Article September 22, 1945 Issue

Destroying the Fetters

HOWARD NOBLE CHASE

A Striking example of fidelity and its reward is contained in the story of the three Hebrews who refused to worship the image which Nebuchadnezzar had set up. The account plainly states that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego "were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace," and that they "fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace" (Dan. 3:21, 23). Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and said, "I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."

Among the spiritual definitions which Mary Baker Eddy gives in the Glossary of the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," is this (p. 594): "Son. The Son of God, the Messiah or Christ." Elsewhere in the same work we read (p. 333), "The divine image, idea, or Christ was, is, and ever will be inseparable from the divine Principle, God." It was, then, the Christ-idea, co-eternal with and inseparable from God, which apparently became visible to Nebuchadnezzar, and which was present to protect and deliver the three unjustly condemned men. These Hebrew captives won their deliverance through prayerful seeking of and obedience to God according to the best of their understanding.

I had read this loved Bible story many times before the question came to me, What became of the fetters? The captives had been securely bound, we may be sure, because the king had ordered it done by "the most mighty men that were in his army" (verse 20). Thus we seem justified in concluding that the fetters were destroyed in the fire, and yet the record clearly states that when the three men came forth at the king's command, a considerable gathering of witnesses "saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them." Is it not true that in every fiery experience only the fetters are destroyed? Reality is never consumed.

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