XVI. 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.
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 God, 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 God "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 passage 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 God'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 constitutes 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 God 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 classify 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 God 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
Agassiz, 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 God 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 God. 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 God; she illustrates the coincidence 561:24 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 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 God . . . 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 God, which Jesus afterwards manifested, so the Revelator completed this 562:6 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, 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 shines "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 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 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 God 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 lust 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 God, 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, God'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 God, - 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 God.
Spiritual guidance
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 anticipating the promised 566:6 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 566:9 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.
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' God 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 shining 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 assigns to the angels, God'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 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. 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 lust 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 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 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 God 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 God.
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 God 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 God 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 accomplishing 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 circumstances, overcome evil with good. Know thyself, and God 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, outshining sin, sorcery, lust, 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 God; 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 passed away; and there was no more sea.
Man's present possibilities
The Revelator had not yet passed 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 space 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 God 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 God, 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 God. 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 God 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."
He writes, in Revelation xxi. 9: -
574:6 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, 574:9 the Lamb's wife.
Vials of wrath and consolation
This ministry of Truth, this message from divine Love, carried John away in spirit. It exalted him till he be- 574:12 came conscious of the spiritual facts of being and the "New Jerusalem, coming down from God, out of heaven," - the spiritual outpour- 574:15 ing 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 574:18 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 574:21 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 574:24 heaven-bestowing.
Spiritual wedlock
Think of this, dear reader, for it will lift the sack- cloth from your eyes, and you will behold the soft- 574:27 winged dove descending upon you. The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel 574:30 entertained unawares. Then thought gently whispers: 575:1 "Come hither! Arise from your false consciousness into the true sense of Love, and behold the Lamb's 575:3 wife, - Love wedded to its own spiritual idea." Then cometh the marriage feast, for this revelation will de- stroy forever the physical plagues imposed by material 575:6 sense.
The city foursquare
This sacred city, described in the Apocalypse (xxi. 16) as one that "lieth foursquare" and cometh "down from 575:9 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 575:12 book of Hebrews; and it is "a city which hath founda- tions." The description is metaphoric. Spiritual teach- ing must always be by symbols. Did not Jesus illustrate 575:15 the truths he taught by the mustard-seed and the prodi- gal? Taken in its allegorical sense, the description of the city as foursquare has a profound meaning. The 575:18 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 575:21 city is wholly spiritual, as its four sides indicate.
The royally divine gates
As the Psalmist saith, "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of 575:24 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, 575:27 the Word, the polar magnet of Revelation; eastward, to the star seen by the Wisemen of the Orient, who fol- lowed it to the manger of Jesus; southward, to the 575:30 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 576:1 of the Golden Shore of Love and the Peaceful Sea of Harmony.
Revelation's pure zenith
576:3 This heavenly city, lighted by the Sun of Righteous- ness, - this New Jerusalem, this infinite All, which to us seems hidden in the mist of remoteness, - 576:6 reached St. John's vision while yet he taber- nacled with mortals.
In Revelation xxi. 22, further describing this holy city, 576:9 the beloved Disciple writes: -
And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
The shrine celestial
576:12 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 576:15 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 576:18 (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"? 576:21 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 576:24 recognition of harmony consciously in proportion to his understanding of God.
Divine sense of Deity
The term Lord, as used in our version of the Old 576:27 Testament, is often synonymous with Jehovah, and ex- presses the Jewish concept, not yet elevated to deific apprehension through spiritual trans- 576:30 figuration. Yet the word gradually approaches a higher meaning. This human sense of Deity yields to the divine 577:1 sense, even as the material sense of personality yields to the incorporeal sense of God and man as the infinite 577:3 Principle and infinite idea, - as one Father with His uni- versal family, held in the gospel of Love. The Lamb's wife presents the unity of male and female as no longer 577:6 two wedded individuals, but as two individual natures in one; and this compounded spiritual individuality re- flects God as Father-Mother, not as a corporeal being. 577:9 In this divinely united spiritual consciousness, there is no impediment to eternal bliss, - to the perfectibility of God's creation.
The city of our God
577:12 This spiritual, holy habitation has no boundary nor limit, but its four cardinal points are: first, the Word of Life, Truth, and Love; second, 577:15 the Christ, the spiritual idea of God; third, Christianity, which is the outcome of the divine Prin- ciple of the Christ-idea in Christian history; fourth, 577:18 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 577:21 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 577:24 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 577:27 maketh a lie."
