Sometimes we get so caught up with what the material senses call man that we don't get even a glimpse of the real man. We see a black face or a white face and right away, maybe, make up our mind about the individual.

Jesus didn't stop at the outward evidences. He looked further than that to see God's man. Mrs. Eddy states in Science and Health: "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;} Christ Jesus didn't view man as mortal and material, as rich or poor. We can follow his example now and rise above material sense testimony to see and love the perfect man, made in God's likeness. In truth we are all loved, and we are needed to fulfill God's plan.

I can remember when I didn't have much understanding of Christian Science, and my son and I moved into a house in a predominantly white neighborhood. Next door lived a family that had a child about three or four years old. He just loved my son. But his family didn't, and the hatred was apparent. I didn't know how to work out the problem through scientific prayer, but I did know that God is Love. We find on page 520 of Science and Health: "Unfathomable Mind is expressed. The depth, breadth, height, might, majesty, and glory of infinite Love fill all space. That is enough!" And that was enough, too, when I realized it. The little boy would climb the fence and be in our yard almost all the time. When his relatives would see it, they would call him back. Yet he'd always return. Gradually I became friends with his mother, and what a friend she proved to be!

Hatred is only false suggestion. It can come to anyone to be directed against anyone. It stems from the belief that man is finite and has a mind apart from God that can hate, lust, or be revengeful. Our own acquiescence in the suggestion of hatred is what seems to give it reality. In Miscellaneous Writings Mrs. Eddy states: "Hate no one; for hatred is a plague-spot that spreads its virus and kills at last. If indulged, it masters us; brings suffering upon suffering to its possessor, throughout time and beyond the grave." ^{Mis., p. 12;}

Fairly soon I had a new neighbor on the other side of me. The husband tried to run over our dog; the children wouldn't speak to us. Yet they too were black. But from the first difficulty I had learned about the power of divine Love. I vehemently denied hate on the basis of Love's allness—denied that there was any place, nook, or cranny where it could find lodgment in the consciousness or experience of me, God's likeness. The hatred dissolved very quickly. I was becoming increasingly aware of the presence and omnipotence of Love. But even more than that, I was seeing God's man.

As we cling to God's exact likeness and refuse to see or be what is ungodlike, we will find more of the Christ nature reflected in those around us. We will judge less according to the outward evidences and more from the heart. We will be able to rejoice and say: "Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?" ^{Mal. 2: 10.}