CHRIST JESUS said in his Sermon on the Mount, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
Our starting point, then, as individuals, is acceptance of the present perfection of man in God's likeness, regardless of the conditions which at the moment may appear to surround us or attach themselves to us. What if our personal experience seems curtailed by various limitations, and those with whom we are associated seem unfriendly and untrustworthy! We know that God, divine Mind, is our unlimited supply, that He is always with us and helping us, for He is ever present; and standing on these truths we must go forward. What if there seems to be turmoil and unrest, and the world is permeated with hate, greed, ungodliness, and destruction! We know that God, divine Love, perceives only purity and peace, and that all these discords are unreal, for He is all-power; and standing with these truths we must go forward. We must pray earnestly for the intelligence to discern the truth, for the wisdom to be constantly guided by it, for the courage to face and overcome whatever wrong mortal mind may put in our path, and for the willingness to take each step forward as God directs us.
It is recorded in Genesis that Adam, having disobeyed God, hid from the presence of the Lord God because he was naked. And the Lord God said, "Who told thee that thou wast naked?" Had man, made in the image of infinite God, become incomplete, material, and mortal? Whence came this error which testified of conditions underived from Deity? Is it not always mortal mind whose false testimony we believe, whose evidence we accept?
