Mildred Binns Young left Westtown School with her husband to work with the American Friends Service Committee in the South. There she lived in modest circumstances, not only aiding the poor but living among them. Her current pamplet is stimulated by a quotation from Meister Eckart: "If the soul knows God in His creatures, that is only evening light: if it knows His creatures in God, that is morning light: but if it know God as He who alone is Being, that is the clear light of midday."

"In my life, the candle was tradition. It may have partaken somewhat of the 'dead hand of the past,' but still it was a guidance. The lantern was the vision of human need, the kind of human need that can be met." This is the story of Mildred's life, the traditions of her past, and the awakenings of her spirit to serve. "It is said that one should never attempt the works of charity unless the motion springs from love in the heart. But God can lead us by more ways than one. Some he makes ready before he sends them out; others he sends out that they may be made ready."

From a leading of witness and service, Mildred does find herself in 'the clear light of midday.' "I do not know when I began to work by daylight instead of by candle and lantern light... I suppose the need of others, which I was so little able to meet, joined forces with my own need, which others were so little able to meet, to bring me to that posture of seeking which is already the beginning of finding." What she found and how her findings can add meaning to all our lives is the treasure of this beautiful essay.

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