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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 foundations.” The description is metaphoric. Spiritual teaching 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 followed 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 Righteousness, - 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 expresses 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 universal 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 reflects 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 Principle 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.

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 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 contains 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 creations; 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 making “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 existence 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; immortality’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 conferred 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 compensation; 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 evidence 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 possessor 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 creative 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 representatives 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, substance, 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; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.

 

The Church is

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