BURIAL. Corporeality and physical sense put out of sight and hearing; annihilation. Submergence in Spirit; immortality brought to light. Science and Health, p. 582
THE WORD BURIAL OFTEN HAS A RESTRICTIVE, negative sense. It brings to thought defeat, finality, termination, oblivion. In fact, when our hopes and plans are buried, that's often the end of them. And when we're burdened, we sometimes speak of being buried under a heavy workload or mountains of red tape.
But the description of burial in the Glossary in Science and Health gives its spiritually scientific meaning, which uplifts the human sense of the word and leads to spiritual renewal and strength. For example, when we bury our materialistic tendencies and wrongdoing, entomb old feuds and hurt feelings, annihilate destructive criticism and faultfinding; when we turn away from conditioned responses and outbursts that have appeared to be part of our constitutional make-up—putting off negative character traits through persistent prayer, self-examination, and reformation—we're actually putting off "the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts" and putting on "the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness," as the Apostle Paul wrote (Eph. 4:22, 24).
