Article January 31, 1925 Issue

A Right Viewpoint

HARRIET S. HOKE

THE following simple incident may serve to illustrate the teaching of Christian Science in regard to the illusive nature of the physical senses, and the importance of gaining a correct viewpoint in order to dispel their false testimony. A child was requested to fetch something from the attic for an older member of the family. When she reached the stairway and peered into the semidarkness above, the little feet halted; for the space into which she gazed was, to her, filled with hobgoblins. She was perfectly sure they were there, because she could see them! Presently the gentle grandmother came to learn the cause of the delay. Assuring the child of the truth about the nonexistence of hobgoblins, she lovingly led her right into the midst of the attic room, and the hobgoblins were found to be merely some baskets and old clothing hanging from the rafters. The little girl was never again afraid of the attic; and she was healed forever of her belief in hobgoblins. The grotesque forms and faces had faded into nothingness when the truth about them was demonstrated to her consciousness.

It is evident that while the woman and the child saw the same material objects, their mental viewpoints were at first very different. One saw what was there; the other saw what her fear and childish imaginatin pictured. In like manner, without spiritual understanding—the knowledge of God—the human race views the images of its own fancy, calling them real. Accepting traditions handed down from one generation to another, it sees fear and sin and disease objectified in the darkness of materialism. As the suffering individual, however, gains a correct viewpoint through the revelation of absolute Truth, he begins to see these evils dissolve.

Christian Science is this revelation. Christian Science makes appreciable to human reason the spiritual concept of being as taught throughout the Scriptures and demonstrated by Christ Jesus. Its Discoverer and Founder, Mary Baker Eddy, says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 347), "The dream that matter and error are something must yield to reason and revelation." To-day multitudes, in varying degrees, are awakening from this dream, and thus finding health instead of sickness, peace and joy instead of sin and sorrow.

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