Part 81 (1/2)

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.