The exhibit was not completely hung when I entered the room. Many paintings stood on the floor, back side out—gray canvas, cardboard, wood—an inexpressive sight. But one picture already on the wall struck me with its design, form, and brilliant color. I could recognize that painting for what it was meant to be—a work of art.

Similarly, in order to recognize the real man we have to be sure we're looking at him and not at his counterfeit or inversion. Mrs. Eddy writes: "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick." ^{Science and Health, pp. 476-477;}

The false picture of man is a material phenomenon presenting itself to the senses, and this picture is accepted by these senses. They interpret it in their own way. This appearance is not the living image of God's creation, the image that reflects the wholly spiritual nature of God, Spirit. If we would discover the true man, we must reverse this mortal picture in accordance with Christian Science and see God's perfect likeness.

Descriptions given or judgments passed on people according to the impressions of the senses often lead to misunderstanding. Thus a completely wrong impression of a stranger can arise, which, upon closer observation, we find does not at all correspond with his true character.

The Bible teaches us that man is the manifestation of God. We catch glimpses of this spiritual image when we endeavor to detect the qualities characterizing it. We can learn to see mankind through the light of Christ, Truth. Then we recognize each individual as God's likeness, expressing His love—integrity, spiritual joy, and harmony. We behold the man of God.

The more open-mindedly and impartially we contemplate this image, the more clearly its hidden beauty will come to light. How much we see of it depends on our capacity for discovery. We can sing with the Psalmist, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." ^{Ps. 119:18;}

One time at the office I was warned about a young man who was considered to be very aggressive. I received a call from another department to prepare me for his visit. Before his arrival I prayed to be able to see God's child, seen and known by Him as the expression of His being. I rejoiced that God gives us the means to maintain peace and joy in our consciousness, and I was grateful for this.

At this point the door was flung open, and a young man with a shock of unruly blond hair stormed into the room, ready to let off steam. I smiled at him and said how glad I was to see him. Astounded, he stopped; he was used to hearing the opposite. We attended to business matters harmoniously, and from then on he quite frequently popped his head in the door to say hello. The appearance of error, which had not really belonged to him, was also superseded in the thoughts of others and never mentioned again.

Christian Science is the light that helps us in this work of true perception. When we learn, through the Christ-power, to direct our gaze at real being, then the genuine image, which at all times has been and is the reality of us and of others, comes to light. We become free, healthy, and active.

Our view of the true image must be freed from the shadows of human beliefs, the shadows that conceal the noble brilliance. Jesus did not waste his time analyzing sin or sickness, or examining symptoms. He was concerned with establishing the true condition through divine influence. It was absolutely clear to him that the deceptions were enticements of error, the misguided thinking of mortal mind. He strictly opposed the misguided thinking. He admonished his disciples to behold reality. He encouraged them, "Blessed are your eyes, for they see."^{Matt. 13:16;}

Doesn't it often seem as if a wrong label has been affixed to mankind from childhood? Then, out of habit and ignorance they resign themselves to living in complete opposition to their true being. Mortal mind, unable to take into account their true individuality, has preprogrammed them according to its mortal concepts.

Christ Jesus never accepted images mortal mind presented to him. When he saw the woman bowed together who had not been able to lift up herself for eighteen years, he rejected this false view and proceeded to heal her of the false concept of herself as incapacitated (see Luke 13:11-13). Mrs. Eddy explains, "We must form perfect models in thought and look at them continually, or we shall never carve them out in grand and noble lives." ^{Science and Health, p. 248;}

A child need not be cross-eyed, crippled, or subject to a stammer because its family entertains a false concept and accepts a tradition of heredity. A new image, that is, the correct and eternal one, can put an end to the dream of false concepts. Sickness, poverty, desolation, vanish when they no longer receive nourishment. They are phenomena of mortal mind. Mrs. Eddy outlines this effective, preventive method: "Eradicate the image of disease from the perturbed thought before it has taken tangible shape in conscious thought, alias the body, and you prevent the development of disease." ^{ibid., p. 400.}

The gift of spiritually perceptive seeing is available to all who earnestly strive to penetrate the material illusion and reject it as unreal in the light of divine Science. Every hour, wherever we may be, we can silently correct false views, until we recognize the expression of Life, Truth, and Love as the only true idea of man and the universe.