Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy [the dot read aloud .TXT] 📗

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 fulfilled, 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 waiting 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 mortal 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 requires 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 another” (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 mortal, 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 demonstrated, 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 invisible 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 another 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 destroy 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,