Chapter XVI - The Apocalypse
Persecution harmful
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rance of Truth and Love. The understanding of Truth
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
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
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John saw the human and divine coincidence, shown in
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
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The woman in the Apocalypse symbolizes generic man,
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-
John the Baptist prophesied the coming of the im-
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maculate Jesus, and John saw in those days the spiritual
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
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The spiritual idea is crowned with twelve stars. The
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-
Revelation xii. 2. And she being with child cried, travail-
ing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
Travail and joy
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Also the spiritual idea is typified by a woman in tra-
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.
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Revelation xii. 3. And there appeared another wonder in
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.