Elohistic plurality
The eternal Elohim includes the forever universe.
The name Elohim is in the plural, but this plurality of
515:18 Spirit does not imply more than one God, nor
does it imply three persons in one. It relates
to the oneness, the triunity of Life, Truth, and Love.
515:21 "Let /them/ have dominion." Man is the family name
for all ideas, - the sons and daughters of God. All that
God imparts moves in accord with Him, reflecting good-
515:24 ness and power.
Reflected likeness
Your mirrored reflection is your own image or like-
ness. If you lift a weight, your reflection does this also.
515:27 If you speak, the lips of this likeness move in
accord with yours. Now compare man before
the mirror to his divine Principle, God. Call the mirror
515:30 divine Science, and call man the reflection. Then note
516:1 how true, according to Christian Science, is the reflection
to its original. As the reflection of yourself appears in
516:3 the mirror, so you, being spiritual, are the reflection of
God. The substance, Life, intelligence, Truth, and Love,
which constitute Deity, are reflected by His creation;
516:6 and when we subordinate the false testimony of the
corporeal senses to the facts of Science, we shall see
this true likeness and reflection everywhere.
Love imparts beauty
516:9 God fashions all things, after His own likeness. Life
is reflected in existence, Truth in truthfulness, God in
goodness, which impart their own peace and
516:12 permanence. Love, redolent with unselfish-
ness, bathes all in beauty and light. The grass beneath
our feet silently exclaims, "The meek shall inherit the
516:15 earth." The modest arbutus sends her sweet breath to
heaven. The great rock gives shadow and shelter. The
sunlight glints from the church-dome, glances into the
516:18 prison-cell, glides into the sick-chamber, brightens the
flower, beautifies the landscape, blesses the earth. Man,
made in His likeness, possesses and reflects God's domin-
516:21 ion over all the earth. Man and woman as coexistent
and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality,
the infinite Father-Mother God.
516:24 /Genesis/ i. 27. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.
Ideal man and woman
516:27 To emphasize this momentous thought, it is repeated
that God made man in His own image, to reflect the
divine Spirit. It follows that man is a generic
516:30 term. Masculine, feminine, and neuter gen-
ders are human concepts. In one of the ancient lan-
517:1 guages the word for /man/ is used also as the synonym of
/mind/. This definition has been weakened by anthropo-
517:3 morphism, or a humanization of Deity. The word /an-
thropomorphic/, in such a phrase as "an anthropomorphic
God," is derived from two Greek words, signifying /man/
517:6 and /form/, and may be defined as a mortally mental at-
tempt to reduce Deity to corporeality. The life-giving
quality of Mind is Spirit, not matter. The ideal man
517:9 corresponds to creation, to intelligence, and to Truth.
The ideal woman corresponds to Life and to Love. In
divine Science, we have not as much authority for con-
517:12 sidering God masculine, as we have for considering
Him feminine, for Love imparts the clearest idea of
Deity.
Divine personality