Chapter 15: 'Science and Health with Key to The Scriptures' by Mary Baker Eddy

Chapter XV - Genesis

Causation not in matter

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the egg or the bird? is answered, if the egg produces the

parent. But we cannot stop here. Another question

follows: Who or what produces the parent of

the egg? That the earth was hatched from the

"egg of night" was once an accepted theory. Heathen

philosophy, modern geology, and all other material hy-

potheses deal with causation as contingent on matter

and as necessarily apparent to the corporeal senses, even

where the proof requisite to sustain this assumption is un-

discovered. Mortal theories make friends of sin, sickness,

and death; whereas the spiritual scientific facts of exist-

ence include no member of this dolorous and fatal triad.

Emergence of mortals

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Human experience in mortal life, which starts from an

egg, corresponds with that of Job, when he says, "Man

that is born of a woman is of few days, and

full of trouble." Mortals must emerge from

this notion of material life as all-in-all. They must peck

open their shells with Christian Science, and look outward

and upward. But thought, loosened from a material

basis but not yet instructed by Science, may become wild

with freedom and so be self-contradictory.

Persistence of species

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From a material source flows no remedy for sorrow,

sin, and death, for the redeeming power, from the ills

they occasion, is not in egg nor in dust. The

blending tints of leaf and flower show the

order of matter to be the order of mortal mind. The

intermixture of different species, urged to its utmost

limits, results in a return to the original species. Thus

it is learned that matter is a manifestation of mortal

mind, and that matter always surrenders its claims when

the perfect and eternal Mind is understood.

Better basis than embryology

552:32
Naturalists describe the origin of mortal and material

553:1
existence in the various forms of embryology, and ac-

company their descriptions with important observations,

which should awaken thought to a higher and

purer contemplation of man's origin. This

clearer consciousness must precede an under-

standing of the harmony of being. Mortal thought must

obtain a better basis, get nearer the truth of being, or

health will never be universal, and harmony will never

become the standard of man.

553:10
One of our ablest naturalists has said: "We have no

right to assume that individuals have grown or been

formed under circumstances which made material con-

ditions essential to their maintenance and reproduction,

or important to their origin and first introduction."

Why, then, is the naturalist's basis so materialistic,

and why are his deductions generally material?

All nativity in thought

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Adam was created before Eve. In this instance, it is

seen that the maternal egg never brought forth Adam.

Eve was formed from Adam's rib, not from a

foetal ovum. Whatever theory may be adopted

by general mortal thought to account for human origin,

that theory is sure to become the signal for the appear-

ance of its method in finite forms and operations. If con-

sentaneous human belief agrees upon an ovum as the

point of emergence for the human race, this potent belief

will immediately supersede the more ancient supersti-

tion about the creation from dust or from the rib of our

primeval father.

Being is immortal

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You may say that mortals are formed before they

think or know aught of their origin, and you

may also ask how belief can affect a result

which precedes the development of that belief. It can

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only be replied, that Christian Science reveals what "eye

hath not seen," – even the cause of all that exists, – for

the universe, inclusive of man, is as eternal as God, who

is its divine immortal Principle. There is no such thing

as mortality, nor are there properly any mortal beings,

because being is immortal, like Deity, – or, rather, being

and Deity are inseparable.

Our conscious development

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Error is always error. It is no thing. Any statement

of life, following from a misconception of life, is errone-

ous, because it is destitute of any knowledge

of the so-called selfhood of life, destitute of

any knowledge of its origin or existence. The mortal

is unconscious of his foetal and infantile existence; but

as he grows up into another false claim, that of self-con-

scious matter, he learns to say, "I am somebody; but

who made me?" Error replies, "God made you." The

first effort of error has been and is to impute to God the

creation of whatever is sinful and mortal; but infinite

Mind sets at naught such a mistaken belief.

Mendacity of error

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Jesus defined this opposite of God and His creation

better than we can, when he said, "He is a liar, and the

father of it." Jesus also said, "Have not I

chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?"

This he said of Judas, one of Adam's race. Jesus never

intimated that God made a devil, but he did say, "Ye

are of your father, the devil." All these sayings were to

show that mind in matter is the author of itself, and is

simply a falsity and illusion.

