Editorial May 21, 1949 Issue

THE ROSE AND THE WILDERNESS

Robert Ellis Key

When Christ Jesus moved through the wilderness of human beliefs during his earthly pilgrimage, the fruits of the Spirit marked the way he had trod. He showed forth the beauty and power of the Christ, and thus wherever he went, healing and regeneration followed. "I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys," wrote the poet in allegorical language (S. of Sol. 2:1), referring to the Christ. The prophet Isaiah caught up the refrain when he sang (35:1), "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose."

In his choice of a simile Isaiah selected two objects utterly dissimilar, a wilderness and a rose. Today the rose of Sharon, the Christ, is blossoming in the wilderness of mortal beliefs. Christian Science, or the Christ Science, comes into our lives with a healing and transforming influence.

How many of us remember the time when our human experience was little more than a wilderness of fear, sickness, or even hopeless despair. We cried out for spiritual help, and help was given us. Perhaps we were hungering and thirsting for relief from suffering, but everywhere we turned, the same arid wastes confronted us. We followed an attractive-looking theory of religion or medicine only to find, like the thirsty man in the desert who sees a mirage and goes in quest of it, that it was evanescent and unreal.

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