Only that which is perfect can be termed real. Hence all that is real is God and His ideas, which are as perfect as He is perfect. On page 311 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy says, "Soul is immortal because it is Spirit, which has no element of self-destruction." It follows that man, the reflection of Soul or Spirit, God, has no element of self-destruction, and, like his creator, he is immortal. Erroneous mortal concepts, including sin, disease, and discord, are not the handiwork of God. They are temporal and unreal and hold within themselves the elements of self-destruction.

By the healing of the diseases of mankind, Christ Jesus proved the unreality of mortal error and the eternal reality of spiritual creation.

Our Leader writes (ibid., pp. 476, 477): "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick." Jesus' discernment of the perfect man, as well as his rejection of the evidences of the material senses, was the basis of his healing ministry. It placed before a skeptical world undeniable proof that the man of God's creating has no self-destructive element and that matter, with its inherent claims of evil, does not control man's being.

Spiritual man's perfection is being proved today, and so is the unreality of all evil. People in many parts of the world are being restored to health and harmony through Christian Science, which finds its authority in the Bible and bases its practice on that of Christ Jesus, the Way-shower.

Because of the carnal or mortal mind's tendency to confuse, we may at times fail to recognize or acknowledge the efficacy of Christian Science. Like a shuttlecock, we may seem to be tossed to and fro, between error and truth, material beliefs and the facts of being. Should this occur, let us remember that ours is the responsibility to decide whether we shall accept the role of shuttlecock or insist upon the role of player.

The knowledge that God, divine Mind, and His ideas are the only reality gives us both the courage and the intelligence to make a correct decision and reject error. And having made the decision, we find that, as player, we can toss all false beliefs regarding man and his relationship to God completely out of consciousness and hold fast to the truths which were proved by the Master and which many Christian Scientists are proving today.

In the first chapter of Habakkuk we read of God, "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity." If the Mind which is divine could include evil, it would no longer be divine, for it would be contaminated by its own false concepts. If sin, disease, or death could be known to Mind, Truth would cease to be eternal, immortality would be reduced to a myth, and the entire structure of man's being would collapse. It is therefore paramount if we would heal the sick and the sinning that we realize the absolute purity of God and know that in Him there is "no element of self-destruction."

That healing the sick and the sinning is contingent on this realization is emphasized by Mrs. Eddy on page 7 of "Unity of Good." She says, "When I have most clearly seen and most sensibly felt that the infinite recognizes no disease, this has not separated me from God, but has so bound me to Him as to enable me instantaneously to heal a cancer which had eaten its way to the jugular vein."

Considering this remarkable healing and recalling the story in the third chapter of Mark of Jesus' healing of the man with a withered hand, we find the same decisive and absolute clarity of vision in action. When the man with the withered hand stood before him, Jesus did not hesitate; but with authority and purpose he said to the man, "Stretch forth thine hand," and we read that he did so, "and his hand was restored whole as the other."

These healings did not depend upon the personalities of the healers. They resulted solely from the operation of divine law, law based upon fundamental truth. This truth states that neither disease nor death, nor any other claim of evil or "element of self-destruction," is known by divine Mind or is present in it and that therefore such things are unreal.

Knowing this, both Jesus and his follower, Mrs. Eddy, were able to see in the experiences mentioned the perfect man of God's creating. The clear vision completely destroyed the evidence presented to human consciousness, and healing followed immediately.

Healings such as these prove that neither God nor His likeness, spiritual man, has an "element of self-destruction," and they are possible to all who sincerely apply themselves to the study of Christian Science. In her writings, our Leader presents this Science in a manner which allows all who desire to do so to understand and to put its teaching into practice. Its blessings are available to every one who honestly and conscientiously seeks them. In the words of the Revelator (Rev. 22:17): "Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."