CHRIST JESUS came as the light of the world, revealing to human consciousness the true sense of God and pointing to God alone as the source of all good, peace, and satisfaction, thus emphasizing the first commandment of the Decalogue, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Rome had claimed to bring the light of civil and political reform through military strength, but it led to ruin and decay. Greece thought to enlighten the world through human philosophy and culture, but the effort eventuated in empty imaginations and profitless theories. The Jews, who sought the same end by the ritualistic and ceremonial worship of their national God, were in the end satisfied with vain formalism and bigoted pedantry. Jesus eschewed all material systems and turned the thought of men to their divine source, the universal Father, of whom he said, "One is your Father, which is in heaven." Thus he brought to light the proper relation of man to God and to his fellow man; and his teachings have outlived the centuries and are still bringing peace and salvation to the human heart.
As the ages have come and gone since the days of the Galilean Teacher, the clearness and purity of his spiritual teachings have been dimmed through creed, dogma, and materiality of thought, so that the luster of that glorious light has become obscured and the ancient error of "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" has been repeated. However, the light could not be lost. Jesus said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away;" and in this age one whose heart reached out after God, and who was willing like the Master to lay her life on the altar of service for her fellow men, has cleared away much of the misunderstanding and confusion of religious thought and supplied the proofs of Truth's healing and saving efficacy, thus enabling all who will to see the light again in all its brilliancy. This Christ idea, brought to the world in the life of Jesus in the first century and now revealed afresh in Christian Science, is indeed the light of the world, inasmuch as it is capable of meeting the needs of every phase of human experience. As the Roman's ambition for power, the Greek's desire for learning and art, the Jew's hope in religion, could all be met by the true revelation of God, so can the longing in each human heart today find therein full satisfaction.
On page 208 of Science and Health we read that "material sense defines all things materially, and has a finite sense of the infinite;" and this has been one of the chief hindrances to the gain of that satisfaction which mankind has ever sought. When human desires are interpreted spiritually, and hope is turned to Spirit and its infinite resources for help, then the light of Truth begins to appear. Dependence on materiality can never produce the desired results; hence Christ Jesus was ever directing thought to spiritual means for satisfaction. He said, "The flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." Material sense has led not merely individuals but nations astray, and has blinded mankind to the truth of being and of man's relation to God. It has always hid from general thought the import of the great Teacher's life and teachings.
