Article December 14, 1946 Issue

The Eye of the Beholder

MARY PRIDE MC LAREN

In the Gospel of St. Matthew, it is recorded that Jesus said (6:22), "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." Mary Baker Eddy in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 586), defines "eyes" as "spiritual discernment,—not material but mental." It follows that since discernment is single and spiritual, being and consciousness are full of the light of spiritual understanding and inspiration, full of the light of Life, always good and everlasting. Materiality is excluded entirely from the singleness of spiritual vision; therefore the material eye and whatever it beholds are the counterfeit concepts of the human mind. The human eye cannot discern the creations of Spirit.

After reviewing the generally accepted material concept of man, Mrs. Eddy writes as follows in Science and Health (p. 301): "On the other hand, the immortal, spiritual man is really substantial, and reflects the eternal substance, or Spirit, which mortals hope for. He reflects the divine, which constitutes the only real and eternal entity. This reflection seems to mortal sense transcendental, because the spiritual man's substantiality transcends mortal visionand is revealed only through divine Science."

The physical senses, never having discerned God, cannot perceive the man of His creating. Since God is Spirit, His whole creation is spiritual; and what claim has matter to being an emanation of God? Since like produces like, the logical conclusion is that the spiritual universe alone emanates from God, Spirit. All, therefore, that true perception can behold is spiritual being in its perfection and blessedness.

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