From Genesis To Revelation

From
Genesis to Revelation
by
W. Gordon Brown
Third Edition
PUBLISHED BY GORDON & ESTELLE BROWN

ENGLAND 1984
By the same author:

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE NONSECTARIAN
CIVILIZATION LlETH FOURSQUARE
Evolution of the Christian Science Church Organization
Humanity and Christian Science
Science and Health and the Church Manual
Jesus: Pentecost: Mary Baker Eddy: Today
Copyright W. Gordon Brown 1973, 1984

ISBN
a 904320
00 6
Photo-typeset and Printed in Great Britain by

Kingprint limited, Richmond, Surrey
Reprint by Heffers, Cambridge
'j
Acknowledgments
The text of the Authorized Version of the Bible is Crown copyright, and the extracts from this version are
reproduced by permission.
For "permission to include other copyright material In this book grateful acknowledgment is due to the
authors and publishers of the following books:
The Companion Bible (The Bullinger Publications Trust); The Century Bible (Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd); The
Scofield Reference Bible (Oxford University Press, New York); A Guidebook to the Bible by Alice Parmelee (The
English Universities Press Ltd and Harpers & Bros Ltd, New York); The Englishman by W. Macneile Dixon
(Edward Arnold [Publishers] Ltd); Civilization on Trial, and A Study of History (Abridgement Vals I-VI by D. C.
Somervell) by Arnold J. Toynbee (Oxford University Press); Introduction to a Science of Mythology by C. G. Jung
and C. Kerenyi (Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd); The Encyclopaedia Britannica (The Encyclopaedia Britannica
Company).
Concerning copyright and Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy wrote: "Christian Science is not copyrighted
. A student can write voluminous works on Science without trespassing, if he writes honestly, and he cannot
dishonestly compose Christian Science" (Article on IIPlagiarism!" Ret 76:2).
Abbreviation~
The following abbreviations are used for the works of Mary Baker Eddy cited in this book:
S & H ........................
Mis ...........................
Ret ...........................
Un ...........................
Pul ...........................
No ...........................
'01 ...........................
'02 ...........................
My ...........................
Man ........................
C & C ... ..................
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures

Miscellaneous Writings
Retrospection and Introspection
Unity of Good
Pulpit and Press
No and Yes
Message for 1901
Message for 1902
Miscellany
Church Manual
Christ and Christmas
Abbreviations for the books of the Bible are those generally used.
SRB ........................ The Scofield Reference Bible
CB ........................... The Companion Bible
Dictionary definitions are from The Student's Reference Dictionary, published by Keystone Publishers,
California! USA, a compilation of definitions from Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language in use
at the time when Mary Baker Eddy was writing her books.
SRD ........................ The Student's Reference Dictionary
la ,.,......................... italics added to a quotation
Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Strong), The Companion Bible, Metaphysical Bible Dictionary (Unity),
Peloubet's Bible Dictionary-sources from which meanings of Bible names have been taken.
FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION
"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the

ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was,
and which is to come, the Almighty."
(Rev 1 :8)
--=.....,--;;;-;;::-
------------~
The above diagram of the Golden Rectangle relates mathematically to the spiralling
structure of the deep-sea Nautilus (see outside cover), suggesting the range of creation
"from the infinitesimal to infinity" and the fact that
"GOD IS AT ONCE THE CENTRE AND CIRCUMFERENCE OF BEING"
(S & H 503:3, 203:32).
Preface
is the revised edition of the book which

the author published in 1957, which was the outcome of some talks on the
Science of the Bible that he gave in 1956. These talks were the culmination
of a study that had spread over the three preceding years.
The purpose of this revision is to reduce the original to a simpler and
less voluminous form in the light of more mature understanding. The
id,eas originally presented, and the structure in which they took shape,
remains for the most part unchanged, although the book itself has been
entirely rewritten.
In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the
Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy refers to "the divine Science of the
Scriptures seen from Genesis to Revelation" (S & H 1 39:23). These words
indicate that there is spiritual and scientific continuity throughout the
Scri ptura I message as a who Ie.
In evaluating a work on the divine Science of being as revealed in
Christian Science it is essential to appreciate the standpoint from which
the work has been undertaken. The standpoint in the case of the present
book is the Scriptures as an indivisible whole. This means that anyone
book of the Bible, any part of a book, or any group of books, is viewed
within the framework of the complete unfoldment, and not as a fragment
taken from its setting and studied by itself. Each part depends for its
validity on its relationship to one overall design, and therefore to all the
other parts which make up this design. The finished work, in consequence,
is neither piecemeal nor linear but structural and whole. This
comprehensive outlook has determined all spiritual conclusions found
within the following pages. The import of this in the thought of the author
is that of conceiving the Scriptural idea in its divine Principle.
In their scientific researches, students of divine metaphysics may use
different scales of reference from which to approach the same subject.
Like colours in a picture which enhance one another's beauty once their
relationships are understood, so individual contri butions to the vast
unstereotyped Science of Life will, if they stem from the same divine
Principle, be found in the end to magnify indispensably each other's
meaning and value.
The contents of these pages are an individual contribution to an ever
increasing output of revelatory research into the nonsectarian Science of
IX
PREFACE
Christian Science. Their purpose is to open wider an already open door.

and so promote a deeper penetration into the vista of spiritual
understanding which is now accelerating into view.
Malachi prophesied: '~Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that
there may be meat in mine house. and prove me now herewith, saith the
Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven. and pour you
out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."
The Apostle John wrote of Jesus: "And there are also many other
things which Jesus did, the which. if they should be written everyone, I
suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should
be written:'
Mary Baker Eddy said regarding Christian Science: ~~ A student can
write voluminous works on Science ... if he writes honestly, and he cannot
dishonestly compose Christian Science."
Cambridge,
England
1984
W.G.B.
Introduction
According to the last chapter of Luke's Gospel, it was not until after the
resurrection, when the consciousness of Jesus had risen above the bodily
confines imposed by the physical senses, that he opened his disciples'
understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. Then,
Hbeginning at Moses and all the prophets~ he expounded unto them in all
the scriptures the things concerning himself."
HAnd he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you,
while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were
written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms,
concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might
understand the scriptures."
Up to this point Jesus had taught the Scriptures selectively_ At any rate,
this is the impression given in the Gospel of Matthew \vhere he makes so
many references to different parts of the Old Testament. With the coming
of the resurrection, ho\vever, he taught them undivided and whole. Once
he was free from organic limitations, he expounded to the disciples in all
the Scriptures the things concerning the sinless, deathless, wholeness of
man.
At that time, of course, the New Testament had not been written. The
Scriptures consisted of the Old Testament only, and this was made up of
the three categories of books to which Jesus refers in the above quotation 1
namely, the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms. The psalms were
that class of Old Testament literature which was otherwise known as "the
writings." In Jesus' day, Law,Prophets, and Writings constituted the
whole of the Scriptural Inessage as the revealed Word of God.
But the Word of God is not a literature that can be read and studied
intellectually. The Word of God is Life itself. Only in the living universe
do we really read the Word of God. The Gospel of John says that the Word
is both with God and, at the same time, is God. HOod is the sum total of the
universe" (Mis 105:32), says Christian Science. The universe is what Being
(God) declares itself to be. Universe, Logos, Word, are one. God and man,
Principle and idea, are one and indivisible. I AM THAT I AM is both that
which is spoken and that which speaks. The written word of the Scriptures
teaches, through the use of symbols, what the Word itself is as the eternal
reality of God, man, and the universe.
1
In opening up the Scriptures to thl' disl:iplcs" Jesus was opening up

them. He unsealed their understanding that they might understand the
true nature of their own and every (nan's hcing. "fhe interwoven text of the
Bible instructs us regarding the interwoven fahric of creation itself. When
Science and Health speaks of Hthe divine Science of the Scriptures seen
from Genesis to Revelation,"' this has the sanle hasic meaning as another
of its propositions, namely, that "the divine Science of man is woven into
one web of consistency without searl1 or rent"" (S & H 139:23 &
242:25 - i a).
Jesus said, "I came forth from the Fathe(' (John 16:28). His startingpoint was always the Principle of the oneness and wholeness of being. But
his proof of this wholeness before the eyes of the world was by degrees.
Step by step he healed humanity of its divisive sins and diseases. At the
point of the resurrection, however, the proof was total. While he was
demonstrating that man is not in fact imprisoned in a dying mortal body,
subject to the limitations of five physical senses, and divided in
consequence from God and from his world, it appears that Jesus taught
the Word of God selectively. But once he could show what body really is,
he taught it in its oneness and interdependence. The underlying theme of
the Science of the Bible is the deathless body of Christ, Truth, or the
spiritual unity and wholeness of man.
The disciples' hearts burned within them. They were fired spiritually
with a new and transcendent idea of life. Their thinking advanced from
sectarianism to Science. Once they beheld the living resurrection, an
objective approach to the unity of being developed into a subjective
awareness of being itself in its birthless, deathless reality.
There are parallels in the history of Christian Science. Within the
church organizatioIl" the Bible is treated fragmentarily. Both the Old and
New Testalnents are read more as reference books than as one continuous
scientific textbook. The same is true of Science and Health. This, likewise,
is approached selectively and discontinuously. From a position outside
the sectarian body, however, thought has. in recent years" begun to touch
both the Bible and Science and Health in their order" structure, and
wholeness, and therefore in their Science. This signifies that the elements
of resurrection have hCCOIlIC evident in the developnlent of Christian
Science. lJniversal ('hristian Science can no nl0re be confined within a
churl'h organization than spiritual individuality could be confined within
rhl~ hody of Jcsus~ hence Jesus' dissolution of organic limitations, and his
dl'111ollstratioll of freedol11 and life.
In the vision recorded in Revelation. St. John beholds a Lanlb "slain
fro 111 I he foundation of the world" - slain, that is, by a material sense of
creation. Because, at last, he is ""alive for evertTIore," the Lamb is typical
of Jesus at the resurrection.
Among all the inhabitants of the earth. this Lanlb of God - the
spiritual idealism that involves personal self-sacrifice - alone has power
INTRODUCTION
to unloose the seals of a seven-sealed book, so that the contents of this

book can be read and understood, and the human race liberated, in
consequence, from the thralldom of mortal life.
~'Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,"
John the Baptist said of Jesus (John 1:29). The purpose of the resurrected
Lamb in taking away the seals from his own book of life corresponds to
that of the resurrected Jesus in opening his disciples' understanding that
they might understand the Scriptures. The spiritual understanding of the
Scri ptures is identical with the spiritual understanding of the sinless,
deathless reality of man.
The assembled multitude hails the Lamb: HThou art worthy to take the
book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed
us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and
nation." Science and Health says correlatively: "Spiritual evolution alone
is worthy of the exercise of divine power" (S & H 135:9). This idea of
spiritual evolution, in contrast to material organization, is the key to the
Science of the Bible as it ranges from Genesis to Revelation.
In order to perform his mighty work, and to exercise his divine power,
the Lamb is furnished with ~~the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the
earth." The book is in the hand of an eternal, enthroned ""one." In the
midst of the throne and round about it are "four beasts" or (as the Revised
Version has it) "~four living creatures." Like these four, the Lamb also
comes forth out of the midst of the throne. One by one he breaks the seven
imprisoning seals and reveals to mankind the way of salvation from the
mortal sense of life. No wonder there arises a universal paean of praise
and thanksgiving for the Lamb.
The book typifies the Bible, while the seven seals are the Bible's
material, historical interpretation, or its meaning judged according to the
evidence of the mortal senses. This limiting, untrue evidence must be
penetrated, and its hold on human thought unloosed, in order that the
deep infinite meaning of life may be opened up and flood the
consciousness of mankind.
The enthroned One is God, the self-revelatory Principle of the
universe. The Lamb is the immaculate spiritual idea of God whereby this
Principle shows itself forth. Humanity'S need is to understand the
indivisibility of Principle and idea, God and man. Involved in this
understanding, in the imagery of St John, are the seven Spirits of God and
the .four living creatures.
In the language of Christian Science, the seven Spirits are the seven
capitalized, synonytnous terms which answer the question "What is God?"
(S & H 465). The four living creatures relate to a second range of
capitalized terms, the four "'sides" of the holy city of Revelation 21 (S & H
575). That is to say, while the seven Spirits define Being as Mind, Spirit,
Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love, the four creatures stand for the living
operation of Being as the Word, Christ, Christianity, Science. Together,
"
these two basic classes of' capital ized terms - the Seven and the
Four - furnish the Key whereby the I...,amb sets at liberty the life-saving
Science of the Bible, or the universal truth of man.
Again, the seven Spiri ts, like the seven go Iden candlesticks (also in the
vision), and like the seven larnps of fire hurning before the throne, typify
an understanding of the seven timeless days (~r creation with which the
Bible begins its teaching. They constitute the sevenfold nature of the Spirit
of God which, in Genesis I :2, moves upon the elements of human
consciousness and, through seven ordered, revelatory stages, forms man
in the likeness of God.
Finally, the seven relate with the seven thousand-year periods of the
Old and New Testaments, within the chronological framework of which
the Bible tells its story. Seven successive millennia of time, as against the
true contemporaneousness of Life, form the seven imprisoning seals of the
book. It is these ti me spans, as the testimony of the mortal senses, which
the resurrected Lamb breaks open and dissolves in order to take away the
sin of the world.
Science and Health tells how Jesus in the sepulchre "set the seal of
eternity on time" (S & H 44:8). We read also how the seven days of
creation, which can never be reckoned in terms of time, ""reveal eternity,
newness of Life" (S & H 520: 12-13). The seven days and the seal of
eternity signify the same thing. Because they are cycles of spiritual
evolution and not time cycles, the days of creation are closely related with
the sacrificial Lamb. They "appear" in the measure that Hmortality
disappears" (ibid). Hence the Lamb uses this true idea, or Science, of
creation to liberate humanity from mortality, or time.
There is further world-wide rejoicing when, in Revelation 7, Han
hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of
Israel" are sealed in their foreheads with the "seal of the living God," or
with this very seal of eternity typified by the seven days." A system of
universal spiritual education is set in motion which removes ignorance
(the mark of the beast) from the forehead of mortal man. Instead, the
Father's name" is written in man's forehead, and this, in Science, is the
name of Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love, the culmination
of all that the seven days mean. Humanity. is represented as having begun
to understand the divine Science of the Scriptures from Genesis to
Revelation.
Peter, in his second epistle, affirms the relationship between the days
of creation and the Bible's thousand-year periods, when he declares that
'one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one
day" (II Pet 3:8).
According to this reckoning, 4000 B.C. to 0, or the story of the Bible
from Adam to Jesus, is the stretch of time covered by the Old Testament.
This means that precisely four of these periods span the pre-Christian
ages of the history of civilization. The fifth period is launched by the New
INTRODUCTION
Testarnent. or by the coming of Christianity: while the sixth and seventh

