During Jesus' earthly ministry he was on several occasions asked by critics of his words and works to show a sign, and it is well to remember that while he refused to accede to this insincere request, he placed upon his followers an obligation to furnish proof that they understood the operation of spiritual law, when he said, "These signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."
On another occasion he said (as we read in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew's gospel) that before the final overcoming of mortal mind with all its delusions and miseries "the sign of the Son of man" should appear in heaven, which, from the standpoint of Christian Science, evidently means that this "sign" must be of the same character as those given at the close of Mark's gospel, which are above enumerated. The statement that this sign should appear in heaven clearly points to an awakened spiritual sense of man's possibilities, far above the material plane of thought and activity, and indicates the uplifting of human consciousness to that altitude which Paul must have perceived when he wrote of "Christ in you, the hope of glory." In Science and Health we read that "the Christ is without beginning of years or end of days," and we are also told that "Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and the prophets caught glorious glimpses of the Messiah, or Christ, which baptized these seers in the divine nature, the essence of Love" (p. 333).
We read in Exodus of the coming of the divine idea to Moses, after he had been for many years a shepherd in the land of Midian, and as he communed with divine Truth respecting the deliverance of his people who were in Egypt he said they would refuse to listen to him, or to believe that God had sent him. He was then told to cast his rod upon the ground, and when he did so it appeared to him as a serpent, from which he fled in terror; but when at the divine command he took it up it was again a rod. Thus was given to Moses a sign which showed that everything we see is a manifestation of thought, and because a further lesson was needed it was given him. Moses was next bidden to put his hand in his bosom, and upon withdrawing the hand it presented an appearance of leprosy, being white as snow. He was then bidden to do as he had done before, and when he next looked at his hand "it was turned again as his other flesh." This primitive lesson in mental processes was followed by the statement that if the people refused to heed the first sign, they would accept "the latter sign," that which offered healing and restoration.
