RADIO PROGRAM No. 328 - The Perpetual Promise of Christmas

Speaker: "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light." How graphically these words of Isaiah illustrate the perpetual promise of Christmas! This great light, which shone in all its glory in the ministry of Christ Jesus, is the light of the Christ, Truth, the divine nature that Jesus expressed so perfectly in his healing works and in his teachings.

The healing Christ has always existed. But Jesus revealed to mankind that all who accept his teachings and express the divine nature can demonstrate the Christ-power. This revelation is the greatest gift the world has ever known. It is the great light that dispels the darkness of fear, sin, sickness, misery. Today, as in Jesus' time, wherever the light of the Christ is welcomed in and cherished, the soft glow of spiritual understanding brings healing, comfort, blessing.

Our guest's experience is an illustration of this. I'd like Mrs. Ruth Coone, of Seattle, Washington, to tell you what it meant to her to have glimpsed this light of the Christ, Truth.

Mrs. Coone: Well, I'm a grandmother now. But as a young woman I was left alone with five young children to rear. Christian Science taught me how I could rely on God every step of the way.

Speaker: I can imagine that rearing five children on your own would give you plenty of opportunities to test that reliance. Now, where would you like to begin?

Mrs. Coone: Perhaps with a physical healing of my own, because I learned a valuable lesson from it. It was the healing of a large goiter, which had caused me a lot of trouble.

I was new to Christian Science at the time. But I'd been studying the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, because of the joy it gave me to be gaining a better understanding of God. I wasn't even thinking about a physical healing. As I studied each morning, I'd often watch the view from my window. Usually there was a haze over the water and the mountains, but when the sun rose higher, it dissolved the haze and revealed the view—the beauty there. And I thought, "That's like the light of the Christ coming into my consciousness, dissolving false concepts of man as mortal and material, revealing to me man's spiritual nature in the likeness of God, Spirit." And that's just what happened. In a few days, I noticed there was no evidence at all of this growth. It had completely disappeared.

I wanted to know how this healing had come about. I couldn't understand how it had happened so quickly. But I found my answer. Shortly afterward I came across a statement in a Christian Science Sentinel to the effect that spiritual consciousness reconstructs the body. And I pondered for days, What is spiritual consciousness? That seemed vague to me. After about a month, I found a passage in Science and Health where Mrs. Eddy says (p. 209 ), "Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to understand God." And then I knew what had brought the healing. It was the understanding of God I'd been gaining, a better understanding. And this gave me a strong spiritual foundation; I knew this understanding was the answer to every need.

And as the years went by I taught my children to gain an understanding of God too. I would always tell them, if they needed a healing, "Well, we're both learning about God; we just have to learn together." And we did that. Broken bones, bad earache, a growth on my boy's foot, colds, chilblains—all these conditions and many others were overcome quickly, because we all knew there was no truth in them.

And it was the same with other things—lack, for instance. Times were hard, but in spite of that, we were able to have enough to make a happy home. When I was first left with my youngsters, I went to work as a power sewing machine operator. About two weeks before Christmas, we were all paid off and told we wouldn't be called again until the end of January. This was during the depression. It was just a small amount of cash I received, but I thought to myself, "I'll budget it and make it do until I'm called back to work." But when I got home, I had no purse; I'd lost it on the way home.

We talked about it, the youngsters and I. They didn't question that this need would be taken care of by relying on God. We held steadfastly to the fact that it is the outpouring of good from God, divine Love, that supplies our needs. And what comes from God can't be intercepted or withheld.

Well, I'd lost the purse on a Friday, and by the following Wednesday, we were practically out of everything. I took the last of what I had in the house—a potato, a handful of rice, and a few little things—and made some soup. Nobody went hungry, but that was the last I could give them. But I wasn't disturbed, because the Bible tells us that the righteous shall not be forsaken, nor their children have to beg for bread. That very day, there was a letter from someone who'd found my purse, telling me where I could get it. But that wasn't all. The next day I got a call to go back to work. And we had a happy Christmas.

I could go on and on, telling how the understanding of God has supplied all our needs through the ears. If all you have left in the house is the understanding that God is Love, and you use that, your needs will be taken care of.

Speaker: Thank you, Mrs. Coone. It's been wonderful to hear those experiences.

Friends, I think you'll agree that the outstanding thing about Mrs. Coone's experience is that all the way through she was seeking a better understanding of God. That was the most important thing to her. And Jesus made it plain that when we seek the understanding of God first in our lives, everything needful will be added.

No one need ever have the feeling that he is left alone to fend for himself against overwhelming odds. That would be contrary to God's unchanging law of goodness and love, which Christ Jesus revealed.

Christian Science accepts the teachings of the Master in their entirety. Explaining the nature of his priceless gift to mankind, Mrs. Eddy has written in Science and Health (p. 473 ), "Jesus is the name of the man who, more than all other men, has presented Christ, the true idea of God, healing the sick and the sinning and destroying the power of death."

Suppose for a moment we journey, in retrospect, with the Master. Let us see how practically, how compassionately, the Christ-power he expressed supplied the everyday needs of the people. You remember, for instance, the time when Jesus was in a desert place with the multitude—five thousand people. The were hungry. And the only food they had was five loaves and two small fishes. Jesus looked away from the meager supply to God. He drew on his great understanding of God's abundant goodness and love. There was food enough for everyone and twelve basketsful over.

And do you recall when a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging? He called out to Jesus to help him. When Jesus asked him what he wanted, he said, "Lord, that I may receive my sight." Jesus said, "Receive thy sight," and the man was able to see immediately.

You remember too that Jesus loved little children. And when Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, implored him to come and heal his daughter, Jesus went to the ruler's house. But the little maid was dead. Jesus put out all those who were mourning for her. Then he went in with the parents and three of his disciples. The maid was restored.

Then there was the man who had been lying by the pool of Bethesda for thirty-eight years. He was waiting for some man to help him into the pool, which was supposed to have healing properties after an angel troubled the water. Jesus told the man to rise, take up his bed, and walk. And the man did.

It made no difference what the need was. The Christ-power which Jesus expressed answered that need. And this same power meets the needs of today, as our guest's experience illustrates. The great light of Christ, Truth, is the perpetual promise of Christmas which everyone can have, as the Master clearly indicated when he said: "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."

The musical selection on the program was Hymn No. 24 from the Christian Science Hymnal ("Blest Christmas morn, though murky clouds"). The words of this hymn were written by Mary Baker Eddy (Poems, p. 29).

If thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; so that thou incline thine car unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for had treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.—Proverbs 2:1–8