Ailments of animals

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It is the general belief that the lower animals are less

sickly than those possessing higher organiza-

tions, especially those of the human form.

This would indicate that there is less disease in propor-

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tion as the force of mortal mind is less pungent or sensi-

tive, and that health attends the absence of mortal mind.

A fair conclusion from this might be, that it is the human

belief, and not the divine arbitrament, which brings the

physical organism under the yoke of disease.

Ignorance the sign of error

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An inquirer once said to the discoverer of Christian

Science: "I like your explanations of truth, but I do

not comprehend what you say about error."

This is the nature of error. The mark of igno-

rance is on its forehead, for it neither understands nor

can be understood. Error would have itself received as

mind, as if it were as real and God-created as truth; but

Christian Science attributes to error neither entity nor

power, because error is neither mind nor the outcome of

Mind.

The origin of divinity

555:16
Searching for the origin of man, who is the reflection

of God, is like inquiring into the origin of God, the self‑

existent and eternal. Only impotent error

would seek to unite Spirit with matter, good

with evil, immortality with mortality, and call this

sham unity man, as if man were the offspring of both

Mind and matter, of both Deity and humanity. Crea-

tion rests on a spiritual basis. We lose our standard of

perfection and set aside the proper conception of Deity,

when we admit that the perfect is the author of aught

that can become imperfect, that God bestows the power

to sin, or that Truth confers the ability to err. Our

great example, Jesus, could restore the individualized

manifestation of existence, which seemed to vanish in

death. Knowing that God was the Life of man, Jesus

was able to present himself unchanged after the cruci-

fixion. Truth fosters the idea of Truth, and not the be-

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lief in illusion or error. That which is real, is sustained

by Spirit.

Genera classified

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Vertebrata, articulata, mollusca, and radiata are mor-

tal and material concepts classified, and are supposed to

possess life and mind. These false beliefs

will disappear, when the radiation of Spirit

destroys forever all belief in intelligent matter. Then

will the new heaven and new earth appear, for the for-

mer things will have passed away.

The Christian's privilege

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Mortal belief infolds the conditions of sin. Mortal

belief dies to live again in renewed forms, only to go out

at last forever; for life everlasting is not to be

gained by dying. Christian Science may ab-

sorb the attention of sage and philosopher, but

the Christian alone can fathom it. It is made known

most fully to him who understands best the divine Life.

Did the origin and the enlightenment of the race come

from the deep sleep which fell upon Adam? Sleep is

darkness, but God's creative mandate was, "Let there be

light." In sleep, cause and effect are mere illusions.

They seem to be something, but are not. Oblivion and

dreams, not realities, come with sleep. Even so goes on

the Adam-belief, of which mortal and material life is the

dream.

Ontology versus physiology

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Ontology receives less attention than physiology. Why?

Because mortal mind must waken to spiritual

life before it cares to solve the problem of

being, hence the author's experience; but when

that awakening comes, existence will be on a new stand-

point.

556:31
It is related that a father plunged his infant babe, only

a few hours old, into the water for several minutes, and

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repeated this operation daily, until the child could remain

under water twenty minutes, moving and playing with-

out harm, like a fish. Parents should remember this

and learn how to develop their children properly on dry

land.

The curse removed

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Mind controls the birth-throes in the lower realms of

nature, where parturition is without suffering. Vege-

tables, minerals, and many animals suffer no

pain in multiplying; but human propagation

has its suffering because it is a false belief. Christian Sci-

ence reveals harmony as proportionately increasing as the

line of creation rises towards spiritual man, – towards

enlarged understanding and intelligence; but in the line

of the corporeal senses, the less a mortal knows of sin,

disease, and mortality, the better for him, – the less pain

and sorrow are his. When the mist of mortal mind evap-

orates, the curse will be removed which says to woman,

"In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children." Divine

Science rolls back the clouds of error with the light of

Truth, and lifts the curtain on man as never born and as

never dying, but as coexistent with his creator.

