Article October 25, 1969 Issue

What Does Man Consist Of?

FLINT LEWIS TOWNSEND

Is man physical or spiritual? The material senses, which are only the faculties of the carnal, or mortal, mind, declare that man is made up of physical organs that must function properly to keep him alive. Must we accept this miserable picture as final? No.

A line from a beautiful hymn assures us of our real abiding place. It says, "Not in the flesh, in Thee we dwell."^{Christian Science Hymnal, No. 228;} Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, gives us the true view of man when she defines him in Science and Health with hey to the Scriptures as "the compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spiritual image and likeness of God; the full representation of Mind."^{Science and Health, p. 591;} According to Christian Science, the law of divine Principle, Love, man is the perfect reflection of eternal Spirit, the omnipresent God. Thus, since Spirit, Truth, is incorporeal, man is also the incorporeal evidence, or idea, of his Maker. He is always spiritual, boundless, and ageless.

What does this mean? Here is our immortal being or selfhood that consists of numberless, indestructible ideas, not organs. With grateful assurance, then, one can know and declare that his genuine identity as the son of God, good, expresses these ideas in an original, lovely, pure, and harmonious way. Thus, since Soul, Spirit, knows one as wholly spiritual, he dwells forever in divine Mind, experiencing radiant joy, eternal beauty, and immutable peace. This realization is as close to us as spiritualization of thought.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

"Whence comest thou?"