The Light

ERNEST C. MOSES

It is interesting to note that the word "light" in its spiritual sense is often used in the Old Testament, and that the word is employed in the New Testament as definitely illustrative of Truth. Jesus the Christ illumined human consciousness with a higher sense of Truth than it had ever known before. As John stated, "That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."

How grateful Christians can be in this day that Christian Science has been revealed to mankind, so that all who thirst for spiritual understanding can obtain a clear conception of that marvelous light of Truth, which destroys darkness or error! This Science makes plain to all the spiritual fact declared by the Psalmist in his praise of God, "For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light." In his Gospel, John recorded the same fact when he wrote, "In him was life; and the life was the light of men."

As one obtains spiritual understanding, one sees that light metaphorically stands for divine intelligence, and that darkness, the opposite of light, is error or false material belief about God, man, and the universe. God's perfect creation is made manifest in the light of Truth, and there can be no reality in darkness; for, as God is Truth and Truth is infinite, All, there can be no error. In one of his epistles, John summed up the message which he had received through his beloved Master in these words: "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."

Of the material sense of light and darkness, Mrs. Eddy makes these clear statements in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 215): "We are sometimes led to believe that darkness is as real as light; but Science affirms darkness to be only a mortal sense of the absence of light, at the coming of which darkness loses the appearance of reality." To human sense, solar light has an apparent cause, the sun; and we see the sun only in its emitted light. So, the light is constantly overcoming daily darkness, the light which has an apparent cause. But diurnal darkness has no cause. There is no realm of darkness, no powerful orb of negation emitting darkness. Unlike the light of the sun, diurnal darkness has no origin or sustainer.

Christian Science classifies matter, all sin, sickness, and death, as darkness expressed as the effects of wrong thinking. Therefore, as in the case of the material belief about night, all these phases of false belief have no cause or law whereby to be sustained as facts of intelligence; whereas the scientific sense of health and concord approximates the harmony of spiritual existence in divine Science, and can be demonstrated according to fixed and unvarying rules. Continuing the theme presented in foregoing citation from Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy writes these illuminating and encouraging words, "So sin and sorrow, disease and death, are the suppositional absence of Life, God, and flee as phantoms of error before truth and love."

It should be clearly seen that all error is darkness, mere false belief or supposition, having no more cause, actual or apparent, than the obscurity of the night. Then the false claims of darkness—sin, disease, and death—must disappear before the light of Truth, the primordial and eternal cause, omnipotent and omnipresent. The light of Truth, as presented and demonstrated by Christ Jesus, seems to have many contests with darkness; but, as symbolized in the effects of the sun, this light of Truth destroys every vestige of darkness. Spiritual light always exists; darkness, therefore, in any and every form of material belief will be destroyed.

Weymouth's translation of John 1:5 reads, "The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered it." What invincible power attends spiritual light! And how wonderful it is that this light is the light of perfect Love, which can be felt and realized in the human heart, touching thought with gentle sympathy, tenderness, compassion, and healing mind, body, and estate; it is indeed heaven's light, the light of spiritual understanding.

Many in this day seeking the light of Truth are recognizing and accepting our dear Leader's words of advice, encouragement, and benediction given to a branch church in 1898 (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 187): "May the divine light of Christian Science that lighteth every enlightened thought illumine your faith and understanding, exclude all darkness or doubt, and signal the perfect path wherein to walk, the perfect Principle whereby to demonstrate the perfect man and the perfect law of God."

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit