The new-old miracle of earth's awakening from its winter sleep has its parallel in our spiritual experience. The night of sorrow and suffering may envelop us for a season, may even seem to bolt out all that life holds of hope and promise, but through the long dark watches there is yet a ray of light, for we know of a surety that the morning cometh, and we wait patiently for the joy and gladness that follow in its train. When the "Sun of righteousness" dawns with its healing beams on the thought darkened and enslaved by its beliefs in materiality, the illusion that sin, sickness, and death are real and must be submitted to is dispelled. The illumined thought no longer seeks "the living among the dead," but in the joy of the resurrection morning perceives the truth of being,—that, whatever the seeming, man in the image and likeness of God is as perfect and undying as is his creator; that even as the Christ broke asunder the bands with which error would have held him, so may we break the thrall of belief in any other power than omnipotent and ever present Truth and Love, and awake to newness of life, to the freedom that is the inalienable heritage of the sons and daughters of the infinite God.
Thus it is that out of our encounters with the storms of sense, out of the trails of our faith in the goodness of God, we may emerge triumphant; more than victors, because we have learned the lesson of the resurrection morning, the supreme assurance of that wonderful promise, "Because I live, ye shall live also." We have learned, as did the disciples, that the Master's resurrection is our resurrection, the proof of immortality that not all the assaults of error can shake. It is through this realization that we are enabled, as Mrs. Eddy points out, to raise not only ourselves but others "from spiritual dulness and blind belief in God into the perception of infinite possibilities" (Science and Health, p. 34). For nineteen centuries the world had heard and accepted the story of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, but dulled ears failed to catch the personal import of these stupendous events, until through Mrs. Eddy's discovery of the divine Principle which animated the Master's words and works, their present-day significance and application were revealed.
If we are ever tempted to think that no other sorrow is like unto ours, or to murmur because our endeavors to keep to the straight and narrow path are at times thwarted by seemingly insuperable obstacles, then is the time to remember with gratitude the beloved Leader who blazed the way, for never again can the journey be so toilsome as when, across the desert waste of human hopes, she "pressed on through faith in God ... into the land of Christian Science, where fetters fall and the rights of man are fully known and acknowledged" (Science and Health, p. 226). She had discovered the divine Principle of being, but she must prove every step of the way, must surmount every difficulty which ignorant prejudice or blind malice could thrust before her. There must have been many times when, dismayed and almost disheartened at the onslaughts of error, none other than the assurance of divine protection could have been her strength and stay; but she could claim the comfort extended to Israel, "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee,"—and thus wrest victory out of seeming defeat.
