Article August 4, 1917 Issue

Awake in the Night

SAMUEL JOHNSTONE MACDONALD

When a student of Christian Science with thought controlled by Truth and Love awakens in the night, angels come and minister unto him. These angels, as Mrs. Eddy explains on page 581 of Science and Health, are "God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality." Through their gentle ministrations what before was believed to be insomnia is driven away and in its place come blessedness and joy and peace. The student learns through these loving, angelic lessons how to prove the truth of the psalmist's calm and confident declaration, "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness."

The likeness of Life, Truth, and Love reveals itself in wondrous glimpses, and by patient growth in the spiritual understanding of "precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, upon line; here a little, and there a little," the individual human being is gradually transformed by the renewing of his mind, until he begins to reflect more clearly that Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus." He learns by degrees the truth of the statement on page 123 of Science and Health, that divine Science "resolves things into thoughts, and replaces the objects of material sense with spiritual ideas." He also learns to be patient, to lose belief in the necessity of haste, and to understand that the only wise way is to be content to "emerge gently from matter into Spirit" (p. 485).

For many years before being healed in Christian Science the writer was greatly troubled with what is known as insomnia. Lying awake for hours at night, a seemingly endless phantasmagoria of cares, regrets, fears, resentments, and retaliations, with all their evil retinue, would harass and torture the fevered sense. Not the least of the blessings and joys brought into consciousness by the sweet ministrations of Christian Science was the assurance of peaceful and restful sleep. It became a never ceasing wonder that without the aid of sedatives or soporifics one might lie down in peace, and sleep the balmy sleep of childhood. Then, while the joy and peace continued to abide, the first incredulous wonder passed away.

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Gratitude to Mrs. Eddy