"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." Such was Paul's exhortation (Col. 3:1), and its truth challenges us today. Indeed, because of the destructive forces that seem to be rampant, a true concept of the risen Christ is the most important subject in the world today, for it throws light on the supreme fact—Life!
Students of Christian Science do not commemorate just one day in the year in recognition of the risen Christ, for they know that Easter is the continuous resurrection of thought in individual experience to the spiritual sense of being. Although many loyal Christians have desired to have a part in the resurrection, they have not known how this could be accomplished. Outward ritual was no aid to those who sincerely desired to abstain from material thinking and to turn thought Godward, prerequisites to a clearer perception of God as Life eternal.
Christian Science teaches that spiritual man is forever boundless, free, and at one with the Father. Therefore, he is never in matter and cannot be resurrected from matter. This knowledge of the real man's indestructibility gives to the one in the foxhole, at some outpost in no man's land, in the air, on the ground, on the sea and under the sea, an answer to the challenge, "In the place where you now find yourself, is there not an opportunity to solve the great problem of being as did the Master?" That many individuals today are answering this challenge there is no doubt. They are realizing such an attainment to be possible through holding in thought noble ideals and putting them daily into practice. Such ideals cannot be buried; they outlive the horrors and tragedies of battlefields.
Fear, anxiety, hatred, revenge yield to the risen Christ, which reveals the kingdom of heaven within us. Then, as we become aware of God's omnipotence and omnipresence, we lose the consciousness of evil and become conscious of good only. We rise from a human sense of things to the true understanding of Christ, defined by Mary Baker Eddy on page 583 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" as "the divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error." Yes, we learn to entertain angels, understood in Christian Science as true thoughts, bringing protection and healing and lighting the way out of sepulchers with sempiternity.
To the student of Christian Science, demonstration is vitally important, for this Science is practical and operative. Our problems scientifically solved can only serve to hasten our resurrection from mortality, and we find this task is our lifework. Hezekiah realized this when he prayed (Isa. 38:16), "O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live."
Many are the examples given in the Scriptures proving the resuscitating and resurrecting power of the Christ. These are the raising of the son of the widow at Zarephath, Jairus' daughter, the son of the widow of Nain, Lazarus of Bethany, the widow Dorcas, and, most significant of all, the Master's own resurrection. Christ Jesus' mental work within the tomb proved to the world the fact of man's immortality.
The consciousness of the presence of the Christ raised Mrs. Eddy from what was regarded as a fatal injury and restored her to health. This healing led to the discovery of Christian Science, which, as has been made plain, is primitive Christianity reinstated and put down in book form for us today and also for posterity to use.
It is because of her own imperative discovery that our Leader makes this statement (ibid., p. 428): "We must hold forever the consciousness of existence, and sooner or later, through Christ and Christian Science we must master sin and death." It was the consciousness of existence as spiritual which made it possible for Enoch to overcome death, and it indicates the way of life for us all.
Our Leader knew that to limit, in belief, the good and true saps one's knowledge of immortality and strengthens one's belief in the power of matter. The Master proved that Life is neither organic, structural, absorbed, nor limited. Life is God, self-sustained, indestructible, the only true substance. To believe in Life as mortal is to break the First Commandment. Our endeavor is always to remember that God alone is man's Life, and that to Life, God, and to man, His reflection, time" and death are unknown.
We learn in Christian Science that Love is Life. An ever-increasing opportunity is ours to express Life through the reflection of Love; to forgive and forget wrongs; to help our so-called weaker brother; to love when we seem not to be loved; indeed, to love divinely as did the master Christian, who, knowing Judas to be his betrayer, called him "friend."
Joy and courage are qualities of thought which point the way of Life. One who was on the circulation committee of The Christian Science Monitor had occasion every few weeks to call on the telephone a name which appeared in her files. The person remarked: "Tell me, why is your voice so cheery when you call? Are you always very happy?" The worker quoted the Psalmist's promise (Ps. 16:11), "In thy presence is fulness of joy." She had realized how impossible it was to get away from God's presence, since He is everywhere present. Then the other person said, "When you called I felt as if I did not care to live, but your explanation of joy has given me an abundance of courage to live and has renewed my hopes."
Thus we see that right where we are the challenge comes to us to ascend into higher altitudes of spiritual thinking, where the Christ is revealed. As we do this, death is rejected and thought rises toward immortality. Keeping in mind that mere length of days is not the real goal, we shall learn to demonstrate the allness of Spirit and consequently the unreality of matter. We shall increasingly walk in the footsteps of Jesus, who demonstrated the Christ.
Particularly to those who have enlisted in their country's service comes the challenge to rise and to claim fullness of Life. As thought is stayed on God, Life, our Leader's words will be realized (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 191): "Mortality's thick gloom is pierced. The stone is rolled away. Death has lost its sting, and the grave its victory. Immortal courage fills the human breast and lights the living way of Life."
