The dawning of the morning comes in varying ways. In most parts of the world it is gradual, while in other places it appears swiftly, as described in the words of the well-known ballad, "... the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay."
The dawning of spiritual truth in human consciousness may come with healing suddenly as one turns thought in prayer to God. This is the natural Christly way of Christian Science treatment, as when Jesus spoke the word and healed the sick. But often our experience, as Christian Scientists well know, is that of the gradual illumination of consciousness through prayer as the human is put aside for the divine and God's power stands out in spiritual clarity.
I recall a dawn that is typical of this. My wife and I had been traveling through the night over the California desert by automobile. We were going east. About four o'clock in the morning a faint, nebulous light appeared in the eastern sky, an almost imperceptible glow. Then we saw on our left a strange fantasy high in the heavens. It was the towering, snow-capped tip of Mt. Whitney rising above the black mass below. The earth lay unseen in the darkness, which seemed to reach up as if to touch the delicate tracery. Soon the soft glow of coloring defined the east with orange. Faint shafts of yellow and gold tipped the low clouds while the morning touched the scene with delicate crimson strokes, heralding the coming sun. Then as we turned again we saw that the purple mountains had emerged from their night covering. There they were, clearly outlined in their grandeur, overwhelming in their massive imperious beauty, proclaiming the coming of another day.
