Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (universal ebook reader .TXT) 📖

to the foot of the cross.

 

Death outdone

42:15 The resurrection of the great demonstrator of God’s

power was the proof of his final triumph over body

and matter, and gave full evidence of divine 42:18 Science, - evidence so important to mortals.

The belief that man has existence or mind separate from

God is a dying error. This error Jesus met with divine 42:21 Science and proved its nothingness. Because of the won—

drous glory which God bestowed on His anointed, temptation, sin, sickness, and death had no terror for Jesus. 42:24 Let men think they had killed the body! Afterwards he

would show it to them unchanged. This demonstrates

that in Christian Science the true man is governed by 42:27 God - by good, not evil - and is therefore not a mortal

but an immortal. Jesus had taught his disciples the

Science of this proof. He was here to enable them to 42:30 test his still uncomprehended saying, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also.” They

must understand more fully his Life-principle by casting 43:1 out error, healing the sick, and raising the dead, even as

they did understand it after his bodily departure.

 

Pentecost repeated

43:3 The magnitude of Jesus’ work, his material disappearance before their eyes and his reappearance, all enabled

the disciples to understand what Jesus had 43:6 said. Heretofore they had only believed;

now they understood. The advent of this understanding

is what is meant by the descent of the Holy Ghost, - that 43:9 influx of divine Science which so illuminated the Pentecostal Day and is now repeating its ancient history.

 

Convincing evidence

 

Jesus’ last proof was the highest, the most convincing, 43:12 the most profitable to his students. The malignity of

brutal persecutors, the treason and suicide of

his betrayer, were overruled by divine Love to 43:15 the glorification of the man and of the true idea of God,

which Jesus’ persecutors had mocked and tried to slay.

The final demonstration of the truth which Jesus taught, 43:18 and for which he was crucified, opened a new era for the

world. Those who slew him to stay his influence perpetuated and extended it.

 

Divine victory

43:21 Jesus rose higher in demonstration because of the cup

of bitterness he drank. Human law had condemned

him, but he was demonstrating divine Science. 43:24 Out of reach of the barbarity of his enemies,

he was acting under spiritual law in defiance of matter and mortality, and that spiritual law sustained him. 43:27 The divine must overcome the human at every point.

The Science Jesus taught and lived must triumph over

all material beliefs about life, substance, and intelli-43:30 gence, and the multitudinous errors growing from such

beliefs.

 

Love must triumph over hate. Truth and Life must 44:1 seal the victory over error and death, before the thorns

can be laid aside for a crown, the benediction follow, 44:3 “Well done, good and faithful servant,” and the supremacy of Spirit be demonstrated.

 

Jesus in the tomb

 

The lonely precincts of the tomb gave Jesus a refuge 44:6 from his foes, a place in which to solve the great

problem of being. His three days’ work in

the sepulchre set the seal of eternity on time. 44:9 He proved Life to be deathless and Love to be the master of hate. He met and mastered on the basis of Christian Science, the power of Mind over matter, all the claims 44:12 of medicine, surgery, and hygiene.

 

He took no drugs to allay inflammation. He did not

depend upon food or pure air to resuscitate wasted 44:15 energies. He did not require the skill of a surgeon to

heal the torn palms and bind up the wounded side and

lacerated feet, that he might use those hands to remove 44:18 the napkin and winding-sheet, and that he might employ

his feet as before.

 

The deific naturalism

 

Could it be called supernatural for the God of nature 44:21 to sustain Jesus in his proof of man’s truly derived power?

It was a method of surgery beyond material

art, but it was not a supernatural act. On 44:24 the contrary, it was a divinely natural act, whereby divinity

brought to humanity the understanding of the Christ-healing and revealed a method infinitely above that of 44:27 human invention.

 

Obstacles overcome

 

His disciples believed Jesus to be dead while he was

hidden in the sepulchre, whereas he was alive, demon-44:30 strating within the narrow tomb the power

of Spirit to overrule mortal, material sense.

There were rock-ribbed walls in the way, and a great 45:1 stone must be rolled from the cave’s mouth; but Jesus

vanquished every material obstacle, overcame every law 45:3 of matter, and stepped forth from his gloomy resting-place,

crowned with the glory of a sublime success, an everlasting

victory.

 

Victory over the grave

45:6 Our Master fully and finally demonstrated divine Science in his victory over death and the grave. Jesus’

deed was for the enlightenment of men and 45:9 for the salvation of the whole world from sin,

sickness, and death. Paul writes: “For if, when we were

enemies, we were reconciled to God by the [seeming] death 45:12 of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved

by his life.” Three days after his bodily burial he talked

with his disciples. The persecutors had failed to hide im-45:15 mortal Truth and Love in a sepulchre.

 

The stone rolled away

 

Glory be to God, and peace to the struggling hearts!

Christ hath rolled away the stone from the door of hu-45:18 man hope and faith, and through the revelation and demonstration of life in God, hath

elevated them to possible at-one-ment with the spiritual 45:21 idea of man and his divine Principle, Love.

 

After the resurrection

 

They who earliest saw Jesus after the resurrection

and beheld the final proof of all that he had taught, 45:24 misconstrued that event. Even his disciples

at first called him a spirit, ghost, or spectre,

for they believed his body to be dead. His reply was: 45:27 “Spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.”

