In nothing is the teaching of Christian Science more practical and definite than in its differentiation between the real man, made in God's image, and the counterfeit, so-called "children of men." "Be ye therefore perfect," said Jesus to his followers, "even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect;" for he knew that perfection alone could express the nature of the man whom God had made.
By precept and example Jesus spent the three brief years of his ministry in demonstrating to the world how this perfection is to be attained. He knew what perfection is, and how it must be won. All around him he found the so-called "children of men," of whom Mrs. Eddy has written, on page 409 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," that they "are counterfeits from the beginning, to be laid aside for the pure reality." As is so frequently the case in her writings, she then proceeds to tell us how this laying aside is to be accomplished. "This mortal," she continues, "is put off, and the new man or real man is put on, in proportion as mortals realize the Science of man and seek the true model." Not a sudden process, but a gradual laying off and putting on, as the scientific or exact knowledge of man comes to be comprehended, and the counterfeit proportionately ceases to masquerade as the true!
Again and again our Leader turns us to the words and works of Christ Jesus as our guide to the realization of the perfect man, which he commanded his followers not merely to seek, but to be. As we study the Gospels in the light of Christian Science, we come to see that everything he did was done to the end that he might demonstrate to the full the Science of man and leave for us the true model. He did this not merely by the example of his own preeminent goodness, and by his own dominion over all the power of the enemy,— evil,—but also by a compassion for humanity and a comprehension of its needs which brought him into closest touch with every form of sorrow, sickness, and sin. Thus it is that in Christian Science we come to see, and then to prove, that with fidelity to his example and the understanding of the spirit which animated him, the healing and regenerating work which he accomplished we can do also.
