Awakened early one morning by the wail of a siren, as an emergency vehicle passed down the street a block or two away, the young son of the house looked hurriedly out of his window. He saw several houses located on the hills across the river bathed in a flashing red hue with flames apparently engulfing them. Rushing down the stairs, he told his father the houses were burning.
After glancing at the houses, his father laughingly told him that the sun was responsible for this illusion of fire. He explained that the light from the rising sun was being reflected from the windows in the houses because the angle of their position was just right to catch the rays in this way. He also explained that as the sun rose higher, or as they themselves changed their viewpoint, the light effect would change. Even as they watched, the brilliance faded and disappeared, showing the houses in their normal condition, undamaged and unburnt.
The father, who was a Christian Scientist, began to compare the impression which the fiery reflection and the siren's wail had made on his son with the effect which material symptoms and beliefs have on human minds and bodies. Like the small boy, mortals have come to associate certain circumstances and to get certain effects. Matter is considered both a cause and an effect. Violation of prescribed physical laws is supposed to bring untoward, unhealthy conditions. It is only when such spurious laws are believed true, however, that the expected results appear to follow. Christian Science teaches the falsity of such beliefs and declares them untrue and powerless.
