The Compound Idea, Man

ARTHUR CROOKENDEN

ONE of the most arresting features of the revelation which Mrs. Eddy has given to humanity is the acknowledgment of the motherhood of God. Most religions emphasize the thought of God as Father, and the Bible affords ample support for this view. But the idea of God as Mother, as well as Father, is one which comes as something wonderfully fresh and inspiring to the student of Christian Science.

However loving a human father may be, we are apt to think there may be something of sternness about him. His physical strength, his finality of judgment as protector and wage earner, may seem at times incompatible with loving-kindness. Many a child has fled from them to the gentleness of its mother.

Our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, was inspired to reveal God, the Supreme Being, as the perfect Parent, the Father Mother, Love itself, to whom all might flee for the protection of strength and the comfort of Love. Thinking of God as Father-Mother involves thinking of man as a compound spiritual idea, having the qualities of both. Like the Father-Mother, the real man is perceptible only by spiritual sense.

Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 288): "The suppositional warfare between truth and error is only the mental conflict between the evidence of the spiritual senses and the testimony of the material senses." The material senses have in belief laid down such diverse characteristics for male and female that the would-be follower of Christ finds himself at times in a morass of difficulty. Yet clear beyond any possibility of doubt ring out the words of Paul, "There is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."

In "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (pp. 268, 269) Mrs. Eddy says, "Look long enough, and you see male and female one—sex or gender eliminated; you see the designation man meaning woman as well, and you see the whole universe included in one infinite Mind and reflected in the intelligent compound idea, image or likeness, called man."

The spiritual equivalents of what mortals term masculine or feminine qualities are, in truth, God's thoughts and qualities, equally shared by all His children. And it is only the false law of mortal mind which would appear to limit or to apportion these qualities.

Jesus is our Way-shower. "He expressed the highest type of divinity, which a fleshly form could express in that age" (Science and Health, p. 332). In his life we find strength and tenderness. His gentleness and meekness have been so emphasized as to convey to some a wrong impression of his wonderful character. Yet, did the money changers and dove sellers whom he drove out of the temple think him gentle and mild? Was it a weak man who overthrew their tables? Was it a feeble man who defied the power of the Jewish priesthood, and of the mighty Roman Empire? No, Jesus' superb expression of the power as well as the love of God is amply proved in the Bible record.

The purity of life and thought which enabled the man Jesus to demonstrate Christ, Truth, all the varied manifestations of the perfect child of God, can be appreciated only by those who in some measure have accomplished the same victory over the flesh.

The spiritually complete man is God's highest idea. This divine idea reflects all its creator's qualities. Mrs. Eddy says (ibid., p. 249), "Let the 'male and female' of God's creating appear." It is our constant, earnest, and prayerful desire to reach this pinnacle of perfection, where we shall be able to know the nothingness of the myriad manifestations of mortal mind, and to see our brothers and sisters as in reality the spiritual offspring, the thoughts of our Father-Mother God, reflecting all the qualities of perfect Mind.

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