HOW vital is light, both spiritually and materially, for without it we stumble in darkness! According to Christian Science, light, or spiritual understanding, penetrates all space. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 503), "Divine Science, the Word of God, saith to the darkness upon the face of error, 'God is All-in-all.' and the light of ever-present Love illumines the universe."
I once listened to an interesting radio talk by an aged pioneer woman of Australia, who described the hardships and difficulties of the early settlers in her land. She said that their first lighting facilities consisted of slush lamps, which were jam tins half filled with earth and melted fat, with a rough wick in the center. As stock production increased and fat became more plentiful, crude tallow candles were molded; these later gave place to gaslight and finally to the bright glow of electricity. As the woman spoke, I realized that each of these means of illumination in its turn must have given comfort; the first two especially, must have allayed to some extent the settlers' fear of the wild, unexplored country and of the often hostile natives.
In her writings Mrs. Eddy frequently stresses the importance of spiritual light. She says (ibid., p. 557), "Divine Science rolls back the clouds of error with the light of Truth, and lifts the curtain on man as never born and as never dying, but as coexistent with his creator." Spiritual light is revelation, dissolving the dark shadows of mortal fear and doubt, enabling us to see the beauty and holiness of man as God's reflection, "as never born and as never dying," unfettered and free from all discord.
Darkness is ignorance. When, through Christian Science, one has caught the first gleam of spiritual understanding, he has begun to leave the utter darkness, or ignorance, of materialism, which regards objects of mortal sense as the only reality and considers sin, sickness, and death as inevitable. The falsity, or unreality, of material life has begun to appear to him, and he would no more wish to return to believing in it than those pioneers would have wished to return to their feeble slush lamps, once they had experienced the benefits of clearer, brighter visibility.
Among the first words in the Bible are these (Gen.1:3, 4): "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good." As spiritual light brightens and our understanding of God deepens, material concepts gradually lose their pretended power either to hurt us or to bring us happiness, because we are becoming aware that man, spiritually created, derives all joy from his creator, divine Mind, and that nothing unlike good can enter his consciousness.
In the New Testament is this beautiful pronouncement of Christ Jesus shortly before his crucifixion (John 12:46): "I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness." To some, this light of understanding may come as a sudden powerful influx, as it did to the disciples on the Day of Pentecost and to Saul on the road to Damascus. "A light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun," the latter described it (Acts 26:13).
To the greater number of us, however, the dawning of the light is slow, fulfilling Isaiah's prophetic words (28:10), "For precept must be upon precept . . .; line upon line . . .; here a little, and there a little." Just as those settlers of long ago had to work in order to attain brighter material illumination, so we have to work for the brightening of spiritual light. By prayer and humble supplication, accepting and rightly using whatever light is given us each day, our course is made clear; and though our progress may be slow and often painful, the illumined path leads always upward to God.
The question may be asked, How should one set about working for brighter spiritual light, clearer spiritual perception? By shunning idleness and worldliness; cultivating kindness, goodwill, patience, and sincerity toward all; being grateful for even the smallest of blessings—these are some of the ways of brightening the light of divine understanding and proving the truth of God and man according to Christian Science.
In Isaiah is this counsel (60:1): "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." No matter how lowly our position, we should claim the priceless privilege of letting our light shine before the whole world. At times it may seem but a faint glimmer, but as we tend it carefully, lovingly, its flame will burn ever brighter, ever more steadily. And who knows when our light may make another's way clearer in the journey God-ward?
A student of Christian Science once suffered from an eye infection, and its unsightliness made her self-conscious in company. Sometime earlier she had been induced against her better judgment to join a fiction library, and she had fallen into the way of reading many mystery stories and so-called thrillers. Later on, she realized that in order to read books that were neither informative nor uplifting and verged at times on sordidness, she had often neglected studying the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly and the writings of Mrs. Eddy, as well as perusing the periodicals founded by her.
One evening she was automatically reaching for a volume of light fiction when she became aware that, in the light of a suddenly brightened spiritual perception, she was regarding such books with actual distaste. She rejoiced in her freedom from an unrewarding habit, and a day or two later she noticed joyfully that the eye infection had vanished just as completely as the habit.
In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy says (p. 510), "Truth and Love enlighten the understanding, in whose 'light shall we see light;' and this illumination is reflected spiritually by all who walk in the light and turn away from a false material sense." Our goal must ever be more enlightened understanding, revealing Life as all good, God, without one dark and unlit place of evil or error.
