Divine Mind's expression of itself is egoism. Mortal mind's expression of itself is egotism. The divine Ego is the infinite God, eternal Life, self-sustained, perfect, self-conscious Being. The mortal ego is a counterfeit and a pretender, self-deficient, and hence given to self-justification and self-aggrandizement.
The infinitude of God, good, precludes the reality of any opposite nature or law. God, divine Mind, knows nothing but His own allness, perfection, and eternality, and so His will must be defined in a perfect creation. The limited, unreal nature of mortal mind makes it seem conscious of a counterfeit creation and of many conflicting forces, of many minds, and of its own insufficiency and mortality.
God, the divine Ego, expresses Himself in man, His perfect image and likeness. The will of God is the will of good, outlining grace, harmony, health, and beauty. Man, as God's creation, the reflex image, is conscious only of God and His idea and of man's oneness with this perfect essence, or Soul—its very expression. When one understands this and knows God, Spirit, as the Father of man and as the only creator, one reflects the infinite Ego, and one's qualities and capabilities express the unlimited nature of God. To reflect God is to have self-knowledge. To obey the will of God is to have self-control. These are the elements of salvation.
