"Are you a man or a mouse?" is the interrogation sometimes jestingly used when courage is requisite to meet a certain situation. However, this distinction is hardly an incentive to summon courage until closely analyzed. The question should be, Are you man or a mortal? These are distinct opposites; the first is real, infinite, eternal, indestructible; the second, nothingness. They should never be confused, for they are in no way related.

Mary Baker Eddy writes in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 478, 479), "Mortal man is really a self-contradictory phrase, for man is not mortal, 'neither indeed can be;' man is immortal." One cannot be both immortal man, the man of God's creating, and a mortal man, the believer in self-created matter. If affirming that the latter is real, one is believing in a power opposed to God, thus opening the door of consciousness to the error that would bind him with the chains of sickness and sin.

Examining the question, "Are you a man or a mouse?" we see that such admirable and true qualities as spiritual poise, assurance, intelligence should be attributed to man as the image and likeness of God. The false or unreal qualities, such as fear, discouragement, dispiritedness, timidity, uneasiness, and a sense of inferiority, belong to the so-called mortal—or mouse—who can claim no reality and is a counterfeit of God's man. When one realizes man's true identity as at one with the Father, it is apparent that he cannot think of himself as a shy, fearful, self-conscious mortal, but must acknowledge the God-given qualities that are naturally his.

The Bible affirms that man is God's image and likeness. Christ Jesus knew the Father of all to be Spirit, and he saw clearly that His offspring could be spiritual only. He proved that man's birthright is divine, that man is spiritual and eternal.

Through His law God sent His beloved Son to awaken mankind from the unenlightened sleep of mortality, to help it arise from the bondage of the mortal dream to an acknowledgment of the perfect harmony of man's selfhood as God's idea. The awakening to the truths of being occurs when the illusion is dispelled that a mortal is real.

Followers of the Way-shower have grasped his teachings in varying degrees and have arisen in some measure from profound sleep to rejoice in the truth. But constant affirmation that man's only identification is with divine Life, God, is necessary. As one sheds the false claims of an imperfect life apart from God and endeavors daily to reflect such Godlike qualities as wisdom, mercy, and assurance, he rejoices in progress heavenward.

Divinely inspired, Mrs. Eddy blessed all with her revelations given in the Christian Science textbook. Unselfishly, she gave her full attention to the joyful work of interpreting the Master's word. To her, there was no question as to whether man is immortal or mortal, spiritual or temporal. She knew that God is Life, the only real Life; and therefore Life can be only good.

On pages 465 and 466 of the textbook Mrs. Eddy writes, "Principle and its idea is one, and this one is God, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Being, and His reflection is man and the universe." If special note is given to the wise use of the first "is" in the above quotation, one will realize our Leader's awareness of man's inseparability from his Maker. She urged all mankind to throw off the belief in man as mortal and to claim his undivided, forever intact heritage as the reflection of perfect, eternal Life.

The Christ is God's perfect idea and brings the divine message to human consciousness. It is a message which arouses mankind to man's birthright of perfection as the child of God, a message which frees humanity from the erroneous suggestion that there can be any reality in a sick or sinning mortal. Mrs. Eddy defines "Jesus" as "the highest human corporeal concept of the divine idea, rebuking and destroying error and bringing to light man's immortality" (ibid., p. 589). Jesus demonstrated God's allness, and in his ascension proved conclusively to humanity that man is one with God in true being.

As man's real identity becomes apparent, one rejects the erroneous belief of man as finite and is awakened to the infinitude of Life. Casting off the shackles of ignorance, apathy, and false belief, one accepts his God-given dominion over error, recognizing sin, disease, and death as the dream of mortal existence. As one embraces the truths revealed in the Bible and Science and Health, mortal belief is dispelled and greater harmony is enjoyed in daily living.

The writer at one time accepted a belief in the reality of painful hemorrhoids. Through her understanding of Christian Science she endeavored to dispel the belief. In spite of her diligent study of the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings, the condition did not yield. Confident, however, of the healing power of Truth, she sought the help of a Christian Science practitioner. The practitioner clarified the point that understanding is a quality of divine Mind and that, as God's idea, man naturally reflects understanding.

It was pointed out that the only real man is God's man, encompassed in one Mind, and that the all-inclusive divine Mind understands all. Consequently the understanding of God's own idea is effortless and is expressed in perfection. The error yielded completely when the absolute acknowledgment was made that man is not mortal, but spiritual, and understands and accepts all the good that is naturally his. Through this understanding of the correct identity of man the writer was healed.

When one embraces the true sense of man, the false sense of life and substance in matter disappears. John understood that man is real, and the mortal nought, when he wrote (I John 1:2), "The life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us."