Article April 5, 1941 Issue

Man the Expression of God

ALBERT F. GILMORE

Physical science, so called, has adopted and held to the theory that God, "the vital energy" of the universe, is to be cognized, known, through its various expressions. Therefore have arisen the expressions "through nature to God," and "through man to God." The basis of this theory has been that nature, that is, the material universe with its multifarious forms of expression, governed by many laws, is a derivative from God Himself; and that man, that is, a mortal "made in the image of God," is the culmination of an evolutionary process, the motive power of which is the divine energy which Bergson described as élan vital.

Christian Science takes exactly the opposite view. Mary Baker Eddy set her revelation directly across the path of physical science with its erroneous conclusions, and proved her thesis by the healing of sickness and the destruction of sin. She posited God as the fundamental divine Principle of the universe; the universe as God's expression, His creation, as wholly spiritual, never material. Furthermore, she made clear that man is known only as God's likeness. Therefore, to render this practical, that is, to know man, it is necessary also to know God.

Here again Mrs. Eddy denied the supposition, often attached to Herbert Spencer, that God is unknowable. Merely to proclaim God as knowable, however, did not make Him understood. Consequently, Mrs. Eddy established her teachings by describing God in terms which all who seek this knowledge with humility and righteous prayer may readily understand. Thus Christian Science opposes the two generally accepted theories: the one, that God is unknowable; the other, that if He is knowable, knowledge of Deity can be gained by examination and analysis of the physical universe, including the material sense of man.

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