A Lad had lost his way and was wandering through the night in a strange wilderness country of rocks and trees and stubbornly opposing underbrush. In the darkness the rocks and trees assumed imaginary shapes of terrifying design. Which way to go was the problem until, when rounding a hill, he saw a dim and distant light, too far away to lend illumination to the path, yet serving to direct his steps. Little by little, as the traveler approached it, the light diffused through the surrounding darkness; strange, frightful shapes gradually lost their grotesque garb and assumed their rightful appearances as friendly trees and thickets.
So it is in our spiritual journey from the darkness of false belief, with its many fears and torments, to the understanding of Love and Truth. When it first appears, the light of Christian Science may seem too remote immediately to show us how to overcome the obtruding, uncouth things of our darkened sense; yet, as we progress, its effulgence grows clearer to us, and the night of error changes into lighter shadows, until it gradually melts away.
It is helpful to know that we do not have to battle in a material way with the menacing appearances, the mythical things of mortal belief, nor to run from them; we have but to advance steadily in the direction of the light until the threatening forms dissolve as their falsity is made apparent by the rays of Truth. Mrs. Eddy has written (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 174): "The footsteps of thought, rising above material standpoints, are slow, and portend a long night to the traveller; but 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."
