Editorial September 23, 1911 Issue

"WHAT IS MAN?"

ANNIE M. KNOTT

The psalmist's query, "What is man, that thou [the infinite] art mindful of him?" presents the problem of the ages and finds a most satisfying answer in Christian Science. If the psalmist had in view the mortal concept of man he might well ask what there could be in common between God and such a one, for the order and intelligence which he saw reflected in the starry universe were, clearly, not manifested in mortals, yet there was the Scriptural statement that the infinite creator had given man dominion over all things, had "put all things under his feet," and had "crowned him with glory and honor." Long after these words were written the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, referring to this passage in the Psalms, said, "But now we see not yet all things put under him." He then went on to tell of the reconciliation between God and the aspiring human sense through the divine ideal presented by Christ Jesus, up to the extinction of death itself with all that it involves,—a mighty deliverance for those "who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."

Contrary to much popular opinion, Christian Science never attempts to heal the ills of mortals by suggesting that they are better than they think themselves to be. It resolutely and insistently points away from the mortal concept of man, and lifts thought to the contemplation of the man who is worthy to be called the likeness of God, in other words, the spiritual man. If this man did not exist, here and now, it might be as well perhaps to let mankind go on with their drugging systems, to let the doctors cut away the abnormal growths which often spring up again, like mushrooms after a night of rain, so long as the mental conditions exist which produce these growths. If man were merely "so much liver, lung, integument" (to quote Mrs. Browning), we might as well say, "Let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die;" but this is not the case, and it is high time for the whole world to begin to know man as God knows him.

There are many who have rejected Mrs. Eddy's teachings for the same reason that men rejected the teachings of Christ Jesus, namely, because both insist upon the nothingness of the mortal concept, and the absolute necessity for recognition of the man born of Spirit and spiritual. All would accept the physical healing if they could have it without yielding up their false views of God and man, but Truth makes no concessions to error in any age. The "kingdom of God, and his righteousness," is no less the demand of Christian Science than of the Master, and it is held before thought as the "first" consideration, the primal fact to which every material belief must give place. Besides this, no amount of false reasoning, based on ignorant prejudice, can deny that men need to know God and themselves and that they hunger for this true knowledge even while they are feeding upon husks. To know God is the one necessity of man, and this need is never supplied by materiality, for man as a spiritual being must find the supply for all his need in the truth of his own being, his likeness to God.

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