Article January 5, 1952 Issue

THE IDEAL MAN

H. PHELPS GATES

The man of God's creating is distinct and entirely separate from the counterfeit mortal. It is as impossible for God's complete and ideal man to blend and commingle with the unreal mortal man as it is for light to mix with darkness, right with wrong, or love with hate. Where one is, the other does not and cannot exist.

In his second epistle to the Corinthians Paul emphasizes the fact that man is "the temple of the living God" (6:16) and goes on to say: "As God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." Thus Paul makes it clear that to prove ourselves acceptable to God we must come out from the erroneous ways of mortal men and prove ourselves to be the man of God's creating. What clear-cut contrast is to be found between the man of God's creating, the man of spiritual distinction, and the deceptive, illusory mortal, bound by ties of the flesh to greed, false appetite, worldly ambition, sin, misery, sickness, and death.

Mary Baker Eddy restored to the world the lost art of spiritual healing by a simple, practical discovery. By her healing work she proved and made available to her followers the truth of man's perfection and indestructibility as God's image. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" she writes (pp. 476. 477): "When speaking of God's children, not the children of men, Jesus said, 'The kingdom of God is within you;' that is, Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God's image is unfallen and eternal. Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy."

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