God's children are spiritual ideas, holy, harmonious, immortal, reflecting the one infinite divine Principle, Love. They express the unlimited beauty, perfection, and power of Spirit; and at this exalted standpoint they are sustained and maintained by Spirit. In the first chapter of Genesis it is declared that God created man in His own image. God is absolutely and eternally good; and it is self-evident that His image must also be completely and endlessly good.
The revelation of divine Science regarding man coincides with this perfect concept which is set forth in the first chapter of the Bible. This Science is wholly logical, for it is impossible to start with a perfect, all-powerful creator as the premise, and deduce therefrom a weak and imperfect creation. Moreover, it is demonstrable, as many have already proved in varying degree, that to hold steadfastly to the perfection of man, as the image and likeness of the perfect God, destroys the imperfections, the discords and diseases, which seem to be so large a part of the mortal, material concept of man. Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," are found in Christian Science to be a practical, scientific admonition to the followers in all ages of the great Nazarene, who unquestionably understood the perfection of all real being.
Mary Baker Eddy writes (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 259), "The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea,—perfect God and perfect man,—as the basis of thought and demonstration." After her discovery she began to hold her own thought to this perfect standard, to heal the sick, and to teach others to do likewise. This teaching was, however, so entirely new and unlike the doctrines of materialistic schools of thought that, despite its tremendous value and practicality, only a few at first were found to give it serious consideration.
