The “Shadow Of Egypt” Dispelled

It is claimed that at no time in human history has the Bible been so widely read as during recent years. Hundreds of thousands of volumes have been sold yearly, all over the world,—a proof, it is believed, that the number of earnest Bible students is steadily increasing. This fact, however, welcome as it is, would not tend to effect the great improvement necessary in the disastrous world-order, or lack of order, were it not that a fundamental change is taking place in the long-accepted interpretation of the sacred writings. Libraries filled to overflowing with commentaries, sermons, and such like works attest the erudite and consecrated study of the Bible down through the centuries. Merely to increase these would not bring in “the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ.”

It is sometimes charged to Christian Scientists that they are constant readers, but not students, of the Bible. They refute this statement in the sense in which it is made; and prove their refutation, in another sense. The true Christian Scientist interprets the term “student” as “disciple; a learner, especially a follower who has learned to believe the truth of his teacher.” He has become a follower who believes in this teacher, the divine Word, because of having used it under every circumstance and condition in which he has found himself. This he knows has been made possible by the discovery of Christian Science, which includes the spiritual interpretation of the Bible, the interpretation put by Christ Jesus upon the Scriptures which existed in his time,—the absolute Science which he not only taught, but demonstrated by his mighty works. The Christian Scientist knows that this discovery was made by a woman spiritually prepared for Truth’s revelation, who, after this profound experience, followed in her Master’s footsteps and proved scientifically her statements concerning the spiritual interpretation of the Bible, by doing many of the works that he did, and as he did them. Having proved by demonstration, as Christian Science demands, the divine Principle and logic of her discovery and its power to effect results, Mrs. Eddy gave to the world a clear and complete statement of it in a textbook, now read in all civilized countries and destined to be “for the healing of the nations.” This textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” her grateful students know to be unlike any commentary ever written on the Bible, since it fulfills the Scriptures, and is bringing—to use Wycliffe’s translation—”Science and helthe” to the people.

Time and space vanish in this spiritual, scientific interpretation. Past, present, and future link together in showing forth the unity and continuity of the divine, eternal purpose and plan. The First Commandment, foreshadowed in Genesis and completely enforced, that is, fulfilled, by Christ Jesus, is again foreshadowed in the Apocalypse, and is finding enforcement, or fulfillment, in Christian Science. The children of Israel are still journeying through the wilderness under a great Leader, in this age a woman, who is crying, as did Moses, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.” The “shadow of Egypt” still falls upon them; the rebellious ones still seek the “strength of Pharaoh,” just as when Isaiah warned: “Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: that walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.”

What is the “shadow of Egypt”? The Christian Scientist knows that no commentary however learned or devout, no Bible student however faithful, ever made it clear until it was made clear in Mrs. Eddy’s spiritual interpretation of the Bible. When she discovered Christian Science, she, in fact, rediscovered the First Commandment and the way to keep it. She knew God to be Spirit, Mind; and since there is but one God, reason and revelation met in this conclusion: “All must be Mind and Mind’s ideas; since, according to natural science, God, Spirit, could not change its species and evolve matter” (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 23). What, then, becomes of matter? A little later, on page 26, she says: “Natural history shows that neither a genus nor a species produces its opposite. God is All, in all. What can be more than All? Nothing: and this is just what I call matter, nothing.” So-called matter is the “shadow of Egypt” and the “strength of Pharaoh.” How startling to a civilization which had believed itself Christian to be told by a fearless woman that it was steeped in idolatry, breaking the First Commandment at every step, following after strange gods as surely as they who prayed to Baal or raised the golden calf in defiance of Moses! How startling to a civilization vaunting itself as scientific to be told that it still dwells in mythology and superstition; that the “shadow of Egypt,” which had darkened and delayed the onward march of Israel over two thousand years ago, was the belief of life in matter—an illusion, mirage, shadow, scientifically proved to be unreal; that in spite of its inventions and so-called progress, trust in it is only confusion; and looking for strength to the Pharaoh of material methods has led only to shame, war, pestilence, death!

Much that the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, told the world over fifty years ago through her spiritual interpretation of the Bible, is rapidly being proved. To-day, natural scientists are declaring there is no time or space; they are explaining matter away; they are admitting, in many deeply significant instances, the helplessness of the “strength of Pharaoh.” Material methods are being tried on a vaster scale than ever before, and found wanting; death is being questioned on every side; and those who are turning for the solution of their problems to “familiar spirits” are but putting their trust still in the “shadow of Egypt.” To each and all of which, divine Science returns the one uncompromising, searching question, “Should not a people seek unto their God?” For as Mrs. Eddy declares in Science and Health (p. 17), “God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All.”