Editorial March 3, 1928 Issue

The Pattern in the Mount

Ella W. Hoag

There is perhaps no word in the English language of fuller meaning or of greater import than the word "perfection." Men have always longed for perfection; they have always been struggling to attain it; they have made great sacrifices in their pursuit of it. No one but has been the finer and better for reaching out after it. Try, however, as hard as men might to compass it from a material standpoint, there has always been something still to be desired, some possibility farther on still to be won. Inasmuch as their efforts have been based on matter, they have always fallen short of perfection. This record of thousands of years has evidenced the hopelessness of ever reaching perfection so long as matter with its transitory nature has been looked to as a basis.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 353) Mrs. Eddy says: "Perfection underlies reality. Without perfection, nothing is wholly real. All things will continue to disappear, until perfection appears and reality is reached." This immediately places perfection in the divine realm, where it can only be found in its completeness. But at the same time it presents the possibility of its final attainment by all. Christian Science reveals the glorious truth that all that belongs to God is both eternal and real; that God's ideas are as indestructible as God Himself. Adding to this the fact that every idea of God is as perfect as it is real and eternal, we find the revelation in regard to perfection which bases it in God's unchangeable nature and offers it always as the goal of spiritual good. Since perfection belongs to God, it can therefore only be found in Spirit, can only be expressed spiritually. This opens up a new prospect, and shows that we should seek and cherish treasures for ourselves only in Spirit, where all is perfect and eternal.

How grateful is the Christian Scientist for the revelation which shows him how to seek and find the perfect pattern! To know that one may always look to God, divine Mind, for one's every model of perfection is to start forward with all security and hopefulness. When one is certain that his model is perfect, he knows that as he contemplates its perfection he will inevitably bring his own thinking and living into a perpetually ascending scale.

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