Los Angeles herald., 1908-10-11
DIVINE REALITY
SURE TO APPEAR
MAN GROWS TOWARD IDEAL
AS TRUTH APPEARS
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE WRITER
TELLS OF REALIZATION
Declares Human Consciousness is as
Yet Too Material to Have More
Than Dim Perception of
Perfect Man
Az SAMUEL GREENWOOD

BY SAMUEL GREENWOOD
VF we begin with the proposition that
the source OF all being is good, we
Il must conclude that all which pro-
ceeds therefrom is also good. Inc
process is simple and natural by when
we reason from the perfection OF Coo,
the creator, to the perfection OF all that
He creates. But there is an immense
distance between this ideal perfection
and the conditions which mortal man
experiences in himself and behoids
around him.
1t is indeed a far cry from the ma
terial and imperfect to the spiritual
and perfect sense of creation; from
men as the offspring of mortals to man
as the image of God. Apparently
bound to their belief in matter by what
seems an inevitable. law, lusting atter
it's disappointing pleasures and endur-
Ing its cruel pains, mortals look upon
the existence of perfect manhood as
belonging either to prehistoric past
or to a millennial future, but as quite
impossible of present attainment.
Therefore, although theoretically ac-
cepting the truth of mans diVlne Or
igin, the difficulties In the way of Its
practice seem so insurmountable that
they generally regard this truth as
having no actual relation to earthly ex-
perience. AS a result men continue to
exhaust their energies in enduring or
hopelessly battling with evil and suf-
fering, whereas, If these endeaVors
were intelligently directed in accord
with Christian Science, mankind would
be redeemed from their false, sinful
conditions.
The authority for this conclusion is
the teaching of our Master, and his
demonstration of human capability to
overcome evil. It is the purpose OF
Christian Science to bring to men the
understanding Of God which Jesus
possessed, so far and SO fast as they
can receive 1t, and to bring to their
recognition mans spiritual sonshlp
with the Father as the practical truth
of being, now as 1t was in the begin
ming or will be hereafter.
The Human and the Divine
Because spiritual things seem to
them so Intangible, and material things
so positive, mortals conclude that mat
ter has been brought into existence by
God, and that He has given men a
heshly, material nature in conjunc-
ton with the spiritual; notwithstand-
ing that Scripture defines the carnal
nature as 'enmity to God" The apos-
tolic Injunction to put off the old
man" opposes the mortal belief that
corporeal personality is of God, and
evidently refers to the human possi-
bility of spiritual growth out of ma
teriality, and the necessity for gain
| ing a higher and purer sense of man
than material beliefs afford. The put
| ting on of 1.-The new man" implies
| present-day and not a post-morten
| process, and indicates that the gen.
| orally accepted human concept Of mar
| is not true.
| It has remained for Christian Sci
ence to expose the falsity of the ages
belief that man was created by Cox
| as a compound Of good and evil pos
| sibilities, with a dual physical anC
| spiritual nature, and as ultimately
needing a savior from the very condf
| tions assumed to have been imposed
upon him by his creator. Christian
| Science explains this seemingly two
| fold nature of mortal man as opposite
human concepts or beliefs of being
and not the union of contrary natures
in one person. Opposite conditions, do
not blend In men any more than tp
other things. The human and the d1s
vine, the material and the spiritual,
do not combine to form Gods ideal
man. bus remain mutually antago-
| nistic, and define the false and the
true in human belief.
The nature of human experience is
decided accordingly as the physical
or the spiritual has the ascendancy IN
thought. Accepting the physical, NOR
tails have embodied that belief in form
and consciousness, and have realized
the conditions which are involved In
IL. They are not imprisoned in ma
terial bodies, from which death is sup
| posed to release them, as they think
| they are; but they are held captive to
their belief that man is primarily and
essentially material, that he Is 'of
the earth, earthly" and that God made
him thus 1t is this belief which they
81 hn. q q
bodies, and not the phenomena Of d.
| vine creation.
1t is evident that, to bring better
and more spiritual conditions into ex-
perience, this false concept needs to
be replaced by the true; that is, the
| new man" needs to be put on in place
of the 'old." Death, being itself but
Is helpless to give freedom from 1t.
The Offspring of Spirit
Morta1s stand aghast at the depth
and extent of the depravity and misery
manifest in human experience, not real
izing that they behold but the imagery
| OF their own thought, nor that the ills
| they endure and the sins they indulge
are but the details of the picture they
| have themselves outlined. How car
| this scene change until mortals change
their mental picture or concept of being
| IrOIn evil u 6OOOS AAOiiA AiAhNNSA ~
| Spirit? Holding in thought wrong
sense of man excludes from ones ex-
perience the normal and harmonious
| conditions which pertain to the right
understanding of man as created anc
governed by God.
The Belief that the God-created mar
is capable Of experiencing sin and suf-
fering would make hell universal and
heaven a myth; for if the nature ol
man propels him into evil on earth il
must do this In heaven also, since the
divine nature and government are the
| same in all ages and in all places.
That which produces bad results, oi
which does not develop towards good
ness, has no possible starting-poinl
with God or with Gods likeness, and
can exist and operate only In a false
unreal sense Of being. This must be
the deduction from the self-evideni
! truths that the outcome of God is good
and the offspring of Spirit is spiritual
How, then, shall we regard the asser-
tion that man is the outcome of ma
terial germ, and is wicked and mortal
Are we right in designating it as ar
error. or must we accept it as our ideal
make it the basis of thought, and lool
upon It as the nearest that men car
| 20, txyfr,.a two ny<,s