ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
To Jesus man was the true image of God. Christ's divine sense threw upon mortals the truer reflection of God. He lifted their lives higher than their poor models of thought would allow, — thoughts that presented man as fallen, sick, sinning, and dying. His understanding of scientific being and divine healing must include a perfect Principle and idea — perfect God and perfect man — as the basis of every thought.
Drawing our conclusions about man from an opposite standpoint, from imperfection instead of perfection, we can no more arrive at the true conception or understanding of man, and make ourselves like unto it, than the sculptor can perfect his outlines from an imperfect model, or the painter depict the form and face of Jesus by holding in thought the character of Judas. Truly is it written: —
| Sculptors of men are we, as we stand, |
| With our lives uncarved before us, |
| Waiting the hour when, at God's command, |
| Our life-dream passes o'er us. |
| If we carve it then, on the yielding stone, |
| With many a sharp incision, |
| Its heavenly beauty shall be our own, |
| Our lives that perfect vision. |
The conceptions of mortal, erring thought must give way to the ideal of all that is perfect and eternal. Mortals must change their ideals in order to improve their models. A sick body is evolved from sick thoughts. Evil, disease, and death arise from wrong vision. Sensualism evolves bad physical and moral conditions.
