"Thou shalt not steal"

ALICE HALE COHEN

Frequent mention is made in the Old Testament of the "word of the Lord," and there are numerous instances related where it was recognized as vital, obeyed with quiet confidence, used with authority, and found dynamic with power. When faithfully adhered to, it swept as a mighty, purifying wind, irresistible, dominant, supreme. In I Samuel we read, "The word of the Lord was precious in those days."

Jesus in turn brought a still deeper, clearer comprehension of the power of the word. It was said of him, "What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out." Through its operation in consciousness he raised the dead, healed all manner of sin and sickness, and rose superior to every suppositional law of matter which would have blocked his path. He it was who warned us against the false sense which would rob both God and man when he said, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."

In this age Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, has again awakened human consciousness to the power of God's word. In addition to the exalted vision of the prophets and the profound spiritual understanding of the Master, there has been revealed to us through the Christian Science text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," the divine Principle and rule which elucidates the seperation between the chaff and the wheat, between the reality of Spirit and the unreality of matter, thereby opening the way by which every one who will may again listen for God's voice, admit it to consciousness, and prove its power. Through the clear instructions given in Science and Health and Mrs. Eddy's other writings, the alert watchman, or Christian Science student, is armed with the recognition that the word of Truth is pure and unadulterated, and he is thus equipped to arrest the thief of erroneous thinking in the attempt to steal ideas and the words which express them and appropriate them for the use of error.

For example, materia medica and hygiene claim a large measure of control over all that is conveyed by the word health, insisting that it is physical in origin and manifestation, to be attained and retained by recourse to material remedies and subject to suppositional material laws. When this argument presents itself, the Christian Science student has but to rise to the spiritual recognition of the word health as expressive of a spiritual fact, hence as belonging to the source of all good and subject to His bestowal and maintenance. This arrests in consciousness the circulation of a false sense of health, replacing it with the true concept bearing "fruit after its kind."

The thief of material thinking would also endeavor to circulate the word man erroneously, claiming for it the personality through which the evils of hatred, inhumanity, envy, malice, covetousness, and sickness are expressed. The Christian Scientist, strong in the recognition of man as "that which has no separate mind from God; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity" (Science and Health, p. 475), is enabled to deal fearlessly and authoritatively with the would-be thief and to know that God alone has power over man and that there is no power apart from God. This watchfulness also deals with every attempt to think or speak of church from the standpoint of the thief, who would steal it for the circulation of ambition, jealousy, discourtesy, apathy, indifference, and hypocrisy, and awakens the ability to take refuge in the true sense of church as given on page 583 of Science and Health. This enables us to stand as faithful sentinels at the door of the temple, ever alert and ready to bar the way lest the thief find entrance.

This clear comprehension of the right use of words leads in turn to the recognition that power is left out of a word when God, good, is left out, and that whenever it becomes necessary to use words such as sickness, sin, pain, and death, it may be done with the certainty that there is no life, truth, power, action, cause, or effect to be conveyed by them. Stripped of all disguise as reality, they cease to terrorize as of yore, for it is seen that they are not living words going forth with authority and power, but inert, lifeless, destitute of vitality, even as a wire which has never been connected with the source of the electric current can convey no light.

Thus in Christian Science we are learning to speak the new tongue, and awakening to the fact that back of every word proceeding from God, good, is a mighty force, an irresistible power. This enables us to discard the dead letter for words animate with the spirit of unadulterated good. The light of dawn is seen in the sky, right is adjusting the balance, and the weight is shifting from a belief in physical force to the recognition of the substance of godlike thinking expressed in words bearing proof of their utility. In this age spiritual sense is beginning to transcend the limits of physicality, and we are learning to observe and listen in the manner of the prophets, of the Master and our Leader. In the measure of our faithfulness to the mandate of the "still small voice" through which angels whisper God's message to man, shall we be able to say with the psalmist, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."

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