Article May 10, 1919 Issue

The Stranger within Our Gates

LLOYD B. COATE

Abraham once declared, "I am a stranger and a so-journer." Moses said, "I have been a stranger in a strange land." The psalmist not only acknowledged that he had been a stranger and a sojourner but also stated that all his fathers had passed through that experience. Christ Jesus left this record: "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy wrote (p. 266): "Would existence without personal friends be to you a blank? Then the time will come when you will be solitary, left without sympathy; but this seeming vacuum is already filled with divine Love. When this hour of development comes, even if you cling to a sense of personal joys, spiritual Love will force you to accept what best promotes your growth." Mrs. Eddy bore witness to the fact that this prophecy had been fulfilled in her experience and its blessings realized.

And what were these experiences that came to patriarchs, prophets, and to other good men and women? Were they not proofs of the operation of the law of God which lovingly compels all "to exchange the pleasures and pains of sense for the joys of Soul" (Science and Health, p. 390)? These words of a well-known hymn illustrate the individual experience of the man of God in every age:—

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