“Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb

This Standard contains excerpts from Previous issues of The Christian Science Standard

The Bible prophesies two appearings of the Christ in the flesh. Christendom has waited 2,000 years since the first appearing for the return of Christ as a man; however, Christ Jesus himself revealed to St. John in Revelation 12 that the second appearing would come as a woman. The recognition and acknowledgment of these two individuals is essential to the salvation of mankind in “these latter days.”

Consider Peter’s recognition and acknowledgment of the coming of Christ in the flesh. In reply to Jesus’ question “whom say ye that I am?” he answered, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:15-16) Jesus approved this statement and changed Peter’s name from Simon to Peter, or “rock,” to commemorate Jesus’ statement, “upon this rock [that is, the recognition of the coming of Christ in the flesh] I will build my church.” (Matt. 16:18) This is the rock or foundation stone on which he could and would build his church. If his church was to be built on this recognition of Christ, it stands to reason that if there was a lack of recognition, the church could not be built, nor could it survive.

What was the purpose for building this church? Jesus said, “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matt. 18:20) His church would grow and prosper as the congregation gathered together in his name. It also enabled Jesus’ followers to preserve, protect, perpetuate, and promote his teachings, the gospel of the kingdom, which were to bring salvation to mankind. (See Matt. 24)

Equivalent to Peter’s confession, there was in 1884, a recognition and public acknowledgment of Mary Baker Eddy as the second appearing of Christ “in the flesh” (S&H 118:6), “the woman God-crowned,”

as follows:

My father and mother [Ira and Flavia Knapp] were among Mrs. Eddy’s early students. When they first took class instruction with her, Mrs. Eddy had not yet included

in Science and Health her explanation of the twelfth chapter of the book of Revelation. However, she gave an oral explanation of that chapter to the class. The first verse reads as follows: “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” As my father sat there listening to her explanation of that Scriptural verse, he exclaimed, “Thou art the woman.” By this is meant that Mrs. Eddy, in her human experience, represented the woman of the Apocalypse, for as Mrs. Eddy states in Science and Health (p. 565) the Christ-idea was “represented first by man and, according to the Revelator, last by woman.” (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, First Series, pp. 56-57.)

In the 1880s, as it was with Ira Knapp’s acknowledgment of Mrs. Eddy as the woman in Revelation 12, there were a number of other people making similar acknowledgments of Mrs. Eddy’s place in Bible prophecy. Sometimes these were public statements such as were given at the National Christian Scientist Association in June, 1890, and published in The Christian Science Journal in July. Mrs. Eddy responded to these public statements by printing the following notice in the Journal of August, 1890:

MR. EDITOR: — The late articles referring to me in July issue of the Journal, contain presentiments that I object to having uttered or written now in regard to myself. God alone appoints the befitting path and place for each of His children; and mankind should wait on Him, and let the ages declare judgment. It is my impression that at least a half century will pass away before man is permitted to render his public verdict on some of the momentous questions that are now agitating the world. (Vol. 8, p. 193; emphasis added)

Notwithstanding the appearance of this notice in the Journal, privately, as collective thought grew spiritually, there was a continuing and growing acknowledgment of Mrs. Eddy as the second appearing of Christ in the flesh. According to a “position” statement published in 1943 by the Christian Science Board of Directors, Mrs. Eddy “was touchingly grateful to those who saw her as the woman of prophecy and who therefore trusted, obeyed, and supported her in her mission.”

This fact is recorded in an account of the Normal class of 1898 by Mrs. Sue Harper Mims, C.S.D. At one point in the class Mrs. Eddy asked her students to translate some

passages from the Bible “into the new tongue.” An extract from Mrs. Mims’ account follows:

When I had given [Mrs. Eddy] back the book and gone to my seat, she said, in effect: “You have given a very beautiful exegesis of the text, but I have one objection — I may say I have one fault to find — it was not necessary to mention me.”

Then I wish you could have seen that class. One arose with wet eyes and said, “Mother, how could we forget you?” Judge Hanna got up, and it was one of the most heart-rending things I ever heard in my life, as he said:

“Mother, let me tell you this. Sometimes all the machinations of evil that are conceivable to the human mind seem to be hurled at us, and sometimes for days the world seems black. Every argument that the ingenuity of evil can suggest whispers, trying to hide your mission, and the light returns only when we see you as you are — the revelator of this Truth.”

