"In Science, man is the manifest reflection of God, perfect and immortal Mind," writes Mary Baker Eddy (Rudimental Divine Science, p. 7). How often we have read this statement, and yet how seldom we have grasped its import. Christ Jesus said (John 8:28), "I do nothing of myself." Yet he did more good than anyone who ever lived before him. The Master recognized the inability of the corporeal mind or body and realized the all-presence, all-power, and all-harmonious action of God, or good.

Just as the moon has no self-existent light, but borrows its radiance from the sun, so all that exists of enlightenment, or spiritual intelligence, is derived from God and is continuously reflected. Mrs. Eddy writes (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 57): "Man shines by borrowed light. He reflects God as his Mind, and this reflection is substance,—the substance of good."

The knowledge of the nothingness of mortal mind throws into high relief the allness of the Mind that is God. In this Mind we find every righteous attribute, including wisdom, intelligence, joy, peace, and spiritual strength. The reflected light of Mind is bestowed unceasingly and without effort. Thus true being, when seen as the reflection of God's being, contains no strain or stress or fatigue. Man's being is unfailing because it is the undying light of God continuously reflected.

The dawn of a new day is a stupendous event, and yet it comes silently and without effort. We watch its appearing, but seldom marvel at it, because the sunrise is accepted as a natural and inevitable event. Should we not regard the appearing of our true being in a similar light? This appearing is the coming of the Christ, which Mrs. Eddy defines as, "The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 583).

Every idea which partakes of the nature of the Christ, or Truth, is inseparable from God, the eternal and omnipotent Mind. The sunbeam is reflected from the sun. Sun and sunbeam are inseparable. To trace the track of the sunbeam is inevitably to reach the sun. In like manner the good which is God, Spirit, is ours continuously and without interruption. The source of all the good we understand or express is God.

"Where is man's dwelling place?" we may ask. "Wherever God, good, is manifest," is the answer. The Psalmist wrote (Ps. 139:7), "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?" We cannot escape the care and love which God bestows on His creation. It seems strange to believe that anyone should wish to escape from good and all it implies—strength, health, harmony, and blessedness. Mortal mind attempts to do so because it is the mythical reversal of the Mind which is God. It persuades mortal man that he lives and loves apart from God in a world of matter.

The writer of Genesis called this fictitious existence a deep sleep, and he portrayed it as a state which begins in birth and ends in death, the whole experience being a dreamlike and temporal illusion. One sometimes hears it said, "I feel as if I were living in a dream." When fear, sorrow, or sensuous pleasure is felt, this statement has a considerable significance. Material and mortal history is a dream from which it is high time to awake. We can do so through spiritual enlightenment, and we can do so here and now.

Christian Science has come to instruct us in the truth of our being. We have found the source of our existence to be God. We have discovered that our real being is God's reflection, and now as Christian Scientists we are learning to identify ourselves with this spiritual estate. In this, our true identification, we learn to separate ourselves from all that is mortal and afflictive. The joy of achievement comes with each proof of the omnipotence and omnipresence of God. We do not resist, but we welcome, every opportunity for proving our God-given dominion. In doing so we ascribe all power to God and attempt to divest our thought of the mortal mind impressions gained from heredity, false education, and material environment, which are three channels through which error operates.

Our hope and faith are firmly anchored when we pray to our Father which is in heaven, the one all-inclusive good, who, let it not be forgotten, is also Mother as well as Father. Mrs. Eddy has revealed the nature of God as both Father and Mother, expressing the completeness of the perfect Mind. Thus we see creation complete and perfect. God's creation includes all that is tender and true, all that is gentle and strong. The masculine and feminine qualities blend in never-ending variety, thus constituting the only real individuality of man.

Morning by morning a glorious opportunity awaits us to awaken in the light of divine Mind, to watch the dawn of spiritual ideas sending out protective, purifying, and healing rays into our lives. Thus the beauty of Truth is made practical to mortals.

The Christ is not afar off in a remote heaven, but here and now it dwells among us with all its gentle benedictions and with supreme power, authority, and love.

Robert Ellis Key