"No more sea"

CHARLOTTE RUTH DECKER

AS a part of St. John's vision recorded in the book of Revelation, we read that when the material sense of heaven and earth had disappeared and the true concept was realized, "there was no more sea." The meaning of this simple statement is worth our careful study. Mrs. Eddy writes of it in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 536), "In St. John's vision, heaven and earth stand for spiritual ideas, and the sea, as a symbol of tempest-tossed human concepts advancing and receding, is represented as having passed away."

The man-made theories as to what constitutes harmonious existence, and how to bring it into experience, are certainly like the ebbing and flowing tides of the sea. The cures advanced for the fears and ills of one generation recede and are forgotten by their children, and then another wave of human concepts sweeps in. All through the ages we see humanity searching for some stable anchorage which will assure them of peace and safety. The remedy is in God's Word, the inspired teachings of the Bible, but as long as the enigma of the Adam-dream, described in the second chapter of Genesis, is accepted as the explanation of man's origin, the remedy meets with indifferent success. Small wonder that many have turned from the contradictory theory of an omnipotent, omniscient God creating man in His own image and likeness, yet subject to sin, disease. and death.

In the thirty-third chapter of Job we read, "If there be an interpreter, one among a thousand, to shew unto man his uprightness : then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom." Such "an interpreter" was Christ Jesus, who came teaching and proving by his works that man is the son of God, and as the son of God is not subject to the materiality presented by the five material senses. Jesus had, indeed, "found a ransom"; but his interpretation was accepted by only a comparatively small number at the time, and very soon it became adulterated by materiality. And so the vision was temporarily obscured to mankind, and the search continued.

In our day another "interpreter" has appeared, one who searched long and faithfully for the key to the meaning and method of Christ Jesus' works. Finally, because of her pure love for God and humanity, Mrs. Eddy was given this "key" and has delivered it to the world in Science and Health. Thus Christian Science is teaching the corrective truth which will waken all mankind from the Adam-dream. And, in consequence, the fluctuating sea of human beliefs is disappearing.

One who had spent many years as a trained nurse in the service of medicine and surgery, found herself at the parting of the ways. Health, happiness, and prosperity seemed gone, their material foundations having crumbled along with her faith in medical and surgical theories. Then she turned away completely from these to the truth as found in the Christian Science textbook, and one by one exchanged "the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul" (Science and Health, p. 269). This exchange brought a permanent and stabilized understanding, in place of variable and changing beliefs, and a peaceful confidence that every problem will eventually be solved by steadfast and faithful application of the law of God.

Where are "the ideas of Soul" while we seem to experience this dream of material sense? Right at hand for our use; but we cannot see them while holding in belief "the objects of sense," which are their exact opposites. We cannot change "the objects of sense" into "the ideas of Soul": we must exchange them. A belief that two times two equals five would hide from one the truth that two times two equals four; and all the concentrated thinking one might do would never make the incorrect statement true: it must be exchanged for the correct one. It is clear that right thinking does not create anything, but simply brings to light the truth about creation as it has always been and always will be — perfect.

Today, as never before, the world is turning to spiritual truth, because of sad experience in relying on the complicated and vacillating opinions of many so-called minds, so poorly counterfeiting the one and only Mind which governs the entire universe. The gratitude of one who in Christian Science finds "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding," after wandering among theories based on sense testimony, cannot be measured. It can only be shown by living a life patterned after the highest idea of good.

On page 93 of "Retrospection and Introspection" our Leader writes: "The best spiritual type of Christly method for uplifting human thought and imparting divine Truth, is stationery power, stillness, and strength; and when this spiritual ideal is made our own, it becomes the model for human action." As mankind accepts this, there will come the fulfillment of the Revelator's vision, "There was no more sea."

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School-Day Problems

September 17, 1932

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