LOVERS of the Bible never cease to appreciate the significance of the complete deliverance of the Israelites from their Egyptian pursuers at the Red Sea. This dramatic story, so simply told in the fourteenth chapter of Exodus, vividly portrays the results that follow implicit obedience to divine direction.
Although the Egyptian Pharaoh had agreed to let the captive nationals leave the country in peace, he later had a change of heart. Motivated by greed and the worst passions of evil, he mobilized the chariots, and horses and horsemen of Egypt and gave hot pursuit.
When this apparently invincible force overtook the unarmed Israelites by the sea, it is little wonder that the dilemma struck terror to their hearts. Before them lay an impassable expanse of sea. Behind them pressed an army. From a human standpoint, the plight of the Israelites was utterly hopeless.
However, Moses, the intrepid leader of his people, refused to view the situation from such a standpoint. Relying solely on divine guidance, he promised his fellow countrymen (Ex. 14:13), "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever."
The familiar story follows—the command to go forward, the parting of the waters, the passage of the Israelites on dry ground through the midst of the sea, the Egyptian pursuit, the closing of the waters over the chariots and the horsemen, and the total destruction of Pharaoh's army. The story ends simply, "Thus the Lord saved Israel that day."
The student of Christian Science, pondering this glorious triumph, rejoices in its completeness, finality, swiftness—a demonstration of God's omnipotence and omnipresence. There was no delay, no debated strategy, no pitched battle—only unquestioning obedience to the "go forward" and complete realization of the promised deliverance "to day" and "for ever."
Mankind today, like the Israelites of yore, seem beset with various forms of bondage—physical discomfiture, mental disturbance, lack, ignorance, fear, discouragement, enslavement to drugs, tobacco, alcohol. But the way of victory has been shown in the life and teachings of Christ Jesus and has been explained by Mrs. Eddy, who holds forth this promise (Science and Health, p.224): "The power of God brings deliverance to the captive. No power can withstand divine Love." Farther on in the same paragraph she adds: "Whatever enslaves man is opposed to the divine government. Truth makes man free."
There is no suggestion of inadequacy or limitation in these statements, nor was there a suggestion of either in Moses' injunction to "stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord ... to day." Truth is positive, active, all-inclusive. Its operation is always complete. God never takes us only part of the way. He takes us all the way.
At times in our human existence, it may seem impossible for us to avoid some encircling entrapment, in which apparently overwhelming forces press against us. In the early 1930's my life seemed to be gravitating toward just such an experience. For well over a decade I had been pioneering in the teaching of high school journalism in a midwestern state.
For a long time I had felt that the available textbooks in the field were quite inadequate and over the years I had developed much of my own teaching materials. I had occasionally thought of organizing these into manuscript form and offering them to a textbook publisher, but the pressure of daily activity always seemed to delay the project.
One day I received a strange request in a letter from a total stranger in a distant state. The writer stated that he was writing a book on high school journalism and that he had heard of my method of presenting the subject. He said that he was so impressed that he was writing to ask if I would give him my material so he could include it in his forthcoming textbook.
My wife and I debated this most unusual proposition and found much comfort in this passage in Science and Health, in which Mrs. Eddy says (p.506), "Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts, even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose in order that the purpose may appear." We decided I should use the material and write the book myself.
Almost miraculously the necessary leisure time appeared, and the manuscript took finished form naturally and easily. Then came a new experience—submitting the manuscript to publishers, long delays, and rejection after rejection. Arguments against the project were many and varied: the field was too small, publication would be unprofitable, and, finally, I was an unknown writer.
To complicate things still further, the depression era had brought me salary cuts, while inharmonious surrounding conditions persisted and multiplied. Health problems began cropping up in my family. We were on the verge of despair.
Further metaphysical work convinced us that the right thing to do was to utilize the talents we had and to go forward. In our basement was an unused printing press and a modest supply of type. The three-month summer vacation was at hand. I could set the type for the proposed book. My wife could run the press. And if the pages were laid out in proper order, our small daughter could assemble them, even though she was too young to read them.
Laboriously, we turned out the first small edition and risked our meager capital on a direct mail sales campaign. All along we were sustained by a favorite passage in "Miscellaneous Writings" by Mrs. Eddy (p. 307), "God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies."
Book sales were instantaneous and continuous. In subsequent editions we were enabled to have the type set commercially and later to have the presswork done on a larger press. Eventually the bindery work was sublet to a bindery, and, finally, distribution was handled outside the family. Nearly thirty years later the business is still prospering, and thousands of teachers and students, both in this country and abroad, have benefited by the ideas expressed and utilized in this book.
The experience of obeying the command to go forward, the passage through the depths, and the falling away of the shackles of bondage have been an unending source of inspiration and gratitude. Truly, we saw—spiritually discerned—such forms of bondage as fear, discouragement, insufficiency, lack, and rejection overcome by the Christ, Truth. And we have seen them "no more."
