A guiding star—is that something we in today's world can see and follow? Yes, if we think of the star in its beautiful symbolism. Like the wise men we can look away from materiality and personality and raise our vision to divine guidance, which will lead us unerringly into the light of Christ.

The star the wise men followed was shedding its light for all mankind, but the wise men alone detected it and trusted its guidance. Even the material authority of a jealous Herod could not induce them to betray their precious discovery.

However dim it may have first appeared, this guiding light had become a brightly shining star by the time the wise men reached the infant Jesus. In the Preface of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures Mary Baker Eddy says: "The wakeful shepherd beholds the first faint morning beams, ere cometh the full radiance of a risen day. So shone the pale star to the prophet-shepherds; yet it traversed the night, and came where, in cradled obscurity, lay the Bethlehem babe, the human herald of Christ, Truth, who would make plain to benighted understanding the way of salvation through Christ Jesus, till across a night of error should dawn the morning beams and shine the guiding star of being." And she continues, "The Wisemen were led to behold and to follow this daystar of divine Science, lighting the way to eternal harmony."^{Science and Health, p. vii;}

Jesus' birth was heralded by the star of Bethlehem, but it was the Christ he expressed that is to us "the bright and morning star,"^{Rev. 22:16;} the eternal light that shines on the Christian path.

We can follow even a glimmer of Truth to its full effulgence. Every thought that turns to God for guidance finds an ever-shining light. In our willingness to receive this light in our hearts, to follow and trust it, we are truly wise, and we too find the Christ newly born in our consciousness. No night of despair can blot out that shining light. Its rays can penetrate the densest mental darkness.

Long before dawn one Christmas morning, deeply troubled by a difficult problem, I stood at my window in the darkness and looked out on a sky that was black above the city lights. I tried to visualize the millions of stars I would see if I were out in the open, away from the lights on the ground. But, as with the difficulty I was facing, there seemed to be only darkness.

I recalled prayerfully a verse in Mrs. Eddy's Christ and Christmas, which I had read the evening before:

"One lone, brave star"—how I needed it to guide me through "the grim night of chaos"! I yearned for spiritual guidance. Then, as I gazed at the blackness in the eastern sky, there appeared a pinprick of light, which increased in brightness as I watched. The morning star—the bright planet I was watching—became so strong in its predawn reflection of the sun that its shining could not be obscured by earthly conditions. I saw "the bright and morning star" as symbolic of the Christ, of the unerring guidance of Spirit. Suddenly I realized that the light of the Christ was just as present as that star, and however darkened by earthborn difficulties, my consciousness was lighted by "one lone, brave star." Even if it was only a pinprick of light in the darkness now, my gaze, fixed and faithful, would see it come into shining focus. It did, and it brightened and guided my thought until the daystar of Christian Science brought full illumination and the darkness of the problem disappeared.

Even if the light of Christ seems dimmed beyond perception, thought can still be lifted to perceive its radiance gently leading to right thought and action. The Christ also reveals that the origin of right thought and action is divine Principle, that Spirit moves and motivates man.

Divine guidance is not found through astrological charts and horoscopes but through illumination of individual consciousness. Looking even to reputable scientific data, analyses, and predictions has its limitations. If spiritual guidance is unsought, our answers are untrustworthy and temporal. How comforting it is to know that our decisions need not be governed by well-meaning but fallible human advice and opinion! The one Mind will guide us infallibly as we learn to wait and listen for its wisdom.

To have that spiritual guidance, we need to rest in the consciousness of God's ever-presence, of Mind's constant, unerring control of every situation, of divine Love's inspiring and directing of every step. And then we need to trust Love.

Spiritual guidance comes as the result of prayer and watching. We can recognize it by the calm, confident assurance that accompanies our acceptance of what divine Mind imparts. In my case the morning star was not that guidance, but it served to turn my thought to the inevitability of the light of the Christ shining in mental darkness. Then my thought opened to the influx of spiritual, right ideas. I followed a proper line of reasoning about the problem and began to see possible steps to the solution, steps that human reason and trial-and-error experimentation had not brought about.

Spiritual guidance expresses the action of divine Mind unfolding its own ideas. Mind's action is intelligent, unerring, decisive; it guides us to harmonious activity and peace. There is no action apart from the All-Mind, no intelligence, no inspiration. To the degree that we accept and understand this action of Mind, we feel its direction; we are able to distinguish between good and evil, the true and the false. We give up fear and uncertainty and set out on the path of harmony and progress.

Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes: "God is the fountain of light, and He illumines one's way when one is obedient. The disobedient make their moves before God makes His, or make them too late to follow Him. Be sure that God directs your way; then, hasten to follow under every circumstance."^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 117;}

Referring to the message of the prophets concerning Christ, the Second Epistle of Peter gives us this promise: "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts."^{II Pet. 1:19.}