WHEN Moses was faced with the task of leading the children of Israel out of Egypt into the promised land, the task of leading discouraged, unhappy, sinful mortal thought into obedience to God through spiritual understanding,—out of material sense into spiritual sense,—much prayer, consecration of thought, selflessness, reaching out for divine guidance, and humble listening to Truth must have taken place in his consciousness, in order to discover through divine inspiration the best ways and means of accomplishing this great work.
How to impart to them a certain sense of God's mercy and loving-kindness; how to correct and discipline and yet encourage and enhearten them; how to sow seeds of trust and faith in their thoughts; how to bring to light their true self; in short, how to teach them the truth which would meet their needs—such must have given Moses much prayerful thought. The first step was to get them away from their undesirable environment, from the worldliness, false attractions, and mesmerism of a heathen people, the fleshpots of Egypt, and all the bondage therein involved; also, to release them from material opposition to the Hebrew aspirations and teachings, and so to have them free to work out their salvation.
Moses could have accomplished nothing of himself; but his implicit faith in God, his patience, courage, and forbearance, his firm stand in the face of fearful odds, and his largeness of heart and vision enabled him to go forward, and over a period of forty years in the wilderness to conquer every difficulty that presented itself. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 597) Mrs. Eddy defines "wilderness," in part, as "the vestibule in which a material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence."
