"Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe." This statement concerning our Master is to be found on page 313 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. In studying different passages in this book and in other writings by the same author, we find that it is Christianly scientific to dismiss from thought sorrow, sin, sickness—all error—because they have no place in God's universe. God did not make them, for He made only that which is good. He does not send any of these errors to His children to try them, as has been mistakenly supposed, for the truth is that evil is not real.

How happy should we be to dismiss, to cease to remember, to regard as never having happened, the manifold troubles of mankind! Jesus, who was truly scientific in the treatment of disease and sin, did this. He is our Example; he commanded us to follow him, so it is right to use that method of healing now. Moreover, Mrs. Eddy gives very clear instruction on this point. She says (ibid., p. 390): "Suffer no claim of sin or of sickness to grow upon the thought. Dismiss it with an abiding conviction that it is illegitimate, because you know that God is no more the author of sickness than He is of sin."

To the woman taken in adultery and brought before him for judgment by her accusers, Jesus said (John 8:11), "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more." Instead of punishing her, Jesus dismissed the sin as not belonging to her true selfhood as the reflection of God. He dismissed disease as unreal when he said to the leper desiring to be cleansed (Matt. 8:3), "Be thou clean." When he said to Jairus, referring to his daughter (Luke 8:52), "She is not dead, but sleepeth," he dismissed death as something that had never happened to her true selfhood. He calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee, because he knew that no such upheaval was taking place in his Father's kingdom, where his true being dwelt.

In the course of a Christian Science lecture the lecturer spoke of the walk to Emmaus, which is related in the twenty-fourth chapter of St. Luke's Gospel. He called attention to the two disciples who were talking, as they journeyed, of the sad event in Jerusalem, the crucifixion of their Lord and Master. Unrecognized by them, Jesus joined them and asked what in their conversation made them sad. Surprised at his ignorance of recent events, they asked him if he had not heard of these things. His question (Luke 24:19), "What things?" showed that Jesus had completely dismissed from his thought his agony in the garden of Gethsemane, the desertion of his disciples, and his sufferings on the cross. We nowhere read that Jesus reminded his disciples that they had forsaken him and lied. Resentment was unknown to his pure mind. How different from the behavior of most mortals!

Because he understood his true selfhood to be the Christ and lived his understanding, he could dismiss unhappy mortal experience as unreal. We do not read that he suffered from any aftereffects of the crucifixion. In fact, it is recorded that he walked and talked with his disciples on several occasions.

Emphatically our wise Leader commands us in her works to expunge, completely wipe out, the record of mortal mind expressed in such miserable states as self-condemnation, remorse, fear, grief, sickness, and so on, and to treat such mortal history as a dream, or an illusion, which is entirely unknown to God and to man in His likeness. If only we are obedient, what suffering we save ourselves and others.

If hereditary diseases and traits of character are treated in this way, they disappear. "I am so like my father. I suffer, as he suffered, from being so sensitive; he died when he was just my age." These were the sad complaints of a woman some twenty years ago. Then Christian Science was brought to her notice, and a practitioner showed her the falsity of these complaints and how they could be dismissed and destroyed. Many happy years of service as a member of a branch church and of The Mother Church have been the result.

Sad memories, childhood's troubles, bitter recollections, are not in the Science of being as taught in Christian Science. Dismissed from thought, they cease to have any ill effects and leave room for joy, thanksgiving, and spiritual progress. In her address to her students in Chicago Mrs. Eddy said (Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 100, 101): "Who knows how the feeble lips are made eloquent, how hearts are inspired, how healing becomes spontaneous, and how the divine Mind is understood and demonstrated? He alone knows these wonders who is departing from the thraldom of the senses and accepting spiritual truth,—that which blesses its adoption by the refinement of joy and the dismissal of sorrow."

The habit of dwelling on past material history is an obstruction to advancement in spiritual understanding. With divine help everyone can follow Jesus' example and discard the mythical past for the present reality.

How quickly Jesus' ascension followed his resurrection! Having proved the unreality of death, he did not make the mistake of congratulating himself on his achievement; neither did he accept the congratulations of others. He continued to teach his disciples, that they might carry on the Christ-mission of healing.

In the simple duties and pleasures of daily life Christian Scientists find much happiness in obeying the Master's command to "preach the gospel to every creature." A member of a branch church who was to work in the Reading Room one day found on rising that her physical condition was such that it seemed impossible for her to do so. She rang up the chairman of her committee and told her how ill she felt. The chairman said: "Dismiss it at once; it is not true. You are God's child and therefore cannot feel ill." The fever died down, and the sense of illness disappeared immediately. The woman went upstairs, dressed, and went happily to her work. There was no return of the sickness.

Having experienced the horrors of two wars, many people may declare that it is impossible to dismiss their past sufferings and expunge their sorrowful experiences from consciousness; but an understanding of Christian Science shows that God is Love and that for the man of His creating, happiness is natural and sorrow unnatural. Christian Science not only affirms but also proves that because good alone is real, evil is unreal; that because man is spiritual and immortal, living in the eternity of Mind, he is not a mortal, living in time in a distraught world.

The Apostle Paul provided a splendid example of the dismissal of error. In great humility he wrote in his epistle to the Philippians (3: 13, 14), "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."