Identity And Individuality

The great struggle of humanity has undoubtedly for its object the full realization of man’s identity, with all that this implies. It is needless to say that mankind is by no means conscious of this, unless a large measure of spiritual enlightenment be granted; but just the same it is the dynamic influence forever at work shaping the destinies of the race as no lesser consideration can ever do. It is as if the power which governs the universe was forever whispering to each individual, Be a man. While the world’s greatest philosopher, the Nazarene Prophet, called upon men to deny self daily, he did not deal in contradictions when he asked, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”—in other words, lose his identity.

It is very clear that the false sense of selfhood must be given up before man’s spiritual identity in the likeness of God can be realized, and yet this outweighs the world. On page 104 of “Miscellaneous Writings” Mrs. Eddy says: “Clothed, and in its right Mind, man’s individuality is sinless, deathless, harmonious, eternal….In obedience to the divine nature, man’s individuality reflects the divine law and order of being.” To this she adds, “Who wants to be mortal, or would not gain the true ideal of Life and recover his own individuality?” One does not live long on the human plane, as a rule, until the so-called struggle for existence takes form as a tremendous effort to lay up treasures on earth, which when acquired always disappoint the one whose real need is spiritual riches. What one possesses of material things counts for nothing in the end, for the true appraisement is finally called for, namely, what one is, and this will explain what he has done and what he possesses.

At the present time as never before men are demanding man’s inheritance of opportunity, of justice, and of freedom to be and to possess all that God gives. When Jesus was challenged for claiming, not for himself alone but for all men, man’s spiritual inheritance, he must have startled his opposers when he asked, “Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?” One can easily imagine his fine irony when he reminded his critics that “the scripture cannot be broken,” and held to man’s dignity as the Son of God. What Jesus accomplished as the type of real manhood, brings light, in every age, to those who sit in darkness.

In this age we hear too much of the majorities and minorities, and so lose sight of God’s idea, man, and of its human expression through the individual. We fear and resist tyranny, and we may well resist it, but we should never forget that there is no tyranny so oppressive as the belief in minds many and subjection to the selfish and short-sighted demands arising therefrom. One thing is sure, that no cloud of superstition or injustice can longer hold back the reign of right, and it must be the rule of Principle, whoever may be sobered or shamed thereby. Though “the heathen rage,” and the people imagine vain things along economic and political lines, the Ten Commandments stand through the ages more solid than the enduring hills, and because the spiritual light shines for us of to-day nearer and clearer than ever before they must perforce be obeyed. Thus we shall, as Lowell says,

Find out, some day, that nothing pays but God,
Served whether on the smoke-shut battle field.
In work obscure done honestly, or vote
For truth unpopular, or faith maintained
To ruinous convictions, or good deeds
Wrought for good’s sake, mindless of heaven or hell.

In all history there is nothing more sublime than the record of Jesus’ trial before Pilate. John tells us that this coward and political trickster declared Jesus innocent, yet had him scourged, and allowed the soldiers to crown him with thorns and array him in a purple robe. Then when this God-empowered Galilean stepped forth before the mocking multitude, it must have been a flash of light from above that made Pilate say, “Behold the man!” Well may we recall that vision in the crises of human experience and know, as know we must, that no less a type of man can really meet the need of any hour. Then let us take heart of grace that some such men have arisen when the need was greatest, and because they were above the lust of selfishness and superior to fear or favor, either of one or the many, the world in their day drew a deeper breath and took a step forward. It should not, moreover, be forgotten that the inspiration which possessed such men never came from the masses, although the desperate needs of humanity prompted the sacrificial endeavors of the best; but it needed unflinching faith in right and in what to the Christian Scientist is the demand of Principle, rather than a mere concession to the pleadings of so-called rich or poor, high or low, or, to use the verbiage of the present hour, of capital and labor, to right intrenched wrong as by the outstretched hand of God.

One thing is sure, that there are many wrongs to be righted until all men (and this includes all women) are not only free to express their identity, but do express it, and this last depends wholly upon themselves. Have not the greatest men risen to their high positions, not because of the favors of fortune, but wholly because of the innate greatness which can neither be restricted nor repressed by any material considerations? In view of this we can understand why Jesus refused to interfere between the brothers who were disputing over the division of an inheritance; and again, when his enemies sought to ensnare him with the question of paying taxes to the Romans, he laid down a fundamental law of human rights when he bade them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

In the United States we at this time think with ever growing reverence upon the character of Abraham Lincoln, and as we pause to wonder at his heroic nature we recall Mrs. Eddy’s words on page 360 of “Miscellaneous Writings.” Here she says, ”Great only as good, because fashioned divinely, were those unpretentious yet colossal characters, Paul and Jesus.” Then, too, we recall the psalmist’s question, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him?” What indeed is autocrat or artisan, prince or plowman, save as he individually expresses man’s identity as known to the creative Mind, with ever unfolding possibilities for greatness and goodness because he expresses the one perfect Mind. In Tennyson’s great poem, “In Memoriam,” are these lines:—

O living will that shall endure
When all that seems shall suffer shock,
Rise in the spiritual rock,
Flow thro’ our deeds and make them pure.