The narrative in the twenty first chapter of St. John's gospel takes us back to the scene and circumstances of the early ministry of Jesus. The place of his appearing on this occasion is invested with peculiar sacredness, and the words which he spoke are embalmed with the most tender and hallowed associations in the hearts of Christian Scientists throughout the civilized world. It would seem that this chapter of the last survivor of the original apostles may have been written with the purpose of telling what Jesus said to Peter on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. However that may be, one part of the story shows us that the Master, after his resurrection and victory over the grave, lost none of his interest in the common things of human experience; for the record tells us that the first words he uttered when he appeared on the shore were, "Children, have ye any meat?" But these honest toilers of the sea had spent the long dark night vainly, for they had caught nothing. When they told this to their Master, he directed them to cast their net "on the right side," and when they did so they at once met with success.
There have been countless thousands of honest seekers after truth, who through all the ages have spent their years in a long dark night of fruitless desire, because they were casting their nets on the wrong side. The psalmist says, however, "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." This is the morning of the Christ appearing on the everlasting shore of all time, the dawn of spiritual understanding, the promised Comforter, Christian Science, saying to the weary and heavy laden: Lift up your heads from your heavy tasks and hear the voice of the Christ, Truth, coming clear and calm across the dark waters of superstitious belief: "Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find."
The supposition that we can accomplish anything separate and apart from God is an assumption that would, if true, dishonor Deity and deny the relationship of God and man. Humanly speaking, Jesus said, "I can of mine own self do nothing." Spiritually speaking, Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me." Christian Science demonstrates a law that identifies a perfect state of order and unity between God and His creation. This law interprets the conscious mental volition of God's man, made in His image and likeness, as emanating from the divine Mind, or Principle, through which man is endowed with power to act. On page 276 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes, "Man and his Maker are correlated in divine Science, and real consciousness is cognizant only of the things of God." Learning the lesson of man's unity with the divine source of his being, we come to see that it consists in mentally reflecting God's thought, and through a spiritualized mental process we are enabled to eliminate everything that does not come from God. To the Christian Scientist things seen and temporal only shadow forth the abiding reality and surpassing glory of things unseen and eternal.
