A Painter of delightful word pictures is the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy. In her book "Miscellaneous Writings" (pp. 329-332) we find such a picture in a rhapsody on the joys and beauties of the springtide. The Christian Scientist traces with the deepest interest and enjoyment his Leader's metaphors and similes, which invariably point some spiritual lesson.
For example, in her article "Voices of Spring" we find this most helpful paragraph (ibid., p. 330): "The alders bend over the streams to shake out their tresses in the water-mirrors; let mortals bow before the creator, and, looking through Love's transparency, behold man in God's own image and likeness, arranging in the beauty of holiness each budding thought." Then a little farther on she continues, "With each returning year, higher joys, holier aims, a purer peace and diviner energy, should freshen the fragrance of being."
Truly the return of the spring, heralded by the Eastertide, should bring to every heart a glad sense of renewed hope and courage, a conviction that, after all, life is, must be, deathless. No matter how cheerless and barren may have seemed some winter experience of a slow healing or a temporary failure to melt some icy grip of a deep sorrow, the message of Easter and spring is ever: "weeping may endure for a night" (Ps. 30:5), opportunities to know and prove the reality of joyous being are fresh with each dawn.
Some newcomers to Christian Science may wonder at first glance why Mrs. Eddy included a By-Law in her Church Manual prohibiting any special Easter services or observances; but let them read the By-Law to the end and the reason should be apparent. "Gratitude and love should abide in every heart each day of all the years" (Art. XVII, Sect. 2). Thus continues the By-Law; and in conclusion we read: "Those sacred words of our beloved Master, 'Let the dead bury their dead,' and 'Follow thou me,' appeal to daily Christian endeavors for the living whereby to exemplify our risen Lord." To the Christian Scientist, therefore, the celebration of Easter, as well as of Christmas, becomes a daily privilege. Just as we hail each birth of a right idea in consciousness and so memorialize the forever coming of the Christ, so should rejoicing be continuous over the slightest sign of resurrection from the errors of the carnal mind.
In the Glossary of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy thus defines "resurrection" (p. 593): "Spiritualization of thought; a new and higher idea of immortality, or spiritual existence; material belief yielding to spiritual understanding." Plainly should the student of this transcendent Science see that the celebration of the great Nazarene's triumph over matter and death cannot be confined to one joyous Easter service each spring. The "spiritualization of thought" in individual human consciousness is the student's daily, hourly task; and as "a new and higher idea of immortality, or spiritual existence" dawns upon thought, cannot he hail the risen Christ with a joyous "Rabboni"?
Whenever a suggestion of selfishness or temper, of resentment or depraved appetite, is silenced through the realization of man's spiritual nature, Easter is being celebrated. When through "spiritualization of thought" pain is seen to be sheer mesmerism, without presence, law, or actuality, and cast out, the Master's great triumph is being celebrated; and when, even through tears, one can begin to thank God for even a glimpse of the unreality of death and separation, verily do we stand again at an opened tomb and hear the angelic message, "die in the Lord" (Rev. 14:13), and Mrs. Eddy shows that the spiritually-minded soldier, refusing to consent to the lie of death and fighting error up to the last ditch, does not go down to defeat but gains a higher sense of Life than he has ever before known.
So the Easter message of Christian Science to the sorrowing is, Rejoice, for man lives, he loves, he knows no sadness, no separation! Then let us turn from the mesmeric pictures of sense-testimony, pray for the spiritualization of consciousness, and "let the dead bury their dead;" in other words, let mortal mind's godless arguments bury themselves in their own dreamland. The suggestion that man ever was in matter and has been annihilated in it is nothing in the world but mortal mind talking about itself and to itself.
Let us look away from these miserable, lying suggestions to that spiritual sense of being wherein we see the angel thoughts of Love's nearness roll away earth's stones and minister to us. Many grief-stricken men and women awaken in Science to see how intensely selfish is sorrow, for when one is hugging to himself a sense of his own loss or anguish, he is not at that moment rejoicing in the freedom and harmony— the spiritual awakening—unquestionably unfolding in the experience of the Christian Scientist gone beyond his vision.
Christ Jesus, in his glorious resurrection, proved for all time that there is no such thing as a termination of life. Therefore, we know that the first thing discovered by those who pass through what is termed "the valley of the shadow" is that they have not been annihilated. Possibly to some the experience of the transition may come as a shock, which must eventually result in an awakening and rousing of thought to seek and find a better sense of things than was theirs on this plane of existence.
At all events, those seemingly left behind who name the name of Christian Science, if consistent, will be found striving to know the truth of man's undying nature and accepting no other concept. And how many uncounted hundreds of Scientists are testifying constantly to the great peace, strength, and comfort they have found when the so-called "king of terrors" has been faced with a "spiritualization of thought."
The spring song, the Easter song of Christian Science, therefore, is the glad message of being without beginning or ending, the message of perpetual newness and freshness. In the words of Christina Rosetti,
There is no time like Spring,
When life's alive in every thing.
And this happy sense is possible for every Truth-seeker every morning, and every hour. Life is here; joyous, spiritually vibrant Life is your consciousness and mine by eternal reflection. Truly, "gratitude and love should abide in every heart each day of all the years."
