If we begin with the proposition that the source of all being is good, we must conclude that all which proceeds therefrom is also good. The process is simple and natural by which we reason from the perfection of God, the creator, to the perfection of all that he creates. But there is an immense distance between this ideal perfection and the conditions which mortal man experiences in himself and beholds around him. It is indeed a far cry from the material and imperfect to the spiritual and perfect sense of creation; from men as the offspring of mortals to man as the image of God. Apparently bound to their belief in matter by what seems an inevitable law, lusting after its disappointing pleasures and enduring its cruel pains, mortals look upon the existence of perfect manhood as belonging either to a prehistoric past or to a millennial future, but as quite impossible of present attainment.
Therefore, although theoretically accepting the truth of man's divine origin, the difficulties in the way of its practice seem so insurmountable that they generally regard this truth as having no actual relation to earthly experience. As a result men continue to exhaust their energies in enduring or hopelessly battling with evil and suffering; whereas, if these endeavors were intelligently directed in accord with Christian Science, mankind would be redeemed from their false, sinful conditions. The authority for this conclusion is the teaching of our Master, and his demonstration of human capability to overcome evil. It is the purpose of Christian Science to bring to men the understanding of God which Jesus possessed, so far and so fast as they can receive it, and to bring to their recognition man's spiritual sonship with the Father as the practical truth of being, now as it was in the beginning or will be hereafter.
Because spiritual things seem to them so intangible, and material things so positive, mortals conclude that matter has been brought into existence by God, and that He has given men a fleshly, material nature in conjunction with the spiritual; notwithstanding that Scripture defines the carnal nature as "enmity to God." The apostolic injunction to "put off the old man" opposes the mortal belief that corporeal personality is of God, and evidently refers to the human possibility of spiritual growth out of materiality, and the necessity for gaining a higher and purer sense of man than material beliefs afford. The putting on of "the new man" implies a present-day and not a post-mortem process, and indicates that the generally accepted human concept of man is not true.
