Article May 25, 1946 Issue

Turn on the Light!

HERSCHEL P. NUNN

While her older brothers had been away at war, an eight-year-old child had been for three years alone in the home with her parents. She had grown accustomed to being the only one to be considered when she wanted to play. When her brothers returned from overseas, the situation changed. One brother, in particular, often made her unhappy by putting himself in her way and interfering with her doll housekeeping.

One day she thought, "I almost wish he hadn't come home." This startled her into alertness. Right away she remembered something her teacher in the Christian Science Sunday School had told her: "When you are unhappy, fearful, or troubled, turn on the light." The teacher had explained to the class that the thought darkened by fear, anger, or selfishness can always be enlightened and healed by turning on the light of Truth. So the little girl turned on the light by remembering that she had learned in Sunday school that man is the reflection of God, expressing only qualities of God, good. She knew that was what was true about her brother. Immediately she was happy and free. The light of Truth and Love had dispelled the darkness of irritation, anger, and selfishness.

Mary Baker Eddy says in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 407): "Let the perfect model be present in your thoughts instead of its demoralized opposite. This spiritualization of thought lets in the light, and brings the divine Mind, Life not death, into your consciousness." We can all profit by this child's method of dismissing false beliefs through turning on the light. Quick insistence upon seeing the perfect spiritual man in place of the false material sense of man, called a mortal, will free us from discordant pictures of ourselves and of others. This spiritual discernment is basic to the correct application of Christian Science in daily experience.

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