Editorial January 24, 1953 ISSUE

THE REVEILLE

Robert Ellis Key

Christian Science reveals the spiritual fact that all real being originates in Spirit, not in matter. It shows that material so-called life is a temporary, transitory counterfeit of the real, and it points the way of escape from a material and inharmonious existence. Mary Baker Eddy describes mortal existence as a dream. She writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 188), "Mortal existence is a dream of pain and pleasure in matter, a dream of sin, sickness, and death; and it is like the dream we have in sleep, in which every one recognizes his condition to be wholly a state of mind."

Those who are contented with material things and immersed in them may object to this estimate of materiality. But many are not so deep in the dream, and when instructed in spiritual Science they are easily awakened. A pleasurable dream is more tenacious perhaps than a painful one; hence the reluctance in some cases to come out of materiality and seek life on a spiritual basis. There are degrees of rapidity with which mankind awakens spiritually. Sooner or later, however, all will be forced to leave the false, material sense of existence, whether it be painful, pleasurable, or complacent, and find the God-given spiritual and eternal consciousness of man. Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 81), "Every individual character, like the individual John the Baptist, at some date must cry in the desert of earthly joy; and his voice be heard divinely and humanly."

Those who have served in the armed forces may remember the time when they slept nightly under the open heavens, beneath a canopy of stars. All around them lay their comrades, wrapped in their blankets, sleeping. As one watched the rows of sleeping men with their arms and equipment piled beside them, he noticed a soldier turning restlessly over in his sleep or heard him giving an occasional cry or exclamation. At daybreak perhaps an order came from the commander to strike camp. The men had to be aroused and the regiment paraded. The reveille sounded, and there was a stir in the camp. Some rose up at once and quickly threw on their equipment, grasped their arms, and stood ready for the march. Others, who had been more soundly asleep, rose reluctantly; and a few, who had been very deep in their dreams, required shaking before they could be aroused. But the reveille had sounded, and the call had come to advance. Every soldier, therefore, must be ready; no one could remain sleeping.

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