The ideal of manhood set by Christ Jesus may seem impossible of attainment until one realizes that the Master was demonstrating the Science of man, the truth of everyone's being. Jesus understood the logic of real being, which begins with perfect God, or cause, and follows with perfect man, or effect. He was stating this divine logic when he said (Matt. 5:48), "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Jesus was so certain of the divine logic that he proved it consistently.

Paul was acknowledging the same logic when he spoke of the need for our fulfilling various Christian tasks "till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13). A few verses later, Paul counsels us to "put off ... the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts," and to "put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."

Mary Baker Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 15), "What a faith-lighted thought is this! that mortals can lay off the 'old man,' until man is found to be the image of the infinite good that we name God, and the fulness of the stature of man in Christ appears."

Christ, according to Christian Science, is the true idea of sonship, the divine ideal, which exhibits God's nature. Christ is not a mystery; the least stirring of genuine good appearing as unselfed love, or as justice, or as mercy, or as integrity is proof that one's real, Christly selfhood is appearing and that one is putting off the old man for the new. One does not make himself perfect, but brings to light the man who exists at the point of perfection throughout eternity.

Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 337), "Material personality is not realism; it is not the reflection or likeness of Spirit, the perfect God." In the same paragraph she says, "For true happiness, man must harmonize with his Principle, divine Love; the Son must be in accord with the Father, in conformity with Christ."

The objective of every healing effort in Christian Science is to help oneself or another to find his place in Christ, Truth, to prove that man is forever "in conformity with Christ." One should not lose the idealism of Science, which never fails to distinguish between the real man and the mortal counterfeit and then to recognize the fleeting, false nature of the material personality. One should always claim for himself and for others the divine nature in its fullness, for this is man's birthright.

In our present seemingly human sense of life, we are not expressing the attributes of God in the fullness of their divinity. But as the Christian Scientist sees that man in God's likeness is constituted of the divine attributes, a clearer expression of them appears. The attributes of God are the energies of the divine Mind, which are embodied in man. And because their action is constant, these energies operate as laws of Mind, which can never be abrogated, but are manifested ceaselessly as man's Christly nature. One can always find his true manhood by demonstrating the attributes of God as changeless, unbreakable laws. The law of love, for instance, implies the constant action of love. The law of health implies the constant expression of health. The law of justice implies the constant operation of justice.

No one who glimpses the infinite perfection of the divine nature can be satisfied with his present expression of good. Conceit and self-praise show the limiting effect of animal magnetism, or the carnal mind, on the individual. The humility of the publican, who asked God's mercy, was commended in the Master's parable; while the Pharisee, who gloried in self-approval, was described as not having gained the justification of God. Humility opens thought to a finer expression of man's Christliness; whereas pride separates one from his real state of being.

The aim of every Christian Science treatment is to bring out the native Christliness of the patient. The true idea of sonship demonstrates the power of Christ to dispel the mortal sense, which seems to hide temporarily the children of the perfect Father.

Holding to the logic of truth, insisting upon the perfection of man in God's likeness, one is no longer deceived by the claim of material personality, and freedom from it is gradually attained. That "the Son must be in accord with the Father, in conformity with Christ," should be the rule of one's action until "the fulness of the stature of man in Christ" is no longer a distant hope but a present realization.

Helen Wood Bauman