"Man is the idea of Spirit; he reflects the beatific presence, illuming the universe with light," writes Mary Baker Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 266). God, Soul, or Spirit then is the source of all true light, and man as spiritual idea eternally reflects the light and intelligence of divine Mind, the beauty of Soul, the unchanging glow and effulgence of divine Love. He lives and moves in the ever-present radiance of divine light and glory, in which the darkness of ignorance, doubt, and fear is unknown. He is ever conscious of the holy city, which in the pictorial language of the Apocalypse descends "out of heaven from God, having the glory of God: and her light" is "like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal" (Rev. 21:10, 11).

Precious stones are often used metaphorically in the Bible to signify such divine attributes as perfection, purity, and wisdom, as in the passage just quoted from Revelation. Now precious stones in their primitive state do not possess the brilliancy and beauty for which they are commonly admired and valued. They must be made ready to receive and radiate the light. Human consciousness must through spiritualization be prepared to bear witness to the light of Christ, Truth, for Mrs. Eddy says on page 295 of Science and Health: "The mortal mind through which Truth appears most vividly is that one which has lost much materiality—much error—in order to become a better transparency for Truth. Then, like a cloud melting into thin vapor, it no longer hides the sun."

The light and the precious stones do not mix, but a gem radiates the light. Nor does the light of Truth unite with the human mind, so called, but it illumines it by progressively dispelling its opaque material beliefs until consciousness bears witness to nothing but Truth.

Unenlightened consciousness, untouched by the Christ, is in a sense a diamond in the rough, which, though of great potential beauty, is cloudy in appearance and gives little indication of its inherent beauty. Because the rough diamond is covered with layers of material which permit no light to penetrate to the interior, these must first be cut away. The stone can only give out the light it is taking in, and the measure in which it reflects light determines its brilliance.

When we first take up the study of Christian Science, the Christ, or light of Truth, may have only touched our consciousness. The adamantine crusts of willfulness, self-opinionatedness, and self-centeredness as well as the harsh thoughts of judging, criticizing, and condemning, must be cut away. But our earnest endeavor to gain a better understanding of God and man and to reflect more love enables the law of Christ to become operative in our consciousness to remove the dross and refine our character.

As one by one the chips of materiality fall away and spiritual understanding increases, human thought becomes more lucid. Spiritual light enters more freely and penetrates the remotest corners to dispel the darkness of inherited beliefs, latent fears of disease, troublesome characteristics of temperament, and other phases of error that may have been hiding there since early childhood. Surely, in the words of the Psalmist (Ps. 119: 130), "The entrance of thy words giveth light: it giveth understanding unto the simple."

When all the obstructive material has been removed and the diamond is made ready to radiate light, it is fitted with facets, or windows, through which to disperse the beauty of light and color. Similarly, prayer as taught in Christian Science provides consciousness with the windows of purity, love, humility, and simplicity through which Truth's light reveals man's true nature as the son of God.

Our prayerful endeavors to be more Christlike are rewarded beyond all expectations, for by striving to keep our windows clean and polished, unspotted by the beliefs of self, so that the light of Truth and Love may freely enter and radiate, we are enabling that light to dispel the dark shadows of error in our own thought, and all those who come within the radiation of that light are also blessed. As our fellow man receives this light, it relieves him of his heaviness of heart, lightens his burdens, heals his sicknesses, and inspires him with new joy, wisdom, and courage to meet and master the problems of daily human experience. In "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy states (pp. 19, 20): "The spiritual sense of Life and its grand pursuits is of itself a bliss, health-giving and joy-inspiring. This sense of Life illumes our pathway with the radiance of divine Love: heals man spontaneously, morally and physically, —exhaling the aroma of Jesus' own words. 'Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'"

While the preparation of a diamond ends when it has attained its greatest possible brilliancy, the illumination and purification of the human mind continues; for the purpose of Christian Science is not to glorify mortal man but so to spiritualize his consciousness that all mists and shadows of materiality will disappear and man will be revealed as the radiant reflection of God's glory.

We walk in the light of Truth and Love in the proportion that the truths of being unfold in our consciousness and crystallize into spiritual understanding, and as we put off a false material sense of self and reflect the radiant qualities of true spiritual individuality made in the likeness of God. "Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day," declares Paul (I Thess. 5:5); "we are not of the night, nor of darkness."

Of those whose consciousness has become a transparency for the light of Christ, Truth, and whose being radiates this light, which is above the sun's, Zechariah says (Zech. 9: 16,17, Rev. Ver.): "They shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted on high over his land. For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty!"