Article August 18, 1956 Issue

The Decalogue: Its Literal and Spiritual Significance

"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." So writes Mary Baker Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 241). And on page 320 she quotes as follows from Smith's Bible Dictionary: "The spiritual interpretation of Scripture must rest upon both the literal and moral." Without its literal significance the Hebrew Decalogue would lose its place as humanity's great moral code. And without the moral code, spirituality has nothing to rest upon, for spirituality can only thrive in thought that is honest and good. Hence it is important that Sunday School pupils be thoroughly instructed in the literal significance of the Ten Commandments as well as the spiritual.

In the case of several of the Commandments there appears to be a tendency at times to slight the literal meaning. One case is that of the fourth commandment, which begins (Ex. 20:8), "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." Occasionally we find a child who glibly declares that Sunday is no different from any other day, that in Science every day is a Sabbath day, and so the child underestimates the value of Sabbath observance as practiced in Christianity.

The child needs to learn that in human experience Sunday is not just like any other day. In fact, it is a day set apart from other days for the purpose of making special effort to Christianize and spiritualize thought so that every day will more nearly approach the ideal Sabbath, which in its spiritual significance stands for the full realization of harmony as revealed in the Scriptural record of the seventh day of creation.

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