Article July 30, 1910 Issue

MAN'S TRUE INDIVIDUALITY

ANNE ELIZABETH JENKINS.

In the seventeenth chapter of Acts, we find the statement that Paul and his companions had "turned the world upside down." It may also be said that the fundamental teachings of Christian Science have literally turned upside down our preconceived notions about God, man, and the universe. It is as though we had for years been going around on our heads, and had suddenly been told about it. Perhaps a few of us would believe the statement and would with a great deal of difficulty make the reversal and stand upright. Everything would appear very strange to us at first, and all our friends would still be standing on their heads, very uncomfortable, greatly hampered in their efforts at activity, and yet rather angry with us for getting about so much more easily and happily.

Having stood on our heads so long, we would be very slow in accepting our freedom, our God-given dominion over our body and our environment, for it would be difficult to believe, all at once, that we were so free, and that our capacities for doing and being were so enlarged. We would have conceived of man for so long as upside down, that only by degrees could we be convinced that his true individuality is upright and Godlike. Gradually, as those about us saw our increased freedom and happiness, others could come to us, asking to be helped to stand upright, till at last there would be a great host of people who were no longer going about on their heads.

This illustration presents in a homely way the condition that existed before Mrs. Eddy made the remarkable statement regarding God and man which is turning the world right side up. Man's individuality was thought to be material. She declared it to be spiritual. Man was believed to be infirm, hampered, limited along every line. She declared him to be strong, unhampered, possessing unlimited capacities for progress and growth and for the accomplishment of good. Humanity had believed that God operated through laws of sickness and sin. She declared that God operated by means of the unchanging law of health and goodness, and neither created evil, employed evil, nor tolerated evil in His all-wise government of a perfect universe. Humanity, standing on its head, and seeing all things from this distorted view-point, believed that it was helping God to create. She declared that God's creation was already complete, and that it only remained for us to see it in its completeness.

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