"In the morning"

RUBY M. APPEL

AGES ago, the Psalmist wrote. "My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up." To awaken each morning with the resolve to follow the Psalmist's example is to face the day with equanimity, hope, and joy. The need to "look up" is continual. We need to look up not only for guidance but to praise God wholeheartedly and thank Him for His constant protection, demonstrating it more and more confidently and completely.

Christ Jesus' teaching emphasizes the need of seeking God. for throughout his ministry we find him many times going out alone finding spiritual refreshment, drinking in deep draughts of tranquillity through communion with Him who is Life. In Mark's Gospel it is recorded of him, "And in the morning, rising up a great while before day. he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed." Thus he established and fortified himself to meet the tasks before him with an unequaled serenity of Spirit. In the life of the master Christian, every day was a day to glorify God, every morning another opportunity to reflect good.

In the Glossary in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy gives this illuminating definition of "morning" (p. 591): "Light; symbol of Truth; revelation and progress." She also writes (ibid., p. 510), "Light is a symbol of Mind, of Life, Truth, and Love, and not a vitalizing property of matter." The morning light of Spirit is forever dawning upon human consciousness. This "morning" is not dependent upon the material sense of time, in which mortal mind would usher in the seemingly endless and ofttimes overwhelming duties which lie ahead for the day. No, the morning of material sense is not the morning which is forever dawning upon human consciousness, illumined with the grand realities of being. This morning will continue to be in evidence, since Mind is ever unfolding its ideas. We realize the true meaning of morning as we consciously dwell in the light of Truth, keeping thought above the level of material sense, and reflecting the light of that Life which is God.

Mrs. Eddy knew the value of the early morning hours. Unquestionably, they afforded her an opportunity for undisturbed spiritual communion as she reached out in thought to God and contemplated the dawning in human consciousness of the eternal day of spiritual enlightenment. Christian Scientists know the paramount importance of turning thought to God early every morning. The study of the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly supplies spiritual food. Great is the reward of turning thought to Truth in order to protect ourselves from the suggestions which mortal mind seems to project upon us. From experience we know that through this early morning communion with God, our day will be to the glory of the Father.

Every day should be to us a fresh beginning, as "each morn unfolds His blessings new." So we should seek to feel God's presence and gratefully lift our hearts to Him in realization of His tender mercies and compassions. What an inspiration it is to know the truth in the morning!

A student of Christian Science who loved the early morning hours found herself mentally affirming and declaring each morning that the day would bring some lovely thing. Not only did she declare this, but she maintained a mental state of expectancy of good. It was not of material things she was thinking, but of an added understanding of her relationship with God, and wider opportunities for service. Mrs. Eddy writes (Science and Health, p. 584): "The objects of time and sense disappear in the illumination of spiritual understanding, and Mind measures time according to the good that is unfolded. This unfolding is God's day, and 'there shall be no night there.'" So day was to be measured, not in terms of minutes and hours, but according to spiritual unfoldment, wherein the joys of Soul are manifested. In this day of Spirit there are no crowded or lost moments, for God, good, alone is being expressed. Each morning, as the student read God's Word, she endeavored to let her thought be uplifted to new heights, to gain more exalted views of God and man. Proportionably to her spiritual awareness she found no day ever failed to bring some lovely thing, some added spiritual unfoldment. Consequently, she measured all achievement and progress by the unfolding of good, which was constantly manifested. She realized more clearly that a day given wholly to God, through right thinking and loving, brings spiritual blessings. Thus, in Science, each day is lovely as a knowledge of God is unfolded.

"The night is far spent, the day is at hand." Those who have passed through a night of error, perhaps wrestling as did Jacob of old, recall with joy and gratitude how the dawning of the spiritual idea lighted their consciousness until, with "revelation and progress," the clouds of doubt and fear were completely dispelled and the night of erroneous belief was dispersed. Our experiences teach us that even the darkest night is followed by the brightness of day. Thus, we shall realize the one eternal day of heavenly harmony. In the words of a well-loved hymn:

"So shall it ever be in the bright morning,
When hearts awaking see the shadows flee,
O, in that hour, and fairer than the dawning,
Rises the glorious thought, I am with Thee."

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