IMMORTALITY

Annie M. Knott

Job's mournful question, "If a man die, shall he live again?" is fully answered in the words of the Master: "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death;" and again, in the ringing declaration of Christian Science; "In Science, man's immortality depends upon that of God, good, and follows as a necessary consequence of the immortality of good" (Science and Health, p. 81).

In spite of the fact that Jesus' teachings are held to be the final word of authority for all professed Christians, there is often found among them, as well as on the part of non-believers, an element of doubt and uncertainty as to man's immortality; nor is this surprising, where material evidence is relied upon as decisive on this all-important question. If we believe that man is matter, we may by the fairest logic accept Job's conclusion: "Man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep;" but while theology has ever pointed away from this to the spiritual fact, it was to something which should be realized after death, hence the doubt and unsatisfied longing for a faith which was susceptible of present proof and reasonable explanation, and Christian Science offers this to the sincere truth-seeker.

The fact cannot be overlooked that so-called material law pays no respect to goodness. According to this belief, saint and sinner are alike mortal, but Christian Science has come to awaken us to the spiritual sense which recognizes the immortality of all that expresses God; and whatever the material evidence, it stands by Christ Jesus' declaration and refuses to "see death."

It may here be asked wherein this attitude is different from that of the Christian believer who holds to the reality of matter and material law. To this we answer that there is nothing in the Scriptures to show that materiality is immortal, but the contrary. We therefore look for and find unmistakable evidence that man is spiritual, now and always; and as this truth is understood fear, disease, sin, and death begin to vanish before the advancing light of Spirit and spiritual understanding. Our progress may seem slow, as was that of our fathers who in this land and in other lands rose to assert their right to civil and religious liberty, and who were met with opposition at every step of the way until they proved by long-enduring faithfulness that they were worthy of freedom, and for this we owe them a debt which mere words can never pay.

When Christ Jesus declared for man's immortality, his listeners angrily asked, "Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself?" and when he maintained that man never dies, they took up stones to cast at him. If we go from this scene to John's account of the resurrection morn, we may learn a wonderful lesson. Mary, disconsolate and almost broken-hearted, looked into the tomb and saw therein two angels, who greeted her with the words, "Woman, why weepest thou?"

Why, indeed! Had she not just before witnessed the greatest tragedy the world has ever known? Had not hope been quite blotted out by the death of the one who had promised eternal life to all his followers? Before she had time, perchance, to comprehend the angels' question, the beloved Master himself stood before her, and his greeting was the very same. She was also bidden to go and tell the brethren—all who would listen—that his Father was their Father, his God their God; and it is to this glorious assurance that Christian Scientists cling in all their efforts to rise with Christ until, as Paul says, mortality shall "be swallowed up of life."

Annie M. Knott.

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BEING TRUE TO TRUTH

November 19, 1910

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