It usually takes considerable time and mental effort for the average mortal to let go of the material and personal concept of individuality, and to grasp the spiritual idea presented in Christian Science. Indeed at times it seems as if nothing could bridge the gulf between the old and the new, and yet the Christ-teaching does this very thing. In the Glossary of Science and Health we find the personal and material sense of certain characters presented, and at the same time the spiritual idea which each one represents. In the case of Abraham, as referred to on page 579 of Science and Health, only the spiritual ideal appears, yet we find in studying the Scriptures that there were many who thought of him merely as the mortal progenitor of thousands of men and women, a concept which Jesus repudiated when he said, "If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham." This patriarch must have seen at an early stage in his spiritual experience the true idea of manhood, for the voice of Truth said to him, "Walk before me, and be thou perfect," a demand which he undoubtedly strove to obey.
It is generally believed that a certain amount of badness gives force to character, maintains its balance, so to speak. This, however, is because the power of Spirit is so little understood, and unless goodness is allied with God, the one Mind, it is at best negative, and the one who manifests this type of goodness is apt to lack symmetry of character and balance in his activities. Christian Science reveals the divine idea of manhood, and it remains with each one who awakens to the truth of being to bring this idea into manifestation. The first step must be taken by the prodigal, as when we read that "he came to himself;" in other words, when he became conscious of man's likeness to God.
A good deal is said by some people about being "impersonal," and it may be of interest to students of Science and Health to know that this word is not to be found in our text-book at all. It is truly helpful, however, to study earnestly, by the aid of the Concordance, all that appears under the head of person, personal, and personality. Such study as this will lift thought far above the mortal sense of God and man, and help us to grasp what Mrs. Eddy calls "the truly Christian and scientific statement of personality and of the relation of man to God" (p. 94). So long as we cling to a sense of personality which includes evil as well as good, we have not seen either for ourselves or for others the divine "image" and "likeness," and to realize this fully calls for the process so aptly described by Paul as putting off the old man and putting on the new. The old man, or the fleshly man, is never symmetrical, because material characteristics destroy the perfect balance and poise which spiritual qualities produce, with a happy blending of gentleness and strength, in man, woman, and child.
