MAN'S INVARIABLE BEING

Jesus must have foreseen the troublous times that we seem to be passing through and also the signs which indicate the coming of the Prince of Peace and the reign of righteousness on earth when he said (Luke 21:28), "When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh."

How grateful we are that Christian Science is here to awaken mankind to the glorious fact that God and His universe, including man, are indestructible and eternal. Because of world chemicalization, we hear much about the possibility of civilization being destroyed by atomic weapons. And this conclusion is accepted by many because men believe that matter is real and substantial and that man is a mortal, vulnerable to destruction and subject to change and death. The human body, like all things material, is a figment of the carnal mind embraced in this fleshly mind, and not something outside of it. Matter, the substratum of mortal mind, is the medium through which this mind claims to enjoy or suffer. Matter is believed to hold the issues of life and death, and mortals and mortality are held as an inevitable combination.

The man of God's creating is the expression of God, His individualized idea, never born into matter or subject to death, but the very image and likeness of eternal Mind. In her work "No and Yes" Mary Baker Eddy states (p. 11): "Man has an immortal Soul, a divine Principle, and an eternal being. Man has perpetual individuality; and God's laws, and their intelligent and harmonious action, constitute his individuality in the Science of Soul."

True substance is Spirit, and immortal man is the reflection of Soul, at one with God and therefore invariable, permanent, and secure. The prophet Malachi perceived the changelessness of God and His creation when he said (3:6), "I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed."

Every material object cognized by the material senses hints, by reversal, the true invariant, inviolable idea of Principle. But material concepts are counterfeits, which must be translated back into Mind, the source and origin of all that is real.

The enduring nature of God's goodness is set forth in the Bible as a gift from God. We read (James 1:17), "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." God gives eternal life, indestructible faculties, and perfect health to man, and neither accident, sin, nor age can trespass upon the qualities of Soul.

At one time I experienced a period of convalescence or extended weakness following a serious physical problem. The Christ-idea that completely awakened me and healed me was found on page 26 of "Unity of Good" by Mrs. Eddy. There, in a section entitled "A Colloquy," is an answer of Good to Evil's claim to reality. In this reply of Good to Evil Mrs. Eddy quotes Bowring's hymn:

Then she says, "Now if it be true that God's power never waneth, how can it be also true that chance and change are universal factors,—that man decays?" And she adds: "If God be changeless goodness, as sings another line of this hymn, what place has chance in the divine economy? Nay, there is in God naught fantastic. All is real, all is serious. The phantasmagoria is a product of human dreams."

This showed me how subtly the belief was arguing that there had been a change from being well, that weakness and loss of appetite and pain were the result, and that time was needed for matter to get well in order for me to be harmonious again. I had allowed myself to be mesmerized by the suggestion that my trouble was in my body, and that strength and health would be brought about by exchanging weak and inharmonious matter for good and normal matter. I saw from this colloquy that it was mortal mind with its beliefs of sickness and change that needed attention and not the unintelligent body. I was immediately free.

Equally false is the belief that our business or our happiness is subject to change and loss. Because immortal man reflects God, God alone supplies him with the ideas of joy, assurance, love, spiritual receptivity, understanding, steadfastness, and wisdom. These spiritual ideas bring us adequate supply of every needful thing, including right companionship and home, all of which are included in and are a part of changeless being. As we accept and utilize these truths, we shall prove that good can never be taken away from us.

It is enlightening to note that the Apostle Paul states (I Cor. 15:51), "Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." The only change that we can ever experience is the good that is brought about by our progress Godward. As we advance toward spiritual reality, matter will disappear from our experience, and our true selfhood will be seen as the reflected glory of God. As we rise in spiritual stature, the material illusions disappear.

In the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy says (p. 543), "The image of Spirit cannot be effaced, since it is the idea of Truth and changes not, but becomes more beautifully apparent at error's demise." We should welcome the disappearance of evil and error in order that we may behold our true selfhood as the children of God.

Jesus proved when he raised Lazarus from the dead that life is never extinct, and that true being is untouched by death and never dependent upon matter in any form. His great spiritual discernment of the true man enabled him to see and converse with Moses and Elias. This was witnessed by three of his disciples who were present with him for we read (Matt. 17:3), "Behold there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him." In Science there is no going or coming for God's man.

The universe of Spirit, including the countless individualized ideas of divine Mind, is eternal and invariable. As mankind awakens to this great fact, the fears of humanity will disappear. A verse from one of our much-loved hymns beautifully expresses the eternality and changeless nature of true being (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 148):