Editorial December 23, 1967 Issue

"Mark the perfect man"

William Milford Correll

In the study and practice of Christian Science, one seeks to gain an understanding of God and to realize the nature and character of the real man, the spiritual man, made in God's image. It is necessary to correct false concepts based upon material sense testimony, to spiritualize one's thinking, and to grasp the fact that man is God's perfect idea, expressing the law, order, harmony, and purity of divine Principle. As we gain clearer concepts of man and live accordingly, our own experience expresses this advancing thought; and it is natural to have better health, more dominion over matter, a better sense of supply. Mary Baker Eddy states in the textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "When spiritual being is understood in all its perfection, continuity, and might, then shall man be found in God's image."^{Science and Health, p. 325;}

The Bible explains the nature of God as infinite Spirit, as Life, Truth, and Love. In this true idea of God there is no limitation, no sense of corporeality. God is neither in nor of matter, and He has no limited form. Hence in thinking of man in God's likeness, we must think in terms of idea, spiritual individuality. When we conceive of man as the reflection of God, we can understand that man is as eternal as God is, as indestructible as his divine Principle. The substance of man's being is God, divine Mind; and the continuity of his being rests upon the eternality and perfection of this Mind. Man's oneness, or unity, with God determines his perfection, continuity, and might.

All the contrary sense of being, the imperfection, discord, and fear, the sin, disease, and death, belong to the misconception of man as material and mortal, to the belief that man lives in a material body and is conditioned by sentient matter. According to the Bible, this false sense of man was cast out of Eden, remanded to till the ground, and sentenced to return to dust. A clear line of demarcation should be apparent between the material and the spiritual, the mortal and the immortal idea of man. We should learn to dispute the false sense of man and to love the true idea. Paul spoke of putting off the old man with his deeds and putting on the new man "which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him."^{Col. 3:10;}

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