THE days have come again when the thoughts of the Christian pilgrims of every land are Hocking toward Judea. Like homing pigeons they are finding their long way back to the hillside village where "appeared a great light," and out of the midst of it were heard angel voices, singing that sweet song which has echoed through the centuries. The great Nazarene has, and will ever retain, the reverence of the world's nobility. Misunderstood, misjudged, disowned, dishonored, accused, betrayed, condemned, mocked, scourged, crucified, and pierced to the heart—through it all, and despite it all, this divinely inspired man proved so great and so good as to be able to love on to the last, and even those who pitilessly persecuted him,—aye, he forever loves because he is of God, and God is Love.
The world has not rightly apprehended the Master (even angels here might fail), but it has felt the appeal of his sincerity, his unselfishness, his true brotherliness, and so it has trusted him without regard to the discredit and dishonor which the life of those who have borne his name would have brought him, and today he is humanity's peerless ideal and quickening hope. Nevertheless, Christian believers have always been far more reverential than logical and practical in their thought of him. They have worshiped much while understanding little and assimilating less. Christ Jesus has been recognized as the Messiah, the Son of God, the redeemer of men, but it remained for Christian Science to awaken the practically new sense of him as measuring in his thought and doing the meaning of life for his every brother man,—what it can and should become in the individual experience today. This may be said to be one of the most distinctive features of Mrs. Eddy's teaching, and its influence is rapidly permeating all Christian thought.
A Protestant bishop has recently said that "what Jesus was, men should be," that this is "the kernel of the gospel, the summary of the whole Christian religion." These words, it is reported, were repeated over and over again, and well do they merit the emphasis thus given them, so far-reaching and momentous is their significance. Christ Jesus manifested the presence and power of God, of Life, Truth, and Love, and what he did we should do,—this is the simple Christology of Christian Science. The Christian world has always maintained the first of these declarations, but for centuries it has practically denied the second, so far as his healing work is concerned, and it is here that Christian Science is making its protest and appeal. It is interpreting Christian privilege and duty in the light of Jesus' statement, "The works that I do shall ye do also; and greater works than these shall ye do." "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." It is insisting upon the present availability of divine law, and that it is the business of every believer to bring it into demonstration.
