"Mind the light"

SARAH ELEANOR PAINE

The story is told of a woman who for thirty years took care of a lighthouse on a solitary island with practically no human companionship. When asked what inspiration she had to sustain her in her vigil, she said that every morning she heard ringing in her ears her husband's parting admonition, "Mind the light."

Through the long years she followed her highest sense of duty—with little personal encouragement or approval, and perhaps with only an occasional glimpse of the ships to which she was rendering vital service. But during all the years she was rewarded by the inward consciousness of a faithful service unfalteringly performed.

Through longer years, and faced by the storms of misunderstanding or even malicious thought—which seem more trying than the clamor of wave and tempest—another woman kept watch over the wonderful spiritual light which had come to her, healing her and bringing to her a vision of the everpresent Christ. Light has frequently been used as a type of spiritual illumination. God said, "Let there be light, and there was light." Moses saw this light typified in the burning bush. Saul saw it symbolized in the glorious brightness on the road to Damascus. Mary Baker Eddy felt the illumination of a passage of Scripture and was healed. Thereafter for many years she worked alone with God, continuously guarding the light and unselfishly sharing its glory, until she saw its rays spreading over the whole world, healing and regenerating all those who opened their mental windows to its rays.

Now we who have seen this light and have been healed and uplifted by it have this work to carry on. We must "mind the light." We must cherish and protect her discovery, and keep our thought so illumined with Truth that its beams may guard and direct those who still seem to be sailing the stormy seas of materialism.

The first duty of a lighthouse keeper, with the ordinary type of oil-burning light, was to keep on hand for use an ample supply of oil at all times. So must spiritual lighthouse keepers always have an abundant store of "consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heavenly inspiration," which constitute the definition of "oil" that Mrs. Eddy gives in the Glossary of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 592).

Consecration dedicates one's thought and motive entirely to the service of good, of Principle, which is placed above all personal considerations. Charity, as Paul says in the thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians, "suffereth long, and is kind; ... is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil." Gentleness, like the soft summer clouds, shelters from the glaring heat of criticism. Prayer, which we are told should be unceasing, recognizes the constant presence of Love everywhere, even when to human sense the vigil is long and lonely. Inspiration freshens, strengthens, and vivifies our activity, making it abundantly fruitful.

Another important duty of one who has charge of a lighthouse is to keep the lamps and reflectors clean, so that the flow of oil may not be clogged, nor the reflection of light dimmed. Likewise, the Christian Scientist needs to keep his thought pure with spiritual drafts of truth from the Bible and our textbook, and so guard against any accumulations of material beliefs, whether these come from suggestions of inertia, procrastination, confusion, hurry; from the lie of sensation in matter, or from the dust of doubt and distrust of Truth. To aid us in this establishment of purity, our Leader has given us in the Manual (Art. VIII, Sect. 4) a short "Daily Prayer," which reads in part, "Let the reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in me, and rule out of me all sin." As we earnestly and faithfully ponder this prayer each day, study it, work with it, and live it, we shall so cleanse our thought that it will reflect the light. Then we shall be aiding in the fulfillment of the last sentence in the prayer, "And may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern them!"

Constant watchfulness is the lesson of the lighthouse. In these days of complicated world problems, it is our privilege to be so alert and consecrated that in all our thoughts we shall reflect the light of Truth which has been revealed to us. The beams of spiritual light make plain the solution for every problem, whether it be personal or general, economic or political. Then let us never forget this duty and its service of joy. Let us watch, and work, and pray, as Mrs. Eddy counsels us on page 367 of Science and Health, "that this light be not hid, but radiate and glow into noontide glory."

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