Others spoke on the same line. It was the most beautiful thing, and you see that had to be brought out. [Then Mrs. Eddy said] “My dear children, if you had not seen it, I should have had to teach you this. I could not have avoided telling you that when my students become blinded to me as the one through whom Truth has come in this age, they miss the path. I would have had to tell you.”

There is not a day of my life that I do not declare at least once, often twice, that malicious animal magnetism cannot blind me to her.

As loyal followers of Mrs. Eddy, we should do as Mrs. Mims has recorded and daily declare that malicious animal magnetism cannot blind us to seeing Mrs. Eddy as she is in prophecy. For, as the original unedited text from Mrs. Mims’ association address to her pupils reads: “I could not have avoided telling you that when my students become blinded to me as the one through whom Truth has come in this age, they go straight down.” (Emphasis added)

In 1943 the Board of Directors published a “position” statement under the title, “Mrs. Eddy Place,”

which presented a number of, but not all, the points in regard to her place in Scriptural prophecy, — as much as collective thought could accept at that time. It was based on “fifty-seven pages of typewritten evidence”

from Mrs. Eddy’s public and private writings regarding her own view of herself in relation to the second appearing of Christ in the flesh. This “position” statement was a remarkable accomplishment. It was well received by Christian Scientists and served to bring a measure of stability and strength to the movement.

The position of The Mother Church as to Mary Baker Eddy’s place in the fulfillment of Bible prophecy is clearly set forth in the following paragraphs. These conclusions are not new; they are confirmed by our Leader’s writings, and the steadily unfolding fruitage of Christian Science bears witness to their truth.

1.Mrs. Eddy, as the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, understood herself to be the one chosen of God to bring the promised Comforter to the world, and, therefore, the revelator of Christ, Truth, in this age.

2.Mrs. Eddy regarded portions of Revelation (that is, Chapter 12) as pointing to her as the one who fulfilled prophecy by giving the full and final revelation of Truth; her work thus being complementary to that of Christ Jesus.

3.As Christ Jesus exemplified the fatherhood of God, she (Mrs. Eddy) revealed God’s motherhood; she represents in this age the spiritual idea of God typified by the woman in the Apocalypse. (See Science and Health, p. 565:13-22.)

4.Mrs. Eddy considered herself to be the “God-appointed” and “God-anointed” messenger to this age, the woman chosen by God to discover the Science of Christian healing and to interpret it to mankind; she is so closely related to Christian Science that a true sense of her is essential to the understanding of Christian Science; in other words, the revelator cannot be separated from the revelation.

5.This recognition of her true status enabled her to withstand the opposition directed against her by “the dragon” (malicious animal magnetism); she was touchingly grateful to those who saw her as the woman of prophecy and who therefore trusted, obeyed, and supported her in her mission.

6.This same recognition is equally vital to our movement, for demonstration is the result of vision; the collecting of this indisputable evidence of our Leader’s own view of herself and of her mission marks a great step forward; wisely utilized, this evidence will stimulate and stabilize the growth of Christian Scientists today and in succeeding generations; it will establish unity in the Field with regard to the vital question of our Leader’s relation to Scriptural prophecy.

As we record these important facts, we remind Christian Scientists of our Leader’s words (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 308), “The Scriptures and Christian Science reveal ‘the way,’ and personal revelators will take their proper place in history, but will not be deified.”

As Mrs. Eddy had prophesied in her notice in the Journal of 1890, it had taken collective thought “at least a half century,” or about 50 years to be “permitted to render [its] public verdict — ‘Mrs. Eddy’s Place,’ the ‘position’ statement of 1943 — on some of the momentous questions that are now agitating the world.” But this “position” statement went only part-way in revealing Mrs. Eddy’s true identity. Collective thought still had to develop to the level where it could accept a more advanced teaching by Mrs. Eddy on this subject of the second appearing of Christ.

