Darkness is defined as "the absence in part or in whole of light" and also as "absence of moral, religious, or cultural values: spiritual backwardness." It is synonymous with gloom, ignorance, wickedness, iniquity, blindness, secrecy, obscurity, and trouble.

Man is not the outcome of darkness. He is created to dwell in the eternal light of Life, as God's spiritual likeness. The Bible declares, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." ^{I John 1:5.}

On the basis of these spiritual facts, a grandmother, a Christian Science practitioner, prayed for her granddaughter who awoke in pain one night. The little girl had become ill before in the same way. But now, soon afterward, she was asleep. And the next morning, in answer to her grandmother's call, a bouncy little voice rejoiced, "It's all gone now!" Then the child gloomily amended, "But it comes back at night."

"There is no night!" exclaimed the grandmother.

"But I called you at night, and you helped me at night," protested the child.

Then the grandmother put an end to the fear of recurrence—and, so it proved, to the recurrence itself—by wisely explaining in tangible terms what she meant when she said, "There is no night!" She reminded the child of the globe of the world that was kept in her classroom at school.

She asked the child to remember that the world spins in solar light. But that light comes from only one direction, the sun; and so as the earth rotates, it turns into and away from that light. As our part of the world turns away from the light, we say it is night because the world hides the light from us. But the sunlight is always shining; and to the light, there is no night. When the astronauts go far enough above the earth, they can see the sun's light all the time.

The grandmother helped her granddaughter to prove that through Christian Science we can stay outside the limits of mortal mind and prove that we actually dwell in the ever-present spiritual light or enlightened intelligence of divine Mind. In infinite Mind there is no possibility of turning away from light and therefore "no darkness at all." In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes, "God never endowed matter with power to disable Life or to chill harmony with a long and cold night of discord." ^{Science and Health, p. 378.}

Christ Jesus knew and proved that we are in our real being the offspring of Light—Light that outshines and outlasts even sunshine, because it is Spirit, God! Man is created in the likeness of irradiant Life, Light; man dwells in the ineffable shining of divine Love.

Jesus said of our true selfhood—luminous with the Christ, the divine idea of manhood—"Ye are the light of the world." ^{Matt. 5:14.} And just before he healed a man who was born blind, Jesus claimed his own true selfhood, declaring, "I am the light of the world." ^{John 9:5.} Later he said, "While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light." ^{I John 12:36.}

In order to fulfill our mission as "the light of the world," we must cast out the errors of mental darkness—the ignorant fear, the loneliness, the licentiousness, the undisciplined laziness or loafing—the limitations and liabilities that seem to lurk under the cover of the world's shadow. We overcome the pains of darkness by mastering the deceptive pleasures of darkness—the temptation to sink into idleness and sloth, to think only of one's self, to indulge material appetites, to be off guard or slack about meeting challenges.

Because we have God-derived dominion over the errors of darkness, we can bring forth the light of real being that inheres in our true identity. Science and Health explains: "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. So sin and sorrow, disease and death, are the suppositional absence of Life, God, and flee as phantoms of error before truth and love." ^{Science and Health, p. 215.}

A friend of mine began to face up to the claims of darkness that seemed to be depriving her of good. She longed to attend the Wednesday evening testimony meetings at a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, and this desire was a leading factor in prompting her to learn how to drive a car. As soon as she had obtained her driver's license, she resolved that, in gratitude for the healing of fear of driving, the first place she would drive to alone would be Wednesday evening testimony meetings. Because she still felt uneasy about driving alone at night, she decided to learn a new hymn every week to sing as she drove across town. For many Wednesday evenings she repeated this procedure. Learning the words in the Christian Science Hymnal to the familiar tunes that she had sung with different words in a Protestant church brought many a lesson in the theology of Christian Science! Soon, her husband, who had voiced a dislike for the testimony meetings, decided to try again. Since then he has been her regular escort and driver!

This same friend found herself glued evening after evening to her favorite chair in front of the television. She felt she deserved some entertainment after a day of work. But soon she realized that she could never do her part as "the light of the world" by continually dimming out her talents to watch someone else perform! She began work on a project she had longed to complete, an article for the Christian Science periodicals. One idea followed another. Soon she was writing articles regularly; and some of them were accepted for publication. Her "day's work" almost doubled in volume.

We need neither desire nor dread the darkness. Actually, of itself darkness can do nothing for or against us. We each make our own terms with error. We can claim our God-given dominion over it, and walk in the light of health, safety, and achievement. We can let the light of true individuality shine through our words and deeds. Mrs. Eddy gives us a good reminder to keep our thoughts alight with confidence and cheer: "Children of light, you are not children of darkness." ^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 191.}

CAROLYN B. SWAN