Christian Science and Human Relationships
Charles M. Carr, C.S.B., of
Better human relationships begin
with God, and must be worked out from a "spiritual standpoint," a
Christian Science lecturer said in
Charles M. Carr, C.S.B., of
Mr. Carr warned the audience not
to become "human reactors."
"The sure recipe for
unhappiness," he said, "is to be constantly reacting to what others
do or don’t do, say or don't
say" - "to go up and down like a barometer, reacting to every change
of mental climate or human opinion."
Our problems can't be solved
"by blaming others," he said - the trouble must be dealt with
primarily in our own thought.
"We've got to change the
emphasis of our thinking from a material, personal point of view to a
spiritual, Godlike point of view." We must "recognize man as a
spiritual idea of God - instead of judging him as physicality or personality."
We must "know what man really is."
Mr. Carr, a member of The
Christian Science Board of Lectureship, was introduced to the audience by
Gordon F. Campbell, First Reader of The Mother Church.
Who Decides How You Will Act?
The following is a text of the
lecture:
Much of a person's success and
satisfaction in life depends on how he handles his human relationships. Dr.
Vannevar Bush, formerly dean at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, makes this
point in his foreword to Professor F. Alexander Magoun's book, "The
Teaching of Human Relations" (p. x). Dr. Bush goes on to say, "Most
of us have had to learn what we know of human relations by butting our heads
into stone walls and studying our mistakes over a long period of years, and
there has been many a heartache suffered in the process."
This is too often the case, isn't
it? We see the evidence all around us: family misunderstandings, an increasing
divorce rate, labor-management disputes sometimes resulting in prolonged
strikes, racial tensions, strained friendships, poor employer-employee
relationships. Just look into the lives of your acquaintances and you'll find
evidence of this. Perhaps only into your own immediate circle. Why is this?
We all want to get along better with ourselves and others. Eliminate head-butting!
Be spared the heartache of strained relations! Avoid the kind of job failure
that carries with it the tag, "He just can't get along with anyone!"
What's the trouble? What can we do about it?
Actually much has been done to try
to improve human relations. Social scientists in business, government, and
private agencies are working at this. And some progress has been made. But can
examining the behavior of the human self give the full answer to person - to -
person difficulties? Not really. Why? Because the true basis of all relationships
is a spiritual standard, not a human measurement.
Here's a simple illustration. Two
men rode on the same bus every morning on their way to work. They usually had
the same driver. He was often unfriendly - sometimes downright mean. In spite
of this one of the men greeted him every morning in the same friendly way. His
companion, puzzled, asked why he continued to do this. He answered, "Why
should I let him decide how I'm going to act?"
Respond Only to the Real Cause
What does determine our behavior?
How we're going to act? What somebody else thinks? Does? Says? This isn't a
very dependable standard. The sure recipe for unhappiness is to be constantly
reacting to what others do or don't do, say or don't say, think or don't think.
To go up and down like a barometer, reacting to every change of mental climate
or human opinion. To be a human reactor.
Then what should determine how
we're going to think and act? Isn't it to know what real cause is and then
respond only to that cause? In other words, to understand that there's one
basic, underlying cause or divine Principle of all life called God, good. To
know man as he really is - the reflection or effect of this one cause. To know
that man's relationship to God and man's relationship to man is one of
reflecting God. That it's not one of reacting to a personal sense of God as a
magnified human being, or a personal sense of man as a mortal personality.
Just what do we mean - to know man
as he really is? Generally speaking, he's thought of as a human being - a human
self - with a physical body and a material mind. We think of him as being born
into a material world, growing up, maturing, aging, and dying out of that
material world. Almost everyone thinks of himself and others this way. But this
isn't what man really is. Man is the reflection of God. This spiritual fact
determines all true relationships.
We're all interested in better
human relationships, aren't we? There are literally hundreds of books on the
subject. But one more than any other presents the subject from an inspired viewpoint
- a spiritual viewpoint. That book is the Bible. And in this scientific age,
one book above all others unlocks the scientific meaning of the Bible. This
book is "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by the
Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy. What God really
is, what man really is, and what their relationship is - these facts of
existence are all clearly explained in Science and Health. As well as the know-how
for successful practice. As you and I study these truths and apply them
consistently in our daily living, we'll get along better with ourselves and
others.
