Article June 29, 1912 Issue

THE LAW OF PERFECTION

CLARENCE W. CHADWICK.

A Materialistic concept of perfection finds humorous expression in the words of Josh Billings: "If a man should happen to reach perfection in this world, he would have to die immediately to enjoy himself." The authoritative word for every Christian believer is Christ Jesus' inspiring mandate: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

Since the so-called "natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God," they being only "foolishness unto him," it is not at all strange that we should find in all Christian denominations multitudes of individuals who are ready to wage war upon Christian Science when it insists upon a present-day obedience to this law of perfection. While professing to believe all that the great Wayshower has said, his one command relating to perfection is declared to be unreasonable, impracticable, and impossible of fulfilment in this present world. It is this belief on the part of professing Christians which keeps them in bondage to "the law of sin and death" and which clogs the wheels of progress in the world of religion. The evil one or one evil need ask no other admission from a would-be follower of Christ than that the law of perfection is incapable of present fulfilment, for such an acknowledgment most effectually bars the door to the kingdom of heaven for the one who makes it, and who keeps on dreaming only of post-mortem attainments.

Christian Science handles this subject in such a practical manner that no person who admits the need of a progressive life can consistently reject its teaching. It begins by calling attention to the underlying fact of existence, that God is the sole creator of man and the universe, and that the only possible relationship existing between the creator and the created is one of spiritual perfection, else there is no such condition possible as an eternal kingdom of heaven or harmony. The real man being thus indissolubly connected with his creator, there must be and is a universal governing Principle or law, obedience to which law will enable mortals to "put off the old man" or carnal mind, which is enmity against the idea of perfection, and to "put on the new man;" in other words, to let that Mind be in them "which was also in Christ Jesus."

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