Daylight Saving

ENOS ELI SUTHERLAND

The metaphysical effect of Truth on human consciousness is apparent in the movement for daylight saving as in other reforms. In that illuminating chapter of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" entitled Glossary, Mrs. Eddy gives the scientific definition of evening in these words: "Mistiness of mortal thought; weariness of mortal mind; obscured views; peace and rest" (p. 586); and of morning: "Light; symbol of Truth; revelation and progress" (p. 591). In "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 114), she tells of a most interesting and significant observation made by her in connection with the writing of Science and Health. She says: "What I wrote had a strange coincidence or relationship with the light of revelation and solar light. I could not write these notes after sunset. All thoughts in the line of Scriptural interpretation would leave me until the rising of the sun. Then the influx of divine interpretation would pour in upon my spiritual sense as gloriously as the sunlight on the material senses."

A devoted study of the lives of the leading characters in the Bible, whose experiences and demonstrations are an inspiration for all Christians, leads one to the conclusion that they were daylight savers in the deepest sense. Many times the statement recurs that they rose early in the morning and sought the Lord. It was early in the morning that the "bread from heaven" had to be gathered daily by the children of Israel during forty years in the wilderness, for "when the sun waxed hot, it melted." These people were later taught to make a sacrifice and to bring an offering when help was desired of the Lord. The tenor of the Word seems to indicate that the offering was to be of their most valuable possessions, either from the vineyards, the first-born of their flocks, or "a lamb without blemish and without spot."

The most precious time in the day is the early morning hours, when nature appears in glorious freshness and when the human sense is free from fatigue. This is an hour when thought should be turned to God for spiritual food and spiritual drink and spiritual joy. The mandatory promise of Christ Jesus the Way-shower is, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." To rise an hour earlier each day for the purpose of having a regular time for the study of the Lesson-Sermon before beginning the work of the day, may mean a sacrifice of sensuous ease, but in Christian Science we learn that spiritual activity never wearies one. On the contrary it brings renewed strength, as the Bible tells us. The word sacrifice takes on new significance in Christian Science. It is no less than the exchange of the carnal or mortal mind with its material beliefs of time, objects, and space, for the understanding of immortal, divine Mind and its incorporeal spiritual ideas, which were never born and never die. The increasing joy in life which results from this exchange is measured by the difference between despairing uncertainty and the courageous confidence which accompanies the unfolding scientific or absolute knowledge of God and of the universe including man in His image and likeness.

Overaction of the human mind or concentration of will power is not Christian Science, but evil, which falls back upon itself, prevents spiritual interpretation, paralyzes right mental action, and puts mortals to sleep. It is consecration, not concentration, which enables one to dwell in the "secret place of the most High." No one can awake from his slumbers, form the dream of life in matter, by concentration of the human mind. This must come through spiritual illumination. It is unwise and unfair to one's self to sleep late and then start the day with a belief of hurry, postponing the taking of one's spiritual food until fagged by a day's toil. One needs God's law during the day, and should therefore not wait until the day has passed to devote a quiet time to seeking through Christian Science the understanding of God's law. Even though the beginner may seem sometimes not to think on or retain what he reads, because of the multitude of material beliefs coming between him and the spiritual meaning of the printed page, yet truth does its work, and nothing gives one confidence, assurance, divine energy, and divine guidance so much as the feeling that he has started the day right with God, that he has placed himself in the position to receive. This attitude of mind lets in the light and permits Christian Science to gradually unfold in consciousness, changing the basis of thought from matter to Spirit, until one has learned to think spiritually, or, as the Bible commands, to "pray without ceasing," thus becoming, in the light of day as understood in Christian Science, a successful and happy man because he is a daylight saver in the true and scientific sense of the word.

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