THERE is perhaps no other question of such vital interest to humanity at large as that of man's immortality, even the attainment of present good giving place to it, possibly for the reason that here we "walk by faith, not by sight," and must continue to do so, to some extent, until the belief in materiality yields to spiritual reality. That the religious teaching of the past on this subject has been mainly unsatisfying is shown by the intense and sometimes hopeless grief displayed by those whose dear ones pass on, and also by the fact that so many turn eagerly to the modern interpretations of oriental philosophy, hoping to find therein that which they have missed in the orthodox teaching on death and the hereafter.
Many sincere Christians feel that Christ Jesus said so little on this subject, and beginners in Christian Science are apt to express the same thought as to Mrs. Eddy's writings, hence it may be well to ascertain whether these criticisms are well founded. It is quite true that the Old Testament writers had little to say respecting the hereafter, Job's mournful statement, "Man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep," implying a serious doubt on his part of what Mrs. Eddy calls "immortal manhood" (Science and Health, p. 430). Here let it be said that Christian Science would not dispute Job's conclusion so far as the mortal body is concerned, since it declares that the real man is never material but always spiritual and governed by spiritual law, hence immortal. As we read Jesus' statements in the light of this teaching, we see that he constantly maintained by word and deed the immortality of all that knows God and expresses God. His one decisive utterance on this point, "He is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him," lifts thought above all material evidence and points to the eternal fact, that which God forever sees.
As this does not, however, deal with the question of identity or the individualized sense of being, we turn to what is known as the parable of Dives and Lazarus. Here we find that the change called death had not robbed the erstwhile rich man of the power to think. He knew himself quite as well as he did before the change (though this is not saying much for him), and he had possibly a quickened sense of human affection, for he desired to have his brothers spared the ordeal through which he was passing. It would also seem that lie had gained an enlarged concept of time and space in that he was able to commune with Abraham and to recognize Lazarus. It is not necessary nor possible to quote all of Jesus' sayings which deal with this subject, but one or two may here be given, and all are worthy of the most earnest study. He said, "Because I live, ye shall live also;" and again, "Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." On the subject of identity Mrs. Eddy speaks of man and woman as "unchanged forever in their individual characters, even as numbers which never blend with each other, though they are governed by one Principle"(Ibid., p. 588).
