Man undergoing birth, maturity, and decay is like the beasts and vegetables, — subject to laws of decay. If 15Man never less than manman were dust in his earliest stage of exist-ence, we might admit the hypothesis that he returns eventually to his primitive condition; 18but man was never more nor less than man.

    Man in Science is neither young nor old. He has 24neither birth nor death. He is not a beast, a vegetable, Man not evolvednor a migratory mind. He does not pass from matter to Mind, from the mortal to the im-27mortal, from evil to good, or from good to evil. Such admissions cast us headlong into darkness and dogma. Even Shakespeare’s poetry pictures age as infancy, as 30helplessness and decadence, instead of assigning to man the everlasting grandeur and immortality of development, power, and prestige.

    The infinite never began nor will it ever end. Mind 246 246:1 and its formations can never be annihilated. Man is not a pendulum, swinging between evil and good, joy and 3Man reflects Godsorrow, sickness and health, life and death. Life and its faculties are not measured by calendars. The perfect and immortal are the eternal 6likeness of their Maker. Man is by no means a material germ rising from the imperfect and endeavoring to reach Spirit above his origin. The stream rises no higher than 9its source.

    The measurement of life by solar years robs youth and gives ugliness to age. The radiant sun of virtue and truth 12coexists with being. Manhood is its eternal noon, un-dimmed by a declining sun.

    Never record ages. Chronological data are no part 18of the vast forever. Time-tables of birth and death are Undesirable recordsso many conspiracies against manhood and womanhood. Except for the error of meas -21uring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, man would enjoy more than threescore years and ten and still maintain his vigor, freshness, and promise. Man, 24governed by immortal Mind, is always beautiful and grand. Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty, and holiness.

27    Life is eternal. We should find this out, and begin the demonstration thereof. Life and goodness are immortal. True life eternalLet us then shape our views of existence into 30loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather than into age and blight.

    Beauty, as well as truth, is eternal; but the beauty of material things passes away, fading and fleeting as 12Eternal beautymortal belief. Custom, education, and fashion form the transient standards of mortals. Im -mortality, exempt from age or decay, has a glory of its 15own, — the radiance of Soul. Immortal men and women are models of spiritual sense, drawn by perfect Mind and reflecting those higher conceptions of loveliness 18which transcend all material sense.

    Comeliness and grace are independent of matter. Beauty is a thing of life, which dwells forever in the eternal Mind and re-flects the charms of His goodness in expression, form, 24outline, and color.

    The embellishments of the person are poor substitutes for the charms of being, shining resplendent and eternal 30over age and decay.

    The recipe for beauty is to have less illusion and more Soul, to retreat from the belief of pain or pleasure 248 248:1in the body into the unchanging calm and glorious free-dom of spiritual harmony.

3    Love never loses sight of loveliness. Its halo rests upon its object. One marvels that a friend can ever seem less Love’s endowmentthan beautiful. Men and women of riper 6years and larger lessons ought to ripen into health and immortality, instead of lapsing into darkness or gloom. Immortal Mind feeds the body with supernal 9freshness and fairness, supplying it with beautiful images of thought and destroying the woes of sense which each day brings to a nearer tomb.

    If Truth is overcoming error in your daily walk and conversation, you can finally say, “I have fought a 3Moral victorygood fight . . . I have kept the faith,” be-cause you are a better man.

    “Work out your own salvation,” is the demand of 12Life and Love, for to this end God worketh with you. Wait for reward“Occupy till I come!” Wait for your re-ward, and “be not weary in well doing.” If 15your endeavors are beset by fearful odds, and you receive no present reward, go not back to error, nor become a sluggard in the race.

18    When the smoke of battle clears away, you will dis-cern the good you have done, and receive according to your deserving.

    Deducing one’s conclusions as to man from imperfec-260260:1tion instead of perfection, one can no more arrive at the true conception or understanding of man, and make him-3self like it, than the sculptor can perfect his outlines from an imperfect model, or the painter can depict the form and face of Jesus, while holding in thought the character 6of Judas.

    The conceptions of mortal, erring thought must give way to the ideal of all that is perfect and eternal. Through 9Spiritual discoverymany generations human beliefs will be attain-ing diviner conceptions, and the immortal and perfect model of God’s creation will finally be seen as 12the only true conception of being.

    The sculptor turns from the marble to his model in order to perfect his conception. We are all sculptors, Mental sculptureworking at various forms, moulding and chisel-15ing thought. What is the model before mortal mind? Is it imperfection, joy, sorrow, sin, suffering? Have you accepted the mortal model? Are you repro-18ducing it? Then you are haunted in your work by vicious sculptors and hideous forms. Do you not hear from all mankind of the imperfect model? The world is holding 21it before your gaze continually. The result is that you are liable to follow those lower patterns, limit your life-work, and adopt into your experience the angular outline 24and deformity of matter models.

    To remedy this, we must first turn our gaze in the right direction, and then walk that way. We must form perfect 27Perfect modelsmodels in thought and look at them continually, or we shall never carve them out in grand and noble lives. Let unselfishness, goodness, mercy, justice, 30health, holiness, love — the kingdom of heaven — reign within us, and sin, disease, and death will diminish until they finally disappear.

    Let us accept Science, relinquish all theories based on sense-testimony, give up imperfect models and illusive 3ideals; and so let us have one God, one Mind, and that one perfect, producing His own models of excellence.