Man Reflects Unlimited Intelligence
Now it's essential to understand
God in order to know man as His reflection. Speaking of God, Mrs. Eddy says in
Science and Health (p. 330), "God is infinite, the only Life, substance,
Spirit, or Soul, the only intelligence of the universe, including man."
From this we see that God is infinite Spirit, the only Life, the only cause of
all creation. Then all effect is the expression or reflection of this infinite
Life, or Spirit. Man, therefore, is spiritual in nature and character. He
reflects the unlimited substance and intelligence of God.
In discussing man in the same
book, Mrs. Eddy says (p. 475), "The Scriptures inform us that man is made
in the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness." She
continues a little later, "Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique."
Then man - the only man there is, your true self and mine - is a spiritual idea
of God. He's the image of God, Spirit, not the likeness of persons. He's the
reflection of Soul, not the product of matter. He's infinitely spiritual, not
finitely material.
We have to recognize the truth of
man as the conscious embodiment or reflection of the spiritual qualities of
God. And respond to this truth. We can't afford to believe in the
misconception of man as physicality, material personality, the embodiment of
flesh, changeableness, ill humor, sickness. And then react to this
misconception. These non-spiritual qualities, whether they're considered as
mental or physical, have nothing to do with God. And since man is the
reflection of God they have nothing to do with man.
The Great Debt: To Love One Another
Why should we trust the material
senses to give us an understanding of man, when the nature of man is wholly
spiritual? The material senses can't give us a true picture of man. Or of God.
Or of man's relationship to God. Or of man's relationship to man. And because
man is wholly spiritual it's very important how you and I look at ourselves and
others. Why look at man through the lens of materiality? It is always out of
focus. It's certain to register a limited picture of man, such as personal
judgment, personal love. Or a distorted, personal picture of man - such as
prejudice, envy, hatred, inferiority, egotism, dissatisfaction,
irresponsibility. The material senses just don't tell the truth - the truth
that man reflects God, spiritual good.
The beloved American humorist,
Will Rogers, glimpsed this to some extent. One of his well-known sayings was,
"I never met a man I didn't like." He saw the good in men. He liked
them for the good they reflected. Now in the light of Christian Science
shouldn't we be even more able to say, "I never met a man I didn't
like," because we'll be seeing man as he really is?
Of course, what this adds up to is
that there's a basic, underlying cause of all life called God, good. We gain a
true understanding of this through spiritual sense. Mrs. Eddy says in Science
and Health (p. 209), "Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity
to understand God." Spiritual sense reveals the spiritual standard for
understanding God and man. It helps us recognize man as a spiritual idea of God
- instead of judging him as physicality or personality, either materially bad
or materially good. This gives us the rule for all true relationships.
Remember the Apostle Paul said,
"Owe no man any thing, but to love one another" (Rom. 13:8). In other words, owe no man anything
but to have a right concept of him. The basis of this concept is to know man as
a spiritual idea reflecting or expressing the one infinitely good cause, God.
This is true love. In all human relationships then, our objective should be to
change our material concept of man as mortal with all kinds of feelings and
failings - and human reactions - to the Christlike, spiritual concept of man
as God's reflection. To the extent we respond to this true concept we improve
our ability to get along with ourselves and others.
"Yes," you may say,
"that's all very well theoretically. But I have to deal with many
different kinds of people - some difficult and unpleasant." Let's go back
to our friends on the bus. Visualize yourself in a similar situation. If you
see yourself as one human self disturbed by another human self, you've already
denied the basic, underlying spiritual truth we've been talking about. The
truth that God, good, is infinite cause - the only cause, volition, motivation
of being, the only Life, Soul, Mind of all existence. The truth that man is
God's infinite spiritual reflection. Therefore, he can respond only to the
divine Principle of all life called God, infinite good. That man isn't a
limited material personality reacting to other limited material personalities,
wondering whether he has the capacity to deal with them and whether they'll be
cooperative and helpful. Now it isn't enough to know this truth. We have to
use it in our daily living.
To illustrate, a student of
Christian Science, a first lieutenant in the Women's Army Corps, was assigned
as the officer in charge of a major public relations operation. Army officials wanted to see if a woman could do
a job that had always been given to a man of higher rank and longer service.
If she was successful the field of public relations in the United States Army
would be more freely opened to women.
