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Science and
Health
with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
Chapter 16
— The Apocalypse
Blessed is he that readeth,
and they that hear the words of
this prophecy, and keep those
things which are written therein:
for the time is at hand.
— REVELATION.
Great is the Lord, and
greatly to be praised in the city
of our God, in the mountain of
His holiness.
— PSALMS.
St. John writes, in the tenth
chapter of his book of
Revelation: —
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 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.
This angel or message which
comes from God, clothed with a
cloud, prefigures divine Science.
To mortal sense Science seems at
first obscure, abstract, and
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, and it
has for you a light above the
sun, for God "is the light
thereof." Its feet are pillars of
fire, foundations of Truth and
Love. It brings the baptism of
the Holy Ghost, whose flames of
Truth were prophetically
described by John the Baptist as
consuming error.
This angel had in his hand "a
little book," open for all to
read and understand. Did this
same book contain the revelation
of divine Science, the "right
foot" or dominant power of which
was upon the sea, — upon
elementary, latent error, the
source of 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" 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." 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 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 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 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 approach nearer and nearer to
this divine Principle, when you
eat the divine body of this
Principle, — thus partaking
of the nature, or primal
elements, of Truth and Love,
— 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 perilous passage
out of bondage into the El Dorado
of faith and hope.
The twelfth chapter of the
Apocalypse, or Revelation of St.
John, has a special
suggestiveness in connection with
the nineteenth century. In the
opening of the sixth seal,
typical of six thousand years
since Adam, the distinctive
feature has reference to the
present age.
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 stars.
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.
Abuse of the motives and
religion of St. Paul hid from
view the apostle's character,
which made him equal to his great
mission. Persecution of all who
have spoken something new and
better of God has not only
obscured the light of the ages,
but has been fatal to the
persecutors. Why? Because it has
hid from them the true idea which
has been presented. To
misunderstand Paul, was to be
ignorant of the divine idea he
taught. Ignorance of the divine
idea betrays at once a greater
ignorance of the divine Principle
of the idea — ignorance of
Truth and Love. The understanding
of Truth and Love, the Principle
which works out the ends of
eternal good and destroys both
faith in evil and the practice of
evil, leads to the discernment of
the divine idea.
Agassiz, through his
microscope, saw the sun in an 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 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 bride coming
down from heaven, wedded to the
Lamb of Love. To John, "the
bride" and "the Lamb" represented
the correlation of divine
Principle and spiritual idea, God
and His Christ, bringing harmony
to earth.
John saw the human and divine
coincidence, shown in the man
Jesus, as divinity embracing
humanity in Life and its
demonstration, — reducing to
human perception and
understanding the Life which is
God. In divine revelation,
material and corporeal selfhood
disappear, and the spiritual idea
is understood.
The woman in the Apocalypse
symbolizes generic man, the
spiritual idea of God; she
illustrates the coincidence of
God and man as the divine
Principle and divine idea. The
Revelator symbolizes Spirit by
the sun. The spiritual idea is
clad with the radiance of
spiritual Truth, and matter is
put under her feet. The light
portrayed is really neither solar
nor lunar, but spiritual Life,
which is "the light of men." In
the first chapter of the Fourth
Gospel it is written, "There was
a man sent from God . . . to bear
witness of that Light."
John the Baptist prophesied
the coming of the immaculate
Jesus, and John saw in those days
the spiritual idea as the
Messiah, who would baptize with
the Holy Ghost, — divine
Science. As Elias presented the
idea of the fatherhood of God,
which Jesus afterwards
manifested, so the Revelator
completed this figure with woman,
typifying the spiritual idea of
God's motherhood. The moon is
under her feet. This idea reveals
the universe as secondary and
tributary to Spirit, from which
the universe borrows its
reflected light, substance, life,
and intelligence.
