Deliverance

ELLA BAHNSEN

We read on page 581 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy the following definition of "angels": "God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality." These words may be called to one's attention while studying the story related in the twelfth chapter of Acts. Peter had been thrown into prison by Herod. He was chained, and closely guarded on all sides, so that to mortal sense there was no way of escape. It is recorded that "prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him." Students of Christian Science realize that the power of good was at work to overcome the seeming power of evil; and they are taught, and have often proved in their experience, that good is the only power, and that so-called evil must fall before Truth and Love. This was Peter's experience.

Just previous to the time that evil would have brought Peter forth to the doom that had been planned for him, an "angel" came to him, "and a light shined in the prison." The angel touched Peter and told him to arise quickly; the chains fell from him, and he was told to gird himself, bind on his sandals, cast his garment about him, and follow. Peter immediately obeyed, and the angel led him forth out of the prison. The great iron gate, which must have seemed an insurmountable obstacle, had he planned his own escape, now opened seemingly of its own accord, and they passed out to freedom.

How frequently we too have found, when we have been willing to obey the leadings of Truth and to go on without stopping to think how this or that was going to work out in our problem, that the obstruction which we deemed impossible to overcome has been removed, and we have been able to proceed unhampered! The Bible then tells us that the angel left Peter.

Most of us have been helped over rough places through the work of some faithful Christian Scientist. There comes a time in our development, however, when it is necessary that we be left to realize our position for ourselves; to realize that we have been shown the way and that, trusting God alone, we must go forward in the realization that He is our strength and the source of all we need. We must come face to face with the fact that it is not a human person who constitutes the means of delivering us from seeming evil, but the true thoughts of God which are brought to bear upon our problem. Keeping close to divine Principle, we must arise quickly; leave all our false beliefs about ourselves; recognize the light which accompanies the angels, God's thoughts; cast the garment of Truth and Love about us and courageously follow the angels of God's appointing. If we are truly willing to obey the behest of these angels which enter our prison of human doubt and fear, although we are seemingly bound by chains of evil, our deliverance will be externalized, as in Peter's case, in the victory over every wrong condition.

When Peter came to himself, he knew that God had delivered him out of the hands of his enemies. What a feeling of joy and gratitude for this wonderful experience must have pervaded Peter's consciousness at that moment! Have we not felt a similar spiritual uplift after making a demonstration over a problem, when reviewing the steps taken in bringing about its solution? The proof that once again God's divine power has been manifested, renews our faith in the one and only Mind, and again proves true the promise of the Christ, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

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