Christian Science reveals that God is Spirit and that man, His likeness, is exclusively spiritual. Man is God's reflection, and in man there is no mortal or fleshly element. He images forth goodness, happiness, health, and love and includes no evil, disease, or other discord. In the substance of man's being is no room for that which is unlike God, for that which is carnal or material.

The truth of spiritual being operates as a law in our human experience, casting out that which is contrary to the good, the worthy, or the true. Mary Baker Eddy points out in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 61), "The good in human affections must have ascendency over the evil and the spiritual over the animal, or happiness will never be won."

Christ Jesus persistently worked to cast mortal error out of the lives of men, thereby awakening them to the enjoyment of a higher sense of happiness, better health, and more harmonious existence. Whether the ailing one was a sick man, a lame man, a sinner, or one who was blind or dumb, the Master, through his healing work, proved that man is spiritual, not material.

Zacchaeus was a rich tax collector, and, according to those who knew him, a sinner because of his allegedly dishonest methods of levying and collecting taxes. Zacchaeus obviously felt the need of the Christ, Truth, in his life, for he sought out Christ Jesus as the Master neared his community. Jesus received him and spent the day with him at his house. That he was healed of any questionable activities is evidenced in his proposal to give half of his goods to the poor and to restore fourfold that which he had gained by false methods. Jesus said to him (Luke 19:9), "This day is salvation come to this house." And to those who were disturbed because he had chosen to go with a sinner to his house, Jesus said, "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."

No matter what animal or mortal tendency is evident in one's life, the Christ is present to rule it out on the basis that it does not belong to God's likeness. Thereby is one's human experience blessed.

In the sons and daughters of God there is no animality or hate, no Adamic error. In man there are only goodness and spirituality. A knowledge of an individual's true status as God's beloved son acts as a law of correction to the false belief that he has an animal nature, that he has a fleshly existence.

The true life of man has no affinity to physical personality. Spirit is Life, and Life is good only. Just as light excludes darkness, so Life excludes animality. Spiritual light cannot be dimmed or extinguished. Only in belief is there a mortal concept of life.

Man is not made up of animal elements, flesh, brain, blood, and bones. Man is the perfect expression or representation of God, Spirit. Spiritual substance constitutes man's true being.

It was not man but Adam, a false mortal concept, who was made in the similitude of the flesh. In Genesis (1:27) we are assured that man was made in God's image and likeness. This man was blessed, not cursed, by God. Christian Science reiterates that man is eternally spiritual. Since he is spiritual, he has no corporeal structure to which the beliefs of animality can possibly attach themselves.

No fleshly sense can originate within or emanate from Spirit, God, and nothing unlike Spirit can intrude itself into Spirit's perfect creation. Godliness alone imbues that which God has made. That which is ungodlike has no actual existence, but is the result of a misguided influence contrary to Spirit. Error, mortality, and materiality are illusions of the so-called carnal mind. They are the dreamlike beliefs of mortal mind, misconceptions of that which is real.

Animality, as that term is used in Christian Science, includes all traits which are contrary to God. Hatred, fear, self-will, bitterness, unhappiness, and jealousy are animal tendencies. These are entirely foreign to God, divine Love, and have no place in Love's idea. Their assumed existence is apart from the goodness and warmth of Love, for they are unlike Love. Since they are unlike Love, they belong not to man, Love's likeness or reflection.

In reality there is nothing for error to vilify or attack. All that error ever touches in one's human experience is the false mortal concept that seems also to be capable of expressing evil or discordant tendencies. If one is to avoid the attacks of error, whether they appear as hatred, sorrow, sin, disease, or death, he must deny evil's existence and firmly establish a spiritual sense of Love as the infinite and universal reality. It is essential that one does not ignorantly or consciously acknowledge error as true.

The fact of man's perfection and goodness as God's child understood and utilized gives one the capacity to reject and destroy the errors of animal magnetism which vie for recognition. Mrs. Eddy says (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 287), "The good in human affections should preponderate over the evil, and the spiritual over the animal,—until progress lifts mortals to discern the Science of mental formation and find the highway of holiness."

In the healing of animality, sensuality, or any other kindred in-harmony, the mortal error is condemned to oblivion. The human being, however, redeemed and forgiven, is uplifted to a closer approximation of his true, immortal status as the image and likeness of God, good.

One is not healed while loving sin or accepting the animal nature as his real status, but, rather, by denying sin and holding persistently to Truth. Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 569), "He that touches the hem of Christ's robe and masters his mortal beliefs, animality, and hate, rejoices in the proof of healing,—in a sweet and certain sense that God is Love."

John J. Selover