periods are anticipated prophetically in the book of Revelation. Today,
.,
historically, the world is passing through the closing decades of the sixth
thousand-year period. The present cataclysmic upheavals of mankind
point to the fact that the world is responding involuntarily to the
imminence of the seventh millennium, and that the seals of mortality are
in process of being loosed.
Science and Health teaches the relationship between these thousandyear periods and the Apocalyptic seals, when it says: "In the opening of
the sixth seaL typical of six thousand years since Adam., the distinctive
feature has reference to the present age" (S & H 560:2). If this is true of the
sixth seaL then the opening of the first seal is typical of one thousand
years since Adam. the opening of the second seal is typical of two
thousand years since Adam, and so on, with all seven seals.
Let us consider the complete span. The Bible's first thousand-year
period is that part of the story which ranges from Adam to Enoch, and
corresponds historically to the fourth nlillennium B.C. Underlying and
determining this period spiritually is the first day of creation. The second
period is made up of the story of Noah and the flood. This corresponds to
the third millennium B.C., the underlying determinant of which is the
second day of creation. The third thousand-year span is the story of the
Israelites from Abraham, their origin, to where they conquer and occupy
the Promised Land. This corresponds to the second mi Ilennium B.C., and
is determined spiritually by the third day of creation. The fourth thousand
years, which brings the Old Testament to a close. is Israel's golden~
prophetic age. The parallel here is with the first millennium B.C., and with
the spiritual meaning of the fourth day of creation. The fifth thousand
years begins with the ministry of Jesus and introduces the Christian era.
This is the first millennium A.D., correlative with the fifth day of creation.
The sixth thousand-year span, which is our present so-called scientific
age, and which has witnessed the founding of Christian Science, is the
second millennium A.D .. and relates to the sixth day of creation. Finally.
the seventh thousand-year period is the approaching epoch of spiritual
awakening, identified historically as the third millennium A.D. This period
relates to fulfilment of the divinely creative purpose as signified by the
seventh day of creation.
There is a statement in Science and Health which reads: ~'Christ's
Christianity is the chain of scientific being reappearing in all ages.
nlaintaining its obvious correspondence wi th the Scri ptures and uniting
all periods in the design of God" (S & H 271: 1). I n the light of the
foregoing Bi bl ical and historical analysis these words take on a
profoundly significant and un i versa I meaning.
What is Christ's Christianity w'hich, as the chain of scientific being.
descriptive of the scale of the seven days. maintains an obvious
correspondence with the unfoldment of the Scriptures~ and unites all
seven of the above named periods in the tinleless design of God? What is it
that brings the spiritual reality of past. present, and future into our present
consciousness? Christ's Christianity is the divinely revealed spiritual
identity of the human race as a whole. l~he Bible presents this truth about
mankind as unfolding from Genesis to Revelation according to the order
of the seven days of creation, and finally solving the problem of mortality
on a universal scale. This unites all seven periods, spiritually and
contemporaneously, in the ever-present hdcsign of God."
Christ without Christianity is nonexistent, just as Christianity is
nonexistent without Christ. In the symbolism used by Paul when teaching
the nature of the Son of God, Christ is to Christianity as a head is to a
body. Christ is the one governing "head" of which universal humanity is
the governed "body." "Generically man is one, and specifically man
means all men," says Science and Health (267:6). While Christ is the
generic one, Christianity is the specific all. The one is represented by the
individual Christ Jesus, the all by collective and universal man, as
understood in Christian Science.
Jesus prayed that all men may be one (John 17:21). On the day of
Pentecost, when the disciples were all with one accord in one place, and
human consciousness was flooded in consequence with the Holy Ghost,
the answer to Jesus' prayer began to be made manifest. This answer
remains to be fulfilled in Christian Science.
All-in-one and one-in-all; head and body one and indivisible; the
manhood and womanhood of God in eternal spiritual wedlock - this is the
idea of God, or "Christ's Christianity," which effects the dissolution of a
mortal sense of life, and reveals the original perfection of man. This is the
idea which, stemming from the depths of the Scriptural unfoldment,
breaks through the testimony of the physical senses - the seals imposed on
the Lamb's book of life - which otherwise keeps the message of salvation
locked away from mankind.
Three parallel factors have presented themselves. The first is the slain
Lamb, alive for evermore, who reveals the contents of his seven-sealed
book; the second is Jesus who, after his bodily resurrection, opens the.
disciples' understanding that they might understand the Scriptures; the
third is the fact that, today, from a position of inevitable spiritual
development outside the confines of organized religion, thought is using
the Key to the Scriptures in Science and Health to plumb the depths of this
same understanding of the Bible on behalf of all mankind.
CHAPTER I
The Bible and Science and Health
With a feeling of wonder and gratitude we discover that the Bible's

canonical order - the order in which inspired human beings finally
arranged the different books - is a divinely determined spiritual order
unfolding without a break from Genesis to Revelation. This canonical
order is however far from being the original chronological order in which
the books were written. It is the same with the chapters of Science and
Health. The order in which Mary Baker Eddy first wrote and published
these chapters was not the spiritually scientific order in which at last she
gave them to the world.
The method of recording divine revelation is thus the same in the case
of Science and Health, with its single author and single human language,
as in the case of the multiplicity of authors, revisionists and editors,
versions. translations and languages, through which the Bible has come
down to us. That such a diverse quantity of literature as the Bible should,
in the end. book by book, unfold one continuous spiritual idea from
Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 is surely one of the outstanding marvels of the
Bible and a matter for profound wonderment.
The question arises as to how we shall approach the task of surveying
comprehensively this huge compilation of Hebrew and early Christian
literature. At first sight the undertaking seems overwhelming. yet in spite
of the enonnous quantity of the text. and in spite of the bewildering
complexities which the text presents on the surface when we begin to
investigate it, the message itself, in its underlying spiritual essence, turns
out to be wo n de rfu 11 y s imp Ie. I f we will sta n d s u ffi c ien t IY far b a c k, as it
were, from the vast interwoven fabric of reappearing threads, motifs,
themes, and patterns to comprehend the tapestry as one evolving panoramic design, and not get lost in the profusion of detail, we shall find that
as well as being infinitely profound the idea itself is profoundly simple.
Mary Baker Eddy wrote of Jesus that in "simplicity" he was always
leading his disciples '~into the divine order" (Ret 91: 17). Jesus' fidelity to
divine order determined the simplicity and irresistibility of his teaching.
But it is well to renlember that the word sifnple has more the meaning of
pure. unmixed, without duplicity, than easy in the nlerely facile sense.
Our approach, then, must be in terms of order, structure, and general
perspective - a reduction to pure essentials - in order to comprehend in
the Scriptures the continuous timeless idea of God coming fronl, returning
to, yet ever renlaining one with, its divine Principle.
7
In preparing the grtllllld. ill (his opening chapter, for our journey
through the BibJe in suhsequent chapters. Jet us begin by tracing the \-vay
in which the t\\'O texthouKS. the Bihll' and Science and Health. nlade their
appearance in history. Let us sec firsl (If all how the Old Testament came
into being. how this led to the :'-JC\\' fCSlarncnl. and how, after the passing
of nla ny centuries. this led. in turn. (0 I he wri t i ng of Science and Health. In
this way we shall arrive natura Jly at I oday 's revelat ion of the exact Science
and system of Science and Health, and rhis. as the Key to the living Science
of the Scriptures. will furnish us the Illeans for our journey.
Tracing the story of these t\VO hooks \vithin the framework of the
thousand-year periods (touched on in the Introduction) we find that the
Old Testament cOlnes into bei ng in the first 111 i lien n i u tn B.C .. that is. in the
fourth thousand-year period~ that the New l'cstalllent comes in the first
millennium A.D., that is, in the fifth thousand-yea r peri od: and that Science
and Health comes in the second millenniunl A.D .. or the sixth thousandyear period.
The thought that eventually produces, in this way, both the Bible and
Science and Health, starts to make its Inark in hUlnan consciousness as far
back as the second millennium B.C .. that is, in the thi rd thousand-year
period. Then, the little Hebrew nation. later known as IsraeL begins to
have identity. Let us regard the first two periods. therefore (the fourth
millennium B.C .. and the third millennium B.C.). simply as preparing the
way for what takes place from the beginning of the third period to the end
of the sixth, and of the final seventh period as fulfilling the great uni versal
purpose t~at is thus set in nl0tion.
Looking out upon the world scene at the beginning of the third period.
two events of far-reaching significance come simultaneously into view.
One is as small and apparently insignificant as the other is large and
epoch-making. One is the emergence of Hebrew nomads from the
obscurity of the Arabian desert, the other is the vast I11igratory movements
of the Aryan races from the region of the Eurasian Steppe. To the
Hebrews, sonle two thousand years later. we o\ve the coming of Christ
Jes usa n d the co m p iIi ng 0 f the BihIe ~ tot he i In pac t whie h the A ryan s rna ke
on resident cultures of the world. particu larly those of Europe, we o\ve,
some four thousand years later. the cOIlling of Christian Science and the
h n 0 k S (' ie 11 (" e a" d II (' a/Ill.
The natnc Aryan docs noL strictly speaking, apply to the people
the Inse I yes. hu t to (he j r fa III i JY () f Janguages. The peo pIe. et hn ically, are
the Indo-Europeans, whose root language is Sanskrit. The mingling of this
particular group of languages with resident European tongues gives rise
eventually to Greek, the language of the New Testament to Latin. for
centuries the language of a large section of the Christian Church, and to
English, the original language of Christian Science. Let us note that the
Old Testament part of the Bible \vas \vritten original1y in Hebrew. These
four tongues. l-Iebrew. Greek. Latin. and English (nlentioned on
THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE AND HEALTH
S & H 23:2]), relating respectively to the Old Testanlen L the Nl'\v