The scope of the responsibility
almost overwhelmed her. She was afraid of failure. She felt burdened, afraid. She felt ill at
ease with the publishers, editors, reporters, congressmen, and educators she
had to work with. Her joy evaporated.
"The
Then she suddenly realized she
was believing the entire operation was her own personal responsibility. That
she would either personally fail or perhaps personally succeed. The words of
the prophet, Jahaziel, came to her (II Chron.
She saw clearly that inherent in
every responsibility is the ability to respond to the one creative Mind, God.
She could see if she lost her joy, it was a red flag warning her she was taking
responsibility personally. She was getting in the way by casting her own
shadow of personal anxiety over the clarity of her being. Instead she had to
know that as a spiritual idea of God she already had the ability to reflect
divine Mind. To act rightly. That no person or thing could interfere. Why?
Because God, good, is the only cause or source of all real activity, including
her own being. She had to willingly respond to this spiritual standard. Apply
it all the way. Bring her human footsteps into accord with it. The result? She
was highly successful in her assignment. And had a good time doing it.
And so with us. Our application of
the standard of scientific Christianity needs to go all the way in order to get
satisfactory results. It needs to be a faithful application of the fact that
man is wholly spiritual, the complete reflection of God. Not partly spiritual
and partly material. This is a revolutionary approach to the understanding
and appreciation of man. It's the basis for all true relationships. But,
unless we thoroughly understand this radical fact - and value it - we miss the
point of Christian Science entirely. We shouldn't be struggling to make over,
patch up or change, influence or heal a mortal, an imperfect, ignorant, or brilliant
human being. But we should be striving to see spiritual man in God's image and
likeness, always responsive to the infinite cause that is God. When we
correctly understand this truth and faithfully apply it, it becomes a healing
influence in our lives.
Mental Bulldozing Shunned
Haven't we all been in situations
where we're sure we're right and the other fellow's wrong? Where the tyranny of
human will and stubbornness takes over and causes discord between people -
even between good friends or in families. For example, a young college graduate
and her family disagreed vigorously over a job the girl wanted to take - the
type of work, the locality, the timing. Everything about it. She thought they
were stubborn and unreasonable. They thought she was willful and ungrateful.
Finally, she said she was going to do what she wanted to do - no matter what.
Nobody was very happy about anybody! As students of Christian Science the girl
and her mother both realized that the mental bulldozing of human will was not
Christian Science. Neither was parental domination.
What to do? This situation
awakened a desire in this girl to learn more about applying Christian Science
to her daily living. She knew Mrs. Eddy had made provision for this through
class instruction, a two week course designed to give students a thorough
working knowledge of Christian Science. She decided to prepare herself immediately
for this step rather than continue to stew about the job situation - or blame
her parents.
Through her study she saw that no
problem could be solved by the roughshod methods of human will, personal
outlining, or by blaming others. That she must first bring her thinking about
herself and others into line with the divine Principle that is God. How? By
seeing that God, good, is the only cause. That man is a spiritual idea
reflecting God, that he's not a material personality. By consistently claiming this
truth of being and responding to it. By not reacting to material, personal
opinions about man, either hers or others. By letting go of human pushing.
Mrs. Eddy says in Science and
Health (p. 129), "If you wish to know the spiritual fact, you can discover
it by reversing the material fable, be the fable pro or con, - be it in accord
with your preconceptions or utterly contrary to them." You see, in order
for our young friend to discover the spiritual fact about relationships she had
to reverse the material fable about man - the fable that he's a mortal
personality pro or con this, that, or the other thing. She had to see man as
immortal idea - pro Truth, Life, and Love. Her purpose in praying was not to
look for the green light for her own human will and the red light for opposing
human wills. But rather to strive to know that omnipotent, impersonal right alone governs man constantly.
Others Are Made in God’s Image Too
As she let go of the human
tendency to react to material, personal measurements of man, she began to
respond to the divine purpose by reflecting God's spiritual qualities. She
saw she had to give others credit for being God's spiritual image and likeness,
too! Shortly she had an opportunity to fill a position that was far better than
the one she had originally been so determined to take. Both she and her family
were happy about it, too. She began to see it's never who's right but what's
right based on the spiritual standard of understanding and humility, not
personal ambition. When she got a personal, willful concept of herself and her
family out of her thinking, there simply wasn't any sense of conflict to
react to. She was freed for progress. And so was her family!
