Los Angeles herald., 1908-10-11

strength, beauty, and vitality VANISH
In decay and dust. What divine llnea,
ment appears in this mortal materlal
picture?
The sense of man as corporeal con-
sciousness is the concept of the sinner
the heaven and the hell of the SEN
sualist: but 1t is the burden of the
aspiring saint and the adversary OF
the Christian. What can 1t be at its
best more than travesty on real
manhood, a false sense of being that
offers no incentive to goodness, that
gives no motive to love nor impulse
to purity, that holds nothing which
the higher nature of men can desires
Its record is full of sadness and crime.
of wreck and ruin and unutteraole
sorrow, without one joyous or redeem
ing feature.
This material sense of man carries
out every evil purpose. but is not OF
itself the medium of any divine quality
or attribute. Every one knows from
his own observation and experience
that this is so, and that this sense,
if uncontrolled by good, would drag
mortals into the deepest mire of In
iquity and suffering. knowing this,
and knowing that God is supreme,
wherefore should its claims be admitted
it's demands obeyed, or its asserted
power feared?
Mans Higher Qualities
If it were right to consider man as
a material being, mortals would have
no salvation to work out, for material
sense is the only channel by which
evil enters into their consciousness. Ii
material so-called laws and conditions
were right and of God, then there
would be nothing wrong, and good ana
evil, sin and suffering but parts of
common divine whole from which there
would be no escape. But IL evil is
wrong and must be condemned and
overcome, then it's medium OF express
siof--the belief in material selfhood-
must also be condemned and overcome
before mortals can know themselves
rightly and their salvation be realized
The qualities In men which appeal
most strongly to each other do not
emanate from their physical PERSONAL
ity, and are not Influenced In their per-
ception and appreciation by material
conditions. The graces of character
which inspire and perpetuate friend
ship, which purify and unseif the az
fections, and which rarely the sord1d
atmosphere of earth, do not spring
from a material source and are not dis
cerned or enhanced by any ma
terial sense. Do not these Things
show that the higher one ascends
in the scale of manhood, even from
the human sta dpoint, the farther he
departs from materiality?
| But If the flesh were in any sense
the reality Of man, If it were divinely
right that man should be material,
then the "works of the flesh" would be
good and not evil, and mortals would
not need to depart therefrom in fol-
| lowing Christ or in attaining to that
perfect manhood which Christ Jesus
exemplifed. No possible combination
of physical conditions or qualities even
approximates "the stature of the ful-
ness of Christ" the perfect man"
to grow; while the higher one develops
spiritually, and the more he brings the
| flesh into subjection thereto, the nearer
he approaches the Christ-ideal.
Dim Perception of Ideal
The process of working out ones SAL
walton is not perfected instantaneously,
but is accomplished through the daily
| overcoming of the errors Of material
| belief and the cultivation or tnose
| spiritual graces which lift thought
| Christward. Proportionately as the
"old man of selfishness and sin is
laid aside as a fraudulent and worth
less belief, the new man." to whom
| God gives dominion, appears. rms oi-
| vine ideal is the ideal of Christian Sci
ence, and includes everything neces-
sary to our happiness and perfection
incides with Scripture in teaching the
absolute spiritual perfection of man,
| the attainment of this ideal state is
the ultimate of It's demonstration, and
| Christian Scientists of the present day
are wise in not speculating as to what
this ideal man is. Their concept of God
as divine Principle is too crude, and
their knowledge of the divine nature is
| too limited for them to have more than
| a very feeble and imperfect sense or
mans individuality as the divine re-
| Election.
Although we may speak of man as
| being spiritual, yet we can know this
man only as we overcome evil and mat
| ter, and partake of the spirit of Christ.
| Human consciousness is as yet too ma
| terial to have more than dim per-
| ception of ideal man; and until thought
reaches a more supersensual apprehen-
sion of mans origin and nature, and
experience rests upon diviner basis, 1t
would be folly to attempt to outline or
describe spiritual man.
| The best one can do is to hold thought
steadfastly to the standard OF perfec-
| ton, and In humble obedience to re-
vealed truth patiently await the fuller
unfolding in consciousness of God s
idea. We may know this and abide
| thereby, that the immortal ego Is to be
found in the opposite direction from
physical sense; and that the reversal of
| erroneous belief serves to establish in
| it's degree a clearer sense of real being;
| but we must work up to the full under
standing of what God is before His like
ness can fully appear.
Old-time theology erred in teaching
that a wicked fhortal could be changed
| into an immortal good man, trans
| formation as impossible as the MAX
| ing of lie into truth. The evil which
constitutes the flesh is not a lost truth
| to be redeemed, but a falsehood about
| God and man, and the only salvation In
| the case lies in the destruction of the
| falsehood. The "old man" of sin is not
something to be pitied and saved, but a
| false sense of man to be laid aside as
| an uniting garment. There is no ten
dency to wrong-doing while thought
| is controlled by the conviction that
man Is ''now" the son of God, and this
| indicates the course by which human
| salvation must be wrought.
The definition of man as spiritual
may seem vague and visionary to hu-
man belief, until this idea is discerned
through the practical demonstration of
| Christian Science and shown to be sat-
| isfying, purifying, and alth-giving.
| Ones progress Spiritward may be only
''here little, and there little" but
| the signs along the way assure us that
| 1t leads to the ultimate realization of
the Life which Is now ideal, to that di-
! vine reality of man which will appear
| as the truth of God appears and is
| demonstrated. - Christian Science
! Journal.
That the large ornamental hub caps
with which most automobiles are
| equipped have a purpose, aside from
serving as ornamentation, is not
known by all drivers. While these