Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 79

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our G.o.d, in the mountain of His holiness. - PSALMS.

558:1 ST. JOHN writes, in the tenth chapter of his book of Revelation: -

558:3 And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of 558:6 fire: and he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth.

The new Evangel

558:9 This angel or message which comes from G.o.d, clothed with a cloud, prefigures divine Science. To mortal sense Science seems at first obscure, abstract, and 558:12 dark; but a bright promise crowns its brow.

When understood, it is Truth's prism and praise. When you look it fairly in the face, you can heal by its means, 558:15 and it has for you a light above the sun, for G.o.d "is the light thereof." Its feet are pillars of fire, foundations of Truth and Love. It brings the baptism of the Holy 558:18 Ghost, whose flames of Truth were prophetically de- scribed by John the Baptist as consuming error.

Truth's volume

559:1 This angel had in his hand "a little book," open for all to read and understand. Did this same book contain 559:3 the revelation of divine Science, the "right foot" or dominant power of which was upon the sea, - upon elementary, latent error, the source of 559:6 all error's visible forms? The angel's left foot was upon the earth; that is, a secondary power was exercised upon visible error and audible sin. The "still, small voice"

559:9 of scientific thought reaches over continent and ocean to the globe's remotest bound. The inaudible voice of Truth is, to the human mind, "as when a lion roareth."

559:12 It is heard in the desert and in dark places of fear. It arouses the "seven thunders" of evil, and stirs their latent forces to utter the full diapason of secret tones. Then is 559:15 the power of Truth demonstrated, - made manifest in the destruction of error. Then will a voice from harmony cry: "Go and take the little book... . Take it, and eat 559:18 it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey." Mortals, obey the heavenly evangel. Take divine Science. Read this book from 559:21 beginning to end. Study it, ponder it. It will be indeed sweet at its first taste, when it heals you; but murmur not over Truth, if you find its digestion bitter. When you 559:24 approach nearer and nearer to this divine Principle, when you eat the divine body of this Principle, - thus partak- ing of the nature, or primal elements, of Truth and Love, 559:27 - do not be surprised nor discontented because you must share the hemlock cup and eat the bitter herbs; for the Israelites of old at the Paschal meal thus prefigured this 559:30 perilous pa.s.sage out of bondage into the El Dorado of faith and hope.

To-day's lesson

The twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse, or Revela- 560:1 tion of St. John, has a special suggestiveness in connec- tion with the nineteenth century. In the opening of the 560:3 sixth seal, typical of six thousand years since Adam, the distinctive feature has reference to the present age.

560:6 _Revelation_ xii. 1. 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 560:9 stars.

True estimate of G.o.d's messenger

Heaven represents harmony, and divine Science inter- prets the Principle of heavenly harmony. The great 560:12 miracle, to human sense, is divine Love, and the grand necessity of existence is to gain the true idea of what const.i.tutes the kingdom of 560:15 heaven in man. This goal is never reached while we hate our neighbor or entertain a false estimate of any- one whom G.o.d has appointed to voice His Word. Again, 560:18 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 cla.s.sify 560:21 it correctly. As it is with things, so is it with persons.

Persecution harmful

Abuse of the motives and religion of St. Paul hid from view the apostle's character, which made him equal to 560:24 his great mission. Persecution of all who have spoken something new and better of G.o.d has not only obscured the light of the ages, but has been fatal 560:27 to the persecutors. Why? Because it has hid from them the true idea which has been presented. To mis- understand Paul, was to be ignorant of the divine idea he 560:30 taught. Ignorance of the divine idea betrays at once a greater ignorance of the divine Principle of the idea - igno- 561:1 rance of Truth and Love. The understanding of Truth and Love, the Principle which works out the ends of eternal 561:3 good and destroys both faith in evil and the practice of evil, leads to the discernment of the divine idea.

Espousals supernal

Aga.s.siz, through his microscope, saw the sun in an 561:6 egg at a point of so-called embryonic life. Because of his more spiritual vision, St. John saw an "angel standing in the sun." The Revelator 561:9 beheld the spiritual idea from the mount of vision.

Purity was the symbol of Life and Love. The Revelator saw also the spiritual ideal as a woman clothed in light, a 561:12 bride coming down from heaven, wedded to the Lamb of Love. To John, "the bride" and "the Lamb" repre- sented the correlation of divine Principle and spiritual idea, 561:15 G.o.d and His Christ, bringing harmony to earth.

Divinity and humanity

John saw the human and divine coincidence, shown in the man Jesus, as divinity embracing humanity in Life 561:18 and its demonstration, - reducing to human perception and understanding the Life which is G.o.d. In divine revelation, material and corporeal self- 561:21 hood disappear, and the spiritual idea is understood.

Spiritual sunlight

The woman in the Apocalypse symbolizes generic man, the spiritual idea of G.o.d; she ill.u.s.trates the coincidence 561:24 of G.o.d and man as the divine Principle and divine idea. The Revelator symbolizes Spirit by the sun. The spiritual idea is clad with the radiance 561:27 of spiritual Truth, and matter is put under her feet. The light portrayed is really neither solar nor lunar, but spirit- ual Life, which is "the light of men." In the first chapter 561:30 of the Fourth Gospel it is written, "There was a man sent from G.o.d ... to bear witness of that Light."

Spiritual idea revealed

John the Baptist prophesied the coming of the im- 562:1 maculate Jesus, and John saw in those days the spiritual idea as the Messiah, who would baptize with the Holy 562:3 Ghost,- divine Science. As Elias presented the idea of the fatherhood of G.o.d, which Jesus afterwards manifested, so the Revelator completed this 562:6 figure with woman, typifying the spiritual idea of G.o.d's motherhood. The moon is under her feet. This idea reveals the universe as secondary and tributary to Spirit, 562:9 from which the universe borrows its reflected light, sub- stance, life, and intelligence.

