Article May 1, 1937 Issue

Awake and Listening

GERTRUDE S. DAURIAC

"The wakeful shepherd beholds the first faint morning beams, ere cometh the full radiance of a risen day." So writes Mrs. Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (Pref., p. vii). The word "wakeful" means watchful, vigilant, alert. When one is spiritually awake and alertly listening, he is in that state of consciousness spoken of by Jesus when he said, "I must be about my Father's business." Being awake, one is not drawn into the tangled maze of mesmeric dreaming, but is quick to detect the web with which the carnal mind would seek to entangle the consciousness of the Christian Scientist.

God's thoughts are ever with us; they are our Life, our substance. Our true occupation consists in being awake and listening to the "still small voice," hastening to obey the leadings of Truth. Only in this way can we rise out of the dense darkness of material thinking into the clear, unsullied light of infinite Mind.

At one time the writer, to mortal sense, was going through a period of great unhappiness. The way seemed to stretch out before her very bleak and dark, and fear pressed heavily against her. Almost driven to do so, she turned to Christian Science, and sought the loving help of a practitioner. For a time things seemed very much the same until, suddenly, it seemed as if a voice spoke to her "as when a lion roareth." There were only two words, but to the writer's bewildered, storm-tossed thought, to obey would be the very worst thing she could do. It would mean giving up everything she loved, the only security she knew in a topsy-turvy world. It would mean going out to a distant, fear-shadowed place. She said to herself many times that it was impossible; that she could never do that. The words were repeated; and there is no mistaking God's voice when one is awake and listening. With fear and doubt knocking at the door of thought, she began making her preparations. She went out as she felt herself led to do.

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