What did Jesus mean?

Crowds thronged him. He turned and told an unusual parable: "Which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him...."

Then he added a further illustration: "What king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?...."

Undeniably, the Master was telling eager would-be followers to count the cost of following Christ; for he went on to say that they must forsake all— forsake worldly ties and ambitions. His premise was: "Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple." ^{See Luke 14:25-33.}

But can't we also draw a further lesson: the importance of completing what we start? Without sufficient follow-through we have only a half-finished tower or a lost battle!

All through his ministry Christ Jesus stressed the importance of not only accepting his teachings but living and proving them. "Heal the sick"! ^{Matt. 10:8.} Do the works! "Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit." ^{7:17 .} Follow through! He deplored the hypocrisy of those who "say, and do not." ^{23:3 .} James caught the message when he wrote, "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." ^{James 1:22.}

So with Christ Jesus' fervent follower, Mary Baker Eddy. In what she taught her students, told her Church, and wrote in her books, no message stands out more emphatically than the necessity of Christian proofs, healing and demonstration. She warns, "The error of the ages is preaching without practice." ^{Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 241.} Actual proofs in healing through divine power realized in prayer—this is what separates the revealed Christ, Truth, from man-made doctrines and humanly contrived theoretical philosophies.

In the light of such stirring demands, wouldn't it be foolish to accept the half-baked notions sometimes put forward: that somehow physical healing is "old hat" and not so important for Christian Scientists today as formerly; that "more modern" methods of promoting Christian Science can be more effective than healing; that some sort of "higher teaching" offers exemption from need for proofs in healing; or that the healing work is something we can leave to somebody else!

In demonstrating the ever-present Christ, the demand for healing is essential. This divine manifestation of God's power and love—so fully embodied in Christ Jesus—ever comes to mortals with utmost compassion, with tenderness as well as power. It comes here and now, in revealed Truth, to restore and redeem. It comes to destroy sin and thus to regenerate individual character. It comes to free humanity from suffering. It comes to destroy the nightmares of believing in evil powers defying omnipotent Love.

The demand and opportunity for demonstration are intrinsic to the very nature of Truth itself. Truth is inherently demonstrable. Whatever is true is capable of proof. Divine Truth is self-expressing and therefore self-evident. Truth manifests its own immortality, harmony, wholeness, purity. Including within itself no discord, ambiguity, mystery, deception, contradiction, fear, or conflict, Truth wipes out these errors in human consciousness when we accept and acknowledge its all-presence and all-power.

The call to heal and the power to do it are impelled by divine Love. The material caricature of man as a condemned, frail, and disease-bound fleshly organism is hardly in keeping with a good and perfect God. Divine Love restores our apprehension of man as the reflection of God, the image, or idea, of deific Mind, the expression of divine Love's own nature. Whatever would deny man's real being as God's likeness—sinless and whole—can be reduced to its primitive nothingness by the understanding of Love and the living of Love's nature and qualities.

Students of Christian Science sometimes go looking for some special method, not clear to them in the sacred writings, that will automatically ensure healing—easy steps and quick results. Our technological society has accustomed people to the kind of instructions you get for assembling a new lawn mower: just attach bar A to plate B with bolt C and—presto!—the thing works just as the advertisements said it would.

But Christian Science is far different. It does have an immutable Principle, fixed rules, systematic method, and scientific results. But much more than rules is involved. Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, writes, "The spirit, and not the letter, performs the vital functions of Truth and Love." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 260.}

It is the moral and spiritual qualities of Truth and Love— lived and practiced so they take the lead in our lives—that enable us to realize the healing power. What heals is the activity of the Christ, the manifestation of Truth and Love, entertained in human consciousness.

Healing comes when the human mind surrenders its fear, egotism, and sinful traits to the recognition of Truth and Love. It comes when we willingly do the will of the Father, as Christ Jesus taught. It comes when human consciousness awakens to the omnipresence and all-power of Truth and Love and admits the sinless perfection of the real man as God's loved idea. In this pure realization, sin and discord flee and the demand for healing is met.

DeWITT JOHN