Article August 29, 1942 Issue

Man's Identity

CARL WALTER GEHRING

In human experience there are times when it is necessary to prove one's identity in order to qualify for some right. It may be the right to inherit, the right to travel in foreign lands, the right to re-enter one's own country, or the right to vote. All this has to do with personal identification as measured by human standards. But it is not the real or spiritual identity, which has nothing to do with a family name or with nationality.

To prove one's mortal identity one must give evidence of human origin, but man's real identity is the spiritual reflection of God. Actual identity is concerned only with the spiritual creation as revealed in the first chapter of Genesis, where it is stated that "God created man in his own image in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." This is the record of man's identity. Jesus accepted this fact and worked from the basis of true being, and whoever would make his teachings practical in this age must recognize identity as spiritual.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, for many years had studied the Scriptures to gain a clearer understanding of God and man. Especially was she interested in finding the healing power which Christ Jesus had taught and demonstrated, and which the Christian church had lost sight of. During the latter part of 1866 she was healed of the effects of an accident which doctors could not relieve. Thus while she was studying the Bible came her great discovery. Of her own experience she says (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 24), "During twenty years prior to my discovery I had been trying to trace all physical effects to a mental cause; and in the latter part of 1866 I gained the scientific certainty that all causation was Mind, and every effect a mental phenomenon." Having experienced this healing realization of the power of Mind, Mrs. Eddy withdrew from society and intensively studied the Bible in order to gain an understanding of the divine Principle that had brought about her healing. As a result of this research she wrote the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and established the Christian Science church and its activities.

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