"We ought to weary of the fleeting and false and to cherish nothing which hinders our highest selfhood." So writes Mrs. Eddy on page 68 of Science and Health. Christian Science teaches that man is made in the image and likeness of God, as recorded in the first chapter of Genesis. Thus our true, "our highest selfhood" is perfect. This true selfhood is supported and sustained by divine Principle, God.
It was this spiritual selfhood to which Christ Jesus referred when he declared, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). Jesus knew that the Christ, which expresses the perfect, spiritual, eternal nature of God, was his true selfhood, and he taught that this was the true selfhood of everyone. He understood man to be the full and complete reflection of God, Spirit, and thus inseparable from the Christ. He commanded (Matt. 5:48), "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
The writer had often pondered the word "cherish," which Mrs. Eddy uses in the statement quoted above. She had thought of this word as meaning only to hold, or esteem dear, and she knew that man's spiritual identity was more dear to her than the concept presented by the material senses. Reference to a dictionary, however, revealed additional meanings of the word, such as to protect, aid, and "entertain or harbor in one's mind deeply and resolutely." The phrase, "harbor in one's mind," might be rendered "hold in thought." Thus one might, simply by entertaining it in consciousness, protect and aid something which he does not necessarily esteem dear.
