Jesus walked on the sea. Mark relates that it was the fourth watch of the night and the disciples were "toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them." When they saw Jesus walking on the water, they cried out for fear, but "immediately he talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid. And he went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased" (Mark 6:48, 50, 51).

"It is I." Jesus was identifying himself, not as a matter body or a physical personality, but as an individual spiritual identity in the likeness of God, the one I, or Ego. This statement is borne out by our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," where she mentions another familiar occasion when Jesus identified himself with Spirit as God's manifestation. She writes (p. 27): "That Life is God, Jesus proved by his reappearance after the crucifixion in strict accordance with his scientific statement: 'Destroy this temple [body], and in three days I [Spirit] will raise it up.' It is as if he had said: The I—the Life, substance, and intelligence of the universe—is not in matter to be destroyed."

Perhaps we also, like the disciples of old, have at times toiled vainly in the dark when all seemed contrary because we had lost sight of our spiritual identity as sons of God. Then, pausing, we have heard the voice of Christ, Truth, speaking in the stillness of our hearts, "Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid." The winds have ceased, and in our spiritually awakened sense we have been comforted, companioned, and healed. We have glimpsed again our spiritual identity as the reflection of divine Principle and understood that this is the only identity there is or ever can be.

Christian Science teaches that not only could Christ Jesus thus identify himself scientifically as spiritual and perfect man, God's likeness, but every individual must eventually learn to do so through spiritual understanding, because there is no other man or woman to be identified. Mrs. Eddy reiterates this truth as follows (Science and Health, p. 249): "You say, 'I dreamed last night.' What a mistake is that! The I is Spirit. God never slumbers, and His likeness never dreams. Mortals are the Adam dreamers."

Do you believe yourself and others to be mortal now, hoping that sometime all will achieve immortality? Then you are on this fundamental point deviating from the teachings of Christ Jesus and Christian Science. Spiritual perfection is the basic fact of all true existence. Jesus declared that God is Spirit, that He is the Father, or creator, of all, and that all that is born of Spirit is spiritual now. The false admission of future perfection and present imperfection provides error a means by which it may impose its claims of disease and sin on unsuspecting mortals. Christian Science teaches that man is not a combined mortal and immortal, but an immortal only.

Jesus must have beheld all individuals in this true, spiritual sense, and we must learn to do the same, for only from this Christianly scientific standpoint can we heal the sick and sinning. Christian Science is absolute on this point. The limited gaze that stops at mortal appearance is accepting false testimony. As students of this Science we must look through the humanly personal to the spiritually individual. We should not accept the mortal traits of egotism, greed, lust, fear, and superstition as constituents of man, but recognize in each individual God's expression of love, peace, power, wisdom, and harmony—His attributes. We spontaneously love and reverence these enduring qualities that comprise man's true selfhood.

When Jesus called Lazarus from the tomb, he was not deceived by the physical sense evidence that Lazarus was a dead mortal. Jesus knew there was but one Lazarus, whose true and only being never died. Likewise, when the Master said to the patient with the withered hand, "Stretch forth thine hand," he was beholding the indestructible man, who was incapable of being crippled, enfeebled, or defaced. Otherwise he could not have healed the sufferer, that is to say, awakened him to some recognition of his own true selfhood. Another instance of spiritual recognition occurred on the mount of transfiguration when Jesus, together with Peter, James, and John, beheld through spiritual sense Moses and Elias, and Jesus talked with them. This incident proves that the real, the only man never dies, never goes somewhere beyond omnipresence, but is always here and now in the presence of Mind.

Here it might reasonably be asked, How is one to find this true selfhood, our own and others'? When one is aroused sufficiently through a deep discontent with mortal existence to turn from it and seek the kingdom of heaven with all his heart, he begins to discover himself. The old I, or personality, is being put off, and the new I, or spiritual individuality, the Ego-man, is being put on or discovered. This is done through the prayerful study and consecrated practice of Christian Science, in which one must ceaselessly let go of matter and mortal thought and replace them with things of the Spirit, or spiritual consciousness. Christian Science teaches us to identify ourselves spiritually, not materially.

Our Leader defines man on page 475 of Science and Health as "the conscious identity of being as found in Science, in which man is the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal." We can affirm with conviction, in the quiet of our thought, "I am man," as we daily work to dissolve the dual, human concept of man as both spiritual and material. In the morning, on first awakening, we can reacquaint ourselves with our true, spiritual status through meditation and quiet study, especially of the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly. Then throughout the day not only our own true selfhood, but also that of others, will be increasingly apparent, and the I will abide in the Father. In this clear, spiritual awareness we feed on the invigorating, sustaining, life-giving ideas that God, divine Mind, is ever pouring forth in infinite abundance to His children. Can we grow weary, discouraged, or lonely while abiding in this concourse of angels? In Mind there is no disease, accident, sin, or death, and the Scriptures declare that we live in Mind, God. When suggestion seems to becloud the radiancy of spiritual understanding, let us reassure ourselves that God is present, and that man is untouched by the dreams of sense.

Through the darkness of mortal thought, as we fervently work and watch and pray, our enlightened understanding will behold the Ego-man, the Christ, walking over the waves of error and saying, "Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid." As we receive into our hearts this new-found vision, it will still the storms of sense, and there will be a great calm. Then the words, "It is I," will be understood as comprising individual man.