The basic teaching of the Bible regarding the genesis of man is that God created man in His image and likeness, and beheld the work of His creative power as "very good." Whenever humanity contemplates itself as it appears to be—a material creation, sometimes beautiful and good, but just as often ugly and evil—and attempts to harmonize what the Bible teaches with the testimony of material sense, it is struck with the futility of its endeavor. Humanity, therefore, has been in the main content to drift along with the stream of erring, unreliable thinking, leaving the solution of the enigma to the religionist or the dreamer. It has constructed in its thinking a manlike God having not only humanity's physical characteristics but its mental and moral qualities as well —a concept which cannot meet "the heart's great needs."
In the last half of the nineteenth century Mary Baker Eddy, a New England gentlewoman of deep religious sensibilities, pondered this enigma. Her prayerful study of the Bible finally culminated in a revelation of the true nature of God and man and the laws governing their relationship. In other words, she became the Discoverer of Christian Science. She demonstrated the correctness of her use of the word "Science" with reference to this revelation by proving in her own experience and in that of others, by the healing of disease and by the destruction of sin, the truths she had discovered. Subsequently she wrote the textbook of Christian Science, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and established the organization known to the world as the Christian Science church, with its various activities, thereby becoming the Founder of the Christian Science movement.
In elucidating the nature of man as it had been revealed to her, Mrs. Eddy used the word "reflection" to assist in conveying the deep significance of the words "image and likeness," and throughout Science and Health she strives to show us the full import of this word "reflection." In order to produce a perfect reflection, we must have a perfect mirror. Any imperfection in a mirror will produce varying degrees of distortion and imperfection in the reflection. On the other hand, no amount of mechanical skill in the preparation of a mirror will cause it to reflect an ugly face as beautiful or a crooked object as straight. There must be both a perfect mirror and a perfect original in order to get a perfect result—a perfect reflection.
