If we would identify man and the universe, we must learn to turn to the Scriptures for divine wisdom and the truth of being. In the first chapter of St. John we read: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ... In him was life; and the life was the light of men"—the light of spiritual creation. Commenting on these facts—the nature of God and His creation, as expressed in the coming of the Christ—the writer continues, "That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." And he also states the reason why men have the power to become the sons of God: because they "were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Today, a benighted world is grasping the meaning of these statements as never before, and is slowly but surely following them.
One naturally asks, What must I do to realize in my present human experience this blessed relationship with God? "Identity" is a derivative of the Latin word idem, meaning "the same"; and Webster defines "identity" as follows: "Sameness of essential character. ... Selfsameness; oneness." Therefore, we may conclude that spiritual identity demands the understanding that individual being is one with divine Being, or Spirit.
Mrs. Eddy, the Leader of the Christian Science movement, defines man as, "The conscious identity of being as found in Science, in which man is the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal." And she further elaborates the idea of man's spiritual identity: "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" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 475).
