The Pre-existence of True Selfhood
MAY CREAMER
From the June 23, 1945 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel
Christians generally have accepted the Biblical teaching that man survives the mortal body. Mary Baker
Eddy, through her spiritual interpretation of the Scriptures, has awakened us to the truth that if man's life is
eternal it is not only without end, but without beginning. If man survives this mortal sense of existence and
lives eternally, he must of necessity have preceded it; and he must have all the elements and conditions of
eternality now. Eternal Life not only extends unlimitedly into what we call the future, but it also extends
unlimitedly into what we call the past.
Mrs. Eddy has called to our attention Jesus' plain statements (John 8:58; 17:5): "Before Abraham was, I
am;" and, "Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the
world was." In "Miscellaneous Writings" our Leader tells us (p. 189), "The meek Nazarene's steadfast and
true knowledge of preexistence, of the nature and the inseparability of God and man,—made him mighty."
Not until we see the truth of man's pre-existence do we comprehend that we individually are spiritual,
conceived by the divine Mind, and that we do not begin at a point called birth and end at another called
death. Good floods into our experience as we identify our sense of being with that which recognizes man as
born "not ... of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." We discern that what claims to be our mortal
beginning is but the feeble attempt of suppositional mortal mind to imitate the matchless ability of God,
divine Mind, who has already created man by the might of flawless intelligence; and that man is you and I
in our true and only being. As long as we believe that the appearing to sense of a mortal is the beginning of
individual man, we cannot possibly understand man as idea, image, because the mortal imitation of
individual man bears no resemblance to infinite Spirit, God. The original ever precedes the imitation, even
as truth ever precedes a lie.
The Biblical teaching of pre-existence is not to be confused with the strictly human theories of
reincarnation and transmigration. Christian Science is definite in its statements that Spirit and Life neither
enter matter, abide in matter, nor leave matter. The false dream of mortality never interrupts, interferes
with, or touches the continuity of spiritual selfhood any more than an error affects mathematical truth. In
order to attain to the truth of being, we must continuously acquaint ourselves with the truth of man's real
selfhood, and not delve into the unavailing theories, and vagaries of the dream of mortal selfhood.
"Mortals will lose their sense of mortality—disease, sickness, sin, and death—in the proportion that they
gain the sense of man's spiritual preexistence as God's child; as the offspring of good, and not of God's
opposite,—evil, or a fallen man," declares our Leader on page 181 of "Miscellaneous Writings."
A student of Christian Science proved this in a small measure. She had been suffering from eye trouble
which had recurred after many years' freedom from it. While she realized that the healing could not be
reversed, it was revealed to her thought that a lurking fear of the difficulty had never been completely
destroyed. At this time, a great deal of additional reading was necessary and seemed further to aggravate
the condition. Work was persistently continued over a period of many weeks with indecisive results. In the
past, the Scientist had dwelt much on the two Bible lessons published in "Miscellaneous Writings" (pp.
180-190), in which Mrs. Eddy points to the truth of pre-existence as set forth in the Bible.
One evening, when she had been suffering severely, the truth broke upon her thought that God had supplied
her with flawless sight— with spiritual discernment and perception—before the belief of mortality had ever
arisen for her; that she had at that moment the same perfect sight which was hers "when the morning stars
sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job 38:7). Matter had not given her sight, nor had
spiritual discernment and perception entered into matter; therefore her true and only sight was far beyond
the reach of material law. Fear utterly vanished. This truth of the pre-existence of her sense of sight, and the
consequent present perfection of it as the permanent possession of her true selfhood, healed her.
One's sense of existence enormously expands as understanding extends his horizon beyond the limits of
birth as well as of death. His sense of permanence and assurance increases. The opacity of belief in the
illusory imitation of God's idea, called a mortal, begins to dissolve. The shackles of belief in mortality and
limitation are gradually broken, and consciousness gains courage to clasp the wondrous truth that man is
now the perfect spiritual reflection of Deity, having nothing of himself, but imaging forth the glory of
everlasting Life.