The spiritual idea is crowned
with twelve stars. The 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
the activities of the divine
Principle of man in the harmony
of Science. These are the stars
in the crown of rejoicing. They
are the lamps in the spiritual
heavens of the age, which show
the workings of the spiritual
idea by healing the sick and the
sinning, and by manifesting the
light which shines "unto the
perfect day" as the night of
materialism wanes.
Revelation xii. 2. And she
being with child cried,
travailing in birth, and pained
to be delivered.
Also the spiritual idea is
typified by a woman in travail,
waiting to be delivered of her
sweet promise, but remembering no
more her sorrow for joy that the
birth goes on; for great is the
idea, and the travail
portentous.
Revelation xii. 3. And
there appeared another wonder in
heaven; and behold a great red
dragon, having seven heads and
ten horns, and seven crowns upon
his heads.
Human sense may well marvel at
discord, while, to a diviner
sense, harmony is the real and
discord the unreal. 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 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 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 matter has power of
its own, and that by means of an
evil mind in matter the Ten
Commandments can be broken.
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 God.
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
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
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.
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 to
"spiritual wickedness in high
places." It is the animal
instinct in mortals, which would
impel them to devour each other
and cast out devils through
Beelzebub.
As of old, evil still charges
the spiritual idea with error's
own nature and methods. This
malicious animal instinct, of
which the dragon is the type,
incites mortals to 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 without a star.
The author is convinced that
the accusations against Jesus of
Nazareth and even his crucifixion
were instigated by the criminal
instinct here described. The
Revelator speaks of Jesus as the
Lamb of God and of the dragon as
warring against innocence. Since
Jesus must have been tempted in
all points, he, the immaculate,
met and conquered sin in every
form. The brutal barbarity of his
foes could emanate from no source
except the highest degree of
human depravity. Jesus "opened
not his mouth." Until
the majesty of Truth should be
demonstrated in divine Science,
the spiritual idea was arraigned
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.
From Genesis to the
Apocalypse, sin, sickness, and
death, envy, hatred, and revenge,
— all evil, — are
typified by a serpent, or animal
subtlety. Jesus 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 to the end, the serpent
pursues with hatred the spiritual
idea. In Genesis, this
allegorical, talking serpent
typifies mortal mind, "more
subtle than any beast of the
field." In the Apocalypse, when
nearing its doom, this evil
increases and becomes the great
red dragon, swollen with sin,
inflamed with war against
spirituality, and ripe for
destruction. It is full of lust
and hate, loathing the brightness
of divine glory.
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 God, and to His
throne.
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
spiritual idea, might never hold
sway and deprive Herod of his
crown. The impersonation of the
spiritual idea had a brief
history in the earthly life of
our Master; but "of his kingdom
there shall be no end," for
Christ, God's idea, will
eventually rule all nations and
peoples — imperatively,
absolutely, finally — with
divine 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 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 harmony, 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 to be caught up unto
God, — to be found in its
divine Principle.
Revelation xii. 6. And the
woman fled into the wilderness,
where she hath a place prepared
of God.
As the children of Israel were
guided triumphantly through the
Red Sea, the dark ebbing and
flowing tides of human fear,
— as they were led through
the wilderness, walking wearily
through the great desert of human
hopes, and anticipating the
promised joy, — so shall the
spiritual idea guide all right
desires in their passage from
sense to Soul, from a material
sense of existence to the
spiritual, up to the glory
prepared for them who love God.
Stately Science pauses not, but
moves before them, a pillar of
cloud by day and of fire by
night, leading to divine
heights.
If we remember the beautiful
description which Sir Walter
Scott puts into the mouth of
Rebecca the Jewess in the story
of Ivanhoe, —
When Israel, of the Lord
beloved,
Out of the land of bondage
came,
Her fathers' God before her
moved,
An awful guide, in smoke and
flame, —
we may also offer the prayer
which concludes the same hymn,
—
And oh, when stoops on
Judah's path
In shade and storm the frequent
night,
Be Thou, longsuffering, slow to
wrath,
A burning and a shining
light!
