among the "great multitude of impotent folk" needing healing through the truth?

Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 581): "Angels. God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality." What cause for gratitude, to know that angels can come to us at all times; that consciousness can be purified, and that we can be made whole, freed from our infirmities!

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