In the fifth chapter of the Gospel according to John we read of a pool of water called Bethesda. Its setting was surely not such as to charm the eye, because it was close by the sheep market. And in so pastoral a community as that which surrounded Jerusalem we can picture it as a busy and unattractive spot. It may have resounded all the day with the clamor of those who bargained there. Yet throngs of people were attracted thither because popular belief credited the waters of the pool with remarkable curative properties. We read that "an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had." Jealous of its beliefs, the so-called human mind has long been inclined to invest its remedial agencies with the strange and unusual, and, as we learn, with the impossible as well.

We are left in ignorance of the frequency of the recurrence of this "certain season," and whether or not there was anything to herald its approach; but the promise it held was so great we can readily understand that "a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered," were gathered in anticipation of that event, and alert to be the fortunate first one to enter the pool. Among them we identify the one who had had an infirmity for thirty-eight years, and who had been so constantly disappointed. We do not know through how many of these certain seasons he had lain there; but always, as he strove to reach the water, hampered by his physical limitations, some one else pressed in ahead of him. And yet, alternating between hope and despair, struggling forward and falling back again, he lingered there with apparently no thought of any other mode of relief. Into this scene Jesus of Nazareth entered; and his clear understanding of man created in the image and likeness of his Maker freed this sufferer.

It is interesting to note that this pool was surrounded by five porches. Is it nothing more than a mere coincidence that the number of these porches, or means of entrance to the pool, is identical with that of the physical senses? Rather, have we not in this narrative a clear and compelling presentation of certain phases of mortal existence and endeavor? Here we see one bound and restrained by the limitations of matter, yet seeking satisfaction through that same matter as believed in by the physical or corporeal senses—an age-old, futile undertaking. How well have we known him, and how much of his experiences have been ours also! We do not fail to recognize in them the elements of a sense of human responsibility, tiresome waiting, doubt, discouragement, disappointment, and all the long train of unprofitable things that bear them kinship. Mrs. Eddy tells us in our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 489), that "corporeal sense defrauds and lies." That is a true statement, as true in this day and of us as it was in Jesus' time and of the impotent man.

As stated in the narrative, the Master brought the sufferer relief; and one uninstructed in Jesus' methods might ask if he did it by helping him into the pool in fulfillment of his long-cherished desire. Not at all! He did not, in the sense of giving physical aid, help him anywhere, and least of all by bearing him farther into the false claims of matter which had so long mesmerized him. On the contrary, he turned him away from that upon which his contemplation had been so long centered, and restored to him a sense of his God-given freedom, thus enabling him to rise and walk—not into the pool, let us be mindful, but out of the porches and wholly away from the pool!

Jesus proclaimed himself "the way;" and if we are rightly to know and follow him therein, we must seek to understand both why and how he performed those deeds which are associated with his life. We are his disciples as truly as those who walked with him in those former days; and our revered Leader tells us (Science and Health, p. 21): "If the disciple is advancing spiritually, he is striving to enter in. He constantly turns away from material sense, and looks toward the imperishable things of Spirit." In the beginning, God gave man dominion, as we read in the first chapter of Genesis; and however much the defrauding material senses may tempt us to believe that this gift is not ours, here and now, they can never make that false belief true. But we shall never find that dominion in materiality, any more than did that other one beside the pool of Bethesda.

But, some one may say, all this is ideal but abstract, and how is it to assist me in the meeting of my problem, which is the hard and practical one of obtaining food, clothing, and fuel? The necessity always is just the same—that of looking in the right direction. There was never a more intensely practical man than Jesus, and he summed up the lesson for us in the injunction, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." And he was speaking of just these so-called practical needs. We are slow to gain the deep significance of that word "added." It means that when we have done our seeking through the right channels, that all needful things will be found ours naturally, without our even striving to gain them. They will be discerned as the original and ever present gifts to us of a loving Father, which our right apprehension has simply brought into closer realization. The only way in which we realize anything is by becoming conscious of it; and then we recognize it not as something newly created, but, rather, as a new sense of that which already was.

Sick, sinning, and suffering humanity has long lain in the porches surrounding the pool of Bethesda, and it does so in great numbers to-day; but the Christ, Truth, is ever present and available to show the way out, not farther in. That which detains, defrauds, and disappoints is not of God, and need not be endured if one will but turn from it into the freedom which He bestows, in the way which He appoints. As we find it written in Science and Health (p. 202), "For this glorious result Christian Science lights the torch of spiritual understanding."