Revelation xii. 7, 8. And
there was war in heaven: Michael
and his angels fought against the
dragon; and the dragon fought,
and his angels, and prevailed
not; neither was their place
found any more in heaven.
The Old Testament assigns to
the angels, God's divine
messages, different offices.
Michael's characteristic is
spiritual strength. He leads the
hosts of heaven against the power
of sin, Satan, and fights the
holy wars. Gabriel has the more
quiet task of imparting a sense
of the ever-presence of
ministering 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 the
understanding of God. 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. 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 them. Thus endeth
the conflict between the flesh
and Spirit.
Revelation xii. 9. And the
great dragon was cast out, that
old serpent, called the devil,
and Satan, which deceiveth the
whole world: he was cast out into
the earth, and his angels were
cast out with him.
That false claim — that
ancient belief, that old serpent
whose name is devil (evil),
claiming that there is
intelligence in matter either to
benefit or to injure 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 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 messages, are cast
out with their author. The beast
and the false prophets are lust
and hypocrisy. These wolves in
sheep's clothing are detected and
killed by innocence, the Lamb of
Love.
Divine Science shows how the
Lamb slays the wolf. Innocence
and Truth overcome guilt and
error. Ever since the foundation
of the world, ever since error
would 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
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. 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 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 kingdom of
our God, and the power of His
Christ: for the accuser of our
brethren is cast down, which
accused them before our God day
and night. And they overcame him
by 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 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.
For victory over a single sin,
we give thanks and magnify the
Lord of Hosts. What shall we say
of the mighty conquest over all
sin? A louder song, sweeter 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
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 interprets God as
divine Principle, — as Life,
represented by the Father; as
Truth, represented by the Son; as
Love, 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 God.
The Scripture, "Thou hast been
faithful over a few things, I
will make thee ruler over many,"
is literally fulfilled, when we
are conscious of the supremacy 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 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 God is Love.
Alas for those who 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 surging sea of error, not
struggling to lift their heads
above the drowning wave.
What must the end be? They
must eventually expiate 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
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 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 was
cast unto the earth, he
persecuted the woman which
brought forth the man
child.
The march of mind and of
honest investigation will bring
the hour when the people will
chain, with fetters of 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 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 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
swallowed up the flood which the
dragon cast out of his
mouth.
Millions of unprejudiced minds
— simple seekers for Truth,
weary wanderers, athirst in the
desert — are waiting and
watching for rest and drink. Give
them a cup of cold water in
Christ's name, 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 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 you impart will give
thanks. The waters will be
pacified, and Christ will command
the wave.
When God heals the sick or the
sinning, they should know the
great benefit which Mind has
wrought. They should also know
the great delusion of mortal
mind, when it makes them sick or
sinful. Many are willing to open
the eyes of the people to the
power of good resident in divine
Mind, but they are not so willing
to point out the evil in human
thought, and expose evil's hidden
mental ways of accomplishing
iniquity.
Why this backwardness, since
exposure is necessary to ensure
the avoidance of the evil?
Because people like you better
when you tell them their virtues
than when you tell them their
vices. It requires the spirit of
our blessed Master to tell a man
his 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 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.
At all times and under all
circumstances, overcome evil with
good. Know thyself, and God will
supply the wisdom and the
occasion for a victory 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 divinity.
Through trope and metaphor,
the Revelator, immortal scribe of
Spirit and of a true idealism,
furnishes the mirror in which
mortals may see their own image.
In significant figures he depicts
the thoughts which he beholds in
mortal mind. Thus he 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
sublime grandeur of divine
Science, outshining sin, sorcery,
lust, and hypocrisy. He takes
away mitre and sceptre. He
enthrones pure and undefiled
religion, and lifts on high only
those who have washed their robes
white in obedience and
suffering.
