Editorial March 30, 1918 Issue

Resurrection

Annie M. Knott

In the thirty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel we find a strange picture, yet withal one which appeals to the deepest desire of all the human race, in that it tells in touching metaphor of the awakening of men and nations from the dream of sin and death. To many this prophecy has meant only the opening of material graves, and the rising therefrom of men long dead, but to the student of Christian Science the prophet's words have a far deeper and richer signification. On page 593 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy gives this definition of resurrection: "Spiritualization of thought; a new and higher idea of immortality, or spiritual existence; material belief yielding to spiritual understanding." Lest any should say that this is too ethereal a view of the subject in question, we need but recall the words of Christ Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus: "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die."

Startling words, truly, were these, spoken in answer to Martha's plaintive expression of the hope that her brother would rise from the tomb "at the last day." Well may each one ask himself, concerning the Master's ringing declaration of deathless life, the question which Jesus put to the sorrowing sister, "Believest thou this?" Here from the dream say that Jesus did literally awaken Lazarus from the dream of death. True, but even this did not reach the glory of resurrection,—the awakening to the life which is life indeed, the life which knows no death. The Bible does not speak of the resurrection of Lazarus, although it does tell us that he rose from the dead; but we are told of the resurrection of Christ Jesus, which clearly means the triumph of Life over death and of Truth over error, of spiritual law over the belief that there is a material law which can cause man to be sick and die. In Christian Science the resurrection therefore means a spiritual process which begins for us when we become conscious of the mighty working of divine law in all we think and say and do. On page 34 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says: "Through all the disciples experienced, they became more spiritual and understood better what the Master had taught. His resurrection was also their resurrection. It helped them to raise themselves and others from spiritual dulness and blind belief in God into the perception of infinite possibilities."

This means much to the individual; but when we begin to see the broader application of the truth in its relation to universal humanity we are ready to grasp the wonderful teaching of Ezekiel's prophecy. In the thirty-sixth chapter we find the beginning of the spiritual awakening, the cleansing of mortals from mortal impurity and the coming to human consciousness of "a new spirit," whereby they will walk in the divine statutes and keep the divine judgments. This awakening has already come to humanity through the revelation of divine Science, as stated in the Christian Science textbook, and from this we go forward to see the rousing of men and nations from the long, dreary dream of life in matter into the understanding of life in Spirit, God. Have not many of the oppressed of earth been in the condition described by the prophet, where hope was dead, and it mattered little whether those in such a mental condition walked about the earth or were literally in their graves?

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