Spiritual idea crowned

The spiritual idea is crowned with twelve stars. The 562:12 twelve tribes of Israel with all mortals, - separated by belief from man's divine origin and the true idea, - will through much tribulation yield to 562:15 the activities of the divine Principle of man in the har- mony of Science. These are the stars in the crown of rejoicing. They are the lamps in the spiritual heavens 562:18 of the age, which show the workings of the spiritual idea by healing the sick and the sinning, and by manifesting the light which s.h.i.+nes "unto the perfect day" as the night 562:21 of materialism wanes.

_Revelation_ xii. 2. And she being with child cried, travail- ing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

Travail and joy

562:24 Also the spiritual idea is typified by a woman in tra- vail, waiting to be delivered of her sweet promise, but re- membering no more her sorrow for joy that 562:27 the birth goes on; for great is the idea, and the travail portentous.

_Revelation_ xii. 3. And there appeared another wonder in 562:30 heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

The dragon as a type

563:1 Human sense may well marvel at discord, while, to a diviner sense., harmony is the real and discord the unreal.

563:3 We may well be astonished at sin, sickness, and death. We may well be perplexed at human fear; and still more astounded at hatred, which lifts 563:6 its hydra head, showing its horns in the many inventions of evil. But why should we stand aghast at nothingness?

The great red dragon symbolizes a lie, - the belief 563:9 that substance, life, and intelligence can be material.

This dragon stands for the sum total of human error.

The ten horns of the dragon typify the belief that mat- 563:12 ter has power of its own, and that by means of an evil mind in matter the Ten Commandments can be broken.

The sting of the serpent

563:15 The Revelator lifts the veil from this embodiment of all evil, and beholds its awful character; but he also sees the nothingness of evil and the allness of 563:18 G.o.d. The Revelator sees that old serpent, whose name is devil or evil, holding untiring watch, that he may bite the heel of truth and seemingly impede the 563:21 offspring of the spiritual idea, which is prolific in health, holiness, and immortality.

_Revelation_ xii. 4. And his tail drew the third part of the 563:24 stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

Animal tendency

563:27 The serpentine form stands for subtlety, winding its way amidst all evil, but doing this in the name of good.

Its sting is spoken of by Paul, when he refers 563:30 to "spiritual wickedness in high places." It is the animal instinct in mortals, which would impel 564:1 them to devour each other and cast out devils through Beelzebub.

564:3 As of old, evil still charges the spiritual idea with error's own nature and methods. This malicious animal in- stinct, of which the dragon is the type, incites mortals to 564:6 kill morally and physically even their fellow-mortals, and worse still, to charge the innocent with the crime. This last infirmity of sin will sink its perpetrator into a night 564:9 without a star.

Malicious barbarity

The author is convinced that the accusations against Jesus of Nazareth and even his crucifixion were instigated 564:12 by the criminal instinct here described. The Revelator speaks of Jesus as the Lamb of G.o.d and of the dragon as warring against innocence. Since Jesus 564:15 must have been tempted in all points, he, the immaculate, met and conquered sin in every form. The brutal bar- barity of his foes could emanate from no source except the 564:18 highest degree of human depravity. Jesus "_opened not his mouth_." Until the majesty of Truth should be demon- strated in divine Science, the spiritual idea was arraigned 564:21 before the tribunal of so-called mortal mind, which was unloosed in order that the false claim of mind in matter might uncover its own crime of defying immortal Mind.

Doom of the dragon

564:24 From Genesis to the Apocalypse, sin, sickness, and death, envy, hatred, and revenge, - all evil, - are typi- fied by a serpent, or animal subtlety. Jesus 564:27 said, quoting a line from the Psalms, "They hated me without a cause." The serpent is perpetually close upon the heel of harmony. From the beginning 564:30 to the end, the serpent pursues with hatred the spiritual idea. In Genesis, this allegorical, talking serpent typi- fies mortal mind, "more subtle than any beast of the 565:1 field." In the Apocalypse, when nearing its doom, this evil increases and becomes the great red dragon, swollen 565:3 with sin, inflamed with war against spirituality, and ripe for destruction. It is full of l.u.s.t and hate, loathing the brightness of divine glory.

565:6 _Revelation_ xii. 5. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto G.o.d, and to His throne.

The conflict with purity

565:9 Led on by the grossest element of mortal mind, Herod decreed the death of every male child in order that the man Jesus, the masculine representative of the 565:12 spiritual idea might never hold sway and de- prive Herod of his crown. The impersonation of the spiritual idea had a brief history in the earthly life of our 565:15 Master; but "of his kingdom there shall be no end,"

for Christ, G.o.d's idea, will eventually rule all nations and peoples - imperatively, absolutely, finally - with di- 565:18 vine Science. This immaculate idea, represented first by man and, according to the Revelator, last by woman, will baptize with fire; and the fiery baptism will burn up 565:21 the chaff of error with the fervent heat of Truth and Love, melting and purifying even the gold of human character.

After the stars sang together and all was primeval har- 565:24 mony, the material lie made war upon the spiritual idea; but this only impelled the idea to rise to the zenith of demonstration, destroying sin, sickness, and death, and 565:27 to be caught up unto G.o.d, - to be found in its divine Principle.

_Revelation_ xii. 6. And the woman fled into the wilder- 565:30 ness, where she hath a place prepared of G.o.d.

Spiritual guidance