With the swiftly passing years we are again recalling the time when the Son of God was so manifested to humanity by Christ Jesus that the world's thought could never again be the same as it had been, could never again plead ignorance of God in justification of evil thinking or doing. Since that time the rift in the clouds of material sense which enabled the Judean shepherds to catch a glimpse of the heavenly host has been widening, and to-day we not only see what they saw and hear what they heard, but in the clear light of divine Science we are coming to apprehend the Christ as the type of true manhood to which all men must "be conformed," to use Paul's words, in order to express what man really is. Reverently and scientifically Mrs. Eddy explains what has to so many seemed "the mystery of godliness." She says, "Jesus was the highest human concept of the perfect man. He was inseparable from Christ, the Messiah, — the divine idea of God outside the flesh. This enabled Jesus to demonstrate his control over matter" (Science and Health, p. 482).
Referring to Jesus' spiritual origin and divine conception, Mrs. Eddy says, "The history of Jesus shows him to have been more spiritual than all other earthly personalities" (Ibid., p. 315). While this spirituality undoubtedly separated Christ Jesus from sinful mortals, yet we find that he constantly urged all men to reach the spiritual heights on which he stood. He never claimed for himself aught that he did not hold to be attainable by all who sincerely sought the truth. He said to the unbelieving, "Ye neither know me, nor my Father," but after his resurrection he called the faithful disciples brethren, and said, "My Father, and your Father;" "my God, and your God." Paul says that "in Christ "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," but he also prays that "the whole family in heaven and earth . . . might be filled with all the fulness of God."
While Christian Science shows clearly how all may attain to the realization of the divine ideal, it never teaches that we should venture to predicate of mortal man that which is true only of God's perfect likeness. Mrs. Eddy declares that "mortals are not like immortals, created in God's own image" (Science and Health, p. 295); and she does not teach that Jesus beheld an immortal in a mortal, but that he "beheld in Science the perfect man," and she adds, "Soul, being Spirit, is seen in nothing imperfect nor material" (Ibid., p. 477). Christian Science teaches, as does the Bible, that the mortal, the false concept of man must be "put off," and that only as this is done can we claim to express man's likeness to the perfect Father. Paul rebuked those who claimed to be spiritual while manifesting "envy, and strife, and divisions." He told them that they were "yet carnal." For himself he humbly said that he had not yet attained to the full stature of manhood in Christ, but he said the final word on the question of spiritual sonship when he declared in that wonderful eighth chapter of Romans, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." To the extent that we are led by Spirit and governed by spiritual law we are separated from materiality and are on our way to "see him [God] as he is," and to be indeed the children of God.
