Article October 3, 1959 Issue

SPIRITUAL SENSE AND HOW TO ATTAIN IT

ISRAEL PICKENS

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.

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