WHEN Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, and the author of its textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," penned her remarkable definition of man beginning on page 475 of that work, she gave to the world the most scientifically analytical and complete statement ever made regarding man. Previous efforts to find an intelligent answer to the query "What is man?" had been based upon a material premise, upon the supposition that the human body with its seemingly real organs, functions, actions, and reactions, is to be deemed the whole or the chief part of man. The belief that matter is the source of life and intelligence naturally precludes the reception of any idea which would reveal existence as other than purely physical. Hence we find that at no time since the days of Christ Jesus had anyone defined man as wholly spiritual, in conformity with the saying of the Master, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Like Nicodemus, the world had found itself unable to explain his statement satisfactorily, and so had ceased to give it credence.
Mrs. Eddy, however, refused to believe that material inferences and conclusions are true or final. To her, man was something other than an anatomical structure of flesh and bone; and so, working from the basis of Spirit instead of matter, she saw that logical conclusions regarding man could not be deduced from the standpoint of so-called matter. This she proved by irrefutable demonstrations in the healing of numerous forms of sin and sickness without resorting to any material aid.
The world's sense of man as material, together with the constant suggestion that we look to matter as the only source and reality, may make it seem difficult to grasp the full meaning of our Leader's statement regarding man. How like a skillfully wrought mosaic is this definition! With great care the artist selects each piece, and although it must be suitable in color and of the proper shape and size, it is never chosen for itself alone, but always with reference to its relationship to all the other parts, in order that the full beauty of the pattern may be brought out. Thus does Mrs. Eddy construct her description of man. Each group of words is a complete unit of thought which needs to be studied by itself, and its full meaning assimilated, before it can be properly seen in conjunction with the others. Each part is equally important and vitally necessary, in order that a clear understanding of the real man may be unfolded to human consciousness. Thus, as thought dwells upon each of these several parts of her definition, something of the grandeur of spiritual man begins to appear.
