Page:The Origin of Christian Science.djvu/148

140 Plato, which a few modern theologians along with Spinoza and Mrs. Eddy seem to imagine, is the height of absurdity.

But let us not forget that whether these revelations of Mrs. Eddy concerning the character of Christ be beautiful or ugly, true or false, they come via Spinoza, the Jew, infidel and pantheist, and that the foundation for them is found in the philosophical profundities of certain learned pagans.

We come now to consider how Mrs. Eddy disposes of the resurrection of Christ. We will find that her explanation of it or her explaining it away is Spinozaistic and has, like her explanation of the character of Christ, its metaphysical ground in Neoplatonism.

Mrs. Eddy's position, stated frankly, is simply this. There was no bodily resurrection of Jesus. He did not really die, though he was thought to have done so. And what seemed to be his death and resurrection was only one stage or step in his spiritual evolution or emancipation from the flesh, the consummation of which was realized in the ascension from the Mount of Olives, where the “mortal coil” was left behind forever. It was impossible for Jesus to reinhabit the tabernacle of clay. The soul in the body is as a wandering star, “heaven's exile straying from the orb of light.” It will not depart after it has found again its orbit or true home.