Today, more than another half century later, collective thought has grown spiritually to where it can better comprehend the second coming of Christ in a more complete form and expression. More needs to be said on the subject of the second appearing of Christ, — based on Mrs. Eddy’s own view of herself, — and of Mrs. Eddy’s place in this “advancing spiritual era.” (S&H 65:15)

According to Christ Jesus’ revelation to St. John, the second appearing of Christ was to be a woman as described in Revelation 12. Mrs. Eddy confirms this in Science and Health where she writes, “This immaculate idea, [Christ, the spiritual idea] represented first by man [Jesus] and, according to the Revelator, last by woman [the woman described in Revelation 12] . . . .” (S&H 565:18-19) And in her spiritual interpretation of Revelation 12:1, writing of the woman with “a crown of twelve stars,” Mrs. Eddy tells us of the importance of entertaining a true “estimate of anyone whom God has appointed to voice His Word. Again, without a correct sense of its highest visible idea, we can never understand the divine Principle.” (S&H 560:16-19; emphasis added)

In 1898, Mrs. Eddy approved an editorial written for The Christian Science Journal by Judge Septimus J. Hanna, C.S.D.,

that brought out her place in Bible prophecy; however, due to the Woodbury trial that was going on at that time, Judge Hanna thought it best to withhold the editorial. Judge Hanna wrote as follows:

Individuality, in its best sense, includes personality. Not the false personality of mortal sense, but the true personality, which, in its individuality, reflects the Divine character. From this point of view Christian Scientists believe in a personal second-coming . . . .

The answer of every true Christian Scientist will be: The person or individual who has done, and is doing, the works, in a sense above and beyond that of the average of those, even, who are addressing themselves to the task of regenerating the race.

Mary Baker Eddy represents the woman in the Apocalypse, the second appearing of Christ in the flesh. At one time she directed one of her students in writing to declare in treatment, “Mother [that is, Mrs. Eddy] is Christ Mary.”

When she refers to herself as Christ Mary, is she not recognizing herself as the second representative of Christ? When Peter declared, “Thou art the Christ,” he was acknowledging Jesus as Christ in the flesh, “the impersonation of the spiritual idea,” — the first representative of Christ. (Science and Health 565:13) This inspired recognition of Jesus as Christ was the foundation of the Christian church; and in our day, it is the inspired recognition of Mary Baker Eddy as the second representative of Christ in the flesh that is the foundation of the Christian Science church.

Plate number 9 in Christ and Christmas titled “Christian Unity,”

— Jesus clasping the hand of Mrs. Eddy, — was a sign that portrayed Jesus and Mrs. Eddy together with equal halos, and the words, “’Tis the same hand unfolds His power, And writes the page [that is, Science and Health].” Jesus is gesturing with his right hand of power and authority to the woman’s scroll in recognition of her position as the woman who is to establish a new dispensation of the Christ mission, that is, Christian Science.

The publication of this picture by Mrs. Eddy, was a sign that the time had come to recognize her as the representative of the fulfillment of the second appearing of Christ.

Plate number 10 is an illustration of a woman knocking at the door of the human consciousness, summoning it to a higher concept of Christ. This plate follows “Christian Unity” where Jesus and Mrs. Eddy are portrayed as two separate individuals with hands joined. But in this plate number 10, she and he represent one Christ, — “two individual natures in one.” (S&H 577:6) As one Christ, she and he are clothed in her flesh and vestments, that is, “’Tis the same hand.”

We hold that the time has come for Mrs. Eddy to be recognized more completely in her spiritual identity as the second appearing of Christ. Plate number 10 in Christ and Christmas and its accompanying verse, given by Mrs. Eddy herself, is an advanced teaching on the nature of Christ.

Mrs. Eddy explains this spiritual development in Science and Health where she writes: “The Lamb’s wife presents the unity of male and female as no longer two wedded individuals, but as two individual natures in one. . . .” (S&H 577:4-7) This quotation is to the effect that there are not two individuals, but “two individual natures in one.” This essential aspect of the Christ was not included in the article, “Mrs. Eddy’s Place.”

In plate number 10, the woman, the woman “God-crowned” of Revelation 12, represents “two individual natures in one,” — one “compounded spiritual individuality.” (S&H 577:7) This picture depicts her era, an advanced era of Truth’s appearing, and the world is ready to understand and accept this concept. This is in line with the words of Jeremiah (31:22): “for the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.”

