Editorial July 20, 1907 Issue

THE SACRED RECORD

Annie M. Knott

Many students of the Bible are greatly perplexed at the seeming contradictions in its statements respecting God, man, and the universe, while the most thoughtful readily admit the impossibility of reconciling these statements with the dogmas of physical science. Because of the seeming difficulty in the way of Scriptural interpretation, many give up the task, or gather but a few crumbs from this rich storehouse of Truth. Mrs. Eddy says, "The Scriptures are very sacred. Our aim must be to have them understood spiritually, for only by this understanding can truth be gained" (Science and Health, p. 547). St. Paul clearly recognized the difficulties which beset those who held a material sense of the Word. Speaking of his coreligionists, he says, "Their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail [material sense] untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ." He goes on to say, "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world [the carnal mind] hath blinded the minds of them which believe not." When the "vail is done away in Christ [Truth]" the spiritual sense of being appears, and the healing of mind and body follows as a natural result.

The greater number of those who accept Christian Science readily find the wonderful truths contained in the Bible, and these they count more precious than the physical healing, which opens the way for so many. There are, however, some who still hold to the old while really desiring the new. One asks how God can be unconscious of evil when the Bible quotes Him as saying, "Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal," etc. It should be remembered that the commandments were given by Moses to a people who were in bondage to material belief with its many accompaniments of evil, and these commandments were probably the highest teaching which many of them were ready to receive; nevertheless they had that higher statement of divine law, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might;" and "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." It is hardly necessary to ask whether the law first quoted, or this last statement of it, best expresses the nature of God as Spirit and as Love.

An old theologian once said that some parts of the Bible seemed to be God's thought about man, and others men's thought about God. We find that Christ Jesus always directed thought toward the spiritual concept of God and man, and that he healed the sick, reformed the sinful, and raised the dead on this basis. It should not be forgotten that he also rebuked those who sought to substitute their own opinions for the truth. He said to these, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." There can be no question that he knew "the power of God"! The scribes and the Pharisees devoted their entire time to the discussion of the law, with a large recognition of evil. Jesus epitomized the whole law in love to God and love to the neighbor, saying, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

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