Article January 10, 1920 Issue

In the Direction of Light

JESSIE ARMSTRONG HELMAN

In the home where a student of Christian Science lived, "locators" were introduced. These mere sparks of light were placed on the electric drops, in rooms not provided with wall switches, to direct toward the light those entering in the dark. In her own room the student welcomed the little guide, but found to her amazement some weeks later that she was not making use of it. She would enter her room in the darkness, fumbling blindly for the light as before, without thinking to look up. Groping uncertainly had become a habit so strong, that even after a direct and positive means was offered she did not avail herself of it at once.

In this observation the student found a striking comparison to her past experience in metaphysics. It recalled how after she had been healed by Christian Science many years before, the study of the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," was taken up and pursued assiduously for several years. Considering her progress at this point, she saw that although believed in implicitly, and to a certain extent understood, the rules of this teaching were not being used. She had been so long groping in the dark, so long fumbling with uncertain material methods, false reasoning, and human will power, that it was found seemingly very difficult to look up and be guided certainly and in the right direction.

Throughout all of Mrs. Eddy's writings we find that she lovingly urges her students to utilize their understanding, however small. Only by using what we know, are we fitted to receive more; until, in the full might of the perception of God's law, we can put the very wave underfoot. If there seems to be no urgent reason for calling for help from a practitioner in working out a problem, it is frequently allowed to lurk in our thought until the next day, or the next, or until we think we have sufficient understanding to grapple with it; although the smallest conception that we can possibly have of spiritual reality, is more powerful than the sum total of material testimony.

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