The writer's present feeble sense of Christian Science closes with St. John's Revelation as recorded by the 577:30 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, 578:1 the light which Christian Science throws on the Scriptures by substituting for the corporeal sense, the incorporeal 578:3 or spiritual sense of Deity: -
PSALM XXIII
[DIVINE LOVE] is my shepherd; I shall not want.
578:6 [LOVE] maketh me to lie down in green pastures: [LOVE] leadeth me beside the still waters.
[LOVE] restoreth my soul [spiritual sense]: [Love] lead- 578:9 eth 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] 578:12 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 578:15 runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house [the consciousness] 578:18 of [LOVE] for ever.
XVII. GLOSSARY
These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. - REVELATION.
579:1 In Christian Science we learn that the substitution of the spiritual for the material definition of a Scrip- 579:3 tural word often elucidates the meaning of the inspired writer. On this account this chapter is added. It con- tains the metaphysical interpretation of Bible terms, 579:6 giving their spiritual sense, which is also their original meaning.
ABEL. Watchfulness; self-offering; surrendering to 579:9 the creator the early fruits of experience.
ABRAHAM. Fidelity; faith in the divine Life and in the eternal Principle of being. 579:12 This patriarch illustrated the purpose of Love to create trust in good, and showed the life-preserving power of spiritual understanding.
579:15 ADAM. Error; a falsity; the belief in "original sin," sickness, and death; evil; the opposite of good, - of God and His creation; a curse; a belief in intelligent matter, 580:1 finiteness, and mortality; "dust to dust;" red sand- stone; nothingness; the first god of mythology; not 580:3 God's man, who represents the one God and is His own image and likeness; the opposite of Spirit and His crea- tions; that which is not the image and likeness of good, 580:6 but a material belief, opposed to the one Mind, or Spirit; a so-called finite mind, producing other minds, thus mak- ing "gods many and lords many" (I Corinthians viii. 5); 580:9 a product of nothing as the mimicry of something; an unreality as opposed to the great reality of spiritual ex- istence and creation; a so-called man, whose origin, 580:12 substance, and mind are found to be the antipode of God, or Spirit; an inverted image of Spirit; the image and likeness of what God has not created, namely, mat- 580:15 ter, sin, sickness, and death; the opposer of Truth, termed error; Life's counterfeit, which ultimates in death; the opposite of Love, called hate; the usurper 580:18 of Spirit's creation, called self-creative matter; immor- tality's opposite, mortality; that of which wisdom saith, "Thou shalt surely die."
580:21 The name Adam represents the false supposition that Life is not eternal, but has beginning and end; that the infinite enters the finite, that intelligence passes into non- 580:24 intelligence, and that Soul dwells in material sense; that immortal Mind results in matter, and matter in mortal mind; that the one God and creator entered what He cre- 580:27 ated, and then disappeared in the atheism of matter.
ADVERSARY. An adversary is one who opposes, denies, disputes, not one who constructs and sustains reality and 580:30 Truth. Jesus said of the devil, "He was a murderer from the beginning, . . . he is a liar and the father of it." 581:1 This view of Satan is confirmed by the name often con- ferred upon him in Scripture, the "adversary."
581:3 ALMIGHTY. All-power; infinity; omnipotence.
ANGELS. God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, 581:6 purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality.
ARK. Safety; the idea, or reflection, of Truth, proved 581:9 to be as immortal as its Principle; the understanding of Spirit, destroying belief in matter.
God and man coexistent and eternal; Science show- 581:12 ing that the spiritual realities of all things are created by Him and exist forever. The ark indicates temptation overcome and followed by exaltation.
581:15 ASHER (Jacob's son). Hope and faith; spiritual com- pensation; the ills of the flesh rebuked.
BABEL. Self-destroying error; a kingdom divided 581:18 against itself, which cannot stand; material knowledge.
The higher false knowledge builds on the basis of evi- dence obtained from the five corporeal senses, the more 581:21 confusion ensues, and the more certain is the downfall of its structure.
BAPTISM. Purification by Spirit; submergence in 581:24 Spirit.
We are "willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." (II Corinthians v. 8.)
