Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 81

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 G.o.d, 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 circ.u.mstance, 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 G.o.d, out of heaven," represents the light and glory of divine Science. The builder and maker of this New Jerusalem is G.o.d, 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 ill.u.s.trate 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 Wis.e.m.e.n 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 Sh.o.r.e 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 G.o.d 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 wors.h.i.+p G.o.d, for He must be wors.h.i.+pped 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 G.o.d "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 G.o.d.

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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d's creation.

The city of our G.o.d

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 G.o.d; 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 G.o.d 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 subst.i.tuting 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.

CHAPTER 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 subst.i.tution 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 ill.u.s.trated 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 G.o.d and His creation; a curse; a belief in intelligent matter, 580:1 finiteness, and mortality; "dust to dust;" red sand- stone; nothingness; the first G.o.d of mythology; not 580:3 G.o.d's man, who represents the one G.o.d 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 "G.o.ds 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 G.o.d, or Spirit; an inverted image of Spirit; the image and likeness of what G.o.d 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 pa.s.ses 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 G.o.d 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. G.o.d's thoughts pa.s.sing 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.

G.o.d 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.