How often have you heard—perhaps with some discouragement—the following well-intentioned but misleading statements?

1. Let go and let God.

2. You must get yourself out of the way.

3. You've got to impersonalize the good you do.

4. There's nothing going on but God.

5. We don't do anything—God does it all.

Now each of these statements contains a grain of truth. Even so, the central issue here is man's identity. Some philosophies, especially eastern mysticism, seek to blot out man's identity, to absorb man into the cosmos. Of course, this can't actually be done; even to say "I am selfless, without identity" is to identify oneself! Nonetheless, these denials of man, God's beloved child, can be awfully dispiriting. And they certainly do nothing to reveal the wonder, beauty, and activity that God has ordained for His conscious image and likeness!

Christian Science is sometimes inaccurately compared to such philosophies of self-obliteration. And yet the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, overflow with affirmation of man's role as God's expression, his indestructible individuality, and his conscious identity. Mrs. Eddy does repeatedly warn against the arrogance and evil of what she calls "mortal mind," and what St. Paul called "the carnal mind," which "is enmity against God." ^{Rom. 8:7.} She clearly distinguishes, however, between the errors of mortal thought and the glory of man in God's likeness. She writes, "As you work, the ages win; for the majesty of Christian Science teaches the majesty of man." ^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 188.}

Isn't this what the master Christian, Christ Jesus, was saying in these two consistent statements: "I can of mine own self do nothing" and "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work"? ^{John 5:30, 17.} Separate from God, Jesus could do nothing—and how much less can we! But knowing his unity with God as His self-conscious expression, and working to demonstrate God's authority in human affairs, Jesus could say unequivocally, "I and my Father are one." ^{10:30 .}

This vital, spiritual view of "the majesty of man" in God's likeness—that is, of man as Christ reveals him, one with the Father but distinct—provides clarification for the misleading statements mentioned earlier:
1. Don't "let go"! Express God in your life, and this individual expression will heal.
2. Get a mortal, limited sense of yourself "out of the way" by expressing your genuine selfhood—by manifesting the joy, dominion, and authority of the real man, God's highest idea.
3. Impersonalize evil—deny it an expression—but "personalize," that is, concretely individualize, good! The requirement is that we spiritualize our sense of personality, not blot it out.
4. Everything "going on" that is good, spiritual, and real is God and man. All that God is must be expressed, and His expression is man. This includes you. God loves you right now, for without you, He could not be fully expressed.
5. God does "do it all"—He expresses infinite perfection— through His specific idea, man. To obliterate God's spiritual effect, His particular identities, would be to obliterate divine cause, God Himself—were such a thing possible.

We cannot deny God His manifestation. We must, instead, work to become that manifestation—as, in reality, we already are. As the Bible puts it: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God .... And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." ^{I John 3:2, 3.}