"Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" (John 11:26.) Jesus spoke these words to Martha, whose beloved brother had died. He answered Martha's pitiful reproach (verse 21), "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died," and assured her, "He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." Thus Martha's sense of life as being interrupted for a time and then beginning again after a resurrection was corrected.
What is it in our friends that we love? What attracts us? What influences us? Not the physical form. Love, attraction, influence, companionship, lie in spiritual qualities. Do these ever leave us or vanish in death? No! The blessing given to the world through each individual expression of life is never lost. Death never touches any part of us that is of value or real worth.
On page 386 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy states that a blundering message reporting the death of a friend results in the same grief as the friend's death would occasion. And she declares that a correction of the mistaken report heals the grief. Thus she points out that the suffering was not caused by the actual death of the friend, but was the result of the acceptance of the false belief.
