"How far that little candle throws his beams!"

ROSE LE MAY LEHMAN

"How far that little candle throws his beams!"—Shakespeare

A very young student of Christian Science had just joined The Mother Church. The unfoldment of the truth in the consciousness of this young girl and her steady spiritual growth had been a great inspiration to an older student, who had been so situated as to view the enrichment of character, as the new petals of thought unfolded. When the younger student expressed a desire to join The Mother Church, a great sense of joy was experienced by both, for it was clearly evidenced from the fruits of the young student's work that she was ready for that step.

The older student had always thought herself grateful for The Mother Church and its healing work in the world. But when she realized that as a result of the other's step one more had come within the radius of the light which is shining through The Mother Church and penetrating the night of error throughout the world, and that through this additional recognition of its beams at least one other child, eagerly seeking the light, would be shown the way to Truth, Life, and Love—she felt for the first time that she had glimpsed what gratitude for The Mother Church really means! The words from the definition of "Church" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 583), "The structure of Truth and Love," and "that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas," were illuminated in her consciousness, as never before, with a joy of gratitude for all who were aiding in that elevating and rousing.

Ofttimes in her childhood this student had stood in the pilot house with her grandfather, a ship's captain, and peered with him into the darkness ahead, eagerly seeking the rays of a certain lighthouse which would assure them that they were holding their course. How like a lighthouse, it came to her, stands The Mother Church, set high as it were on a rocky cliff! Against its base wave after wave of error dashes itself, sometimes with terrific roar and din, but making no impression, as error never can harm that which is founded upon the Rock. The light shines on, ever increasing, penetrating farther and farther, dispelling all shadows of depression, want, and woe.

And on the mental sea, many a storm-tossed or lost-on-his-way navigator is peering with anxious eye into the blackness of the elements which seem about to engulf him. All of his charts having failed him, as has happened to many another before him, he raises his eyes for the first time from these material aids upon which he now knows he can no longer rely, and with uplifted gaze discerns in the distance the light of spiritual truth reaching out to him. That light followed, he eventually is brought within view of the harbor—the land of spiritual understanding—where, with thought freed of false trusts and material reliances, he learns to lean upon that alone which is substance, upon Spirit.

For that is what The Mother Church symbolizes to Christian Scientists, the visible pointing to the invisible spiritual kingdom. True, most of us perceive the light of The Mother Church only after we have first been helped on our way by the light which glows faithfully and helpfully from our branch churches. But, just as one realizes when he has become a member of a branch church that he has become a vital part of it, so he soon realizes that his branch church is an integral part of The Mother Church, even as a leaf on the branch of a tree is a part of the whole tree. So is each member and each branch church a vital part of The Mother Church, and as this perfect unity is realized its light will glow even more brightly and extend farther.

Powerful as is the light which it now sends forth, yet until "they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them," there will be those lingering in the darkness of materialism who need the healing, and who are seeking the light. It must therefore be a great cause for joy to each one who joins The Mother Church to realize that by that step on his part, by letting the light of his candle shine, by his individual reflecting of infinite divine Love, he is helping to bring other seekers nearer to Christian Science. It was of such the Master spoke that memorable afternoon on a hillside in Galilee, when he said, "Ye are the light of the world"!

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Maintaining Our Affirmations

August 18, 1934

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