WITHOUT going into the derivation and dictionary meaning of the word recognition, let it be granted that to recognize any person is to know him by his appearance, his voice, his walk, or some characteristic or characteristics peculiar to himself. "By these means we are able to pick him out in a crowd and even to identify him in spite of some disguise. An instance which has a special bearing on this subject is furnished by the stage. We have an actor friend who last evening may have appeared as a beggar, tonight may lie seen as a soldier, and tomorrow night as a king; yet, if we go to see the play in which he takes part, the disguise will not prevent us from recognizing him. While he is playing his part, whatever it may be, though the audience may say, "There is the beggar," or "There is the king;" we can say. "No. that is our friend," even though our eyes tell us that the judgment of the audience seems justified. We cannot be deceived by the testimony of our eyes nor by the declarations of the people around us.
This illustration of the ability we possess to recognize our friends, has a specially interesting bearing upon the healing work practised by Christian Scientists. Fundamental to healing, is the postulate that man is created in God's image and likeness; that the real man has no characteristic unlike God, no self-derived quality and no attribute derived from any other source, because there is no other creator. As a corollary, Christian Science declares that the human being as perceived by the eyes, ears, touch,—in a word, by the physical senses,—is not the image and likeness of God: because its origin is not of God, because it does not reveal God's qualities, and because it has both beginning and end, whereas God, according to the Bible, is eternal and perfect; therefore every part of His creation, man included, must also be perfect and eternal.
Here is the stumbling-block which many superficial and prejudiced readers of Christian Science literature do not see even when they fall over it. They do not perceive the importance, nay, the absolute necessity, of gaining a clear concept of each term used in this Science before pronouncing judgment. How they should he so lax in this case and yet he insistent upon a nice appreciation, distinction, and use of terms in geometry, physics, chemistry, and in every other branch of learning, is one of the most salient and remarkable features of a self-satisfied and self-sufficient mentality. These people would not think of attempting to follow an ordinary culinary recipe without knowing the meaning intended by the use of certain words employed in the way peculiar to cookery, and yet they are ready to pronounce denunciatory judgment upon Christian Science, for no better reason than that their understanding and application of certain terms makes the reading of Christian Science literature appear faulty, contradictory, or even absurd to them.
