This age is marked by what might at first seem to be a strange paradox. Despite today's insistence upon democracy, individuality, and self-expression, there is an increasingly insistent demand for leadership, guidance, and a type of inspired authority. The news media are more and more critical when public officials fail to provide such guidance.

Far from showing a weakening of the human moral and intellectual fiber, this desire for more active leadership in right directions is proof that mankind is feeling a divine propulsion toward higher concepts of thinking and acting. Such an advance in men's desires bears out the divine promise expressed in the Bible: "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh .... And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." ^{Ezek. 36:26, 27;}

Perhaps nowhere is this quickened desire for a higher sense of leadership more strikingly shown than in the greatly increased interest expressed by youth in the life, teachings, and works of Christ Jesus. Even when we strip away the emotionalism that has grown up around the current "Jesus movement," we find a solid core of new respect for the example set by the greatest and most inspired individual who ever graced this earth. After nearly two thousand years he still meets in matchless degree men's yearning for a purpose in life lifted above and beyond mundane ambition.

Indeed, when we come to Christian Science, it is not too much to say that it is impossible to grasp this final revelation of divine Truth fully without a profound and exact recognition of the place of Christ Jesus in mankind's spiritual history. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy speaks of Jesus as "the highest human corporeal concept of the divine idea, rebuking and destroying error and bringing to light man's immortality." ^{Science and Health, p. 589;}

If we fail to grasp and acknowledge the spiritual role of Jesus, the Way-shower, it means that our steps are not tracing the path of spiritual understanding, in which Christ Jesus was designated by God to guide humanity. While a human sense of the role of the Master may give us some degree of comfort, it does not enable us to accomplish those deeds of healing which he clearly directed his followers to do.

Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, "The proofs of Truth, Life, and Love, which Jesus gave by casting out error and healing the sick, completed his earthly mission; but in the Christian Church this demonstration of healing was early lost, about three centuries after the crucifixion." ^{p. 41;} Assuredly a major factor in this loss was the descent from spiritual inspiration and proof to dogma and ritual, the progressive loss of the understanding of the true significance of Christ Jesus' words and works.

This failure to retain the correct concept of the Master's mission was all the more lamentable because Christ Jesus had so often pointed out and emphasized what his divinely appointed role and purpose were. Thus he strove to impress upon human thought the necessity to understand his part in the fulfillment of the divine plan to bring all men to the light and joy of spiritual consciousness.

Not only does a right recognition of Christ Jesus' trials and triumphs help prevent our straying from the straight path of demonstrating man's sonship with the Father, but it also affords us confidence in our ability to follow him. It gives us courage to meet, through spiritual means alone, the challenges—sometimes long, hard, and painful—that test our willingness to depend solely upon God in all our trials. This willingness, in turn, results in a steady spiritualization of thought and, consequently, in a progressive ability to overcome the pains and pangs of humanhood.

At this stage in our progress toward spiritualization of thought and action we cannot do without encouragement, without the conviction that others have successfully surmounted the challenges and tribulations with which we are faced. Acknowledgment of the import of Jesus' career and continuing effort to understand more fully the premise and implication of his mission can and will greatly hearten us in darkest days.

The Bible stresses both the importance and the effectiveness of this recognition and acknowledgment of the Master's place in human history and the significance of his words and works. Jesus himself said: "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven." ^{Matt. 10:32;} And Paul wrote: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." ^{Rom. 10:9.}

Such recognition is essential to continuing spiritualization of thought. We have the Way-shower's example. And the speed and certainty of our progress Spiritward are furthered by the clarity and faithfulness with which we recognize the meaning of that career and seek to emulate it.

[Twenty-first article in a series.]