Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 80

566:1 As the children of Israel were guided triumphantly through the Red Sea, the dark ebbing and flowing tides 566:3 of human fear, - as they were led through the wilderness, walking wearily through the great desert of human hopes, and antic.i.p.ating the promised 566:6 joy, - so shall the spiritual idea guide all right desires in their pa.s.sage from sense to Soul, from a material sense of existence to the spiritual, up to the glory prepared for 566:9 them who love G.o.d. Stately Science pauses not, but moves before them, a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, leading to divine heights.

566:12 If we remember the beautiful description which Sir Walter Scott puts into the mouth of Rebecca the Jewess in the story of Ivanhoe, - 566:15 When Israel, of the Lord beloved, Out of the land of bondage came, Her fathers' G.o.d before her moved, 566:18 An awful guide, in smoke and flame, -

we may also offer the prayer which concludes the same hymn, - 566:21 And oh, when stoops on Judah's path In shade and storm the frequent night, Be Thou, longsuffering, slow to wrath, 566:24 A burning and a s.h.i.+ning light!

_Revelation_ xii. 7, 8. And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the 566:27 dragon fought, and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

Angelic offices

The Old Testament a.s.signs to the angels, G.o.d's divine 566:30 messages, different offices. Michael's charac- teristic is spiritual strength. He leads the hosts of heaven against the power of sin, Satan, and 567:1 fights the holy wars. Gabriel has the more quiet task of imparting a sense of the ever-presence of ministering 567:3 Love. These angels deliver us from the depths. Truth and Love come nearer in the hour of woe, when strong faith or spiritual strength wrestles and prevails through 567:6 the understanding of G.o.d. The Gabriel of His presence has no contests. To infinite, ever-present Love, all is Love, and there is no error, no sin, sickness, nor death.

567:9 Against Love, the dragon warreth not long, for he is killed by the divine Principle. Truth and Love prevail against the dragon because the dragon cannot war with 567:12 them. Thus endeth the conflict between the flesh and Spirit.

_Revelation_ xii. 9. And the great dragon was cast out, 567:15 that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiv- eth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Dragon cast down to earth

567:18 That false claim - that ancient belief, that old serpent whose name is devil (evil), claiming that there is intelli- gence in matter either to benefit or to injure 567:21 men - is pure delusion, the red dragon; and it is cast out by Christ, Truth, the spiritual idea, and so proved to be powerless. The words "cast 567:24 unto the earth" show the dragon to be nothingness, dust to dust; and therefore, in his pretence of being a talker, he must be a lie from the beginning. His angels, or mes- 567:27 sages, are cast out with their author. The beast and the false prophets are l.u.s.t and hypocrisy. These wolves in sheep's clothing are detected and killed by innocence, the 567:30 Lamb of Love.

Warfare with error

Divine Science shows how the Lamb slays the wolf.

568:1 Innocence and Truth overcome guilt and error. Ever since the foundation of the world, ever since error would 568:3 establish material belief, evil has tried to slay the Lamb; but Science is able to destroy this lie, called evil. The twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse 568:6 typifies the divine method of warfare in Science, and the glorious results of this warfare. The following chapters depict the fatal effects of trying to meet error with error.

568:9 The narrative follows the order used in Genesis. In Genesis, first the true method of creation is set forth and then the false. Here, also, the Revelator first exhibits 568:12 the true warfare and then the false.

_Revelation_ xii. 10 - 12. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the 568:15 kingdom of our G.o.d, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our G.o.d day and night. And they overcame him by 568:18 the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the 568:21 inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

Paean of jubilee

568:24 For victory over a single sin, we give thanks and mag- nify the Lord of Hosts. What shall we say of the mighty conquest over all sin? A louder song, sweeter 568:27 than has ever before reached high heaven, now rises clearer and nearer to the great heart of Christ; for the accuser is not there, and Love sends forth her 568:30 primal and everlasting strain. Self-abnegation, by which we lay down all for Truth, or Christ, in our warfare against error, is a rule in Christian Science. This rule clearly 569:1 interprets G.o.d as divine Principle, - as Life, represented by the Father; as Truth, represented by the Son; as Love, 569:3 represented by the Mother. Every mortal at some period, here or hereafter, must grapple with and overcome the mortal belief in a power opposed to G.o.d.

The robe of Science

569:6 The Scripture, "Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many," is literally ful- filled, when we are conscious of the supremacy 569:9 of Truth, by which the nothingness of error is seen; and we know that the nothingness of error is in proportion to its wickedness. He that touches the hem 569:12 of Christ's robe and masters his mortal beliefs, animality, and hate, rejoices in the proof of healing, - in a sweet and certain sense that G.o.d is Love. Alas for those who 569:15 break faith with divine Science and fail to strangle the serpent of sin as well as of sickness! They are dwellers still in the deep darkness of belief. They are in the surg- 569:18 ing sea of error, not struggling to lift their heads above the drowning wave.

Expiation by suffering

What must the end be? They must eventually expi- 569:21 ate their sin through suffering. The sin, which one has made his bosom companion, comes back to him at last with accelerated force, for the devil 569:24 knoweth his time is short. Here the Scriptures declare that evil is temporal, not eternal. The dragon is at last stung to death by his own malice; but how many periods 569:27 of torture it may take to remove all sin, must depend upon sin's obduracy.

_Revelation_ xii. 13. And when the dragon saw that he 569:30 was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.

Apathy to occultism

570:1 The march of mind and of honest investigation will bring the hour when the people will chain, with fetters of 570:3 some sort, the growing occultism of this period.

The present apathy as to the tendency of certain active yet unseen mental agencies will finally be 570:6 shocked into another extreme mortal mood, - into human indignation; for one extreme follows another.

