A Receptive attitude of thought, a willingness to listen, a confidence in the truth and an obedience to it, precede our accepting the Christ, God's perfect idea. Our Master pointed out our need of humble, childlike receptivity as a requisite for accepting the Christ and thereby entering the kingdom of heaven.
Some have accepted the Christ to such a degree that they have performed marvelous works. Mary Baker Eddy gives this definition of "Christ" in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 583): "The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error." When the Christ enters human consciousness, healing works abound. Moses, through his perception and acceptance of the Christ, Truth, healed leprosy, fed the children of Israel with manna, gave them water out of the rock, divided the Red Sea for them to pass through, and gave them the rules for right thinking and acting contained in the Ten Commandments. The prophets of old glimpsed the Christ and were able to heal the sick and sinful and do many mighty works.
Today, the Christ is as definitely present as in the days of the patriarchs or of Jesus. Through the teachings of Christian Science in this age there has come an unfoldment of the Christ, Truth, which has enabled its students to better understand that the Christ comes as a spiritual message to the individual consciousness and, when fully accepted, brings healing. Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 271), "Christ's Christianity is the chain of scientific being reappearing in all ages, maintaining its obvious correspondence with the Scriptures and uniting all periods in the design of God."
