Article July 5, 1952 Issue

"THE SCRIPTURES ARE VERY SACRED"

MAYSIE GARRATT

Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, tells us in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 547): "The Scriptures are very sacred. Our aim must be to have them understood spiritually, for only by this understanding can truth be gained." Mrs. Eddy grew up in a Puritan home in which the Bible had an important place. From childhood she eagerly read and pondered the Scriptures. Even as the child Jesus lingered in the temple in Jerusalem, conferring with the learned doctors, authorities on the Scriptures for his day, so the youthful Mary Baker weighed the words of the scholarly pastors whose pure influence in her young years helped direct her thought to the deep things of God contained in the Scriptures.

In this way she was prepared for the momentous discovery of Christian Science, which was brought about through divine revealment of the true significance of a Scripturally recorded healing performed by Christ Jesus. At the time, Mrs. Eddy was supposed to be on her deathbed; but finding herself suddenly healed through this remarkable revelation, she earnestly set about searching the Scriptures for further light on her discovery. Of this period she writes (ibid., p. 109): "For three years after my discovery, I sought the solution of this problem of Mind-healing, searched the Scriptures and read little else, kept aloof from society, and devoted time and energies to discovering a positive rule. The search was sweet, calm, and buoyant with hope, not selfish nor depressing."

The reward of this search was rich indeed, for thus came into being the textbook, Science and Health, which, because it is the key that unlocks the spiritual treasures of the Bible, is destined ever to stand side by side with the Bible for the ultimate redemption of all mankind from sin, disease, and death. According to her biographers and those who knew her well, our Leader throughout the years of her earthly life continued to turn to the Bible for comfort, inspiration, and guidance. That her followers might never lose sight of the importance of the Bible, Mrs. Eddy has set forth as the first religious tenet of Christian Science the following (ibid., p. 497): "As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life."

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