Article April 11, 1925 Issue

"Thou God seest me"

KATHERINE ENGLISH

ONE of the familiar Bible stories is that of Hagar, the bondwoman. This Egyptian maid, whose scornful thoughts of her mistress, Sarai, had brought discord into Abram's family, fled into the wilderness, where the angel of the Lord found her. This angel or message from divine Love gently rebuked her and comforted her, and sent her back to her duty humble and submissive. Then she called, "Thou God seest me." She saw that though she might flee from the face of a mortal mistress, she could never escape from the face of God; for God is ever present divine Love. She was to prove this again years later, when with her son she was being a wanderer in the wilderness, and the water being "spent in the bottle," she feared that she would see him die of thirst. Then a message from divine Love came and opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, whereby she and her son were saved.

In the Glossary of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 587) Mrs. Eddy gives a definition of God which, in part, is as follows: "The all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal." If God is all-seeing Spirit, and is "of purer eyes than to behold evil,"—if He cannot see matter,—how are we to understand the oft-quoted text, "Thou God seest me"? How can He be an ever present help in trouble if He cannot see the trouble? asks many a beginner in the study of Christian Science. Sometimes the answer to a puzzling question like this may be seen through a picture, though we should never strain an illustration.

Let us imagine that we see a little child lying asleep in his mother's arms. Around him are his brothers and sisters, some playing outside in the sunshine. The music of their happy voices, of the grateful song of a bird, of the murmuring of innumerable bees comes through the open window into the quiet room. Unconscious of his peaceful surroundings a dream arises, and it seems to the slumbering child that he is alone in a desert place where are savages and wild beasts. He has lost his way, and is filled with fear. If his mother were there he would be safe; so he calls to her; and he sees in his dream that she comes at once, causes the savages to disappear, shows him that the beasts are safely chained, and leads him back into the cheerful light of day. He sees in his dream pleasanter and more natural conditions, his sleep grows lighter, till presently he awakens to find himself in his own home, in his mother's arms! All that ever happened was that he turned in his sleep to his mother and she held him a little closer in her loving embrace.

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