The Full Radiance of a Risen Day

In the Preface of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures p vii, Mary Baker Eddy writes: “The wakeful shepherd beholds the first faint morning beams, ere cometh the full radiance of a risen day.” This sentence resonates for me as being symbolic of my journey in Christian Science.

Let me start at the beginning. There seemed to be a vacuum in my life. I was on my own with two small children. On a particular day two friends independently suggested I went to a testimony meeting. At this meeting, and others that followed, I heard members of the congregation speak about how a knowledge of Christian Science had guided their lives. They referred to the fact that it impacted their every day affairs, and told how their health had improved.

At that early stage a kindly church member asked me in the course of a conversation, “Have you felt that glimmer?” Like the shepherds beholding the first faint morning beams, I felt drawn in such a way that my spiritual intuition was awakened. I did not know where I was being led, or what I would learn, of that the journey would regenerate my life. My understanding was so raw, my experience was so limited, but as I began to read Science and Health those first faint morning beams were sufficient to lead me on to develop an understanding of the truth as revealed by Mary Baker Eddy.

Let me say here that the most important word in the sentence that I am using is “ere.” The dictionary definition is “before” - so the first faint morning beams appear before the full radiance of a risen day. This is the key, insofar that much happens in our experience before we see the day fully. The journey is not an end in itself. This radiance is not the revelation of a moment or a day, but a continuing unfoldment of our understanding and demonstration of the truth.

For Mary Baker Eddy the sentence could be applied to her life and her discovery. The first faint morning beams were her childhood love ot the Bible, and her belief that she heard voices informing her what would become her life’s work. Thus began a momentous journay which was to prove one of hardship and severe trials. Some of those around her supported her while others opposed her cause.

Her profound belief was that the healing which Jesus performed centuries ago could be reinstated at the end of the nineteenth century. The culmination of her belief was when she demonstrated the healing power of Christian Science following a serious fall on the ice. This was the full radiance of a risen day. Subsequently she taught others the effectiveness of spiritual healing. Her discovery was not exclusively about physical healing, but about how the application of spiritual truths can result in increased harmony in their lives and others whose lives they touched.

Early on in my journey, the need arose for me to find suitable employment. Precious efforts did not result in any success. When I was speaking to the same kindly church member mentioned previously she referred me to a relative of hers who she thought could offer me employment. When I met this person who did in fact offer me a job, it was like seeing the first faint morning beams - the work was conducive to my then skills and family commitments. I could not have foreseen that much later my employer would encourage and support me in enrolling in a course of study taht led not only to a qualification but a whole new career. Hello! Once more to the full radiance of a risen day.

At the end of my career with retirement, a further opportunity was presented to me for a course of further study which was rewarding and enriching and gave me an additional degree.

This blessed risen day does not provide a reason to relax, but it a signpost to encourage us to pursue this pathway to further learning and demonstration. Sometimes it seems that as we travel on this privileged journey, that our footsteps seem slow and we are unable to progress as quickly as we would like. This is a time to be still and listen. This is the moment to express gratitude for all we have already received, then when we acknowledge our blessins we are more prepared to receive more.

A further significant landmark on my journey was learning the seven synonyms for God, and how this forms a central part of our study in Christian Science. The energy of Life, the purity of Love, the peace of Truth, the power of Mind, the radiance of Soul, the might of Spirit, and the honesty of Principle.

An understanding of these attributes for the synonymns is part of an ongoing journey that strengthens our spiritual ability and in turn enables us to apply this spirituality to every aspect of our daily lives, in our family, in our church family, in employment and in our community and serves to deepen our experience of the full radiance of the risen day.

Further along on my journey I had the blessing of taking class instruction. This develops our spiritual confidence, enlarges our understanding and gives us spiritual tools with which to become more effective healers both for ourselves and for others. This is work in progress.

So the first faint morning beams are ideas that come to us, or direction we feel from Mind, the full radiance of the risen day are the ideas coming to fruition, and are a marker in our progress.

Thus the dawn of ideas goes on forming each successive stage of progress (Science and Health p 506).