THE real or spiritual man, to whose existence the greatest seers of the ages have borne consistent testimony, cannot be discerned from the standpoint of finite sense. Finite sense insists that the universe is material and that man is mortal. The understanding' and application of Christian Science, however, show that the material so-called creation, including mortal man, is but the objective representation of material belief in widely differentiated forms, and that it has no existence apart from the erratic point of view which gives it seeming reality.
In arriving at an estimate of man we are thus obliged to choose between the spiritual point of view which makes reality self-evident, and the material point of view which spiritual discernment, logic, and demonstration refute. There is no alternative. We must either hew straight to the line in logical deduction from spiritual premises, or else we must judge "according to appearances," trusting the palpably untrustworthy indications of finite sense to inform us what man is. According to the affirmations of spiritual sense, there is but one man, "the compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spiritual image and likeness of God; the full representation of Mind" (Science and Health, p. 591) From the standpoint of finite sense, creation seems to include innumerable minds, self-choosing, self-acting individualities, while man appears multiplied indefinitely in the form of mankind. Finite sense makes man seem diversified, even as the kaleidoscope causes an object to take on the appearance of differing forms and varied patterns quite unlike the original.
To material thought the elimination of the material aspects of human consciousness suggests the surrender of freedom, the loss of identity, the extinction of individuality. It is, however, the erratic point of view and not an actual condition of things which occasions the fear of loss. Mrs. Eddy says: "This carnal material mentality, misnamed mind, is mortal. Therefore man would be annihilated, were it not for the spiritual real man's indissoluble connection with his God, which Jesus brought to light" (Ibid., p. 292) The belief that material conditions are essential to the perpetuation of consciousness, the unfolding of knowledge and the attainment of happiness, is responsible for the reluctance with which mortals part with material qualities and tendencies. To relinquish a finite, limited, separating sense of self seems to such a thought equivalent to forfeiting one's selfhood or conscious existence.
