THE natural desire of mankind is to express some measure of attainment, whether it be an ambition no higher than that of happy human relations, or the competent carrying out of an allotted task. The limits which men place upon their achievements are sometimes evidenced in an unwillingness to take the first essential step; sometimes, when confronted with difficulties and delays, in an inability to persevere.
Jesus recognized only one purpose and one standard when he declared, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." This call to achievement is not something to discourage or alarm the timid, any more than it is to be carelessly set aside by those who are willing to be satisfied with so much less than perfection. Submission to or acceptance of material limitation is one of the greatest foes of mankind, and the consciousness of divine selfhood alone is able to remove it. To this end the Apostle Paul, sometimes with persuasive, sometimes with fiery eloquence, exhorted men. There must be no slackening of energy and purpose, "till we all come . . . unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."
Obedience to the Christ-command to be perfect, to recognize the infinite potentialities, the tangible glory of man as God's likeness, this is the teaching of Christian Science.
