At the top of a mountain Jesus was transfigured. A divinely mental power—a power not related to time and space—brought to view two men who had disappeared from the earth hundreds of years before. Those he took with him saw it and reported that "his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow. . . . And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus."Mark 9:3, 4;
Christian Science denies that this experience was in any sense a séance. Mrs. Eddy writes of the difference between the mental states of the so-called departed and the living, and she says, "No correspondence nor communion can exist between persons in such opposite dreams as the belief of having died and left a material body and the belief of still living in an organic, material body."Science and Health, p. 74; It follows that Moses and Elias were not dwelling in the belief of material life, where some are departed and some are living. And Jesus must have risen to the spiritual consciousness of deathless life in order to be able to communicate with them. But more, his mental state apparently influenced the consciousness of Peter, James, and John, who were there, so that for these few moments they too beheld these men in their timeless individuality. And although they did not retain this vision, their glimpse of spiritual individuality must have had a permanent effect on their outlook toward life.
Because transfiguration is possible, we have the assurance that mankind can work out the problem of peace. The solution will not come while we wait for others to learn to love one another. It will come as those who recognize that Christian Science is the revelation of Truth give themselves to the truth until they reach the altitude of consciousness where they can discern the deathless individuality of man. Those who do will give to other honest seekers for peace a glimpse of immortal manhood wherein the causes of war do not exist.
