Our Leader says that "Spiritual teaching must always be by symbols" (Science and Health, p. 575). If this were more generally recognized, the vast schoolroom of nature would be filled with eager and appreciative students who would see in everything therein, from the lowliest to the loftiest, from the simplest to the most complex, lessons adapted to every stage of human development. When spiritual sense unfolds the meaning of nature, we shall indeed find "sermons in stones," and "books in the running brooks."
At this time of the year, those who have eyes to see, catch glimpses of the resurrection in the escape of the rivers from their long winter imprisonment, in the reappearing of leaf, bud, and blossom, in the returning music of insects and birds. While this is true, there are many with saddened hearts to whom all this seems but a denial of their fondest hopes. Like Job, they argue that although nature may paint the springtime with returning beauty, yet "man lieth down, and riseth not; till the heavens be no more," and, sad to tell, there are many who, more in doubt than in hope, long for
the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still.
