Article February 1, 1913 Issue

TANGIBLE AND INTANGIBLE

KATE W. BUCK.

Trained , as most of us have been from earliest childhood, to look to the outward things about us for pleasure and profit; to watch the body lest it become diseased and therefore troublesome; to fear the slightest touch of pain lest it develop into something "serious;" to be tucked up and coddled on the slightest provocation by our anxious parents,—it is small wonder that the visible and tangible things, of which we hear much, seem real, and that the invisible things, of which we hear but little, seem visionary and unreal.

This proves a stumbling-block to most adults when seeking the truth which Christian Science so faithfully presents, reiterating, as it does over and over again, with unswerving assurance and by different modes of expression, that it may reach different classes of thinkers, the allness of the spiritual, the nothingness of the material. People frequently claim that the Christian Science concept of God is vague, far-off, intangible; they cry for something definite, failing to realize that in this very desire they prove that they are looking for something which can be taken in through the five senses. Along this line Mrs. Eddy writes: "The Israelites centered their thoughts on the material in their attempted worship of the spiritual. To them matter was substance, and Spirit was shadow. They thought to worship Spirit from a material standpoint, but this was impossible" (Science and Health, p. 351).

To such a seeker, from whose lips the words tangible and intangible were often heard, earnestly seeking in the only way he knew, came a revelation through the eyes of a dog to whom he had shown a kindness. The dog came to him and, putting one paw on his knee, looked up at him with such an expression of love, gratitude, and loyalty as there was no mistaking, and he thought: "They call you dumb, and yet you are speaking to me as few human beings have spoken,—and how? Here is an intangible expression of affection, yet one which is perfect, unmistakable, complete; one which I fully recognize and cannot doubt." Then the thought of love, as manifested by the dog, took full hold upon him, and the bugbear of tangibility and intangibility began to disappear.

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