Article March 12, 1910 Issue

THE LENS OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

EDITH BINGHAM DITTEMORE.

While walking along a country road one day, I came to a small bridge stretching across a dark, swamplike place, where the water was scarcely visible on account of a thick green covering, over the surface of which insects of every description were briskly running. At first glance the place seemed most repellent, and I would have turned away at once had I not discovered something which suggested a deep lesson. In the midst of the mire, untouched by their sordid surroundings, a cluster of pure white lilies were opening their fresh faces, close set in a mass of sturdy green foliage. As the sun shone upon them, their strength, beauty, and purity were intensified, and even the unpleasant surroundings seemed subdued by their sweet presence.

A few years before this picture would not have awakened any thought other than that of admiration for the flowers; but I had recently come to the dawn of a new light, and was now looking through a spiritual lens called Christian Science, that enabled me, as it has many others, to perceive symbols of spiritual truth which had not come within the range of my vision before. In the light of Science, the picture became profoundly significant. It symbolized the world of sin, disease, and woe in which mankind is seemingly enveloped; nevertheless, with the aid of this wonderful lens, we are enabled to look through the veil of material sense and see God's pure and perfect man in all his beauty, while the objects of sin and disease disappear in proportion to our perception of the truth of being.

When its serviceability is understood, this lens of Christian Science can but be desired by all the world, for with it the spiritual universe of God's creating is clearly seen, the reality of being appears. It is turning human thought away from its disheartening beliefs in a God who either sends or permits sickness, sorrow, and death, or who provides for His suffering children only such material remedies as sooner or later lose their asserted healing power. In thus removing deplorable conditions of thought, Christian Science is lessening the manifestations of evil and multiplying the manifestations of good. It enables us to prove that the sick as well as the sinful can be healed here and now of the diseased and sinful thoughts which have caused inharmony and suffering, and be brought into a realization of that perfect love which casteth out fear through the saving knowledge of the only true God, infinite Life. Truth, and Love. Moreover, it gives us proof of the spiritual man whom God created "in his own image." and who is revealed through Christian Science as having remained perfect and Godlike. We learn that even as the lilies bloomed unspotted, despite their repulsive environment, so mankind may rise above repellent mortal conditions and find freedom in the service of Truth. What a glorious inheritance is this,—to realize our God-given right to dominion, our right to manifest health, strength, peace, and purity!

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