THE DIGNITY OF MAN

Christian Science teaches that man, made in God's likeness, has eternal, spiritual dignity and being. Speaking of the false creation in contradistinction to the true, Mary Baker Eddy asks in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 527 ), "Is the Supreme Being retrograding, and is man giving up his dignity?" Again she queries, "Was it requisite for the formation of man that dust should become sentient, when all being is the reflection of the eternal Mind, and the record declares that God has already created man, both male and female?"

How should we dignify man? Certainly not as a brute, a chattel of the state or society, as a belligerent advocate of battle, or as a murderer. These erroneous descriptions will continue to attach to mankind as long as it accepts the false belief that man is an unstable, mortal being. In proportion as one acknowledges that man is spiritual and perfect and subject only to the control of God, divine Mind, will he discern his true dignity as the child of God.

The determination to recognize his true, incorporeal nature does not await the edict of a state, or the whim of any person or system of thinking. The determination to magnify his true selfhood and thus to minimize his enslavement to the personal senses is an individual choice. Each one, wherever, in belief, he may be, has the right and the ability (although often dormant) to see himself as God made him and to benefit by that enlightened concept of being.

Of God's highest idea, Mrs. Eddy says in "No and Yes" (p. 46 ): "Man has a noble destiny; and the full-orbed significance of this destiny has dawned on the sick-bound and sin-enslaved. For the unfolding of this upward tendency to health, greatness, and goodness, I shall continue to labor and wait."

Great joy and peace come to each individual in the ratio that he recognizes, understands, and lives in compliance with Christ, Truth, which reveals man as immortal, perfect, complete. The man of God's creating is subservient to God alone and can have no allegiance to that which is separate from Deity.

Each individual appears to human perception and comprehension as a physical entity, but he is in reality a spiritual idea of God, ever existent in Spirit. The outward appearance has no control over or relationship to man's real, imperishable being as God's expression. Man's individual dignity is established from the beginning.

Man's being is dependent upon God alone and not upon the thoughts or influences of human personalities. No power or suggestion can degrade or destroy the immortal destiny and dignity of any one of God's spiritual ideas. Though one may be opposed on every hand, nothing can withstand the demonstration or appearing of man's true being as it exists in Mind.

In Mind, God, there are no rich and poor ideas, no individuals of high and low caste, no burdened ones, no enslaved children, no hate, war, separation, famine, or dismay. But these errors in mortal thought may appear in one's individual affairs if he allows himself to be classified as mortal, odd, and different.

Paul declared (Rom. 10:11-13 ): "The scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Freedom from the degradation of popular opinion is always at hand for the one who loves God enough to deny mortal selfhood and to see others, as well as himself, as they really are—spiritual, perfect, eternal.

Each individual is in reality an immediate idea of Mind. Each has an important purpose or destiny in God's eternal plan for endless being. Each has Mind at hand uttering or unfolding in consciousness the perfection of real being—the wisdom, love, and purity which constitute God's holy temple. The message of Mind to each one is constant, ever present, invariable, It includes a declaration of the individual purpose of each idea. That purpose is forever good, forever perfect. It utters itself whether the individual listens to it or not.

If each individual fully recognized his spiritual dignity and purpose, if he listened for God's message of grandeur for him, there would be no outcasts, no sin, disease, or death. Happiness and harmony alone would reign. The appearance of the Christ, the eternal message of God, is manifested for each individual proportionately as he accepts his sonship with God and declines to catalogue himself as a mortal, as in one class or another, as downtrodden, poor, sick, sinning, and dying. The full awakening from the dream of mortality and depravity requires much effort and spiritual growth, but the rule is at hand and is presented to the world in Christian Science.

The time to take measures to establish individual dignity is now. The attainment of true dignity is not gained in an atmosphere of hatred, self-will, belligerency, pride, or prejudice. As each one of these false traits is replaced by the opposite qualities of God, the true dignity of man appears.