Article October 2, 1915 Issue

Sunrise

ADELLA M. FISHBACK

Not long ago, I saw for the first time a glorious sunrise on the ocean, and the whole experience seemed typical of the transformation wrought in my life when the dawn of Truth as revealed in Christian Science awakened me to spiritual sense. Before this experience there was gross darkness, physically, mentally, and spiritually. Not one smallest ray of light penetrated the gloom. A dear friend then told me of the brightness that had illumined her life through the study of Christian Science and the subsequent faithfull application and practice of its teachings. Faintly, very faintly at first, the gray dawn began to break in my weary thought, and hope like a flitting shadow trembled upon the horizon even as it had that morning when I awoke, while birds were beginning to twitter their notes of melody, reminding us of the giver of every good and every perfect gift. I congratulated myself that at last I was awake in time to realize my hope of seeing the sun come up over the ocean on a clear summer morning.

As the mists cleared I looked out toward the east, across the trackless deep, for the first appearance of the sun's rays. Imagine my disappointment on seeing a great bank of dark clouds spreading itself across the eastern horizon, and I began to lose hope of realizing that which I had so long waited to see. There were only clouds where I expected to see sunlight, but something seemed to whisper, "Let patience have her perfect work." Suddenly, away out where the rolling sea and the clouds seemed to meet, there was a little rift in the blackness, and I saw a gleam of deep red, which widened until a ball of glowing crimson was visible. Just a moment and it was gone, then I saw only clouds and sea again, and to mortal sense there was no sun at all. But waiting and watching, I presently saw, away up on the top of that bank of darkness, a gleam of bright yellow light, changing quickly into a wide band of pure gold. Then I realized that surely the sun was shining, and as in mental experience, that if I doubted not, nor ceased to work, watch, and pray, I would see it face to face.

My expectant faith was soon strengthened, for from the very depths of that cloudy mass there suddenly burst forth such an effulgence of splendor that I could not continue to look upon it. Glancing away, I saw to my great delight that the whole earth was bathed in brightness and beauty. Looking out over the shining water, there appeared before me a glowing pathway, leading direct to the sun, and it seemed a fitting type of the straight and narrow way of Truth over which the weary pilgrim may travel out of sense into Soul. On either side was the surging sea, symbolizing materiality, yawning deep and wide, ready to swallow one up in hopeless oblivion if he were faithless to the trust or ceased to keep his feet in the glowing path revealed. As I remembered my blessings, there came such a sweet sense of gratitude to our Father-Mother God in knowing that this brightness and beauty were for all of His children, everywhere. A vision of it will lift up every one who is deep down in the mire of human experiences. It will fling wide open the prison doors of those who today are in bodage to sinful sense. This radiant light of Truth and Love can regenerate and form anew the fallen; it can heal the broken heart, cool the fevered brow, cause the glow of health to return to pallid cheeks, and give strength where only weakness seemed to be.

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