582:1 BELIEVING. Firmness and constancy; not a faltering nor a blind faith, but the perception of spiritual Truth. 582:3 Mortal thoughts, illusion.
BENJAMIN (Jacob's son). A physical belief as to life, substance, and mind; human knowledge, or so-called 582:6 mortal mind, devoted to matter; pride; envy; fame; illusion; a false belief; error masquerading as the pos- sessor of life, strength, animation, and power to act.
582:9 Renewal of affections; self-offering; an improved state of mortal mind; the introduction of a more spiritual origin; a gleam of the infinite idea of the infinite Prin- 582:12 ciple; a spiritual type; that which comforts, consoles, and supports.
BRIDE. Purity and innocence, conceiving man in the 582:15 idea of God; a sense of Soul, which has spiritual bliss and enjoys but cannot suffer.
BRIDEGROOM. Spiritual understanding; the pure con- 582:18 sciousness that God, the divine Principle, creates man as His own spiritual idea, and that God is the only crea- tive power.
582:21 BURIAL. Corporeality and physical sense put out of sight and hearing; annihilation. Submergence in Spirit; immortality brought to light. 582:24 CANAAN (the son of Ham). A sensuous belief; the testimony of what is termed material sense; the error which would make man mortal and would make mortal 582:27 mind a slave to the body.
CHILDREN. The spiritual thoughts and representa- tives of Life, Truth, and Love.
583:1 Sensual and mortal beliefs; counterfeits of creation, whose better originals are God's thoughts, not in em- 583:3 bryo, but in maturity; material suppositions of life, sub- stance, and intelligence, opposed to the Science of being.
CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. The representatives of Soul, not 583:6 corporeal sense; the offspring of Spirit, who, having wrestled with error, sin, and sense, are governed by divine Science; some of the ideas of God beheld as men, casting 583:9 out error and healing the sick; Christ's offspring.
CHRIST. The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error. 583:12 CHURCH. The structure of Truth and Love; what- ever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.
The Church is that institution, which affords proof of 583:15 its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the ap- prehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of 583:18 divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick.
CREATOR. Spirit; Mind; intelligence; the animating 583:21 divine Principle of all that is real and good; self-existent Life, Truth, and Love; that which is perfect and eternal; the opposite of matter and evil, which have no Prin- 583:24 ciple; God, who made all that was made and could not create an atom or an element the opposite of Himself.
DAN (Jacob's son). Animal magnetism; so-called mor- 583:27 tal mind controlling mortal mind; error, working out the designs of error; one belief preying upon another.
584:1 DAY. The irradiance of Life; light, the spiritual idea of Truth and Love.
584:3 "And the evening and the morning were the first day." (Genesis i. 5.) The objects of time and sense disappear in the illumination of spiritual understanding, and Mind 584:6 measures time according to the good that is unfolded. This unfolding is God's day, and "there shall be no night there."
584:9 DEATH. An illusion, the lie of life in matter; the un- real and untrue; the opposite of Life.
Matter has no life, hence it has no real existence. Mind 584:12 is immortal. The flesh, warring against Spirit; that which frets itself free from one belief only to be fettered by another, until every belief of life where Life is not 584:15 yields to eternal Life. Any material evidence of death is false, for it contradicts the spiritual facts of being.
DEVIL. Evil; a lie; error; neither corporeality nor 584:18 mind; the opposite of Truth; a belief in sin, sickness, and death; animal magnetism or hypnotism; the lust of the flesh, which saith: " I am life and intelligence in 584:21 matter. There is more than one mind, for I am mind, - a wicked mind, self-made or created by a tribal god and put into the opposite of mind, termed matter, thence to 584:24 reproduce a mortal universe, including man, not after the image and likeness of Spirit, but after its own image."
DOVE. A symbol of divine Science; purity and peace; 584:27 hope and faith.
DUST. Nothingness; the absence of substance, life, or intelligence.
585:1 EARS. Not organs of the so-called corporeal senses, but spiritual understanding.
585:3 Jesus said, referring to spiritual perception, "Having ears, hear ye not?" (Mark viii. 18.)
EARTH. A sphere; a type of eternity and immortality, 585:6 which are likewise without beginning or end.
To material sense, earth is matter; to spiritual sense, it is a compound idea.
