SPEAKER: I imagine we're all familiar with the expression, "Tell me about yourself." Well, today our program will tell us some things about ourselves. We're going to discuss the question of what man really is. As a basis for our discussion we'll hear how a new understanding of man in the image of God brought a tremendous change and improvement in the life of Robert Carnes, of Madison, Wisconsin.

MR. CARNES: I was going to the University of Wisconsin at the time. I was older than most of the other students because I'd been in the Navy, and I felt inferior and resentful because many of the younger men were getting better grades. Also I didn't have much money.

I was there on an athletic scholarship, and I relied on my athletic ability more or less to get the jobs I needed. But then one summer, while I was serving as a camp counselor, I had an accident. It happened one night on a camping trip. I was on my knees chopping some wood. The boy holding the light flashed it upward to see something in a tree, and just at that moment I brought the ax down. It hit me above one knee and cut deeply into muscles of my leg.

Because of camp liability insurance, I was taken to a physician in a nearby town, and he sewed up the wound. For about two weeks I was in the camp infirmary. Then the season ended, and I went home. I could walk; but it still didn't look as if I'd be able to compete in athletics, and I was afraid I'd lose my jobs at college.

Then the first day back at college I slipped and fell on a wet floor. My leg crumpled underneath me, and the injury was worse than ever. Three college physicians and the head trainer examined it and told me the muscles were torn and wouldn't grow back together. They said I'd have to walk with a brace for an indefinite period and certainly would never participate in athletics again. This was a blow to me, because I didn't see how I could keep on with college if that happened.

But I was a Christian Scientist; so I'd been trying all along to work out this problem through prayer. In fact, right at the moment the accident happened I turned to God, divine Mind, for help. And ever since then I'd been doing my best to apply the truths I'd learned in Christian Science. For instance, I realized that man is actually spiritual, made in the likeness of God, divine Spirit, as the Bible says. I reasoned, therefore, that in reality God's man couldn't be injured by an accident. I was tempted to think of muscles and so on. But I knew from my study of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy that God, divine Mind, is the only cause and creator; this Mind, then, has complete control over everything. And I was very confident that the understanding of man's God-given perfection would be manifested.

I'd also called on a Christian Science practitioner when I first got home from camp, and she had given me some help. I wore a brace for a couple of months to help me navigate the steep hills on the campus; but by December I was able to compete in swimming, and I won my letter. The next year I managed to win the boxing tournament. At that time I was examined by the same physicians who had known about the case previously, and, to their amazement, they found that all the muscles had knit together again. The leg had filled out and was just as strong as ever.

But there was more to it than this healing. The practitioner had seen I was troubled and resentful, and she had emphasized that under God's government no envy, fear of incompetence or failure, could keep me from my rightful place or activity. And as man's relationship to God became clearer to me, I saw I didn't need to rely upon, say, athletic prowess as such, but upon what man really is, upon his infinite capacity as the representative of divine power and activity.

This gave me a whole new attitude, and that was really the most important part of the healing. It destroyed my sense of lack. My marks improved; I selected better courses and had better jobs; in fact, I became interested in youth work and changed my field of study. This, in turn, has led to a satisfying career for me, because now I have an interesting job in the state as delinquency control consultant, and I do a lot of training work with police agencies in dealing with juvenile problems.

SPEAKER: So your whole life was actually changed as a result of that experience. We appreciate hearing about it, Mr. Carnes.

Friends, Mr. Carnes indicated he had to gain a clearer understanding of what man really is. Now this naturally raises the question, Who and what is the man Mr. Carnes learned about?

The Scriptures can help us find an answer to this. In the first chapter of Genesis there are several verses that give an insight into man's real nature. Here we read, "God said. Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," and further on, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him."

It's evident, then, that in order to gain a correct concept of man, the first thing we need to do is gain a clear understanding of God. Let's turn to the Bible again for enlightenment. Here we find that Christ Jesus referred to God as Spirit. Now God, infinite Spirit, cannot be confined to a material form or body. He must be free of mortality, free of all material limitations. Divine Spirit, which is all-pervading and eternal, must be indestructible. Spirit can't be impaired or destroyed by any material force. It helps us to understand the nature of Spirit to remember that God is divine Mind, or intelligence, which embraces and includes all that really exists.

But what about man? It certainly appears to the material senses that man is material and that we live in a physical body. In fact, we often think of this body as our identity. But Christian Science shows that our real identity is made in the likeness of Spirit, because man is the image of God. In other words, our true identity is free of mortality. It is indestructible. In fact, the real man, as God's image, cannot be impaired or destroyed by any material force. His identity embodies such Godlike qualities as grace, purity, wholeness, perfection. We can utilize this understanding of man's higher nature for healing the effects of accidents.

Gaining a spiritual view of man's nature does more than give freedom from physical suffering. For instance, our guest today learned that gaining this view can also destroy a sense of inferiority. Man in God's image derives his capabilities from the one infinite Mind. He reflects unlimited divine intelligence. When we understand this and make it the basis of our prayers, we can overcome the fear of failure, lack of ability, or inferiority.

The point is this: a clear understanding of the real nature of man in the image of God is what brings freedom and healing. It gives us an entirely new concept of ourselves and lifts us out of discord and suffering. This is the way Christ Jesus restored the sick, the lame, the suffering. As Mrs. Eddy explains in Science and Health (pp. 476, 477): "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick."

The musical selection on the program was Hymn No. 382 from the Christian Science Hymnal (What is thy birthright, man?).