no god but God, and that the kingdoms of this earth belong to Him, he immediately gained a following who were ready to maintain that truth with power and unity. "And the Mahometan conquests" writes Maurice in his Lectures on the Religions of the World, 1846, "from generation to generation remain a testimony not against the Gospel, however mighty a testimony against Christians, but for it, a testimony to one, necessary, though forgotten portion of it."

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." (Exodus 203.) Mrs. Eddy quotes this commandment on page 340 of her text-book and adds:

"The First Commandment is my favourite text. ... One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, 'Love thy neighbour as thyself;' annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry,-whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed."

It naturally follows that a mind which is constantly eliminating all evil from its knowledge of God rises to great spiritual perception, and we find that there are solemn moments in Augustine's experience when he is lifted above existence in the flesh altogether. Such experience was his in the last precious days which he spent with his mother Monica at Ostia shortly before her death.

"And when our discourse was brought to that point" he writes, "that the very highest delight of the earthly senses, in the very purest material light, was in respect of the sweetness of that life, not only not worthy of compar

ison, but not even of mention; we raising up ourselves with a more glowing affection towards the self same, did by degrees pass through all things bodily, even the very heaven, whence sun and moon and stars shine upon the earth; yea we were soaring higher yet, by inward musing and discourse and admiring of thy works; and we came to our own minds, and went beyond them, that we might arrive at that region of never failing plenty where "Thou feedest Israel' for ever with the food of truth and where life is the wisdom by whom all these things are made, and what have been, and what shall be."

Speaking of her human experience of "emergence into Light," Mrs. Eddy writes of it in somewhat the same mood of earnest exaltation:

"The trend of human life was too eventful to leave me undisturbed in the illusion that this so-called life could be a real and abiding rest. All things earthly must ultimately yield to the irony of fate, or else be merged into the one infinite Love. could not prophesy sunrise or starlight.

The senses

"Thus it was when the moment arrived of the heart's bridal to more spiritual existence. When the door opened, I was waiting and watching; and, lo, the bridegroom came! The character of the Christ was illuminated by the midnight torches of Spirit. . . . Soulless famine had fled. . . . Being was beautiful, its substance, cause, and currents were God and His idea. I had touched the hem of Christian Science." (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 23.)

"She (wisdom or spiritual understanding) is not made" continues Augustine, "but is, as she hath been, and so shall she be ever; yea rather to 'have been' and 'hereafter

to be' are not in her, but only 'to be' seeing she is eternal. For to 'have been' and to 'be hereafter' are not eternal." So, too, Mrs. Eddy writes:

"Rising above the false, to the true evidence of Life, is the resurrection that takes hold of eternal Truth. Coming and going belong to mortal consciousness. God is 'the same, yesterday and to-day, and forever.'" (Unity of Good, p. 60.)

Augustine's thoughts in heavenly communion touch the very truth and wisdom of spiritual life:

"And while we were discoursing and panting after her (Wisdom), we slightly touched on her with the whole effort of our heart; and we sighed, and there we left bound 'the first fruits of the spirit' and returned to vocal expressions of our mouth where the word spoken has beginning and end. And what is like unto Thy word, our Lord, who 'endureth in Himself' without becoming old, and maketh all things new."

With these rapt musings of the inner soul of Augustine may be compared Mrs. Eddy's words:

"Spirit, God, is heard when the senses are silent." "One moment of divine consciousness, or the spiritual understanding of Life and Love, is a foretaste of eternity. This exalted view, obtained and retained when the Science of being is understood, would bridge over with life discerned spiritually the interval of death, and man would be in the full consciousness of his immortality and eternal harmony, where sin, sickness, and death are unknown." (Science and Health, pp. 89, 598.)

The clear spiritual truth which Augustine reaches by climbing with slow and gentle motions the ladder of thought,

touching it first seemingly by instinct, and holding it with tentative awe, almost dazzled by its light, Mrs. Eddy states with a clear precision, an authority of spirit, and a tenderness born of divine power. There were times when the certainty of the truth she uttered filled this strong, truth-affirming woman with a majesty and power which caused the worldly and the wicked to recoil from her presence, stricken with a sense of the odiousness of wrong; while others would be filled with a burning desire to be good, to do good to somebody, somewhere, at once, and to remain good to the end of their lives. What other Christian teachers felt to be true in gleams and flashes of spiritual insight, she knew to be true with steady, unwavering consistency, and her knowledge was never confined to the satisfying of her own questions or her own self-expression. It was the heritage of all mankind. A character combining such masculine wisdom and strength, such rare poise of fine sustained reasoning, such feminine patience and persistence, and love for all creation, is very exceptional and it is only when we begin to note that the thought processes and spiritual experiences of the greatest Christian Saints and philosophers are found in her writings, clearly and courageously expounded, that the vision of a very rare and authoritative nature takes shape in our own mind, and we begin to realize its rank and possible significance to mankind.