A writer living in the tropics of Africa has spoken of the peculiar beauty of the African nights. In Africa, she says, the night, lit by burning stars or tropic moon, is the time for traveling; so one becomes familiar with the constellations and their places in the heavens and with the beauty of the lunar or stellar scene. No one who has seen the splendor of an African night can readily forget it. In Palestine somewhat similar conditions prevail; the stars in their courses are familiar to travelers of the night, and in Bible times constant reference was made to them. The simile of the guiding star is then no strange one to dwellers in the tropics, because they know from personal experience of the guidance which the constellations afford.
In our journey heavenward we may be likened to travelers of the night scanning the heavens for the lodestar which is to indicate our way and lead us to our destination. We may be reminded of the Wisemen who in the East, seeing a star, followed it even to Bethlehem.
In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy gives us this somewhat startling statement (pp. 238, 239): "The cross is the central emblem of history. It is the lodestar in the demonstration of Christian healing,—the demonstration by which sin and sickness are destroyed."
