KNOWING our Leader is a necessity for all who would progress in individual spiritual unfoldment. Being the one in this age who discovered Christ's healing and saving power, Mary Baker Eddy will always be the Leader of those who are following this revelation of divine Truth. Fulfilling Bible prophecy, she discovered the Science of Christ, which is the Holy Ghost, or divine Comforter, promised by the Master. This Science, or Comforter, gives the rules through which Christ-healing is made operative in human affairs—the Science men were not ready to grasp in any great measure during Jesus' time. An individual's acceptance of Christian Science as the way of Life makes Mrs. Eddy's leadership, through the study of her writings, as potently and actively his as it was for those who lived in her household and lovingly helped her carry on her great work. The divine leadership found in her writings continually beckons mankind on, and all who will obey it respond to Jesus' words (Matt. 4:19), "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Jesus showed forth and demonstrated in his experience the Christ, the regenerative activity of true godliness, by completely solving the problem of being and thus fulfilling his mission. He knew that mankind, in order to understand the import of his demonstration of divine Principle, must know him aright and recognize his Godlike nature, purpose, and motive. Because of this he taught and questioned his disciples until their understanding of his true selfhood was clarified. He was not satisfied with their attempts to identify him in terms of popular superstition, but approved the Apostle Peter's dawning spiritual discernment, which found expression in these words (Matt. 16:16): "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Since Jesus acted under divine guidance, his insistence upon the disciples' recognition of him as God's representative indicates that this recognition must have been necessary to their spiritual growth. Their acceptance of the divine message, the Christ, Truth, and their ability to utilize it were proportional to their understanding of the true idea, or Son of God, who appeared to mortals as Jesus. The coincidence of spiritual knowing and doing is illustrated in Jesus' words (Mark 9:39), "There is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me."
