On page 488 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," its author, Mary Baker Eddy, asks this pertinent question: "Do the five corporeal senses constitute man?" Her comprehensive answer to this question is conclusively in the negative. She throws the light of Truth on the corporeal senses and they are seen as false mortal beliefs without substance, intelligence, or reality; without ability to cognize divine Mind and its ideas or the spiritual facts of being. She declares how these senses deceive and defraud, and she denounces them as the source of all the ills of mankind.

Our Leader shows throughout the Christian Science textbook how the acceptance of their evidence as real so perverts our concept of the character of God that all sense of His goodness and power is lost. She makes plain the fact that the physical senses do not constitute man, but pervert and hide the true nature of man. This she does with unparalleled logic, irrefutable reason, and inspired revelation. She calls to mankind, as did the prophet Isaiah. "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?"

Christ Jesus knew the unreal nature of the corporeal senses, which claim to constitute man, and healed all the ills and limitations arising from these falsities of belief. He knew and declared that that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that it can never mingle with nor usurp the place of that which is born of the Spirit, and which really constitutes man. Referring to his ministry he said, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." This light of the world has, through the revelation of Christian Science, become "a burning and a shining light," revealing that which constitutes man as the expression of God, his divine Principle.

On page 301 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says: "On the other hand, the immortal, spiritual man is really substantial, and reflects the eternal substance, or Spirit, which mortals hope for. He reflects the divine, which constitutes the only real and eternal entity." Man, then, is constituted of the ideas of God reflected in all their intelligence, beauty, power, capacity, and goodness. Thus there is no possibility of man's having a weak constitution, a timid or an aggressive constitution, a constitution that needs to be doctored or exercised, or taken to a different climate for its health. The ideas of God which constitute man function harmoniously, in perfect co-ordination, under the omnipotent law of Spirit, divine Love. Man, so constituted, is never ill, incapacitated, or made useless by any claim of the physical senses, no matter how severe or legitimate that claim may seem to be.

This substantial, spiritual truth as to the constitution of man is a law of omnipotence to the false belief that man is constituted of material elements formed and functioning as a physical body, subject to the ravages of war, accident, time, and disease.

All the faculties and senses of man—sight, hearing, feeling, understanding—are spiritual, belonging to God. They are reflected by man and are as incapable of being impaired or destroyed as is God. As one catches even a glimpse of this immutable truth, one begins to assert the power it bestows and to meet triumphantly the claims of physical sense that would obstruct his progress or prevent the fulfillment of Life's purposeful and fruitful activity.

This indestructible, spiritual man becomes tangible and understandable to us as we dwell upon the selfless qualities, the divine ideas and activities, that constitute his being—love and intelligence, joy and peace, simplicity and integrity; knowing, seeing, hearing, feeling, only good. Thus one finds himself one with God and His almighty power. As this spiritually constituted man becomes tangible and is accepted as one's true selfhood, one finds his so-called human living Mind-directed into paths of freedom, health, usefulness, completion, and happiness, divine reality. This is the practical, sustaining truth to be realized and enjoyed by each and every one.

It takes courage, great courage, thus to identify oneself with Spirit and the things of Spirit as that which alone constitutes one's being. It takes courage, persistent courage, for one to claim the true constitutional health that is his when disease seems to be manifested on his own corporeal sense of body. It takes courage, unwavering courage, for one to claim the wealth that is his by spiritual, constitutional authority, when his purse is empty.

It takes courage, shining courage, when the senses say one is discouraged, depressed, in despair, to claim and express the joy which is a radiant and constituent part of one's being. It takes courage, triumphant courage, when one seems to have been handicapped, disabled, by accident or the casualties of war, to claim one's constitutional right as a son of God to healing, to guidance, direction, and the manifestation in useful activity of the Father's eternal goodness. But this courage we have through Christ, Truth, which strengthens us.

With her usual clarity our Leader has pointed the way on page 185 of "Miscellaneous Writings," where she says: "Self-renunciation of all that constitutes a so-called material man, and the acknowledgment and achievement of his spiritual identity as the child of God, is Science that opens the very flood-gates of heaven; whence good flows into every avenue of being, cleansing mortals of all uncleanness, destroying all suffering, and demonstrating the true image and likeness."

Margaret Morrison