Editorial March 29, 1919 Issue

Springtide

Annie M. Knott

In Solomon's song we find this gladsome announcement of spring: "Lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." This is followed by a call, couched in oriental imagery, to rise to the spiritual heights and find shelter in "the clefts of the rock." To the Christian Scientist the tender plea, "Let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice," calls for the transformation of the human sense of love which perchance has passed through a long and dark winter of sorrow, but is looking for the perfect light revealing man's immortality, and waiting patiently "until the day break, and the shadows flee away."

Needless to say, people all turn with eager expectancy to the springtime, and it may be with a half-conscious hope that the oncoming seasons will bring better things than did the last year. Nor should we stop at this, for it is certain that if we have, like the trees, been rising bravely above the downward tendencies of materialism we shall, in spite of the winter's storms and cold, reap richer and rarer things than all the other years of mortal experience have brought us. In Mrs. Eddy's beautiful article entitled "Voices of Spring," which begins on page 329 of her "Miscellaneous Writings," she tells of earth's awakening at this season to new life and beauty, and she asks: "What is the anthem of human life? Has love ceased to moan over the new-made grave, and, looking upward, does it patiently pray for the perpetual springtide wherein no arrow wounds the dove? Human hope and faith should join in nature's grand harmony, and, if on minor key, make music in the heart. And man, more friendly, should call his race as gently to the springtide of Christ's dear love."

There are too many, alas, who have not yet emerged from under the dark clouds of mortal belief, and who find in the springtide only a sorrowful reminder that though nature decks the world anew in beauty their dear ones will not come to them with the change of seasons. But when they grasp the meaning of the words just quoted and open their eyes to behold spiritual reality, they will find the very joy which makes all the trees clap their hands in token of Love's ever presence. All such would do well to read and read again the story of the resurrection as found in the gospels, for it would not be possible to conceive of any sadder conditions than were those which called to the tomb of the Master some brave and yet very sorrowful women. John tells us that Mary Magdalene, who first visited the tomb, went back to call Peter and John, because the body of their beloved Master was no longer there, and we read that a little later, as she stood alone outside of the tomb weeping, she again looked in, and this time saw two angels sitting "where the body of Jesus had lain."

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