The reappearing of Jesus was not the return of a spirit.

He presented the same body that he had before his cru-45:30 cifixion, and so glorified the supremacy of Mind over

matter.

 

Jesus’ students, not sufficiently advanced fully to un-46:1 derstand their Master’s triumph, did not perform many

wonderful works, until they saw him after his crucifixion 46:3 and learned that he had not died. This convinced them

of the truthfulness of all that he had taught.

 

Spiritual interpretation

 

In the walk to Emmaus, Jesus was known to his friends 46:6 by the words, which made their hearts burn within them,

and by the breaking of bread. The divine

Spirit, which identified Jesus thus centuries 46:9 ago, has spoken through the inspired Word and will speak

through it in every age and clime. It is revealed to the

receptive heart, and is again seen casting out evil and 46:12 healing the sick.

 

Corporeality and Spirit

 

The Master said plainly that physique was not Spirit,

and after his resurrection he proved to the physical senses 46:15 that his body was not changed until he himself

ascended, - or, in other words, rose even

higher in the understanding of Spirit, God. To convince 46:18 Thomas of this, Jesus caused him to examine the nail—

prints and the spear-wound.

 

Spiritual ascension

 

Jesus’ unchanged physical condition after what seemed 46:21 to be death was followed by his exaltation above all material conditions; and this exaltation explained

his ascension, and revealed unmistakably a 46:24 probationary and progressive state beyond the grave.

Jesus was “the way;” that is, he marked the way for

all men. In his final demonstration, called the ascen-46:27 sion, which closed the earthly record of Jesus, he rose

above the physical knowledge of his disciples, and the

material senses saw him no more.

 

Pentecostal power

46:30 His students then received the Holy Ghost. By this is

meant, that by all they had witnessed and suffered, they

were roused to an enlarged understanding of divine Sci-47:1 ence, even to the spiritual interpretation and discernment

of Jesus’ teachings and demonstrations, which gave them 47:3 a faint conception of the Life which is God.

They no longer measured man by material

sense. After gaining the true idea of their glorified Master, 47:6 they became better healers, leaning no longer on matter,

but on the divine Principle of their work. The influx of

light was sudden. It was sometimes an overwhelming 47:9 power as on the Day of Pentecost.

 

The traitor’s conspiracy

 

Judas conspired against Jesus. The world’s ingratitude

and hatred towards that just man effected his betrayal. 47:12 The traitor’s price was thirty pieces of silver

and the smiles of the Pharisees. He chose his

time, when the people were in doubt concerning Jesus’ 47:15 teachings.

 

A period was approaching which would reveal the infinite distance between Judas and his Master. Judas 47:18 Iscariot knew this. He knew that the great goodness of

that Master placed a gulf between Jesus and his betrayer,

and this spiritual distance inflamed Judas’ envy. The 47:21 greed for gold strengthened his ingratitude, and for a time

quieted his remorse. He knew that the world generally

loves a lie better than Truth; and so he plotted the be-47:24 trayal of Jesus in order to raise himself in popular estimation. His dark plot fell to the ground, and the

traitor fell with it. 47:27 The disciples’ desertion of their Master in his last

earthly struggle was punished; each one came to a violent death except St. John, of whose death we have no 47:30 record.

 

Gethsemane glorified

 

During his night of gloom and glory in the garden,

Jesus realized the utter error of a belief in any possi-48:1 ble material intelligence. The pangs of neglect and the

staves of bigoted ignorance smote him sorely. His stu-48:3 dents slept. He said unto them: “Could Ye

not watch with me one hour?” Could they

not watch with him who, waiting and struggling in voice-48:6 less agony, held uncomplaining guard over a world?

There was no response to that human yearning, and so

Jesus turned forever away from earth to heaven, from 48:9 sense to Soul.

 

Remembering the sweat of agony which fell in holy

benediction on the grass of Gethsemane, shall the hum-48:12 blest or mightiest disciple murmur when he drinks from the

same cup, and think, or even wish, to escape the exalting ordeal of sin’s revenge on its destroyer? Truth and 48:15 Love bestow few palms until the consummation of a

life-work.

 

Defensive weapons

 

Judas had the world’s weapons. Jesus had not one 48:18 of them, and chose not the world’s means of defence.

“He opened not his mouth.” The great demonstrator of Truth and Love was silent before 48:21 envy and hate. Peter would have smitten the enemies of

his Master, but Jesus forbade him, thus rebuking resentment or animal courage. He said: “Put up thy 48:24 sword.”

 

Pilate’s question

 

Pale in the presence of his own momentous question,

“What is Truth,” Pilate was drawn into acquiescence 48:27 with the demands of Jesus’ enemies. Pilate

was ignorant of the consequences of his awful

decision against human rights and divine Love, knowing 48:30 not that he was hastening the final demonstration of what

life is and of what the true knowledge of God can do for

man.

49:1 The women at the cross could have answered Pilate’s

question. They knew what had inspired their devotion, 49:3 winged their faith, opened the eyes of their understanding, healed the sick, cast out evil, and caused the disciples

to say to their Master: “Even the devils are subject 49:6 unto us