Article May 22, 1915 Issue

"I AM"

JULIA WARNER MICHAEL

In the third chapter of Exodus we read: "And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."

The significance of the fact that the appellation "I AM" belongs to God and not to man is worthy of careful consideration. We are led by both reason and revelation to see that since there is but one God there can be but one "I am," and that one not mortal but immortal, not imperfect but perfect, not human but divine. The truth then is the truth now. Man as the reflection of God cannot, therefore, think or correctly speak of himself as having existence independent of God, but rather as the expressed image and likeness of "I AM." So far, however, has this right relationship between God and man been forgotten, that one constantly refers to himself as present being, while God is thought of, perchance, as relegated to a remote indefiniteness. Mortality's misappropriation of this great name to itself has brought into familiar use many utterly false statements, as, for instance, I am sick, I am poor, I am afraid, I am a sinner, I am discouraged, I am dying, etc. It becomes evident that such phraseology is inconsistent, when one remembers that "I AM" is the synonym of God, good. There is no partnership between good and evil, hence only the quality, activity, law, source, condition, and existence of good can be properly associated with "I AM." Unmindful of this truth, how continually has mankind been breaking the commandment, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."

In Science and Health we find the following definition of "I AM": "God; incorporeal and eternal Mind; divine Principle; the only Ego" (p. 588). Confirming the Scriptures, this definition comes with power to the human consciousness, acting as a purifier of thought and speech, redeeming us from a perverted sense of self, and rendering unto God the name that is God's. Because "I AM" is Spirit, God, the being which is "holiness, harmony, immortality" (p. 492), man is clearly seen to be its individual likeness in multitudinous forms. There are then in reality no common men, no illiterates, no degraded ones, no sick, no sinners, no dead; but all true individualities are the perfect expressions of the one ever perfect "I AM."

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