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INDIVIDUALITY VERSUS PERSONALITY

From the February 1928 issue of The Christian Science Journal


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE is elevating human interests and, incidentally, social intercourse. Those who have not yet received the enlightened understanding of this Science usually consider their relations with others from the standpoint of personality. They suppose that they have to deal with material persons possessing separate minds, and acting more or less arbitrarily. As a result of this attitude one expects, and indeed often experiences, very unsatisfactory human conditions, among them an almost unremittent contest for wealth, influence, and happiness. This conflict is not limited to persons, but is also seen as a struggle between classes, and even between nations.

Christian Science presents an entirely different point of view. It does not start out with the testimony of the material senses, but with spiritual perception. By it we are introduced to the infinite realm of true being. Theoretically, an infinite God has been accepted by nearly all Christians as the primal fact of existence; but until the discovery of Christian Science it was not fully understood that the infinitude of God not only means the ever-presence, omnipotence, and perfection of Deity,—as the Bible teaches,—but also the perfection of man and the unreality of evil. Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, saw equally clearly that God's allness implies His oneness.

These spiritual ideas constitute the means for bringing about a better basis for human intercourse by substituting an understanding of spiritual individuality for a sense of physical personality. This substitution opens the door to greater peace and harmony for the race, as well as for the individual, if one is willing and persistent enough to practice it and press on, even when sometimes the odds may claim to be heavily against one. It means that we no longer believe in everybody's possessing a separate mind, but that we are understanding better that each of us individually expresses the one divine Mind. This is the logical conclusion from the fact that there is but one Mind, and that this Mind, being infinite, is sufficient for all. God's infinitude involves perfection and harmony in every detail. Following this to its logical conclusion shows that man is harmonious not only in himself, but in all his relationships with his fellow-man. The Apostle Paul stated for all time, "In him [God] we live, and move, and have our being."

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