THAT it is possible to be in another's presence without being in any vital sense aware of it is made evident in the round of our daily experiences, in which it so often happens that after we have been introduced to persons we frequently see them,—on the street, in church, in the street car, and almost at every turn, as it seems,—often enough, indeed, to leave no doubt in our minds that we have been daily seeing these same people, prior to the introduction, but with no consciousness of the fact, our minds being an absolute blank as to their existence up to the time they were emphasized to our notice by the formal acquaintance with them.
Mankind has adown the ages been walking with an unseen presence, who, although "closer than breathing" and the very best friend we have, has in too many instances gone all along the way with us unrecognized and unknown. That our redemption and salvation depend upon our ultimate recognition of and intimate acquaintance with this faithful though unappreciated friend, makes it pitiful that there is so little knowledge of the fact that such a presence really accompanies each of us, and more pitiful still the fact that those of us who have had some intimation of his journeying with us, have as yet made so little effort to clear our vision for a substantial recognition of what, when we come to "see him as he is," must be a divinely beautiful presence—the Christ, or God-man, into whose very being consciousness must sooner or later be assimilated, if we are to be saved from the bondage that attaches to a false sense of selfhood.
Christian Scientists have learned that salvation does not consist of something that is to come to us only in the distant future, but that it is something of daily, hourly attainment through the discovery and knowledge of and a growing acquaintance with the good, the beautiful, the true, the divine in individual being — a too often entirely unseen presence, which is ever with us and with each of our fellow-creatures. This better selfhood is the true, the real, the primal identity or individuality in each of us, and in everything of which we think as a part of the universe. It is ever present, if we would but see it, — as we are privileged to see it, in the measure that we do not permit ourselves to know or see any other (asserted) selfhood or identity, since this process of not permitting ourselves to be conscious of the opposite of good, not permitting ourselves to take account of evil, is the only means of acquaintance with the divine in individual or universal being.
It is not likely that we shall ever find a thing which is deeply hidden, unless we look industriously and carefully for it; and this we are not doing and cannot do as to man's spiritual selfhood, so long as we are looking for, or permitting ourselves to reckon as a part of real being, something wholly unlike God's creation. When we really do look for the true and good, — all that goes to make up individual and universal being, — instead of looking for or permitting ourselves to be conscious of the opposite of good, even the one who seems to be an enemy may be so changed to our clarified vision that instead we shall see a friend.
The divine imprint is upon every individuality or identity that constitutes a part of the spiritual universe, and we are not doing God and ourselves justice so long as we fail to see it, and thus go unaware of the master touch, the perfection, of the hand that fashioned it. Creation is the finished product of a master workman, and if we would not do Him discredit, if we would not withhold that to which He is entitled, we must educate our appreciation to the point of recognizing the exceeding merit of His handiwork. The only way to honor or glorify an artist — a painter, a sculptor, a musician — is to recognize his genius through an appreciation of his work, and we inevitably discredit him, so 'far as our own estimate is concerned, in the ratio that we fail to see the excellence of and accord merit to his production. So also, to the degree that we fail to see the perfection of man, and of each idea that goes to make up the universe, to the extent that we reckon any part of the creation as less than perfect — as though made by some lesser God — we discredit the supreme artist whose thought carved out its divinely beautiful proportions and through whom it has its being.
The Christ, or ideal man, is to us as yet dimly visible, if not an altogether unseen presence, but the divine idea must be fully discovered and recognized, else we shall inevitably withhold from ourselves the true concept of being, heaven. We must be careful, of course, not to reckon evil as good, but if we would ourselves be delivered from the bondage of mortality, and if we would assist in the redemption of mankind from the Adamic curse, we must, through Science, find the perfect where the imperfect seems to be, and thus rid our consciousness of a belief in the existence of evil, which constitutes all there is of mortal, inharmonious being.
How strange it is that, knowing as many of us do, the wisdom of choosing the good rather than the evil concept of being to abide with us in our mental homes, we so often find ourselves entertaining there, as our chosen guests, disagreeable, defaced, and debasing concepts of our fellow-creatures, from contact with which the pure, sweet atmosphere and chaste furnishings of our Father's house should be given absolute immunity. Or, to state it differently, how strange it is that we so often prefer to identify our concept of our fellow-beings and of the universe with the spurious and valueless rather than with the good and the true — a choice so widely different from our methods in every-day business transactions, in which no one, having subject to his choice two bank-notes, one genuine and the other spurious, would think of choosing the counterfeit, with all its possibilities of harm to him, rather than the good, which could only bring pleasure and comfort and increased supply of things desirable. Verily, "the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light."
Wrong choice is the more surprising in view of the fact that in the experiences of every one there has been much to encourage a right choice, all of us having noticed that those of our fellow-men with whom we associate grow, to our thought of them, more and more attractive or more and more repellent, according as we look for what we term their good or bad qualities. Even animals, it has been observed, respond to our silent estimate of them. Some years ago the newspapers told of a lion that broke out of a circus cage in a Southern city and escaped to the woods. The many who went to hunt for it, armed with axes, pitchforks, and other improvised weapons, were amazed to meet an old colored man leading the lion by a rope. They made ready to climb the trees as the animal approached, but the old man told them to quiet their alarm, as it was "only a Newfoundland dog," and wouldn't hurt them. Unwittingly he had estimated it as a harmless dog, and so it became harmless to him. It is abundantly evident that our openly expressed estimates of men and beasts often determine their attitude toward us, and from a better understanding of the activities of the mental realm we are coming to know that, as in the case of the lion and the old man, our silent estimates of them may have a determining influence on their attitude, and thus fix the good or evil that will result from our association with them.
From any view we may take of the matter, it is certainly wise to see the good where the imperfect appears to be, and this mental attitude, through its healing and transforming influence, will have its reward in our seeing the unlovely in us and in our fellow-creatures give place to the likeness of the beautiful—the Godlike—model we have held in thought.