557:22
Popular theology takes up the history of man as if he

began materially right, but immediately fell into mental

sin; whereas revealed religion proclaims the Science of

Mind and its formations as being in accordance with

the first chapter of the Old Testament, when God, Mind,

spake and it was done.

Chapter XVI

The Apocalypse

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this proph-

ecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at

hand. – REVELATION.

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God,

in the mountain of His holiness. – PSALMS.

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ST. JOHN writes, in the tenth chapter of his book of

Revelation: –

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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

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

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This angel or message which comes from God, clothed

with a cloud, prefigures divine Science. To mortal sense

Science seems at first obscure, abstract, and

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,

and it has for you a light above the sun, for God "is the

light thereof." Its feet are pillars of fire, foundations

of Truth and Love. It brings the baptism of the Holy

Ghost, whose flames of Truth were prophetically de-

scribed by John the Baptist as consuming error.

Truth's volume

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This angel had in his hand "a little book," open for

all to read and understand. Did this same book contain

the revelation of divine Science, the "right

foot" or dominant power of which was upon

the sea, – upon elementary, latent error, the source of

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"

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."

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

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

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

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

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,

– 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

perilous passage out of bondage into the El Dorado of faith

and hope.

To-day's lesson

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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

sixth seal, typical of six thousand years since

Adam, the distinctive feature has reference

to the present age.

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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

stars.

True estimate of God's messenger

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Heaven represents harmony, and divine Science inter-

prets the Principle of heavenly harmony. The great

miracle, to human sense, is divine Love, and

the grand necessity of existence is to gain the

true idea of what constitutes the kingdom of

heaven in man. This goal is never reached while we

hate our neighbor or entertain a false estimate of any-

one whom God has appointed to voice His Word. Again,

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 classify

it correctly. As it is with things, so is it with persons.

Persecution harmful

560:22
Abuse of the motives and religion of St. Paul hid from

view the apostle's character, which made him equal to

his great mission. Persecution of all who have

spoken something new and better of God has

not only obscured the light of the ages, but has been fatal

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

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

good and destroys both faith in evil and the practice of

evil, leads to the discernment of the divine idea.

Espousals supernal

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Agassiz, through his microscope, saw the sun in an

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

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

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,

God and His Christ, bringing harmony to earth.

Divinity and humanity

561:16
John saw the human and divine coincidence, shown in

the man Jesus, as divinity embracing humanity in Life

and its demonstration, – reducing to human

perception and understanding the Life which

is God. In divine revelation, material and corporeal self‑

hood disappear, and the spiritual idea is understood.

Spiritual sunlight

561:22
The woman in the Apocalypse symbolizes generic man,

the spiritual idea of God; she illustrates the coincidence

of God and man as the divine Principle and

divine idea. The Revelator symbolizes Spirit

by the sun. The spiritual idea is clad with the radiance

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

of the Fourth Gospel it is written, "There was a man sent

from God . . . to bear witness of that Light."

Spiritual idea revealed

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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

Ghost, – divine Science. As Elias presented

the idea of the fatherhood of God, which Jesus

afterwards manifested, so the Revelator completed this

figure with woman, typifying the spiritual idea of God's

motherhood. The moon is under her feet. This idea

reveals the universe as secondary and tributary to Spirit,

from which the universe borrows its reflected light, sub-

stance, life, and intelligence.

Spiritual idea crowned

562:11
The spiritual idea is crowned with twelve stars. The

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

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

of the age, which show the workings of the spiritual idea

by healing the sick and the sinning, and by manifesting

the light which shines "unto the perfect day" as the night

of materialism wanes.

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Revelation xii. 2. And she being with child cried, travail-

ing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

Travail and joy

562:24
Also the spiritual idea is typified by a woman in tra-

vail, waiting to be delivered of her sweet promise, but re-

membering no more her sorrow for joy that

the birth goes on; for great is the idea, and the

travail portentous.

562:29
Revelation xii. 3. And there appeared another wonder in

heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads

and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

The dragon as a type

563:1
Human sense may well marvel at discord, while, to a

diviner sense, harmony is the real and discord the unreal.

