Chapter XVI - The Apocalypse
Warfare with error
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Innocence and Truth overcome guilt and error. Ever
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.
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Revelation xii. 10 – 12. And I heard a loud voice saying
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
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For victory over a single sin, we give thanks and mag-
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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interprets God as divine Principle, – as Life, represented
interprets God as divine Principle, – as Life, represented
by the Father; as Truth, represented by the Son; as Love,
represented by the Mother. Every mortal at some period,
here or hereafter, must grapple with and overcome the
mortal belief in a power opposed to God.
The robe of Science
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The Scripture, "Thou hast been faithful over a few
The Scripture, "Thou hast been faithful over a few
things, I will make thee ruler over many," is literally ful-
filled, when we are conscious of the supremacy
of Truth, by which the nothingness of error
is seen; and we know that the nothingness of error is in
proportion to its wickedness. He that touches the hem
of Christ's robe and masters his mortal beliefs, animality,
and hate, rejoices in the proof of healing, – in a sweet
and certain sense that God is Love. Alas for those who
break faith with divine Science and fail to strangle the
serpent of sin as well as of sickness! They are dwellers
still in the deep darkness of belief. They are in the surg-
ing sea of error, not struggling to lift their heads above the
drowning wave.
Expiation by suffering
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What must the end be? They must eventually expi-
What must the end be? They must eventually expi-
ate their sin through suffering. The sin, which one has
made his bosom companion, comes back to him
at last with accelerated force, for the devil
knoweth his time is short. Here the Scriptures declare
that evil is temporal, not eternal. The dragon is at last
stung to death by his own malice; but how many periods
of torture it may take to remove all sin, must depend upon
sin's obduracy.
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Revelation xii. 13. And when the dragon saw that he
Revelation xii. 13. And when the dragon saw that he
was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which
brought forth the man child.