In Exodus we read of Moses, who, when fleeing from the wrath of Pharaoh, found refuge in the land of Midian, where he later married Zipporah and worked for her father, Jethro the priest, tending his sheep for many years. During this period Moses drew very near to God.

It was to this state of receptivity in Moses that God revealed Himself as I AM THAT I AM. After bitter struggles with self-will and material resistance, Moses was ready to fulfill his part in the salvation of mankind from the bondage of materiality.

After the children of Israel were delivered from the yoke of the Egyptians, and while Moses was leading them through the wilderness towards the promised land of Canaan, his spiritually enlightened thought discerned something of the pattern of the unfoldment whereby God would be revealed to the receptive human consciousness.

The tabernacle which Moses built in the wilderness was symbolic of this vision, for the command he received was that he should build it "according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount." In this tabernacle which the children of Israel built under the direction of Moses there was the outer court, where sacrifices were offered by the worshipers; the Holy Place, where the priests performed their offices; and the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctuary, where none entered save the high priest once a year to commune with the invisible God and offer atonement by sacrifice for his own sins and those of the people.

In this inner sanctuary of the tabernacle there rested the ark of the covenant, in which lay the tables of stone with the Commandments engraved on them. On the top of the ark was a slab of pure gold, on which were carved two cherubim with outstretched wings. Above the ark the presence of God was supposed to dwell.

In his epistle to the Hebrews, Paul refers to Christ Jesus as the "high priest, ... a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." With the coming of Christ Jesus the concept of an earthly tabernacle gives way to a heavenly sanctuary. This is natural, for he came to do the will of the Father, to destroy the works of the devil—all idolatry—to teach that God is Spirit and has made man in His own likeness: spiritual, not material; sinless, diseaseless, ageless, deathless. Jesus' understanding of this changeless fact of true being enabled him to heal all diseases and torments, to restore sanity to the lunatic, to raise the dead to life and health.

The religious teachers of Judaism were, however, largely concerned with the rites, the ceremonies, and the material sacrifices of the temple worship. This materialism was the veil which hid from the priests the true nature of the expected Messiah; and when he appeared in their midst, they failed to recognize in the spirituality of the meek yet mighty Nazarene the long-awaited Saviour.

It was not so much Jesus' teachings, but the proof he gave of the truth of his teachings, that incensed the rabbis. False theology and material systems of worship arraigned themselves against the pure spirituality of the Christ and brought about the crucifixion of Jesus. It is recorded in the Gospels that at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus "the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom." "It revealed," Mary Baker Eddy explains, "the false foundations and superstructures of superficial religion, tore from bigotry and superstition their coverings, and opened the sepulchre with divine Science.—immortality and Love" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 597).

In the resurrection and ascension of Jesus the pattern of mankind's salvation from sin and death, which Moses but dimly foreshadowed in the building, furnishings, and ceremonies of the tabernacle, was fulfilled spiritually. But the truth taught and demonstrated by Christ Jesus was not made available to all until the discovery in this age by Mrs. Eddy of the Science of Jesus' Mind-healing. The revelation of Christian Science removes any veil which has hindered the student of the Master's teaching from entering into the inner sanctuary, the secret place of Spirit, God, which was Jesus' habitual dwelling place.

When his disciples asked him to teach them how to pray, Jesus told them that vain repetitions would not gain the ear of God. Then he taught them to pray thus (Matt. 6:6): "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy illumines the words of the Master with the light of her own spiritual inspiration. She writes (p. 15), "The closet typifies the sanctuary of Spirit, the door of which shuts out sinful sense but lets in Truth, Life, and Love." And she continues: "In order to pray aright, we must enter into the closet and shut the door. We must close the lips and silence the material senses. In the quiet sanctuary of earnest longings, we must deny sin and plead God's allness."

Now a door that is slightly open is not shut, but Jesus' instructions were to shut the door. An earnest student of Christian Science found healing, after a long struggle, while she was pondering the spiritual significance of the tabernacle and its inner sanctuary.

The student saw that the Holy of Holies might typify one's silent communing with God, and she determined that she would dwell consistently in that most holy place and keep the door of this sanctuary shut. She turned thought away from the material body and human personality and held fast to what she understood of man's spiritual identity in the likeness of Love. She saw that since man is endowed with the sinless character of the Christ, he does not hear, is not tempted by, and does not respond to the whisperings of evil. When suggestions of fear and resentment presented themselves for acceptance, she met them with the silent or audible assertion: "My door is shut to you and open only to Truth and Love. You cannot enter into this sanctuary of Spirit, where I am communing with my God." Very soon she experienced a beautiful and complete healing.

In the epistle to the Hebrews we read: "This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts. ... And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more."

Mrs. Eddy in her book "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" writes (p. 244), "The 'secret place,' whereof David sang, is unquestionably man's spiritual state in God's own image and likeness, even the inner sanctuary of divine Science, in which mortals do not enter without a struggle or sharp experience, and in which they put off the human for the divine."