Today every earnest Christian Scientist is giving vigorous thought to that challenging question asked by Mrs. Eddy regarding Christ Jesus: "Who is ready to follow his teaching and example?" ^{Science and Health, p. 54;} The first Christian Scientist, Mrs. Eddy, not only followed the teaching and example of our Master, but in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, from which this quotation is taken, she gives explicit directions for carrying forward his glorious work.

The troubled world needs Christian Science desperately. Are we the laborers that Jesus asked his disciples to pray for? He said, "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest." ^{Matt. 9:38;} I can hear some people answer, "But what can I do? My influence is limited, and the problems of the world seem almost insurmountable." We cannot deny that human problems are great, but Jesus, too, lived in the world and encountered and overcame similar and even more difficult situations. Yet can we imagine his giving in to discouragement or postponing a correction of an apparent evil because the condition seemed hopeless? Shall we not try to follow this pattern?

On the same page of the textbook where Mrs. Eddy asks us if we are ready to follow Jesus, she speaks of some of his qualities that brought blessing into the world: "Through the magnitude of his human life, he demonstrated the divine Life. Out of the amplitude of his pure affection, he defined Love. With the affluence of Truth, he vanquished error."3 Can we not enlarge our thinking and express more of Truth and Love?

Jesus healed the victims of error by demonstrating the power of Spirit over matter. He evidently saw beyond the material or human being to man in his wholeness, his Godlike purity. This is man as he is divinely created.

Although none of his followers have reached the heights Jesus reached in his demonstrations of proving perfect manhood, it is possible to approximate some of his accomplishments. Now, this is no vain ambitious desire or wishful thinking, because Jesus himself gave the promise, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." ^{John 14:12;} Are not we to trust his word?

Perhaps the first thing we must do to bring more character into our own human lives is to enlarge our thinking by deepening our concept of man. We will not look to inconsequential human ancestry to see what kind of men are about us but to the Father, God, the one divine indivisible creator, who made man in His likeness, spiritual and perfect.

Metaphysically speaking, we know that this one perfect Mind is forever reflected in its own ideas. Therefore it follows that between all individuals there is the indissoluble link of a spiritual birthright. Do we always remember this? Do we think each morning, "Today I am going out to meet the sons and daughters of God, and no one else"? Do we add, "These are all related to me; they are my brothers"?

What would we do if a human brother were condemned to prison? Surely we would not attack him with bitter words. We would not lightly excuse a wicked act, nor would we put the wrongdoer out of our thought. Rather we would try to give him help in every possible way. So when we meet those fellowmen who are prisoners of their own mortal beliefs—illness, hate, resentment, poverty, idleness—shall we not do what we can most effectively do —see each one in his spiritual self? In this self will each find his freedom. In this way we are achieving a breadth of thought, a Christlike way of thinking, that will help bring about more desirable conditions in the world.

The healing deeds of Jesus were the practical evidence of a pure affection prompted by divine Love. He knew that the omnipotent and omnipresent cause, God, is manifested in good alone, and that this good can be made evident in human ways. In his healing work Jesus' affection was not adulterated by relating the sons of God to their counterfeits, the sons of mortal men. But he saw the reality of the troubled one's spiritual being and healed him. After one healing he told a man to "sin no more." ^5:14;

Human affection can be a blessing in the world, but alone it can never heal the deep wounds of men. Unlike the love that reflects divine Love, human affection is limited and often vacillating, for it concentrates on human individuality. When he saw the grief of Mary, Martha, and their friends after the death of Lazarus, Jesus, disturbed by their emotion over death, also wept. But how quickly he displayed a higher than human sympathy by demonstrating the incomparable power of divine Love to destroy death (see John 11:40-44)! To follow Jesus' example insofar as we are able, we need to reflect the Christ-love that is unchanging, immeasurable, and inclusive of all mankind.

Judging by material standards, how poor Jesus must have seemed to many of his countrymen! But, in reality, who has ever had such riches? We too have an inheritance from God, and yet we accept so small a part of it. Today, just as in the time of the Master, all of Truth is here to vanquish error. But perhaps we are studying too little of Truth and too much of error. For example, did we this morning spend time giving thoughtful attention to the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly and then an equal amount of time in mulling over crime in the news or making a reality of it by talking a lot about it? If we did, we this day missed an opportunity to help dispose of the very evil we lament.

Christian Science does not teach its followers to attempt to withdraw from the world and ignore error but to live in the world without being of it, in other words to be fully aware of the evil machinations of mortal mind and also of the mistaken action of well-intentioned mortals, using all the truth we know to help nullify these evils. Worldly men and physical sense testimony will deny that Truth has complete power over evil, but if we are to follow in the pathway of Jesus, our reliance on God's government must be undeviating.

It is of little use to wait for materiality to banish trouble. Remember that the man at the pool of Bethesda waited for thirty-eight years for human aid, but that when the power of the Christ appeared, he was quickly healed (see John 5:2-9).

Certainly this world is a material environment for millions of men, but none of these human beings needs to be subject to past or present evils of mortal mind. But how can one demonstrate good he has not yet perceived? Many people have not even heard the good news of the availability of the power of Truth. There are many who never have realized that when the angels sang, "On earth peace, good will toward men," ^{Luke 2:14.} they were singing to all men of every age, including ours, and that the angel words were peace on earth, not peace from earth.

The cries of anger, desperation, and frustration will turn to shouts of joy when men are willing to turn from dependence on matter to reliance on God and determine to follow the example and teaching of Christ Jesus, the Son of God.