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| the photos are from a visit to Scotland |
ELIAS
BY EVA-MARIA HOGREFE
From the June 2009 issue of The Christian Science Journal
LOOKING BACK ON THE IMPACT of my first healing in Christian Science—an instantaneous and permanent release from migraine headaches—I'm struck by how this Science helped prepare me to put down fear and trust God completely even in the midst of uncertainties. I saw that right where doubts and difficulties appear, then and there God's love strengthens us. The teachings of Christian Science were enabling me to take hold of a sense of spiritual reality—the infinite harmony of God's creation—as the only truth, calling into question any discordant evidence to the contrary.
Elias. Prophecy; spiritual evidence opposed to material sense; Christian Science, with which can be discerned the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold; the basis of immortality.
"Elias truly shall first come and restore all things." (Matthew xvii. 11.)
—Science and Health, p. 585
This experience confirmed what I'd begun to understand: Healing in Christian Science comes through spiritual means alone. The emphasis is not on physical laws and theories, but on an understanding of God's law, and a readiness to follow it. I realized that spiritual endeavor, then, doesn't conclude when a healing occurs, but continues to guide us to new spiritual discoveries and possibilities.
At that time, greatly inspired by the healing, I studied and contemplated Mary Baker Eddy's major work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. The divine logic and love I found in it continued to unfold to me the spiritual basis of being, and to correct the myriad material beliefs about existence. For example, I learned that the Biblical prophet Elias, spiritually interpreted, represents "... Christian Science, with which can be discerned the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold; ..."
In Bible times, prophecy included, but wasn't limited to, foretelling what would happen in the future. A prophet was a divine messenger, teaching God's Word, interpreting His will, and communicating His guidance to the people. The Scriptures also record the many healing works of the prophets. They were spiritually fitted to see through the appearances of limitation, conflict, danger, disease, even death—and to restore divinely ordained health and harmony.
The prophet Elias (or Elijah), who lived in Israel around the ninth century BC, challenged idol worship during times when the Israelites struggled with deprivation and rebelliousness, and preached worship of the one God. He triumphed over persecution and despair. His spiritual insight alleviated acute shortages and raised the dead.
A spiritual understanding of the Scriptures restores their original tongue in the language of Spirit, that primordial standard of Truth.
—MARY BAKER EDDY
Biblical prophecy later foretold the reappearance of Elijah (see Mal. 4:5). And centuries later, Jesus, speaking of John the Baptist, said that "Elias is come already" (Matt. 17:12). Yet these references didn't point to personal reappearances. John's role was to prepare peoples' thought for the Messianic mission of Christ Jesus, which was "... to prove what God is and what He does for man" (Science and Health, p. 26). In spiritual terms, then, Elias represents the ongoing revelation of divine Truth and Love, which overturns the material notions that frighten and burden humanity, and paves the way to immortality.
As I continued reading Science and Health, I saw the concepts it presented as "the still small voice" of Truth. I became progressively convinced that a mental error, and not a particular circumstance, is always the problem. I saw that a situation in and of itself couldn't harm me or anyone else. Instead, it challenges us to look for solutions; to turn to the foundational truths of all real thought and action as presented in Christian Science—to the continuity of the Life that is God, and the immortality of spiritual good. As the Psalmist reassures us, "I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears" (Ps. 34:4).
Spiritual discernment enables us to look with X-raylike vision right through, and beyond, erroneous mortal beliefs to the divine truths that bring deliverance. In every instance, we can without hesitation turn to divine Mind's power. Through glimpses of the spiritual meaning of all things, we can move forward and find that all we ever need is in God and His Christ. Each individual's place in the divine order is assured.