585:9 ELIAS. Prophecy; spiritual evidence opposed to mate- rial sense; Christian Science, with which can be discerned the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold; 585:12 the basis of immortality.
"Elias truly shall first come and restore all things." (Matthew xvii. 11.) 585:15 ERROR. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 472.
EUPHRATES (river). Divine Science encompassing the universe and man; the true idea of God; a type 585:18 of the glory which is to come; metaphysics taking the place of physics; the reign of righteousness. The atmos- phere of human belief before it accepts sin, sickness, or 585:21 death; a state of mortal thought, the only error of which is limitation; finity; the opposite of infinity.
EVE. A beginning; mortality; that which does not 585:24 last forever; a finite belief concerning life, substance, and intelligence in matter; error; the belief that the hu- man race originated materially instead of spiritually, - 585:27 that man started first from dust, second from a rib, and third from an egg.
586:1 EVENING. Mistiness of mortal thought; weariness of mortal mind; obscured views; peace and rest.
586:3 EYES. Spiritual discernment, - not material but mental. Jesus said, thinking of the outward vision, "Having 586:6 eyes, see ye not?" (Mark viii. 18.)
FAN. Separator of fable from fact; that which gives action to thought.
586:9 FATHER. Eternal Life; the one Mind; the divine Principle, commonly called God.
FEAR. Heat; inflammation; anxiety; ignorance; error; 586:12 desire; caution.
FIRE. Fear; remorse; lust; hatred; destruction; afflic- tion purifying and elevating man.
586:15 FIRMAMENT. Spiritual understanding; the scientific line of demarcation between Truth and error, between Spirit and so-called matter.
586:18 FLESH. An error of physical belief; a supposition that life, substance, and intelligence are in matter; an illusion; a belief that matter has sensation.
586:21 GAD (Jacob's son). Science; spiritual being under- stood; haste towards harmony.
GETHSEMANE. Patient woe; the human yielding to 586:24 the divine; love meeting no response, but still remaining love.
587:1 GHOST. An illusion; a belief that mind is outlined and limited; a supposition that spirit is finite.
587:3 GIHON (river). The rights of woman acknowledged morally, civilly, and socially.
GOD. The great I AM; the all-knowing, all-seeing, 587:6 all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence.
587:9 GODS. Mythology; a belief that life, substance, and intelligence are both mental and material; a supposition of sentient physicality; the belief that infinite Mind is in 587:12 finite forms; the various theories that hold mind to be a material sense, existing in brain, nerve, matter; supposi- titious minds, or souls, going in and out of matter, erring 587:15 and mortal; the serpents of error, which say, "Ye shall be as gods."
God is one God, infinite and perfect, and cannot be- 587:18 come finite and imperfect.
GOOD. God; Spirit; omnipotence; omniscience; om- nipresence; omni-action.
587:21 HAM (Noah's son). Corporeal belief; sensuality; slavery; tyranny.
HEART. Mortal feelings, motives, affections, joys, and 587:24 sorrows.
HEAVEN. Harmony; the reign of Spirit; government by divine Principle; spirituality; bliss; the atmosphere 587:27 of Soul.
588:1 HELL. Mortal belief; error; lust; remorse; hatred; revenge; sin; sickness; death; suffering and self-de- 588:3 struction, self-imposed agony; effects of sin; that which "worketh abomination or maketh a lie."
HIDDEKEL (river). Divine Science understood and 588:6 acknowledged.
HOLY GHOST. Divine Science; the development of eternal Life, Truth, and Love.
588:9 I, or EGO. Divine Principle; Spirit; Soul; incor- poreal, unerring, immortal, and eternal Mind.
There is but one I, or Us, but one divine Principle, or 588:12 Mind, governing all existence; man and woman un- changed forever in their individual characters, even as numbers which never blend with each other, though they 588:15 are governed by one Principle. All the objects of God's creation reflect one Mind, and whatever reflects not this one Mind, is false and erroneous, even the belief that 588:18 life, substance, and intelligence are both mental and material.
I AM. God; incorporeal and eternal Mind; divine 588:21 Principle; the only Ego.
IN. A term obsolete in Science if used with reference to Spirit, or Deity.
588:24 INTELLIGENCE. Substance; self-existent and eternal Mind; that which is never unconscious nor limited.
See chapter on Recapitulation, page 469.
