"ALMOST all people descend to meet," says Emerson in his famous essay on "Friendship." Later, in the same essay, he makes a sweeping but scathing criticism of the manner of human meeting and greeting, when he says, "Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins." What is this but saying in Emerson's characteristic epigrammatic way that most men do not meet; they only appear to do so, even possibly when greeting one another while on the daily round in the home, in the school, in the office, in the club, or even in the church. The whole of Emerson's criticism is an indictment of insincerity. "A friend," he says, "is a person with whom I may be sincere."
This brings us to the question, What is sincerity? In its etymological, as well as its ethical and metaphysical significance, sincerity is a name for that quality which is what it appears to be, as opposed to that which is not what it seems. Why, then, should it be so rare for men really to meet? Because of the inability or unwillingness to be what one seems.
Through Christian Science, God and His creation are revealed as the only realities. Hence, what does not reflect God and glorify Him as the only creator can never be what it seems, however specious or insistent may be its claims. Sincerity, then, can be predicated only of that which reflects God, or in other words, that which is what it seems.
