Article October 3, 1925 Issue

The Receding Waters

HELEN LUDLOW JACOBY

We are told that when the children of Israel, fleeing before the wrath of Pharaoh, reached the shores of the Red Sea and were seemingly shut off from all escape, they were sore afraid. Penned in on either side by the wilderness, the sea ahead, the Egyptians behind, destruction seemed certain. But they cried unto the Lord, and through their leader, Moses, He answered them. "The pillar of the cloud," by which God had led them thus far on their journey out of Egypt, "went from before their face, and stood behind," shutting them off from the pursuing Egyptians and furnishing them light through the night, at the same time encompassing their enemies in darkness, so that they came not near the Israelites "all the night." It is not stated in the Biblical story just what the children of Israel, who were so sore afraid, did through that night, nor how long it may have seemed to them. We know only that Moses, in obedience to God's injuction, stretched forth his hand over the sea and the waters were divided, so that the Israelites might cross the sea on dry land. The narrative continues the story, saying, "And the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night."

"All that night"! And the Egyptians just on the other side of a pillar of cloud and fire, the wilderness on either side, the sea ahead! Suppose the waters were receding, might it not be that before the sea opened and dry land appeared, the enemy could find a way around the pillar of cloud and fire, or a means of getting through it? Or might not day come to give them light to continue their pursuit? Might the waters not cease to recede, or the Pharaoh who had persecuted them so long by some means reach them and destroy them? Was Moses really endowed with the ability and authority to rescue them? During that night of fear and doubt, who knows what terrors may have presented themselves to the children of Israel? Yet during all these hours of the night the waters were swept back before the wind, and the way was opened by which they were to escape from the enemy they were to see henceforth no more forever. Perhaps they did not see each wave as it receded or perceive the path as it opened, yet the Lord's work was being accomplished and their escape made possible.

Moses had instructed the Israelites to fear not, but to "stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord;" and that is all they need have done, just as it is all we need do when we seem to be beset on all sides by insurmountable obstacles, apparently engulfed in the darkness of error's night. The student of Christian Science may at times find himself in a seemingly similar situation and allow the operession and blackness of the night to frighten him. While his fear has no power to lengthen the night, his suffering sense does appear to make the time long with agony. At such times let him remember that the pillar of cloud and fire is behind him shutting off the enemy and lighting his darkness, so that not one phase of evil that might attempt to harm him can reach him; for he has withdrawn into the protection of "the secret place of the most High," shut off by the pillar of consecrated right thinking, to wait for the waters of error to recede. Let him remember that the waters are being driven back before the winds of God. Every declaration of Truth made, each obedience to a command of God, every thought brought into subjection to divine Mind, is a stretching forth of the hand over the sea of error, and has its part in opening the path of dry land in the midst of the sea, the path whereby is reached the promised land—the freedom from doubts and suffering; for one smallest word of Truth carries with it the power of God.

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