Article May 8, 1954 Issue

TRUE REFLECTION IS COMPLETE REFLECTION

MYRTLE FAIRMON

"Few persons comprehend what Christian Science means by the word reflection," declares Mary Baker Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 301). She explains one of the reasons for this lack of comprehension by saying: "To himself, mortal and material man seems to be substance, but his sense of substance involves error and therefore is material, temporal. 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."

A sick, discouraged, lonely, impoverished mortal is not the reflection of God. When we realize that we are, in reality, God's perfect likeness, and that all which is lovely or lovable about us in our present experience is our reflection of the One "altogether lovely," there will be no fear of sickness and no sickness. Let us refuse to believe that there is a counterfeit selfhood apart from God to be sick, unemployed, impoverished, or depleted in any way.

A woman who the doctors said was in the last stages of tuberculosis was taken to a Christian Science practitioner for healing. The practitioner saw that the patient had no understanding of Christian Science and that its teachings must be made plain to her. She also saw that in the patient's thought there was no unconscious stubborn resistance to this Science, but only eager receptivity. Remembering Mrs. Eddy's use of the mirror in explaining that man is the reflection of God, the practitioner placed an object on a table before a mirror and said, "By way of illustration, we shall call the object God, the reflection, man, and the mirror, Christian Science." She then asked the patient whether the reflection in the mirror could image forth anything that was not before the mirror, or if anything could be added to the reflection or taken from it. She asked if it could move of its own accord or by its own strength. The patient saw that this was impossible, and that the reflection had no creative or motivating power of its own.

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