Editorial July 19, 1952 Issue

SPIRITUAL EXPECTANCY

Robert Ellis Key

Someone has said that fear is the expectancy of evil. How important it is, therefore, to destroy fear with the expectancy of good. The spiritually expectant look for good. They are aware of the infinite possibilities of Spirit and the inevitable triumph of Truth even when there is no immediate evidence of Truth's appearing.

The parable of the ten virgins, as recorded in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, reminds us of the value of spiritual expectancy. We picture the virgins waiting expectantly at the door through which the bridegroom is to enter. "Five of them were wise, and five were foolish," we read. Five had been faithful to their trust. They had provided oil for their lamps, and their lights were burning. It was the midnight hour, the darkest hour of the night, yet both the wise and the foolish were waiting expectantly for the bridegroom's coming.

Mary Baker Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 342), "Each moment's fair expectancy was to behold the bridegroom, the One 'altogether lovely.'" Have we the same expectancy of good at the midnight hour as we have in the early flush of the newborn day? If not, let us renew our fading hope, open our thought to the infinite possibilities of Spirit, and see that our lamps are trimmed and burning. No circumstance, however menacing, can shut us out from the ever-present Christ. Spiritual expectancy is born of faith.

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