The cliff was high and steep, and the path leading upward narrowed to almost nothing near the top. The individual ascending the narrow ledge found himself clawing for a hold on the sheer face of the rock. Suddenly he slipped into space, and cried out in terror, "Help, I am falling!" Then he awoke, and found himself in a peaceful room, safe from harm! He had not fallen from the cliff, because he had never been there. The cliff and the climber had seemed real in the dream, but neither had anything to do with his normal being. They were comprised in a dream sense, momentarily accepted as real, but vanishing completely with his awakening.
Christ Jesus said, "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father." Although Jesus came into the world—this mortal state of existence, which is but a mesmeric dream—he did not accept the evils of the dream—sin, disease, and death—as real, but he destroyed them through his clear understanding of God's omnipresence and omnipotence. And he never identified himself with the false, material sense of self which always appears in the dream; rather did he steadfastly maintain the perfection and immortality of his real selfhood, declaring, "I and my Father are one." He is the way, and it is our task as his humble followers to deny and put off the mortal sense of self, with its sins and weaknesses, and demonstrate our true selfhood, one with our Father-Mother God.
Christian Science teaches that man is God's image and likeness, as he is plainly declared to be in the first chapter of Genesis. In this Science our real selfhood, spiritual and eternal, is revealed to us. When reading the many wonderful statements about man which are to be found in all the authorized Christian Science literature, we should remember that they concern our true self. We sometimes overlook this important point, and say, "I know that is true about the real man, but you know I am still human!"
