Article August 2, 1919 Issue

Fidelity

AMY C. FARISS

If the earnest searcher for truth will pause and glance back over his path, he will note how at each turn of the way a guiding hand directed him. No matter how far away and indirect the guidance may have seemed, it was nevertheless there, gently leading, designating, encouraging. It may come to our human sense as the voice of a stranger, a word of wisdom let fall by some passer-by; it may come as an inner voice urging a certain course, or it may be a note of warning from some loved one. At different times and in different ways this protection reaches us. The beauty of it is, that the assurance given to Daniel belongs also to each one of us, "Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard."

Fidelity to the best we know will unfailingly open up the path ahead and keep us safe from the pitfalls that seem to be so present in this mortal sphere. The faithful may always rely upon being directed aright. They may wander and stumble and grope blindly for a time, but the seed of faithfulness is a light within itself, glowing up in unexpected radiance and revealing a path ahead. No more inspiring words for those struggling with discouragement were ever written than those Mrs. Eddy has given to the world on page 340 of "Miscellaneous Writings." In this message no easy road to heaven is promised, but instead she points out that "only by persistent, unremitting, straightforward toil; by turning neither to the right nor to the left, seeking no other pursuit or pleasure than that which cometh from God, can you win and wear the crown of the faithful." Farther on she adds, "The lives of great men and women are miracles of patience and perseverance."

A verse that has clung to the writer's memory through many years pictures the path of fame as sun-scorched, dreary, devoid of companionship, beset with pain,—in short, a thankless track, stripped of kindliness, and set before the traveler as a goal that only the fires within his breast are sufficient to urge him to attain. And yet how many join that band, how many suffer privation, scorn, the dregs of earth's bitterness, and remain true to their vision. This vision may be nothing more than some hidden desire to plumb the depths of worldly knowledge and shine for a while as a star in the intellectual galaxy of the world's luminaries; is may be but a poetic fancy, as light and dazzling as the fluttering wings of a butterfly, and as fleeting; or it may be some so-called scientific thesis struggling for freer expression. Be the object what it may, the goal of fame has nothing within itself to give that is eternal, therefore satisfying when it is finally reached.

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