GIVING UP THE BELIEF IN DEATH

[Original article in German]

MARIA SCHLOZ

Christian Science brings us glad tidings of freedom and of the redemption of men from sin, disease, and death. Those who have learned to understand this Science by earnestly studying and applying its teachings recognize clearly that it is the Comforter promised us by Christ Jesus. As Mary Baker Eddy herself tells us, God dictated to her all that the textbook contains, and she herself studied the divine message daily. She says in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 426), "The relinquishment of all faith in death and also of the fear of its sting would raise the standard of health and morals far beyond its present elevation, and would enable us to hold the banner of Christianity aloft with unflinching faith in God, in Life eternal."

Until belief in the so-called last enemy is overcome, a shadow seems to be cast which prevents a true sense of happiness. For generations all mankind, even the Christian world, has believed that death is a natural, inevitable, and insurmountable fact. And yet Jesus, the great proclaimer of eternal truths, the one who overcame death, said (John 8:51), "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death," meaning that he who clings unreservedly to what I have taught can be conscious of uninterrupted life.

Even when the physical form of Jesus was lying in the sepulcher, never for a moment was the true Jesus, the individual spiritual idea, conscious of death, but only of uninterrupted life. It was for our sake that the Master suffered the crucifixion, that through his mighty and moving demonstration over death we might forever be healed of the fear of death and cease to be bondsmen. In the wonderful prayer he left us Jesus said (John 17:3), "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." He revealed the way to complete freedom from sin and death.

What is sin? All thinking that is unlike God is sin. Christian Science points out the necessity of renouncing thoughts unlike God, divine Love, even secret thoughts of resentment, fear, apathy, criticism, and pride, and replacing them with joyous forgiveness and forgetting, with appreciation and humility. In like manner, the belief in the transitory as real is also sin, for God, Spirit, and matter, dust, are opposites. Religious systems in general consider matter real, a part of God's creation, although the greatest Scientist the world has ever known said clearly and unequivocally (John 6:63), "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." These words indicate clearly that the Master did not consider matter a part of Life, God, and this clear understanding, together with his perfect love, enabled him to destroy the belief of death for others and ultimately for himself and to demonstrate ever-present, eternal Life.

As the student of Christian Science by reflecting divine qualities learns to prove man's oneness or unity with God, he is at the same time demonstrating life eternal. We should utilize every hour in an effort to spiritualize our thinking and should learn to evaluate everything from a divine point of view. Then it will be our experience that to understand God is life eternal.

Let us rejoice that it is not our duty to prepare for death, for the Master prophesied, as previously quoted, "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." Let us rejoice that we are now and throughout all eternity, without interruption, in that Life, which is and was and will be—in the one and only Life, God, where there is neither young nor old, neither growth nor decay. Therefore let us obey our Leader's command (Science and Health, p. 393): "Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man."

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