In reading the gospel of St. John we cannot fail to see that the mission of Jesus was to show mortals the true man,—that self which can never be separated from its Creator,—and we are forcibly struck with the boldness and persistency with which he declares himself to be the son of God. He tells us, "I can of mine own self do nothing," and at another time he makes this statement: "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things so ever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise."
Over and over again we find him declaring his unity with the Father, as if to impress it more deeply in the minds of the people. He came to show sinners the way out of this world of sorrow and wickedness, by working out his own salvation, thus proving to all that the spiritual man, made in God's image and likeness, can be made manifest in this present state of existence. Jesus is our example, he is the pattern we must all follow if we would reach the same goal. He has pointed out the way, and we cannot build on any other plan, but must carefully construct with the same materials and on the same foundation, that we may have a pure Temple, and that Love may abide therein. Now Jesus built his temple on a spiritual foundation of Truth and Love, which proved a rock in the spiritual kingdom that all the world's hatred and malice could never overthrow. This rock on which he erected his "shrine of Love" (Science and Health, p. 586), in whose shadow he always dwelt, and from whose summit he never descended, was the Truth of his Being, his coexistence with the Father, of whose omnipresence and power he never ceased to be conscious. It was this true sense of his divine sonship, that placed such a distance between Jesus and his companions, for while they were looking to matter for life and substance, his gaze was fixed on Spirit, his never-failing and only supply—Immortal Love.
Now this advanced spiritual understanding made Jesus conscious of a great gulf existing between himself and mankind in general, and so elicited the command addressed to those who desired to be his disciples, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate." Yet we see that he did not mean this to be carried out in its literal sense, for had he so intended, he would not have been found at work in the carpenter's shop, nor later on, teaching and healing the multitude, thus proving that these words were to be fulfilled in mind.
