Page:Miscellaneous Writings.djvu/196

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170
MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS

from the belief of death, the last enemy to be overthrown; for by following Christ truly, resurrection and life immortal are brought to us. If we follow him, to us there can be no dead. Those who know not this, may still believe in death and weep over the graves of their beloved; but with him is Life eternal, which never changes to death. The eating of bread and drinking of wine at the Lord's supper, merely symbolize the spiritual refreshment of God's children having rightly read His Word, whose entrance into their understanding is healthful life. This is the reality behind the symbol.

So, also, she spoke of the hades, or hell of Scripture, saying, that we make our own heavens and our own hells, by right and wise, or wrong and foolish, conceptions of God and our fellow-men. Jesus interpreted all spiritually: “I have bread to eat that ye know not of,” he said. The bread he ate, which was refreshment of divine strength, we also may all partake of.

The material record of the Bible, she said, is no more important to our well-being than the history of Europe and America; but the spiritual application bears upon our eternal life. The method of Jesus was purely metaphysical; and no other method is Christian Science. In the passage recording Jesus' proceedings with the blind man (Mark viii.) he is said to have spat upon the dust. Spitting was the Hebrew method of expressing the utmost contempt. So Jesus is recorded as having expressed contempt for the belief of material eyes as having any power to see. Having eyes, ye see not; and ears, ye hear not, he had just told them. The putting on of hands mentioned, she explained as the putting forth of power. “Hand,” in Bible usage, often means spiritual power.