That Was the Glorious Day

OUR eight-year-old son was staying home from school--sick in bed with tonsillitis. He had had this disease every spring and fall for the past two years. Each time we had given him the medicine that the doctor had provided. Each time he had recovered, but always the disease had returned.

This morning was different. I had begun to study Christian Science. Instead of calling the doctor I went to my son's bedside to read to him from the Bible and from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of this healing Science of Christianity. One verse from the Bible stood out to me. It's from Psalms and reads, ''Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves'' (100:3). For the first time in my life I realized that we are not made by two human beings--we do not start from an egg. That is a misconception. We are spiritual beings, created by God.

I was so uplifted by this recognition that we are spiritual beings, not physical beings, and so sure of God's care and love for His own children that I said to the boy, ''You are feeling better now, so I'll go to the kitchen and do my morning work.'' Which I did.

Very soon he also came out, completely well.

I had glimpsed for the first time something of my son's spiritual identity as God's spiritual child. This glimpse healed him! He went out to play, and there never was a recurrence of the disease in childhood or in adulthood.

From that time I began to obey the spiritual directive implied by this verse from Isaiah: ''Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils'' (2:22). Turning away from believing that man is material to the understanding that man is actually spiritual opened a whole new world for me. A new era started in my life. I realized that if God made the child, he could certainly take care of him. I was freed from fear for the child and from fear of the disease.

A statement in Science and Health strengthened my conviction that man is spiritual, not physical. Mrs. Eddy writes: ''Continuing our definition of man, let us remember that harmonious and immortal man has existed forever, and is always beyond and above the mortal illusion of any life, substance, and intelligence as existent in matter'' (p. 302). And recognition of this spiritual fact heals, as I had seen in my son's case.

What happened that day opened up untold good for the whole family. It was a glorious day indeed. Mrs. Eddy in her Miscellaneous Writings has an article entitled ''The New Birth.'' It includes this passage: ''These commands of infinite wisdom, translated into the new tongue, their spiritual meaning, signify: Thou shalt love Spirit only, not its opposite, in every God-quality, even in substance; thou shalt recognize thyself as God's spiritual child only and the true man and true woman, the all-harmonious 'male and female,' as of spiritual origin, God's reflection,--thus as children of one common Parent,--wherein and whereby Father, Mother, and child are the divine Principle and divine idea, even the divine 'Us'--one in good, and good in One'' (p. 18). That effectively lifts thought above that supposed man whose breath is in the nostrils and brings healing! The spiritual man is the real man. We need to get acquainted with him--with ourselves. As we do, many glorious days are ours because we see more God-given harmony filling our lives.

Praise ye the Lord.

I will praise the Lord

with my whole heart,

in the assembly of the upright,

and in the congregation.

The works of the Lord are great,

sought out of all them

that have pleasure therein.

His work is honourable

and glorious:

and his righteousness

endureth for ever.

He hath made his wonderful works

to be remembered:

the Lord is gracious

and full of compassion.

Psalms 111:14