DEEP down in the heart of every one is an ideal which represents what mankind would like to be. It is well for humanity if this ideal stands for the highest human concept of nobility, purity, grace, honesty, perfection. Sometimes it must seem so vague that it can hardly be expressed in words; at other times it may seem so sacred that people do not speak of it even to their closest friends. In moments of clearest and most exalted thinking, however, it should present itself as an ideal of the perfect man, possessing dominion and authority over untoward circumstances, enjoying the right to holiness, happiness, health, and manifesting perspicacity, intelligence, ability to do and to be, strength to perform all duties, joy and love to beautify every task.
This ideal never entirely deserts mankind. When we have stumbled and fallen and risen again, there it is ready to greet us once more. When we have been temporarily overwhelmed by sin, sickness, or sorrow, and the clouds begin to lift, it reveals itself again, full of inspiration and encouragement, to cheer us on our way from sense to Soul. It prevents us from falling permanently under the influence of discouragement or disillusionment, and helps us to avoid the pitfall of cynicism, which would try to argue itself into our consciousness with advancing years. Above all, it is full of vigor, freshness, spontaneity, and alertness; it radiates the beauty of holiness, and is anointed with the oil of gladness.
Now, if it could be shown that this ideal is no idle dream but a reality of being, and if we could have a proof of this fact, the news would be glorious indeed. If it could be shown that even an approximation toward it is possible here and now, the discovery would prove of the highest value to suffering humanity. This ideal man already exists in consciousness as the man of God's creation, who lives and moves and has his being in God, who represents God, is the idea of the divine Mind, the manifestation of Spirit, the expression of eternal Life and of eternal Love. He always has existed and always will exist as the Christ-idea so clearly perceived and understood by the Master, who was justly called "Jesus the Christ," "Jesus the anointed," the "God-crowned" (Science and Health, p. 313).