589:1 ISSACHAR (Jacob's son). A corporeal belief; the offspring of error; envy; hatred; selfishness; self-will; 589:3 lust.
JACOB. A corporeal mortal embracing duplicity, re- pentance, sensualism. Inspiration; the revelation of 589:6 Science, in which the so-called material senses yield to the spiritual sense of Life and Love.
JAPHET (Noah's son). A type of spiritual peace, flow- 589:9 ing from the understanding that God is the divine Prin- ciple of all existence, and that man is His idea, the child of His care.
589:12 JERUSALEM. Mortal belief and knowledge obtained from the five corporeal senses; the pride of power and the power of pride; sensuality; envy; oppression; tyr- 589:15 anny. Home, heaven.
JESUS. The highest human corporeal concept of the divine idea, rebuking and destroying error and bringing 589:18 to light man's immortality.
JOSEPH. A corporeal mortal; a higher sense of Truth rebuking mortal belief, or error, and showing the immor- 589:21 tality and supremacy of Truth; pure affection blessing its enemies.
JUDAH. A corporeal material belief progressing and 589:24 disappearing; the spiritual understanding of God and man appearing.
590:1 KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. The rein of harmony in divine Science; the realm of unerring, eternal, and omnipotent 590:3 Mind; the atmosphere of Spirit, where Soul is supreme.
KNOWLEDGE. Evidence obtained from the five cor- poreal senses; mortality; beliefs and opinions; human 590:6 theories, doctrines, hypotheses; that which is not divine and is the origin of sin, sickness, and death; the oppo- site of spiritual Truth and understanding.
590:9 LAMB OF GOD. The spiritual idea of Love; self-im- molation; innocence and purity; sacrifice.
LEVI (Jacob's son). A corporeal and sensual belief; 590:12 mortal man; denial of the fulness of God's creation; ecclesiastical despotism.
LIFE. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 468.
590:15 LORD. In the Hebrew, this term is sometimes em- ployed as a title, which has the inferior sense of master, or ruler. In the Greek, the word /kurios/ almost always 590:18 has this lower sense, unless specially coupled with the name God. Its higher signification is Supreme Ruler.
LORD GOD. Jehovah.
590:21 This double term is not used in the first chapter of Genesis, the record of spiritual creation. It is intro- duced in the second and following chapters, when the 590:24 spiritual sense of God and of infinity is disappearing from the recorder's thought, - when the true scientific statements of the Scriptures become clouded through a 591:1 physical sense of God as finite and corporeal. From this follow idolatry and mythology, - belief in many gods, or 591:3 material intelligences, as the opposite of the one Spirit, or intelligence, named Elohim, or God.
MAN. The compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spirit- 591:6 ual image and likeness of God; the full representation of Mind.
MATTER. Mythology; mortality; another name for 591:9 mortal mind; illusion; intelligence, substance, and life in non-intelligence and mortality; life resulting in death, and death in life; sensation in the sensationless; mind 591:12 originating in matter; the opposite of Truth; the oppo- site of Spirit; the opposite of God; that of which immortal Mind takes no cognizance; that which mortal mind sees, 591:15 feels, hears, tastes, and smells only in belief.
MIND. The only I, or Us; the only Spirit, Soul, divine Principle, substance, Life, Truth, Love; the one God; 591:18 not that which is/ in/ man, but the divine Principle, or God, of whom man is the full and perfect expression; Deity, which outlines but is not outlined.
591:21 MIRACLE. That which is divinely natural, but must be learned humanly; a phenomenon of Science.
MORNING. Light; symbol of Truth; revelation and 591:24 progress.
MORTAL MIND. Nothing claiming to be something, for Mind is immortal; mythology; error creating other 591:27 errors; a suppositional material sense, /alias/ the belief 592:1 that sensation is in matter, which is sensationless; a be- lief that life, substance, and intelligence are in and of 592:3 matter; the opposite of Spirit, and therefore the opposite of God, or good; the belief that life has a beginning and therefore an end; the belief that man is the off- 592:6 spring of mortals; the belief that there can be more than one creator; idolatry; the subjective states of error; material senses; that which neither exists in Science nor 592:9 can be recognized by the spiritual sense; sin; sickness; death.
MOSES. A corporeal mortal; moral courage; a type 592:12 of moral law and the demonstration thereof; the proof that, without the gospel, - the union of justice and affec- tion, - there is something spiritually lacking, since justice 592:15 demands penalties under the law.
