The earnest student of Christian Science keeps uppermost in thought the necessity of working out his own salvation. He early learns that salvation from sin, sickness, and death must be an individual experience. The trials and besetments of human life which drive one to look about for some means of escape from the oppressive beliefs of materiality usually impress upon one's thought the fact that only spiritual regeneration can effect the desired release. Christ Jesus' assurance to Nicodemus that one must be born anew, awakens fresh interest in the possibilities of demonstration through the teachings of Christian Science. The earnest, receptive thought soon learns of man's spiritual purity as the child of divine Spirit. It learns, also, that this innate quality is inviolate by reason of the spiritual nature of its source. God being self-existent Spirit, the one omnipresent Mind. Spirit and its ideas constitute an indivisible entity.
The study of Christian Science brings to light new views of real being. One may have considered the redemptive life of Christ Jesus as a fact to be accepted on the basis of mere belief, the belief that a simple acknowledgment of the vicarious efficacy of Jesus' individual demonstration of life eternal would pass one into heaven. Christian Science presents the earthly life of the Master in a different light. The boy Jesus must have been a great student of the Scriptures. Already at twelve years he had been discussing spiritual truths with the doctors and the lawyers, engaging their profound attention and interest, as he listened to them and asked them questions. About eighteen years later, he stepped before the world when offering himself to John the Baptist for baptism, overruling John's demurrer of humility by the assurance that the rite was appropriate, under the circumstances. He was proclaimed by a voice from heaven, in the words, "Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased." Christ Jesus then faced and conquered the aggressive suggestions of the carnal mind in his forty days and forty nights of fasting and temptation in the wilderness. Thereafter, he progressed unfalteringly and unswervingly to his triumph over the grave, after which he reappeared to his disciples. His ascension above all material sense occurred about three years after he was baptized by John.
Christian Science teaches that, as the Bible states, man is made in the image and likeness of God. One who would be about his Father's business will, therefore, in his daily contacts with his fellow men, reflect God, infinite divine intelligence, firmly holding to the spiritual standpoint. He will seek to emulate the example of Christ Jesus according to his understanding of the spiritual premise from which the Master worked, and will progress in his own regeneration in proportion to his faithful and intelligent application of Jesus' teachings.
