Part 79 (1/2)

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our G.o.d, 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d ”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 pa.s.sage 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 G.o.d'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 const.i.tutes 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 G.o.d 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 cla.s.sify 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 G.o.d 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

Aga.s.siz, 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d. 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 G.o.d; she ill.u.s.trates the coincidence 561:24 of G.o.d 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 G.o.d ... 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 G.o.d, which Jesus afterwards manifested, so the Revelator completed this 562:6 figure with woman, typifying the spiritual idea of G.o.d'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 s.h.i.+nes ”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.