One of Steve's daily jobs was to take the trash down into the basement of the apartment house in which the family lived. This was usually done after the evening meal when the basement was dark and deserted. His Scout meetings were held in the evenings too, and he had to walk to them by himself since there were no boys his age in the building. Steve and his family were living in a foreign country, and both the people and the dark streets seemed strange. For some time he'd felt afraid whenever he had to go into dark places.

But Steve had been taught in the Christian Science Sunday School that God is present everywhere at all times. He tried earnestly to hold to this truth, but it wasn't easy to be brave as long as thoughts of fear or error kept returning.

When he talked it over with his mother one day, she pointed out that fear or error of any kind is just like darkness. Darkness in a room seems to hide the things that are familiar and so tries to make us afraid. We may even imagine we see or hear things that aren't really there. To get rid of darkness in a room, we let in the light; and with the coming of the light the darkness just disappears. We certainly don't have to get a shovel and shovel it out!

In the same way we are able to get rid of fear, or darkness, in our thought. We fill our thought—let in the light—with the truth of God and man as taught in Christian Science. When we really understand that God is good and that He is All, we find there is nothing left to fear; good is all there really is. A right understanding of God destroys fear.

Up until this time Steve hadn't been spending much time with the Bible Lessons found in the Christian Science Quarterly, but now he began to turn to them more and more for help. One week, soon after he had started reading the lesson regularly with his family, there were two passages from the Bible that helped to put him on the right track. In the first one Jesus said, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." ^{John 8:12;} And at another time he said, "I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness." ^12:46;

As he read, Steve could see that since God is Spirit, God's kingdom must be spiritual. In this spiritual kingdom light doesn't come from the sun or from any artificial thing, such as an electric light bulb. The light of God's kingdom, which Christ Jesus brought to the world, comes from Truth. It never comes to us through the material senses. We have the "light of life" only as we gain a correct understanding of God. Mrs. Eddy tells us, "This light is not from the sun nor from volcanic flames, but it is the revelation of Truth and of spiritual ideas." ^{Science and Health, p. 504;}

Steve had seen many healings take place in his family through Christian Science treatment. He himself had been healed of chicken pox, deep cuts, earaches, and fever. He knew that Christian Science heals, but until this time he hadn't really understood that Christian Science is the same law of God that Christ Jesus used and taught.

When the family talked this over, it was pointed out that Mrs. Eddy not only discovered this law of God, but that she healed and taught others to heal by its means. She wrote Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures so that all people could follow Christ Jesus and walk in the light of God, or Truth. Speaking of this Science Mrs. Eddy says, "When you look it fairly in the face, you can heal by its means, and it has for you a light above the sun, for God 'is the light thereof.' " ^{p. 558}

Steve is a lot happier today. He is gaining a clearer understanding of God. He's finding that he can carry with him the wonderful light-giving truths he finds in the Bible Lessons each day. Wherever he goes—onto the baseball field, into the schoolroom, or into a dark place—the light of God is always with him to comfort, guide, and protect him. Steve has found his freedom from fear. He's no longer afraid of the dark.