Part 80 (2/2)

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 G.o.d 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 mor- tal 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 accomplis.h.i.+ng 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 re- quires 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 circ.u.mstances, overcome evil with good. Know thyself, and G.o.d 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, outs.h.i.+ning sin, sorcery, l.u.s.t, 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 an- other” (I John, iii. 23), is the most simple and profound counsel of the inspired writer. In Science we are chil- 572:9 dren of G.o.d; but whatever is of material sense, or mor- tal, 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 demon- strated, 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 pa.s.sed away; and there was no more sea.

Man's present possibilities

The Revelator had not yet pa.s.sed 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 s.p.a.ce 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 in- visible 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 G.o.d 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 an- other revelation, even the declaration from heaven, su- 573:15 preme harmony, that G.o.d, 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 G.o.d. 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 G.o.d 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.”

<script>