Basic to the teaching and practice of Christian Science is the fact that "God is not part, but the whole." Mary Baker Eddy makes this statement in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 102). God is all-inclusive, the universal cause, the only Life, intelligence, and substance, the All of being. His omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience preclude any other existence, might, or science.
Since God is the All of being, the questions may occur: "How and where does man fit into creation and being?" and, "Is there a place for man's individuality?" Christian Science answers that man does have a definite, even an imperative, place in being, for he is in and of God; and God would be incomplete without man.
Paul voiced this verity of existence thus (Acts 17:28): "In him we live, and move, and have our being." And Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 340): "Divine Love is infinite. Therefore all that really exists is in and of God, and manifests His love."
What courage and strength, peace and ability, inspiration and security, promise and confidence, we derive from the realization that God includes man in His allness! This realization assures us that our experience cannot be small and sorrowful, fearful and selfish, sickly and unsuccessful. Man's experience must be in harmony with God's all-inclusiveness.
As we faithfully witness to God's allness and goodness in our daily activity, we demonstrate the scientific relationship between being and doing. Jesus stated (John 5: 19), "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise."
Mankind can find great satisfaction in replacing the mortal, selfish sense of being with the true sense of being as Mind's manifestation. When Moses was preparing to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, he saw that the accomplishment of the act was intimately connected with his understanding of God, the great I AM. Each time a new challenge presented itself, some truth relative to the I AM provided the ability to meet the demand. The doing always followed the understanding of the great I AM.
In Christian Science we learn that man's origin, existence, and continuity are not in or of the flesh; his substance and well-being are not in or of matter; his consciousness and understanding are not in or of mortal mind. The true concept of man's origin, existence, and continuity can dispel any fear engendered by belief in heredity, in mortal happenings, or in laws of sin, disease, and death, for man's origin is spiritual. His growth is governed by divine Principle and is measured in terms of Mind's unfoldment of its inexhaustible ideas.
Man's continuity is in indestructible Life, in eternal, self-existent, and harmonious Truth. Because Life is imperative in the divine order of being, man's reflection of it in a continually healthy state is imperative, else the Supreme Being would not be fully expressed. Knowledge of this truth keeps our thinking alert and joyous, not apprehensive of material background, but free for high and holy ends.
Man's substance is derived from divine Love. Since Love's allness must be manifested, there can never be an occasion when man's bounty diminishes or runs out. The incoming ideas of God's boundless supply are constant and are never affected by the sharing of His beneficence. The unlimited circulation of good is the only way the allness of Being can be truly expressed.
Aware of true substance, we find joy in using our human resources to make others happy, to advance community betterment, to support righteous government, and to maintain our churches so that the Christ light may reach everyone.
The condition of man is determined by God; therefore man is assured of enduring well-being. Good health for man is a foregone necessity, for otherwise Deity would be identified with imperfection and destruction. We do not look to the body for the condition of health, but to Mind. Man is constituted of such qualities of Mind as love, joy, harmony, wisdom, righteousness, innocence, and purity; and he can no more be diseased than can these qualities. His health cannot collapse, because God cannot collapse; his well-being cannot be injured, because God, divine Principle, will never cease to reign.
Man's consciousness is the reflection of perfect Mind and is always imbued with intelligence and understanding, Science and strength. The understanding of this fact perfects that which concerns each individual and brings to light the glory of true being. To rely upon divine Mind for our every need—our guidance and protection, our progress and dominion—is to discover definite, expansive, productive, and inspiring ideas at the door of thought.
Realizing where we are and what we are, we can eliminate from experience the evils in which mortal mind, flesh, and matter claim they can involve us. Thus we demonstrate that every condition and circumstance pertaining to our unfoldment is the outcome of God's allness and goodness. Paul, recognizing the possibilities of true consciousness, expressed this hope for the Ephesians (3:17-19): "That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God."
Once when I had the opportunity to demonstrate the love of Christ by identifying man with this love, I glimpsed the meaning of the breadth, height, and depth of real being. When I was many miles from my parental home, I received a telegram saying that if I wished to see my father alive, I must come at once. He had fallen and broken his neck.
Unable to rush to him, I endeavored to see him as a spiritual idea completely embodied in Mind. Opening "Miscellaneous Writings" to page 104, I read of the Master: "His unseen individuality, so superior to that which was seen, was not subject to the temptations of the flesh, to laws material, to death, or the grave. Formed and governed by God, this individuality was safe in the substance of Soul, the substance of Spirit,—yea, the substance of God, the one inclusive good."
The confidence and assurance which this divine message brought were comforting and absolute, for I knew my father was safe, and I did not need to go home. And so it proved; my father's recovery was rapid and complete.
"God is not part, but the whole." How natural that man has no character or consciousness except the one which God imparts and which reflects His own being!
