Article September 28, 1918 Issue

Inside the Outposts

LIEUT. COL. ROBERT E. KEY

In the first chapter of Genesis we read, "And God divided the light from the darkness." To each one who has awakened spiritually, this division of light from darkness is an important part of one's Christianly scientific experience and follows the imperative call of Truth, "Let there be light;" for Truth must illuminate every phase of the Christian Scientist's earthly pilgrimage. To the one who has awakened spiritually, there is a better outlook on every event of life. In the business office and at the workshop bench, in the recreation field and at the schoolroom desk, in the training camp, in the transport, and on the battle field, there is is light on every phase of experience where before there was nothing but the dense darkness of material sense.

To the Christian Scientist the world of material belief is transformed, and in its place is God's spiritual universe, with man perfect and immortal, reflecting joy, love, health, and perfection in his activities great and small. Truth gives a nobler outlook and higher aspiration to the one who has gained his first glimpse of scientific Christianity. For a time this glimpse seems "enough of heaven to come down to earth" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 16), and one is perhaps tempted to stay content for a while with the early rays, waiting for the day to burst in all its glorious promise. But day does not really dawn in its fulness until the work of dividing the light from the darkness begins to take place in the human consciousness. We must work and work hard in the sunlight of Soul to discover our rightful place. This light has much more of promise than a mere gleam. It means that beyond and above the mortal plane of thought is a better state of things which is worthy of investigation.

The writer remembers a dark night in South Africa when the British and Boers were at war. He had set out the outposts at dusk, and in the early morning before it was light his duty was to go along the line and see that they were all alert. The night was still and very dark. Long, wet grass almost hid him from view, and as he groped in the direction toward which he believed the outposts lay, a thought of fear for a moment arrested him. What if he should go too far and get in front of them. He would then be on the enemy's ground, and coming from that direction the outposts would take him for a spy and shoot him before he would be recognized. A low, distinctive whistle had been arranged beforehand, and this signal was remembered as he stood there in the grass. He whistled, and in a few moments there was an answering call from the nearest sentinel. He had been inside the outposts all the while.

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