On page 14 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" Mary Baker Eddy, speaking of the results which would accrue from the "love currency" that was contributed to the building of The Mother Church, says they will be seen to be "not a madness and nothing, but a sanity and something from the individual, stupendous, Godlike agency of man." A dictionary definition of "agency" is "action; instrumentality," and "agent" is defined as "a moving force." In the above quotation then we have man indicated as an instrumentality, a moving force, and the nature of that action defined as stupendous and Godlike, as well as individual. Is not this the action, the moving force, so much needed in the world today to bring order out of seeming chaos, peace to the aftermath of war, and the equality of rights and privileges to men?
What is man, that he may be found to be this stupendous agency for good? Even what the Scriptures declare him to be, the image and likeness of God, who is Spirit, incorporeal, infinite, and immutably good. Man is thus seen to be not a corporeal, physical organism, but the expression of Spirit, of incorporeal divine Principle —Principle perfect in origin, perfect in operation, perfect in power. On page 470 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says, "God is the creator of man, and, the divine Principle of man remaining perfect, the divine idea or reflection, man, remains perfect."
This man, the perfect expression of perfect Principle, was best represented by the man Christ Jesus, who demonstrated the effect of this stupendous agency in his dominion over all evil and its suppositional power, over all so-called material elements and their restrictive, suppositional laws. Now Principle is changeless and eternal, eternally and consistently capable of demonstration. Principle is timeless, and is inevitably to be known. This truth of man as a Godlike agency in human affairs had remained hidden by scholastic theology until it was clearly revealed in Christian Science, whose teachings repeat that ever imperative command of the Master, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
