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"Be ye therefore perfect"
In those quiet moments when the clamor of the world is less insistent, it is well to look at some of the motives that impel our pursuits and aims, and to ask ourselves, Are they worth while? At heart most of us are not satisfied; maybe we are disturbed by a "divine discontent" when we view the distance between our ideal and our practice. In our best moments, from the heights of our aspirations and desires, do we feel an urge towards greater and nobler things? It is because of man's divine origin that nothing can wholly satisfy our deep yearning but an ever-unfolding, growing sense of goodness and perfection.
How well Christ Jesus understood this when he said to those who were privileged to hear the greatest sermon ever preached, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect"! Until Christian Science came shedding its light upon much that had seemed difficult and obscure, this saying was looked upon as an impossible ideal. The difficulties in the way of its practice appeared so insurmountable that mankind generally had considered perfection to be unattainable, and therefore imperfection was regarded as unavoidable and excusable. This conclusion frankly abandoned the standard raised by the Saviour.
It has remained for Christian Science again to raise that standard by exposing the falsity of the belief, which has existed throughout the ages, that man was created by God with a dual physical and spiritual nature. This belief that man is both human and divine, material and spiritual, has been the great stumbling block of all time for mankind. Christian Science, however, reveals the truth that there is but one man, God's image and likeness, sinless and pure, and this includes the real selfhood of each one. It also shows the wondrous possibilities of spiritualized thought as the individual awakens to this likeness—to his spiritual sonship with the Father, which is now as it was in the beginning and always will be.
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April 13, 1935 issue
View Issue-
"Be ye therefore perfect"
BEATRICE DE F. BARTLE
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Orderliness
GORDON V. COMER
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The Call to Come Up Higher
ALTHEA JUANITA SELVIDGE
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Measuring Ourselves
RUTH H. ESTABROOKS
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Enlightenment
GENEVA MARY CLIPPINGER
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Solving Problems
E. MARSHALL YOUNG
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Church Membership
A. LINCOLN ROTHBLUM
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The Good Shepherd
GERTRUDE GOODING MC CLOUD
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Kindly permit the correction of a mistaken implication...
B. Howard Grigsby, Committee on Publication for Ceylon,
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May I ask you to give space in your esteemed paper to...
Miss Margot Emma Frey, Assistant Committee on Publication for Estonia,
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In your issue of Monday last appears the report of an...
B. Tatham Woodhead, Committee on Publication for Lancashire, England,
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Human will power is closely associated with hypnotic...
Albert E. Lombard, Committee on Publication for Southern California,
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Invitation and Promise
WILLIAM COLWELL BARTLETT
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Springtime Renewals
Violet Ker Seymer
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Our Impersonal Practitioner
W. Stuart Booth
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The Lectures
with contributions from Henry F. Bultitude
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I am indeed grateful to God, and to Mary Baker Eddy,...
Clarence E. Rader
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After enjoying many blessings through the study of...
Constance Dulcie Roche
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Many beautiful healings and other experiences have...
Roy Arthur Lewis
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Having received so many blessings from Christian Science,...
Catherine Brown
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My interest in Christian Science was not aroused...
Gladys Brown
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I am grateful for the wonderful healing I received a few...
Anna A. Stiegler
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I wish to express my gratitude for Christian Science and...
Van Willard Tyler with contributions from Frances Erwin Tyler
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When a very young student of Christian Science I was...
Jessie Ackerman
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So many blessings have come to me through Christian Science...
Pièrre Remington
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God Is All
MARTHA ATKINSON THOMAS
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Signs of the Times
with contributions from J. H. Ward, Harry Emerson Fosdick, Isaac Ogden Rankin, Ralph Tyler Flewelling, S. A. Campbell, J. L. Newland, J. H. MacConnell