Editorial September 23, 1911 Issue

"ONENESS WITH THE FATHER."*

ARCHIBALD MCLELLAN

ONE of the most striking statements of Christian Science, and one in which is shown the fundamental difference of this teaching from all other so-called metaphysical systems, is found on page 468 of Science and Health. It reads, "All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all;" and this statement is somewhat further explained on page 306 in the words, "If God, who is Life, were parted for a moment from His reflection, man, during that moment there would be no divinity reflected. The Ego would be unexpressed, and the Father would be childless,—no Father. . . . But man cannot be separated for an instant from God, if man reflects God."

Speaking of this oneness of God and His creation, of man with the Father, which Christ Jesus taught and demonstrated, Mrs. Eddy writes in "Unity of Good" (p. 49): "I understand that man is as definite and eternal as God, and that man is coexistent with God, as being the eternally divine idea. This is demonstrable by the simple appeal to human consciousness." This statement is supported by many others of similar purport in Science and Health, and these teachings, followed to their logical conclusion, fully establish the immortality of both God and man as a fundamental postulate of Christian Science.

From this premise Mrs. Eddy draws the conclusion that "because man is the reflection of his Maker, he is not subject to birth, growth, maturity, decay" (Science and Health, p. 305), and it is through the understanding of this, the inward beholding of the perfect spiritual man instead of the marred physical semblance,—in other words, following the Christ-method (Ibid., p. 477),—that the sick are healed and the sinful reformed. The teachings of Science and Health are in no wise uncertain as to the immortality of man and the divinity of Christ. Every genuine demonstration of Christian Science healing is based upon the understanding of these great facts, and to ignore them or to depart from this understanding is to descend from the sublimity of Christian Science to the depths of mental processes which exploit finite mind and will-power. Any teaching which would, if carried to its logical conclusion, separate man from God, or leave God unexpressed, would also deny the immortality of man and the perpetuity of all that God has created. Such was not the teaching of the great Master, therefore is not Christianity and not the doctrine of Christian Science.

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"WHAT IS MAN?"
September 23, 1911
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