Testament. the Christian Church, and Christian Science. correspond
symbolically to the four aspects of the holy city. the Word. ("'hrist.
Christianity, Science, referred to in the Introduction.
At the opening of the second millennium B.C., or the third thousandyear period, we thus glimpse on the world's horizon the first faint seedlike stirrings of that mighty movement of spiritual culture which is
destined to come to flower and fruition in the twofold Messiah of
mankind. ""In thee and in thy seed shall all the fanlilies of the earth be
blessed," is God's promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the three
patriarchs of the children of Israel.
A symbol has presented itself which, as we grasp more profoundly the
Bible's spiritual meaning, is destined to loom larger and larger in our
thought. This symbol is the centre and circunlference of the circle of
being. The relationship of the tiny Hebrew race, localized in Palestine, to
the world-wide migrations of the Aryans is as the centre of a circle to its
circumference. From their centre in Jerusalem, the teachings of Jesus
radiate out to the Gentile world, to be fulfil1ed at last in Christian Science.
their original scientific meaning.
Let us focus our attention first on the centre of this circle, then on the
circumference; let us turn first to the Old Testament and to Israel, as
signifying the centre, and then move outwards through the New Testament
and Science and Health to today's revelation of the universal system of
ideas embodied in Science and Health, as signifying the circumference. In
this way centre and circumference will be found to be one.
Two basic qualities stand out in God's beloved Israel. The first she
shares with many of her Middle East neighbours, the second ~s a precious
spiritual possession which belongs at first exclusively to her and makes
her unique anlong the nations of the earth.
The first is her natural gift for folklore, myths, sagas, and legends, and
her ability to record these in literary form. This she has in common with
the Babylonians and Egyptians, as well as the Canaanites. These nations.
too, have a spontaneous aptitude for folklore and myth. But what puts
Israel in a class by herself is her religion. Israel holds within her, as the
driving impulse of her great world-mission, the seeds of an ultimate pure
monotheism. On the other hand, not only her inlmediate neighbours, but
all other races in the world besides are infected with polytheism. or the
worship of many gods. For this reason Israel quite naturally styles herself
God's ~'chosen people."
The revelation, exclusive to Israel, of one infinitely inclusive God.
commissions her to rid the world of polytheism. The centre of the circle is
divinely compelled to radiate out to its own universal circumference. until
this one true God is, in the words of Science and Health! ""at once the
centre and circumference of being" (S & H 203:32).
10
At first Israel's Ya hvvc his just a not her tribal god. Yet even her most
primitive thought of lliln has clear indications of the absolute
monotheism that will eventually conquer the earth. Gradually, in the light
of mounting revelation. this concept is transformed into the God of the
New Testament - the God who is un ivcrsa I Love, the God of all mankind.
At the beginning of the third period, however, this ideal is no more than a
seed, an embryo hidden in the wO[llh of human consciousness, yet
nevertheless a leavening, transfiguring, irresistible world force.
Israel's mission is one of unparalleled responsibility. Through the
development of the seed which she holds so dear wi thi n her, her purpose
is to purify human thought of its worship of ll1any gods. To this end, she
borrows the folklore of her polytheistic neighbours as the vehicle for her
own ideals. She is the first historical version of the woman in Jesus'
parable who hides the leaven of Truth in three nleasures of meal until the
whole lump of consciousness is purified and healed. Egyptian, Canaanite,
and Babylonian myths portray a dark polytheistic sense of life upon which
Israel shines the transcendent light of one absolute God.
Old Testament
Late in the third thousand-year period, lauding her conquest of the

promised land, Israel compiles her first poetic anthologies. And not until
early in the fourth period, in the reign of her beloved David. does she start
to evolve the rudiments of the literature that becomes the Old Testament.
Shortly after 1000 B.C.. she produces her first prose writings, and this
marks the beginnings of the Bible.
Stories of Saul and David eventually become I and II Samuel.
Chronicles of the kings of Judah and Israel, including tales of Elijah and
Elisha, develop into the books of I and II Kings. At the same time the old
legendary anthologies are transcri bed frOITI poetry to prose. These
reappear as Joshua and Judges which, in the order of the narrative,
precede the books of the Kings.
In order to appreciate adequately the build-up of the Old Testament
we must take into account four separate religious documents compiled by
Israers priestly scribes. These become in the end four interwoven strata of
one continuous text, and as such constitute the literary fabric of the
greater part of the ()ld TestaIllent.
First there is the Yahweh Document, or the lehovistic Docunlent.
known to scholars hy the letter J~ secondly, the Elohistic Document.
distinguished hy the letter E~ thirdly, the Deuteronomic Document, known
as I): and fourthly, the Priestly Document, or P. I t is interesting to
cOlllparc certain characteristics of these four documents with the four
"sides" of the eventual holy city. E has a particular relationship with the
creative Word, J with the redemptive Christ, D with the refornlation of
humanity that takes place in Christian ity, and P with the order and
precision of Science. (As we begin to appreciate the universal significance
11
of these four aspects of divine operation~ our attention is constant Iy dra \\,11
to their symbolic pattern appearing in hurnan experience. In addition lp
the f 0 u r doc u rn en t s re fe r, for e x amp 1e . tot he fo uri a n g u age sci ted Oil
p. R-9.)
J is conlpiled in the southern kingdonl of Judah between 950 and X50
B.C. This very early document shows the \vay in \vhich Israel makes use of
con ternporary Egyptian and Babylonian 111yths for her o\vn spi ritual ends.
It tells for instance of the way in which Adam. supposedly the first
(Inortal) nlan. is fashioned by Yahweh out of clay. In a corresponding
Egyptian 1l1yth he is lTIoulded on a potter's \vheel. It recounts the story of
Noah and the flood - a ITIyth \vhich is borrowed fro III Babylonian sources.
It sketches the way in \vhich the different nations of the world supposedly
descend fronl Noah's three sons. It proclainls at the sanle tinle Israel's o\vn
unique position as the religious centre of the world. Spiritually
transfigured and translated, the anthropomorphic Yahweh is the lllighty
Jehovah. the eternal I AM.
The eighth century B.C. sees the rise of ,A.mos. Hosea. Isaiah. and
Micah, the first of the \vriting prophets. Under their influence, J's
incipient t110notheism reaches a purer fornl. Around 750 B.C., this time in
the northern kingdolTI of IsraeL the second document, E. is compiled.
Whereas Jehovah is Israers own ~~covenant" God. leading her to the
pronlised land. and making her victorious over her enemies. Elohinl is the
creator of the universe. Whereas the nanle Jehovah is rendered in the
si ngu lar, Elohim is a plural name. Jehovah and Elohi In are the t\VO
foremost Bible nanles for Deity. Conceived by Judah and Israel
respectively. they relate to the qualities of manhood and
womanhood - the individual (singular) Jehovah, the universal (plural)
Elohim.
""The broadest facts array the most falsities against themse'lves" (S & H
97:21 ). The appearing of E is accompanied by the worst period of idolatry
in Israel's history. She constantly goes awhoring after other gods. and is
un fa i t h fu I to the 0 net ru eGo d. Un de r Syr ian and Ph 0 en i cia n in f1 u en c e
she worships the sun-god Baal and his consort Ashtaroth rnore
pronliscuously than ever before. These two fertility deities personify the
twin principles of male - female creativity. The God of Israel has no
fetTIale consort. He is conlplete in Hilllseif. He is both individual and
universal at the same tinle. Israel is His only consort and is
simultaneously His "bride" and His "son." Israel Inust understand that. as
the irnage and likeness of God. she enlbodies the qualities of both
nlanhood and womanhood. It is as if. at this point in her history. she falls
victi m to the very ido latry which she is conlnlissioned to expunge frolll
hunlan life.
So Yahweh becomes the "'jealous" God. When at last He can hear her
infidelities no longer. He afflicts her \vith awful retribution. In order to
compe I her to fulfi I her m issi on, He Inust teac h her the lessons shL' sn
12
badly needs. In 721 B.C., the northern kingdom of Israel (the womanhood
aspect of the idea of God) is deported by the cruel Assyrians, and as a
physical entity is heard of no more. This marks the beginnings of the great
Hebraic dispersion among the nations of the world. But the catastrophe is
a blessing in disguise. It signifies the leaven of absolute monotheism
beginning to chemicalize and change human thought. Israel is known to
history as the ten lost tribes, Yet, in the "latter days," God promises He
will regather her. In the spiritual sense only, this begins to happen some
2500 years later through the advent of Christian Science, Mary Baker
Eddy says of her discovery of Christian Science that it "restores the lost
Israel" (Man 17: 18),
After the deportation of Israel, only Judah remains, In order to
counter Judah's own sins, Yahweh's faithful draw up the third of the four
religious documents, the Deuteronomic document, or D. OUf present
Deuteronomy is composed almost entirely of this document. 0 is the book
of the law, in the story of II Kings, which is discovered in the temple in the
reign of Josiah. There follows a period of intense national reform. D
demands the rededication of life to God, and transformation of the human

character. This at once suggests its relationship with the third side of the
holy city, Christianity.
During this time of penitence, the historical literature from Joshua to
II Kings undergoes extensive revision. AI!:.o, the two documents J and E
are woven into a single narrative, which is known as JE, or the twofold
document.
Despite the influence of D, the people of Judah (the manhood aspect
of the idea of God) lapse into their old idolatrous ways and, between 597
and 5H6 1lC, are taken captive by Babylon, just as Israel, previously, was
assailed by Assyria, The period of the Exile begins, The important
difference between the two deportations is that whereas Israel is never
seen again, Judah retains physical identity, After an absence of seventy
years Judah returns to Jerusalem under Persian authority to rebuild the
city that Babylon had destroyed, As we shall see, all these happenings
typify states and stages in our own spiritual life~journey.
Round about 5HO Hr, Judah, in Babylon, combines the new JE
document with D, thus making JED, or the threefold document.
The principal figure of the exile is Ezekiel, and it is likely that under
his leadership Judah's priestly writers compile the last of the four
religious documents, the Priestly document. or P. At this time, the Medes
and Persians are fast becoming the dominant power in the Middle East.
and Judah's captivity is soon to end. It is believed that P is part of the book
of the law which Ezra takes with him from Babylon to Jerusalem when he
goes to encourage the work of rebuilding the city.
Order and structure, with precise attention to mathematical detail. are
among p's outstanding qualities. This is evident from the statement of the
st'l'el1 days (~r creatioll on which the document is based, and on \vhich, in
consequence, the Bible as a whole is suhsequently founded. This quality
in P suggests at once a relationship with the fourth side of the holy city,
Science.
13
In 444 Ht .. P is combined with JED. and the result is the final fourfold
document .IEDP. Afterwards. P becomes the ruling authority in all matters
of the written Word. JEDP constitutes that major part of the Old
Testament which is not written by individual authors such as prophets,

chroniclers. and sages.
The unification of the four documents appears first of all as the
Hexateuch - that is. the first six books of the Old Testament that range
from Genesis to Joshua. But when it is realized that Joshua belongs to a
different scriptural category. the Hexateuch is superseded by the
Pentateuch-the range from Genesis to Deuteronomy, known as the five
books of Moses. In 499 He.. the Pentateuch is canonized. This means that
no further editing and no further revising is deemed to be necessary, and
thus the first edition of the Old Testament scriptures at last comes into
being.
Another 200 years pass before the histories (from Joshua to lIKings)
are canonized. Once this is done, they are added to the Pentateuch and
given the name Former Prophets.
With the exception of DanieL the sixteen writing prophets from Isaiah
to Malachi have, by 200 H.c' all recorded their messages. which are placed
within the canon. These individual prophetic writings, known as the
Latter Prophets, are indispensable to the two foregoing classes of sacred
Hebrew literature.
Out of the total of 39 books which make up the Old Testament we have
accounted for 27. These form the two basic categories of the Law and the
Prophets. The remaining 12 fall within the third main category. the
Writings.
The book of Daniel is thought to have been written round about
170 B.c.. at the time of the Maccabean revolt against Syria. Yet its scene is
set in the much earlier days of the Babylonian exile. Daniel is needed to
complete the series of prophecies begun by Isaiah, Jeremiah. and Ezekiel.
Hence. in the canon, Daniel follows Ezekiel. although at first it is part of
the Writings.
By 125 B.c.. a scribe known as the Chronicler has compiled the books
from I Chronicles to Nehemiah as one continuous story. His purpose is
first of all to trace the genealogy of David all the way back to Adam. then
to retell the history from Samuel to the exile, and conclude with the return
of Judah from Babylon.
The five poetical works from Job to the Song of Solomon. known as the
Wisdom literature. are finished by 100 B.C by which time also the little
book of Ruth has appeared. With its story set in the time of the Judges.
Ruth introduces a Gentile ancestress into the dynasty of David that is to
culminate in the kingship of Jesus. We shall realize when we take this book
in context how essential it is for completing the teachings of Joshua and
Judges. Hencc. in the canon. Ruth comes aftcr Judges.
14
The last piece of ()Id 'I"cslalllcni literature ever to be \vritten is