There's a saying that a man who
keeps his shoulder to the wheel is rarely seen giving others trouble. He's like
a mule - when he's pulling he can't kick, and when he's kicking he can't pull.
Now we've got to keep our shoulder to the wheel. How? By making the persistent
effort to recognize man as he really is - as a spiritual idea of God, pro
Life, Truth, and Love. Like the mule, we're pulling when we're seeing man as
spiritual. We're kicking when we're seeing man as material personality, pro or
con a certain thing or person. We can't pull and kick at the same time - any
more than the mule can! As long as we're devoting our efforts to being
reflection - responding only to the spiritual or true concept of man, we can't
give others trouble - or ourselves, either, can we? Then we can't be a reactor
- upset, worried, or devastated by human actions or material opinions. Such actions
and opinions are merely misconceptions of man. That's all. The more we realize
this, the less we're troubled by them. We won't be fooled into believing
they're real or permit our thinking and experience to be upset by what isn't.
You see, spiritual testimony is
all that's really true about man. It's his identity as reflection. This
identity becomes clearer as we know ourselves and others through spiritual
sense as a spiritual idea of God rather than through the physical senses as
material persons. We develop this spiritual sense through prayer. Through
prayer we get rid of the mist of material thinking. How? By aligning our
thought with the fact of God's allness and man's perfect relationship to Him,
to divine Life and Love. In proportion as we see ourselves and others as a
spiritual idea of God, pro Life, Truth, and Love, instead of as mortal
personalities pro or con anything material, we'll get along with ourselves
and others.
Speaking of praying, perhaps you
know the story about the minister who asked a little boy if he said his prayers
every night. The boy said, "Nope, some nights I don't want nothing."
Let's not be tempted to do what the little boy did - pray only when we want
something or are in a jam. Let's align our thought with infinite good,
spiritual cause, and keep it based that way - quietly, confidently. Then our
lives will be increasingly filled with good expressing itself, rather than with
the heavy burden of problems. We'll feel the warmth of God's presence and
tender love, and reflect it not as person-centered, limited love, but as
Christlike, universal love. And we'll respond to this love by including
everyone in it - without exception.
Fable of Resentment Reversed
For it's never our family,
in-laws, business associates, or church members who give us trouble. It's
always our own wrong point of
view of them. We need to stop contending with and reacting to material
personalities. They're just personal, material points of view of man - misconceptions
within consciousness. And where do we deal with these misconceptions? In our
own thought. Never outside of it. As we exchange our own faulty concept of man
for the spiritual, true concept, the effect humanly is to improve our dealings
with others. This will also improve their experience to the degree they're
reaching out for the truth of being. But you may say, "What you've been
talking about may be all right for dealing with those who look at things the
way you do. But I'm in business and I don't deal with a closed corporation of
thinking." No, none of us does. All the more reason why we need to see man
as he really is.
For example, a public relations
man introduced a new plan in a business operation. It aroused a storm of opposition
that was personal and bitter. At first he reacted humanly to the bitterness
expressed by those opposing his plan. He forgot to respond to the Christlike,
spiritual standard of thought. Like the mule, he was kicking instead of
pulling. But he soon saw he wasn't getting anywhere that way. What did he have
to do? Dig deep into spiritual facts and pray. How? He insisted on seeing man
as a spiritual idea of God always at one with infinite good. He stopped
reacting to a material, personal, limited, critical sense of man. He reversed
the material fable about man - the fable that he's a mortal personality pro or con this, that, or the
other thing. He saw man as immortal idea - pro Truth, Life, and Love.
He acknowledged God, infinite
good, divine Love, as the creator of all creation. He reasoned then, that all
creation must reflect God's goodness and loving nature in limitless measure. He
realized that God is the Mind or Soul of man. Therefore man's motives and acts
have their source in God alone and reflect only good. That human willfulness,
material opinions, ungodlikeness are no part of God and therefore have no place
in God's likeness, man.
God-Centered Concept of Man Held
He continued to pray with a clear
perception that all of God's ideas have unity of purpose, thought, and action
because God is the one and only Mind of man. All of God's ideas are always at
one with Him and therefore always in agreement with each other.
By radically sticking to these
truths, he noticed that the opposition faded out. The worth of his plan was
recognized. It was put into effect with excellent results. You see, our concept
of ourselves and others needs to be spiritual and God-centered, not material
and self-centered. We need to love one another. How? By seeing man in the
image of God or Spirit, instead of in the likeness of mortality or material
personality. Seeing man spiritually rather than materially is loving man. Then
we can't help but say, "I never met a man I didn't like." And mean
it, too!
