Article October 19, 1899 Issue

The Other Eye

BY E. C. D.

We all know how a very insignificant object, when held close to the eye, seems capable of hiding much of the outside world, so that the beauty of God's earth may seem to be shut out from us by a disc no larger than a dime. But the moment the obstacle begins to recede into space, the all-pervading light rushes in around it, and finally engulfs it, and it is lost in immensity. So it is with every calamity that we hold close, and to which we give a place in our thoughts. Only as we banish it do we discover the clear light of Truth still shining, and by that light we realize the insignificance of the condition which seemed to us so real.

It gives us courage to know that we have always the power to prevent to temptation from assuming such false proportions (we are not obliged to hold the object so near the eye) and that by always exercising that power, the influx of light, understanding of Truth, comes, in response to God's eternal law.

But we know too that one eye must be closed in order to make the object held before the other eye exclude so much — with both eyes open the illusion is not complete; and it seems to me that the lesson there is that, no matter what trial of our faith comes, no matter how dark things seem, we have always the other eye, the eye of spiritual understanding, and if we keep that eye open, — "single" — we shall not be left in darkness, but rather the whole body shall be full of light.