Article July 24, 1926 Issue

The Correct Viewpoint

VIOLET V. HALLIDAY

Two little children had been busily working with buckets and brooms to clear a large cemented basin of the accumulated rubbish and leaves of autumn. When the work was completed and the place ready to be filled with water, they called to their mother to come and see what they had done. On looking out through the windowpane of the halfopened casement, she was surprised to see the basin still full of rubbish; but knowing the truthfulness of the small people, and the time and labor expended, she felt convinced that her eyes must be deceiving her. This conviction caused her to take a step to one side in order to look out without gazing through the windowpane, and lo!—there lay a spotless basin, with a pile of rubbish near by.

This was such an arresting example of the effect of illusion that it furnished food for thought. It was realized that the pile of rubbish lying some little distance from the basin had been reflected on the windowpane, and had appeared to be actually within the basin. The picture mirrored on the glass did not in reality touch the basin, although it seemed to the onlooker at the moment to produce that effect. To have rubbed the window would not have removed the illusion; nor could anything more be done to the basin, which was already clean and spotless. A change of viewpoint was needed in order that both the illusion and its seeming effect might be dispelled.

Christian Science teaches the perfection of God, the one creator. The completeness and perfection of His creation—man and the universe—follow as a natural sequence, cause being mirrored forth in effect. This knowledge brings with it the inspiration which causes us to seek and to claim only His image and likeness in individual experience. Confident of the verity of the statement in Genesis, "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good," we understand that there can be no debris of materiality to impose on man by illusion in an attempt to induce him to believe to the contrary. Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, writes in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 173): "The perfection of man is intact; whence, then, is something besides Him that is not the counterpart but the counterfeit of man's creator? Surely not from God, for He made man in His own likeness."

Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.

Send a comment to the editors
NEXT IN THIS ISSUE
Article
None Good but God
July 24, 1926
Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit