During their long, challenging, and sometimes tedious experience in the wilderness, the children of Israel received the promise that they would become a kingdom of priests unto God. Many years later the Apostle John confirmed that through the ministrations of Christ Jesus his followers had been cleansed of their sins and had become kings and priests unto God. These sacred offices are the inheritance of all who accept and demonstrate the teachings of Jesus, the high priest of Christianity; they become kings and priests unto God.

In the wilderness experience, Aaron and his sons were appointed to the priestly office; and Moses described in detail the preparation which was to be made for the ceremony whereby they were to be consecrated to fulfill their sacred duties.

In preparation for entering into the sanctuary, they were to be washed with water, clad in carefully and beautifully made vestments, and anointed with oil. In Christian Science we learn from this ceremony of the children of Israel something of the preparation which needs to be made by the Christian Scientist in fulfillment of his office as a king and priest unto God.

In connection with the donning of the priestly robes, the Christian Scientist must be washed with the purity of Spirit and anointed with the oil of pure consecration, with heavenly inspiration.

Purity, consecration of thought, and heavenly inspiration, together with all of the qualities of Spirit, constitute the seamless robe of the Christian Scientist. They prepare him for the exalted position of a priest and king unto God.

With the putting on of the garments of true manhood—the robes of righteousness—the exalted thought is ready to enter into the Holy of Holies—the kingdom of heaven, which is ever at hand.

The child of God, the spiritual idea of the Most High, is always in God's presence, always clothed in the seamless robes of Spirit, for he reflects the completeness of God's nature and the perfection of His being. However, the human individual through obedience to the laws of God and through the expression of Love's qualities gradually lays aside the old garments of materiality. One by one he puts on the robes of Spirit just as Aaron and his sons were clothed in their several layers of material vestments until they were completely attired for the priestly office.

In the Old Testament it is recorded that an important element of the holy vesture of the high priest was the Urim and the Thummim, the literal meaning of which is "the Lights and the Perfections." They were probably two jewels, placed in the breastplate of the high priest over his heart.

Christ Jesus, our Way-shower, is the great example of the high priest for all men because of his Christlike nature. He truly wore the seamless vesture of Spirit, the true robes of righteousness, and thus demonstrated his complete unity with divine Love. He wore the spiritual Urim and Thummim of light and perfection which gave him the authority to enter into the sanctuary of Spirit, the secret place of the Most High.

In a letter to one of her students who was filling the office of a First Reader, our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, wrote (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 247): "Christ is meekness and Truth enthroned. Put on the robes of Christ, and you will be lifted up and will draw all men unto you." And she concluded, "The little that I have accomplished has all been done through love,—self-forgetful, patient, unfaltering tenderness."

Today the Christian Scientist, inspired by Christ, Truth, wears the robes of righteousness and the jewels of his office of spiritual priesthood—light and perfection, or Christliness and spiritual integrity. Through these qualities of Spirit, he enters the sanctuary of the Most High, and the true sense of all things is revealed to his receptive thought.

Jesus gave his disciples a parable about the rich man whose son squandered the inheritance given to him by his father and then, repenting of his sins, returned to his father's home in rags. Seeing him afar off, his parent ran to him and embraced him and said to the servants (Luke 15:22, 24), "Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet ... for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found."

In Christian Science there is hope "for all, regardless of past or present experiences, if they turn to divine Love in sincerity and repentance. The divine Father is always ready and waiting to clothe all with the robes of Spirit—the vestments of holiness—and to confer on them the Urim and Thummim of light and perfection.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 267): "The robes of Spirit are 'white and glistering,' like the raiment of Christ. Even in this world, therefore, 'let thy garments be always white.'"

Harold Molter