TRANSPARENCY AND GROWTH

John B. Willis

It was a clear, cool day without, so that an overcoat and a brisk gait were called for, and yet the atmosphere of the conservatory we had entered was summerlike and we found ourselves in the midst of a revelry of bloom. Flowers of every name and hue were voicing as best they could their fragrant welcome, while the place was simply overrunning with a tangle of luxuriant growth. In talking with the keeper we incidentally inquired as to his coal consumption, and to our surprise he said, "It is much lighter than you would suppose, in view of the fact that on sunshiny days like this we need no artificial heat at all."

We had come upon a new realization of the practical value of a glass roof—and, as well, of a spiritually transparent thought. Both freely admit that which means life and growth, and both exclude that which means decay and death. Though the phenomenon is commonplace, it is far more difficult to understand how glass should be an open door to light waves, and quite impenetrable to air waves, than to explain how an alert and rightly educated thought may be hospitable to everything that ministers to a true and beautiful life, while interdicting even the near approach of the things that blight one's spiritual growth.

The above phrase, "alert and rightly educated thought," is used advisedly, and every mature Christian Scientist knows full well that its terms cannot be overemphasized. An active purpose in the line of spiritual growth is sometimes as unwise and self-defeating in its way of doing things as is the man who puts abundant windows in his conservatory and yet allows them to become and remain so begrimed with coal-dust that most of the sun's rays are excluded. It is a very easy matter for mortals to enthuse over an ideal and yet do very little toward bringing it into practical, healing touch with their personal problems.

We do well therefore to remind ourselves continually that transparency to the light of Truth is distinctly a matter of "home-provision." It is not the business of the sun to wash our windows, but rather and simply to flood every place and part where a welcome, an open door, has been provided for the reception of his radiant messengers. The significance of Jesus' question. "Wilt thou be made whole?" deepens daily in the thought of every true Christian Scientist. He can never forget the imperative demand of this teaching for purity, a purity which signifies not only faultless moral conduct, but that cleanliness of mentality which presents no impediment to a continuity of divine revelation, to the life-nourishing, life-beautifying light of Truth. Under a different figure, Mrs. Eddy drives this teaching home when she says, "The corner-stone of all spiritual building is purity" (Science and Health, p. 241).

Let us not forget, moreover, that this pure thought medium not only serves us by transmitting heaven's light, but that through it we gain clear visions of the without, acquire that true sense of proportion, of experience-values, which is essential to poise and right judgment. Pure thought, as we learn in Christian Science, is not only ethically clean, but logically, scientifically true. It is based on divine Principle, it is a divine idea and hence efficient in casting out the doubts and fears of false sense which tend to obscure our spiritual perception and thus prove the forerunners of sickness and suffering. Blessed indeed, therefore, are they of transparent thought; their hearts are sure to be flooded with an unfailing sunshine, and their lives to abound with both flowers and fruit.

John B. Willis.

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