Article April 10, 1978 Issue

" 'Man' means the selfhood of every... individual"

One, not two

MARIE ANTOINETTE COWING

When I first began to study Christian Science, I read what Mrs. Eddy says of man on page 476 of Science and Health: "... man is not mortal nor material. Mortals will disappear, and immortals, or the children of God, will appear as the only and eternal verities of man." And I said to myself: How can I not be a mortal? Here I am! What is going to disappear?

In the years since then, I have come to understand better this statement, which another passage clarified for me: "The true idea of man, as the reflection of the invisible God, is as incomprehensible to the limited senses as is man's infinite Principle." Science and Health, p. 337; I see now that I am not to emphasize the physical body which seems to be me, for that is only a lie about me.

If we turn to the Bible, we find it tells us that God is the only creator: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Gen. 1:1; And, "All things were made by him [the Word of God]; and without him was not any thing made that was made." John 1:3; Since the Bible also tells us that God is spirit and that He made man in His own likeness, we are faced with the necessity of accepting the fact that we—and the universe, too—must really be spiritual. For God, Spirit, includes no matter out of which to make a mortal man and a material universe. Simple logic bears this out. You can't get an apple from an orange tree; similarly, it is impossible to get matter out of Spirit.

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Counting the ways
April 10, 1978
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