In many progressive industrial organizations there is an important department called "Quality Control." The purpose of this department is to maintain a constant control of the perfection of the items produced. This control is necessary to maintain the exactness of each part so that the finished assembly will function properly. Each unit has to be inspected carefully to make certain that no flaw finds its way into the final product. This is done in every department. With a flow of perfect parts into the final assemblage, successful functioning is assured.
In the true creation of Mind, which Christian Science reveals, man cannot deviate from perfection. All is under God's control. God, divine Principle, creates perfection, and nothing imperfect exists that can affect His creation. The Preacher says in Ecclesiastes (3:14), "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it."
In Christian Science we start with perfect Principle, God, and spiritual man, His perfect reflection. In our human experience we sometimes accept erroneous concepts that would deviate us from that perfection. The mistakes or deviations are in the human concept, not in the divine. As the individual learns in Science that he is the reflection of God, he rejects the false, human concept of himself and begins to express harmony in his experience. One must learn the spiritual truths of God and man and put them into practice in order to demonstrate man's reflected perfection.
Regardless of the mistakes we accept, we can never, in reality, lose perfection. It is true in any science that, despite the mistakes made in the application, the fundamentals remain the same. The individual who uses mathematics incorrectly does not affect or influence the basic laws of mathematics. He does not condemn these laws or try to change them to make them conform with his erroneous application. He corrects his misconceptions by learning the law involved, putting it into practice, and arriving at the correct answer. He realizes that this answer has always been present. Man, made in the image and likeness of God, will always be perfect, and nothing can ever change this perfection.
Just as we sometimes need a mathematics teacher to help us correct our false concepts of arithmetic, so we sometimes need a practitioner to help us understand God's divine control of man. When mistakes are presented to the Christian Science practitioner in the form of a patient with a problem, the practitioner utilizes the spiritual truths which he knows. The apparent human tendency to deviate is replaced with the true, divine perfection. Christ Jesus explained this healing operation when he told the people (John 10: 10), "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." We know of the divine control which the Master demonstrated in healing the sick by eliminating the human misconceptions of divine law.
We must replace the belief that man deviates from perfection with the facts that there is no matter and that God guides, guards, and governs His own creation. An understanding of these facts brings divine control into operation in human experience. When that which seems to be deviation from perfection appears as a physical problem or an inharmony in home or in business, we are anxious to correct the situation. We do prayerful work to bring forth perfection. But when the deviation appears enjoyable, such as false appetites or a belief of sensation in matter, we sometimes slacken in our effort to correct it.
In the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy reminds us of our inconsistency thus (p. 9): "Dost thou 'love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind'? This command includes much, even the surrender of all merely material sensation, affection, and worship. This is the El Dorado of Christianity. It involves the Science of Life, and recognizes only the divine control of Spirit, in which Soul is our master, and material sense and human will have no place."
The Apostle Paul realized the need for reflecting divine control when he wrote to the Philippians (4:8), "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." When we are constantly acknowledging and practicing truthfulness, integrity, justice, and the other qualities which constitute the perfect man, then we reflect divine control and maintain perfection by rejecting the human deviations of sin, sickness, and death.
We must reflect divine control over our bodies, our homes, and our employment. These make up the assemblage of everyday experience. A sick home relationship or a sick business is not different from a sick body. Through Science all concepts are brought under the control of the divine law of perfection; and our bodies, our homes, and our work can be maintained in their proper functioning by divine law. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (pp. 208, 209): "A material body only expresses a material and mortal mind. A mortal man possesses this body, and he makes it harmonious or discordant according to the images of thought impressed upon it. You embrace your body in your thought, and you should delineate upon it thoughts of health, not of sickness. You should banish all thoughts of disease and sin and of other beliefs included in matter." These statements illustrate the basic law of divine control in all of our affairs, including home and business.
The successful student of Christian Science does not allow even a few misconceptions to find their way into his concept of completeness. He uses man's God-given dominion and discards erroneous suggestions immediately. This eliminating of the false allows only the true to remain, and he is blessed with harmony.
One cannot declare perfection for himself and then admit that imperfection is real in his business partner or his spouse. Accepting an erroneous part will hinder the perfect unfoldment of the complete whole. Regardless of where the discord seems to appear, the same spiritual truth corrects discord by revealing only the real and perfect. The process of reflecting is a constant activity. God's perfection is manifested everywhere because of the basic truth that God is everywhere.
An interesting experience of the writer's serves as an illustration. He was working next to a man who had a wart on the back of his hand. This co-worker was constantly looking at the growth and even secured a magnifying glass to enlarge his view of the error. These actions annoyed the writer, and within a few days he had a growth on the back of his hand in exactly the same spot. This development awakened him to the fact that he had not exercised his individual reflection of divine control in rejecting imperfection both in regard to his co-worker and to himself. When he utilized this control, the material deviations from perfection on both men soon disappeared. Every place we go, everything we do, everyone with whom we are in contact, must be understood in Science as having part in God's perfect, spiritual creation.
The daily reading of our Lesson-Sermons, outlined in the Christian Science Quarterly, is one of the requirements of our own inspection department. Through our study of this lesson we are awakened to the subtle suggestions of error, which would try to convince us that we are less than perfect. Through this study we come to accept only the perfect as real, and thus we experience healthy, happy lives. We have to do the accepting for ourselves. We cannot expect someone else to do this work for us.
The richness brought to mankind by the revelation of Christian Science in the correcting of human experience through divine control is laid before us by Mrs. Eddy on page 167 of the textbook: "We apprehend Life in divine Science only as we live above corporeal sense and correct it. Our proportionate admission of the claims of good or of evil determines the harmony of our existence,—our health, our longevity, and our Christianity."
