Practice makes perfect
THE keyboard of a piano contains an ''almost'' infinite range of melodic possibilities. Not only have untold thousands of compositions been written within its range of notes, but many compositions can be played with various combinations and quality of instruments and voices, and can be interpreted differently each time they are performed. Yet the performance of each composition must, to be classed as music, conform to standards of execution that , to the greatest degree possible, exclude the presence of mistakes.
For all of its apparently infinite possibilities, there really is no provision in music for the accommodation of mistakes. The goal of any musician's practice is to attain dominion over instrument or voice and thereby eliminate mistakes; and this is demonstrably possible because accuracy is suported by laws that can be learned and practiced, while mistakes are simply unsupported phenomena that attenuate and disappear as dominian is gained.
What's true about music is symbolic of the spiritual truths governing existence. Life really is an array of infinite manifestations of good governed by God's immutable laws--an infinity in which there really is no provision for the accommodation of error. As we learn about God's laws and faithfully practice them, the errors that seem to intrude into the good that we experience begin to lessen. To faithfully prctice God's laws is to abide by Ten Commandments and by the precepts Christ Jesus gave us in his Sermon on the Mount. As we do, errors progressively disappear because there are no laws supporting their existence.
Isn't this what Jesus proved by his works? As a virtuoso of the laws of God, proficient in unfolding Love's harmonies and divine rythem to mankind he showed us how to practice obedience to divine law by striving for perfection. He showed that life without the errors of sin, sickness, hunger, blindness, and so forth is possible and practical--in fact the inevitable result of genuine sprituality. Further, he pointed to the demand to progressively ascend above a materialistic, fleshly sense of life and prove our actual selfhood to be spiritual, sinless. The Master taught us to give bo thought to those supposititious laws that claim to control human life but rather to seek ''the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.'' n1 He counseled us to learn and prctice the spiritual truth that makes free. ''Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect,' n2 he said.
n1 See Matthew 6:33.
n2 Matthew 5:48.
Prcticing Christianity from the basis that God is perfect Spirit, errorless cause, and man His invariably perfect spiritual effect, or image, gives us power and dominion far beyond that attainable by human efforts to learn music. As we come to understand that, because God, is all power and presence, misakes can in reality have neither power nor presence, we learn to face with authority the mistaken sense that man is fallible and find that we can begin to eliminate error from our lives.
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes, referring to God: ''The understanding that the Ego is Mind, and that there is but one Mind or intellligence, begins at once to destoy the errors of mortal sense and to supple the truth of immortal sense.'' n3
n3 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 216.
Errors, even those believed to have some sort of cause-and-effect relationship, such as disease, poverty, and crime, cannot actually play any legitimate role in our lives. Lacking divine law, error is causeless and powerless, and this is a fact we can increasingly prove.
As we practice expressing the spiritual qualities of God, and deny error any right to place or power in our consciousness, it comes to have no place or power in our bodies and lives. And with this understanding we can help others who may be struggling with disease, poverty, or other ills. Practice will reveal that man's spiritual perfection exists to be demonstrated. DAILY BIBLE VERSE The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. . . . Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore. For the Lord loveth judgement, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever. . . . Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace. Psalms 37:23, 24, 27, 28, 37
