The Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy, states emphatically, "Be firm in your understanding that the divine Mind governs, and that in Science man reflects God's government." Science and Health, p. 393 Does this mean that divine Mind, God, governs only in the realm of perfect, spiritual existence? Or can we confidently trust Mind's supreme authority to be made manifest in every aspect of our present experience, including its control of the human body?
There can be no question about it. God's omnipotence extends to dominion over the body, and heals its discords. But in order to prove that fact, and thereby follow the example of Christ Jesus, we have to be firm in our understanding that divine Mind alone governs man. This becomes apparent when we comprehend spiritually man's relation to God, and what the nature of man really is.
A fundamental point in divine Science is that God made and forever maintains man in His image and likeness. As God's reflection, man shows forth God's nature. Then, man must be, and is, spiritual, immortal, perfect, eternal. That's the true nature of man. He is perpetually maintained as the continuing, perfect expression of God's own being.
How is the power of God brought
to bear on the body?
In her book Miscellaneous Writings, Mrs. Eddy states, "If God is the Principle of man (and He is), man is the idea of God; and this idea cannot fail to express the exact nature of its Principle,—any more than goodness, to present the quality of good." Mis., p. 78 It is very important that we grasp the significance of that statement of scientific fact.
Because man expresses the exact nature of the causative, all-governing Principle, it is impossible for man to be diseased or to be made to suffer from decay or disorder in any form. How could he express the exact nature of Principle and yet be made to embody conditions representing an opposite cause, or another governing power? God's idea manifests divine Mind's government, and nothing else.
Admittedly that's a difficult concept for mankind to accept. The universal mortal outlook is ignorant of the spiritual facts. As a result, mankind generally believes man is a mortal dependent on a material body for his life, substance, and intelligence. This leads to the assumption that physicality dominates man's spirituality, making his spiritual relation to God of little consequence. What an awful penalty that narrow view imposes on mankind!
The Apostle Paul indicated how important it is to lift thought above the fleshly concept of man and to hold steadfastly to the spiritual facts of being. He wrote: "They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.... Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh." Rom. 8:5, 6, 12 The New English Bible translation expresses this counsel in these words: "Those who live on the level of our lower nature have their outlook formed by it, and that spells death; but those who live on the level of the spirit have the spiritual outlook, and that is life and peace.... It follows, my friends, that our lower nature has no claim upon us; we are not obliged to live on that level."
The mortal outlook is based on the supposition that there is a mortal, carnal mind that operates in man. That concept is mesmeric in nature. It would induce us to yield to the claim that so-called mortal mind, not divine Mind, governs man. It would have us believe that man is so constituted that he is made to embody mortal thoughts that bind him—sinful, fearful, diseased thoughts. If we make a reality of the mortal outlook, we inevitably conclude that whatever appears in the body represents a real condition in man.
God's revelation of divine Science has exposed the fallacy of the entire mortal view. The reality is that man is, right now, immortal and Godlike, governed by divine Mind alone. When this fact is understood and accepted, we see clear evidence that the mesmeric suggestions of mortal mind have no power to influence man. Then we can prove, as Paul expressed it, that "our lower nature has no claim upon us; we are not obliged to live on that level."
The spiritual outlook relates to divine Mind and its government of man. It acknowledges that Mind is the source of all that really exists. It recognizes that man is eternally the perfect reflection of perfect Principle, or God, and includes only that which is imparted by Him. On that basis, man is understood to be the continuing manifestation of divine Mind. Mortal mind is found to have no claim upon God's man; it's found to be without intelligence or reality.