MOTHER. God; divine and eternal Principle; Life, Truth, and Love.
592:18 NEW JERUSALEM. Divine Science; the spiritual facts and harmony of the universe; the kingdom of heaven, or reign of harmony.
592:21 NIGHT. Darkness; doubt; fear.
NOAH. A corporeal mortal; knowledge of the noth- ingness of material things and of the immortality of all 592:24 that is spiritual.
OIL. Consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heav- enly inspiration.
592:27 PHARISEE. Corporeal and sensuous belief; self-right- eousness; vanity; hypocrisy.
593:1 PISON (river). The love of the good and beautiful, and their immortality.
593:3 PRINCIPLE. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 465.
PROPHET. A spiritual seer; disappearance of mate- rial sense before the conscious facts of spiritual Truth.
593:6 PURSE. Laying up treasures in matter; error.
RED DRAGON. Error; fear; inflammation; sensuality; subtlety; animal magnetism; envy; revenge.
593:9 RESURRECTION. Spiritualization of thought; a new and higher idea of immortality, or spiritual existence; material belief yielding to spiritual understanding.
593:12 REUBEN (Jacob's son). Corporeality; sensuality; de- lusion; mortality; error.
RIVER. Channel of thought.
593:15 When smooth and unobstructed, it typifies the course of Truth; but muddy, foaming, and dashing, it is a type of error.
593:18 ROCK. Spiritual foundation; Truth. Coldness and stubbornness.
SALVATION. Life, Truth, and Love understood and 593:21 demonstrated as supreme over all; sin, sickness, and death destroyed.
SEAL. The signet of error revealed by Truth
594:1 SERPENT (/ophis/, in Greek; /nacash/, in Hebrew). Subtlety; a lie; the opposite of Truth, named error; 594:3 the first statement of mythology and idolatry; the belief in more than one God; animal magnetism; the first lie of limitation; finity; the first claim that there is an oppo- 594:6 site of Spirit, or good, termed matter, or evil; the first delusion that error exists as fact; the first claim that sin, sickness, and death are the realities of life. The first 594:9 audible claim that God was not omnipotent and that there was another power, named /evil/, which was as real and eternal as God, good.
594:12 SHEEP. Innocence; inoffensiveness; those who follow their leader.
SHEM (Noah's son). A corporeal mortal; kindly affec- 594:1 tion; love rebuking error; reproof of sensualism.
SON. The Son of God, the Messiah or Christ. The son of man, the offspring of the flesh. " Son of a year."
594:18 SOULS. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 466.
SPIRIT. Divine substance; Mind; divine Principle; all that is good; God; that only which is perfect, ever- 594:21 lasting, omnipresent, omnipotent, infinite.
SPIRITS. Mortal beliefs; corporeality; evil minds; supposed intelligences, or gods; the opposites of God; 594:24 errors; hallucinations. (See page 466.)
SUBSTANCE. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 468.
595:1 SUN. The symbol of Soul governing man, - of Truth, Life, and Love.
595:3 SWORD. The idea of Truth; justice. Revenge; anger.
TARES. Mortality; error; sin; sickness; disease; 595:6 death.
TEMPLE. Body; the idea of Life, substance, and in- telligence; the superstructure of Truth; the shrine of 595:9 Love; a material superstructure, where mortals congre- gate for worship.
THUMMIM. Perfection; the eternal demand of divine 595:12 Science.
The Urim and Thummim, which were to be on Aaron's breast when he went before Jehovah, were holiness and 595:15 purification of thought and deed, which alone can fit us for the office of spiritual teaching.
TIME. Mortal measurements; limits, in which are 595:18 summed tip all human acts, thoughts, beliefs, opinions, knowledge; matter; error; that which begins before, and continues after, what is termed death, until the mortal 595:21 disappears and spiritual perfection appears.
TITHE. Contribution; tenth part; homage; gratitude. A sacrifice to the gods.
595:24 UNCLEANLINESS. Impure thoughts; error; sin; dirt.
UNGODLINESS. Opposition to the divine Principle and its spiritual idea.
596:1 UNKNOWN. That which spiritual sense alone compre- hends, and which is unknown to the material senses.
