"I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). When Christ Jesus spoke these words the material world lashed back at him in defiance of the truth which was able to destroy its claim to reality. But the Master went serenely on, overcoming sin and disease. He who was "the Prince of life" stressed life and goodness continually in his words and works. After submitting to his persecutors, he proved that the way out of materiality is through Life, God, not through death and dissolution.
To grow spiritually should be the lifework of humanity and underlie all its longings for peace and happiness. However, the highest concept of good held by many at present is the increase and improvement of matter and its more equal distribution among all the inhabitants of the earth; while some people, more plagued by the troubles of materiality than immersed in its pleasures, look to death as the only escape route from tribulation.
Neither the lover of the world nor the one who is weary of it will find the joy and peace which are secure and permanent until all good is sought in God, the Father of genuine good. And we have Christ Jesus' assertion, "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me." The "me" to which Jesus referred is the Christ, or divine nature, which he demonstrated by destroying the false material beliefs of sin, disease, and death. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy reveals the ever-present function of the Christ (p. 332): "Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness."