Esther-also about IOOBJ', Esther. we shall find, is as essential to Ezra
and Nehemiah as Ruth is to Joshua and Judges. Recounting a story of the
post-exilic era, it follows Nehcrlliah in the final order. Incidentally, Esther
is the only book in the Bible which docs not use the word ""God."
Our survey of the Old Testarllcnt would he incomplete if we did not
refer to the books of the Apocrypha. These are written between 300 and
100 B.C., for the purpose of continuing the history of Israel from the time
of Esther onwards. Otherwise, as far as the Old Testament is concerned,
the story ends around 400 B.C. Although some of these books are cited by
Peter and Jude in the New Testament, the Apocrypha itself is never
canonized. and therefore the interval of some 400 years between the two
Testaments is left apparently unbridged. Interpreted spiritually, howevec
there is no such vacuum, Malachi and Matthew are divinely and
scientifically continuous.
Not until A.D.90, at the Jewish Council of Jamnia, are the Writings
accorded their place in the canon~ by which time also most New
Testament literature has been written. And thus in the first century of the
Christian era the Hebraic Old Testament reaches the form in which we
have it today. It has taken altogether more than 1000 years to produce.
As early as 270 B.C.. work began on a Greek translation of the Old
Testament called the Septuagint. But this is not completed until the
beginning of the Christian era. Legend has it that the task was started by a
team of seventy scholars. hence the name Septuagint. The purpose of this.
first translation of the Bible was to minister to those Jews scattered abroad
in an essentially Greek world in the dispersion that began with the
ca pti vi ti es.
Here, then, in broad outline, is the way in which the Old Testament
originates, develops, and takes form. To recapitulate: The first five books,
from Genesis to Deuteronomy, form the Pentateuch, or the Law. The
Histories, from Joshua to II Kings (including Ruth) are the Former
Prophets. From 1 Chronicles to Nehemiah, the writer known as the
Chronicler reviews the story from Adam to David and on to the return
from Babylon. Esther is added to this group of books. Esther is followed
by the five Poetical books. The range from I Chronicles to the Song of
Solomon forms the Wri tings. Finally, the sixteen Latter Prophets bring the
Old Testament to a close. These four categories of Law. Former Prophets,
Writings, Latter Prophets, are all embodied in the law of Moses, the
prophets, and the psalms, to which Jesus refers in Luke 24:44 (see
Introduction p.l).
The purpose of these four classifications of sacred Hebrew literature
(suggesting once more the operation of the Word, Christ, Christianity,
Science) is to prepare the way for Israel to accept a flew covenant - to find
her original unfallen unity with God as proclaimed in the New Testament.
THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE A~JD HEALTH
New Testament
15
None of Jesus' utterances are, it seems. comlnitted to writing during his

lifetinle except those contained in the ~'Sayings of Jesus," or HLogia nf
Matthew." Apart from this note-taking by Matthe\v the disciple, Jesus'
teachings are not directly recorded. Jesus is said to have passed rrnJn
mortal view around A.D.30, but the first Gospel (that of Mark) is nut
written until some forty years later. in approximately A.D.70. Evidently
this does not nlatter spiritually, for as Jesus himself says: "Heaven and
earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away" (Luke 21 :33).
Because they were God's words and not man's words, Jesus could safely
leave them to the providence of God.
Mark's Gospel is not however the first piece of New Testament
literature to be published. In the early fifties Paul begins sending out his
letters to the first Christian churches, and it is possible that even before
this James writes his one and only epistle "to the twelve tribes which are
scattered abroad." Paul's first dispatch is I Thessalonians. in which the
theme, naturally enough, is Jesus' pronlised second conling, which the
early Christians are so eagerly awaiting. All twenty-one epistles - the
fourteen attributed to Paul and the seven of James. Peter, John and
Jude- are written, it seems, between A.D.50 and 90.
By A.D.90, the three synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, as
well as the books of Acts and Revelation, have all been compiled .
. Probably John's Gospel does not appear until A.D.l OO~ and it is possible
that the epistle known as II Peter is written by an unknown author as late
as A.. 0.150. Almost certainly II Peter is the last piece of New Testament
I iterature to be composed.
On the subject of the Gospels, Mark, as we have said, is Jesus' first
biographer. He writes his account of Jesus' life for the contemporary
Roman world. Yet, in the final New Testament order, Matthew comes
before Mark. Mark had always worked in close association with Peter.
whom Jesus identified with Christ the Rock. Spiritually unQerstood, the
order of the four Gospels is a further example of the way in \vhich, under
divine direction, human happenings pattern the operation of the Word,
Christ, Christianity, Science. Matthew writes predominantly from the
standpoint of the Word, Mark fro m the standpoint of the ell rist! Luke
from the standpoint of Christianity, and John from the standpoint of
Science. All four views of Jesus' lifework are essential for a whole
presentation of the way in which the Christ-idea solves the. problem of
tnortality by translating spiritually the corporeal sense of life.
Matthew's Gospel, published somewhere bet\veen A.D.80 and 90, is
based largely on Mark's. The work is attributed to Matthew the disciple
because it incorporates so many of the Sayings o.f Jesus which this disciple
is said to have noted down. It is believed, however, that a different
Matthew altogether is the author. Matthew writes primarily for the Jews.
His purpose is to convince the Jewish people that Jesus Christ is the very
Messiah whose coming was foretold by their own prophets. This is \vhy
Matthew records so many of Jesus' references to Old TestalllC'lll
prophecies.
16
By A.D.90, Luke has finished his Gospel. This, too, is based largely on
Mark's. While Matthew links contemporary thought back to the Je\vish
past, and Mark "'Tites for the Roman present. in the forefront of Luke's
thought is nothing less than the future Christianization of mankind.
Luke is a physician, and he not only \vri tes a gaspe l, bu t is the au thor
also of the Acts of the Apostles - a work which he completes as early
as A.D.6S.
A.D.90, so scholars conclude, is also the date of Revelation. Whether or
not the Apostle John actually writes this far-seeing vision of the future is
less important than the fact that, spiritually, John foreshadows the
discovering and founding of Christian Science, which is primari Iy what
Revelation is about. "If I will that he tarry till I come [that John prepares
the world for the second Messianic advent J, what is that to thee," is one of
Jesus' last remarks to Peter.
For the sanle reason it is necessary to attribute the authorship of the
fourth Gospel, published about the year 100, also to John. This Gospel is
the consummate metaphysical interpretation of Jesus' lifework, and is
self-evidently different in character frOITI the other three. (One is
reminded of the way in which the Priestly Document of the Old Testament
differs from the other three documents.) Whereas Matthew. Mark. and
Luke are known as the synoptic gospels because they have so much
material in common. John is unique. John's Gospel includes a great many
sayings and events not otherwise recorded, and is more spiritually and
scientifically profound than the others. Clearly. John corresponds to the
fourth side of the holy city, Science itself.
By A.D.lI 0, the four Gospels have been assembled and arranged in
their final spiritual order. Those inspired Christians, the early Church
Fathers, the successors to the Apostles, are responsible for having
preserved as authentic gospel literature none but these four books. As the
apocryphal New Testament shows. many other accounts of Jesus' ministry
are offered for acceptance, but these four alone are deemed to be divinely
authorized, and therefore worthy of inclusion in the canon.
The purpose of II Peter (the last piece of New Testanlcnt literature to
be written) is, like that of Jude, to denounce the activities of a group of
heretics. This sect preaches that because the nlaterial world is separate
fronl the world of Spirit, Christians may indulge the flesh without scruple
and sti 11 lay claim to spiri tuali ty. Once this particular form of dualistic
thinking is exposed and denounced, the sacred literature basically needed
for the world-wide dissemination of Jesus' teachings is complete. The Ne\v
Testament, too, has now come into being.
Yet not for another 200 years or more. in the fourth century, after the
Ernperor Constantine has proclainled Christianity the only legal religion
throughout the Ronlan world, is the New Testament canonized. This takes
place under the auspices of Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, and it is he
who accords the books their final order.
11
Also at this time the Church weds the Old and New Testallletlt~
together as one coherent literature. And thus, apart from the Illa. IlY
editions, versions, and translations that are made during the ensuing
centuries, the Bible, as we know it today, has at last come to birth. The task
has taken altogether over thirteen centuries.
The English Bible
The first translation of importance to follow the all-Greek Septuagint is

the translation into Latin by Jerome, known as the Vulgate. Jerome begins
his work around A.0.375, and when he has finished it, the Vulgate is made
the Bible of Western Christendom for the next thousand years. The
Septuagint which Jerome uses for his purpose is, and continues to be, the
Bible of Eastern Christendom. The Septuagint includes the Old Testament
Apocrypha.
In A.D.597, the Vulgate, in the hands of Augustine, reaches the
shores of the British Isles, where it sends down its deepest roots. For the
purpose of our present brief survey of the way the Bible came into being
we will concern ourselves, from this point onwards, only with the English
Bible. The following is from The Englishman by Macneile Dixon. He
wri tes:
"That the Bible entered into, and took possession of, the English imagination no one
needs to be told ... Overlook the influence of the Bible upon Englishmen. and you
write of theln without understanding . . . By comparison the other European
countries knew it but little, knew it only through intermediaries. The English people
instinctively. and with one accord took it to their hearts ... a precious and personal
possession, the book of books. their all in all ... Twelve hundred years ago the Bible
began to whisper in English ears, to mould the nation's thought. and direct its early
steps. It becan1e the life-blood of generation after generation, which had little or no
other Inental food ... Long before Wycliffe, who translated the whole of the New,
and his friend. Nicholas de Hereford, who translated the Old Testarnent about) 380,
it had become the chief influence upon the intellectual, moral and religious life of
England ... alrnost exactly a hundred years after the completion of Wycliffe's
version, the first printing press was set up in England, and soon afterwards it
IWycl iffe's Bible 1 was superseded by the first printed translation - a new
one - TyndaJe's and Coverdale's in 1535 ...
All previous translations were finally superseded by the Authorized Version in
161 J, the great national classic. No other book in the world has such a history, for it
may be said to begin centuries before its actual birth ... From Bede onwards the
Engl ish translators approached their undertaking with deep hu mility, with a
profound sense of spiritual and moral responsibility ... Deeply moved themselves
they wrote movingly. They conceived their labours as no mere scholar's task or
literary exercise. they conceived it as the interpretation of a message veritably divi ne.
to be undertaken only after prayer. and in devotional earnestness of spirit ... The
translators lof the Authorized Version 1 were believers as well as artists ... men of
taste and scholarship, and of burning faith ... Gathered from the four corners of the
country they laboured as one man with consuming enthusiasnl . . . No such
comnlittee work was ever elsewhere performed ... We are in a measure accustomed
to the feats of individual genius, but a conlposite labour ... a combination of talents
making, as it were. a single genius working together in harmony ... that is a thing In
astonish - and to admire . . . "
18
FROM GENESIS TO REVELAT'ON
In 1620, Puritan Separatists (Calvinists who have fled from England to

