Article June 23, 1934 Issue

Man's Position

CHARLES C. BUTTERWORTH

The true creation, according to the Bible, expresses God's supreme wisdom. The works of God, or divine Mind, include nothing useless, superfluous, or unnecessary. Meditating on this the Psalmist said, "O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches." In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 503) Mary Baker Eddy has explained that creation "consists of the unfolding of spiritual ideas and their identities," and that "these ideas range from the infinitesimal to infinity, and the highest ideas are the sons and daughters of God." The universe of Spirit is harmonious, well ordered, complete, with nothing lacking and nothing redundant. Every idea conceived and formed by infinite Mind has its proper place in Mind. Obviously, that which the All-wise creates is endowed with the ability to be what God intends it to be and to do what He intends it to do.

In an army each man has his own post with corresponding duties. In a well-managed business, applicants are admitted to the organization only when there is something for them to do: the worker must be in his proper place and the position must be adequately filled, in order to secure a balanced efficiency. So in God's ever present kingdom each individual idea has its appropriate place, in which it is eternally maintained by the wise provision and tender care of our heavenly Father, infinite Love. This spiritual position is the divinely ordained relationship of the idea to God, the arrangement of His ideas, whereby each can function harmoniously under the control of one supreme Principle—Life, Truth, Love.

Christian Science teaches that man is the image and likeness, the perfect and complete reflection, of his Maker. This signifies that man is manifesting all the attributes and qualities of Soul or Spirit. Thus we see that there is nothing higher which one can aspire to than to understand and achieve one's spiritual selfhood, as it really is, God's spiritual representative, His witness or reflection. This is man's divinely ordained position and office. Regarded from the human point of view, all that this spiritual fact implies may still seem to some vague and idealistic, but we gain increasing light upon its practical power and validity by studying and following the example of him who most fully discerned and demonstrated his divine nature, Jesus the Christ. Today Christian Science has come to make plainer still and demonstrable this glorious nature of man and of all creation.

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