Inspiration is an awareness of the spiritual kingdom. It is not merely an elated sense of mortal thought. It is a clear, calm conviction of God's presence expressed through the beauty, purity, and perfection of the Christ. It is the power and the authority of Truth seen in manifestation.

Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 547), "Inspired thought relinquishes a material, sensual, and mortal theory of the universe, and adopts the spiritual and immortal." We must relinquish the belief that man is a frail mortal living in an insubstantial structure of matter. We must adopt the truth that he exists as the manifestation of Mind and is as perfect and immortal as the Mind that made him. Inspired thought reveals the real man, and by this understanding we are lifted up from the earth to discern our heavenly and harmonious nature.

The Master said to his disciples, and his words apply to all his followers for all time (Matt. 28:20), "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." The understanding of man's spiritual existence in Christ, or Truth, is always with us. To affirm or even entertain the thought that we cannot gain inspiration is a denial of the presence of the Christ. Maybe we have not thought of it in this way, but in fact it is so. It is not our thinking that suggests this denial, but aggressive mental suggestion that would, if it could, keep one separated from his spiritual heritage.

If one fails to gain inspiration in one's daily work or prayer, it is well to handle animal magnetism and its aggressive mental suggestions. It is also wise to recognize that any seeming denseness or obscurity is the belief of a power opposed to God, the shadow instead of the substance, the darkness that would blind one to the light. We must rouse ourselves to refute the claims of animal magnetism and demand our right to live in the light of inspiration and to walk with precision and progress the highway of the Christ.

Animal magnetism, the foe of inspiration, needs to be dealt with resolutely and persistently if we would retain health and harmony and thus help others as well as ourselves. Its claims are numerous. At one time it may appear as apathy, at another, fear, doubt, or any sinful characteristic, all of which tend to shut out inspiration. It would suggest that we may let down our watch at a moment when perhaps our watchfulness is most essential.

Some students unawakened to the need of handling animal magnetism become bewildered when things go wrong and attribute their difficulties to all manner of circumstances. One has heard it said by those who do not appreciate the need of watchfulness that Christian Scientists make too much of animal magnetism. But those who have suffered a loss of inspiration learn how wise our beloved Leader was to keep her followers alive to the workings of error in its many designs and disguises.

Spiritual inspiration is the clear, calm conviction that good alone is real and eternal and immediately available to all who are willing to relinquish the "mortal theory of the universe" and adopt the "spiritual and immortal." Inspiration rejects belief and rests upon understanding. The Master's authoritative statement to the dumb and deaf spirit illustrates a way to dispel the effects of animal magnetism. He said (Mark 9:25), "Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him."

Christ Jesus never believed in the presence and power of evil in whatever form it appeared. He was conscious only of the power, presence, and authority of God. He was the instrument of this power, an ambassador who made practical the laws and precepts of God's government. St. Paul reminds us of our own responsibility in this direction. He says (II Cor. 5:20), "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ."

The Bible is known to us as the inspired Word. It was the Bible to which our beloved Leader turned in her extremity when she lay on what was considered to be a deathbed. It was the sudden inspiration or spiritual awakening gained from the Bible that restored her instantaneously to normal health. Raised from this bed of suffering she took the Bible, and as the result of her inspired study during the years following, the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, was written. Countless men and women for centuries have studied the Bible, and as the light of spiritual inspiration gained through our textbook is thrown upon its pages, the inspired Word is found potent to reveal the divine Science of the healing Christ.

Through the inspired Word our Leader discerned God, good, to be the only presence, His power the only power, His intelligence the controlling wisdom, governing the universe and man. She discerned the potency of divine law and its application to human problems. She learned these facts through inspiration, through the inspired thought that relinquishes the material theory of the universe and adopts the spiritual. Let us as Christian Scientists be daily alive to the need of spiritual inspiration. If we seek, we shall find; if we knock, it shall be opened. This is a promise which animal magnetism can never annul, for it is powerless to prevent our progress or to shut us out from the inspirational understanding that reveals our heavenly origin and immortal existence.

Robert Ellis Key