THROUGH the study of Christian Science we learn that our true selfhood is, and always will be, completely spiritual. As we comprehend that man dwells forever in the realm of Mind, God, as Mind's infinite idea, we also become aware that health and harmony are qualities of God, which man possesses by reflection. The understanding of our true selfhood as a son of God enables us increasingly to perceive that man is the everlasting expression of Mind, imaging forth the divine nature and attributes.
Great numbers of people are realizing that the material concept of creation is false and that belief in it leads to inharmony, sickness, sin, and the distressing doubts and fears which are so common today. Many have turned unreservedly to Christian Science, and it is enabling them to perceive ever more clearly the truth of the Apostle John's statement (I John 3:2), "Beloved, now are we the sons of God," which means that at this instant, without awaiting some future date, man is God's son.
We claim our true selfhood as sons of God in proportion as we express Christlike qualities in our daily living. In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy tells us what must be accomplished if we are to demonstrate our true selfhood. She states (p. 430), "Mortal mind must part with error, must put off itself with its deeds, and immortal manhood, the Christ ideal, will appear."
The Bible records many instances of healing which Christ Jesus accomplished through his steadfast adherence to the truth that all men are, in their true selfhood, perfect, as the sons of God. The Master knew God as the creator of all, as forever expressing Himself through man. He understood that divine Life is the Life of man and always functions harmoniously. His recognition of God as forever maintaining and governing man enabled him to claim divine sonship for all men.
As the understanding of our true sonship develops, our belief in "the old man" (Eph. 4:22), to whom Paul referred, commences to disappear. We must make every effort to "put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." If we are to demonstrate our true selfhood, it is necessary that we base our motives and acts on God's law and not allow ourselves to be influenced by the promptings of mortal mind. To human sense, it would seem as if we were engaged in warfare between the false concept of man as material and the true concept of man as spiritual. But in reality there is no material man, for matter is a myth.
Our ability to demonstrate the healing power of the Christ is in exact proportion to our disbelief in life in matter and our understanding and trust in the spiritual law of Life. Through the purification of our thoughts and actions, we claim our true selfhood. Our Leader states in Science and Health (p. 324), "The purification of sense and self is a proof of progress."
Everyone has the opportunity to make progress now in claiming his true selfhood by giving up the Adam-dream of matter and accepting the Christ ideal. Jesus stated (John 6:63), "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing," showing that matter can never help us.
Through the correct understanding of our true selfhood as God's expression, the reflection of the one Mind, we demonstrate that we are spiritually perfect. We are enabled to prove that material law and its false claims to ancestry, heredity, disease, and inharmonious conditions can never be true. As our thoughts and deeds become Christlike, we gradually outgrow the belief that man can be healthy at one time and subject to sickness at another. We realize that the man of God's creating is in reality the only man and is always the recipient of God's unfailing care and provision.
The writer recalls that many years ago when he obtained a spiritual view of God and man, he was healed of a nervous breakdown. In those days his work was considered strenuous and entailed much responsibility. In his extremity he obtained the help of a Christian Science practitioner, who asked him to study Mrs. Eddy's explanation of man as given on pages 475 to 477 of Science and Health.
Through this study he obtained and utilized an increasingly spiritual understanding of man as the expression of God, and his health commenced to improve. He corrected wrong motives and deeds and dismissed such erroneous thoughts as selfishness, false responsibility, envy, and so on. As he consistently claimed man's oneness with God as Father and son, Mind and idea, he was able to separate his true selfhood from error's claims, with all its fears and limitations, and this brought health and harmony back into his experience. His healing has been permanent.
In accordance with the teachings of the Master, Christian Science makes clear the necessity of loving our neighbor as ourselves. As our thoughts about ourselves and all men become spiritualized, we express purity, goodness, and joy, the qualities of God, divine Love. The people we meet will find that we express intelligence, honesty of purpose, and ability. As we identify ourselves and our neighbors as God's ideas, we shall fulfill our human duties with some measure of the joy and perfection which are the expression of God, Love.
In the degree that we honestly endeavor to dismiss every erroneous belief, and accept only that which is God-made or God-derived, we shall demonstrate man's unity with God. Mrs. Eddy gives us a statement of loving assurance in Science and Health (p. 316), "The real man being linked by Science to his Maker, mortals need only turn from sin and lose sight of mortal selfhood to find Christ, the real man and his relation to God, and to recognize the divine sonship."
