In many areas of human activity we measure a host of factors, materials, and achievements against a standard of perfection. Chemical substances, foodstuffs, alloys, and other man-made compounds must meet specifications of noncontamination gauged against a scale that makes provision, theoretically at least, for 100 percent purity.

A growing acknowledgment of the possibility of "zero defects" now stimulates production workers to abandon previously accepted standards of quality control that allowed for deviation from highest accuracy in machining parts and fabricating products. Man's exploration of space has, of course, contributed significantly to this new requirement for precision because the success of each step and even the safety of the participants depend upon efforts to prevent the slightest error in computation or performance.

What is happening in these fields of human endeavor is simply that the world's thinking is beginning to glimpse perfection as it exists in the real creation. Almost two thousand years ago Christ Jesus revealed the nature of the real man when he said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." ^{Matt. 5:48;}

Christian Science, which is in accord with the inspired Word of the Bible, accepts this dictum at its full face value, applying it to every aspect of human experience. We can be grateful that there is a broadening recognition by mankind that a high degree of accuracy is attainable in at least some fields of human activity.

How are Jesus' words to be brought into focus on the human scene? Is it practical to accept the spiritual perfection of man as an effective means of obliterating the inadequacies and inaccuracies, the inabilities and disabilities, in the world around us? Christian Science is proving that it is indeed highly practical to do so, that we must, in fact, start from this premise in our efforts to solve every kind of human problem.

In extending this possibility of errorless experience into all human avenues, Christian Science is not saying that matter is or can be perfect. Rather it declares that a perfect creator who is infinite Spirit has created a perfect spiritual universe, including man. Into the experience of this perfect spiritual man there can enter no condition that is less than perfect—no sickness, sorrow, lack, or death. And these divine facts are made evident humanly in better health, more harmony, and success when we see clearly that this spiritual perfect man constitutes the true and only selfhood of each one of us. As the reflection or expression of his Maker, man lives in an uninterrupted condition of absolute "zero defects," and Christian Science is proving that this can be progressively manifested in each detail of everyday affairs.

Daily we should reaffirm our status as "the child of God." Mrs. Eddy uses this term when she points out in unmistakable phrasing the true nature of man: "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." ^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 242;} Each day we should deny the material myth that would make us subject to the errors and deficiencies of a physical universe and its localized expression as the world around us. To the extent that the world around us expresses beauty, order, symmetry, completeness, we acknowledge that it points to the perfect creation in which "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." ^{Gen. 1:31;}

When the outward appearances cognized by the physical senses take on the ominous character of decay, disease, ugliness, incompleteness, violence, or evil, our task is to reverse this appearing and recognize that the counterfeit of God's creation cannot delude us into believing in its reality or beleaguer us with injury, illness, sorrow, or lack.

This denial of the material misconception of reality may often take the specific form of actively countering the commonly held belief that man and his environment are subject to a law of averages or to the phenomena of luck or chance. Since these concepts would presume to annul the perfect law of God, which holds man in a state of harmonious being, our vigorous mental challenge to such fallacies is an important step toward proving their impotence to govern the slightest detail of our experience.

It is equally essential to unmask the atheistic travesty that would label disaster as an "act of God." Far from equating a harmful effect with the source of all good, we must insist that safety from accident or adversity is to be found in the recognition of the very presence of God. Could there be any more diametrically opposed extremes than an "act of God," construed as destructive natural forces, and the sweet assurances of the ninety-first Psalm?

That which is perfect knows no defect. The acknowledgment and acceptance of this truth, along with the specific application of its deepest meaning to any situation that appears to manifest the slightest degree of inharmony, brings healing and wholeness, establishing in human experience the harmony that is already holding sway in the real universe of Spirit.

In fulfilling his mission of demonstrating the Christ, Jesus taught that harmony is natural in the kingdom of God, which, he said, "is within you." ^{Luke 17:21;} The law of God that gave Jesus his mastery over matter is just as valid and just as operative today as when he proved its efficacy. Its blessings will become evident in all spheres of human endeavor as we reject material sense testimony and the man-conceived law that inharmony and imperfection are natural and unavoidable.

As the kingdom of heaven is entertained in consciousness, as we accept wholeheartedly the concept of "zero defects" seen in the light of spiritual perfection, we shall understand and make operative in our own experience and environment the words of Mrs. Eddy, "The substance, Life, intelligence, Truth, and Love, which constitute Deity, are reflected by His creation; and when we subordinate the false testimony of the corporeal senses to the facts of Science, we shall see this true likeness and reflection everywhere." ^{Science and Health, p. 516.}