ONpage 180 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, there is a statement of immeasurable value to the student. It reads: "The patient sufferer tries to be satisfied when he sees his would-be healers busy, and his faith in their efforts is somewhat helpful to them and to himself; but in Science one must understand the resuscitating law of Life. This is the seed within itself bearing fruit after its kind, spoken of in Genesis." In Webster's Dictionary the word "resuscitate" is given the following definition: "To revivify; . . . restore, esp. from apparent death or from unconsciousness." Then, on all occasions, whatever the sufferer seems to be afflicted with, "one must understand the resuscitating law of Life."
This also implies that all sufferers, from whatever trouble, may be said to be in a state of "apparent death or ... unconsciousness" from which they need to be aroused, if one considers Paul's words, "To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." A superficial view of existence may not lead one to perceive that the fear of death is very prevalent; but if "to be carnally minded is death," then, surely, all need resuscitating; for is not the belief of carnality or matter the heritage of mortals? It is believed that death is inevitable. Therefore, to be roused from believing in man as material is the necessity. To be resuscitated from unconsciousness or lack of the true consciousness of man as he really is, the perfect image and likeness of God, Spirit, would destroy all difficulties, including death itself.
The understanding that the account of creation given in the first chapter of Genesis is the truth about man, rather than the second account, —the allegory of a man made out of the dust of the ground, with mortal breath rather than Spirit as his life, —is indeed the beginning of resuscitation to a new sense of life. And the true concept of Life as God, and of man as the reflection of God, Life, is what Christian Science teaches.
