Article November 24, 1997 Issue

Focusing on the Bible

Edward W. Little

In some ways, Science and Health is to the study of the Bible as the Hubble telescope is to the study of astronomy. It amplifies and focuses the pages of Scripture, through which the universe of Spirit, God, can be glimpsed. From its orbit above the effects of the earth's atmosphere, the Hubble telescope perceives objects fifty times fainter than telescopes on the earth can. Like the Hubble, Science and Health reveals insights we've never seen before.

As a case in point, Science and Health illumines Jesus' parables, the "dark" sayings Psalms prophesies (see 78:2). Take the parable of the prodigal son, for example (see Luke 15:11-32). The younger of two sons asks, "Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me." And the father complies, dividing the sons' inheritance between them.

Ironically, though, the prodigal's petition for his inheritance actually disinherits him. This point would have remained obscure to me, however, without the help of these words from Science and Health: "God is indivisible. A portion of God could not enter man; neither could God's fulness be reflected by a single man, else God would be manifestly finite, lose the deific character, and become less than God. Allness is the measure of the infinite, and nothing less can express God" (p 336).