Holland to escape the religious repressions of James I) sail in the
Mayflower for the eastern shores of North America in search of political
and religious freedom. These Puritans are part of the band of immigrants
known as the Pilgrim Fathers, and they take with them, as their most
treasured possession, the Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible.
The party lands in Plymouth Bay and founds the Colony of Plymouth.
Other English Colonies follow in quick succession. In ] 691 Plymouth is
merged into the Massachusetts Bay Colony. with Boston as its hub. This
part of New England territory is given the name of Bible Commonwealth.
In due course the Puritan Church is renamed Congregational Church,
because its democratic form of government is administered by the
congregation.
In the War of Independence, from 1775 to ] 783, England's American
Colonies throw off their subserviance to the mother country, and the
nation known as The United States of America is brought into being.
In ] 821, in the New England State of New Hampshire, of America's
original Puritan stock, is born Mary Baker (later Mary Baker Eddy), who
is to become the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, the
universal Science of Jesus' teaching, and the scientific meaning of the Old
and New Testaments. She is destined to be the author of the Christian
Science textbook, Science and Health lvith Key to the Scriptures, and
leader of the world-wide Church of Christ, Scientist. Before she founds
a
.
church of her own, Mary Baker belongs to the democratically-run
Congregational Church. Later she writes in Science and Health, under the
heading Proper self-government": '''Like our nation, Christian Science
has its Declaration of Independence. God has endowed man with
inalienable rights, among which are self-government. reason, and
conscience" (S & H 106:6).
"Science and Health"
Mrs. Eddy's founding mission, fro m ] 866 to 1910, begins to fulfill Israel's
original purpose in the Old Testameflt to permeate humanity with the
revelation of Truth, and thus effect the translation of the race from
polytheism to monotheism, from mortality to immortality. Like Israel
before her, Mrs Eddy represents the woman in Jesus' parable who hides
her leaven in three measures of meal until the whole lump is leavened.
Israel's purpose can be achieved only through universal
demonstration of the Science of Life practised individually by Jesus. To
this end, Mrs Eddy launches a world-wide movement of spiritual
education. She has always been a student of the Bible, and her discovery
of the Science of original Christianity is confirmed by the ideas which the
Bible brings to light when its teachings are spiritually understood. The
Bible, she says, is her only authority, she has '''no other guide in 'the
straight and narrow way' of Truth" (S & H 126:29). This universal Science,
19
which she reveals as the Bible~s underlying tneaning~ becolllcs tht: hasis
and substance of the textbook Science and Health. And thus, in turn,
Science and Health becomes the Key to the Science of the Bible. Hcnce the
book's full title: Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.
Whereas the Bible stresses the idea of the manhood of God (because it
is focused in the individuality of Jesus), Science and Health lays emphasis
on the womanhood of God (the spiritual reality of mankind). The two
books~ therefore, are complementary. In their divinely scientific wedlock.
Mrs Eddy ordains them the single impersonal Pastor of the Church of
Christ, Scientist (Mis 322: 10).
The book is forty years in the making. The first edition comes out in
1875. Mrs Eddy's final edition is published in 191 O~ the year of her
passing. The last textual change is made in 1909. In 1910 two chapter titles
only undergo alteration. Then the book is finished.
Tracing its history~ and examining the changes in its textual
development from the first to the final rendering. we find that it evolves
through seven main spiritual phases. And once the characteristics of these
are understood, their relationship with the order and meaning of the seven
days qf creation becomes evident. I n view of the fact that the book~s
purpose is to bring to light, understandably and demonstrably, man in
God's image, as depicted in the sixth day of creation, this correlation with
the unfoldment of the seven days is inevitable. Writing of the days of
creation, the author asks: "Was not this a revelation instead of a
creation'?'" (S & H 504:14). All divine revelati()n~ from its initial appearing
to its fulfilment, follows this pattern of the Hseven days." At the point of
the book's seventh and final evolution. and in the spirit of the seventh day~
it can be said of Christian Science (as far as its textbook statement is
concerned): "Thus the revelation is finished.'
Like the light of the first day of creation, the first edition of 1875 is the
outpouring inspiration of initial revelation. This is the first step in the
textbook's evolution~ and it lasts until 187H. The second edition which
then appears is a revision of the original text. This is called the Noah's Ark
edition. It corresponds with the second day of creation, the day of the
.firmafnent, and marks the textbook's second evol utionary phase. At this
point a church organization is instituted, as protection against a tlood of
opposi tion.
A further revision comes with the sixth edition of 18R3. This marks the
textbook's third evolution. This sixth edition contains, for the first tinle. a
Glossary of Bible names and terms called "Key to the Scriptures." It
corresponds to the third day of creation. the day of the dry land, the day
when the earth brings forth from within itself. This is the period when
Christian Science begins to be propagated far and wide.
With the sixteenth edition of 1886 comes another major textual
overhaul. This introduces the book's fourth evolution. The chapters
'''Genesis'' and "The Apocalypse'" are included for the first tilllC. "'rhl'
20
Apocalypse" is a treatise on Revelation 12 - the spiritual interpretation of

the woman clothed with the sun, who has the n100n under her feet, who is
crowned with twelve stars, and who brings forth a man child. This
evolutionary stage corresponds with the fourth day of creation, the day of
the stellar universe.
The most famous revision of all is the fiftieth edition, pub1ished in
189). By 1889 Mrs Eddy had disso lved her first church organization, and
the edition of 1891 is the revision that launches her second organization
of 1893, called The Mother Church. It corresponds to the fifth day of
creation. the day of the open firmament, the day of abundant life. and is
the textbook's fifth evolutionary step. One of its outstanding features is a
treatise on the city foursquare. which is included in the chapter "'The
Apocalypse." This mother city (called by Paul the "mother of us all" - Gal
4:26) teaches the divine reality that lies behind the symbol of the new
Mother Church.
In the two hundred and twenty-sixth edition of 1902, which marks the
textbook's sixth evolution, and corresponds to the sixth day of creation
(the day of fnan in his health and wholeness), the different chapters from
"Prayer"~ to "The Apocalypse" are arranged for the first time in the order
in which we have them today. In the days of creation, this is when God
sees everything that He has made, and behold it is very good.
The years from 1907 to 1910 mark the textbook's seventh and final
evolutionary stage. Here the correspondence is with the seventh day of
creation, when the heavens and earth are finished. Editions are no longer
numbered~ neither is the book copyrighted any more despite the fact that
the author continues to make changes and additions over the next three
years.
The feature that signifies fulfilment of the revelatory purpose is that, in
1907, the answer to the question "What is God?" in the chapter
""Recapitulation," is given its final rendering. This answer: ""God is
incorporeaL divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, SouL Principle, Life,
Truth, Love," becomes not only the key to the scientific understanding of
Science and Health, but also the key to the Science of the Bible. God
revealed Himself to Moses as I AM THAT I AM. This same I AM in
Science is MIND, SPIRIT, SOUL, PRINCIPLE, LIFE, TRUTH, LOVE.
Ideally, from this point onwards, the book is the property of mankind~ its
universal Science can be intelligently studied and understood; it belongs
in what is called the public domain. and protection by copyright is no
longer necessary.
As far back as 1901 Mary Baker Eddy had informed the public through
its Press that when she was no longer present to adn1inister the affairs of
the Christian Science Church, generic man - '''man the generic term for
mankind" - would be her successor in leadership (My 347:5). In 1907,
when the answer to the question, What is God? is finalized~ she declares in
the textbook for the first time that the birth-giving mother in Revelation
21
12 "symbolizes generic nlan" (S & H 561 :22). Ideally, mankind is not ollly
its own "leader" but its own ~'mother" as well. In 1908, in consequCl.1ct:,
the hitherto imperial crown in the Christian Science enlblem of the ('ross
and ~rown is changed to the crown of twelve stars which is on the head of
the woman (generic man). Truly, her successor has been crowned.
The last textual change comes in 1909. This is in the chapter
Creation." It had been stated up to this time that the error of mortal birth
and death is '~seen only when we look from wrong points of observation."
In 1909, because of all that has taken place since 1907, this "error" is
declared to be "unreal and obsolete" (S & H 265: 18). The answer to the
question, What is God? has made it scientifically possible to look out upon
the universe, as Jesus did, fronl the standpoint of God, rather than look up
to God, which is a wrong point of observation.
As author of Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy fulfils her mission
as discoverer and revelator~ as planner of a world-wide church
organization shefulfils it as founder and demonstrator. The footsteps of
the latter are consistently based upon, and determined by, the footsteps of
the former.
Through her provisions in the Church Manual, Mrs. Eddy, by the time
her mission ends, has made it impossible for the Mother Church
organization to continue to function legitimately without her personal
presence. Thirty-nine clauses in this book of rules and by-laws, which she
resolutely declines to alter, forbid the election of vital church officers
without her personal approval or written consent. On the other hand,
individual, self-governing branch churches (typical of the self-government
and self-leadership of generic man) are free to continue to serve humanity
as the visible Christian Science Church.
Through her founding mission, Mary Baker Eddy presents the world
with a working model of how the understanding of God as Mind, Spirit,
Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love, elucidated in the Christian Science
textbook, progressively solves the problem of being by progressively
dissolving the organic sense of life. Church is the symbol of body. Jesus
pertornls this dissolution with regard to individual mortal body~ Christian
Science continues the same redemptive, healing work in relation to the
body of mankind.
Pure Science and System
The order whereby the idea of God (the spiritual reality of mankind)
reveals itself to human consciousness cannot be thwarted, and the
dangerous tendency towards ecclesiastical control that creeps into the
Christian Science movement in the years following Mrs Eddy's passing,
gradually becomes apparent to many devout Christian Scientists. Suffice
it. for the purpose of this survey, to name but two.
22
By 1924. following the famous Christian Science Litigation in Boston,

when the Supreme Court of Massachusetts makes it possible for the
Christian Science Board of Directors to assume absolute control of the
Christian Science organization. Alice L. Orgain of New York city has
begun to publish her meticulous researches into the spiritual significance
of Mrs Eddy's founding mission. Alice Orgain's inspired investigations
range from 1866, the time of the initial discovery, to 1910, the time of Mrs
Eddy's decease. It can be said that her researches take us as far as the final
edition of Science and Health, but not into this edition. Her tireless '"notetaking," as she calls her work, charts the journey to the goal, but not the
goal itself. She shows, as it were, the essential footsteps to the promised
land, but not the reality of the land itself.
Investigation of the textbook's final statement begins to be carried out,
spiritually and scientifically, by the English practitioner and teacher, John
W. Doorly. Assisted by a group of students, John Doorly, in the early
1940s, crystallizes his penetrations into the textbook, and reveals beyond
doubt that Christian Science, far from being another circumscribed
religious organization, is indeed the nonsectarian Science of man even as
its discoverer claimed. As such, it can no more be controlled by a human
hierarchy than can the natural sciences or the arts.
John Doorly turns the thoughts of his students more and more to the
absolute divine Principle underlying the two textbooks, the Bible and
Science and Health, and less and less to himself, or to anyone else,
personally. On charges of disloyalty to The Mother Church, and of
incorrect teaching of Christian Science, he is excommunicated from the
Boston church in 1946.
Based upon the definition of God as Mind, Spirit, SouL Principle, Life,
Truth, Love, the essence of John Doorly's work lies in his elucidation of
three divinely scientific concepts referred to on pages 520 and 250 of the
textbook. These are nutnerals of infinity, divine infinite calculus, and
matrix oj' immortality. These three factors constitute the threefold
essential nature of the healing system of Christian Science in the same way
that Life, Truth, and Love consti tute the thf'eefo Id essential nature of
Principle, and Word, Christ, and Christianity the threefold essential
nature of Science. As may be seen from the context in which these terms
appear all three are associated with the surrender of mortal egotism, or the
Christly dissolution of the dream of organic life.
Thus we read: HLet us accept Science ... Organization and time have
nothing to do with Life ... Mortals are the Adam drealners ... there is but
one Ego. We run into error when we ... suppose ... mortality to be the
matrix of immortality" (S & H 249: 1-250:5). Only like produces like. Not
mortality, not organization and time, but immortality alone is the matrix
of immortality. Correspondingly, we learn how the ""numerals of infinity
called seven days," which ""can never be reckoned according to the
calendar of time," appear to human consciousness as mortality
23
disappears. In the "newness of Life'" thus revealed, "all sense of errn r

forever disappears and thought accepts the divine infinite calculus"
(S & H 520: 10) - the scientific reality of man.
The system of the numerals, calculus, and matrix of infinity is the key
to the universal Science of being which John Doorly finds hidden within
the textbook's pages. Upon his release from religious organization he uses
this key to unlock the Science of the Bible. His own understanding, as well
as that of his students, is opened, and they begin to understand the Science
of the Scri ptures.
Numerals
A numeral is a symbol of number, and the symbol of infinity is a circle.

or sphere. Pondering the nature of the universe, the Greek philosopher.
Pythagoras, in the fourth thousand-year period of our story, spoke of
heaven as the harmony of number, and of creation as the music of the
spheres. In divine metaphysics, there is only one real number, namely, the
infinite One. This One is Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love.
The numerals of infinity, found in the fundamental order of the days of
creation, are the pure generative Htones," the rounded understanding, of

the one absolute God as Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle~ Life, Truth, Love.
These are the elements of infinite Principle, and the primal constituents of
the universe. For convenience, students refer to this fundamental range of
synonymous terms for God as the seven.
Calculus
There is a second symbol, equally essential, which teaches how

