IT is recorded that those who were privileged to hear the greatest of all sermons, the Sermon on the Mount, were astonished at the doctrine of the great Teacher, "for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." They were impressed with the fact that the meek and lowly Nazarene was inspired by something more than the mere learning of the schools. He taught in such a simple, direct, and positive manner that the "common people heard him gladly." He knew whereof he spake for he was able to prove his words by his deeds. He understood and demonstrated his oneness with the Father to such a degree that he was never in doubt as to what was the will of God. When standing at the grave of Lazarus he said, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou nearest me always." When he cried with a loud voice, the last enemy was overcome, and he of whom it was said that he had been dead four days came forth in manifestation of the eternal reality of Life and the immortality of man.
The Master was just as positive as to what his students would be able to accomplish, if they understood his teachings and their lives bore faithful witness thereto, as he was regarding his own ability to demonstrate the truth of being. He even went so far as to say on one occasion that the great works he had performed would be surpassed by those who gained the spiritual understanding of God and man. Those divinely natural works, which seemed so marvelous to the human mind, revealed the possibilities of enlightened faith, but the Master was able to give still greater proofs of God's power before his earthly mission was accomplished.
His abiding conviction that the divine Mind could and would work through those who understood what he had taught and demonstrated as it had worked through him, is indicated by such emphatic declarations as these: "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done into you." "If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it." "Verily, verily, I say into you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you."
