While the Christian ideal of moral and spiritual perfection wins creedal acceptance, the misconception strongly persists that the attainment of perfection belongs to some uncertain future state, and that one whose life and thought resist this misconception is visionary and impractical. Holy Scripture refutes this claim, and Christian Science proves it false.
The divine ideal enjoined by Scripture includes perfect God and perfect man. Christ Jesus lived the perfect life in practical verification of the divine ideal. In view of the declared purpose of his mission, it is evident that the Way-shower expected his followers to do the works which he did. The student, appreciative of our Master's command, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," may be deterred, nevertheless, by observing the obviously striking difference between what he is willing and glad to accept as an ideal and his apparently limited ability to demonstrate that ideal in a world of material routine.
The purpose of Christian Science is not to make us comfortable in matter merely by removing inconveniences or by serving our personal ends. A divine consistency of motive is required of us. Jesus presented that motive to Nicodemus. The rabbi was told that a man must be born again "of water and of the Spirit;" that is, he must begin at once to purify and spiritualize his thinking. The Master's intensely practical application of the divine ideal—one's ability to begin, wherever Truth finds him, to hallow every thought and experience, to make holy one's purpose in life—is a striking feature of Christ Jesus' ministry and of Christian Science practice.
