Steering through the mist

ROBERT A. MOSS

When I was a boy I used to spend summer holidays with an aunt who lived by the river Thames. She owned a boat. When we went on the river she would row, and I would sit in the stern and steer with the ropes that moved the rudder. I felt proud of having the job of directing the boat.

One day we rowed miles down the river and had a picnic. We were rather late starting back, and dusk began to fall. Worse than this, a heavy mist settled on the river.

While we were still a long way from home, I could no longer see where we were going. I was steering in the dark. Suddenly, biff! The boat had run into the bank. We pushed back into the stream, and my aunt rowed on. Soon after, there was a slight bump and then a nasty grinding noise under the boat. It had grounded, but somehow we managed to push off and were floating again.

It was a nightmare journey. I couldn't see the banks. Trees along the bank cast shadows over the water, confusing me about the course to steer.

After a long time, first going forward and then across the river and into the bank, I suddenly saw a light in the distance. It was from a lamp in the middle of the bridge ahead. Presently a beam of light penetrated the mist and faintly illumined the river channel. How welcome that light was! I was able to keep the boat straight on course for home, and at last we arrived safely.

Since that adventure there have been other times when I've not known which way to steer when troubles and problems have come upon me. But I've found that when I keep moving and keep my trust in God's directing, there is always enough light to show me the way.

The Psalmist said, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."^{Ps. 119:105.} Through the years I've learned more about how to pray, and to let God's Word be the most important message. That's why I study the Bible and Science and Health every day. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy assures us, "From Love and from the light and harmony which are the abode of Spirit, only reflections of good can come."^{Science and Health, p. 280.} The light of Truth, the bright "reflections of good," do come when we earnestly pray for help and replace the darkness of doubt and fear. Praying lifts our thoughts to "the abode of Spirit," where light effaces whatever difficulty is darkening our lives.

Sometimes people reach the end of their tether and then turn to God in their extremity. A couple who came to our branch Church of Christ, Scientist, remarked, "Oh, we used to come to church, but then dropped out. Now we've come back through trouble." Whether we look for God out of a sense of trouble or of adventure in seeking the truth, He is always the same, always present, and a guiding light.

There is a lovely hymn in the Christian Science Hymnal which opens:

From sense to Soul my pathway lies before me,
From mist and shadow into Truth's clear day.... Hymnal, No. 64 .

I like the fact that Truth, God, is there—like the lamp on that bridge in my boyhood—and as we keep moving we can always set our steering by it, and come safely home.

God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

II Corinthians 4:6

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