Article June 26, 1948 Issue

AM I LETTING MY LIGHT SHINE?

GRACE A. PERKINS

While vacationing, a student of Christian Science in a conversation with a summer acquaintance learned that her newly made friend was a teacher in the high school in which a young man acquaintance was also a teacher. When asked if she knew him, her friend said that she did and added that he was much liked by the girls and boys, and that he was doing a splendid work with them. Quite unaware of the religion of her inquirer, she volunteered, "You know, he is a Christian Scientist."

Later, recalling this conversation, the student wondered what had caused the teacher to mention her acquaintance's religion. Was it simply a passing remark, or was Christian Science being measured, as it so often is, by the way Christian Scientists live it? As she considered the Christian character of the young man, the student was convinced that he had been living Science, so letting his light shine brightly. This, she thought, was what Christ Jesus meant when he admonished his followers (Matt. 5:16), "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

What is this light that we are to let shine? Christian Science teaches that it is the spiritualization, or Christianization, of thought and desire which illumines our lives with love and good works. This spiritualization demands complete reliance on God. It means transferring our affection and reliance from matter to Spirit, persistently turning away from the lying claim of the so-called mortal mind that it, not Spirit, is the source of man's life, motives, happiness, and health.

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