What must I do to master poverty, sin, hatred, disease, danger, and death? Haven't we all often asked the same question? Isn't this the cry of all mankind, filling the world?

Almost two thousand years ago Christ Jesus gave a very simple but direct answer. When the rich young man asked what he must do to have eternal life, Jesus' final answer was, "Follow me." ^{Matt. 19:21.} Two brief words that indicate the ultimate solution for all problems. This demand has lost none of its impetus. It sounds through all the centuries. "Follow me"!

What does it mean to follow Christ, and what does this require? Is such following possible in our present way of life? Christ Jesus, the Son of our Father-Mother God, never demanded anything that we would be unable to fulfill. To follow him means to tread his way, step by step, through understanding and obeying his teachings. It means to learn the divine law of Christian living and to resist the downward attractions of sin and sensuality that bind one so strongly to the limitations of material existence. It means to see through the lies of the physical senses and to reject them.

Some people's greatest love may be possession of money or material objects. For others it may be human knowledge, political power, passion, vanity, the dreams of the past, a famous career. But when we decide to follow the true idea of good our Master exemplified, the world of matter begins to lose its attraction. The Adam dust, or carnal-mindedness, that has blinded our eyes is washed away by tears of repentance, so that we begin to see the light of divine Love and walk in it. Then fear and difficulties, pain and poverty, progressively vanish. We gain in wisdom and divine energy, and material hindrances are proved to be powerless.

Christ, the true idea of being, liberates us from the ballast of materialistic thinking. In following Christ, we are rewarded with an uplifting and illuminating sense of things, based on spiritual ideas. The simple words "Follow me" were then, and are now, the key to heaven, to an abundant life of harmony, health, and contentment. The sooner we accept this demand, the sooner we will be able to manifest in our daily life the idea of our true being as God's reflection. Then it will be easier for us to throw off the useless and blinding deceptions of the carnal mind and, in the simplicity and the purity of Christ, to gain spiritual riches.

Christian Science follows strictly the teachings of Christ Jesus and helps us to learn about our spiritual being as a child of God. To follow the divine laws of Science will lead us in the track of health and harmony. Mary Baker Eddy says in her work Science and Health, "Whoever reaches the understanding of Christian Science in its proper signification will perform the sudden cures of which it is capable; but this can be done only by taking up the cross and following Christ in the daily life." ^{Science and Health, pp. 178-179.} A true and loyal follower of Christ will rejoice in the wonderful qualities gained along the way, such as exact righteousness, crystal-clear purity, spiritual hearing and seeing of eternal facts, the ability of all-embracing forgiving, and tireless patience with himself and others. Every follower will finally win a kingdom of freedom and happiness, reigned over by the law of Love.

"Follow me"! A beacon whose luminosity beckons human consciousness to awake. Is there any good excuse for hesitation? We can take a definite turn from the wrong to the right now and leave the wrong behind. Evil has no power to keep us. We will never need to give up anything that is good, useful, or beneficial. The good we have glimpsed in our past is spiritual and exists forever; it has nothing in common with mortality. The privilege of following Christ brings bright changes to the dim circumstances of mortal mind. We will never again be alone or lost. We will be clothed with the garment of joy instead of sorrow, with freshness instead of depression. Our activities will become more successful, inspiring, prosperous.

The invitation to journey with Christ is open to all mankind. "Follow me" is the only and always effective answer to the question "What must I do?" Only with the true idea, the Christ, can we get the holy inspiration to solve severe problems, cure every ailment, and learn about the unceasing activity of the divine Principle which rules the universe.