Article April 19, 1924 Issue

Being Raised from the Dead

LUCY HAYS REYNOLDS

By many it is believed that what is called death has to do only with conditions of matter, with the disintegration of a physical body; that death awaits each one of us at some time in the future. But where in the Bible do we find authority for such beliefs? The Apostle Paul said that death had to do with a false state of mind,—that "to be carnally minded is death," and that we were carnal so long as there were envying and strife among us. Certainly, pride, wrath, jealousy, and such like, imparting elements of animality, cannot express a single element of real life. The inertia of self-pity and self-love is not to be found in the Life that is Spirit. We are told that the "sorrow of the world worketh death," and that no one who hateth his brother hath life abiding in him. Thus, to entertain thoughts of sorrow and hate is to be dead to the real understanding of Life. To the extent that ambition, resentment, or fear are dwelling in thought, to that extent are we buried in "the shadow of death." Hence, it is consciousness that has to be raised from the dead.

Christian Science comes to many who believe they have fullness of material life, and shows them that they need to be raised from death, since this material, mortal consciousness is that which Mrs. Eddy, in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 192), calls "the living dead." They need to be lifted out of and above materialism into that spiritual understanding which is "a wellspring of life;" into that animation of peace and joy which comes from being spiritually-minded. Longsuffering, faith, gentleness, loving-kindness, and meekness are all elements of the living that is Christlike. Hence, in a mentality where humility and goodness are reflected, the divine energies of eternal Life are flowing in and resurrecting thought from material belief. On page 376 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy we read, "There is more life and immortality in one good motive and act than in all the blood, which ever flowed through mortal veins and simulated a corporeal sense of life." Loving, unselfed thoughts awaken us to the living presence of the Christ, who abundantly imparts to consciousness the divine idea of Life, which is directly from God Himself. Then we find that spiritual, real existence is a beautiful, wonderful mental state that can never die. Turning from the carnal mind, and reaching out for pure, Godlike thoughts, we begin to ascend out of materialism into spirituality, and are raised from the dead.

Resurrection and ascension, then, are seen to be mental experiences. Their outward sign of the restoration of the physical body is incidental to the mental transformation. Why, then, consult the body or its conditions, and believe that we improve or grow worse, recover or die, according to physical symptoms? Instead of watching to see how good an appetite we have, how well we are sleeping, or whether we are exercising enough, to determine how much we are living, why not watch our mental conditions to see how rapidly we are turning away from wrong thinking, away from the carnality of vainglory and strife, and becoming Christlike; for "he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." In surrendering materialistic tendencies, and refusing to be fearful, willful, or hateful, we are repeating the experiences of Paul, who said, "I die daily;" and are gradually placing what is called death behind us, instead of holding it in front of us. As we do this we learn not to be so much in bondage to the fear of death, and are better able to ascend out of the deadness of material thought into heavenly vision.

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