Article November 15, 1958 Issue

BENEDICTION OF THE WILDERNESS

ALICE EMERSON BOYSEN

Few individuals would choose a wilderness experience. A wilderness is usually thought of as a wild, uninhabitable, and forbidding place or a mental state of doubt and darkness, something to be definitely avoided.

But through the irradiance of light gained in Christian Science, we learn that wilderness experiences are of great value, for they can be made to coincide with the spiritual definition of "wilderness," given by Mary Baker Eddy on page 597 in the Glossary of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." Part of this definition reads, "The vestibule in which a material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence."

Throughout the Bible we find the value of wilderness experiences confirmed, for many of the most inspiring demonstrations of God's power and love took place in the wilderness. One of the first to be recorded is that of Hagar, the bondwoman. Driven with her young son, Ishmael, into the wilderness of Beersheba, she wandered until all human resources were spent. Then the angel of God calmed her fear and met her immediate need in a practical manner, for "God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water" (Gen. 21:19).

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