Page:The Origin of Christian Science.djvu/152

144 sense in which Christ said, ‘let the dead bury their dead’).” With the exception that Spinoza believes there was a literal dying of Christ and Mrs. Eddy does not, on which point their disagreement is of almost no significance, the parallel is all that we could wish and all that Christian Scientists may regret. Both hold that Christ's body was not raised from the dead, that the disciples thought it was, that “dead” in this connection means without understanding and that the result secured by this illusion of the disciples was the realization that Christ's nature is eternal.

This remarkable exegitical maneuvre is not original either with Spinoza. It may be traced as far back as Synesius. Alice Gardner wonders why it is that Synesius singles out the resurrection of Christ as the one miracle that he rejects. Though writing fascinatingly of the character of this interesting personality she does not appreciate the fact that his philosophy, which he resolved not to give up, compelled him to reject especially the miracle of the resurrection. But it does not appear that it prevented him from accepting miracles in general.

And in this connection it should be noted that Mrs. Eddy and Spinoza do not explain the other miracles as they do the resurrection. They deny the fact of the resurrection. But in regard to the other miracles, they did occur but they were