THE Scriptural promises concerning the "new heaven," the "new earth," and the "new man" are definite and reassuring; but humanity in general has supposed an exalted state of being, such as described in the Scriptures, to be possible of attainment only in a blissful hereafter beyond the grave. As a sequel to this false supposition, corporeal existence is admitted to be real, and material personality adroitly masquerades as genuine selfhood. Now, Christian Science reverses this mistaken assumption, and brings into present prospect the "new heaven," the "new earth," and the "new man," so enabling us to understand spiritual reality. Mrs. Eddy says (Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 1,2), "Goodness reveals another scene and another self seemingly rolled up in shades, but brought to light by the evolutions of advancing thought, whereby we discern the power of Truth and Love to heal the sick." Who would not know more of his real self, its infinite possibilities and glorious attainments?
Our Leader's clear and comprehensive revelation of the nature of God is the golden key unlocking the door to man's true estate; for, having found God to be Spirit, Soul, Mind, Life, Truth, Love, she understood man, His image and likeness, to be the perfect reflection of God, incorporeal substance; to be idea, not matter, and therefore always complete, whole, safe, joyous, active, and free. In her Message to The Mother Church for 1901 (p. 6), under the subtitle, "God is the Infinite Person," she writes, "Our departure from theological personality is, that God's personality must be as infinite as Mind is." Dictionaries give several definitions of the word "person," one of special interest being "one's actual self." Mrs. Eddy has revealed the nature of God, the infinite, all-inclusive Ego, and the actual or real selfhood of man, the expression of this divine Ego. It is evident that boundless spiritual Being, illimitable divine consciousness, cannot be contained in or reflected by physical limitations. Material personality, then, is not man's true identity, but merely mortal mind's inverted, perverted concept of man. The limitless ideas of allinclusive Mind are reflected by spiritual man, who is the image of the One "altogether lovely."
Grand, indeed, is this view of the "new man," and vast are the fields of opportunity and joyous achievement in which his true selfhood is environed! The correct view of man obliterates the false concept, and enables one to nullify or forestall the penalties imposed by the belief in the realness of material personality, with its accompaniments of hereditary, racial, and national influences. Instead of our unwittingly accepting the discords, disappointments, and discouragement inherent in the illusion that man is a physical being, Christian Science bids us repudiate these falsities on the basis of man's wholly spiritual nature and character as divine idea. He who faithfully strives to dematerialize his sense of man will inevitably break through the illusive barriers that have hitherto narrowed his vision and blighted his hopes. Our Leader states an incontestable fact when she says (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 300), "So far as the scientific statement as to man is understood, it can be proved and will bring to light the true reflection of God—the real man, or the new man (as St. Paul has it)." No one need yield to the pernicious suggestion that obstacles, limitations, and failures are his unhappy portion because of what the world regards as an unattractive or poor personality. Let him who has thus been beclouded and disheartened by mortal sense endeavor to realize man's infinite capacity, freedom, and resourcefulness as the expression of divine intelligence and Love. Ere long he will then begin to see that this exalted consciousness of man is, indeed, the rod of spiritual understanding wherewith to touch the rock of Truth, whence flow refreshing waters of opportunity and service.
