Article December 15, 1917 Issue

Designating the Way

CHARLES C. BUTTERWORTH. 2D

Our revered Leader, Mrs. Eddy, says, "Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way" (Science and Health, p. 454). To those who stand at some beclouded turning point in their course, seeking vainly to make out the import of the signpost by the roadside, or it may be having no such visible indication at all, this statement will come with special force. They will remember that perhaps at one time during a journey along some country road they relied upon a neighboring farmer's boy to direct them to their destination, trusting to his familiarity with the road and his good will to guide them aright.

Across from our house a new railroad bridge is being built, so that the street may be cut through under the railroad and continue its way on the other side. Before this excavation was made, and while yet the railroad bank divided the two sections of the street, it was a continual source of perplexity to strangers how to get to the other side of the tracks. As a matter of fact, a detour of some two blocks was necessary; many times, therefore, we were called upon to inform people just how they could get to their journey's end. One night, I remember, a man was told that if he could feel his way through the bridge supports and the piles of material which were there incidental to the building of the bridge, he would save himself the otherwise inevitable detour. Nevertheless, the longer way was also duly explained; whereupon the man set out, and presumably, either by the short route or the long reached his destination.

In the book of Job we read concerning God, "He knoweth the way that I take." Whether we take the shorter, and ofttimes the more rugged way, or the longer and easier one, divine Principle gives us unmistakable instructions, if we ask for them in the same spirit of trust which we use toward our fellow men. If human kindness will not suffer a stranger to be turned out of his way, but will, according to its knowledge, direct him explicitly and carefully, how much surer, how much clearer, wiser, and simpler must be the designations of an altogether loving and wise Father, the divine Principle of man's being!

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