It is important to recognize that while Mrs. Eddy attempted to restrain her students from making any public statements as to her place in Scriptural prophecy for fifty years, she herself placed this idea in her illustrated poem, Christ and Christmas. In Miscellaneous Writings she states: “Advanced scientific students are ready for ‘Christ and Christmas;’ but those are a minority of its readers, and even they know its practicality only by healing the sick on its divine Principle. In the words of the prophet, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.’” (Mis. 308:12; emphasis added)

Mrs. Eddy is telling us that this figure at the door represents the Christ. This figure of a woman has a halo and is clothed in vestments similar to plate number 9. Is she not clearly telling us that in this era the Christ appears as a woman encompassing a man?

Notice that in the verse accompanying this plate, Mrs. Eddy capitalizes the word “Me.” Is she not referring to herself as the Christ, “two individual natures in one,” — one “compounded spiritual individuality”? She fulfills the prophecy of the woman in chapter 12 of Revelation, the woman “God-crowned.” She brings into manifestation the true concept of the “Lamb’s wife,” — “two individual natures in one.”

In this present scientific age, the concept of one Christ as “two individual natures in one” is not a difficult concept to comprehend. Christendom has accepted the idea that Adam was a dual being, — a man encompassing a woman before they were separated. So why should it be difficult to accept a woman as a dual being encompassing a man, “two individual natures in one”? Mrs. Eddy clearly states that “this compounded spiritual individuality reflects God as Father-Mother, not as a corporeal being.” (S&H 577:7-8; emphasis added)

Christendom has entered a new era in which a higher concept of Christ as revealed to St. John in Revelation as the woman “God-crowned,” — the Lamb’s wife, “two individual natures in one,” — can be understood and accepted.

Mrs. Eddy writes: “. . . Jesus purposed founding his society, not on the personal Peter as a mortal, but on the God-power which lay behind Peter’s confession of the true Messiah.” (S&H 138:2; emphasis added) We need to understand more clearly what this means.

It was only through revelation from the Father that Peter and the other disciples were able to see Jesus as the Christ. Jesus could never be recognized as the Christ by academic, or “flesh and blood,” means.

As a result of their recognition of him as the Christ, Jesus gave the following promise of power:

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matt. 16:18, 19)

Likewise, to acknowledge Mrs. Eddy’s place is a “confession of the true Messiah,” and is as important to the Christian Scientist in our day, as Peter’s confession of the Messiah, and that of the individual disciples, was to the early church. Without these confessions there would be no church, no Christianity, and no Christian Science.

For more than sixty years, teachers of Christian Science and their students have been either accepting or rejecting this Christ position as to Mrs. Eddy’s place. Jesus, however, makes it clear that a confession must be on the terms he specified when he said Peter’s confession was revealed to Peter by the Father. Also, to accept Mrs. Eddy’s place, as revealed by the Father, constitutes a “confession of the true Messiah.”

Why was it crucial for the disciples to recognize the Christ? The disciples had to rise above “flesh and blood,” and as they did this through recognizing Jesus as the Christ, the God-power was there. This God-power, or spiritual power, was necessary in order to build the Church of Christ. It also constitutes the keys by which we can enter the kingdom of heaven. A relevant lesson of this God-power was vividly illustrated in the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem in the time of Zechariah. For seventeen years they had tried to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem and could not even so much as lay the foundation. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” (Zech. 4:6) However, when Zechariah recognized that the two olive trees and the two candlesticks, and the two olive branches were “the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth,” then the “headstone” (foundation stone) of the temple was able to be laid. The God-power was present and the temple was built. The God-power required to do this was not material but spiritual, through revelation.

And I will give power unto my two witnesses, [the two anointed ones previously recognized by Zechariah] and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies. (Rev. 11:3-5)

This quotation from the disciple St. John, from the book of Revelation, shows that Jesus and the disciples were familiar with this spiritual law of the Old Testament which requires recognition of the appearance of the “true Messiah” in fulfillment of prophecy.