A professor in a graduate school
asked his students, "Who do you consider to be among the great scientists
of all time?" A student wanted to know what he meant by a "great
scientist." He replied, "One who has helped the world change its
concept of itself."
I don't know whether the
university group included Mary Baker Eddy in its list but it certainly should
have. She has helped hundreds of thousands change their concept of themselves
and others from a false material point of view to provable spiritual fact. In
doing so, they have been freed from the generally unhappy, limited point of
view of mortality and futility.
For many years Mrs. Eddy struggled
with the problem of human existence. She was an exceptional student of the
Bible and was keenly interested in academic subjects, too. As she studied she
became increasingly convinced that the real values in life are spiritual, not
material. She saw that if people could really understand God and man's
relationship to Him - that is, really understand the wholly spiritual nature
of life - they would have the answer to the meaning of existence, and,
incidentally, to their own problems.
The opportunity came for her to
prove her spiritual convictions. Her life was threatened as the result of an
injury. In turning to her Bible she glimpsed the truth that life isn't
something that can be circumscribed physically. Why it isn't even a human
possession. In reality, life is the reflection of infinite spiritual Being - not
a finite, material coming and going. She saw that this truth is just as true
now as is was when Jesus proved it. As a result she was healed instantly.
Mrs. Eddy’s Response to the Truth
During the next three years she
devoted her entire thought to further study of the Bible. She was intent on
finding the key to understanding life. The key to proving what Jesus had
promised when he said (John
Mrs. Eddy saw that all she or
anyone needed to do was respond to God's revelation of His spiritual idea. That
is, respond to the Christ, Truth, Jesus taught and lived, the Truth that
reveals the wholly spiritual nature of man in God's likeness. And react less
and less to false material opinions about man as expressed by people in
general. She hoped her own church would accept the truth she had discovered,
but it didn't. As a result she established the Church of Christ, Scientist, so
that all who wanted to could learn about the Christ, Truth, and practice it successfully.
We hear a lot these days about people
on an endless search for happiness and freedom. They seek approval from their
fellows. They try to achieve security and status by money, material power,
family position. They look for popularity by going along with the crowd and
conforming to its ground rules rather than the rules of moral and spiritual
law. They try to find love and satisfaction in sensual indulgence. They do
almost anything that happens to gratify their sense of personal pleasure and
call it freedom. This is the basis for many human relationships today.
Now one of the most pernicious
lies about man is the generally accepted theory that man is a human self,
dependent upon other human selves and materiality for happiness, satisfaction,
fulfillment, freedom. One of the points we've been making is that we can't find
these things in a personal sense of ourselves or others. Christian Science
makes plain - very plain - that right relationships and lasting happiness are
established only as we identify ourselves and others as spiritual ideas of
God, never as material personalities.
True Marital Standard Upheld
Let me tell you about a young
married couple. The wife was attracted to another man. Now material sensual
attraction is one of the most deceptive and subtly debasing aspects of the
theory that we must react to material standards and conform to them in order
to be happy. This woman's husband was drafted into the service. She returned
to work as an executive secretary to a top man in a large business. He was
personable, prominent, wealthy, successful. She was offered a definite place in
his world. A false sense of human, material values began to take over. She was
tempted to worship person or a material, personal sense of man, instead of
worshiping God as the giver and satisfier of all life.
She was a Christian Scientist.
She knew that deep down she wanted to be faithful to what she understood was
the real cause of all life, happiness, satisfaction. But it wasn't always
easy. When her husband returned after the war there was a great gulf between
them.
At one point he asked her,
"Do you want a divorce?" This made her turn earnestly to God for
guidance. She prayed to know God as the infinite cause, the only creator, and
man as His perfect, satisfied reflection. She prayed to respond only to God's
goodness and love. She prayed for the courage to refuse to react to a material
or mortal sense of man - either materially favorable or materially unfavorable.
She saw God couldn't create an unlovely, critical, dissatisfied person calling
itself husband or wife. She became more
thankful for her husband's interests and ideals. She began to want to correct
the situation rather than to abandon it. They began to see that their unhappy
experience was just a collection of false beliefs about man. Beliefs that man
is a mortal personality, separated from God, living his own material life,
with his own material will, dependent on his own material decisions. All
lies!
