A study of the career and experiences of Moses brings to light many helpful and exceedingly interesting things, and reveals the striking similarity of the experiences of mankind to-day to those of Moses. Every step of Moses' experience shows a continual seeking for and the unfoldment in consciousness of God's law. Every step he took was to understand more of God; and every step uncovered new claims to obstruction. Each obstruction, however formidable it might have appeared to be, served as an opportunity to prove more and more the fullness, completeness, and unfailing effectiveness of God's law; and each one of these experiences led Moses nearer and nearer to that clear comprehension of God, and of man's relationship to God, which enabled him to discern and proclaim God's law in the Ten Commandments.

Moses, in his vain effort to avenge the wrongs of his people by killing an Egyptian, was far from the point in his experience where he could discern the burning bush in the desert place. It is clearly apparent also that Moses at the burning bush was not yet qualified or able to demonstrate what Moses at the Red Sea demonstrated later; and it required the experiences in the desert place of the Midianites, in Egypt, and at the Red Sea, and the problems of the wilderness, to make him ready for the revelation of mount Sinai.

These human experiences of Moses compare in a remarkable degree with Mrs. Eddy's "Scientific Translation of Mortal Mind," as given on pages 115 and 116 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." His forty years' sojourn in the palace of Pharaoh,—in the atmosphere of gross materiality,—which ended in his effort to avenge by physical force the wrongs done to the children of Israel, may be likened to what Mrs. Eddy defines thus: "First Degree: Depravity. Physical. Evil beliefs, passions and appetites, fear, depraved will, self-justification, pride, envy, deceit, hatred, revenge, sin, sickness, disease, death."

The failure of human will and physical effort, with the resultant fear, brought a sharp awakening to the insecurity of his false, material beliefs, and drove Moses into the wilderness and desert place of the Midianites (see definition of "wilderness" in Science and Health, p. 597). Here greater unfoldment was accomplished in the manner indicated in the "Second Degree: Evil beliefs disappearing. Moral. Humanity, honesty, affection, compassion, hope, faith, meekness, temperance." In this experience Moses seemed to give up his material possessions. He turned away from matter and materiality, as expressed in the court and household of Pharaoh and in the idolatrous beliefs of Egypt. In meekness and humility, he exemplified the truth declared centuries later by Christ Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." Surrendering, at least in some degree, the false sense of materiality, he attained a larger measure of man's dominion, and, after forty years of patient humility and self-abnegation, "came to the mountain of God"—to a higher consciousness of the infinite God and man's relationship to Him. Thus he began the demonstration of the "Third Degree: Understanding. Spiritual. Wisdom, purity, spiritual understanding, spiritual power, love, health, holiness." With this spiritual understanding, he was able to overcome the obstructions of material sense, to prove the power of God, to demonstrate man's dominion, and to lead the children of Israel out of material bondage. So, in these successive stages of experience, Moses proved the demonstrable potency of God's law, that law which was revealed to him in the Ten Commandments.

This same unfoldment or "scientific translation" is experienced to-day in human consciousness, and mankind at all times manifests one of the three degrees referred to above. The honest seeker for Truth should be working continually to overcome the first degree,—materiality,—demonstrating his way through the second degree, and striving to attain the third degree—spiritual understanding.

They that are in the first degree of mortal mind, absorbed in materiality, are still in the "land of Egypt ... the house of bondage," and are abiding in the household of Pharaoh—mortal mind, the belief that life and intelligence are in and of matter. They "are after the flesh" and "mind the things of the flesh," and need to be aroused to the necessity of breaking away from these false and insecure beliefs to seek man's real heritage of spiritual being. It is at this stage that mortals sometimes experience a sharp awakening not unlike that of Moses when he killed the Egyptian. This experience may come through sickness or other discord, when material beliefs upon which mortals have been depending utterly fail, and they are compelled to seek something higher and more enduring.

Thus they come into the second degree of mortal mind's translation, wherein the former material beliefs begin to disappear and the comprehension of the spiritual status of being reaches a higher state, and they begin to get a glimpse of the more substantial facts of Spirit. With a little discernment of the allness of God, good, the understanding of the consequent nothingness of matter and evil begins to unfold, and man's freedom and spiritual existence are discerned as "through a glass, darkly." Here mankind learns to say with Paul, "I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

Then follows naturally the unfolding of the third degree, spiritual understanding; or, as Paul puts it, "we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." With this understanding mankind begins to demonstrate the real man's relation to God. It becomes clearer and clearer with each demonstration that matter is unreal, a transitory negative belief which has neither permanence nor power, and that Spirit, God, is all-inclusive, ever present, and the real man is His spiritual image and likeness, untouched by material beliefs and governed by the law of God. This law of God, as revealed through spiritual understanding, is ever available, and is demonstrable in the experience of every individual. However, its application requires patience, honesty, and determination: patience in fearlessly meeting and mastering, one by one, the thoughts, habits, and beliefs of mortal mind which have so long been holding its victim in the bondage of materiality; honesty in looking one's self squarely in the face and analyzing each motive, mercilessly and persistently measuring every thought, desire, and aspiration by the unchanging and unfailing standard of Truth; determination in going steadily forward in the power of God, holding steadfastly in view the high goal each child of God is striving to attain.

Thus man's real heritage is revealed and may be attained, every phase of evil may be eradicated, and the nothingness of matter and the allness and ever-presence of God demonstrated. "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. ... And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."