The inherent ability bestowed upon man by his creator to think righteous thoughts and manifest good, makes it possible for us always to express Godlikeness. While we possess no power in and of ourselves, by reflecting God's attributes we manifest God's nature in our thoughts and acts. The real man, our true spiritual selfhood, can know and reflect only God, evidencing His ever-presence here and now; and grasping this truth we become Godlike in proportion as our life is conformed to the standard of infinite good.
Supported by pure and holy thoughts, we can daily prove the falsity of the belief that we exist in or of matter, or separate from God. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p.42), Mrs. Eddy writes, "The belief that man has existence or mind separate from God is a dying error." Step by step in this true progress toward the real, we forsake materiality and transfer the affections from matter to Spirit, from error to Truth, erasing discord, sin, and disease—all unlike God—from our consciousness.
The Scriptures plainly state that man is God's likeness; but mesmerized by mortal belief we may have considered the realization of this ideal to be' possible only through transition or change of place. Not, however, by dying, but by living in accord with God's law, and by denying the reality of an opposite material life, is true progress to be made. The belief in a so-called mortal life only seems as real as we ourselves make it. Jesus demonstrated the allness of God in his every thought and deed, and in his disregard of matter and its supposed laws. He proved the nothingness of the material illusion and lived after the likeness of his Father, reflecting God, Spirit. Knowing but one creator, he destroyed belief in any other Life, and marvelously excluded error from his consciousness. He knew that God's likeness reflects good, never evil.
