Article December 29, 1934 Issue

"Imperishable identity"

ANNE CLEVELAND CHENEY

When one deeply considers the animus, method, and results of the Nazarene's many and mighty works, one must surely find that his purpose always was to glorify God and to recognize, make apparent, and establish man's true identity. By holding with complete loyalty to the fatherhood of God, he discerned and brought to human apprehension the truth about man who is made in God's likeness. Every mortal witness against man's true identity, at one with his divine Principle, the Master vanquished. His doctrine constantly declared, and his practice demonstrated, the standard of perfection.

The Master set no standard for himself, however, which he did not require all who followed him to accept and use practically in testing their faith and measuring their fruits. His requirement is clear: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." From a material basis of reasoning, how can this be possible? But what marvelous proofs he brought of the practicability of his standard, evidencing that the divine nature is infinite good, and that from the creative source can evolve no vestige of evil. Matter or mortal mind assuredly holds within itself every phase of potential evil, every concept opposed to the indestructible verities of Spirit. Understanding this, Christ Jesus could and did annul matter's claim to condition man and misrepresent God. The great Way-shower and Exemplar was invincible in his grasp of spiritual causation and man's identification in spiritual being.

This constitutes the practice of Christian Science, as Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer of it, has explained in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." On page 476 she writes: "God is the Principle of man, and man is the idea of God. Hence man is not mortal nor material." And a little farther on, beside the marginal note "Imperishable identity," she exhorts mortals earnestly to "seek the spiritual status of man, which is outside of all material selfhood."

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