Article July 6, 1912 Issue

WHAT IS MAN?

FRANK H. SPRAGUE

From time immemorial mortals have sought light on the problem of existence by delving into material phenomena; but the learning thus acquired has only deepened the mystery of being. Materially developed theories begin by assuming that what is known as the human mind is an individual entity or organic unit, a component part of the universe as God has constituted it. But if there were, from the standpoint of Truth and reality, the godlike standpoint, such an entity, if being were, indeed, split up into finite particles or selves, each endowed with the prerogative of independent action, the integrity of being would be lost; for there is no escaping the conclusion that under such circumstances the characteristic feature of the finite type of mentality, viz., material sense, with all its self-conflicting, self-destructive tendencies and impulses, would have its place and purpose in the unfolding ideal of divine Mind.

Nearly half a century ago, while the controversy between theological and scientific opinion was at its height, a spiritually-minded woman came in the course of her investigations upon a long obscured point of view which shed an entirely new light on the problem of being. At a critical period, when human dependencies had failed, a momentary exaltation of consciousness to the level of spiritual sense enabled Mrs. Eddy to catch a glimpse of real being; to realize at first hand what God is and what man is. This experience gave absolute assurance that God is the only cause or Principle of being, and that man is neither more nor less than the pure manifestation of Spirit; that spiritual sense does not, therefore, merely belong to man as a faculty, function, or attribute, a part of his mental equipment as it were, but it constitutes man in his entirety.

This vision found expression later in the inspiring passages of Science and Health. Mrs. Eddy saw that the only revelator of God, Spirit, and that which emanates from Him, is spiritual sense, which she describes as "a conscious, constant capacity to understand God" (Science and Health, p. 209). The knowledge of God and man which developed from this illuminating experience presented what is defined as material sense in an altogether different light. It was found to be not a faculty, function, or attribute of a mind of any kind, but simply a point of view, abnormal and ungodlike in itself and consequently calculated to convey a wrong impression of things. It thus became evident that the material mentality, and its externalized expression, personality (in fact all materiality), representing as they do the projection of a point of view which leaves Principle out of the question, have no connection with the Principle of man, and are therefore transient and perishable phenomena without existence apart from the falsifying material sense from which they are evolved.

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