Article March 10, 1945 Issue

Deliverance through Spiritual Sense

ARNOLD HIRSCH

When something in the news of the day over the radio leaves us with a feeling of uneasiness and concern, the familiar incident in the life of the prophet Elisha at Dothan should bring to us comfort and inspiration. Surrounding the city was a great army of soldiers sent to apprehend the prophet and take him a prisoner to the king of Syria, whose enmity he had incurred.

According to sense testimony, the situation was indeed an ominous one. But when Elisha's servant came to him in great alarm, crying (II Kings 6:15-17), "Alas, my master! how shall we do?" the man of God, with the calm assurance of an absolute faith in the ever-presence and omnipotence of the infinite All, replied, "Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." And then he prayed, "Lord,... open his eyes, that he may see." And the young man's eyes were opened, and he saw that "the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." The story indicates that not only was the prophet saved from capture and harm, but also a conflict between the soldiers and the inhabitants of the city was averted.

The special bearing of this narrative upon our reaction to the news of the day will become apparent when we consider the following statement by Mary Baker Eddy (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 85): "Both Jew and Gentile may have had acute corporeal senses, but mortals need spiritual sense." What the servant of Elisha saw, looking through corporeal sense, filled him with terror and despair. But when his eyes were opened he was able to see, through spiritual sense, what his master, the prophet, had been seeing all along—that which was going on in the realm of real being. So we in our times, feeling ourselves compelled by force of circumstances to look out through corporeal sense on a warring and restive world, may likewise give way to fear and dismay and re-echo that age-old cry, "Alas, ...how shall we do?"

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