VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE

HELEN R. PLATT.

In Romans, St. Paul says, "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made." We learn in demonstration that every effect has a mental origin or causation, and that things visible to this mortal vision may symbolize things that are invisible to this human sight. We get a chain of beautiful thoughts from David in the Nineteenth Psalm: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork." Whoever has traced the stars in their courses, noted the phases of the moon, studied the rising and setting of the sun, or trusted the seasons to come and go in their regular order, finds with proper study that each and all of this points to that invisible intelligence, the creator of the one creation. As we expand in thought and become more and more receptive, we discover new beauties and interests, thus receiving all we are ready to receive or have prepared ourselves to be capable of receiving, the world unfolding to us a grandeur and glory out of what was to us formerly emptiness or chaos.

In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 331) Mrs. Eddy very beautifully expresses her thought in these words: "As mortals awake from their dream of material sensation, this adorable, all-inclusive God, and all earth's hieroglyphics of Love, are understood; and infinite Mind is seen kindling the stars, rolling the worlds, reflecting all space and Life,—but not life in matter." We certainly get glimpses of the promise by seeing the beauty of human existence, in the same way that if we know and love our brother whom we have seen, we become more capable of knowing and loving God whom we have not seen. The world is only to us what we are conscious of, and often becomes one vast whispering gallery, though but a vacuum to the inattentive and heedless.

The artist must first feel and see mentally all that he would give to the public gaze upon his canvas, must absorb and study both consciously and unconsciously, voluntarily and involuntarily, all phases and conditions of his subject, until his whole being is filled to overflowing. Before he takes up pencil and brush his conception is matured, his work is done, and now his hands obey his will, the invisible is understood by that which is made. Likewise the sculptor masters first in thought every statue or monument by an indwelling communion with all the invisible beauties of his ideal, before he can or does eventually make the visible manifestation with tools that do his bidding, giving to the world the carved marble that glows with the inspiration of his genius. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 86) Mrs. Eddy tells us that "even the human conception of beauty, grandeur, and utility is something that defies a sneer. It is more than imagination. It is next to divine beauty and the grandeur of Spirit. It lives with our earth-life, and is the subjective state of high thoughts."

The poesy as well as the religion of the Bible shows forth grand lessons, teaching us that God's love, might, and majesty are made manifest, visible, in inexpressible loveliness of form and color; that the rainbow of promise outvies the painter's palette; that the lily of the field outrivals Solomon's glory and grandeur; that God the divine artist forms and colors His own ideas in all the beauty of His holiness, giving to man His glory as a model, His righteousness as the light, His truth as the teacher. The mentality of our daily life and living is our strength, yet we grasp the meaning of this very slowly. Correct views, or facts rightly and firmly held, bring to our thought or conscious vision what were before invisible, because our spiritual sight was dormant, not awakened. It has been said by an able writer that to see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion, all in one, and that right living is a fine art not mastered or controlled by the five senses.

A proof of the mentality of all our senses is made evident in the many cases of deaf, dumb, and blind receiving such wonderful enlightenment. Helen Keller, the noted deaf, dumb, and blind girl, says in an article written by her, that the Bible gave her a deep sense that things seen are temporal and things unseen are eternal. The experience of this wonderful girl certainly adds strong proof of the mentality of all senses. Her innate thirst and eagerness for knowledge, without any physical aid but touch to receive impressions, have given her grand opportunities to demonstrate the visible and invisible things of the universe. It has been told of Laura Bridgman that toward the close of her life she expressed this thought to one who had tried often to give her some evidence of her immortality: "Yes, I now see that I shall live forever." She finally beheld this truth which had seemed so difficult for her to grasp. No physical sense aided her, for she possessed none of sight or hearing; yet she now beheld the fact of man's eternal existence. From the outward world she had been an exile the greatest part of her life, but she at last heard the voice of God and beheld herself as a child of God with her full inheritance.

In the same line of reasoning Jesus was the visible manifestation of the invisible Christ, Immanuel or "God with us." Throughout the Old Testament, especially in the eleventh and fifty-third chapters of Isaiah, are promises and prophecies concerning a visible priest and king, one in fleshly form that should satisfy the prayers and demands of the Israelitish nation. The chronicles of the New Testament testify to the general lack of any understanding as to the Christ-appearing. The desire and expectancy for a temporal king, robed in "purple and fine linen," caused the people to overlook the spiritual, glorified Christ; also Jesus, the visible manifestation, became nothing to them in their blindness. They crucified him in thought and finally in deed; or, as Mrs. Eddy expresses it, "After ... the crucifixion of the corporeal man, the incorporeal Saviour—the Christ or spiritual idea which leadeth into all Truth—must needs come in Christian Science, demonstrating the spiritual healing of body and mind" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 163). Thus is spiritual being understood through the inspired writings of our revered Leader.

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