Article October 10, 1931 Issue

Our Brother's Face

RUBY C. BECKER

THE writer had always loved Bible stories, but it was not until the light of Christian Science illumined them that their practical value to the world was realized. Every Bible student readily recalls the account of Jacob's experience when "there wrestled a man with him" before he went to meet his brother Esau. But when it is learned, in the revelation of Mrs. Eddy's teachings, that Jacob struggled against a belief of error and overcame it through spiritual understanding, there is found a message of inspiration.

A Christian Scientist does not think of man as ill, revengeful, or unlovable, thus in his own thinking putting an individual outside of God's all-inclusive, allembracing love and care. He knows that the Father's child can do no less than reflect Him in perfect health, joyous freedom, abundance, and love. If at any time one is tempted to hold wrong thoughts about a fellow man or coworker, one must learn to say as Jacob said of Esau, when his own thought was corrected, "I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God." Man is the reflection of God. Like Jacob, we must see as real not a material sense concept, but the spiritual man of God's creation.

If her little child falls into a mud puddle, the mother coming to his aid does not stand aghast seeing there a changed loved one; nor does she fear his appearance and go about telling everyone that he has become unlovable, because besmeared with a defiling substance. Such a procedure would be unnatural. The child must be cleansed. When the work is properly done, no mud is left clinging to him; and he has, in fact, remained the same lovable little individual throughout the experience. What has changed? Only the material sense testimony. This is only a human simile, but it serves to remind us that error is no part of the pure image of God, and cannot attach itself to Truth's creation. If we think of someone as sinning, dying, or diseased, the door of our own thought is open to these false beliefs and their effects. How important it is always to behold God's children as reflecting only divine qualities! We must learn to base our concepts and deductions on a spiritual, not a material, foundation.

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