Page:Miscellaneous Writings.djvu/399

Rh One incident serves to illustrate the simple nature of art.

I insisted upon placing the serpent behind the woman in the picture “Seeking and Finding.” My artist at the easel objected, as he often did, to my sense of Soul's expression through the brush; but, as usual, he finally yielded. A few days afterward, the following from Rotherham's translation of the New Testament was handed to me, — I had never before seen it: “And the serpent cast out of his mouth, behind the woman, water as a river, that he might cause her to be river-borne.” Neither material finesse, standpoint, nor perspective guides the infinite Mind and spiritual vision that should, does, guide His children.

One great master clearly delineates Christ's appearing in the flesh, and his healing power, as clad not in soft raiment or gorgeous apparel; and when forced out of its proper channel, as living feebly, in kings' courts. This master's thought presents a sketch of Christianity's state, in the early part of the Christian era, as homelessness in a wilderness. But in due time Christianity entered into synagogues, and, as St. Mark writes, it has rich possession here, with houses and lands. In Genesis we read that God gave man dominion over all things; and this assurance is followed by Jesus' declaration, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth,” and by his promise that the Christlike shall finally sit down at the right hand of the Father.

Christian Science is more than a prophet or a prophecy: it presents not words alone, but works, — the daily demonstration of Truth and Love. Its healing and