The crowd grows in numbers as the time draws near for the hospital gates to be opened. The midday sun is lighting up this and other streets of the great city. Garments that passed muster in the dulness, seem suddenly stricken with age and present a hard-worn appearance in the sunshine. It is by no means a narrow street, in fact it is rather broader than some, but, sadly enough, leads to what is termed in the great metropolis the "Bridge of Sighs." Many in the weary crowd turn their backs to the sun. Perhaps this is hardly the correct way of describing their action; it would be more accurate to say that they turned their pained eyes away from its brightness, for these are they that turn away from the light, not because their deeds are evil, but because evil is condemning them all more or less to walk in darkness.
Patiently these people wait, and when the gate is opened they sit, hour after hour, until their turn comes to be examined. Some are resigned, because they wrongly believe it is God's will that they should walk in darkness, and many who contrast these conditions with their childhood's lesson that "God is love," are now steeped in bitter skepticism.
One is apt to wonder what would eventuate if these crowds that spend so many weary hours seeking material vision, would bestow similar effort, time, and patience on the gaining of spiritual perception. What is this spiritual perception? they might ask. The question has been answered in many ways, but the reply in its final analysis, if it came from those unacquainted with Christian Science, would be summed up as blind faith. Oh, the tragical mockery of it! Was it blind faith that restored the sight of the son of Timæus outside the city of Jericho, or was it Jesus' spiritual perception of the divine Principle of all reality? The teaching of Christian Science makes clear to all who reason rationally, that the latter is the right explanation.
