CLAIMING MAN'S PRESENT PERFECTION

EDNA A. LICHTENFELS

The Master, Christ Jesus knew what constitutes the real man. This knowledge enabled him to heal disease and sin and to overcome death. His method of healing is revealed to mankind in the Sermon on the Mount in the words (Matt. 5:48), "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 253,254), "The divine demand. 'Be ye therefore perfect,' is scientific, and the human footsteps leading to perfection are indispensable." And she continues, "God requires perfection, but not until the battle between Spirit and flesh is fought and the victory won."

In taking the footsteps leading to perfection, one must understand that God is Spirit, infinite and perfect, and that He does not include an element of imperfection. One must also understand that God created man in His image and likeness and that therefore man is spiritual and perfect. One's efforts should be devoted to the task of watching one's thoughts to determine whether or not one is holding in consciousness the image of God, who reflects all good, or the false picture of a mortal created of the dust of the ground.

One learns in Christian Science that perfection is never found in matter and that a material body is not the real habitation of man. The battle between Spirit and the flesh is the battle between the belief that man is a material organism, subject to the so-called laws of mortal mind, and the true facts of man, namely that he is spiritual and perfect, the image and likeness of God.

Someone may say, "Oh, I am far from perfect now, but I hope someday to be perfect." Is not this contrary to the Master's command, "Be ye therefore perfect"? God's man has never fallen from his perfect state of being; therefore mankind must claim perfection now. In Science and Health we read (p. 470), "If there ever was a moment when man did not express the divine perfection, then there was a moment when man did not express God, and consequently a time when Deity was unexpressed—that is, without entity."

The material body is never the real man but is only the counterfeit of the real. The mistaken theory that man exists as a mortal and is doomed to be sick and to die stems from the myth of a material creation as related in the second chapter of Genesis.

Christian Science teaches that man's origin is in God and that man has a perfect selfhood. In the proportion that one lets the correct view of man dominate his thoughts and refuses to accept the belief that man is subject to birth, maturity, and decay, the perfection of man will be manifested in his experience in health, happiness, and peace.

At one time the writer had to prove that in the midst of so-called imperfection, perfection was really the fact. A skin disease was manifested on her body. Having studied Christian Science for a number of years, she refused to accept the evidence that mortal mind was presenting as real and called upon a Christian Science practitioner to help to correct the lie about her real selfhood.

For a while a great sense of irritation filled the writer's thoughts because the condition did not yield immediately. One day, while feeling discouraged, she read from "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" by our Leader, Mrs. Eddy (p. 242), "Unless you fully perceive that you are the child of God, hence perfect, you have no Principle to demonstrate and no rule for its demonstration."

She realized that she had been watching to see a material condition disappear instead of thinking of herself as a perfect idea of God. This aroused her thought, and she began to correct unloving and irritable thinking about herself and others and to claim her present perfection. When her thought was lifted into the realm of divine Mind and kept there in an unfaltering trust in God, the condition was healed.

As one advances in spiritual understanding, one gradually leaves behind such false beliefs as disease, hate, envy, lack, and discord. He goes on the upward way of Spirit, rejoicing in the truth that Love is governing every step of the way. The way may be full of obstacles, and patience may be needed; but the goal is worthy, namely the full understanding that man is perfect, now and forever.

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