In the twenty-first chapter of the book of Revelation it is recorded that John "saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." Mary Baker Eddy, in commenting on this verse, says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 573): "The Revelator was on our plane of existence, while yet beholding what the eye cannot see,— that which is invisible to the uninspired thought. This testimony of Holy Writ sustains the fact in Science, that the heavens and earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness which God bestows, are spiritual, while to another, the unillumined human mind, the vision is material."

Mrs. Eddy explains the meaning of inspired thought or spiritual sense in many places in her writings, but the definition with which Christian Scientists are perhaps the most familiar is this one (ibid., p. 209): "Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to understand God." This "capacity" is not just an effort to understand God. It is the power of understanding. Since "spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity," it enables one to abide in the understanding of God.

It is spiritual consciousness that reflects the Christ-power to heal; therefore the constant endeavor of the student of Christian Science is to reject that which is unreal and untrue and to abide in the consciousness which is spiritual and divine.

Sometimes one may think of any and every phase of mortal sense as being consciousness; but in absolute Science, there is but one consciousness, and that is the divine consciousness. God is Mind, consciousness, cause. This infinite consciousness creates all that is real, and the thoughts of God's man reflect only that which is real. Whatever savors of evil, a mind or consciousness other than God's, is wholly in the realm of unreality.

Christ Jesus had the vision of spiritual sense, which enabled him to see perfection as the truth of the man of God's creating. He understood man to be an eternal, living reflection of the Mind which is God.

Jesus came to the tomb of Lazarus four days after Lazarus' decease. Through spiritual sense the Master excluded from his thought the beliefs of time, disintegration, and death. He knew that such beliefs were unknown to God; therefore they were unknown to Lazarus.

Because he knew that Lazarus had not actually died, since man is deathless, Jesus commanded him to come forth, and Lazarus heard and obeyed. We note that all the others at the tomb of Lazarus were in the state of thought which Mrs. Eddy designates as "the unillumined human mind." They saw that which mortal mind suggested, matter and death; whereas, the Master, seeing with spiritual sense, or with the "consciousness which God bestows," saw man as undying and immortal.

Christian Science demonstrates that all the manifestations of Spirit are spiritual. It was this truth which enabled Jesus instantly to heal the sick, feed the multitudes, and still the tempest on the Sea of Galilee. It is spiritual sense which enables one to bring about the manifestation of supply to meet the human need, for spiritual sense understands that the law of Spirit maintains the harmony and intactness of spiritual creation. This law adjusts every balance; it heals every untoward condition or circumstance. It brings the absolute truth to bear upon the human experience.

In our Leader's writings are definite instructions about how we may attain spiritual sense, which heals not only ourselves but others. There is need that we deny material sense testimony and realize that the spiritual is the real and the true.

Man's true structure, his embodiment of every right idea, is altogether spiritual. Spiritual sense alone gives us the conviction that man is spiritual, immortal, eternal. Material sense is in itself an illusion, and what it sees or suggests is wholly false.

Spiritual sense enables us to see that perfect state of being in which there is no evil, no material personality that suggests a combination of good and evil, no selfishness. In the spiritual atmosphere, there is no disease or sickness, no evil, for all reflects unchangeable perfection.

A young man received a wonderful healing through Christian Science of what three medical doctors declared was tuberculosis of the lungs in an advanced stage. Upon regaining his health, he resumed the use of cigarettes, which he had been required to discontinue when under the medical treatment.

As he continued the study of Christian Science, he began to long for the things of Spirit. He awakened to the fact that the use of tobacco is inconsistent with the teachings of this Science. A spiritual sense of life began to dawn on his thought. Thereupon began a steady, though a very slow, gain of greater spirituality.

He began to feel a genuine desire to help others become interested in Christian Science. Then came the healing of the tobacco habit, which was complete and has been permanent.

We all can rest assured that our faith and prayer will find fulfillment and answer. The higher the climb spiritually, the clearer the vision of divine reality. In this higher altitude there is manifested in greater and greater measure a spiritual sense of Life, which includes the power of the Christ to bless and to heal.

It is this vision of spiritual reality which heals and which enables the healer of today to emulate the Master, who said to the man with the withered hand (Matt. 12:13), "Stretch forth thine hand." And we are told that "it was restored whole, like as the other." Let us realize that it is possible for us to abide in God, now. Our ideal and our goal should be to attain that perfect state which spiritual sense reveals and which was made plain to the vision of John.