An intelligent, accurate, and unprejudiced study of the life of Jesus the Christ is invaluable, because it enables one to understand and to follow the example of the most righteous character in history, and thereby to work out one's own salvation. In pursuing this study one should know at the very outset that the word "Jesus" and the word "Christ" are not synonymous, though they are frequently so regarded. As a well-known Bible authority points out, Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew term Joshua, and was our Master's proper name, just as Peter, James, and John were the proper names of three of his disciples; and the name Jesus was not an uncommon one among the Jews. In both the Hebrew and Greek tongues the words for Christ have an identical meaning,—"Messiah, the Anointed," and ''the Anointed One." The authority goes on to say: "Christ is not, strictly speaking, a proper name, but an official title. Jesus Christ, or rather, as it might be rendered, Jesus the Christ, is a mode of expression of the same kind as John the Baptist, or Baptizer. In consequence of not adverting to this, the force, and even the meaning, of many passages of Scripture are misapprehended."
One should, therefore, always remember that the life of Jesus the Christ presents a twofold nature: that of humanity and that of divinity. One should make sure not to underestimate or to overestimate the human side of Christ Jesus' career, and also not to lose sight of the spiritual import of that career. By this is meant, that while the student should never fail to give proper consideration to the humanity of Jesus, still, on the other hand, he should not dwell wholly upon this humanity and make it the exclusive basis of his findings; and most certainly he should not regard lightly the spiritual side of the Master's life. If the work be conducted after this comprehensive yet discriminating manner, the student will gain helpful knowledge, capable of scientific demonstration. Thus will he become rightly acquainted with the Nazarene Prophet, and recognize him to be indeed the Way-shower of the human race.
In considering the physical or human, and the metaphysical or spiritual, as impressively manifested in the career of Jesus the Christ, one should learn to discern and to obey the requirements of wisdom. In this important regard one must be well poised; and he can reach this stage only by patiently and persistently striving to gain a right understanding of the words and the deeds of the great Exemplar, at the same time endeavoring to demonstrate his understanding. Here the teachings of Christian Science—the Science underlying both the sayings and the doings of Christ Jesus—will, if one accept and apply them, point him to that straight and narrow way of practical demonstration which the Master himself walked, for the sake of his followers.
