Artists and sculptors have glorified the material body in their work, and material science has examined it under the microscope, but no one ever explained its real nature until Jesus said (John 6:63), "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." On the basis of this truth Mary Baker Eddy has performed a great service to mankind in her explanation of the nature of the material body. She tells us that mortal mind and body are one, and this one is unreal and untrue. Hence the material body is, in reality, a nonentity.
The revelation of the nothingness of the material body greatly aroused mankind because its seeming identity was reduced to a state of bodiless existence—to nonexistence. But Mrs. Eddy has also revealed in Christian Science the real man, the idea of Spirit, possessing in reality an eternal, indestructible body, a spiritual identity, which has nothing in common with the so-called material or fleshly form.
Man's true body or identity is revealed to us as thought becomes spiritualized. This true identity is the Christ, the eternal and indestructible idea of Spirit, which forever shows forth the nature and stature of the real man, the son of God.
