APPEARANCE VS. REALITY

JOHN E. FELLERS.

A man who was unaccustomed to thinking beyond the limitations of sense testimony, stood looking at a celebrated statue. At length said to a friend, "I see nothing remarkable in this piece of work. All the sculptor did was to take a large piece of marble and chip off what he did not want. This statue is what was left." If he could have seen beyond the marble, he too might have been a sculptor.

The wondrous work of our beloved Leader in restoring the true concept of man, "every whit whole," from a condition of false living and thinking, and in holding thought to the spiritual reality that lies behind every material manifestation, marks her as a real sculptor among the world's thinkers who throughout all history have sought to express to dull comprehension the ideal and the true. What the painting is to art; what the poem is to poetry; what the note is to music; what the statue is to sculpture, so are the "fruits" thus far produced by the study and practice of Christian Science to the great truth of being, toward which the author of Science and Health is directing the thought of the race. The things we see and hear in our daily contact with materialism are not things at all. They are thinkings.

On page 86 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy says, "Mortal mind sees what it believes as certainly as it believes what it sees." A recent experience brought me face to face with the depth of meaning which this statement contains, and thinking it might be of service to others, I here relate it. The hall in which we hold our services has a balcony extending around the auditorium about ten feet above the floor. Beneath this balcony extends also a commodious wall seat. Until the sun reaches high noon each day, a part of this seat is in the shadow. One Sunday some months ago, I was experiencing a sense of both physical and mental suffering when I came to the Reader's desk. It was an inclement, cloudy morning, and the shadow fell heavily under the balcony when the services began. I saw sitting in the shadow a man whom I recognized as a visitor from another congregation, and who is known to be somewhat critical and precise in matters of pronunciation, expression, and literary style; in short, he belongs to that class of people whose value to others is not always appreciated, for he makes the careless careful, the indifferent watchful, and the thoughtless thoughtful. He seemed to be in his place that morning ready to hear the Lesson-Sermon, which evidently I had not fully comprehended, for I wished that he had come at some other time.

As we proceeded with the services, my thought kept recurring to the personality of our visitor, and I felt that I was reading poorly what should always be read well, but as I aroused myself from this condition of thought the anxiety and fear disappeared, and with them the physical and mental inharmony which had seemed to follow me to the desk. As the services were closing, the clouds had lifted, and the sun, having risen to noon, shone brightly through the windows, its light falling full upon our visiting brother. Looking in his direction again, to my surprise I discovered he was not the man I had thought him to be at all, but instead a dear, good friend who much resembled in personal appearance the critic to whom I thought I had been reading. I had seen what I believed, as certainly as I had believed what I had seen.

This experience illumined my thought for many days, and it has been one that has helped me very much. It taught me this lesson, that as we rise to a higher understanding and appreciation of what Christian Science is and what its Lesson-Sermon services mean to this age, and express that meaning in daily living, the sunshine of Truth will cast its light where now the shadow seems to be; and there, listening for the message, we shall find a true brother, instead of one whom we fear we might not please.

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