Page:The Origin of Christian Science.djvu/159

Rh she prefers rather than Jesus Christ, as Christ is the designation of a quality in the person Jesus, namely, wisdom or understanding. Spinoza also confuses the Spirit that the disciples received after the resurrection of Jesus with Christ or wisdom as we have found Mrs. Eddy doing. He says: “Because this wisdom was made especially manifest through Jesus Christ, as was said. His disciples, insofar as it was revealed to them by Him, preached it and showed that they were able beyond others to rejoice in this Spirit of Christ.” Spinoza's suggested inference is that the disciples only saw Jesus after the resurrection, that is, they were the only ones that thought that they saw him; that is, their delusion was their wisdom. Mrs. Eddy had a good guide in sophistry.

It can be easily seen that the interpretation of Christ as given by Spinoza and Mrs. Eddy requires that the Holy Spirit be considered as nothing else than the spirit of wisdom or understanding, which he possessed and which the disciples received when they learned that the resurrection was to be understood spiritually. It explains also how Mrs. Eddy can be so bold as to call Christian Science the Holy Ghost, since as she claims both give us the true knowledge of the unity of God, man and the universe.

Now the philosophic basis for this kind of trinity is found in Neoplatonism; or rather it is