Most of us have asked at some time, "Is Christianity really practical?" The answer given by Christian Science is a most emphatic, Yes! Christ Jesus obviously considered his teachings to be practical. When John the Baptist once sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus the question (Matt. 11:3), "Art thou he that should come?" the Master replied, "Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them."
Most people would like to be convinced that the teachings of the New Testament are practical. They would like to feel certain that God is Love and that an understanding of God and obedience to His law would not only ensure joy and freedom in what is called the hereafter, but also would be a guarantee of security, harmony, health, peace, joy, right here. Jesus demonstrated the ever-availability and practicality of divine law by overcoming sin, disease, and death. His teachings were not mere theological abstractions, and the subsequent lives and works of the apostles proved that they did not regard these teachings as such. Theirs was a living and vital faith which healed the sick, raised the dead, and opened the prison gates.
It was Jesus' spiritual understanding which enabled him to speak "as one having authority, and not as the scribes" (Matt. 7:29) and which empowered him to perform his mighty works. This spiritual understanding or knowledge of God and His Christ, which Jesus possessed and imparted to his disciples, was no new thing in the history of the human race. Abraham had glimpsed it and was led forth from Ur of the Chaldees to found a new nation in the land of Canaan. Joseph knew its light in Egypt, and later the divine idea so inspired Moses that he was enabled to free his people from the yoke of the Pharaohs.
