"Behold I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared." This verse from the twenty-third chapter of the book of Exodus should bring joyous confidence to every student of Christian Science, because of the assurance of unerring guidance which it contains. The desire for and the need of guidance may appear to be twofold, —special guidance in the working out of single problems, and entire guidance in the journey from the seeming material sense of existence to the full realization that Life is God. But as the latter includes the former, it is readily agreed that if one can be guided to take each human footstep correctly, hearing and obeying the "still small voice," there must result satisfactory progress in putting off the false sense of life in matter and proving, in an ever increasing degree, the truth of being that man is now the son of God.
The multifarious problems presenting themselves daily for solution in the experience of all mankind call for wisdom, discernment, perception, understanding; and these attributes of divine Mind are God's guiding angels. In considering the promise of divine guidance which came to Moses during that period of his life when he was leading the children of Israel from their bondage in Egypt to the promised land, we note the word "behold." After the Ten Commandments had been given to the children of Israel there followed, according to the Biblical record, divers laws and ordinances for their government. Then, lest their thought should become engrossed in detailed methods of applying the Commandments to daily living, there came the admonition to behold the angel. There was the call to realize the eternal fact that because God is ever present there is also the manifestation of His impartial love and guidance.
So, to-day, one may need to be awakened from seeming absorption in human ways and means of finding an answer to questions difficult of solution or settlement, to realize that "the angel of his presence" is ever at hand to lead in the paths of righteousness. Through the inspired teachings of Mary Baker Eddy we learn that "the angels of His presence— the spiritual intuitions that tell us when 'the night is far spent, the day is at hand'—are our guardians in the gloom," as she tells us on page 174 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." As thought is lifted out of the mesmeric fear and suggestions of so-called mortal mind to contemplate the one infinite power, divine Mind, we become conscious of Godgiven intelligence and direction. Then, in the proportion that we continue to behold the angel, and obediently conform our mode of action or course of life as Spirit thus designates, there will be found unvarying right government and guidance, and a correspondingly right working out of the answer to each question confronting us.
