Article January 23, 1926 Issue

Man's Relation to God

WILLIAM B. GRISWOLD

The Bible tells us in Genesis, in language quite unmistakable, that God created man "in his own image." To be still more emphatic it is added that "in the image of God created he him." And Christian Science reveals to us that the image and likeness of God is spiritual, because God is Spirit.

In Galatians we read Paul's words, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." Christian Science teaches that the real man is spiritual and not material, the image and likeness of Life, Truth, and Love, the image and likeness of divine Mind, God. Christ Jesus' mission was to exemplify and show us how to become conscious that we are the sons of God. Jesus came to give us a practical Christianity, governed by the law of divine Principle; and he proved it to be practical. We do not look for diverse views in the science of numbers, nor should we in the Science of being. Jesus knew that all cause and effect are mental. He knew that the whole of material existence is in the nature of a dream, from which we are awakened by the realization of the fact that existence is based on Spirit, not on matter.

Now if material existence is in the nature of a dream, we are not going to gain anything by placing reliance on the testimony of the physical senses, which are they that testify to the existence of the dream. The physical senses are the product of that which Paul describes as the "carnal mind;" "mortal mind" Mrs. Eddy calls it. The Apostle Paul saw that what the physical senses cognize is not the reality of being, for he said, "Now we see through a glass, darkly." If we should look through a glass that is colored and twisted, every object seen through this glass would partake of the nature of the glass. The object would appear to be distored and discolored. There would be but one way to get a clear vision, and that would be to do away with the glass. Unobstructed by the distorting medium, we could then see objects in their right relationship to each other.

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