Principle operates in practice. This is the symbol of infinite calculus. It
refers to the universe's rhythmic structure, its cyclic movements, its
infinitely harmonious interrelatedness and flow. As the complement of the
seven days of creation which open the Bible, this second symbol is the
heavenly metropolis, the city foursquare, with which the Bible closes.
Science and Health defines this universal ~'city" through a second set of
capitalized terms: Word, Christ, Christianity, Science (S & H 575: 18). As
diversification leads to integration, and analysis to synthesis, so, logically.
an understanding of the numerals of infinity leads to an understanding of
the calculus of infinity. This second range of terms is referred to for
convenience as the four.
Matrix
But what Being is constitutionally and the way Being operates integrally are one and indivisible. God is all-inclusive, all-embodying. To teach
this idea of infinite self-containment a third symbol is required
-matrix o.f immortality. As developed and presented by John W. Doorly.
the Christian Science "matrix" is a graphic representation, a spiritually
mathematical model, of the city, or society, of generic man. Each of
the city's four equal sides reflects in itself the elements and functions
of every other side. Metaphysically as well as mathematically, this con~
stitutes it a square matrix, furnishing simultaneously every possihle
multiple (or reflection) of the four basic elements. (In J11athcI1l&l
tics today, matrices are an essential part of circuit or network theory.)
24
A symbol has appeared of the infinite diversity of identity in unity that

is the living universe. In the measure that we make this idea our own, our
collective and universal harmony as man is assured. ~The land lies before
you: go in and accept the land which the Lord your God gives you,' is
Moses' plea to the children of Israel. Accept the matrix calculus of your
own everlasting identity, is Science's plea to mankind today.
As reproduced on p.382 of the Appendix, this sixteenfold symbol
comprises the Word in its four aspects, the Christ in its four aspects,
Christianity in its four aspects, and Science in its four aspects, all
expressed through absolute values of the synonynl0us terms for God - all
gathered into an immaculate conception of the oneness and wholeness of
Being.
The foundations on which this symbol is built are (as shown on p.380)
the different orders in which the synonymous terms for God occur in
Science and Health. There are three of these orders. There is the order on
page 465, the one on page 115, and the one on page 587. The order on
page 465, which tells us what God, divine Principle, is, is the primal order
of the revelatory Word. On page 115, the order of communion between
God and men is the order of the translating, mediatorial Christ. The order
on page 587 is the one found in the Glossary. The Glossary gives the
spiritual and scientific meaning of Bible words and terms. This is the
Christianity order. Christianity restores human concepts to their original
spiritual meaning, even as the Glossary does in the case of Scriptural
terms. The Christianity order translates the material sense of life back into
the language of Spiri t.
But is there not a fourth order that corresponds to Science? Indeed
there is. The last is first and the first last. When the first order (the Word
order) is conceived of as starting from Principle in the middle, and
extending through Soul and Life, Spirit and Truth, to the furthermost
reaches of Mind and Love, a last order is presented which is the Science
order. This is the order of structure and integration which embodies the
workings of the other three orders.
System
Our thought is revolving in the orbits of Science, the Science of our

own true being. To teach this fact, the textbook (as John Doorly showed)
presents us with four outstanding uses of the term ~Science." There is
Science itself, its use as divine Science, as absolute Christian Science, and
as Christian Science. These are "synonymous terms ... for everything
relating to God, the infinite, supreme, eternal Mind." The term "Christian
Science, " we are told, "relates especially to Science as applied to
hUOlanity" (S & H 127: 12).
Science is Truth, and Truth is the self-knowledge of God - it is what
the infinite as Mind knows itself to be. Divine Science is Science in its
oneness and wholeness, where God and man are one. Christian Science is
the reduction of this oneness to order and system. This is for the purpose
25
of human understanding, and the healing and saving of the human ract'
Christian Science therefore signifies that which is both absolute and
applied. Accordingly, the textbook uses the term "absolute Christian
Science." When this absoluteness absolves us humanly from sin, disease
and death the appropriate term' is "Christian Science.'~ In Christian
Science, the unconditional, all-inclusive absolute proves that there is
nothing outside of itself.
In relation to the four sides of the holy city, Science pertains to the
Subject itself - to God, the Principle, the eternal I AM, and therefore tu
the Word. Divine Science relates to Christ, the complete manifestation of
God, the oneness of the divine self-knowledge. Because absolute Christian
Science pertains to the diversity of identity which Christ embodies, it
accents the relationships of pure Christianity. But it is in Christian Science
that we arrive at proof, and proof is the essence of Science. In Christian
Science, Principle proves its Science to be absolute and divine by
demonstrating the nothingness of duality. (See Appendix p. 381 for a chart
drawn up by John Doorly of these several standpoints of HScience,'~ and
their relation to certain combinations of the synonymous terms for God.)
Key to the Scriptures
Mary Baker Eddy says of the Scriptures in their Science that they reveal
"the spiritual origin of man" (S & H 534:7). As touched on in the
Introduction, Jesus Gould open the Scriptures for the disciples - the Lanlb
could unloose the seven-sealed book of life - because, at the resurrection,
he had demonstrated incontrovertibly the spiritual origin of man.
"I came forth from God, I go back to God, I remain forever the image,
the likeness, the reflection, of God,' says the infinite Christ-idea. Not only
is the matrix the symbol of man's spiritual origin, it is necessarily the
symbol of his ultimate as well. In our journey from Genesis (origin) to
Revelation (ultimate), this symbol of the womb of the Father-Mother God,
this idea of the spiritual origin of man, this divine opposite of the
teachings of the serpent in the fable of Adam and Eve, will be our guiding
star.
The Bible, spiritually understood, is the story of the human race
solving, by means of a divinely revealed system of ideas, the problenl of
being in the way that Jesus solved it. Step by step, the matrix (~r
immortality, the Huniversal solvent of Love" (S & H 242: 17), dissolves the
adamant error of ego-centric self-love, and the result is the solving of the
life-problem.
John Doorly* has rendered students the inestimable service of showing
them how, spiritually and scientifically, to be faithful and true to Mary
Baker Eddy's revelation of Christian Science at the point at which Shl'
completed the textbook and fulfilled her mission in 1910. He has made i I
possible for them to understand the meaning behind her words that "J11an
26
the generic term for mankind" is her successor in leadership. Man is selfgoverned and self-led when he is governed and led by the Word of God,
and so gives birth from within himself to the Science of his own true being.
*For a fuller account of John Doorly's work see "John W. D(x)rly and the scientz{ic evolution of
Christian Science" by Peggy M. Brook, published by The Foundational Book Co Ltd, London,
England.
CHAPTER II
Chart of Life
Just as Jesus' lifework is focused in the resurrection that leads to the
ascension, so the message of the Bible is focused in the lifework of Jesus.
But the resurrection is more than a single supreme event in that
stupendous life. From the moment the Holy Ghost descends at his
baptism, Jesus' individual experience is one of continuous, irresistible
resurrection above organic life. Likewise the story of the Bible is one of
constantly advancing human resurrection above mortal confines, until, as
depicted at the close of Revelation, universal resurrection is won.
Resurrection and ascension are inseparable. But whereas resurrection
inlplies human experience rising above mortality, ascension implies far
more. Ascension to God demands, first of all, descension from God - that
is, from where there is no mortality to be risen above. This prior
descension, signified in the case of Jesus by the descent of the baptismal
dove, alone makes resurrection possible. ~'No man hath ascended up to
heaven," Jesus says, "but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of
man which is in heaven" (John 3:13).
Paul writes in Hebrews: "Enoch was translated that he should not see
death ... God ... translated him" (Heb 11 :5). To human sense Jesus was
translated. Likewise in Christian Science total spiritual translation will
eventually be the experience of us all.
In the whole of our metaphysical vocabulary, therefore, no single
concept is of greater significance than translation. Translation explains
how, spiritually and scientifically, resurrection and ascension are
achieved. From beginning to end the solution of the life-problem is none
other than an ordered process of spiritual translation going on day by
day- translation from mortality to immortality, or from the apparent
language of matter into the language of Spirit. The word ~'mortal" is from
the root mors, meaning ~~death." In its cyclic, God-impelled workings,
translation is the spiritual counterfact of which the birth-death cycle is the
material counterfeit.
Translation twofold
It is imperative therefore to understand the Science of translation. Science

and Health makes this possible by outlining (on pages 115-116) the two
complementary phases of its operation. These might be described as a
descension phase followed by a resurrection and ascension phase. The first
27
28
is called "Scientific Translation of Immortal Mind," the second,

"Scientific Translation of Mortal Mind." This dual statement of
translation epitomizes the workings of Christian Science on both the
individual and world scales. It pinpoints the solution to the universal lifeproblem, worked out initially by the individual Jesus, and then by the rest
of mankind.
As the text shows, the invariable order is, first, the translation of
immortal Mind, or the revelation of divinity to the understanding of
humanity; and, secondly, the translation of mortal mind., where humanity,
translated out -of mortality, realizes its true divinity.
Yet, immediately this order of priority is grasped, the two must be seen
to be simultaneous, as the single operation of Principle. Note that there is
no mention in the text of the destruction of mortal mind. This is because,
in divine metaphysics, there is no destruction - no death as such - only
spiritual translation. If God is All-in-all there is nothing to destroy.
Let us ponder this twofold statement carefully. Jesu~ said, in effect, of
his Christ identity: 'I come from divinity, I return to divinity, and in doing
so I solve the problem of humanity.' That which descends direct from
Principle (first translation) is the understanding of what we, man, really
are. This (in the second translation) ascends to the Principle which sent it
forth, and, in consequence, delivers us from mortality.
,
From the "divine synon:,-ms" (God) derives "man," the "divine image,"
the "divine reflection." To God's reflection, the "'immediate object of
understanding" is not mortal mind, matter, mortal body, etc., but "idea,"
'~image" in the Mind which is God. The impact of reflection on the
contrary testimony of the material senses changes, reverses, and translates
this testimony.
The three degrees of the second translation are thus set in motion.
Note how the third degree is defined as "understanding," and also how the
first translation comes to us as "understanding." Christian Science healing
(the result of understanding spiritually the object before the mortal senses)
is thus "immediate." Because there is no time lag in divine reflection,
translation is instantaneous. Jesus likened man's real seltbood (that which
comes to humanity through the first translation) to light because light
eliminates darkness immediately.
"The last shall be first, and the first last," says the explanatory text (S &
H 116:8). The first and the last, the beginning and the end, of this divinely
described spiritual circle is understanding, and is represented by the seven
terms: wisdom, purity, spiritual understanding, spiritual power, love,
health, holiness, that make up the third degree. Today we know that these
seven qualities, in this same order, characterize not only the seven days of
creation with which the Bible begins its message, but also the seven
synonymous terms for God which are the basis of Christian Science.
God-bestowed understanding, signified by the third degree, makes its
impact on physical depravity (the evil beliefs of the first degree) and
CHART OF LIFE
?q
brings into expression a transitional (moral) stage in our experience,

which is symbolized by the second degree. This second degree thu~
focuses the whole of the translation process; for here evil beliefs arc
disappearing, due to spiritual ideas appearing.
Whereas humanity seemed to be made up of passions and appetites~
etc. (the qualities of animality), as a result of the influx of understanding it
is made up of humanity, honesty, affection, etc. (the qualities of morality).
When, at last, mortality iswhoHy replaced by immortality, the transit is
accomplished, and the human consists of spirituality only, the third
degree. This is the consciousness of Jesus at the resurrection and
ascension, when, as Science and Health says, he "gained the solution of
being," and "found the eternal Ego" (S & H 314:5).
To mortal sense, humanity works its way from physicality (first degree)
to morality (second degree) to spirituality (third degree). But to immortal
sense, and as exemplified by Jesus, humanity's real selthood comes down
from God out of heaven in accordance with the first translation. This
selfhood is man in God's image, the man pf the third degree, who causes
the first degree concept to disappear in a moral chemicalization signified
by the second degree.
We learn in Christian Science that "our highest sense of infinite good
in this mortal sphere is but the sign and symbol, not the substance of
good" (Un 61:17). Bo.dy made up of second degree qualities is but a
transitory symbol of body made up of third degree qualities. This is body
in process of translation, rather than in process of death. The body which
is subject to death is a body of first degree qualities. As the body of
spiritual ideas unfolds to human consciousness, an apparent animal body
yields to a transitional moral body; translation is in progress, humanity is
being healed both mind and body, and the problem of mortality is being
solved.
In the Glossary of Science and Health, the definition of Hwilderness"
reads in part: "the vestibule in which a material sense of things disappears,
and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence," The Biblical
wilderness is typical of the second degree. In the Old Testament, Israel
journeys through the wilderness. From the land of Egypt (first degree) she
makes this wilderness transit (second degree) in order to inherit the
promised land (third degree). But this is possible only because God
(through the first translation) has already revealed to Moses Israers trul~
spiritual seltbood. Moses reduces the law of God to her understanding,
which she practises in the form of the moral law. This sets in motion, step
by step, her translation from mortality to immortality.
Genesis 1:1 & 2
So fundamental to divine metaphysics is this ideal of spiritual translar;on

that it is virtually the note on which the Bible opens. That is to say, t hl"
Bible's first two verses correspond, in essence, to the two conlplctllCIHary
30
statements of translation as we have been considering them.

