In her first address given in The Mother Church, Mary Baker Eddy said (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 110). "What grander ambition is there than to maintain in yourselves what Jesus loved, and to know that your example, more than words, makes morals for mankind!" We need to understand more fully what constituted the power that animated our great Master in his marvelous works of healing. Christian Science is revealing this power to mankind, demonstrating the joy and beauty of holiness—wholeness—for which men are ever longing and praying.

To the unenlightened, Jesus seemed to perform miracles when he healed the sick, cast out sin, walked on the water, and fed the multitude with a few loaves and fishes. To the awakened human consciousness, these deeds appear as natural and beautiful proofs that God is Love. Jesus expressed God in all he did, and for him to live was to love; he conceived of no existence separate from God, good. The appearing in human consciousness of the spiritual light which eliminates the shadow of the belief in a material creation and a mortal man results in healing and regeneration. The Christ was Jesus' eternal, spiritual selfhood. This Christ, Truth, also reveals our true selfhood, and the discernment of this fact saves and heals us. Here we may get a glimpse of what it means to maintain in ourselves "what Jesus loved." In her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 494), "Reason, rightly directed, serves to correct the errors of corporeal sense." We reason incorrectly when we say that God is Spirit, but man. God's image and likeness, is both spiritual and material; yet this is what mankind generally believes. Christian Science corrects this false belief, showing that man is wholly spiritual, and that materiality is nonexistent. When this awakening comes to us, we see that man's only business is to reflect God. good. Jesus said to Joseph and Mary, when they found him in the temple teaching the learned doctors of the law and asking them questions, "How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" In this reply we find the keynote to the life of love which Jesus lived. He was so obedient to the law of God that fear, sensuality, and hate were proved to have no power to harm him.

If maintaining in ourselves what Jesus loved may at times appear an almost impossible task, it is only because we are allowing the belief in sin's reality to blur our vision of the Christ. Men would appear to have to learn much, and unlearn much, before approximating the healing work of Jesus. But Christians have no legitimate excuse for procrastination, since Jesus plainly said (John 14:12), "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." In view of these words of him whose whole life was dedicated to the healing of sin. disease, and death, it behooves every Christian to look deep into his own thinking, and there find the reason why he is not carrying out the instructions so squarely placed before him in the New Testament. Aggressive mental suggestion is uncovered and destroyed as we follow Jesus in his way.

Error constantly urges its false claims upon mankind. If these false claims are accepted, because men are ignorant of what is at work, periods of war and suffering may continue their devastating effects. But our acceptance of Christ, Truth, will gradually eliminate all beliefs in sin and evil, and thus we shall find the only permanent basis for peace. For each of us the problem of evil is an individual one. The salvation form sinful beliefs, which seem to engulf the world, begins with the individual, for each can be responsible only for his own thinking and conduct. The teaching of Christ Jesus stands as a shining light in a world suffering from the false belief in sin. sickness, lack, inharmony, death. Merely worshiping his personality and calling ourselves Christians will not make us his active followers nor enable us to do the works he bade us perform.

Nothing can compare with the joy and peace which fill our hearts when the meaning of spiritual healing dawns on us. The Bible promises good to him "that overcometh." In the book of Revelation we are told that he will be given "power over the nations;" that he will be given "a white stone, and in the stone a new name written." He will be given "to eat of the hidden manna," and he "shall be clothed in white raiment;" and his name will not be blotted "out of the book of life." If we keep these promises before us when temptation comes, we can save ourselves much useless anguish and mental suffering. Troubles have their origin in the false belief that man lives in matter. As we destroy this false sense of self, matter becomes less real to us. Christian Science teaches that Spirit. God. good, is the only substance, and what is termed matter possesses no more reality than a shadow.

He who experiences a healing in Christian Science feels often like one coming out of a dark, cold cave, where he has groped his way amidst many terrify ing shadows, into the beautiful green landscape and warm sunshine, where birds are singing and flowers blooming. Hate may make a man sick, but Love heals him. A man suffering from lumbago, so severely that he could hardly walk, called to have a talk with a student of Christian Science on a business matter. During the conversation it became evident to the student that this man was cherishing a feeling of hatred against his brother, who apparently had done him a great injustice. The student asked permission to read a verse or two from the Bible, and selected the following verses (I John 4:12, 20): "No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. . . . If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" The next day the man called to say that on his way home he thought deeply over the verses read, and suddenly found that he could walk upright and was free from pain. The healing was permanent.

We maintain in ourselves "what Jesus loved" as we obey divine Love. Jesus loved God and demonstrated divine Love on behalf of all men.