THE LIGHTED CANDLE

[Of Special Interest to Children]

CONSTANCE HEWARD

One day during the Christmas holidays in England, David's mother amused him by making a Christmas cracker, or snapper, for him out of a pocket handkerchief. The handkerchief was blue with a pretty scalloped border, and the make-believe cracker looked exactly like a real paper one. Before his mother began to fold the handkerchief into shape, David sometimes played a small toy on it. Then, when they each took an end of the cracker and pulled, it opened, and out dropped the toy.

Now David wanted very much to be able to make a cracker by himself. He thought how nice it would be to take the blue handkerchief to school and show the boys and girls in his class how they could make one too. Again and again he watched his mother fold and press the handkerchief into shape. But when she left him to do it alone, David always forgot how the folds should go. It seemed to him as if he never would learn how to make a cracker.

A week went by, and on Sunday morning David went to the Christian Science Sunday School, as he always did. After the Sunday School lesson was over, the teacher gave the children in David's class a little verse from the Bible to learn at home. As soon as he reached home, David found it in his Bible. It was the twenty-eighth verse of the eighteenth Psalm, and he read it aloud to his mother: "For thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness."

David's mother explained that error is material darkness and that truth is spiritual light. She told him that God lights the candle of truth in our consciousness whenever we are willing for Him to do so. And she also explained that sick, naughty, unkind, and discontented thoughts, because they are unlike God, good, are error, and so are full of darkness. Good, pure, loving, and joyous thoughts, she continued, are full of light because they come to us straight from God, who is Truth and Love. When we are filled with Godlike thoughts, these thoughts shine out in everything we do. Then through our acts of love and kindness people around us see that we have let God light our candle.

On Monday morning David again asked his mother to show him how to make a Christmas cracker. Although she showed him time after time how to fold and press the handkerchief into the right shape, he could not seem to do it. David said sadly, "It seems as if I'm never going to learn how to make a cracker."

"And I'm too busy this morning, dear, to help you any more," his mother answered. "You know, David, it is nothing but error that says we are unable to learn. Error calls it ignorance, and ignorance is darkness. Don't you think it would be well for you to turn to the Bible verse again and ask God to help you?"

So David opened his Bible and read the verse again: "For thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness."

For a few moments he sat very still; then he ran to the table where he had left the handkerchief. He turned to God and, just as the Bible promises, God lighted his candle. The light of Truth and Love chased away all the darkness of error, that is, the wrong thought that says the child of God can be ignorant. David now made a Christmas cracker as easily and perfectly as his mother had done. His face shone with happiness as he ran to show her his handiwork.

Mary Baker Eddy says in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 471), "Man is, and forever has been, God's reflection." We cannot go out on a pitch-dark night and expect to see the trees and sky mirrored in the mountain lake. Rather do we go out in the clear light of day in order to see the reflection of the trees and sky in the lake. We cannot see the reflection in the dark. Neither can we see the real man, God's reflection, when our thinking is full of dark thoughts, such as sickness, temper, ignorance, selfishness, and other errors. It is only when we keep our consciousness filled with the clear and shining thoughts of goodness, unselfishness, love, joy, obedience, and other lovely qualities that we see God's true likeness and reflection.

Christ Jesus, our great Master, always kept his candle burning brightly. The light of Truth and Love which flooded his consciousness enabled him to see man as good instead of wicked, glad instead of sorry, and well instead of sick. He knew that the child of God is spiritual. So all those who came to him for help were healed and blessed.

Let us keep our candle—our pure thoughts—burning brightly so that the healing light of Truth and Love will shine out to bless others as well as ourselves. This is the best and happiest thing we can do.

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