Article February 22, 1913 Issue

"LIGHT ABOVE THE SUN."

IGERNA B. J. SOLLAS.

In Science and Health we are told that "when the mist of mortal mind evaporates, the curse will be removed" (p. 557). There is an experience that belongs to Switzerland in winter which must have come with a burst of joy upon many an unexpectant visitor, and which well illustrates the common experiences of Christian Scientists. After a spell of hot bright sunshine and busy days spent in skating, skeeing, tobogganing, and general merriment, suddenly without warning all is plunged in dense mist, the view is cut off, the immediate surroundings look commonplace and dull; while the visitors, cold and complaining, are at a loss for occupation.

But some more buoyant spirits cannot believe that, beautiful as the sunshine is, we are wholly dependent upon it for happiness, and they set forth to enjoy the day and to find new beauties in spite of the mist. If the snow does not glint in myriad colors in the sunlight, the hoar frost on the pine trees displays dainty forms in infinite variety and cheers the toilers up-hill, who soon grow warm with their efforts. After climbing about a thousand feet they find the mist no longer a dense pall; it is breaking up into clouds, and the sun is struggling through. Soon the sun is brilliant, and they find themselves above the clouds, in a veritable earthly paradise, as they stand on the sunlit mountain-top, a snow-covered island in an archipelago of similar islands, throned in a sea of mist. The homeward journey is cheered with the thought of taking the good news to the others, for the mist shows no sign of lifting and may perhaps remain for days. But the news is not received as they expect it to be. The commonest reply is that it is hardly worth while to take so gloomy and toilsome a journey for the chance of a short time in the sunshine at the end.

Thus in Christian Science we sometimes find that we cannot always help people as we would by telling them the good news. They must want the light, and be willing to toil for it, and to "rejoice all the rugged way" (Poems, p. 14); otherwise we may be able to help them only by thoughts entertained in silence. Bacon quotes the saying, "No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage-ground of truth (a hill not to be commanded and where the air is always clear and serene) and to see the errors and wanderings and mists and tempests in the vale below;" and he adds, "So always that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling or pride." Certainly Christian Scientists know that it is good to stand in the light upon the mountain-top, and to know that no sea of mist divides them from those below, but that the light is for all, always.

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