Resurrection
"Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.... For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." So spoke Paul when he was preaching the fact of eternal life to the people of his day, and his words have been iterated and reiterated times without number. Many have been the heart-longings to understand their meaning and just what relation Jesus' marvelous resurrection bore to the lives of men. They have, however, little comprehended its practical significance or what real connection it could have with the truth that "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."
To be sure, men have accepted many explanations in regard to the resurrection; they have believed many dogmas concerning it. But what about assured advantages therefrom? Ah! those were always left for realization to some indefinite future. Luther wrote: "Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection not in books alone but in every leaf in Springtime." So it was always a "promise," a something men might be assured of after passing through an experience called death, an eternal life to be realized at some far distant day, even though Paul had also preached of Christ Jesus that he "hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light."
It remained for Christian Science to reveal completely what blessedness Jesus' resurrection includes for all mankind. It is Christian Science which teaches us to apprehend the truth Jesus demonstrated in the resurrection,—the truth of man's indestructible, spiritual existence as the child of God. This understanding awakens us to see this tremendous demonstration of Jesus as the proof of life eternal here and now, and shows us that, if we will accept this truth of spiritual being and yield to its demands, we too may have part in the resurrection.
Christian Scientists have only adoration for Jesus, realizing as they do how beyond possibility of estimation was the unapproachable value of his life-work for them and all mankind. When they consider his human experiences it is with deepest reverence, and when they think of Gethsemane, Calvary, and the sepulcher, it is with such love and gratitude as no words can measure. They know it was there Jesus met and mastered the worst beliefs of evil. It was there he faced and vanquished the foes of the children of men, opening the door for them into the liberty of the sons of God; for it was there he proved the supremacy of Spirit. His work stands out transcendently, and can never be repeated. Indeed, he triumphantly accomplished it for all time; so, it never could and never need be done again.
However deeply each individual may seem to suffer in his wrestlings with error in treading the pathway Jesus marked out for us, no one can ever have so deep an experience as the Master; for it was Jesus' work to find the way. Those walking in it after him must inevitably reap the untold advantage of the way having already been discovered. Then, no wise follower of Jesus will presume to compare his own lesser work with Jesus' stupendous one or speak of his own experiences in the terms of Gethsemane, Calvary, or the tomb. Our beloved Leader has reopened the way, and so walked next to him in the depths of her experiences. In "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 30) she writes: "No one else can drain the cup which I have drunk to the dregs as the Discoverer and teacher of Christian Science; neither can its inspiration be gained without tasting this cup." So pressing on, drinking in some degree of Christ's cup and being baptized with his baptism, we remain unspeakably grateful for what Christ Jesus and our Leader have worked out before us; and thank God that each one who walks the way makes that way easier for those who follow after.
Hear Paul again: "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." Here he speaks definitely of a present resurrection for each of us. Then it is ours continually to claim this resurrection. And Christian Science shows us how this is to be done. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 179) Mrs. Eddy writes: "What is it that seems a stone between us and the resurrection morning? It is the belief of mind in matter. We can only come into the spiritual resurrection by quitting the old consciousness of Soul in sense." Then experience should and may tend to a liberation from the beliefs of an existence in matter, into a fuller comprehension of the glories of life in Spirit. Each belief in materiality can be met and conquered with the understanding that "now is Christ risen from the dead"—now is the truth of spiritual being a demonstrated fact, and nothing can obscure or hinder it from being triumphantly realized by each child of God.
In line with this, on page 77 of "Miscellaneous Writings," Mrs. Eddy explains what Philip meant when he told the eunuch that if he would be saved he must believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God. She says: "Philip's requirement was, that he should not only acknowledge the incarnation,—God made manifest through man,—but even the eternal unity of man and God;" and then she further says that to accept this truth "was to enter unshod the Holy of Holies, where the miracle of grace appears, and where the miracles of Jesus had their birth,—healing the sick, casting out evils, and resurrecting the human sense to the belief that Life, God, is not buried in matter.
This, then, is the resurrection which the understanding and demonstration of Christian Science makes possible. This is the blessed resurrection which each individual has the glorious privilege of claiming as his own to-day. This is the way to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, proving each hour that "even so in Christ shall all be made alive."
Ella W. Hoag.
