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pungent or sensitive, and that health attends the absence of mortal mind. 555:3 A fair conclusion from this might be, that it is the human

belief, and not the divine arbitrament, which brings the

physical organism under the yoke of disease.

 

Ignorance the sign of error

555:6 An inquirer once said to the discoverer of Christian

Science: “I like your explanations of truth, but I do

not comprehend what you say about error.” 555:9 This is the nature of error. The mark of ignorance is on its forehead, for it neither understands nor

can be understood. Error would have itself received as 555:12 mind, as if it were as real and God-created as truth; but

Christian Science attributes to error neither entity nor

power, because error is neither mind nor the outcome of 555:15 Mind.

 

The origin of divinity

 

Searching for the origin of man, who is the reflection

of God, is like inquiring into the origin of God, the self-555:18 existent and eternal. Only impotent error

would seek to unite Spirit with matter, good

with evil, immortality with mortality, and call this 555:21 sham unity man, as if man were the offspring of both

Mind and matter, of both Deity and humanity. Creation rests on a spiritual basis. We lose our standard of 555:24 perfection and set aside the proper conception of Deity,

when we admit that the perfect is the author of aught

that can become imperfect, that God bestows the power 555:27 to sin, or that Truth confers the ability to err. Our

great example, Jesus, could restore the individualized

manifestation of existence, which seemed to vanish in 555:30 death. Knowing that God was the Life of man, Jesus

was able to present himself unchanged after the crucifixion. Truth fosters the idea of Truth, and not the be-556:1 lief in illusion or error. That which is real, is sustained

by Spirit.

 

Genera classified

556:3 Vertebrata, articulata, mollusca, and radiata are mortal and material concepts classified, and are supposed to

possess life and mind. These false beliefs 556:6 will disappear, when the radiation of Spirit

destroys forever all belief in intelligent matter. Then

will the new heaven and new earth appear, for the for-556:9 mer things will have passed away.

 

The Christian’s privilege

 

Mortal belief infolds the conditions of sin. Mortal

belief dies to live again in renewed forms, only to go out 556:12 at last forever; for life everlasting is not to be

gained by dying. Christian Science may absorb the attention of sage and philosopher, but 556:15 the Christian alone can fathom it. It is made known

most fully to him who understands best the divine Life.

Did the origin and the enlightenment of the race come 556:18 from the deep sleep which fell upon Adam? Sleep is

darkness, but God’s creative mandate was, “Let there be

light.” In sleep, cause and effect are mere illusions. 556:21 They seem to be something, but are not. Oblivion and

dreams, not realities, come with sleep. Even so goes on

the Adam-belief, of which mortal and material life is the 556:24 dream.

 

Ontology versus physiology

 

Ontology receives less attention than physiology. Why?

Because mortal mind must waken to spiritual 556:27 life before it cares to solve the problem of

being, hence the author’s experience; but when

that awakening comes, existence will be on a new stand-556:30 point.

 

It is related that a father plunged his infant babe, only

a few hours old, into the water for several minutes, and 557:1 repeated this operation daily, until the child could remain

under water twenty minutes, moving and playing with-557:3 out harm, like a fish. Parents should remember this

and learn how to develop their children properly on dry

land.

 

The curse removed

557:6 Mind controls the birth-throes in the lower realms of

nature, where parturition is without suffering. Vegetables, minerals, and many animals suffer no 557:9 pain in multiplying; but human propagation

has its suffering because it is a false belief. Christian Science reveals harmony as proportionately increasing as the 557:12 line of creation rises towards spiritual man, - towards

enlarged understanding and intelligence; but in the line

of the corporeal senses, the less a mortal knows of sin, 557:15 disease, and mortality, the better for him, - the less pain

and sorrow are his. When the mist of mortal mind evaporates, the curse will be removed which says to woman, 557:18 “In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children.” Divine

Science rolls back the clouds of error with the light of

Truth, and lifts the curtain on man as never born and as 557:21 never dying, but as coexistent with his creator.

 

Popular theology takes up the history of man as if he

began materially right, but immediately fell into mental 557:24 sin; whereas revealed religion proclaims the Science of

Mind and its formations as being in accordance with

the first chapter of the Old Testament, when God, Mind, 557:27 spake and it was done.

CHAPTER 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 described 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 partaking 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 connection 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 interprets 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 anyone 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 misunderstand 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” represented 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 spiritual Life, which is “the light

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