The question "What is man?" never loses its interest to humanity. If everyone knew what man is, no doubt every other puzzling question would be answered. Christian Science gives various explanations of man, but none is more thought-provoking than that he is an individual consciousness. Not that this explanation implies that man is an independent mind. Far from it! As an individual consciousness man is the reflection, or image, of the one infinite consciousness, or Mind, which is God.

God, the Maker of man, must be Mind, or He could not create a conscious man, a man made in His likeness. And no one can deny that man is an individual and that he is conscious. The human being's problem is to prove the fact revealed by divine Science that as an individual consciousness he is conscious of God and all He includes, and that the seeming consciousness of something else—of matter and physical personalities, evil and finiteness—is no part of him.

Christ Jesus was constantly rejecting the evidences of imperfection that presented themselves to his consciousness; and he attained perfection in this way. He said, "Every one that is perfect shall be as his master." ^{Luke 6:40;} Perfection is the reality of every man.

Mary Baker Eddy, Jesus' faithful follower and interpreter, says: "Through the eternal reality of existence I reach, in thought, a glorified consciousness of the only living God and the genuine man. So long as I hold evil in consciousness, I cannot be wholly good." ^{Unity of Good, p. 49;}

This statement may come as a shock to the person who is convinced of his own righteousness and of the despicableness of his neighbor. But no one can attain the perfection of the son of God while he entertains as real the mortal, material consciousness that makes the human mind dual and represents man as partly evil.

Material consciousness is both the sin and the sinner, and it is this consciousness that must be denied, robbed of identity, and made to disappear. According to Christian Science, being is subjective and what we are conscious of is in the mind, not external to it. The evil and limited concepts we entertain are included in the false consciousness we call "I." And they are sustained by that "I" until we firmly reject the mortal sense and know ourselves as real consciousness.

It is interesting to consider the method of Jesus as he went about rebuking the evil beliefs that claimed to confront him. Perhaps it was a sinner who needed to wake up to his folly. Perhaps it was a sick person oppressed by years of infirmity. Perhaps it was money changers imposing their commercialism on the sacred temple. Perhaps it was the ingrained self-righteousness of the Pharisees that needed attention. Perhaps it was death claiming to end everything. In every instance the Saviour must have refused to believe in the existence of a consciousness that builds up and supports mortal iniquities. Through the Christ he represented, he transformed human consciousness.

To material sense, Jesus appeared to have bitter enemies, those who opposed the Christ-idea he expressed. But none of them prevented him from going forward in his task of demonstrating his pure sonship with God. He taught his followers to love enemies as well as friends, and he did this himself by keeping his own consciousness single, free from the contamination of a mortal sense of existence.

Mrs. Eddy discusses the question of enemies in her Miscellaneous Writings in an article entitled "Love Your Enemies." Here she says, "Can you see an enemy, except you first formulate this enemy and then look upon the object of your own conception?" ^{Mis., p. 8;} Later she adds, "Simply count your enemy to be that which defiles, defaces, and dethrones the Christ-image that you should reflect."

The same method of scientific thought is applicable to purifying oneself of sickness or sin or poverty or any other mortal experience. We undermine the consciousness in which an error appears by realizing the unity and perfection of man as an individual consciousness that is the reflection of divine Mind. We can know that real selfhood, genuine consciousness, has no reverse side to it, no finite sense that can claim to present God's creation in a false light. We can prove that we are wholly good, holding no evil in consciousness, because real, individual consciousness has no evil aspect.

Mrs. Eddy makes this point clear in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures when she says, "Man and his Maker are correlated in divine Science, and real consciousness is cognizant only of the things of God." ^{Science and Health, p. 276.}

Helen Wood Bauman