"And the evening and the morning were the third day."On page 508 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says, "The third stage in the order of Christian Science is an important one to the human thought, letting in the light of spiritual understanding." This stage is not to be measured by material time, or seventy-two hours, but rather is the third day symbolic. She further adds, "This period corresponds to the resurrection, when Spirit is discerned to be the Life of all, and the deathless Life, or Mind, dependent upon no material organization. Our Master reappeared to his students,—to their apprehension he rose from the grave,—on the third day of his ascending thought, and so presented to them the certain sense of eternal Life." It is a mental state wherein man is found to enjoy harmonious eternal life, and is to be gained now, according to Christ Jesus, through constructive thinking and consistent living. What is more important to-day than letting in the light of spiritual understanding?
"Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?" asks the psalmist, and answers, "He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully." Enoch proved that through right thinking and living he was enabled to ascend into the hill of the Lord, or far enough above the belief in matter to see it disappear. We read that he was a just man and that he walked with God, or we might say, he was spiritually minded and understood God to be Spirit, and man in His likeness to be wholly spiritual and not material. And so we read that Enoch was translated, or ascended above the evidence of the material senses. The helpful experience of Elijah and Elisha, who proved to be great prophets or spiritual seers, is a valuable lesson to the pilgrims of this century ascending the ladder of life. Elijah saw the light and knew that he was about to make his demonstration in making the ascension. The sons of the prophets must have been perplexed when they came to inform Elisha of the great event at hand, but Elisha, the spiritually minded man simply answered, "Yea I know it: hold ye your peace." While the others, because of their material-mindedness, stood afar off, we find Elisha quiet and confident, refusing to leave his master's side. But Elisha's greatest lesson was yet to be learned. At the supreme moment, as Elijah was about to disappear, he said to Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee," and Elisha answered, "Let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me." Elijah's reply was, "Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so." In other words, he learned that the prophetic mantle or power to heal could not be transferred from one individual to another but must be gained individually through the third stage in Christian Science, of letting in the light that exposes the unreality, the nothingness of matter, and reveals the reality, the allness of Spirit. And so when the demonstration took place he beheld the ascension and through that spiritual vision he was enabled to take up the work where Elijah had left off. "He took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither." He rose high enough mentally to understand man's dominion over the waters of mortal mind. Spiritual sense had kept him above error, and so "Elisha went over." The fifty men who stood a far off, through their blindness to spiritual truth did not appreciate the wonderful demonstration, for we find them afterwards eagerly seeking the material body in another place, and after three days' searching they received enough light to give up their quest of matter.
Human resistance to the ascending thought was manifested in the actions of the Pharisees when they set a watch at the sepulcher to prevent the body of Jesus from being stolen. They remembered that the Master said he would rise the third day and they feared trickery. But it was soon discovered that stones and watchmen could not prevent the resurrection and ascension, which was a spiritual process, and on the third day Jesus arose as he promised them he would do. In his ascending thought he gave his disciples and the two women their opportunity to behold the risen Savior or the Christ, Truth, but all of them were not ready to appreciate fully this supreme demonstration. We find some of them looking for the material man instead of the incorporeal Christ, Truth. Mrs. Eddy tells us (Science and Health, p. 34): "His resurrection was also their resurrection. It helped them to raise themselves and others from spiritual dulness and blind belief in God into the perception of infinite possibilities. They needed this quickening, for soon their dear Master would rise again in the spiritual realm of reality, and ascend far above their apprehension. As the reward for his faithfulness, he would disappear to material sense in that change which has since been called the ascension." The contrast between the disciples Thomas and John is remarkable. While the materially minded Thomas insisted upon seeing and even feeling the fleshly Jesus, we find the beloved John ascending in thought with his Master. He rose far enough above the evidence of the corporeal senses to see the human conception of heaven and earth pass away and to behold the new heaven and the new earth, the new Jerusalem.
