WHILE driving along a boulevard in a large western city, a student of Christian Science was awed by the unusual view of three beautiful snow-capped mountains. She had seen these peaks many times before, but never with such clarity of vision. They seemed to have moved many miles closer and to be many times larger than she had ever seen them. She was therefore attracted the next morning by a newspaper account of an unusual phenomenon. The weather bureau described "the rain washed air, which prevented the light rays from being deflected by dust particles, and provided this sharp view of elevations," as "visibility unlimited."
This guided her thought into metaphysical channels, and it became clear to her how necessary it is for one to keep his consciousness cleansed and rarefied, that man's true selfhood, spiritual and perfect, may stand revealed in its immortal glory. And what, she asked herself, constitutes the particles of dust which might be said to deflect the mental light rays and obscure spiritual vision? "Fear was the first manifestation of the error of material sense," Mary Baker Eddy tells us on page 532 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures;" and on page 586 she defines fear as follows: "Heat; inflammation; anxiety; ignorance; error; desire; caution." These seven synonyms of fear, which are the supposititious opposite of the nature of God, whom our Leader reveals as Spirit, Life, Love, Mind, Truth, Soul, Principle, must be eradicated from our thinking, that we may see God's image and likeness, man.
The understanding of omniactive Spirit, or sinless Being, and of the unlabored motion of divine energy destroys the discords of material sense. This divine energy was demonstrated by a student of Christian Science in the almost instantaneous healing of a severe burn caused by the overturning of a pan of hot grease on one of her hands. Although the pain was intense, she immediately declared the truth about her spiritual selfhood and refused even to glance at the hand lest she be deceived by the material evidence. She continued to declare that man is not composed of molecules and atoms or subject to so-called physical laws, but that he reflects perfect substance and is governed by God's law of perpetual harmony. In a few minutes the pain ceased.
