Though nineteen hundred years have passed since the wondrous boy of Nazareth trudged about its narrow streets hand in hand with his maiden mother, the remembrance of him still awakens in all mankind the noblest impulses, while in every land and clime the approach of his natal day is heralded with great joy, and with a sense of kindliness and good will toward all that speaks for the irresistible charm and winsomeness of the reflection of Truth and Love which made the Master's life so incomparably exalted and unique. "The carpenter's son" who lived so humbly and humanly in the long ago, is today without question the most vital and influential force of the civilized world. Other kings have fought their way to distinction and power, and for a day's span their authority has been enforced by the might of arms; this king has maintained an uninterrupted sway in all the centuries and in all the world, and by love alone. He has awakened the reverence of the world's greatest men, even when with Renan they have neither accepted his philosophy nor conformed to his ideal. With practical unanimity they have said with Herder, "Jesus Christ is, in the noblest and most perfect sense, the realized ideal of humanity."
Because of their pitiful inconsistency, their unlikeness to him, his followers have often brought his cause into contempt, and today there is frequent occasion to note the absence of that respect which the Christian church and ministry ought to command. As a whole the masses seem to have less and less regard for time-honored dogma and doctrine, less and less respect for the form and ritual which have so long been associated with religious profession; but though they be thus indifferent to what they may identify with Christianity, and even count themselves its enemies, the great majority continue to honor the Christ in their hearts, and are prompt to pay the Galilean a loving tribute.
In the effort to explain these facts we may not hope to analyze this matchless life save in the modest measure of our present spiritual understanding. Nevertheless, no one can fail to recognize some of the salient features of a character and conduct which has made such a continuous and determinative appeal to men. Christian Science enables one to apprehend more clearly the greatness of Christ Jesus and the philosophy of his rule. In its light we see as not before that his greatness is found in the ideality of his concept of being. His recognition of God as divine Love, of man as God's unfallen image and wholly spiritual, offers a basis of faith and a ground of hope such as the world had not otherwise known. More than this, he met that desire for princely leadership in pursuit of the ideal which is no less intuitive than world-wide, and he did this by so identifying himself with the ideal as to be free to say, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." Like the diamond, he claimed the light for his very own, and with unfailing abandon he radiated Its glory into the faces of all who received him. This was the continued ministry of Christ Jesus, and this surely is the key to his unbroken and saving hold upon the thought of the civilized world today. He stood for the true man and the true life, and he became for all men and all time a revelation of the heart of both. He was always loyal to his highest sense. This was his own salvation, and it made clear the way of salvation for others. In the beauty of a perfect blamelessness he satisfied the utmost demands of consistency, and thus disclosed the significance of an unvarying conformity to law, the meaning of "the liberty of the children of God."