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 to its native
nothingness. "Love one another"
(I John, iii. 23), is the most
simple and profound counsel of
the inspired writer. In Science
we are children of God; but
whatever is of material sense, or
mortal, belongs not to His
children, for materiality is the
inverted image of
spirituality.
Love fulfils the law of
Christian Science, and nothing
short of this divine Principle,
understood and demonstrated, can
ever furnish the vision of the
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 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 heaven
and the first earth were passed
away; and there was no more
sea.
The Revelator had not yet
passed the transitional 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 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,
material or spiritual? They could
not be the former, for the human
sense of space is unable to grasp
such a view. The Revelator was on
our plane of existence, while yet
beholding what the eye cannot
see, — that which is
invisible to the uninspired
thought. This testimony of Holy
Writ sustains the fact in
Science, that the heavens and
earth to one human consciousness,
that consciousness which God
bestows, are spiritual, while to
another, the unillumined human
mind, the vision is material.
This shows unmistakably that what
the human mind terms matter and
spirit indicates states and
stages of consciousness.
Accompanying this scientific
consciousness was another
revelation, even the declaration
from heaven, supreme harmony,
that God, the divine Principle of
harmony, is ever with men, and
they are His people. Thus man was
no longer regarded as a miserable
sinner, but as the blessed child
of God. Why? Because St. John's
corporeal sense of the heavens
and earth had vanished, and in
place of this false sense was 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
Scriptural 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, 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 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 God
is within you." This spiritual
consciousness is therefore a
present possibility.
The Revelator also takes in
another view, adapted to console
the weary pilgrim, journeying
"uphill all the way."
He writes, in Revelation xxi.
9: —
And there came unto me one
of the seven angels which had the
seven vials full of the seven
last plagues, and talked with me,
saying, Come hither, I will show
thee the bride, the Lamb's
wife.
This ministry of Truth, this
message from divine Love, carried
John away in spirit. It exalted
him till he became conscious of
the spiritual facts of being and
the "New Jerusalem, coming down
from God, out of heaven," —
the spiritual outpouring of bliss
and glory, which he describes as
the city which "lieth
foursquare." The beauty of this
text is, that the sum total of
human misery, represented by the
seven angelic vials full of seven
plagues, has full compensation in
the law of Love. Note this,
— that the very message, or
swift-winged thought, which
poured forth hatred and torment,
brought also the experience which
at last lifted the seer to behold
the great city, the four equal
sides of which were
heaven-bestowed and
heaven-bestowing.
Think of this, dear reader,
for it will lift the sackcloth
from your eyes, and you will
behold the soft-winged dove
descending upon you. The very
circumstance, which your
suffering sense deems wrathful
and afflictive, Love can make an
angel entertained unawares. Then
thought gently whispers: "Come
hither! Arise from your false
consciousness into the true sense
of Love, and behold the Lamb's
wife, — Love wedded to its
own spiritual idea." Then cometh
the marriage feast, for this
revelation will destroy forever
the physical plagues imposed by
material sense.
This sacred city, described in
the Apocalypse (xxi. 16) as one
that "lieth foursquare" and
cometh "down from God, out of
heaven," represents the light and
glory of divine Science. The
builder and maker of this New
Jerusalem is God, as we read in
the book of Hebrews; and it is "a
city which hath foundations." The
description is metaphoric.
Spiritual teaching must always be
by symbols. Did not Jesus
illustrate the truths he taught
by the mustard-seed and the
prodigal? Taken in its
allegorical sense, the
description of the city as
foursquare has a profound
meaning. The four sides of our
city are the Word, Christ,
Christianity, and divine Science;
"and the gates of it shall not be
shut at all by day: for there
shall be no night there." This
city is wholly spiritual, as its
four sides indicate.
As the Psalmist saith,
"Beautiful for situation, the joy
of the whole earth, is mount
Zion, on the sides of the north,
the city of the great King." It
is indeed a city of the Spirit,
fair, royal, and square.
