Part 84 (2/2)
596:12 The rabbins believed that the stones in the breast- plate of the high-priest had supernatural illumination, but Christian Science reveals Spirit, not matter, as the 596:15 illuminator of all. The illuminations of Science give us a sense of the nothingness of error, and they show the spiritual inspiration of Love and Truth to be the only fit 596:18 preparation for admission to the presence and power of the Most High.
VALLEY. Depression; meekness; darkness.
596:21 ”Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” (Psalm xxiii.4.)
Though the way is dark in mortal sense, divine Life 596:24 and Love illumine it, destroy the unrest of mortal thought, the fear of death, and the supposed reality of error. Chris- tian Science, contradicting sense, maketh the valley to bud 596:27 and blossom as the rose.
VEIL. A cover; concealment; hiding; hypocrisy.
The Jewish women wore veils over their faces in token 597:1 of reverence and submission and in accordance with Pharisaical notions.
597:3 The Judaic religion consisted mostly of rites and cere- monies. The motives and affections of a man were of little value, if only he appeared unto men to fast. The 597:6 great Nazarene, as meek as he was mighty, rebuked the hypocrisy, which offered long pet.i.tions for blessings upon material methods, but cloaked the crime, latent in thought, 597:9 which was ready to spring into action and crucify G.o.d's anointed. The martyrdom of Jesus was the culminating sin of Pharisaism. It rent the veil of the temple. It re- 597:12 vealed the false foundations and superstructures of super- ficial religion, tore from bigotry and superst.i.tion their coverings, and opened the sepulchre with divine Science, 597:15 - immortality and Love.
WILDERNESS. Loneliness; doubt; darkness. Spon- taneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a 597:18 material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence.
WILL. The motive-power of error; mortal belief; ani- 597:21 mal power. The might and wisdom of G.o.d.
”For this is the will of G.o.d.” (I Thessalonians iv. 3.)
597:24 Will, as a quality of so-called mortal mind, is a wrong- doer; hence it should not be confounded with the term as applied to Mind or to one of G.o.d's qualities.
597:27 WIND. That which indicates the might of omnipo- tence and the movements of G.o.d's spiritual government, encompa.s.sing all things. Destruction; anger; mortal 597:30 pa.s.sions.
598:1 The Greek word for _wind_ (_pneuma_) is used also for _spirit_, as in the pa.s.sage in John's Gospel, the third chap- 598:3 ter, where we read: ”The wind [_pneuma_] bloweth where it listeth... . So is every one that is born of the Spirit [_pneuma_].” Here the original word is the same in both 598:6 cases, yet it has received different translations, as in other pa.s.sages in this same chapter and elsewhere in the New Testament. This shows how our Master had constantly 598:9 to employ words of material significance in order to unfold spiritual thoughts. In the record of Jesus' supposed death, we read: ”He bowed his head, and gave up the 598:12 ghost;” but this word _ghost_ is _pneuma_. It might be trans- lated _wind_ or _air_, and the phrase is equivalent to our common statement, ”He breathed his last.” What 598:15 Jesus gave up was indeed air, an etherealized form of matter, for never did he give up Spirit, or Soul.
WINE. Inspiration; understanding. Error; fornica- 598:18 tion; temptation; pa.s.sion.
YEAR. A solar measurement of time; mortality; s.p.a.ce for repentance.
598:21 ”One day is with the Lord as a thousand years.”
(II Peter iii. 8.)
One moment of divine consciousness, or the spiritual 598:24 understanding of Life and Love, is a foretaste of eternity.
This exalted view, obtained and retained when the Sci- ence of being is understood, would bridge over with life 598:27 discerned spiritually the interval of death, and man would be in the full consciousness of his immortality and eternal harmony, where sin, sickness, and death are un- 598:30 known. Time is a mortal thought, the divisor of which 599:1 is the solar year. Eternity is G.o.d's measurement of Soul- filled years.
599:3 YOU. As applied to corporeality, a mortal; finity.
ZEAL. The reflected animation of Life, Truth, and Love. Blind enthusiasm; mortal will.
599:6 ZION. Spiritual foundation and superstructure; in- spiration; spiritual strength. Emptiness; unfaithful- ness; desolation.
CHAPTER XVIII - FRUITAGE
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. - JESUS.
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