Editorial December 6, 1952 Issue

PENTECOST

Richard J. Davis

The Day of Pentecost, both in the Old and in the New Testament, has a spiritual significance of great importance to every student of Christian Science. In Jewish worship it commemorated the gift of the law, the Ten Commandments, to Moses and the children of Israel, the Commandments which, if obeyed, were, according to God's covenant, to guide them into the promised land.

The teaching of Christian Science, as revealed to Mary Baker Eddy, re-emphasizes the spiritual and scientific import of the Ten Commandments and their relation to our own progress today. Speaking of this, Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 67), "Obedience to these commandments is indispensable to health, happiness, and length of days." Christian Scientists, therefore, may in a certain sense truly commemorate the Pentecostal gift, setting forth as it does the laws of right conduct which, when understood and obeyed, will lead us out of Egypt, the darkness of material thinking, into the promised land, the consciousness of spiritual revelation.

Of even greater import to us is that Pentecostal Day of later record, in the New Testament, when the apostles were gathered "with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. ... And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:1, 2, 4). This expression of unified action on their part could not help having its manifestation in an increased outpouring of spiritual vision.

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