"Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe" (Science and Health, p. 313), is the grateful and loving tribute of the most scientific woman who has graced this world's history. As a Scientist all his work was performed in the mental laboratory.—the realm of thought. He accomplished great and noble deeds because great and noble thoughts actuated him. His Principle was Love. His rules were divine. The spiritual laws he utilized and enforced were harmony and perfection, and had always existed. His morale was embraced in the Ten Commandments. The results he obtained were health, harmony, holiness, and immortality. His basis for demonstration was the great truth that nothing exists apart from God and His ideas, —that in the infinitude of Love nothing beside Love and Love's ideas could have existence. His starting point was that the only universe there is, including man, is wholly spiritual, and under the absolute control of Spirit, divine Principle, and therefore harmonious. His purpose was to reveal the Christ to every man, and show mankind what this blissful state of consciousness called heaven is, and how it is to be obtained. His forty days in the wilderness indicated the necessity for overcoming the temptation to believe in that erroneous mental state that Adam, or mortal man, finds himself in after he has succumbed to the argument of the serpent that knowledge is obtainable of something besides good. His object in meeting this error and detecting its operation was for the specific purpose of destroying it.
The advent of Jesus occurred at the very time when his presence was most needed, and when the human mind was most receptive to the divine idea. This mental receptiveness, as is always the case, provided material for demonstration by the master Metaphysician through scientific reversal of mortal thought, which holds within itself the belief of evil. By the process of spiritual thinking he could demonstrate the unreality of evil as expressed in discordant mental and physical conditions.
The secret of his success lay in his wonderful unselfed love, and his apprehension of true being. To him to live was to love, because his living Principle was Love. He admitted no power, recognized no substance, acknowledged no law but Love. This all-absorbing devotion, this undivided recognition of infinite Love, endowed him with mighty power, revealed the Christ-man, raised him above all others, and drew all men to him. That the keynote of Jesus' ministry should be harmony was both natural and logical, because his Principle was Love. His two favorite figures of speech were "the kingdom of heaven" and "the kingdom of God." It will be remembered that after overcoming the temptation in the wilderness, his first recorded public declaration as given by Matthew was, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." In other words, Reverse your thinking: heaven is here. Then followed that wonderful discourse called the Sermon on the Mount, which on close study, it will be observed, was delivered primarily to his disciples, as a master addressing his students, and which embodies the whole morale and ethics of Christian Science practice.
