Article April 3, 1915 Issue

True Coin

ELINOR SPARGUR WEIL

Mrs. Eddy often reminds us that mortal concepts are at most but counterfeits of spiritual realities. On page 148 of Science and Health she says, "Anatomy and theology reject the divine Principle which produces harmonious man, and deal—the one wholly, the other primarily—with matter, calling that man which is not the counterpart, but the counterfeit, of God's man."

One day the attendant in our home handed me a coin and asked what was wrong with it, as it had not been accepted when tendered. Upon handling it, I knew intuitively that it was a counterfeit. Upon comparing it with a coin which I knew to be genuine, the difference in form, color, and design was not perceptible, but the more I compared the two the more apparent became the spuriousness of the one and the genuineness of the other. I told the attendant that her coin was a counterfeit, but upon comparing them she could not perceive the difference. I wondered at this, for by this time I could clearly distinguish between the good and the bad. It then came to me that she was a foreigner, a stranger in this country, and had not handled enough of our money to discriminate between the two. So is it with every one who does not understand the Science of real being and calls that man which is the very antipode of the man of God's creating. When, however, we become citizens of the kingdom of God, the realm of Spirit, then we are "no more strangers" but "of the household of God," and we learn to distinguish between Truth and error, between Spirit and so-called matter, between the real and the unreal.

I pointed out to the attendant that it was against the law to tender counterfeit money, that which we knew was not genuine, and the thought then came to me of the great and only Lawmaker, of His law, which we as Christian Scientists learn to follow, and of how often we either tender or accept the counterfeit for the real. This little incident in my household taught me a great lesson. I saw that every time I allowed the five physical senses to bear testimony to error, I was tendering or accepting the counterfeit. I also saw that the real man, God's image and likeness, can bear witness only to the truth.

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