IN her explanation of the Biblical account of the creation of man, made "after our likeness," as found in the first chapter of Genesis, Mrs. Eddy states in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 515) that the ancient Hebrew name for God, Elohim, is used here in the plural, but in the sense of plurality of Spirit rather than of person, and that "it relates to the oneness, the tri-unity of Life, Truth, and Love. 'Let them have dominion.'" The emphasis which Mrs. Eddy places upon the word "them" indicates that man has full and complete dominion only as he reflects the tri-unity of Life, Truth, and Love. On the following page she also states that "man, made in His likeness, possesses and reflects God's dominion over all the earth." It should be noted here that this dominion, this power to express Life, Truth, and Love over all the earth, was not given to Adam, who typifies the mortal concept of man, but to man made in the likeness of God, Spirit, and cognizing only a spiritual universe.
How can the power thus divinely bestowed on man, one may ask, be made available in an ordinary human way? The human self needs, first of all, to be evangelized—instructed in spiritual things—in order that it may turn away from reliance upon false material theories and seek the true source of being. Spiritual dominion begins in one's thinking. Presumably, that is where Christ Jesus began overcoming the world, the flesh, and all error; and we have no reason for supposing that he waited until he had reached mature years before beginning to exercise man's dominion.
From earliest childhood, it is safe to assert, Jesus was instructed in the Word of God, for we read that "the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him." When, at the age of twelve, he was found sitting among the learned doctors of the temple in Jerusalem and astonishing them with his questions and answers, Jesus already had gone some way on the road of understanding dominion, for he perceived that he must be about his Father's business, the business of reflecting spiritual power. Only the very shortest account of the youth of Jesus has come to us, but there we read, "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." What more is needed by us to-day? Symmetrical growth and the approval of God can come only through the daily mastery of self, of every ignoble trait of character that tries to establish itself in our consciousness. Sweet, childlike dominion over the things of sense and self may be seen to-day in little children who, at home and in the Christian Science Sunday School, are taught the truth of being. Because they know the government of the one Mind, the thinking of these children should be spiritual and right from the beginning, and through it they can and do learn to exercise dominion over the ills of childhood, as well as in the struggles and perplexities of youth; and they reflect to others the healing power of Life, Truth, and Love, understood and demonstrated.
