Article December 23, 1916 Issue

Jesus' Practical Example

STOKES ANTHONY BENNETT

"Whom say ye that I am?" the Master once asked his disciples. Simon Peter answered for his brethren, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Paul, reasoning with the Jews in the synagogue at Thessalonica, remarked, "This Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ." In the Hebrew and the Greek tongues the words for Christ have an identical meaning, — "Messiah, the Anointed;" "the anointed One." The Hebrew term for "anointed" denotes consecration, while the Hebrew term for "consecration" signifies devotion to the service of God. Therefore it is plain that the mission of Jesus the Christ was to do not his own but the Father's will. In other words, his mission was to preach and to demonstrate absolute truth, that truth which is defined in Christian Science as a scientific knowledge of God.

Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 313) : "Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe. He plunged beneath the material surface of things, and found the spiritual cause." Because Jesus was Christianly scientific,—was possessed of an absolute or provable knowledge of God, —he was mighty. Because he was not content to accept and abide by so-called material sense testimony, but barkened to and was governed by spiritual sense evidence, he met with unparalleled success. Acquainting mortals with the Christ, the divine idea of God, Jesus was indeed the great Teacher and Wayshower of mankind.

Jesus was the most practical man as well, for to be scientific means to have "exact knowledge or perception." He who has an exact knowledge of any subject which is founded upon truth, must in consequence be the master of it. Such a one is equipped to handle his subject practically,—to set forth and to demonstrate its fundamental rules logically and correctly. Such a one is sure of his course as it relates to the subject in hand, and being sure of it he forges ahead, knowing neither doubt nor defeat.

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