If, in fact, man is wholly spiritual, how do we account for the physical body? What is it? Where did it come from? Science and Health answers those questions thoroughly. Here are some statements from the textbook that explain how we should regard the body: "The mortal body is only an erroneous mortal belief of mind in matter." Science and Health, p. 372 "Because the so-called material body is a mental concept and governed by mortal mind, it manifests only what that so-called mind expresses." Ibid., p. 376 "We see in the body the images of this mind ...." Ibid., p. 400
From statements like these we can see that the body does not develop its own discords. It can do nothing by itself. It is not a self-causative or self-operating entity. Science and Health makes it plain that "whatever is cherished in mortal mind as the physical condition is imaged forth on the body." Ibid., p. 411 The most we should admit is that the body is a simulation of man, a false representation of identity, through which mortal beliefs about man's possibilities are displayed.
If the body is not really man, how is the power of God brought to bear on the body? How is divine Mind able to heal bodily ailments without taking cognizance of the physical condition? The answer is that Mind, by virtue of its all-power, eliminates from thought, and therefore from the body, whatever is unlike its own nature—namely, errors of belief. When we can see that any discordant bodily condition is nothing more than a lie falsely attributed to man, it's not difficult to comprehend how a knowledge of the truth of man will destroy the lie.
It's like light dispelling darkness. The light of the truth of real being, derived from Mind and entertained in human consciousness, eliminates the darkness of mortal thought. Once the error of belief has been destroyed, there's nothing left of it to be expressed in the body.
It's through the Christ that God enlightens
and instructs human consciousness.
It's through the Christ that God enlightens and instructs human consciousness. We learn from the Christian Science textbook that "Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness." Ibid., p. 332 When we turn our thought away from the mortal outlook and reach out to God in prayer, we become receptive to the divine message, or Christ. This message enables us to grasp the truths of spiritual being. Then we understand more clearly the operation of divine Principle and its unfailing government of man and the universe. The appearance that mortal mind dominates man through the body is found to be an irresponsible, presumptuous, totally false claim. The light of Truth thereby destroys the darkness of mortal thought, and the body is restored to its normal, harmonious state.
The appearance of disease in the body relates to the action of mortal thought, not to matter acting as cause. Even though disease is displayed on the body, it is still only a false mental concept. Science and Health explains: "Disease is always induced by a false sense mentally entertained, not destroyed. Disease is an image of thought externalized. The mental state is called a material state." Ibid., p. 411
An image of thought, a mental state, imposed on the body by a false sense mentally entertained! Isn't it apparent, then, that to cure disease it's the false image of thought that needs to be corrected? This calls for a change in our outlook from a material basis to a spiritual basis. To do this, we have to turn completely away from the outlook that man is a mortal dwelling in a physical body, subject to evil developments. Because we're truly God's idea, we're inherently empowered to adopt the spiritual outlook that man was, is, and always will be God's perfect, spiritual, immortal reflection.
What does the spiritual outlook teach us? It impels us to stick to the premise that perfect Principle maintains perfect man. It insists that man is God's spiritual idea, an idea that "cannot fail to express the exact nature of its Principle." If this is true, then man must always function in agreement with the way Principle itself operates. Science and Health refers to "an ever-operative divine Principle," and adds, "The operation of this Principle indicates the eternality of the scientific order and continuity of being." Ibid., p. 123 There can be no disorder in the way Principle operates. Since Principle is infinite, and man is Principle's infinite, perfect reflection, it must follow that man expresses scientific order, too.
Healing of the body comes when we turn vigorously from the mortal outlook and awake to the fact that man is not a mortal. He is not made to embody mortal thoughts. He manifests nothing but good ideas, right ideas, imparted by Mind. There is no other mind expressed in man. This God-inspired, spiritual view acts on human consciousness, through the Christ, as an irresistible force. It expels the errors of thought that have been externalized in the body. Thus we prove that divine Mind is the best friend of the body, See ibid., p. 176 because it uproots and destroys the errors arising from the belief that man is a mortal, governed by mortal mind, and made to embody mortal thoughts. In this way, the error that was superimposed on the body is eliminated, and the body is restored to its normal, healthy, harmonious state.
But best of all, we've proved that man cannot be mesmerized by—or even touched by—the belief that he's made to embody mortal thoughts. We're freed by the spiritual outlook, which reveals that divine Mind alone governs man.
