ONE of the interesting and instructive phases of the teaching of Christian Science is the clear distinction demanded between "personality" and "individuality." This arises from the fact that the ordinarily accepted concept presents man as possessing both material and spiritual qualities; while Christian Science declares the real man to be wholly spiritual. Modern dictionaries by their definitions of these two terms make them substantially synonymous; but Christian Science requires that a well-defined distinction be drawn between them.
The general belief is that man is a person possessing a personal mind and a personal body of his own, and manifesting personal qualities wholly separate or apart from Mind, or God. Christian Science declares that God is infinite Mind, or Spirit, possessing infinite individuality; that is, that all real qualities are His, and His alone. God being infinite, there are therefore no other qualities for man, as God's image and likeness, to express than those which are like God, hence spiritual. Christian Science is teaching mankind how to put off so-called personal or mortal qualities by recognizing, or putting on, God's perfect individual qualities. This it does step by step through the practice of such spiritual or Godlike qualities.
In "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 117) Mrs. Eddy writes: "'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God' (St. John). This great truth of God's impersonality and individuality and of man in His image and likeness, individual, but not personal, is the foundation of Christian Science." Our aim, as Christian Scientists, is to express less and less of the so-called personal qualities, and to reflect more and more of the distinctly individual qualities of God, which constitute man's true individuality, man's real and immortal selfhood. We are seeking to know our real selves through the revelation of man's true individuality expressed in Godlike qualities.
