The answer to the question, "What constitutes victory or defeat?" is found in the teachings of Christian Science, which reverses every material concept of existence, of the universe, and of God and man. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says (p. 312): "How true it is that whatever is learned through material sense must be lost because such so-called knowledge is reversed by the spiritual facts of being in Science. That which material sense calls intangible, is found to be substance. What to material sense seems substance, becomes nothingness, as the sense dream vanishes and reality appears." How clearly in this statement does our Leader distinguish between substance and nothingness, and, inferentially, between victory and defeat! Many times we find in daily experience that what seems to material sense to be a defeat is in fact a spiritual victory, while that which material sense would call victory proves to be but the ashes of mourning.
The words and works of Christ Jesus, our Way-shower, constitute the true example for us all. For three years he had been fulfilling his divine mission, teaching and preaching the truth about God and man, healing the sick and the sorrowing, and in some instances, even bringing the dead to life. For three years he had gone about doing good, and he gave to mankind that great sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, which was to prove a beacon and a guide throughout the centuries. For three wonderful years he had taught and proved man's oneness with God; that God was his Father, and our Father; and above all, he had proved the omnipotence of God, Love, to heal, protect, and save. And the result? "Despised and rejected of men," deserted by his followers, condemned, his teachings scorned and flouted, and then what seemed to be an ignoble death!
Doubtless his persecutors thought that was his defeat. But was it? His lifework, leading to his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, proved to be the greatest spiritual victory the world has ever known. Of his final experience and overcoming, his turning of seeming defeat into glorious victory, Mrs. Eddy writes on page 45 of Science and Health, "Jesus vanquished every material obstacle, overcame every law of matter, and stepped forth from his gloomy resting-place, crowned with the glory of a sublime success, an everlasting victory." His persecutors are known today only because he is known. His teachings remain. Their spiritual import and power to heal sickness and sin were lost to view after a lapse of years through the materiality of those calling themselves his followers, but the truth he taught endures. It remained for Mary Baker Eddy, spiritually prepared of God, to discover the true import of his teachings and the divine law underlying them, and she has given her discovery to the world in her writings.
