Article January 23, 1902 Issue

An Illustration

BY M. F. G.

Not long ago I had occasion to visit a room which was lined with mirrors and brilliantly lighted with electric lamps so placed and shaded as to produce the effect of great brightness without an unpleasant glare.

The room contained many articles of great value,—fine pictures, silver, and jewels; and as I wandered along looking at them I noticed a bronze statue standing at the far end of the room. I drew nearer to examine it and was suddenly confronted by long lines of bronze statues extending on either side of me into distant apartments. I was half startled for an instant and then I saw that there was really only one statue, and that all the others were reflections of this one in the mirrors on the opposite sides of the room. I tried to count them, but I could not; and as I looked there came to me, like a flash of light, this thought: "What a beautiful illustration there is here of what Christian Science means by the expression, "God, and man as His reflection." The numberless images I saw might be multiplied indefinitely and not one iota be taken from the original statue, but if the statue were taken away not one image would remain.

I looked again and saw that some of the reflections appeared to be far off and small. I knew this could only be a seeming, for the statue and the mirror remained stationary, so the distance could not be real; and when I examined to see why some images were smaller and less perfect than others, I saw that it was because they were reflecting each other instead of reflecting the original statue; but I also saw that this must be so, for from their position it was only through the reflections that the original could be seen at all, and I thought, "And can they ever know what the original is like when all the images they see are more or less imperfect?" For a moment the force of the illustration seemed lost until I saw that the salvation of all comes from knowing that the perfection of the original is the only reality, and that all imperfection, not being in the original, is nothing, and is not to be accounted of nor reflected again. Does this illustration seem to make God and man cold abstractions? not at all, when we realize that the Great Original is Divine Love, forever radiating the command, "Love one another, as I have loved you."

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