The spiritual facts of being are a present reality. Man's immortality and spirituality are actual because of his likeness to God. But this fact is demonstrable only as we forsake the human sense of things for the divine.
The real man, the image and likeness of God—immortal, pure, and perfect—and the material sense of man with all its mortal beliefs must not be confused or confounded one with the other. Under the marginal heading, "Mortals are not immortals," found on page 476 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy draws a clear distinction between the human and the divine, declaring: "Mortality is finally swallowed up in immortality. Sin, sickness, and death must disappear to give place to the facts which belong to immortal man." In the next paragraph Mrs. Eddy says, "Learn this, O mortal, and earnestly seek the spiritual status of man, which is outside of all material selfhood."
Perhaps there is no greater need for gaining our spiritual status than in our human relationships, for when we forsake the human for the divine there are no troubles. Only on the plain and in the valley of material sense, where personality looms big and affections are saddened or gladdened, weakened or strengthened, by circumstances, do we experience the troubles that false responsibility, anxiety, and possessiveness bring in their wake.