_Revelation_ xii. 15, 16. And the serpent cast out of his 570:9 mouth water as a flood, after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and 570:12 swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.

Receptive hearts

Millions of unprejudiced minds - simple seekers for 570:15 Truth, weary wanderers, athirst in the desert - are wait- ing and watching for rest and drink. Give them a cup of cold water in Christ's name, 570:18 and never fear the consequences. What if the old dragon should send forth a new flood to drown the Christ-idea?

He can neither drown your voice with its roar, nor again 570:21 sink the world into the deep waters of chaos and old night.

In this age the earth will help the woman; the spiritual idea will be understood. Those ready for the blessing 570:24 you impart will give thanks. The waters will be paci- fied, and Christ will command the wave.

Hidden ways of iniquity

When G.o.d heals the sick or the sinning, they should 570:27 know the great benefit which Mind has wrought. They should also know the great delusion of mor- tal mind, when it makes them sick or sinful.

570:30 Many are willing to open the eyes of the people to the power of good resident in divine Mind, but they are 571:1 not so willing to point out the evil in human thought, and expose evil's hidden mental ways of accomplis.h.i.+ng 571:3 iniquity.

Christly warning

Why this backwardness, since exposure is necessary to ensure the avoidance of the evil? Because people like 571:6 you better when you tell them their virtues than when you tell them their vices. It re- quires the spirit of our blessed Master to tell a man his 571:9 faults, and so risk human displeasure for the sake of doing right and benefiting our race. Who is telling mankind of the foe in ambush? Is the informer one who sees the 571:12 foe? If so, listen and be wise. Escape from evil, and designate those as unfaithful stewards who have seen the danger and yet have given no warning.

The armor of divinity

571:15 At all times and under all circ.u.mstances, overcome evil with good. Know thyself, and G.o.d will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory 571:18 over evil. Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you. The cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one 571:21 divinity.

Pure religion enthroned

Through trope and metaphor, the Revelator, immortal scribe of Spirit and of a true idealism, furnishes the 571:24 mirror in which mortals may see their own image. In significant figures he depicts the thoughts which he beholds in mortal mind. Thus he 571:27 rebukes the conceit of sin, and foreshadows its doom.

With his spiritual strength, he has opened wide the gates of glory, and illumined the night of paganism with the 571:30 sublime grandeur of divine Science, outs.h.i.+ning sin, sorcery, l.u.s.t, and hypocrisy. He takes away mitre and sceptre.

He enthrones pure and undefiled religion, and lifts on 572:1 high only those who have washed their robes white in obedience and suffering.

Native nothingness of sin

572:3 Thus we see, in both the first and last books of the Bible, - in Genesis and in the Apocalypse, - that sin is to be Christianly and scientifically reduced 572:6 to its native nothingness. "Love one an- other" (I John, iii. 23), is the most simple and profound counsel of the inspired writer. In Science we are chil- 572:9 dren of G.o.d; but whatever is of material sense, or mor- tal, belongs not to His children, for materiality is the inverted image of spirituality.

Fulfilment of the Law

572:12 Love fulfils the law of Christian Science, and nothing short of this divine Principle, understood and demon- strated, can ever furnish the vision of the 572:15 Apocalypse, open the seven seals of error with Truth, or uncover the myriad illusions of sin, sickness, and death. Under the supremacy of Spirit, it will be seen 572:18 and acknowledged that matter must disappear.

In Revelation xxi. 1 we read: -

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first 572:21 heaven and the first earth were pa.s.sed away; and there was no more sea.

Man's present possibilities

The Revelator had not yet pa.s.sed the transitional 572:24 stage in human experience called death, but he already saw a new heaven and a new earth. Through what sense came this vision to St. John? Not 572:27 through the material visual organs for seeing, for optics are inadequate to take in so wonderful a scene. Were this new heaven and new earth terrestrial or celestial, mate- 573:1 rial or spiritual? They could not be the former, for the human sense of s.p.a.ce is unable to grasp such a view.

573:3 The Revelator was on our plane of existence, while yet beholding what the eye cannot see, - that which is in- visible to the uninspired thought. This testimony of Holy 573:6 Writ sustains the fact in Science, that the heavens and earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness which G.o.d bestows, are spiritual, while to another, the 573:9 unillumined human mind, the vision is material. This shows unmistakably that what the human mind terms matter and spirit indicates states and stages of con- 573:12 sciousness.

Nearness of Deity

Accompanying this scientific consciousness was an- other revelation, even the declaration from heaven, su- 573:15 preme harmony, that G.o.d, the divine Principle of harmony, is ever with men, and they are His people. Thus man was no longer regarded as a mis- 573:18 erable sinner, but as the blessed child of G.o.d. Why?

Because St. John's corporeal sense of the heavens and earth had vanished, and in place of this false sense was 573:21 the spiritual sense, the subjective state by which he could see the new heaven and new earth, which involve the spiritual idea and consciousness of reality. This is Scrip- 573:24 tural authority for concluding that such a recognition of being is, and has been, possible to men in this present state of existence, - that we can become conscious, 573:27 here and now, of a cessation of death, sorrow, and pain.

This is indeed a foretaste of absolute Christian Science.

Take heart, dear sufferer, for this reality of being will 573:30 surely appear sometime and in some way. There will be no more pain, and all tears will be wiped away. When you read this, remember Jesus' words, "The kingdom of 574:1 G.o.d is within you." This spiritual consciousness is therefore a present possibility.

574:3 The Revelator also takes in another view, adapted to console the weary pilgrim, journeying "uphill all the way."