Article November 14, 1925 Issue

The Waiting Hour

HENRY JOHN FISHER

Those who have had the privilege of teaching in the Christian Science Sunday School, or of imparting to their own children some of the great truths brought to light by Christian Science, have many times and in unexpected ways experienced the wonderful unfolding of the right answer to a child's problem, proving that the genuine desire to learn and to impart the truth cannot fail of its purpose.

In the endeavor to help a small boy who had expressed some surprise and impatience that the truth as taught in Christian Science had not made him immediately free from a claim of disease, the story of the life of Joseph was related as an opening for a discussion on the subject of being in prison. It was noted that Joseph had to submit to the rules and regulations of the prison, and that, even with his rather extended understanding of the truth, it took him a long time, to human sense, to make the demonstration of getting his freedom. A lesson was also drawn from the way in which Joseph utilized the waiting hours, to forward the routine work of the prison, refusing the suggestion that man could be anywhere but in his right place always, and applying himself to the task of helping his fellow-prisoners with their problems. Thus it was seen that a child's waiting hour need not be an occasion for grief, disappointment, or discouragement, but may be proved an opportunity for spreading more sunshine in the house, and giving out more joy and love to others.

We all at times are held in the prisons of discordant beliefs; and sometimes the waiting hours seem very long. To many the prison is that of sickness; to others that of unemployment or lack; to others still, that of some false appetite. It may seem long before we can "open the prison doors and solve the blind problem of matter," to quote Mrs. Eddy's words in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 110). It may be that we need clearer views of how we are to utilize the period of waiting, and to realize that Love "owns each waiting hour" (Poems, p. 4). There may come the temptation to outline the quarter from which our deliverance ought to come; and it may be that, instead of trying to spread harmony in the place where we are, we are inwardly comparing our "fate" with that of others who, though apparently no more deserving than we ourselves, are free from the particular prison which seems to hold us bound.

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