Editorial August 24, 1935 Issue

The Goal of Perfection

Duncan Sinclair

"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." These words of Christ Jesus, spoken to his disciples, occur in the Sermon on the Mount. They are the words of the greatest idealist who ever trod this earth, the one who because of his profound understanding of real Being knew best how to demonstrate perfection. Paul had caught the Master's message as to perfection; and so we find him writing to the Philippians, "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus," even while he admitted that as yet he did not count himself "to have apprehended."

Perfection! Can we say of any phase of mortal existence that it is perfect—that what is generally called nature is perfect; that what is called mortal man is perfect? No; because everything in nature, from the grass of the field to the planet or star in the heavens, is sure to pass away, just as the mortal material sense of man passes away. All material things are changeable, destructible, perishable.

Now, in the midst of what everybody admits is an imperfect state or sense of existence, the wonderful thing is that we can discern perfection; that we can be aware of perfection and comprehend it. Thus, Christian Science teaches that God, the infinite One, is perfect, and that His creation—His spiritual creation—is likewise perfect. And since God is infinite and His creation is the only real creation, what follows? That perfection characterizes all that is real. This being true, what does Christian Science aver of the material sense of creation, including mortal man? That it is unreal. This was clearly discerned by Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, who has written in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 233), "In the midst of imperfection, perfection is seen and acknowledged only by degrees."

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