Editorial May 31, 1941 Issue

Facing the Light

George Shaw Cook

When the earth, because of its diurnal revolutions, turns its face away from the sun, those who are on that part of the earth which is turned away, find themselves temporarily in darkness. Similarly, when mortals, for any reason, turn their thought away from the light of Truth, they are, for the time being, in the darkness of ignorance, superstition, and fear. And Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, says on page 215 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "We are sometimes led to believe that darkness is as real as light; but Science affirms darkness to be only a mortal sense of the absence of light, at the coming of which darkness loses the appearance of reality. So sin and sorrow, disease and death, are the suppositional absence of Life, God, and flee as phantoms of error before truth and love."

If we would experience the fruits of righteousness, or right knowing, we must endeavor to keep our thought steadfastly fixed on the facts of being as they exist in divine Mind. From the standpoint of absolute Truth or divine intelligence, there is no mental darkness, no spiritual ignorance, no error of any kind. The vision of divine reality embraces nothing unlike perfect and eternal Mind, Spirit, God.

In a picture called "Daniel's Answer to the King," the prophet is shown with his face turned toward the light, which is streaming into the lions' den, while the lions are seen slinking in the semidarkness behind him. This is, of course, only the artist's conception of what occurred, but it is easily conceivable that if Daniel had turned his gaze on the lions instead of the light, he might have become frightened and have subjected himself to destruction. Instead, Daniel had faith in the power of God, divine Love, to protect him from harm. On page 514 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says, "Understanding the control which Love held over all, Daniel felt safe in the lions' den, and Paul proved the viper to be harmless."

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