IN all lands and times people have looked for signs in the heavens above and in the earth beneath. The sick look for signs of cure, while those around them are often seeing signs of death. As we read the gospels we find that many came to the great Teacher asking him for some sign, and his responses were evidently dependent upon the mood of the questioner. In the twelfth chapter of Matthew we read that when the scribes and Pharisees asked to see a sign, his reply, fraught with very deep meaning, was as follows: "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Jesus' rebuke is not surprising when we know what called it forth. He had just healed a man who was both blind and dumb, and while many saw this healing in its true light the Pharisees said, "This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils." To this Jesus immediately responded that the kingdom, city, or house which is divided against itself is brought to desolation, and he added: "If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out?...But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you."
Here we are brought back to the Master's statement respecting the sign of the prophet Jonas, who was said to have been for three days and three nights in the whale's belly. A good many students of the Bible take the related statement as to the Son of man to refer directly to Jesus' own experience in the tomb, and while this may be rightly included in the spiritual significance of the passage, it has also another and possibly a broader meaning. He was at that time dealing with humanity, imprisoned as closely in the belief of life, substance, and intelligence in matter as the prophet could ever have been in the whale's belly, and if we are to take the three days as typifying periods of human experience, we shall begin to grasp the meaning of the sign offered on this occasion by the great Teacher. It has been said by a profound thinker, who was not, however, acquainted with the teachings of Christian Science, that humanity passes through three stages in its evolution toward higher and nobler conditions. The first of these is subjection to blind force; the second, the recognition of law and its application; the third, the apprehension of so-called principles which leads to positive knowledge.
It may here be said that from the Christian Science viewpoint the process is an altogether different one. Real progress begins with the recognition of the one Principle that governs the universe and man, and while those who understand Principle are in no wise dependent upon signs, they are able to interpret them, whatever be their nature, better than can be done in any other way. On page 1 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy says: "The Chaldee watched the appearing of a star; to him, no higher destiny dawned on the dome of being than that foreshadowed by signs in the heavens. The meek Nazarene, the scoffed of all scoffers, said, 'Ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?'—for he forefelt and foresaw the ordeal of a perfect Christianity, hated by sinners."
