Trusting God in the Wilderness

EDGAR ISAAC NEWGASS

THERE come times in human experience when the future appears to stretch out ahead with no familiar landmarks, and void of hope or comfort. This state of things may be said to constitute a wilderness experience, which must surely give place to a broader and happier position than that which preceded it.

Some such experience must have been Noah's when, with little prospect of the renewal to come later, he found himself isolated upon a waste of waters whereon it rained "forty days and forty nights." So too with the children of Israel, during whose sojourn in the wilderness there was scant evidence of the promised land to offset present hardships and privations. And Christ Jesus' experience in the wilderness, culminating in the complete overcoming of the temptations of evil, was preliminary to his wondrous teachings and great healing ministry.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, thus defines "wilderness" on page 597 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "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."

Mrs. Eddy in her early life experienced "loneliness; doubt; darkness." During years of invalidism and friendlessness, however, she kept the lamp of her trust in God faithfully trimmed, and finally she emerged into the sunshine of her discovery that God is good and forever blessing His beloved creation with health and harmony. She learned that true being is devoid of evil, evil being unreal, and that eternal Truth is ever present for the healing and regeneration of mankind.

It is to be noted that the experiences cited had in each case been preceded by a spiritually progressive step. Noah had obeyed God's voice in the building of an ark and in entrusting himself and his family to Him for safety. The children of Israel had sought to go out of Egypt, we read in the Bible, with the purpose of serving their God. Jesus' temptations in the wilderness immediately succeeded his baptism, when it was plain that his public ministry was beginning. Lesser pilgrims, therefore, conscious of their innate human desire for good, need not be dismayed by their sojourn in the wilderness, but may take heart from Mrs. Eddy's consoling words (Science and Health, p. 566), "As the children of Israel were guided triumphantly through the Red Sea, the dark ebbing and flowing tides of human fear,—as they were led through the wilderness, walking wearily through the great desert of human hopes, and anticipating the promised joy,—so shall the spiritual idea guide all right desires in their passage from sense to Soul, from a material sense of existence to the spiritual, up to the glory prepared for them who love God."

The world today seems to be undergoing a wilderness experience. An increasing understanding of God and His beneficent laws challenges the claims of evil, and presses toward the fulfillment of higher ideals. How tenderly, to those struggling in some wilderness experience, come the words written by Mrs. Eddy in a letter to a student, published in the Christian Science Sentinel (September 12, 1936): "God, the divine Love that is your Life will govern it. . . . Take courage and trust in this Love with all your heart, and because of this childlike faith good will deliver you from the sense of evil and the evil of material sense, and establish your way in Truth and rightness."

This establishment "in Truth and rightness" must surely come about. The wilderness experience is not interminable: the sun breaks through the clouds and the words of Isaiah are fulfilled: "The desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God."

When God's allness is recognized, it will be seen that no faithful effort, no right human footstep undertaken during the period, which to the false sense seems as a wilderness, has been lost or wasted. In her beautiful poem "Satisfied" our Leader writes (Poems, p. 79):

"The centuries break, the earth-bound wake,
God's glorified!
Who doth His will—His likeness still—
Is satisfied."

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

"Who shall roll us away the stone?"

November 23, 1940

Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit