That God has lovingly endowed His children with eternal individuality is a comforting and immensely reassuring fact. Jesus spoke of his everlasting selfhood, which he knew to be eternally loved by the Father, when he said, "Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:24).
Yet, however helpful one finds these words, he must come to realize that they are not spoken of mortal man—that, indeed, God is not the creator of mortals. In order wholly to accept such statements, it is essential that one recognize that each individual has a spiritual selfhood, his only real selfhood, which has always dwelt with and in the Father. Spirit alone is his primitive source and his eternal home.
The truth that man has a wholly spiritual, perpetually law-governed individuality is a basic truth taught by Christian Science, a truth upon which healings are wrought. Mrs. Eddy makes this important statement on page 11 of "No and Yes": "Man has perpetual individuality; and God's laws, and their intelligent and harmonious action, constitute his individuality in the Science of Soul."
Man's individuality is actuated, controlled by, and constituted of God's laws. And what are these laws constituting our individuality? To name a few, they are laws of health, harmony, progress, joy, freedom, dominion, intelligence, and true abundance. These laws and many, many more are the harmonious forces which go to make up man's perpetual individuality. As invariable forces, they are as uninterruptible and as indestructible as their source, divine Principle, God. As active forces they are irresistibly and fully expressed in man. There is no power that can halt, interfere with, or change the eternal enforcement of spiritual law in and through God's witness, man.
And how intelligent, how just, how loving is the action of these laws, because it can manifest only its originating divine Principle, Love. Therefore that action, going on in man, can only be intelligent, just, and loving. Never is it cruel, destructive, discordant, because God Himself is none of these. Obviously the effect of God must be Godlike.
To the material senses, the carnal mind, described by Jesus as a liar and the father of a lie, claims to project a mortal concept of creation, a material universe, in which man possesses a physical personality. This personality, it says, is both good and evil, originating at the time of birth and disappearing at the time of death. By turning thought steadily to spiritual identity, however, we come to see that the whole mortal picture is as false as its originator, mortal mind. To unsee the claim of mortal personality, one must unsee the claim of mortal mind itself as being a reality, capable of originating.
Basically, mortal mind claims one of two things: either that it has been created by God or that it is a self-creating power. Neither claim is true. God has never created an evil mind apart from Himself. Neither has He permitted the formation of a creative power apart from Himself. Because mortal mind is a lie and a liar, everything for which it claims reality is as untrue as itself. The whole mythical concept of creation, in which is evolved mortal man, constituted of matter and controlled by material law, is a dream of mortal mind.
Physical thinking, based on material laws, is often found appearing as diseased action, inaction, or overaction in this false creation. But the untrue sense of action is as untrue as the one dreamer, mortal mind. This myth, mortal mind, can never enter God's kingdom, usurp God's control of His child, and substitute its false sense of material law for the great spiritual laws that constitute man's individuality. Nor is material law a reality that can temporarily interrupt, with its false claim of action, the true action of God's laws being eternally manifested in and through man. False law cannot conceal the operation of spiritual laws or their eternally just, intelligent, loving action. God is the only lawmaker, and His laws alone operate in and through man.
Should one be tempted to believe that he is experiencing the effects of accident, contagion, acute or chronic disease, or any other discord of the carnal mind, let him ask himself if he is willing to believe that God's eternally operating, infinitely loving laws have been set aside in his being, his experience. Let him ask himself if he is willing to believe that mythical mortal mind can substitute itself, with its mythical material law, for the perpetual, omnipotent forces of good which God is maintaining in and through man by law.
Unless it can be said that the discord is just, intelligent, and loving, it is not law and is not going on in man. Only the action of God's infinitely loving, just, intelligent laws is to be found reflected in man. Mortal mind's lawless law never has become for one instant a part of man's real selfhood.
Some time ago I was attacked by a very painful condition which impaired action in the neck and shoulders. I found myself unable to sleep or rest, and so aggravated were the symptoms that there was little desire to eat. The days and most of the nights were spent in prayerfully affirming my spiritual, perpetual individuality, my oneness with my Father as His reflection, and consequently the law-governed, law-enforced harmony which characterized my being. As I studied, it became clear to me that inharmony never had and never could replace the eternal well-being which is man's. Also it became clear that man is the individualized expression of Principle, the source of all law.
During this time there were brief periods of relief, but these were temporary. One night I felt that I must see an end to this imposition of the carnal mind. Another member of the family was with me, and together we again declared some of the great truths of God and of man formed in God's likeness. With deep humility I turned wholly to God. At this moment there came a marvelous sense of the infinitely loving nature of the laws which constitute God's man. It was clearly revealed to consciousness that these loving laws of comfort, peace, activity, and eternal harmony had never been interrupted in me. Actually I had not gone through a period when pain was substituted for the spiritual well-being that was perpetually mine.
With this revelation the mesmerism of error was broken. After having something to eat, I returned to bed to sleep the remainder of the night. Within less than twenty-four hours the action of the body was normal and has remained so. But the most important aspect of this healing was that at no time during those several days and nights did the sense of pain and disability seem as great as the holy conviction of the great love that the Father has for His children.
How do we come to better understand law? Such understanding is the result of love—loving God, who is the source of all true law, and loving man, the embodiment of law. As this line of reasoning is pursued and enlarged upon, one finds that he has a great love for the one true Lawgiver and of God's lawful man. The Psalmist clearly understood this true regard for law when he said, "O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day" (Ps. 119:97)— God's laws, perpetual and loving, uninterruptedly controlling man and constituting his individuality. How reassuring!
