IN this age of rapid building and quickly changing methods, a tendency to slipshod, careless, and inaccurate work is apt to creep into the performance of one's daily tasks, even if one has a keen desire to do all things well. Error may argue that such a vast amount of work is expected and demanded of one each day that a perfect performance of it is impossible; that some new development to-morrow will undo today's work, so why strive to do it perfectly; or that certain portions of one's work are of no great consequence and need be done only in a manner that will "get by."
Prevalent thought, in fact, is apt to excuse small inaccuracies. It says that they are unimportant and easily corrected, or that such things are bound to happen; that everyone makes mistakes; that something less than perfection will do. Such excuses, appearing in plausible and subtle guises, may for a time trick even the worker who is eager to do his task perfectly, whether or not this is being demanded of him. But one who is daily striving to progress in the demonstration of the teachings of Christian Science will soon see through the subtlety of such reasoning and recognize in it the attempt of evil to blur the manifestation of the perfect, infinite, unerring Mind which each individual, as the image of God, reflects. He will then recognize that there is no excusing the slightest mistake.
One who is endeavoring each hour of the day to demonstrate his oneness with God, his perfection as God's image, cannot condone even the smallest error, for he realizes that in so far as his daily work is inaccurate, incomplete, or mistaken, to just that extent is he failing to express the highest possible perfection. No thought or act is of too little consequence to go by uncorrected, for one slight inaccuracy multiplied may become a large mistake. A mason building a wall knows that each stone, even the tiniest of all, must be laid in perfect alignment, or the final result may be a wall entirely out of plumb and not able to bear the weight it was intended to carry.
It has been said that trifles make perfection, but that perfection is no trifle. Certainly this is true; and the Christian Scientist realizes that no task which it is his duty to perform is too small or insignificant to be correctly done, since it is Mind, Principle, in which man has his being, that in reality does the work.
Inaccurate thinking has no origin. It is no part of the real man's experience, and one may therefore know that it cannot mar one's day's work, nor rob him of the reward of his labor through binding him to careless mistakes, tricking him into haste, confusion, or indifference. Inaccuracy of thought has in reality no power, and is unable to lead one to entertain a belief that others are overexacting, or into a habit of selfrighteous excuses on the ground of limited time. On the contrary, the correct method of accomplishing any task is always the quickest and easiest way of doing it. Even from a human standpoint, perfect work precludes the necessity of doing over again work poorly done, or erasing errors and retracing mistaken steps. From the standpoint of perfect Mind there is no other way to do any work than the one correct way.
Solomon employed many thousands of workmen in the building of the temple. The process was carried out during a period of seven years with great care for detail, every piece of stone which was to find a place in the structure being prepared before being taken to the site, with an exactitude which permitted the temple to be completed so easily and quietly that "there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building." Moreover, the finest of materials were brought from afar.
In each of our tasks, however small, we need to make the best use of our talents so that our day's work may be a structure fitted perfectly together without friction or confusion, able to stand the test of accuracy. There is no inaccuracy in Mind; therefore any discrepancy, any mistake, can only seem to take place in so-called mortal mind, which is but a false belief of a mind apart from God, the one Mind. To gain immunity from mistakes one must reject one's belief in them and all their attendant evils by turning absolutely to the one perfect intelligence, knowing that here alone is the true basis for thought and act.
Even if it seems to take time to accomplish the desired perfection, one need not be discouraged if mistakes appear to occur, so long as one is truly endeavoring to base action on perfection. Such mistakes are but opportunities to prove that the perfection of man, as the image of his Father, is an established fact. The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, writes in "Unity of Good" (p. 11), "Jesus required neither cycles of time nor thought in order to mature fitness for perfection and its possibilities."
If steadfast effort to correct errors and forestall their repetition seems partially unsuccessful, and inaccuracies repeat themselves in spite of earnest and prayerful attempts to eradicate them, it were well to make a thorough analysis of one's thinking to learn whether one's attempted corrections are made from the standpoint of belief in a human, personal mind apart from God, or on the basis of the allness and infallibility of God. Since man lives, moves, and has his being in God, it is not possible for him to possess a mind separate from or unlike God; and, knowing this, one should not be tricked into or held by a belief in such a mind. Through steadfast reliance on the one Mind, coupled with a persistent and consistent denial of the claims of finite, personal, and inaccurate mental processes, one may be assured of gaining immunity from mistakes.
These truths being applicable not only to one's self but to every other individual, one may protect one's work against errors resulting from mistaken activity on the part of others. The whole of God's spiritual universe being operative on the foundation of perfection, the possibility of even a minute mistake on the part of any one of God's ideas is barred. If, then, one's effort to perform perfect work rises from a longing to express accuracy, ability, and perfection in each task, as a result of obedience to the Master's command, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," and not from a selfish desire to impress others with one's personal cleverness, intelligence, or effort, nothing can prevent or delay the specific manifestation of the perfection to which Mrs. Eddy refers when she says (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 104), "According to Christian Science, perfection is normal,—not miraculous."