Correlative with the first translation, Genesis I: I reads: "In the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Correlative with the
three degrees of the second translation, Genesis 1:2 makes the following
threefold statement: "And the earth was without form, and void; and
darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the waters."
Earth without form and void suggests the spiritual vacuity of the first
degree; darkness upon the face of the deep suggests an ignorance of
spiritual reality, which, in the second degree, is in process of disappearing;
the Spirit of God which moves upon the face of the waters and causes this
ignorance to disappear, is the understanding of reality itself as found in
the third degree. This third degree, or Spirit of God, constituted of its
seven terms, corresponds to the seven days of creation which immediately
follow the two opening verses.
Heaven and earth are complementary views of creation revealed to
human consciousness by the first translation. They are the basic
constituents of man as the complete idea of God. Hence "idea" is "an
image in Mind" and, at the same time, "the immediate object of
understanding." Heaven is this idea as an image in Mind; earth is this
same idea as the immediate object of understanding. Heaven emphasizes
the divinely subjective, earth the divinely o~iective. Hence what the first
translation brings to humanity is the identity of creation, or man. Mary
Baker Eddy writes that "creation consists of the unfolding of spiritual
ideas and their identities" (S & H 503: I). Schelling defined identity as
"reality at its deepest level, at which subject and object are one."
The "unfolding" in the above reference refers to the seven days of
creation, correlative with the third degree. Through this unfoldment, the
darkness of the first degree disappears from the face of the deep, and the
problem of mortality is solved in the transition represented by the second
degree; earth has the form of the image of God, and is no longer void of
understanding.
Let us see how the Genesis text from 1:1 to 5:24 (the point at which
Enoch is translated) presents a thumbnail sketch of the way in which this
solution is achieved. Following the two opening verses (Genesis I: I & 2),
Genesis I :3-2:3 unfolds the "days" of spiritual creation, typified by the
third degree; Genesis 2:4-5 corresponds to the workings of the second
degree; Genesis 2:6-4:24 (the story of Adam and Eve) depicts the activity
of the first degree. Lastly, Genesis 4:25-5:24 (the story from the birth of
Adam's third son Seth to the final translation of Enoch) illustrates the
actual working out of the mortal problem.
Through precisely seven generations from Adam (through Seth) to
Enoch, the problem of sinful, fallen humanity is solved. These seven
generations are the equivalent of the seven days of creation unfolding in
human experience, until, at the point of the seventh, correlative with the
CHART OF LIFE
31
day of rest, Enoch is translated that he should not see death. The Adamic
concept of life is overcome in the way exemplified by Jesus.
Turning to the Bible as a whole, the seven thousand-year periods from
Genesis to Revelation (Gen 2:6-Rev 22:21) become a vast
elaboration - the detai led application in human experience - of this short
introductory (though wholly comprehensive) Genesis prelude just
outlined.
Summary:
Gen I: 1-2 ..................... 0peration of the two translations.

Gen 1:3-2:3 ................. Seven days of creation - third degree - spiritual.
Gen 2:4-5 ..................... Humanity at work spiritually, not
physically- second degree - moral.
Gen 2:6-4:24 ............... Fallen man (Adam) - first degree - physical.
Gen 4:25-5:24 ............. Enoch translated - problem of Adam solved.
Gen 2:6-Rev 22:21 .... The seven thousand-year periods, in which the
problem of Adam is solved by mankind.
Having considered Genesis 1:1 and 2 in relation to the two
translations, let us move to Genesis I :3-2:3 (the seven days of creation),
then to Genesis 2:4-5 (the human working spiritually from the standpoint
of these seven days), then to Genesis 2:6-5:24 (the story from Adam to
Enoch), and finally to the full span of the thousand-year periods (where
the problem of Adam is solved universally).
Genesis 1:3-2:3
spiritual- third degree
Let us state, simply and briefly, the relationship that exists between the
days of creation, the seven synonymous terms for God, and the sevenfold
third degree of the scientific translation of mortal mind, as representing
the spiritual basis from which our thought can advance to more detailed
analysis.
First day
light wisdom Mind
The infinite as Mind says "Let there be light." This is Light itself sending
forth its own light that can never be cut off from Light. In the measure that
(like Jesus) we identify ourselves with this light, wisdom governs our
activities. We are establishing the true idea of origin.
Second day
The infinite as Spirit says "Let there be a firmament." Understanding the

firmament, and acceding to its demands, we separate ourselves from
dualism, and are baptized with spiritual purity.
firmament purity Spirit
Third day
dry land sp. understanding Soul

Fourth day
stellar system sp. power Principle
When the infinite as Soul says "Let the dry land appear," we begin to
embody spiritual understanding as that which has "seed within itself."
The infinite as Principle says 'Let earth be controlled by the harmony of
heaven - let heaven and earth be one.' Earth's oneness with heaven, and
heaven's consequent government of earth, demonstrates spiritual power.
32

Fifth day
open firmament love Life
Sixth day
man health Truth
Seventh day
rest holiness Love
Genesis 2:4-5
moral-second degree
When the infinite as Life says 'Let the waters bring forth abundant life,' we
are inspired with the love that surrenders the mortal sense of life.
The infinite as Truth says 'Let there be man in God's own image,' and we,
as this man, manifest health, or wholeness.
When the infinite as Love says 'Creation is fulfilled,' we, as this creation,
rest in the holiness of perfect spiritual being.
Genesis 2:4-5 is a bridge between the record of spiritual creation,

unfolded by the seven days, and the myth of apparent physical creation,
told in the story of Adam. Note that not until these two verses have been
included in the text of Science and Health (S & H 520-521) do we read that
'"the inspired record closes its narrative of being that is without beginning
or end." We are shown that the workings of the third degree are reflected
in the workings of the second, and therefore, in the solving of the human
problem, spiritual and moral are one.
The text reads: "These are the generations of the heavens and of the
earth [the seven generations of the seven days of creation] when they were
created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens ... "
The introduction of Lord God, in contrast to God, changes the
previous order - "heavens ... earth" becomes "earth ... heavens." The
accent now is on the apparent uprising of the human to the divine - that is,
of earth to heaven. Yet this is possible only when thought first comes forth
from the divine (from heaven to earth), as signified by the first translation.
" ... the Lord God made ... every plant of the field before it was in the
earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not
caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the
ground."
All good is ours divinely before this is realized humanly. Just as plant
and herb exist in the Mind which is God before they appear in the earth,
so what we are as man is already, by reflection, the subjective state of our
o'wn true being, before this becomes our human experience. The
immediate object of understanding is, in truth, a subjective image in our
own God-Mind. Jesus said: "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me"
(John 11 :41-i a).
Rain is not needed to fertilize the soil~ man does not need to till the
ground. Humanity is not mortal that it must struggle its way out of
physicality through a state of morality to an eventual spirituality.
Humanity is already and forever the reflection of God. The toilsome effort
to "so improve material belief by thought tending spiritually upward as to
destroy materiali ty" is "the condemnation of mortals to till the ground"
(S & H 545:7), or the curse pronounced on Adam.
"Human beings are physically mortal [as in the myth which begins in
CHART OF LI FE
33
Gen 2:6], but spiritually immortal [as implied in Oen 2:4-5]" (Un 37: 17).
True humanhood does not need to be fertilized externally in order to he
productive. It embodies infinity within itself by reason of divine
reflection. But Adam believes this fertilization is necessary regarding his
soil, just as Eve does regarding her body.
Mary Baker Eddy gives the spiritual meaning of these two verses when
she writes: " 'He shall give His angels charge over thee.' God gives you His
spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies. Never ask for
tomorrow: it is enough that divine Love is an ever-present help; and if you
wait, never doubting, you will have all you need every moment" (Mis
306:29). The plant of the field exists already before it is in the earth; it is an
image in Mind primarily, and the immediate object of understanding
secondari ly.
Genesis 2:6-4:24
physical- first degree
Yet we must face the supposition that man does have to till the soil, in
order to prove there is no such man. In other words, we must examine the
workings of the first degree, as that which disappears in the second degree
when this is based on the third degree. Christ, Truth, comes to the flesh to
destroy incarnate error (S & H 583: 10), but not through the flesh or into
the flesh. Only to mortal sense does Spiri t turn itself into the opposite of
Spirit - matter, or the flesh.
Scientific proof (like scien.tific translation) is twofold. Proof of the
allness of the positive fact includes proof of the nothingness of the
negative fable. Proof that "I am the Lord thy God" includes proof that
"beside Me there is none else." Proof that two multiplied by two equals
four includes proof that two multiplied by two does not equal five, or three
and a half, or anything other than four.
Mary Baker Eddy explains this when she writes: "Jesus assumed for
mortals the weakness of flesh, that Spirit might be found 'All-in-all' "(Mis
63:30).
The key word is assumed. To "assume" means "to pretend to possess;
to take in appearance" (SRD). Assumption of the weakness of flesh in
respect of the Christ-idea does not mean that this idea becomes
flesh - that it is first translated from Spirit to flesh, and then back again
into Spirit. That man is flesh is appearance only, and this appearance, or
testimony of the mortal senses, yields in Science to what man is as the
forever image of God.
In the story of Adam, fleshly assumption ends with the translation of
Enoch. Theology thinks of Jesus' ascension as his assumption into heaven.
Instead, this was the moment in the consciousness of Jesus when the
original false assumption that the Christ-idea literally becomes flesh,
reached the point of final disappearance.
In elementary geometry, the axiom that t~e shortest distance between
two points is a straight line is proved by assuming first of all that the
34
shortest distance between two points is not a straight line, and, by the
method of reductio ad absurdum, disproving this assumption. Mrs Eddy
writes elsewhere of how "Jesus assumed the burden of disproof by
destroying sin, sickness, and death, to sight and sense" (Un 46:28 - i a).
Understanding (third degree), imparted by the first translation,
assumes, at the point of the second degree, the burden of disproving the
pretensions, the false a ppearance, of the first degree. Man, in Science,
comes from an understood Principle to the fleshly sense of man, for the
purpose of disproving this fleshly appearance - that is, of proving it is not
true.
As previously quoted, Jesus said of his spiritual selfbood: "I came forth
from the Father, and-am come into the world [first translation]: again, I
leave the world, and go to the Father [second translation]" (John 16:28).
Adam (the mortal appearance) does not come from the Father and go to
the Father. Only reflection does this. If man were really mortal he would
be God's deflection not His reflection. He would come from and return to
dust, nothingness, and translation would be out of the question. There can
be translation because, in the words of Science and Health: "This
deflection of being [Adam], rightly viewed, serves to suggest the proper
reflection of God and the spiritual actuality of man, as given in the first
chapter of Genesis" (S & H 502: 10- i a). Christian Science teaches us to
view an apparent deflection rightly, that is, to see only the proper
reflection of God.
Seven thousand-year
periods
In a brief outline of the Bible's thousand-year periods let us follow the way
in which this twofold idea of translation operates on both the individual
and world scales until the work of solving the mortal problem is
accomplished by all mankind.
First period
Adam
The Bible's first thousand-year period ranges from the mist to Enoch. This
is the story of Adam. Generic Adam i~ the physical counterfeit of which
generic Cl:trist is the spiritual counterfact. Necessarily, in this opening
period, Adam postulates the total problem of mortality, while Enoch
postulates its total so lu tion.
The first day of creation, through the symbols of Day and Night,
presents the idea that God, good, is absolutely all and evil absolutely
nothing. The first period, in which Adam disappears in the translation of
Enoch, illustrates the workings of this fundamental idea. Unless, in this
way, the end is from the beginning we cannot progress from beginning to
end. The ensuing six periods show this idea gathering momentum
throughout human consciousness until, at last, in the seventh period, it is
found to be true for the whole human race.
Paul writes: "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be tnade
CHART OF LI FE
35
alive." And again, "The first man Adam was made a living soul~ the last
Adam was made a quickening spirit" (I Cor 15:22, 45).
The translation of Enoch in the first period prefigures the translation
of Jesus in the fifth. While Enoch's translation symbolizes the "last" of
Adam, Jesus' translation actually demonstrates this. Jesus refers to himself
as the light of the world. This is'the light of the first day of creation, which.
in its relation to the first period, chases away the deep hypnotic darkness
of the Adam-dream of mortality.
The first period, through the figures of Adam and Enoch, thus
foreshadows the first Messianic advent, the eventual mission of Christ
Jesus, where the accent is on the manhood of God, and the idea of
individuality.
Second period
Noah
The second thousand-year period is the story of Noah. This ranges from
where Noah is directed by God to build himself a life-saving Ark to where
the people in the land of Shinar build their tower of Babel.
In the Noah myth, as it succeeds the Adam myth, the emphasis shifts
from individual to universal. The old corrupt sense of the world is
drowned in the floods of its own wickedness and a totally new world is
born.
On the Mount of Olives, Jesus looks forward to the second coming of
the Christ-idea, or to the days of Christian Science. He says: "As the days
of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Matt 24:37).
He is explaining to the disciples the parallel between the story of Noah in
the Bible's second period and the second Mess~anic advent.
Underlying the first period, then, is the idea of individuality, and the
manhood of God, represented by Christ Jesus; underlying the second
period is the collective .and universal aspect of the same thing, namely, the
idea of the womanhood of God, or the coming of Christian Science.
Just as the firmament of the second day is the means of understanding
(and therefore demonstrating) the light of the first daY1 so Christian
Science is the means whereby all the world understands God's allness and
evil's nothingness, as proved by Christ Jesus.
The story of Noah is in two parts, a posi tive part and a negative part.
The positive is focused in the ark, the negative in the tower of Babel. In the
era of Christianity, which follows the lifework of Jesus, the building of the
Apostolic Church stands for world regeneration. But this is followed hy
the setting up of a monolithic ecclesiastical organization with precise Iy
the opposite effect. Likewise, in the history of Christian Science, the era of
the church founded by Mary Baker Eddy is followed by one of religious
authoritarianism. Like the heavenly firmament of the second day of'
creation, the real ark, the real church, is a structured understanding of
universal reality that embodies, and gives birth to, the true identity of the
world.
36

