According to the teachings of the world to-day, how is it possible for this saying of Jesus to be interpreted: "The hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God?" Surely the dead are not able to hear. It might have seemed more clear if he had not said that now they should hear the voice of the Son of God.
Many people believe that the dead shall rise again. And according to that belief they might think the coming hour to be when they shall rise. But he said now. It is impossible to interpret this thought without the understanding of Christian Science. We know that the whole world lieth in the wicked one, — that is the material sense. We know that the world is dead in the belief of sin, and that sin is the belief of life in matter. And when we do hear the voice of the Son of God, it is when we have awakened to the consciousness of the unreality of sin, sickness. and death, to know that the voice is Truth, and that God is Life. How grateful we should be for this awakening to hear the voice of the Son, and to know that our Life is hid with Christ in God! How blessed we are in having this knowledge of the beloved Science of God! For it is indeed the voice of the Infinite one that speaks to us through Science and Health. It has been given to us through His appointed, the Rev. Mary Baker Eddy. And the most precious thing for us to know is that it has come to stay; that no matter how it is assailed through unbelievers, how scoffed at by the unwise and foolish, they cannot put it down or stop its work, for it is the unalterable word of God.
On the other hand what do we have as a recompense if we believe in the reality of matter? What does it bring us? Anything? Yes! It brings sin, sickness, and death. What is the life of mortal man? It is a source of anxiety for the mother from the cradle. As soon as the babe is born, worry begins for her, and never is it lifted until she gains a higher understanding. For the child, as soon as he is able to realize his surroundings, the troubles begin. He has his trials in childhood, his disappointments in manhood, and his business anxieties, then his family cares, and if he is not roused to hear the voice of the Son of God, he goes on from one false claim to another, and the end is darkness and death. Oh, how true the scriptural saying! "Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble." But to be born again, as Jesus said to Nicodemus, of water (pure thought) and of the Spirit (understanding,) — this is indeed a release from mortal cares.
