Because Jesus knew and demonstrated more of Truth than any one else, his appeal to mankind is the most tender invitation and the clearest call the world has ever heard: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Throughout the Christian era mankind has heard this matchless appeal, and the hearts of countless thousands have been touched by the tender compassion of the Master's words; to others it has occasioned emotional ecstasy which has given a fleeting sense of comfort, has brought actual healing to as many, indeed, as have understood the simple, spiritual import of this invitation and promise. It has, however, been left to Christian Science to explain its significance.
The human mind persists in the endeavor to reduce everything to the dead level of materiality, simply because it is itself wholly material, and so the world has mistaken the call, having looked to a personal sense of Jesus as Savior instead of to the Christ he manifested. Out of the fullness of his love, and in tender yearning for the welfare of mankind, Jesus of Nazareth sent forth this appeal; but it was not to his physical personality that he bade men come; it was to the Christ which he exemplified, taught, and demonstrated. Yet even his immediate followers did not at once comprehend his meaning. How quickly the spiritual significance of his mission and teaching became overshadowed by the inherent tendency of the human mind to deify human personality need not now be traced; the fact of it is all too apparent, and surely it was this very tendency which made it so difficult for his immediate followers to understand his words and works. They either could not see past the Jesus of Nazareth or else they worshiped and deified him, which is very much the same thing. Recognizing this, the Master endeavored with great persistency to turn men's thoughts away from his physical personality, and, by inference, from that of others. Over and over again this effort is recorded in such utterances as, "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God," and, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do." With statements like these Jesus rebuked this error and sent down the ages a trenchant warning, for he knew the human mind to be an inveterate idolater.
It was to the Christ, then, that Jesus bade men come—to the knowledge that man is not material but spiritual, and therefore is the image and likeness of God, divine Mind, now sinless and complete. This correct view of man and of man's relationship to God, who is the Father Mother of us all, lifts the sense of matter's oppression and shows tired humanity that a man does not have to bow down under a load of false belief. Christian Science explains that the yoke which Jesus bore and commended to us is the responsibility of demonstrating, in the everyday life of human experience, the spiritual facts which this discernment of reality unfolds, and in the proportion in which we are faithfully proving the allness of God, good, and His infinite manifestation by demonstrating the nothingness of matter, materiality, and personal sense, we shall experience the promise which follows Jesus' appeal, rest from the false sense of life, substance, pleasure and pain in matter. The joy of discerning Truth and the willingness to leave all for Christ make hope buoyant, and enabled Jesus to declare, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." But it is only in the willingness to give up materiality that this buoyancy is found, and it is well to remember the order in which Jesus phrased his sentence. First he said, "Take my yoke upon you," then, "learn of me," and as reward he promised rest.
