Article November 23, 1918 Issue

Man's Possibilities

CECIL E. BENJAMIN

It is impossible not to have a shrewd suspicion that "the Professor of Ignorance" knew more than he confessed when he said: "And far out, drifting helplessly on that gray, angry sea, I saw a small boat at the mercy of the winds and waves. And my guide said to me, 'Some call the sea Falsehood and that boat Truth, and others call the sea Truth and the boat Falsehood, and, for my part, I think that one is as right as the other.'" This would certainly seem to hint at least some recognition of the vital fact that the answer to every problem already exists in truth, in actuality, and that its solving is dependent on nothing more or less than the attainment of the correct viewpoint; furthermore, that this can be accomplished only by a radical change from the old order, or rather disorder of thinking.

To the unillumined human consciousness truth would appear, for all practical purposes, to be of the comparative dimension of a small boat in a sea of falsehood; but Christian Science has brought to mankind a priceless boon in showing them how to reach the true viewpoint in regard to all things, or, as Mrs. Eddy writes, "the spiritual status of man, which is outside of all material selfhood" (Science and Health, p. 476). In regard to the realization of this true status of being, our Leader further says, "Science reverses the false testimony of the physical senses, and by this reversal mortals arrive at the fundamental facts of being" (Science and Health, p. 120). Let us apply this rule of reversal to the individual man and his relation to the body, and see where unto we are led.

The testimony of the physical senses regarding man is, of course, that he consists of a material body, and that his consciousness is a faculty resident therein. This is indeed a poor parody upon one's true individuality, and gives no slightest perception of man's glorious possibilities. Christian Science, however, leads to the conclusion that man is spiritual consciousness, unconfined by matter, and that, as Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 177), "Matter, or body, is but a false concept of mortal mind." At first sight this may appear somewhat startling, but it is a demonstrable and fundamental fact of being, and this fact is what Paul referred to when he wrote to the Romans, "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you."

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Man's Possibilities

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access