Article March 1, 1913 Issue

DIVINE GUIDANCE

GRACE A. WILLIAMS.

When in doubt and perplexity, knowing not which way to turn, and seemingly lost in the wilderness and chaos of mortal mind, we need only appeal to the divine Mind for guidance; for experience teaches that the human mind is no guide, but ever leads astray. Unerring guidance must always come from above the erring human mind, as the following incident will show.

A friend and I had been lost for three hours in a trackless mountain forest. Divine Science was then new to me; I had only glimpsed the teachings of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, which my mother had been studying for a year, but I had seen in reading the chapter on Prayer that it contained the truth and essence of Christianity. Now, bewildered and lost in the dark, silent forest, in which was neither life nor light, I stumbled on blindly, not knowing whither to go nor which way to turn, while my companion, I soon noticed, kept turning to the right, as erring mortal mind in its confusion leads lost people to do. I told him of this tendency, and he threw up his hands and with white, despairing face said: "Well, then, suppose you take the lead. I have not the faintest idea which way to go."

For a moment all looked black to me, for I was as hopelessly dazed as my companion. Standing there, gazing blankly at the unresponsive wilderness on every side, lo, through that awful stillness came a "still small voice" whispering, "Apply Christian Science!" I snatched at this angelic monition, and began to work with what little I knew of divine Truth. I tried to realize God's omnipresence and never-failing care; to realize that His ideas could not be lost or get out of their proper places, because infinite intelligence knows where all His ideas are and never loses sight of them. I soon began to see that as there was no confusion in the one Mind, His ideas could not go astray or become confused. I had worked in this way, still walking on, for about ten minutes, when suddenly I seemed to be all cleared up mentally, and I began to see that if we turned back to the left and advanced in a straight diagonal line, we would eventually reach the place of intersection of the two main roads. It was so clear to me that I was able to make my friend see it, and so entirely to his satisfaction that he was willing to go the opposite way from which we had been going, for this reversal of direction was the outcome of the spiritual enlightenment of my thought.

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