As the character of Christ Jesus is studied in the light of Christian Science, we are impressed by the fact that his spotless purity offers the best explanation of his mighty works. This being admitted, we may well ponder deeply his fearless declaration, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." This surely means that no other nature than that which he expressed could draw near to God in any true sense, and the statement is sustained by his words in the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." In no instance does he intimate that we can see God in any other way than this, and the entire text of the gospels goes to show that he regarded this purity as inseparable from man's true being, something which the storms and tempests of mortal passion may assail, but which can never be destroyed because it is an element of the divine nature and is reflected by man as God's likeness.
In proof of this, we have the wonderful story of the woman who was called "a sinner," but who had that in her which responded to the mighty appeal of Jesus' sinlessness, to the spiritual attraction which lifted her at once and forever above the belief in the power of evil to defile and degrade any child of God. So far as we can gather from the gospels, there was no turning back or looking back in her case, else would she not have been the first to witness the great fact of the resurrection, and been commissioned to proclaim it to the brethren, who still doubted and disbelieved. She had seen "the light of the world," and its radiance dispelled for her the belief that there is pleasure or profit in sin, or that man as God's likeness can ever be a sinner.
Here let us pause for a moment, to read the inspired words of our dear Leader, who says: "Christian Science demonstrates that none but the pure in heart can see God, as the gospel teaches. In proportion to his purity is man perfect; and perfection is the order of celestial being which demonstrates Life in Christ, Life's spiritual ideal" (Science and Health, p. 337). It is true that we find in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, some dreadful pictures of mortal depravity, but never is the belief in evil condoned, and its uncovering only points to its utter destruction when pierced by the keen rays of divine Truth. It would sometimes seem, according to the Scriptures, that moral impurity, whatever its disguise, is the source of all evil, and this is explained by Robert Burns, in a letter to a young man at college, when he says,—
