The generally accepted idea of man is that he is a material organism with a mind inside controlled by and at the mercy of a variety of forces. Humanity bases its living on this altogether false and untenable premise: intelligence is subject to nonintelligence; mind is imprisoned in and limited to matter, matter being this mind's own false concept. Thus mortal man is the victim of his own false beliefs. From this false premise arise all the suppositional experiences of mankind.

Christian Science enables us to exchange supposition for Science and so to dispel the illusions arising from supposition. This Science reveals man in his true being, the manifestation of divine Mind, governed by divine Principle in immutable exactness. Christ Jesus understood and demonstrated this divine Principle, which he called "our Father," and he revealed the true nature of man as the beloved son or expression of the Father. His close friend and follower, John, has defined God as Love. Therefore the divine Principle, Love, is the Father-Mother, cause and creator, of the universe, infinite and indivisible in nature and expression.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, reasoning logically from this pure premise, saw man and the universe as purely mental or spiritual, never in any way mixed with or involved in the false suppositions of a suppositional mind claiming to be the opposite of infinity. What simple, immaculate logic bases Christian Science, and how simply and clearly that Science has been stated in its textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." In a marginal note on page 94 of that textbook we find the words "Scientific man." In the paragraph Mrs. Eddy says: "Jesus taught but one God, one Spirit, who makes man in the image and likeness of Himself,—of Spirit, not of matter. Man reflects infinite Truth, Life, and Love."

God, being infinitely and indivisibly one, does not require any medium through which to express man and the universe. There is nothing between God and man. Jesus stated this very clearly in his oft-quoted declaration (John 10:30), "I and my Father are one." Later on he indicated the universal nature of this unity when he said (John 17:22), "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one."

In Truth, then, man as idea reflects the activity of Principle or Life, and never for one fraction of a second is separated from the Principle of his being. That which seems to be a mortal, experiencing the vicissitudes of material sense, good and evil, is not man, but an utterly false sense of man, a counterfeit of reality. Man is found only in the graces and nobilities of true character—in the expression of Love, intelligence, purity, wisdom, peace, and joy— every quality that has its source in divinity. There is no evil in man, and no man in evil; no disease in man, and no man in disease; no war in man, and no man in war.

Man derives his life directly, without medium of matter, from God, who is Life; his intelligence from Mind, whose wisdom is unerring. God does not give man a limited portion of intelligence separated from Himself, which man may use or not use as he wills or desires. Man is the reflection of infinite intelligence, never separated from Deity and its infallible direction. Man derives his strength directly, without mediumship of matter, from Spirit whose strength is inexhaustible. He derives his love and his capacity to love from that Principle which is Love, impersonal and unchanging, and whose law is irresistible. He derives his joy from Soul, whose joy is sinless; and his peace from Truth, whose peace is inviolate. These desirable and necessary qualities of Mind never come from or through a physical body, and a physical body cannot take them away.

As we look to see the one Mind in its purity of divine qualities shining through the beliefs of minds many, changing theories, diverse opinions, and conflicting interests, so we see as alone real man appearing in spite of the beliefs of men many: sick and sinful men and women; discouraged, frustrated, sorrowful, lonely, poverty-stricken men and women. What are these? Not man, the expression of Mind, or God. They are false beliefs about man, without reality, power, or identity. God alone confers identity.

As God is ever present, man, His expression, is ever present to be acknowledged and recognized. As he is the individualized expression of all the qualities of Mind, there is nothing lacking in man. There is nothing absent from the wholeness of Mind. Therefore, man does not and never can lack any good thing. Individual man is complete within his own being. He is complete in Principle, co-existent with and inseparable from God. In this completion is found the true sense of what the human mind designates as manhood and womanhood, inseparable in Mind as divine ideas, governed by their one indivisible Principle. In this oneness of Principle is found the Science of God and "scientific man," complete, satisfied, reflecting everlasting joy and peace. Of this man Mrs. Eddy says in "Unity of Good" (p. 46), "The scientific man and his Maker are here; and you would be none other than this man, if you would subordinate the fleshly perceptions to the spiritual sense and source of being."

Margaret Morrison