PUTTING ON THE NEW MAN
"Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil." So writes Mary Baker Eddy in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p.571 ). Through the study of Christian Science one learns that man is idea, the image and likeness of God, infinite Mind, and that truly to know oneself one must first understand himself to be the expression of divine Mind. Man is not a sickly mortal, born into matter and dying out of it. Neither is he tormented by fear, hatred, envy, jealousy, and all the other unlovely and unlovable qualities of the Adam creation.
Man is spiritual the child of God, good, reflecting Him in all His perfection and affluence. God eternally and bountifully provides all good for His children. Ignorance of man as the child of God is an element of all human discord.
St. Paul, recognizing that mankind accepts the concept of man as both material and spiritual, exhorted (Eph. 4:22-24 ), "Put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and ... put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." How can this exchange be accomplished?
On page 462 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes: "Are thoughts divine or human? That is the important question. This branch of study is indispensable to the excision of error. The anatomy of Christian Science teaches when and how to probe the self-inflicted wounds of selfishness, malice, envy, and hate. It teaches the control of mad ambition. It unfolds the hallowed influences of unselfishness, philanthropy, spiritual love. It urges the government of the body both in health and in sickness. The Christian Scientist, through understanding mental anatomy, discerns and deals with the real cause of disease."
The truth of Mrs. Eddy's statement regarding the mental origin of disease is now to some extent recognized and admitted, so potent and extensive has been the leavening influence of Christian Science teachings. Many enlightened physicians have come so far as to teach that mental tensions or emotional upsets attributable to anxieties, hostilities, frustrations, and conflicts actually produce nervous and organic disorders, and that permanent cure is not possible without a mental correction. Christian Science teaches that genuine mental cleansing requires not merely the avoidance of conflicts or the circumvention of frustrations, but the understanding of spiritual reality, and this comes only through the realization of the perfection of God and man.
The delusive claim of mortal mind that man is discordant, unhappy, and sick, that he has idiosyncrasies and evil traits, fears and phobias, must be denounced as untrue. Man's true identity must be understood to be the image and likeness of God. This realization of one's true selfhood replaces fear with courage, hatred with lovingkindness, selfishness with unselfishness, malice with forgiveness, envy with philantropy, and so on. In this process of exchanging sickness-producing thoughts for joyous, Godlike thoughts something takes place: we come naturally here and now into a better sense of life and health. Strain, tension, restriction, friction, all of them the effect of selfish, envious, hateful thinking, which impedes the normal functioning of the human system, cannot exist in the consciousness filled with the understanding of man's perfection as the son of God.
Mrs. Eddy says (ibid., p. 264): "Mortals must look beyond fading, finite forms, if they would gain the true sense of things. Where shall the gaze rest but in the unsearchable realm of Mind? We must look where we would walk, and we must act as possessing all power from Him in whom we have our being." Steadfastly contending for the allness of God, good, and the eternal harmony of man, we hold to the spiritual facts of being even as did Jacob in this struggle at Peniel. Ridding ourselves of false traits and reflecting Godlike characteristics, we put off the old man and put on the new.
During the recent war a young Army officer was pronounced a neurotic by Army doctors. They considered his physical condition serious and his mental state dangerous. Learning of Christian Science, the officer sought the help of a Christian Science Wartime Minister. He was asked during their discussion if he would consider our Leader's statement previously quoted: "Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil"
From early childhood he had suffered, he said, from timidity, shyness, and a tendency to worry. Believing that these traits had been inherited from his parents, the officer had accepted them as normal for himself and felt that there was nothing he could do about them. In addition, he had a sense of self-will and pride and seemed unable to make forthright decisions involving human relationships. He had secretly brooded over the many impositions he had endured. In this way he had allowed hatred and resentment to corrode his thinking. These in turn had resulted in physical suffering and unhappiness.
Through his study of Christian Science and the help of Wartime Minister he came to see that his suffering was the effect of a false concept of man's nature and origin. He saw that he must claim his sonship with God, and that he must act like God's son. As a consequence of his improved thinking all evidence of nervous tension and organic disorders had completely disappeared by the end of three weeks, and he was pronounced cured and ready to return to active duty.
God's ideas, dwelling now and forever in the infinitude of His kingdom, are conscious only of the infinity of good, of intelligence, substance, law, and eternal being. Thus they know nothing of selfishness, malice, envy, or hate. Mad ambition does not drive and canker them, for their substance is spiritual and eternal and their destiny secure in God's plan and purpose. Nor are they ever frustrated or hostile one toward another, since no conflict can exist in the scientific relationship of God's ideas. All is immutable harmony in the heavenly Father's eternal kingdom.
The great reward of transformation awaits the one who earnestly strives to put off the old man, the false concept of man as material, discordant, and dying, and to put on the new man in God's image and likeness, spiritual, harmonious, and immortal.
