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GENERIC MAN

From the September 1942 issue of The Christian Science Journal


When it is understood that man, the image and likeness of God, is the expression of all the qualities of Mind, then instead of differentiation there will be union and co-ordination. The traditional habit of looking to men for certain characteristics and to women for others, will cease. Then the question will no longer be asked whether a man or a woman is desirable or essential in such and such an undertaking, but qualifications, independently of sex, will be the deciding factor. Mary Baker Eddy writes on pages 258 and 259 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," "Through spiritual sense you can discern the heart of divinity, and thus begin to comprehend in Science the generic term man."

Not in the preponderance of masculine or of feminine qualities, but in the individual expression of them all, is true attainment to be found. Conspicuous in Christ Jesus were strength and courage, but so were patience and tender compassion. "How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" he said to that Jerusalem which was designated by Paul to the Galatians as "the mother of us all."

So long as material sense prevents men through choice or inhibition from laying hold in conscious self-expression of their completeness, they will continue to think that they represent only one aspect of creation, and therefore that they are dependent upon another individual for what is unrepresented in themselves. They will continue to look outside, not within, for completeness; to think in mortal terms of selfhood, rather than in those of character and qualification. The feminist of an earlier epoch incurred much ridicule. She fought a long, a valiant, and an uphill battle to obtain a recognition which was to be more than the proverbial "power behind the throne." She was but a spearhead of those who sought instinctively to take their place in the counsels of the world.

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