True self-control results from the knowledge and understanding of man's status as the reflection, image, and likeness of God, Spirit. To attain this understanding it is necessary to know what God is. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 258), "We know no more of man as the true divine image and likeness, than we know of God."
Christian Science teaches that God is Life, Truth, Love, Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit; that He is good, all-powerful, ever present, all-knowing. It explains that all true activity, as well as all reality, is in and of God; that every real motive has Love as its wellspring, for God is Love. As divine Principle, God is the supreme governing intelligence. As Soul, He is the only consciousness of man. Being infinite Spirit, He is the essence of all being.
Man's selfhood is the image, expression, of God, Spirit, and this selfhood is obviously controlled by God. But popular human belief says that an individual has self-control only as he exercises human will power, or contrariwise that he has no self-control if he lacks the supposed ability given him through this trait of mortal mind. The trouble with this sense of self-control is that so-called human will power is fallible and capable only of evil. According to human belief, good qualities can be reversed, distorted, misdirected, so that we may lose the ability to do right, to manifest health, or to resist claims of evil. This belief is unmasked by the truth that the spiritual senses of man are forever perfect and harmonious, reporting good only, for God is good, and testifying to the oneness and allness of divine Mind and its control.
