A Bishop of the Church of England, preaching recently in Australia, said that the first casualty of the war was honesty. It would certainly seem as if during the war human standards of honor and fair dealing were in many instances lost sight of, and the so-called forces of greed and selfishness were manifest in corruption and lawlessness. Such conditions still seem too often to prevail.
These conditions are a challenge to the Christian Scientist, who is endeavoring to practice the Science of Christianity which Jesus lived and taught. The integrity of man is a basic fact of Christianity, a fact which Jesus clearly perceived and proved. His command (Matt. 5:48), "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," allowed of no variation in the degree of perfection of either God or man. Jesus did not say, in effect, "Try to be perfect," for his understanding of the true nature of God and man enabled him to see that this perfection is a present fact, capable of demonstration now in the degree of the individual's realization of the truth. Jesus' spiritual perception was so clear that he was able to see beyond the physical senses' claim that man is material and mortal, sick and sinning, and so fully to realize the real nature of man that those who appealed to him for help were healed. As Mary Baker Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 476, 477): "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick."
The perfection of God and man is the basis from which the Christian Scientist reasons. He keeps before him Mrs. Eddy's statement (Science and Health, 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." Christian Science accepts the Bible teaching that God is Truth, and that among the attributes of Truth are honesty, uprightness, truthfulness, and integrity. Truth must ever be honest and straightforward. It is never guilty of employing subterfuge or subtlety. Within the infinity of Truth all is complete, and infinite Truth can express only its own perfect nature. There is no double-dealing or hypocrisy in Truth. Truth is ever upright, utterly incapable of being dishonorable or untruthful, or of expressing anything unlike itself.
