Article April 1, 1933 Issue

Possession of the Body

FRED YOULD

"Jesus of Nazareth taught and demonstrated man's oneness with the Father, and for this we owe him endless homage," writes Mary Baker Eddy on page 18 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." This statement evidently indicates that our Leader considered of primary importance the recognition of, and steadfast adherence to, the spiritual fact of man's indissoluble oneness with God, of which the Master gave full evidence. Christian Science includes the Christlike teaching of perfect God and perfect man. The perception of this truth by the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, and its subsequent proof by her in healing all manner of disease and sin, enabled her to give to the world the Christ Science, which is reinstating "primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing" (Church Manual, p. 17).

Human theories mainly identify men with materiality and mortality, thus contradicting the demonstrable Science of spiritual being which Jesus and his followers taught and practiced. These theories assume that the mortal body possesses the prerogative to produce and induce physical conditions both good and evil, helpful and baneful, over which the individual is supposed to have little or no control. However, Christian Science practice proves that the mortal body cannot and does not form its own conditions; for when, under the guidance of Life, Truth, and Love, individual consciousness submits to spiritual law, it is empowered with authority to control the body harmoniously, and to steer it into purity, health, strength, and normal activity. The foregoing facts may be verified by anyone who lovingly and patiently conforms to the following spiritual command: "Exercise this God-given authority. Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action. Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man" (Science and Health, p. 393).

God is Spirit, divine Mind; and man being the reflection of God is spiritual or divinely mental. At all times, Jesus identified man with Mind, God, but never with matter and mortality. He said, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." From Spirit emanate all life, substance, intelligence, action, and their harmonious manifestations; while matter, so called, contributes nothing to the true existence, sustenance, health, or happiness of mankind; nor has it power to withhold or destroy them. Individual man's identity is spiritual, perfect, and indestructible; it is composed of spiritual ideas which originate in God, Spirit, and reflect His eternal nature. Man cannot express anything inferior to his creator; hence Jesus' words, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

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