The God-power behind every Christian Scientist’s confession — recognition and acknowledgment — of the Christ as revealed to him from the Father, “will stimulate and stabilize the growth of Christian Scientists today” and will give each one the keys of the kingdom of heaven as Jesus said to Peter. (Matt. 16:18, 19)

Heaven represents harmony, and divine Science interprets the Principle of heavenly harmony. The great miracle, to human sense, is divine Love, and the grand necessity of existence is to gain the true idea of what constitutes the kingdom of heaven in man. This goal is never reached while we hate our neighbor or entertain a false estimate of anyone whom God has appointed to voice His Word. Again, without a correct sense of its highest visible idea, we can never understand the divine Principle. The botanist must know the genus and species of a plant in order to classify it correctly. As it is with things, so is it with persons. (S&H 560:10; emphasis added)

There is no other means for entering the kingdom. Jesus has explained that the keys are essential for entering the kingdom; and the keys, — and the accompanying God-power, — are given in the recognition of Christ Jesus and Mrs. Eddy as the two representatives of the immaculate idea: “This immaculate idea [Christ], represented first by man, and according to the Revelator, last by woman . . . .” (S&H 565:18-19)

Jesus warned his disciples “to watch” because the end would come “as a thief in the night,”

shortly after his return, the second appearing of Christ. Also, Mrs. Eddy tells us that “material history is drawing to a close.” (No and Yes 45:27) These warnings and the description of the end, — that it will come as a “thief in the night,” — point to an abrupt end. (See Matthew 24). Then, you have no time to spend in idle pleasure and careless indifference, not just because your individual well being and things would be at stake, but because of your fellow-beings who have no awareness of their life in God and His Christ. For their sakes you should be up and doing, crying in their ears the gospel of the kingdom, warning them that they have no time to waste.

In light of this prophesied endtime, there is, through Christian Science, the realization that the second appearing of Christ has come in the form of a woman as the Saviour of the world from the catastrophes prophesied for this period. The woman has revealed the only way of escape, — through the specific spiritualization of thought known in Scripture and Christian Science as translation and transfiguration. Mrs Eddy speaks of the need for “the translation of man and the universe back into Spirit.” She writes:

The compounded minerals or aggregated substances composing the earth, the relations which constituent masses hold to each other, the magnitudes, distances, and revolutions of the celestial bodies, are of no real importance, when we remember that they all must give place to the spiritual fact by the translation of man and the universe back into Spirit. In proportion as this is done, man and the universe will be found harmonious and eternal. (S&H 209:16-24; marginal heading: “Spiritual translation”)

The way to meet the cataclysmic threat of the end of the world is by realizing our duty to perform this translating process for ourselves, to help others to do so, and to obtain the transfigured state of thought by means of Christian Science.

Christian Scientists are students of the second appearing of Christ, and are being called upon more imperatively than ever to heed the signs of prophecy, commit themselves to upholding Mrs. Eddy’s place in Bible prophecy, and to make vigorous efforts to restore Christ’s gospel of the kingdom, — Christian Science as taught by Mary Baker Eddy in the Massachusetts Metaphysical College in the 1880s. It is this teaching to which suffering humanity will turn for their salvation, and it is Christian Scientists who necessarily have to be the leaders in this process.

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. (I Cor. 15:50-54)

It was a transformation. The Bible tells us that in this changed form “his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.” (Matt. 17:2) Now this light was not of the sun, but was divine light. It was the light of spiritual understanding and revelation in which appear the forms which people God’s universe, and out of which all identities are formed. Jesus was illustrating and exemplifying the scientific translation or transformation of the body. He was showing us what each one must do in order to rise above the beliefs of matter. So, we must translate matter into Spirit, transfigure our thinking, and thus transform our bodies. We have to come naturally and normally into the kingdom of heaven through scientific growth and spiritualization of thought. That is our mission, just as it was Jesus’ mission. It does not mean a sudden and miraculous disappearance to the human sense at some time in the distant future, through some mysterious means. It means a daily transformation of thought and a changed appearance here and now. We each have to put on a diviner form right where mortals are beholding what appears to them as our body. So, the human body changes to a diviner form as we are rising in thought, until we reach the absolute, and then the material melts and dissolves into its native nothingness.

So, we must rise up to the light, up the Mount of Transfiguration, to the consciousness of God, which constitutes the real man and universe.

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