Article February 5, 1916 Issue

Despite the Seeming

FREDERIC C. HOTCHKISS

In the office where the writer is employed and where a great deal of gold is used, all the sweepings from the floor are saved and placed in a barrel to be sent away to the refiners. The last barrel sent out looked to be worthless, nothing but dirt; but though hidden by the rubbish, gold was there in sufficient quantity to bring in a few days later a check for a considerable amount of money. This brought to my mind the work of Christian Science in separating the divine idea from the seemingly worthless conditions of thought manifested by the human sense, which is buried in false beliefs that, like the rubbish in the barrel, need to be burned, destroyed, in order to bring to light what is of real worth.

In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says, "The furnace separates the gold from the dross that the precious metal may be graven with the image of God." Again she says, "The fiery baptism will burn up the chaff of error with the fervent heat of Truth and Love, melting and purifying even the gold of human character" (pp. 66, 565). No one has ever gone so low in the moral scale but that there is a reflection of divine, omnipresent Love to be found hidden somewhere in the seeming worthlessness. Can we then afford to condemn any who may turn to us for love and assistance and say there is no good in him?

Like its original, the image of God is to be found everywhere, despite the seeming; and it needs only to be separated from the rubbish of mortal belief. As this is scientifically done, we find the man who, the psalmist said, is "a little lower than the angels," and who is crowned with "glory and honor."

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