At the time of his transfiguration on the mount, Jesus gave this reply to a question from the disciples: "Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things." On page 585 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy gives the following definition of "Elias": "Prophecy; spiritual evidence opposed to material sense; Christian Science, with which can be discerned the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold; the basis of immortality."
Prophecy, then, does not refer solely to time or the appearing of outward events. In essence, it refers to the coming of spiritual vision, which pierces the veil of materiality and reveals spiritual being. Without this fulfilling of prophecy, this coming of spiritual evidence, humanity's mental horizon would be bounded by the testimony of the material senses, which would be calamitous.
Jesus gave his followers all they could receive in that day. Hence his saying, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." His revolutionary spiritual teachings prepared humanity for the reception of the Holy Ghost, or Comforter, "the Spirit of truth," of which Jesus said, "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: . . . and he will shew you things to come." The Holy Ghost is defined in Science and Health (p. 588) as, "Divine Science; the development of eternal Life, Truth, and Love."