We may well be astonished at sin, sickness, and

death. We may well be perplexed at human

fear; and still more astounded at hatred, which lifts

its hydra head, showing its horns in the many inventions

of evil. But why should we stand aghast at nothingness?

The great red dragon symbolizes a lie, – the belief

that substance, life, and intelligence can be material.

This dragon stands for the sum total of human error.

The ten horns of the dragon typify the belief that mat-

ter has power of its own, and that by means of an

evil mind in matter the Ten Commandments can be

broken.

The sting of the serpent

563:15
The Revelator lifts the veil from this embodiment of

all evil, and beholds its awful character; but he also

sees the nothingness of evil and the allness of

God. The Revelator sees that old serpent,

whose name is devil or evil, holding untiring watch, that

he may bite the heel of truth and seemingly impede the

offspring of the spiritual idea, which is prolific in health,

holiness, and immortality.

563:23
Revelation xii. 4. And his tail drew the third part of the

stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the

dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be

delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

Animal tendency

563:27
The serpentine form stands for subtlety, winding its

way amidst all evil, but doing this in the name of good.

Its sting is spoken of by Paul, when he refers

to "spiritual wickedness in high places." It

is the animal instinct in mortals, which would impel

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them to devour each other and cast out devils through

Beelzebub.

564:3
As of old, evil still charges the spiritual idea with error's

own nature and methods. This malicious animal in-

stinct, of which the dragon is the type, incites mortals to

kill morally and physically even their fellow-mortals, and

worse still, to charge the innocent with the crime. This

last infirmity of sin will sink its perpetrator into a night

without a star.

Malicious barbarity

564:10
The author is convinced that the accusations against

Jesus of Nazareth and even his crucifixion were instigated

by the criminal instinct here described. The

Revelator speaks of Jesus as the Lamb of God

and of the dragon as warring against innocence. Since Jesus

must have been tempted in all points, he, the immaculate,

met and conquered sin in every form. The brutal bar-

barity of his foes could emanate from no source except the

highest degree of human depravity. Jesus "opened not

his mouth." Until the majesty of Truth should be demon-

strated in divine Science, the spiritual idea was arraigned

before the tribunal of so-called mortal mind, which was

unloosed in order that the false claim of mind in matter

might uncover its own crime of defying immortal Mind.

Doom of the dragon

564:24
From Genesis to the Apocalypse, sin, sickness, and

death, envy, hatred, and revenge, – all evil, – are typi-

fied by a serpent, or animal subtlety. Jesus

said, quoting a line from the Psalms, "They

hated me without a cause." The serpent is perpetually

close upon the heel of harmony. From the beginning

to the end, the serpent pursues with hatred the spiritual

idea. In Genesis, this allegorical, talking serpent typi-

fies mortal mind, "more subtle than any beast of the

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field." In the Apocalypse, when nearing its doom, this

evil increases and becomes the great red dragon, swollen

with sin, inflamed with war against spirituality, and ripe

for destruction. It is full of lust and hate, loathing the

brightness of divine glory.

565:6
Revelation xii. 5. And she brought forth a man child,

who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her

child was caught up unto God, and to His throne.

The conflict with purity

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Led on by the grossest element of mortal mind, Herod

decreed the death of every male child in order that the

man Jesus, the masculine representative of the

spiritual idea might never hold sway and de-

prive Herod of his crown. The impersonation of the

spiritual idea had a brief history in the earthly life of our

Master; but "of his kingdom there shall be no end,"

for Christ, God's idea, will eventually rule all nations

and peoples – imperatively, absolutely, finally – with di-

vine Science. This immaculate idea, represented first

by man and, according to the Revelator, last by woman,

will baptize with fire; and the fiery baptism will burn up

the chaff of error with the fervent heat of Truth and Love,

melting and purifying even the gold of human character.

After the stars sang together and all was primeval har-

mony, the material lie made war upon the spiritual idea;

but this only impelled the idea to rise to the zenith of

demonstration, destroying sin, sickness, and death, and

to be caught up unto God, – to be found in its divine

Principle.

565:29
Revelation xii. 6. And the woman fled into the wilder-

ness, where she hath a place prepared of God.