Northward, its gates open to the
North Star, the Word, the polar
magnet of Revelation; eastward,
to the star seen by the Wisemen
of the Orient, who followed it to
the manger of Jesus; southward,
to the genial tropics, with the
Southern Cross in the skies,
— the Cross of Calvary,
which binds human society into
solemn union; westward, to the
grand realization of the Golden
Shore of Love and the Peaceful
Sea of Harmony.
This heavenly city, lighted by
the Sun of Righteousness, —
this New Jerusalem, this infinite
All, which to us seems hidden in
the mist of remoteness, —
reached St. John's vision while
yet he tabernacled with
mortals.
In Revelation xxi. 22, further
describing this holy city, the
beloved Disciple writes:
—
And I saw no temple
therein: for the Lord God
Almighty and the Lamb are the
temple of it.
There was no temple, —
that is, no material structure in
which to worship God, for He must
be worshipped in spirit and in
love. The word temple also
means body. The Revelator
was familiar with Jesus' use of
this word, as when Jesus spoke of
his material body as the temple
to be temporarily rebuilt (John
ii. 21). What further indication
need we of the real man's
incorporeality than this, that
John saw heaven and earth with
"no temple [body]
therein"? This kingdom of God "is
within you," — is within
reach of man's consciousness
here, and the spiritual idea
reveals it. In divine Science,
man possesses this recognition of
harmony consciously in proportion
to his understanding of God.
The term Lord, as used in our
version of the Old Testament, is
often synonymous with Jehovah,
and expresses the Jewish concept,
not yet elevated to deific
apprehension through spiritual
transfiguration. Yet the word
gradually approaches a higher
meaning. This human sense of
Deity yields to the divine sense,
even as the material sense of
personality yields to the
incorporeal sense of God and man
as the infinite Principle and
infinite idea, — as one
Father with His universal family,
held in the gospel of Love. The
Lamb's wife presents the unity of
male and female as no longer two
wedded individuals, but as two
individual natures in one; and
this compounded spiritual
individuality reflects God as
Father-Mother, not as a corporeal
being. In this divinely united
spiritual consciousness, there is
no impediment to eternal bliss,
— to the perfectibility of
God's creation.
This spiritual, holy
habitation has no boundary nor
limit, but its four cardinal
points are: first, the Word of
Life, Truth, and Love; second,
the Christ, the spiritual idea of
God; third, Christianity, which
is the outcome of the divine
Principle of the Christ-idea in
Christian history; fourth,
Christian Science, which to-day
and forever interprets this great
example and the great Exemplar.
This city of our God has no need
of sun or satellite, for Love is
the light of it, and divine Mind
is its own interpreter. All who
are saved must walk in this
light. Mighty potentates and
dynasties will lay down their
honors within the heavenly city.
Its gates open towards light and
glory both within and without,
for all is good, and nothing can
enter that city, which "defileth,
. . . or maketh a lie."
The writer's present feeble
sense of Christian Science closes
with St. John's Revelation as
recorded by the great apostle,
for his vision is the acme of
this Science as the Bible reveals
it.
In the following Psalm one
word shows, though faintly, the
light which Christian Science
throws on the Scriptures by
substituting for the corporeal
sense, the incorporeal or
spiritual sense of Deity:
—
PSALM XXIII
[DIVINE LOVE] is my
shepherd; I shall not want.
[LOVE] maketh me to
lie down in green pastures:
[LOVE] leadeth me beside
the still waters.
[LOVE] restoreth my
soul [spiritual sense]:
[LOVE] leadeth me in the
paths of righteousness for His
name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I
will fear no evil: for
[LOVE] is with me;
[LOVE'S] rod and
[LOVE'S] staff they
comfort me.
[LOVE] prepareth a
table before me in the presence
of mine enemies: [LOVE]
anointeth my head with oil; my
cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of
my life; and I will dwell in the
house [the consciousness]
of [LOVE] for ever.
Go
to Chapter 17:
Glossary
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