"God is light" ROBERT C. BRYANT          Christian Science lays great emphasis on the Bible teaching that "God is light," and that because God is omnipresent we are always in this light. As Mrs. Eddy has said, "Whatever is governed by God, is never for an instant deprived of the light and might of intelligence and Life" (Science and Health, p. 215). The human sense of darkness is a belief in the absence of light, the absence of God; but this is a false belief which is dispelled by the truth.          I had occasion a few months ago to drive fifty miles in one day through the Rocky Mountains. My companion and driver was a hardy native son, familiar with the roads and accustomed to handling horses. Our route lay through an unsettled country, with only two or three points of human habitation along the way. We were delayed in starting till nearly noon, and when night came we were still about twelve miles from the end of our journey. All the afternoon we had observed that a storm was gathering, and as the darkness settled down the storm came on and the rain and snow beat directly into our faces. There was no moon, the sky was heavily overcast, and soon it was so dark that we could not see our horses, much less the road. Under ordinary circumstances horses may be trusted to keep the road at night; but our horses had traveled forty miles, the storm was beating directly into their faces, and they were inclined to turn to one side or the other at every opportunity.          We were traveling along a mountainside. On our left was a steep bank, with a river at the bottom. We could hear the water rushing over the rocks. The horses had been drawn down to a slow walk, and when the wheels struck a stone evidently not in the road, my companion stopped them entirely and said it was not safe to go on. It was, in fact, so dark that he thought he had lost his sight entirely, from straining his eyes. We both knew that we could not stay where we were through the night, thus unprotected, in the storm, but I had been declaring for myself the truth that sight is wholly mental and is dependent upon understanding; that physical eyes and optic nerves have nothing to do with it; that in Mind there is no darkness or knowledge of darkness; that Mind sees and knows and understands all things; that man, reflecting God, knows the way and sees the way. A flood of Scriptural truths came to me: "The Lord is my light and my salvation;" "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all;" "In thy light shall we see light," and other texts.          I took the reins from the driver's hands and started the horses, striving to know that error could not keep us from seeing the truth and the way. In two or three minutes my companion exclaimed, "Why, I can see the road plainly; can you?" I was already rejoicing in the light, although the storm had not ceased; in fact, it continued for two days. One place in the clouds ahead of us seemed lighter than elsewhere, and for the rest of our journey we drove at a brisk pace, every turn of the road being plainly visible.          Thus night and darkness may seem to come to us, the way may be obscured, and we may be afraid; but if we turn to God, infinite Mind, the darkness is dispelled and the way made plain, as it was for God's people of old, for, as Mrs. Eddy tells us in Science and Health, "there is no place where God's light is not seen, since Truth, Life, and Love fill immensity and are ever-present" (p. 504).   "'God is light'" by Robert C. Bryant Christian Science Sentinel, January 31, 1914

 

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