Weary of conflicting theories and wary of fair words that when tried in the balance are found wanting, mankind is demanding demonstrable facts in response to the age-old questions as to the identity, origin, and purpose of human life. Who am I? What am I here for? These are the problems which have vexed mankind through centuries of human existence and which, until the discovery of Christian Science by Mary Baker Eddy in 1866, had never been answered in a scientific, practical way. Christian Science teaches that man is the idea or reflection of God, and then proves the God qualities of health, holiness, harmony, and immortality in experience, healing the sick and freeing mankind from the bondage of fear, ignorance, sin, and sensuality. Such proof as this is incontestable.

In order to get a glimpse of the possibilities of man's being as the image and likeness of God, mortals must first awaken to the truth about God as divine Mind or Principle. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 465) Mrs. Eddy has given the scientific synonyms for God as follows: "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love." Mortals cannot hope to comprehend the divine nature in a moment, for, since God is infinite, the understanding of Him is infinite and is the work of eternity. For the same reason, mortals cannot at once comprehend the nature of man in God's image and likeness, but must say with John, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is."

In speaking of man (Science and Health, p. 475), Mrs. Eddy says: "He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas, the generic term for all that reflects God's image and likeness; the conscious identity of being as found in Science, in which man is the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal; that which has no separate mind from God; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker." It follows, then, that any identity which a man seems to have apart from God cannot be the true identity, but must be only false and illusive, the counterfeit of his identity as the son of God. Since God is Spirit, man's identity must be found in spirituality, and any seeming individuality of man in corporeal sense must be a wrong belief about his existence. Since God is Life, man's identity must be found in health and immortality, and any seeming connection between Life and sickness or death must be admitted to be a lie. Since God is Truth, man's identity must dwell in truth and honesty, so that dishonesty could find no abiding place there. Since God is Love, man's identity must be found in loving, not in hating; in faith, not in fear; and any denial of this fact, though amply supported by the evidence of the physical senses, must be denied as untrue. The allness of God, good, is the rock upon which man's conscious identity must be founded. Upon this rock the waves of corporeality dash to pieces, to fall back in utter impotence.

To mortal sense, a man seems to reflect a great many qualities and conditions that are admittedly not found in God. The physical senses testify that he manifests sickness, ignorance, fear, hate, and numerous other mortal beliefs. On page 223 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy declares, "Sooner or later we shall learn that the fetters of man's finite capacity are forged by the illusion that he lives in body instead of in Soul, in matter instead of in Spirit." Since the belief in matter as the creative element in which man originates, lives, and dies, has been the primal cause of mankind's discordant existence, it is evident that the correction of this falsity with the truth of man's identity as the son of God will entirely do away with all unreal, inharmonious conditions and reinstate man in his rightful place. What would prevent man from recognizing his true identity? Would God, the Father-Mother, whose very nature is Love? Only fear, ignorance, or the love of sin would claim to hinder man from demanding his just inheritance, and these monuments of mortal discord are found to crumble into dust as faith in their reality disappears. A man begins to make evident progress toward realizing the divine sonship when he understands that the chimeras of sickness, sin, and death never existed save in so-called mortal consciousness, and that it is right there that he must grapple with and overcome them. The vanquishing of the belief of life in matter must be accomplished by every mortal at some time or other, either now or later. Christ Jesus demonstrated as no other human being has ever done the nothingness of evil,—the omnipotence of good. The same Truth, Life, and Love which gave Jesus authority over all evil, gave Mary Baker Eddy the inspiration of Christian Science and the power to teach and prove the truth lived by Christ Jesus, in such a way that all mankind may understand and demonstrate it.

Every human being who enters upon the study of Christian Science free from false preconceptions, willing to receive the outpouring of Truth and Love with the simplicity of a little child, can demonstrate to his own ultimate satisfaction the statement of Paul: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." It is the right of every individual to find his inheritance as the son of God, in health, abundance, harmony, holiness, and immortality, and to this end divine Love is hourly leading him.

Some idea of the conscious identity of man in the image of God is gained from the following statement in Scienceand Health (p. 265), "This scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means suggests man's absorption into Deity and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace."