Christ Jesus patiently prepared his disciples for the task of spreading his teachings among mankind. "I will make you fishers of men"Matt. 4:19; was one of his earliest pronouncements on what would characterize his followers as effective representatives of his church. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes: "Jesus established his church and maintained his mission on a spiritual foundation of Christ-healing. He taught his followers that his religion had a divine Principle, which would cast out error and heal both the sick and the sinning. He claimed no intelligence, action, nor life separate from God. Despite the persecution this brought upon him, he used his divine power to save men both bodily and spiritually."Science and Health, p. 136;
The Master proved by his loving, healing, God-inspired works that his Father, or divine Principle, was Life, Truth, and Love. He demonstrated the Christ, spiritual manhood, embodying the loving nature and power of divinity and including by reflection the universe of Spirit. Jesus demanded as a rule of human conduct that one should love God, good, supremely, and one's neighbor as oneself. In fact, to love God above all and one's neighbor as oneself is the natural order of being in divine Science. God is responsible for creating man's divinely loving nature, for man's true consciousness is God's reflection.
The law of Love, perpetually operating in the real or spiritual man, is the basis of health, harmony, and immortality. As the spiritual selfhood of man is revealed in Christian Science, the loving qualities of true manhood are brought to light in human experience. If discordant conditions seem to arise, or our efforts to attract the stranger to our church are not successful, we should carefully examine our thought to make sure we are obeying the two great commandments upon which the effective practice of scientific Christianity rests.
