When Christ Jesus uttered his memorable injunction regarding perfection, in that greatest of all sermons, known as the Sermon on the Mount, he addressed the same kind of persons that are in the world to-day; but now, as then, his rule of life so far transcends the highest human ideals that few, comparatively, of his professed followers accept it as having any practical application to present conditions. Endowed, as it seems to them, with a sensuous and evil nature, and spiritually unenlightened as to the truth of man's divine origin, mortals ask where perfection may be found, and how they can hope to attain what they have been taught to regard as humanly unattainable.

No one knew better than did Jesus that erring human personality is not equal to the expression of perfection; but he was not appealing to the sense of material selfhood, for he afterward rebuked that sense as the offspring of evil. His evident purpose was to arouse and elevate human thought to recognize and acknowledge man's present spiritual status as the divine likeness. "Be ye therefore perfect," he said, "even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect;" which may be paraphrased, Be your true selves as sons of God. At another time he said, "Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven," clearly implying that a denial of material origin must precede the apprehension of God's fatherhood and of the real man's perfection.

Christ Jesus did not mock his followers with unattainable ideals. In turning their thoughts toward perfection, he did not intimate that the mortal concept of man could be perfected, but rather that it must be laid aside for the immortal. He urged the necessity of perfection because nothing less can bring complete deliverance from evil belief. It is self-evident that to the extent of its errors and imperfections humanity is in need of salvation; and it should be equally self-evident that only the consciousness of spiritual perfection can remove human imperfection, and that a knowledge of absolute Truth, made humanly practical, is all that can correct error and deliver mankind from discord.

Jesus was grieved that of those among whom he moved, members of a race who believed themselves to be God's chosen medium of revelation, and to whom he had come as the promised Messiah, so few were ready to receive him or to heed his words. But the general attitude of Christians of our own time is not greatly different from that of the Jews of twenty centuries ago. While men are ready to call Jesus "Lord," and even erroneously worship him in the place of God, they are reluctant to do the things which he said they must do in order to be his disciples.

With the passing centuries this tendency to discount the application of Jesus' teachings to human life and conduct has become so pronounced that with many modern religionists it is a settled conviction that these teachings are not literally or fully applicable to present conditions; that they are not now to be considered a vital part of present-day practical Christianity. Our moral honesty must assure us that were the great Teacher personally on earth to-day his demands would not be a fraction less than when they were first uttered in those wonderful days in old Judea.

The Master never intimated that his teachings could be fully obeyed or perfection won with a single effort. He plainly stated that it was a way of constant striving and daily cross-bearing. It was a way of purification of thought, of loving and forgiving enemies, of patient resistance to temptation, of steadfast watchfulness over self, of arising and going on after failure or defeat; and these things are not incorporated into human living in a moment. Old-time ecclesiastics, sympathizing with the weaknesses of the flesh and the unwillingness of mortals to deny themselves, might attempt to write an easier way into the creeds of their church, but one could as hopefully write into our school textbooks a way to demonstrate mathematics more easily than by obedience to its rules.

Mrs. Eddy caught the Master's spiritual vision and his foresight of human progress out of error; hence in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 253, 254) she writes, "The divine demand, 'Be ye therefore perfect,' is scientific, and the human footsteps leading to perfection are indispensable." And in the same paragraph she adds, "God requires perfection, but not until the battle between Spirit and flesh is fought and the victory won." It should be remembered that these footsteps are "indispensable." No one can reach the full consciousness of the kingdom of heaven without taking them in their turn. It is true they lead us into conflict with the flesh, with the seemingly ingrained tendencies toward depravity, with the racial beliefs of physical life, physical pleasure, pain, and fear. Although at one time it may seem that we have conquered, the next day may call for all our spiritual understanding and courage to resist renewed temptations; but there is much compensation along the road, and there is at all times the glorious certainty of triumph.

Whether our activity in this spiritual struggle takes form in running without becoming weary, or of walking and not fainting in spite of discouragement, the present charge is the step immediately before us, and it behooves us to defend what we have already gained. Perfection is the universal goal, but the effort to be made in reaching it is individual; and the faithful plodder along the heavenly way, patiently overcoming the opposition that may seem peculiar to his lot, may be doing braver things than one who appears to be bounding forward in swift and easy strides. In the passage just referred to, Mrs. Eddy adds this comforting assurance: "Imperfect mortals grasp the ultimate of spiritual perfection slowly; but to begin aright and to continue the strife of demonstrating the great problem of being, is doing much."

An outstanding point in all this is that we are always facing the next footstep "leading to perfection," and that to give the best we have meets the immediate demand. This may not be a question of either absolute right or wrong, but of expressing our nearest approach to the Godlike, so far as the circumstances permit. For one who is temporarily overcome with the weariness of seeming unattainment, the next step is to arise and try again, and still again if necessary, until he escapes from the slough of despond and resumes his journey.

There is always the next step which calls for thought or action, and we have always what we understand of God to bring to this advance. To do this is to do what is now possible to us in complying with God's blessed law of perfection. We may be tempted at times to overlook this next step because of its seeming unimportance or insignificance, but it is through just these small steps that our progress toward the ideal is being registered. The secret of final success lies in the fact that we can always have the strength to take the next step as we come to it—and the next, and so on to the end of our warfare with error.

To bring the truth of perfection into everyday experience may seem incongruous to one who does not recognize man's divine sonship as the underlying reality of his being; but until this recognition is gained, mortals are not ready to outgrow their imperfections. When the truth of man's spiritual nature in the likeness of God is apprehended in Christian Science, it begins to permeate the minutiæ of daily living, and definite physical and moral improvement is realized, thus proving the desirability of accepting Christ Jesus' injunction as the model for human thinking. Everyone knows that occasions for thinking better and doing better, for indulging self less and loving more, are ever at hand; and to be heedful of these heavenly opportunities is to fit ourselves for higher achievements in the line of perfection.

The Master's teaching does not imply that God's children are or ever were imperfect, but is rather an enunciation of the truth that the Father, the perfect Principle of being, expresses only perfect ideas, and that this reality of creation must be accepted and demonstrated by all his followers. When the Christian Scientist declares the perfection of man, he is not thinking of human personality, but of God's image or reflection. It is the belief of human imperfection that impels him to pray the prayer which affirms God's allness; and he denies the evils which error would attach to man in order that he may overcome them and discern his true selfhood as wholly spiritual and wholly good. The Christian Scientist knows that until he attains the realization of perfection, his work is not done or his salvation from false belief fully accomplished. Our Leader sums up the question thus (ibid., p. 372): "When man demonstrates Christian Science absolutely, he will be perfect. He can neither sin, suffer, be subject to matter, nor disobey the law of God. Therefore he will be as the angels in heaven."