They persisted in seeing that all
they could reflect or express were Godlike qualities. Like joy, love,
integrity, unselfishness. Where? Right where unhappiness, pride, bickering,
envy seemed to be. Of course this took devoted discipline based on the
spiritual standard not on a human measurement. Their growing understanding of
the infinite goodness of God and their inseparable relationship to Him, to divine
Love brought them closer to God and naturally to one another. The division
between them disappeared. They've continued to grow spiritually. And they've
had practical results in a happy, expanding sense of activity at home, at
church, in business.
This young woman was also healed
of a very difficult skin condition she'd had for many years. Previously a
doctor had diagnosed the trouble as eczema and said it was incurable. As her understanding
of Christian Science deepened and her application was more consistent, the
skin condition was healed. Physical difficulties, temperamental ups and downs
- all of the problems of mortality can be successfully solved as we learn what
is really true and who we really are. You see, spirituality and practicality go
hand in hand.
We've got to change the emphasis
of our thinking from a material, personal point of view of existence to a
spiritual, Godlike point of view. Then we'll find our life and its fulfillment
in God, or Soul. Then we'll realize that people, circumstances and things are
not the cause of our happiness. True, we enjoy happiness with people, but our
happiness is dependent on God - not on people, not on a personal sense of
man. We must respond to the spiritual standard that there's only God and His
perfect reflection. And express this in our lives. Then we'll insulate
ourselves from the fallout of materialism's blatant and silent allurements.
Then the window-pane of our consciousness won't be tainted by materialism, personal
popularity, personal hatred, self-satisfaction, criticism, crassness,
sensuality. Instead it will be clean and clear to let in the light of Truth and
Love. Then we'll be able to see the spiritual nature of God and His creation.
See their perfect relationship here and everywhere.
God Denies Place or Power to Evil
Now this doesn't mean that we
assume a Pollyanna attitude of pretending the evil in human experience doesn't
appear very real. Dishonesty, greed, lust, hatred, gossip, trouble. That we
just grin and bear them! That we let them push us around or out! Definitely
not! But the defense against all phases of evil is not to think or say,
"Evil is true and has power to hurt and destroy, and I'm afraid of
it."
No, the sure defense against evil
is to understand that God - the one infinite cause - didn't make anything
unlike Himself. Therefore He didn't make any ungodlike thing. So in reality
evil has no power or place, no voice or audience, no channel or object. It
can't come to us - to our consciousness - as or through people, circumstances,
or things in our own family, business, church, or elsewhere. Why? Because God,
good, is All. We can refuse to react to evil because we know that right where
it seems to be is really the very presence of God and His wholly spiritual
reflection. To the degree we respond to this spiritual standard, our lives will
be, progressively freed from the influence of anything unlike God, good. You
know all the water in the ocean can't sink a ship unless some of it gets
inside. So evil has no power to sink us if we don't let it into our
consciousness. If it doesn't get into our thinking, it just can't get into our
experience.
As we've seen, it isn't a material
world and material persons that trouble us. It's only our own materialistic
points of view of spiritual man and the spiritual universe. There can be only
one creation because there's only one God. As we daily accept these truths -
and use them - we'll find our world is better - right here - because our
thought is better. By seeing man spiritually instead of materially, we'll live
as divine reflection rather than human reaction.
Whether the distortion of a world picture
is in
I'm sure some of us know the story
about the man who came home from a long day
at the office and sat down to read the paper. His little son kept
begging him to read him the funnies. Finally the father took a piece of the
paper that had a large map of the world on one side. He tore it up to make a
jigsaw puzzle for the boy, saying that when he had finished the puzzle he would
read to him. The father of course expected to be let alone for a while. But the
youngster quickly finished the puzzle. Asked how he did it so fast the boy said,
"Well, there was a picture of a man on the other side, and when I got him
together, the world, was together."
And so with us, when individually
our concept of man is in order - that is, spiritual rather than material -
what concerns our world will fall into place. As men everywhere, you and I,
everyone, respond only to the truth of creation in God's likeness, we'll live
by divine direction as divine reflection. We can make that start individually
now, thought by thought, asking ourselves, "Am I reflecting the divine or
reacting to the human?"
The Christian Science Monitor
Under the headline "God-like View of Man Improves Human Relationships