Editorial January 18, 1913 Issue

"WHAT OF THE NIGHT?"

Annie M. Knott

In the ninth chapter of John's gospel, which is truly a gospel in itself, containing as it does a statement of Principle and its idea, Truth and its demonstration, we find these words of the Master: "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work." This was followed by the declaration: "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." In the prophecy of Isaiah we find the question, "What of the night?" which is answered by the admonition, "Inquire ye: return, come." Throughout the Scriptures we find many references to night and darkness, most of which are figurative, but in St. John's description of the new heaven and the new earth we read that "there shall be no night there." Mrs. Eddy states that in divine Science "God is revealed as infinite light. In the eternal Mind, no night is there" (Science and Health, p. 511).

In view of all this, we may well inquire what the Master meant when he warned his disciples of the approach of darkness in which no one could work. In the religious teaching of our earlier days we believed that the night to which Jesus referred was the coming of death, indeed many Bible commentaries sustain this view; but this could not have been Jesus' meaning, as he ever directed thought away from death to life, with all its glorious opportunities. At the same time, his words respecting the approach of night are clearly a solemn warning which all his professed followers would do well to heed. They were spoken at a time when the enemies of Truth were blindly and maliciously seeking to quench the light of Life and Love which was illuminating earth's darkness through the healing ministry of Christ Jesus, and he undoubtedly saw that only those who were willing to walk in this light would stand the crucial tests which were coming to "try" each and every disciple, even as it is today.

The Master said that even he could do the works of the Father only "while it is day," and we should never forget that this high demand rests upon us at all times, for, as Paul has said, those who accept the truth are "children of light," "not of the night, nor of darkness," therefore we must "watch and be sober." The whole question is really made clear by the declaration, "I [Christ, Truth] am the light of the world," and the requirement that we abide in him. If we at any time heed the seductions of sensuous mortal mind, then for us the clouds of sense will gather and the night come wherein, the Master taught, "no man can work." Nor can any one work truly and effectively in Science whose thoughts are filled with theories of disease and sin, or whose reckonings are made largely from the standpoint of belief in matter and material law.

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