It has been said, "This is the century of the common man," and America has been called the country of the common man. This phrase "the common man" has become so much a part of the thought and speech of the world today that we may ask ourselves, "Who is the common man?" What is the standard of this common man by which we measure a century or a country? The word "common" has two accepted meanings: that which "implies qualities below the average," which is cheap and ordinary, and that which "pertains to a joint source," which is had in common, shared alike by all. We may well ask which of these meanings we have in thought when we speak of the common man.

Without a definite, common standard of nobility of thought and action there is danger of lowered standards and ideals, of cheapened methods. It is well to be aware of and to watch this tendency, that we may keep our standard lifted high enough from the street that all men may see it and be drawn thereto, that the so-called common man may become a man of dignity and worth, culture and courtesy, of clean wit, of cheer and courage.

It has been said that Jesus chose his disciples from among the common people. Surely this means that he chose them from among those who had one thing in common—the capacity for spiritual growth and understanding which lifts men above the ordinary, material concept of life into the reality of spiritual sonship with God.

Would you call Peter a common man? Peter, whom Jesus commissioned to feed his sheep, and who so well fulfilled his mission in chastened spirit and faithful love; Peter, who could say to Cornelius, "God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean"? Was James a common man? James, whose words of wisdom remain today a guide to health and wholeness?

Would one presume to call John a common man? John, whose vision of the Christ enabled him to see and declare to men the great transforming truth of all being, "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him"? John the beloved disciple, so close to his Master that he received from him the mighty message of the Apocalypse? Was this John a common man?

Jesus in his ministry did not appeal to any particular so-called class of men. He knew all men as equally in need of understanding the truth, of feeling the power and tenderness of Love. So to all men alike, ruler and nobleman, pauper and magdalen, he brought the gospel of the nobility of man and demonstrated its reality.

While Jesus spoke as "never man spake," he did not use cheap words or tinsel baubles of display or pictured personality to attract men unto himself. He did not say, "If I be brought down into the street, I will draw men unto me." Rather did he say. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." He walked among men in the dignity of true humility; he spoke with simplicity and clarity words of truth and compassion that made men's hearts burn within them. His works of healing, which spread his fame abroad throughout all the land, were his only advertising.

It is worthy of note that our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered the Science of Christianity which Jesus demonstrated, has not in all her published works used the adjective "common" in defining man or in relation to the Science which she discovered and founded. She does use such words as "divine" and "stately" Science. And she advocated dignity and simplicity in the ways and means of its dissemination.

Mrs. Eddy a number of times uses the word "common" in its higher meaning, "that which pertains to a joint or common source." She speaks of our common Father and common Parent. On page 18 of her book "Miscellaneous Writings" she says: "Thou shalt recognize thyself as God's spiritual child only, and the true man and true woman, the all-harmonious 'male and female,' as of spiritual origin, God's reflection,—thus as children of one common Parent, —wherein and whereby Father, Mother, and child are the divine Principle and divine idea, even the divine 'Us'—one in good, and good in One."

Here then is the answer to our question, "Who is the common man?" He is the man who shares in common with all existence the nature of the one creator, divine Mind. This man may be seen everywhere if one looks for him with the eyes of spiritual discernment, the eyes of Love. He is the only real man, the perfect man, whom we behold in Science. The senses may say that we are seeing a very common man, discourteous, uncivil, sick or sinful, inebriate, deformed. We can turn from the senses and see in Science the man of our common Father. If our vision is clear enough, there will be lifting up out of the street of the senses to the mount of transformation, where man knows himself the son of God, rejecting the nature of God in purity, intelligence, nobility, dignity, and joyous liberty.

Here is the man whom Christian Science reveals, and of whom Mrs. Eddy spoke when she wrote these words to Christian Scientists, found on page 188 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany": "As you work, the ages win; for the majesty of Christian Science teaches the majesty of man."

Margaret Morrison