“They That Make Them Are Like Unto Them”

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“Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:
They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:
They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.
They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them” (Ps. 115, RR).

Imagine that! All the bustling nothingness of uninspired, human sense-driven activity trying to solve problems that only God can solve; all the uninspired words pouring out of uninspired mouths and throats trying to answer questions that only God can answer, to win arguments that only God can win; uninspired tongues trying to put out fires that they themselves started, or those started by other uninspired tongues, for “the [uninspired] tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell” (James 3:6); uninspired eyes, ears, noses detecting problems, magnifying predicaments, mulling over dilemmas arising from previous uninspired words and activities; uninspired hands trying to lift weights and remove obstacles that only God can handle; uninspired hands fashioning weapons to fight in battles that are not theirs to fight, “for the battle not yours, but God’s” (2 Chron. 20:15); uninspired hands compounding medicines to heal diseases that only God can heal; uninspired feet taking uninspired action trying to escape from some blunderingly imagined misfortune; uninspired footsteps on uninspired pathways unpaved by prayer, leading treacherously nowhere.

Yet think of Mrs. Eddy, speechless and (to human sense) apparently inactive, at the bedside of the hopelessly sick; sitting at the feet of Christ like Mary Magdalene, not daring to take the least human action or speak the least human word or think the least human thought, but allowing Infinite Intelligence alone to pour through her — all her attention, love, and appreciation focused only on the omni-action of God, the ever-active Hand that formed the galaxies and stretched them across unfathomable immensity, shaped the planets and hurled them into orbit, all in perfect harmony with one another, holding to the Love that regards the sparrow’s fall and numbers the hairs of every head, knowing that “I of myself can do nothing,” nothing at all except to allow the Presence of that Power and Intelligence to speak in Its own way and to take action in Its own way:

“When I have most clearly seen and most sensibly felt that the infinite recognizes no disease, this has not separated me from God, but has so bound me to Him as to enable me instantaneously to heal a cancer which had eaten its way to the jugular vein. In the same spiritual condition I have been able to replace dislocated joints and raise the dying to instantaneous health” (Un. 7:12-17).

God help me to follow her example, always!




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