In order to heal through Christian Science there must ever be before the student's thought the vision of the spiritual and perfect creation. Only thus can the false beliefs about God, man, and the universe be eliminated and destroyed. Reasoning from the standpoint of absolute perfection, the student of Christian Science seeks to emulate the healing work of the blessed Master, Christ Jesus. He endeavors constantly to reflect the light of the Christ and so turns thought away from mere human reasoning, which is finite, limited, and erroneous. He refuses to see man and the universe as mortal or material. Indulging in materially-minded reasoning is, according to the teachings of Christian Science, like dwelling in graves of ignorance.

Mary Baker Eddy in "Miscellaneous Writings" refers to "the grave-clothes of tradition and the cave of ignorance." She writes p. 370): "When the Pharisees saw Jesus do such deeds of mercy, they went away and took counsel how they might remove him. The antagonistic spirit of evil is still abroad; but the greater spirit of Christ is also abroad,—risen from the grave-clothes of tradition and the cave of ignorance."

This teaching enables us clearly to interpret and understand the statement of Christ Jesus (John5:28, 29), "Marvel not ...: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."

It is most needful that we interpret the Scriptures spiritually, as our beloved Leader does. The Master's promise does not refer to the belief that human bodies will be raised from graves at a certain day of judgment. Rather it means that human thought can be raised here and now through the Christ, Truth, above the traditions and ignorance of mortal mind, resurrected from the grave, or sepulcher, of darkness to the light of Christ. The "evil, unto the resurrection of damnation" is the evil thought condemned to oblivion. Christian Science brings to our thought just such resurrection from just such graves of ignorance and superstition as Christ Jesus refers to.

In the sixth chapter of John's Gospel are recorded the words of Jesus (verse 44), "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him." One thought about this might be that the Master permitted no sense of man to come to his thought except the concept of God's giving, the man who, the Scriptures state, is made in His image and likeness. Only his high spiritual vision of the perfect man enabled the master Christian to heal and to speak with authority to all manner of error and destroy it.

Jesus' triumph over death in the resurrection, thus proving life to be immortal and deathless, has brought joy and hope to countless thousands of his followers through the centuries. It has also furnished individual proof of his promise that all would ultimately come forth from graves or sepulchers of superstition and false belief.

Let us ponder an important incident in this demonstration as related by Matthew. It took place at the tomb on the third day after the crucifixion of Jesus. His human body had lain in the sepulcher these three days and according to the usual custom of that era a stone had been placed at the entrance. It is recorded that "the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, ... rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it."

Here we note that the angel of God not only "rolled back the stone from the door," but "sat upon it." The mortal belief of life in matter, which the stone typified, never had to be rolled away again in the Master's experience, because he had fully demonstrated that his life never had been in matter and never would be.

Have we not oftentimes had the experience of an angel, or spiritual idea of God, coming to our waiting thought and rolling away a stone of some mortal belief by which we had found ourselves entombed? But have we let the angel, or heavenly inspiration, sit upon the stone? With steadfast purpose and determination we need to know that no stony belief of material sense can entomb man. Thus we shall grasp the angel's spiritual message and protect our demonstration against error's baseless claim of reversal.

Every false concept is a stone before the door of our thought and must be rolled away if we are to demonstrate life eternal. Clearly, the wise thing is not to admit into thought any false concept about man, and then no stone will have to be removed.

Perhaps we have struggled long and earnestly to emerge from some tomb of our own making, only to find that the stone of condemnation has been placed at the door of our consciousness. Then we need an angel thought to roll away this stone and sit upon it until we can come completely forth into the "resurrection of life."

If we are entertaining a false concept of anyone, we are burying him in the grave of personal sense. We need to resurrect him in our own thought, that is, we need to declare, as did the angel at the tomb of Jesus (Matt. 28:6), "He is not here: for he is risen."

The belief of a mortal existence which leads to inevitable death continues to confront humanity. However, we who have learned in Christian Science man's indestructible nature as the child of God and glimpsed the eternality of Life know that in reality there is no death, and that the only sepulchers are the false beliefs from which our thinking must needs be rescued and resurrected.

Mrs. Eddy assures us (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 191): "Mortality's thick gloom is pierced. The stone is rolled away." Just prior to this statement she says: "With grave-clothes laid aside, Christ, Truth, has come forth from the tomb of the past, clad in immortality. The sepulchres give up their dead. Spirit is saying unto matter: I am not there, am not within you. Behold the place where they laid me; but human thought has risen!"