"Father, . . . glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee." In these words, uttered towards the climax of his earthly career with a profound consciousness of impending events and a prophetic recognition of their significance in the spiritual history of humanity, Jesus summed up the entire purpose of his great life mission. It was to reveal, by word and deed, by unmistakable spiritual evidence, the inseparability and reciprocal relationship of God and man, Principle and idea, so often designated by him as Father and son.
That this gift of sonship, with its attributes and responsibilities, was not confined and limited to Christ Jesus becomes apparent from further consideration of his words in the same chapter, where he shows that the mission of his students was identical with his own. "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world," he declared; and he added, "The glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one."
How clearly does the great Exemplar outline for his followers the sublime purpose which was the motive of his brief sojourn on earth, and what an inspiring future does he envision in the practicability of his teaching and example in the words just quoted. For each one of us to whom has come at least in some degree the revelation of the Science of Life through the illumination thrown upon the Bible by the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, and the recognition of its infinite possibilities for ourselves, must come also the great call to consecrate our own lives, that we may demonstrate the transforming of the human experience by the divine.
