Doubtless many students of the Bible have been inspired and encouraged by the assurance contained in the following verse from the one hundred and forty-seventh Psalm: "Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite." This verse takes on added meaning when read in the light of Christian Science, which reveals that man, being the spiritual likeness of God, reflects perfectly the divine nature. On page 475 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," its author, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, says: "Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique. He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas." And in the same paragraph she says man is "that which has no separate mind from God; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker."
Understanding, being a quality of God, divine Mind, is reflected by man, and, speaking absolutely, man can have no other understanding than that which he derives from God. Since, as the Psalmist declares, God's understanding is infinite, it follows that man's understanding as the perfect reflection of God is likewise unbounded. And since there is no limit to the understanding, knowledge, discernment, or comprehension of God, there is no limit to man's ability to apprehend that which expresses God, divine Mind. Therefore, man created in God's image—spiritual man—has limitless capacity to know, or to be consciously aware of, those ideas which express the nature of God. It is in this way that man may be thought of as including the universe—Mind's infinite manifestation of itself. And this is in complete accord, with Mrs. Eddy's definition of man (ibid., p. 591) as "the compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spiritual image and likeness of God; the full representation of Mind."
There is nothing blasphemous or unscriptural in attributing to spiritual man the limitless ability to know or to understand that which is true. One of the very first declarations about man contained in the Bible is, "So God created man in his own image." That which exists as image or likeness must of necessity be of the same nature or character as its original. And Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 183). "Man is God's image and likeness; whatever is possible to God, is possible to man as God's reflection."
