CHRISTENDOM readily admits that Christ Jesus was the best man who ever lived on earth. Probably it will as readily agree that, with his profound understanding of God, he was the wisest. But it will not so readily acquiesce in the statement that the Nazarene was also the most scientific man the world has ever known; for as a rule men are not inclined to associate "science" with religion and ethics. As one thinks of these things, one is carried back in thought to the meeting of Jesus with the woman of Samaria at Jacob's well, and to what she said to him after listening to his inspired words on eternal life. Her words were, "I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things." To which he replied, "I that speak unto thee am he."
Not until Christian Science came, making clear the nature of God and of His creation, including man, was it possible to speak of Jesus as "the Scientist." But this Science shows, beyond possibility of doubt, that the Master's knowledge extended far beyond the limited beliefs of mortals, even to the realm of absolute being; that he had an accurate knowledge of reality; that this scientific understanding enabled him to estimate as untrue or unreal all forms of material belief. Jesus understood the nature of causation to be wholly spiritual,— that Spirit alone is causative,—and hence that the real creation is spiritual, not material. On page 313 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," under the marginal heading "Jesus the Scientist," Mrs. Eddy writes: "Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe. He plunged beneath the material surface of things, and found the spiritual cause." And at the end of the paragraph she adds, "Our Master gained the solution of being, demonstrating the existence of but one Mind without a second or equal."
It is wonderful to be able to think of Jesus as the profound Scientist he was; wonderful to think that he had grasped, as no other had done before him, the great fundamental truth of Mind's oneness and supremacy, and that with this knowledge he had discerned the unreality of matter and evil with such clearness as to be able to annul the so-called laws of matter, healing sickness and sin, and ultimately overcoming death in his own experience, finally "ascending" beyond material ken. And what is no less wonderful is the fact that through the teachings of Christian Science to-day, the same scientific understanding as his may be obtained by all who desire it.
