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.
The coming of the dawn illustrates the progression inherent in a Christian Science treatment, which is the recognition of universal spiritual perfection and the nothingness of evil, or matter. While Truth comes alike to all, it does not always come spontaneously or instantly. One's inclination may be to declare words of absolute Truth which are at the time beyond one's ability to comprehend—being mere words without meaning. While instant realization is desirable and frequently experienced, yet in other instances one's mental work involves the gradual clarifying of consciousness in order to demonstrate God's omnipotent allness. Remembering that nature is kind to its verdure, never burning off the morning dew with sudden heat, one notes that the upward steps in consciousness are sometimes necessary to preserve the soundness of one's spiritual reasoning.
When the morning dawns, it is notable that there is no checking of the process, no delay. The dawn is gradual but sure. So it should be in one's prayerful reasoning as he awakens from matter to Spirit. But the novice in Christian Science, as well as the seasoned worker, may feel at times confused or hindered in realizing God's presence. The difficulties presented by the claim of error may also tend to increase the sense of bafflement. The human mind involved in material theories, yet reaching out to God, finds itself in varying states of confusion. In such a predicament one's declarations of Truth, so beneficial on one occasion, may not seem effective on another. In his trouble one may mentally cry, as did the Psalmist (Ps. 22:1), "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
The answer to such a plea is not hard to find. In meeting error one should start at the point where error claims contact with the thought, whether it be dejection, doubt, inability, condemnation, or fear of aggressive evil. As in law, the issue should be joined. The declarations of Truth should be varied and pointed to counteract the specific claim of evil. As the dawn of no two mornings is just alike, so a differing approach in treatment may be required, depending upon the fear or confusion prevalent in thought. Jesus' cry on Calvary, echoing the Psalmist, was one of poignant appeal to God for succor from the possible loss of his life purpose; while at the transfiguration his communion with God was one of grandeur, uttered from the heights of his pure understanding.
As with the shafts of morning light, so spiritual thoughts ascend, and this by way of reason and inspiration. One needs to approach God through the viewpoint he can conceive of best at the time, and thus step by step reach the exalted concept of God's allness, which knows no error. Treatment, or prayer, in Christian Science is of an ascending character. Jesus did not require the last step to be taken first. Witness the Lord's Prayer, which begins with "Our Father," a term of intimate endearment indicating parental understanding of our need. Thus as the prayer proceeds, thought prepares for the recognition of absolute spiritual perfection expressed in the words, "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever."
The nature of God is that of absolute perfection. It is well expressed in words from Habakkuk (1:13), "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity." Yet while one is declaring God to be perfect Principle, knowing no evil, the extremity in which one finds himself may seem very real, the outcome ominous. But this is the very time when he should be able to feel close to God and under His compassionate protection. While the absolute universal nature of God, or Principle, assures us of that closeness, it is our work actually to feel that nearness. That is our responsibility as conscious thinking beings. Why, in a certain instance, it does not appear clear may be that while we declare that God is too perfect to behold evil, we still believe that man is too material to behold perfection.
It is then that we should be able to commune more closely with God in silent appeal, that He may guide our thought, assuage our fear, strengthen our resolve, open the windows of our understanding. In divine Science God knows our need and supplies it. God's thoughts reach us where we are and in the way we require. Our great need is to become conscious of His all-embracing presence and care.
Although God is absolute and perfect, this does not bar us from humble, importunate appeal for surcease from fear and doubt. Our greatest need invokes His greatest care. The all-hearing Mind is open to such appeal and answers it through Love's assurance. In silent intercessory prayer, or the prayer for mediation and aid, our yearning can feel and know God's merciful response. At the end of a day of harassment, filled with vexations, our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, prayed aloud after this manner: "Oh, Father, we turn like tired children to Thee; Thou wilt not leave us comfortless" (Mary Baker Eddy: A Life Size Portait by Lyman P. Powell, 1950 edition, p. 241).
Intercessory prayer does not change God, but it changes us. It transforms our methods. It clarifies our aims, humbles our motives, purifies our desires. But to effect such a prayer may require us to begin with the simpler concepts of God as our helper that is, to begin at the numeration table of Christian Science. Then we may rise in the understanding of Him as all true consciousness, aware of no evil, sin, or death. Such prayer does not make God human; but it makes our thoughts spiritual.
The following is an example of intercessory prayer, and of reaching out to God, as related by a woman living on the Pacific Coast:
"A hot east wind blowing in from the desert overcoming the cooling ocean breezes of the Pacific Ocean is considered the most destructive weather condition in this citrus growing district where I live, and in which industry my family is engaged. One night I was awakened by a din and clatter that evidenced the presence of this destructive wind and its threat to the fruit and leaves of the orange trees. As I stepped before the window to close it and felt the heat like a seering blast, my thought rested on the trees of the land. As I watched, fear came; and in my distress I lifted my plea to God for help.
"Then I thought of Jesus as he arose to still the tempest on the sea. There came a conviction that the same power he utilized, the same truth he knew, had come to the world through Mrs. Eddy's waiting consciousness in the revelation of Christian Science. Then the Bible verse came (Isa. 11:9), 'They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.'
"I continued my mental work, reaching out to God, through this and other helpful Bible thoughts. Later I was able to see more clearly the scientific facts and to declare to error, 'You can have no effect because you are not cause.'
"I was able to dismiss my fear. I did not think of this again for some time that night. In the morning my attention was called to the condition of the trees on the children's land. The damage had visibly stopped almost at the property line of their place. As I stood on the front porch of their home on the hillside high above the orchard, there was pointed out to me one lone tree among a thousand or more which had been slightly damaged in its top branches. This evidence of preservation of the grove was viewed by many growers in that district. I heard the growers trying to explain why these trees were saved. . . . We acknowledged the Father and thanked Him for His goodness and protection."
Christian Science treatment is based on the understanding of God as absolute, and an ever-rising apprehension of His allness. To know that God comforts us, reaches us through the magnitude of His affection, that He forgives the penitent, governs our thoughts, that He guides and sustains us in our steps upward, is a relative but a nevertheless scientific approach in treatment. It is the temporary glimpse which leads us to apprehend our spiritual at-one-ment with God and the absolute perfectibility of His infinite nature.
A passage by Mrs. Eddy presents the dawning of spiritual thought in treatment and its climax in demonstration, through expressing the compassion of the Father (Unity of Good, p. 4): "To gain a temporary consciousness of God's law is to feel, in a certain finite human sense, that God comes to us and pities us; but the attainment of the understanding of His presence, through the Science of God, destroys our sense of imperfection, or of His absence, through a diviner sense that God is all true consciousness; and this convinces us that, as we get still nearer Him, we must forever lose our own consciousness of error."
