Article July 26, 1924 Issue

The Dissolving of Shadows

BESS HEATON

A dictionary defines shadows as "darkness, shade, obscurity, an unreal appearance ... or an imaginary vision." Every one admits the temporary, unstable character of shadows. Their size and shape are entirely dependent upon the light and the objects they shadow. Perhaps when we were quite young our shadows seemed very real and we were afraid of them. Sometimes they were so much bigger than we, and we did not know how to lose them. But as we grew, we learned that they were harmless. At noonday they were very short; and in the morning and evening we could turn our faces to the sun and immediately cease to see them. And most of us, having once learned the harmlessness of our shadows, forgot all about them, although they still followed us about.

Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 331): "God is divine Life, and Life is no more confined to the forms which reflect it than substance is in its shadow. If life were in mortal man or material things, it would be subject to their limitations and would end in death." So we learn that the relation of spiritual Life to material life is the same as substance is to shadow, and that the mortal is as the shadow of spiritual man, the real man, whom God creates in His own image and likeness.

Perhaps when the sunrise of Truth—the truth of the all-ness of God and His spiritual creation—first dawns on our consciousness, the shadows of material life—sin, sickness, and death—may seem very real and fearful. But we have Jesus' promise, "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove." Sometimes in our work of destroying the fear of the shadows of materiality, we may have to wait till our understanding of divine Truth rises higher and stronger, searching and purifying our consciousness till we know that there are no shadows. Again, we may at once turn from matter, and with eyes of faith realize sufficiently the allness of God and His spiritual creation to find that the shadows have disappeared. Thus our Leader says in Science and Health (p. 261), "If one turns away from the body with such absorbed interest as to forget it, the body experiences no pain."

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