596:3 Paganism and agnosticism may define Deity as "the great unknowable;" but Christian Science brings God much nearer to man, and makes Him better known as 596:6 the All-in-all, forever near.
Paul saw in Athens an altar dedicated "to the unknown God." Referring to it, he said to the Athenians: "Whom 596:9 therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you." (Acts xvii. 23.)
URIM. Light.
596:12 The rabbins believed that the stones in the breast- plate of the high-priest had supernatural illumination, but Christian Science reveals Spirit, not matter, as the 596:15 illuminator of all. The illuminations of Science give us a sense of the nothingness of error, and they show the spiritual inspiration of Love and Truth to be the only fit 596:18 preparation for admission to the presence and power of the Most High.
VALLEY. Depression; meekness; darkness.
596:21 "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." (Psalm xxiii.4.)
Though the way is dark in mortal sense, divine Life 596:24 and Love illumine it, destroy the unrest of mortal thought, the fear of death, and the supposed reality of error. Chris- tian Science, contradicting sense, maketh the valley to bud 596:27 and blossom as the rose.
VEIL. A cover; concealment; hiding; hypocrisy.
The Jewish women wore veils over their faces in token 597:1 of reverence and submission and in accordance with Pharisaical notions.
597:3 The Judaic religion consisted mostly of rites and cere- monies. The motives and affections of a man were of little value, if only he appeared unto men to fast. The 597:6 great Nazarene, as meek as he was mighty, rebuked the hypocrisy, which offered long petitions for blessings upon material methods, but cloaked the crime, latent in thought, 597:9 which was ready to spring into action and crucify God's anointed. The martyrdom of Jesus was the culminating sin of Pharisaism. It rent the veil of the temple. It re- 597:12 vealed the false foundations and superstructures of super- ficial religion, tore from bigotry and superstition their coverings, and opened the sepulchre with divine Science, 597:15 - immortality and Love.
WILDERNESS. Loneliness; doubt; darkness. Spon- taneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a 597:18 material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence.
WILL. The motive-power of error; mortal belief; ani- 597:21 mal power. The might and wisdom of God.
"For this is the will of God." (I Thessalonians iv. 3.)
597:24 Will, as a quality of so-called mortal mind, is a wrong- doer; hence it should not be confounded with the term as applied to Mind or to one of God's qualities.
597:27 WIND. That which indicates the might of omnipo- tence and the movements of God's spiritual government, encompassing all things. Destruction; anger; mortal 597:30 passions.
598:1 The Greek word for /wind/ (/pneuma/) is used also for /spirit/, as in the passage in John's Gospel, the third chap- 598:3 ter, where we read: "The wind [/pneuma/] bloweth where it listeth. . . . So is every one that is born of the Spirit [/pneuma/]." Here the original word is the same in both 598:6 cases, yet it has received different translations, as in other passages in this same chapter and elsewhere in the New Testament. This shows how our Master had constantly 598:9 to employ words of material significance in order to unfold spiritual thoughts. In the record of Jesus' supposed death, we read: "He bowed his head, and gave up the 598:12 ghost;" but this word /ghost/ is /pneuma/. It might be trans- lated /wind/ or /air/, and the phrase is equivalent to our common statement, "He breathed his last." What 598:15 Jesus gave up was indeed air, an etherealized form of matter, for never did he give up Spirit, or Soul.
WINE. Inspiration; understanding. Error; fornica- 598:18 tion; temptation; passion.
YEAR. A solar measurement of time; mortality; space for repentance.
598:21 "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years." (II Peter iii. 8.)
One moment of divine consciousness, or the spiritual 598:24 understanding of Life and Love, is a foretaste of eternity. This exalted view, obtained and retained when the Sci- ence of being is understood, would bridge over with life 598:27 discerned spiritually the interval of death, and man would be in the full consciousness of his immortality and eternal harmony, where sin, sickness, and death are un- 598:30 known. Time is a mortal thought, the divisor of which 599:1 is the solar year. Eternity is God's measurement of Soul- filled years.
599:3 YOU. As applied to corporeality, a mortal; finity.
ZEAL. The reflected animation of Life, Truth, and Love. Blind enthusiasm; mortal will.
599:6 ZION. Spiritual foundation and superstructure; in- spiration; spiritual strength. Emptiness; unfaithful- ness; desolation.