Article July 19, 1913 Issue

THE SINGLE EYE

ADA JANE MILLER.

In the Sermon on the Mount Christ Jesus said: "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." Spiritual light is the natural illuminator of consciousness, and it is possible to dwell in constant light. We may have periods of darkness, or continuous darkness, which we may attempt to efface by means of various humanly conceived devices or philosophies; but these, being of mortal conception, are dependent upon the ever-varying conditions of environment. Spiritual light has no varying quality; any variation that it may seem to have is due to but one cause,—a wavering thought, an eye that is not single. No obstruction of this light is so dense as a selfish or sensual thought. When the eye is turned inward, it looks into darkness, vacuity; not a ray of light illumines consciousness, and in this darkness is conceived all that prevents the world from having a present realization of peace, harmony, heaven.

This darkness in individual consciousness has been multiplied and multiplied until we have a world to be saved from the darkness of error. The Saviour, or Christ, is the coming to the individual consciousness of a light which reveals the true relation of God and man; which reveals the futility of human devices for illuminating thought, no matter how time-honored they may be; which reveals the unsatisfying quality of all that materiality gives,—unsatisfying, because without real substance.

Sometimes this spiritual light floods consciousness. This occurs when there is a complete turning from the material to the spiritual through the understanding gained in Christian Science, and it is usually expressed in healing, for, as Mrs. Eddy tells us (Science and Health, p. 503), "God, Spirit, dwelling in infinite light and harmony from which emanates the true idea, is never reflected by aught but the good." Again, this light comes as comes the day: first the morning star, then the strange stillness of the dawn, and then—day! Whether the light comes in a flood, as when a sleeper awakens to find his room sunlit, or whether it comes as comes the star, the dawn, and then the day, it can be kept, lived in continuously, only as we discern that our sense of its permanence depends entirely upon our faithfulness to the truth. When shadows fall, when darkness comes, we are apt to think that the obstructions are due to the fact that others are standing in our light; but in truth these shadows are usually from within, and as we multiply them our darkness increases.

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