Article August 1, 1925 Issue

Man, the Image of God

JANE STANNARD JOHNSON

When the statement was first made to a young student of Christian Science that she was God's child and God was ever present, she comprehended little of its spiritual meaning. To her unenlightened sense she seemed very much the child of human parents and God was a long way off. But systematic study of the Bible and of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, brought gradual illumination.

The Bible relates that "God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him,"—a declaration quite at variance with the universally accepted theory that man is material, with the concomitant beliefs of disease, heredity, and other obstructive limitations. In order to learn what true man is, it becomes necessary to know more about God, since man is God's image. The Bible declaration referred to includes all mankind; hence God must be equally present in all places—everywhere—at all times. He is infinite, and thus cannot conceivably be confined within mundane boundaries. "God is a Spirit," says John, and infinite Spirit can possess no material element of error. Hence God is infinite good. And since God is All-power, He has created all real things. As the image of God, then, man is spiritual, and endowed with the priceless qualities of infinite Mind. He is even now the perfect idea of God's creating, complete and harmonious.

Mrs. Eddy defines man with clarity in Science and Health, where she writes on page 475, "Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements;" and later she adds, "He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas." Thus, man in the light of Christian Science is invisible to the physical senses, being "idea." Manifestly, then, the human form has not even the semblance of the real man, the image of God.

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