Spiritual guidance

566:1
As the children of Israel were guided triumphantly

through the Red Sea, the dark ebbing and flowing tides

of human fear, – as they were led through the

wilderness, walking wearily through the great

desert of human hopes, and anticipating the promised

joy, – so shall the spiritual idea guide all right desires

in their passage from sense to Soul, from a material sense

of existence to the spiritual, up to the glory prepared for

them who love God. Stately Science pauses not, but

moves before them, a pillar of cloud by day and of fire

by night, leading to divine heights.

566:12
If we remember the beautiful description which Sir

Walter Scott puts into the mouth of Rebecca the Jewess

in the story of Ivanhoe, –

566:15
When Israel, of the Lord beloved,

Out of the land of bondage came,

Her fathers' God before her moved,

An awful guide, in smoke and flame, –

566:19
we may also offer the prayer which concludes the same

hymn, –

566:21
And oh, when stoops on Judah's path

In shade and storm the frequent night,

Be Thou, longsuffering, slow to wrath,

A burning and a shining light!

566:25
Revelation xii. 7, 8. And there was war in heaven:

Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the

dragon fought, and his angels, and prevailed not; neither

was their place found any more in heaven.

Angelic offices

566:29
The Old Testament assigns to the angels, God's divine

messages, different offices. Michael's charac-

teristic is spiritual strength. He leads the

hosts of heaven against the power of sin, Satan, and

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fights the holy wars. Gabriel has the more quiet task

of imparting a sense of the ever-presence of ministering

Love. These angels deliver us from the depths. Truth

and Love come nearer in the hour of woe, when strong

faith or spiritual strength wrestles and prevails through

the understanding of God. The Gabriel of His presence

has no contests. To infinite, ever-present Love, all is

Love, and there is no error, no sin, sickness, nor death.

Against Love, the dragon warreth not long, for he is

killed by the divine Principle. Truth and Love prevail

against the dragon because the dragon cannot war with

them. Thus endeth the conflict between the flesh and

Spirit.

567:14
Revelation xii. 9. And the great dragon was cast out,

that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiv-

eth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his

angels were cast out with him.

Dragon cast down to earth

567:18
That false claim – that ancient belief, that old serpent

whose name is devil (evil), claiming that there is intelli-

gence in matter either to benefit or to injure

men – is pure delusion, the red dragon; and

it is cast out by Christ, Truth, the spiritual

idea, and so proved to be powerless. The words "cast

unto the earth" show the dragon to be nothingness, dust

to dust; and therefore, in his pretence of being a talker,

he must be a lie from the beginning. His angels, or mes-

sages, are cast out with their author. The beast and the

false prophets are lust and hypocrisy. These wolves in

sheep's clothing are detected and killed by innocence, the

Lamb of Love.

Warfare with error

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Divine Science shows how the Lamb slays the wolf.

568:1
Innocence and Truth overcome guilt and error. Ever

since the foundation of the world, ever since error would

establish material belief, evil has tried to slay

the Lamb; but Science is able to destroy this

lie, called evil. The twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse

typifies the divine method of warfare in Science, and the

glorious results of this warfare. The following chapters

depict the fatal effects of trying to meet error with error.

The narrative follows the order used in Genesis. In

Genesis, first the true method of creation is set forth and

then the false. Here, also, the Revelator first exhibits

the true warfare and then the false.

568:13
Revelation xii. 10 – 12. And I heard a loud voice saying

in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the

kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the

accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them

before our God day and night. And they overcame him by

the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony;

and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore

rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the

inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is

come down unto you, having great wrath, because he

knoweth that he hath but a short time.

Paean of jubilee

568:24
For victory over a single sin, we give thanks and mag-

nify the Lord of Hosts. What shall we say of the mighty

conquest over all sin? A louder song, sweeter

than has ever before reached high heaven,

now rises clearer and nearer to the great heart of Christ;

for the accuser is not there, and Love sends forth her

primal and everlasting strain. Self-abnegation, by which

we lay down all for Truth, or Christ, in our warfare against

error, is a rule in Christian Science. This rule clearly

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