"Truth demonstrated is eternal life," writes Mary Baker Eddy on page 289 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." The truth which is to be demonstrated is found in the first chapter of Genesis. We learn from this record of creation that God created all and made it very good. And in John's Gospel we read (1:3), "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." The real creation includes man, who is made in God's image and likeness and is perfect and complete.

Then the question arises, "Where does all that is not good come from, and who made it?" We all know that anything that was never created is an illusion. Mrs. Eddy tells us in Science and Health (p. 428), "Life is real, and death is the illusion."

What is the seeming power of death and wherein does this power lie? The answer to this question will be found in the following verses from the Bible (Hebr. 2:14, 15): "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."

It is clear from the above quotation that it is the devil that has "the power of death." Now it is interesting to note who or what the devil is. Christ Jesus, the greatest authority who ever trod the earth, had this to say of the devil, or evil (John 8:44): "He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." Jesus' statement shows that the only power there is to death is a lie. The only power a lie has is the power we give it by believing it to be true. Therefore we must not give a lie power; we must not believe it.

Our Master said (John 10:10), "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Christian Science teaches us that Life is God. God is Love; therefore Love is Life. The more we love, the clearer we reflect God; and the clearer we reflect God, the more abundantly we live. In other words, the more we love as Jesus did, the more abundantly we live.

An illusion is the result of ignorance. We have no illusions about anything we really understand. The illusion of death is no exception. We accept the illusion of death as real because we believe a lie. We believe this lie because of our lack of understanding of Life, that is, our ignorance of God and of man, of man's relationship to God, and of God's perfect spiritual creation.

Most people have been taught that they were created by human parents and are material, subject to material laws. They have also been taught that there is only one way out of materiality, and that is to die out of it. These are all lies about creation. The truth of creation is that God created man in His own image and likeness and gave man dominion. So man in the image and likeness of God is perfect, spiritual, and eternal. This is the truth revealed in Christian Science.

No matter how long we may have believed the lie of a material creation and death, it can never be true. We cannot change our real being or place of living, regardless of what lies we may believe about ourselves. We are in reality always God's children and have our being in Him.

Believing that we are in a material creation and that we have to die out of it has a parallel in the story of the man who was lost in a blizzard in western Canada. The storm came up while he was away from home, and when he was long overdue, some friends went out to look for him. When they found him, he was walking around the outside of a high fence, trying to get out of what he thought was an enclosure. He was already out, but because of his confused mental state he was believing the lie that he was still fenced in.

In Ephesians we read (5:14), "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." I am sure that the people to whom this was addressed thought they were living in matter just as many today think they are living in matter, and yet Paul said, "Arise from the dead." We have been taught that the dead are those whose physical bodies have ceased to function because of some material condition. The Bible points out quite plainly that the only death there is—and that in supposition—is ignorance of God. The only life we have comes through the knowledge or understanding of God and His Christ.

Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 410): "'This is life eternal,' says Jesus,—is, not shall be; and then he defines everlasting life as a present knowledge of his Father and of himself,—the knowledge of Love, Truth, and Life. 'This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.' The Scriptures say, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of themouth of God,' showing that Truth is the actual life of man; but mankind objects to making this teaching practical."

Christ Jesus came to resurrect us from the grave of ignorance by giving us an understanding of God, Life, Truth, and Love. This understanding will break the illusion of death so that it will vanish into nothingness. The Christ, Truth, is with us today and is explained to us in Christian Science so that we can understand it. We can gain our own resurrection by studying the Bible and Christian Science, by learning the truth of God and His perfect spiritual creation, and by understanding and demonstrating this truth.