Article November 9, 1968 Issue

Pass Through the Vestibule!

FRANCES B. ZIMMER

Have you ever had a wilderness experience? Christ Jesus did. So did Jacob, Moses, John the Baptist, and many others. When each of these men had wrestled with or resisted whatever difficulty was assailing him as he strove to progress out of that wilderness experience, he attained all the glories of victory and dominion. We too can feel uplifted and inspired and gain our dominion as we pass through some wilderness experience, learn whatever lesson is there for us, and then leave the wilderness behind.

Sometimes when we are struggling with a problem, it helps to see what spiritual meaning lies in a word or words as defined in the Glossary of Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. The textbook of Christian Science, like many scientific textbooks, contains a Glossary, what one might call a lexicon of terms pertaining to its field. Turning to the definition of "wilderness" in this Glossary, we read: "Loneliness; doubt; darkness. Spontaneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence."^{Science and Health, p. 597;}

How often we have experienced this! Being alone and in doubt, perhaps, we finally see that human solutions are undependable, variable, unsure. Then we are ready to look to the one divine source of all good, to our heavenly Father. What comfort and assurance envelop us as we become aware of the ever-presence and ever-availability of divine Love to lead us and unfold unlimited good! With inspiration and "spontaneity of thought," with earnest effort and deep prayer, we see that "a material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence."

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