Article November 2, 1929 Issue

Look Up!

NORAH L. M. FOSTER

A Soldier in the great war was one day sitting at noon in his tent in the desert. The heat was intense, and the burning sand lay shimmering under the scorching rays of the Egyptian sun. Innumerable other tents were there, too, but not a sound broke the hot stillness. The soldier was weary and heavy-laden, alone in the wilderness of despair. He had, he told himself rather bitterly, done his best: he had not a great knowledge of Christian Science, but such as he had, he had faithfully applied to his problem; and yet failure seemed the outcome of all his striving and wrestling. He bowed his head on his hands and felt as if he must give up the struggle. Suddenly he looked up and out across the sand, whence a small piece of paper came blowing towards him. A little purr of hot wind caught it up and whirled it through the tent door to his feet! He picked it up and examined it curiously. It was a shabby little page from Hebrews, torn out of a small Bible. One verse, which was heavily underlined, read: "Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." A message of hope and comfort had come to him straight out of the unknown! He folded the paper reverently and went on his way rejoicing.

Long ago, another sat in his tent door in the heat of the day in the plains of Mamre. Perhaps Abraham, too, was feeling discouraged and sad. Perhaps, after all, the promises made to him by God were too good to be true! It is stated that "he lift up his eyes;" and we recall how he saw the three messengers from God, and what a wonderful message of hope and fulfillment they brought to him Had he kept his eyes downcast, his thought fixed on false beliefs and false laws, he would never have seen these angels, never have attained to the proof of the truth which Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, thus declares in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 380, 381): "Every law of matter or the body, supposed to govern man, is rendered null and void by the law of Life, God."

When Joshua, having safely accomplished the crossing of Jordan and led the children of Israel as far as Jericho, saw the massive walls of what seemed an impregnable fortress looming up before him, might not he have felt depressed and hopeless about ever entering such a city as this seemed to be? But "he lift up his eyes;" and what did he see? No less a power than the "captain of the host of the Lord" come to help him!

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