To be perfect would seem to most individuals an impossibility. Yet the Master's command (Matt. 5: 48), "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," is one that Jesus expected us to fulfill, and certainly he would not ask us to do the impossible.

"The divine demand, 'Be ye therfore perfect,' is scientific, and the human footsteps leading to perfection are indispensable," writes Mrs. Eddy on pages 253 and 254 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." Humanly speaking, we attain perfection by degrees, and this attainment is possible because in reality our true spiritual selfhood is already perfect. From the spiritual standpoint, it is natural for us to demonstrate the perfection we derive from God, the divine source of our being.

Perfection, then, is here and now the normal status of man, made in God's image and likeness, and as we yield the human sense of ourselves to the divine, the divine appears more and more right where the human seems to be. In that coincidence, attaining perfection and demonstrating it are inseparable.

A few months ago an article that touched upon the need for perfection in industry was brought to our attention. With the permission of The Iron Age, the periodical in which it appeared, we are reprinting excerpts from the article in our Signs of the Times column on page 879 of this issue.

The article draws attention to a major aerospace manufacturer who launched what was termed a Zero Defects program to stimulate employees to turn out defect-free work. Of course, such a program is good business for the manufacturer; but it is more than that. It sets before a group of skilled workers an attainable ideal—perfection—that is not limited to but includes the work at hand.

To fulfill a necessary production schedule and at the same time to achieve perfection in the product might seem to be an impossible assignment. But it is not. A program of this kind, whether recognized as such or not, is based upon the fact that men have a God-derived freedom which enables them to attain an ever greater degree of perfection in whatever they do. As a result, a sense of dullness and mere routine is replaced with the satisfaction that comes from measuring up to the higher demand made on one's ability.

A defect-free product is the result of defect-free workmanship which, in turn, is the effect of defect-free thinking —thinking which recognizes that the individual manifests qualities which emanate from the divine source of his being. Such thinking brings into one's experience energies and abilities that would otherwise be impossible.

In the teachings of Christian Science, Christ Jesus is known as our Exemplar. The spiritual factor that enabled him to accomplish more than any man has ever accomplished was the Christ, the spiritual idea of God. And the Master declared (John 14:12), "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father."

Christian Science maintains that Christ is the divine title of Jesus, as is clearly stated in the Bible (see John 4:25, 26, 29). And Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 333): "Christ expresses God's spiritual, eternal nature. The name is synonymous with Messiah, and alludes to the spirituality which is taught, illustrated, and demonstrated in the life of which Christ Jesus was the embodiment."

This spirituality is available to all of us as we recognize that we too have a selfhood that is superior to the material sense of ourselves. This true spiritual selfhood is obscured only because we entertain a faulty concept of the selfhood we have from God. It is as sons of God that we are endowed with spiritual qualities, among which are perfection, incorruptibility, absolute integrity. A recognition of this fact opens up to us a higher and more satisfying sense of the abilities we have and can utilize.

The desire to do everything as perfectly as possible puts a premium on perfection and releases abilities that we may at present be only partially aware of. On the other hand, to be satisfied with less than the best of which we are capable holds us in the bonds of limitation and mediocrity and this shows up in every aspect of our lives.

Mrs. Eddy proved what one is capable of when one gains a scientific sense of man's oneness with God as His expression. She writes (ibid., p. 128): "The term Science, properly understood, refers only to the laws of God and to His government of the universe, inclusive of man. From this it follows that business men and cultured scholars have found that Christian Science enhances their endurance and mental powers, enlarges their perception of character, gives them acuteness and comprehensiveness and an ability to exceed their ordinary capacity."

When one rejects the theory that he is an imperfect mortal and acknowledges the scientific fact of his unity with God as God's own likeness, one finds unfolding within himself newly discovered abilities that enables him to do whatever he has to do with greater ease and perfection. He finds that the ability to be perfect unfolds progressively as he sets such an ideal before himself as a present possibility.

Ralph E. Wagers