Flowing perceptibly through the Scriptures and their correlative in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy is the startling revelation that there is but one self-existent Being, one incorporeal, supreme Person, called God.
Incomparable and indivisible Person, or divine Ego—I am, as God revealed Himself to Moses—is infinite Spirit, or divine good, all-inclusive Life, Truth, and Love, the only Mind, Soul, or Principle—the only Father and Mother—of the universe. Since God is the one infinite Person, or Ego, there can in truth be no lesser persons or egos, no other minds. All that exists is in and of the divine One.
One might think that to acknowledge God as the only person would be to leave man out of the universe. But this is not so. The one infinite Mind includes within itself its own infinite idea or image; it is infinitely reflected. And man is this idea, image, or reflection. He is not a finite person or ego set adrift by God and subsequently punished and blessed by Him from afar.
Thus the only man there is, is Mind's own infinite manifestation, or spiritual reflection. Mrs. Eddy states: "The Ego-man is the reflection of the Ego-God; the Ego-man is the image and likeness of perfect Mind, Spirit, divine Principle.
"The one Ego, the one Mind or Spirit called God, is infinite individuality, which supplies all form and comeliness and which reflects reality and divinity in individual spiritual man and things."Science and Health, p. 281;
To him "that hath an ear,"Rev. 3:6; or spiritual sense, the revelation of God found in the Scriptures and in Mrs. Eddy's writings establishes that man, Mind's own infinite idea, or likeness, including the universe of all right ideas, is 100 percent reflection—the emanation of all that Mind, Spirit, is. The physical sense of the universe as unfathomable space, dotted with finite persons and things, is but an unreal inversion of infinite, spiritual reflection, forever at hand. "The world believes in many persons; but if God is personal, there is but one person, because there is but one God," Mrs. Eddy tells us. "His personality can only be reflected, not transmitted."Science and Health, p. 517;
Man, then, cannot be a self-created, or even a God-created, finite mind or mortal personality, asserting a will of his own. As long as we believe we are persons separate from God, we are unsuccessful in our struggle with error, or the mortal sense of life and substance. But when the spiritual sense of being is restored and we see something of the fact that we are inseparable from God, Spirit, as Spirit's own incorporeal reflection, we conquer material error. Our nature is changed from illusive self-assertion to some recognition of the reality of Spirit's reflection.
The healings of Christ Jesus were wrought entirely on this basis that God is the one infinite, indivisible Person and that man, in his true being, is neither less nor more than the unique, distinctly individual reflection of all that God is, of all true intelligence, or substance. Jesus said, "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."John 5:19; To understand man's state as being wholly that of reflection in no way implies our absorption in God or the annihilation of our identity and individuality but absolves us from subjection to matter, or human will.
It is of small importance what we seem to be materially and personally in comparison to what we actually are spiritually and individually as Mind's reflection.
Whatever condition there is to have, God must have it, because He is the only person that exists to have it. Man is simply the reflection of what God has—and knows and sees and does. Again, if God, the one infinite Being, does not have this or that (disease in any form, for example) it does not exist to have. God can know only His own infinite goodness; He cannot entertain a single belief in, or fear of, evil—the suppositional absence of good. Hence, no such beliefs or fears can be reflected in man.
These truths are not mere abstractions but are spiritual facts essential to the success of Christian Science Mind-healing. The infinite Truth that fully demonstrated itself in the life of Christ Jesus, and is continuing to be demonstrated in Christian Science today, furnishes practical proof that man's reflected, spiritual individuality is a tangible, formidable reality, never at the mercy of matter and material laws. This individuality forever manifests Truth's dominion.
Success in all true healing—in the genuine recognition of truth, health, and harmony—lies primarily in gaining the right understanding of God. And Christian Science directs the thought of the sincere seeker for Truth toward this attainment. Gaining the right understanding of God's reflection, man, is secondary and follows as an inevitable consequence of understanding God.
Mortal, material attempts at healing direct thought toward diagnosing and comprehending the physical conditions and functions of material personalities, or bodies, instead of toward gaining this right understanding of God as all-encompassing Spirit and Love. The tendency of the human, mortal mind is constantly to scrutinize and dwell on its own subjective symptoms and sensations and to speculate about its substratum, matter, and how much right or wrong action matter is allowing.
But Christian Science turns thought away from this fruitless practice to the contemplation of the spiritual and immortal conditions and qualities of God, the only person. Holding our thought to the harmonious truths of being, we bring them into our present experience, thereby removing unreal beliefs and their seeming effects.
When we are conscious of God—Truth and Love—we are being what we really are. We are experiencing our true selfhood, which is an individual expression of the peaceful, gentle, joyful, powerful consciousness of God. And His presence, or consciousness, is a law of defense against the erroneous influences of illusive mortal minds.
All forms of human discord are based on a misconception of man's origin. Man has never become separated from the divine source of being. And the comfort, harmony, and healing needed in the world today will come about as we let Christian Science reverse the false testimony of the corporeal senses and demonstrate the fact that man is not a mortal at all but wholly the immortal reflection of God.
Mrs. Eddy makes plain the impossibility of dividing up the one Mind, or Life, into minds and lives, in one of her strong conclusions: "The notion of more than one Mind, or Life, is as unsatisfying as it is unscientific. All must be of God, and not our own, separated from Him."Retrospection and Introspection, p. 57.
It is well to ask ourselves frequently, Am I willing to be absolutely nothing from a material, personal standpoint? Am I willing to be only what I actually am, namely, an individual, spiritual reflection of the one person, God? Am I willing to have only what is derived from my divine source? When we can honestly answer these questions in the affirmative, we are ready for progress, and the Science of divine Love opens the way in our lives for the demonstration and full enjoyment of what we actually are as the reflection of God.
