When a young man consulted Jesus about his spiritual progress, our Master counseled him to consider the demands of the moral law and the Golden Rule, and to live accordingly. On being assured that he had done so from early youth, Jesus pointed out to him his further opportunities of advancing and perfecting his understanding and demonstration of the life divine through self-sacrifice and consecrated Christian service: he should dispose of his encumbering possession and distribute to those in need, thereafter taking up the cross, associating himself with and engaging in our Master's healing ministry. In this way only could the young man achieve the perfect understanding and demonstration of eternal life which he desired. We read in the narrative in Mark's Gospel that the young man turned away sorrowfully from this counsel; and the Scripture goes on to record the Master's comments on this and his instructive explanation in reply to his disciples' questioning.
In giving counsel Jesus did more than simply answer a casual inquiry: he presented the way of salvation for all mankind, individually, out of mortality into immortality, out of the fear, ignorance, and wickedness of a false material sense of existence, with its sin, suffering, and death, into harmonious and true understanding, pure practice, and the forever enjoyment of unchanging spiritual good, ever present and ever available. Indeed, it is a brief precis of the whole Bible teaching.
In its true interpretation of the Scriptures, Christian Science makes clear to mortals the truth of spiritual cause and effect, whereby the whole why and wherefore of the moral law, the' Golden Rule, and the Christ-healing become so comprehensible to its students that the way to health, holiness, and spiritual perfection becomes plain to all who fulfill God's requirements.