Third period
Israel
Fourth period
The prophets
The Bible's third period is the story of the rise of the children of IsraeL It
ranges from the birth of Abraham in the book of Genesis to the end of the
book of Ruth.
Conceived of spiritually, the rise of Israel typifies the development in
human consciousness of the idea of the manhood and womanhood of
God foretold in the first two periods. The story symbolizes our own
wilderness journey out of the slavery of sex identity into the land of
spiritual gender. We journey from Egypt to the Promised Land in order to
inherit, and therefore to be, the sinless, deathless Christ-body.
Chief among. the tribes of Israel are those of Judah and Joseph. Judah
stands for divine manhood, Joseph for divine womanhood. Together, they
typify the identity of the Son of God, later to appear as Christ Jesus and
Christian Science.
The promised land of the third thousand-year period is the dry land of
the third day of creation. Mary Baker Eddy writes of this "third stage in
the order of Christian Science" as "an important one to the human
thought, letting in the light of spiritual understanding" (S & H 508:28). It
lets into human experience the light of the first day of creation together
with the firmament of the second.
The idea of the manhood and womanhood of God, foreshadowed in
the first two periods, is, in the third period, sown as a seed in the womb of
human consciousness. Like the "seed within itself' of the third day of
creation, this true identity of mankind grows and develops from within
itself until at last it conquers and constitutes the earth. "In thee and in thy
seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed," is God's consistent
promise to the patriarchs of the children of Israel.
The Bible's fourth period ranges from I Samuel to Malachi, and therefore
brings the Old Testament to a close. In the history of the children of Israel
we reach the golden age of the kings and prophets.
No longer is Israel approaching the promised land, as she was during
the third period. Having entered, conquered, and inherited this land as the
third period drew to a close, she is, in the fourth period (up to the time of
the Exile), in established possession of the land.
The leading tribes of Judah and Joseph become the mature nations of
Judah and Israel. Together these two nations embody all the tribes of the
children of Israel. Under the kingship of David they are one harmonious
united kingdom. Influenced later by the two fertility deities, Baal and
Ashtaroth, the kingdom splits in two. Instead of typifying the manhood
and womanhood of the Son of God, Judah and Israel, opposed to each
other, stand for the male and female of sinning, dying mortality. They are
banished from the land of their real identity and dispersed far and wide. It
becomes imperative, therefore, in the fifth, sixth, and seventh periods, for
Christ Jesus and Christian Science to restore to Israel her apparently lost
selfuood, and so become the twofold Saviour of mankind.
~
CHART OF LI FE
37
In the fourth day of creation, the stars in the heavenly firmament give
light upon the earth. Earth is governed by heaven - the human, is
controlled by the divine. In the fourth period, Israel's prophets teach
precisely this idea of heaven's government of earth. As the outcome of the
first three periods, Israel, in the fourth period, is one with the Principle of
the universe - one, that is, with the Principle of the manhood and
womanhood of God. Because of this, there forms in the womb of
consciousness the idea of the two Messianic advents. In their spiritual
wedlock, Christ Jesus and Christian Science, in the remaining three
periods, demonstrate the fact that man and woman are subject to no such
disruption as besets Judah and Israel in the fourth period, and therefore
they become the Saviour of the race.
Fifth period
Christ Jesus
Sixth period
Christian Science
Except for the book of Revelation which, as we have said, looks forward
prophetically to the sixth and seventh periods, the story of the Bible ends
early in the fifth period. Following the career of Jesus and the beginnings
of the Apostolic Church recorded in the New Testament, we move into the
field of history itself in order to continue the story_ The fifth thousandyear period, the first millennium A.D., opens with the life of Jesus and the
beginning of the Christian era; it closes towards the end of the so-called
Dark Ages.
'Let the waters bring forth abundant life,' says the fifth day of creation.
'I am come that the world might have life more abundantly,' Jesus says,
correlatively. The fifth period (as far as Christendom is concerned) is
centred in the lifework of Jesus. Jesus demonstrates the indivisibility, and
therefore indestructibility, of life as it circulates from Life to Life. The
spiritual emphasis is thus on manhood and individuality. Jesus shows
forth the actuality of the idea foreshadowed in the first period of all,
namely, the solution by individual man of the universal problem of Adam.
The sixth thousand-year period, or the second millennium A.D., is our
present scientific age, now drawing to a close in the final decades of the
twentieth century. Historically, this period is dominated by the
development of Western Christian society, and therefore of Western
scientific man. The Middle Ages are the cradle of this society, which rises
from the ashes of the West Roman Empire, and through the prodigious
development of its scientific technology gradually captivates the world.
Western man expects his physical science to give him dominion over the
earth. As such he is the counterfeit concept of man in God's image in the
sixth day of creation. For man's domini-on, in the sixth day, derives not
from physical science but from divine Science. Christian Science comes
therefore to the consciousness of Western man to reveal to him the true
identity of man. Its purpose is to translate a Westernized, physically
scientific world into the foursquare society of generic man, the "city" of
Revelation 21. This city is civilization based on divine Science, not on the
38
ensnaring physical sciences. Hence the advent, in the sixth period, of what
is foreshadowed in the second period, namely, Christian Science, the
Science of Christianity, the collective and universal counterpart of all that
the individual Jesus stands for in the fifth period. Its mission is to save
mankind from self-destruction, and to rebirth the human race.
Seventh period
Salvation
Need for extended

framework
"Science, understood, translates matter into Mind" (Mis 25: 12). Through
spiritual education and spontaneous revelation, humanity, in the seventh
period, awakens universally from the stupor of the Adam-dream. It
awakens, that is, to the truth of its forever unfaUen divinity by refuting the
mythology of fallen man. Hence the correlation between this period and
the seventh day of creation, where creation is finfshed and at rest.
Historically, the Scientific Age yields to the Ecological and Cybernetic
Age- the age of the harmonization of man with his total environment,
because divine Science is increasingly understood.
The foregoing framework of the seven thousand-year periods, unfolding

in relation to the seven days of creation, and emphasizing respectively the
primal aspects of Being as Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love,
must now be expanded more particularly, if we are to make our journey
from Genesis to Revelation in a way that satisfies spiritual and scientific
requirements.
The scale of values which we need is brought to light when we observe
the way in which the Christian Science textbook, in its chapter "Genesis,"
presents the days of creation. As examination shows, each day unfolds
through a number of spiritual divisions. These divisions, or "tones" as
they have been called, are not just a convenient way for Mary Baker Eddy
to have commented on the successive Bible verses. Her exegesis is
spiritual and scientific, not arbitrarily contrived. This is apparent not only
from the spiritual sense of the tones themselves, but also, for example,
from the fact that on more than one occasion she combines verses to form
a single tone, and she omits the third verse of the seventh day altogether.
This word tone is also used in a general way throughout this book to
designate the spiritual meanings, values, or 'colours,' of the capitalized
terms for God, and the way they harmonize and blend with each otl}er.
Examining the layout from 503: 18 (where the first day begins) to
520: 15 (where the seventh day ends) we see that the first day is stated
through three tones, and the second day also through three; that the third
day is stated through five, and the fourth day again through .five; fbur are
needed to unfold the fifth day~ seven are required for the sixth day~ and
finally two for the seventh day_ Evidently these precise numbers of
tones - three, three" five, five, four, seven, and two - are essential for a true
evaluation of the order of the seven days, and therefore for an adequate
appraisal of the Bible as a whole in its thousand-year periods.
CHART OF LIFE
39
In the light of what Science and Health teaches regarding the

synonymous terms for God, we soon begin to realize that the twenty-nine
tones of the days of creation provide us with an elementary scale of
reflecting ideas of these very terms.
Let us take them one by one. While the main tone of the first day is the
infinite as Mind, its three divisions include tones of Mind, Spirit, and
Soul. The first is Mind solely as Mind; the second introduces Spirit,
because purity and separation are involved~ the third points to Soul,
because this concerns naming, or identification. In other words,
underlying the first day of creation is the idea of the infinite as Mind
reflecting Mind, Spirit, and Soul. Using the symbol of optics, first there is
light, then light reflected, then the image formed. These tones of the first
day of creation are often referred to as Mind as Mind, Mind as Spirit, and
Mind as Soul, for the sake of abbreviation.
The three tones of Mind in the first day lead to the three tones of Spirit
in the second - that is, to Spirit as Mind, Spirit as Spirit, and Spirit as Soul.
Underlying the third day, with its five tones, is the infinite as Soul viewed
from the standpoints of Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, and Life. In the
fourth day, again with its five tones, Principle declares, in effect, I am
infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, and Life. Determining the four tones
of the fifth day is infinite Life reflecting Mind, Spirit, Soul, and Principle.
Because the sixth day unfolds the idea of man as the complete reflection of
God, this day necessarily includes the full sevenfold range of tones - that
is, the infinite as Truth reflecting Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth,
and Love. Finally, the seventh day with its two tones presents the idea of
Love from the standpoints of Truth and Love.
Being is a state of endless self-revelation. Mind as Mind presents the
idea of God as the source and origin of all creation. Mind as Spirit
separates between what is of divine origin and human origin. Mind as Soul
identifies the one as absolutely all, the other as absolutely nothing. Spirit
reflecting Mind continues to build up this compound idea of the one
absolute God. This advances to Spirit as Spirit, to Spirit as Soul, and so on,
with all twenty-nine tones. Not until thought has reached Love as Love,
and in so doing has circled round to Mind as Mind once more, is it
represented as fully identified with God's creation.
The order of these tones applies not only in a positive sense to the
unfolding of spiritual creation, it is also evident negatively in the story of
Adam and Eve, the material record of creation. And it is apparent again in
the thousand-year periods of the Bible as a whole from Genesis to
Revelation. Inevitably these three views of creation, the seven days (the
true), the Adam-dream (the false), the thousand-year periods (the
transient), depict the workings of the three degrees of spiritual and
scientific translation.
Let us touch upon each category in turn: first, the purely spiritual
tones presented in the days of creation; secondly, their negative rendering
40
as unfolded in the record of Adam; thirdly, their transitional aspect, as

found in the thousand-year periods, where the human problem is in
process of solution through the impact of the true upon the false. For it is
within this extended framework of the thousand-year periods that we shall
make our journey from Genesis to Revelation in the main body of this
book. This framework of the twenty-nine spiritual tones translates time
and human history into the Science of being.
Days of creation
(positive)
First
day
Mind as Mind
All is Mind and Mind's ideas; Mind is its own source and origin, its own
infinite cause and effect.
Mind as Spirit
Mind is Spirit, not matter; there is only one kind of Mind.
Mind as Soul
Creation is the fully defined content of one all-knowing parent Mind.
Spirit as Mind
Understanding our spiritual origin separates us from the belief that flesh
.
IS our origin.
Spirit as Spirit
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6).
Spirit as Soul
Men understand God, Spirit, by understanding (reflecting) each other's

identity in one spiritual body. 'This is heaven, whereby we are born again.
Soul as Mind
Identity is thus of divine origin.
Soul as Spirit
Identity is sameness with itself, it unfolds from within itself; subject and
object are one, not two.
Soul as Soul
Within identity lie capacities and resources for endless self-reproduction.
Soul as Principle
The symbol of identity is "seed within itself." Free from external

appetites, spiritual identity (spiritual gender) expresses satisfaction and
JOY
Soul as Life
Identity is sinless, deathless. It resurrects us humanly from the grave of

mortal body .
Second
day
Third
day
r
..
~rinciPle
as Mind
The universe is a system of celestial bodies. I ts rotating, revolving

relationships originate in the Principle of infinite harmony.
CHART .OF LI FE
Principle
as
Spirit
In this universe, heaven governs earth; divinity and humanity arc

inseparable.
Soul
Principle is defined through the practice of Principle, in which human and

divine are one in identity.
Fourth
day
as
Principle
Principle
as
Principle
Principle
as
The universe is one and all-harmonious.
Life
The universe is the endless living progression of Principle's systems of

ideas.
Life
as
Mind
The universe of Life is the origin and ultimate of all individuality, or life.
Life
as
Spirit
Circling undivided from Life to Life, reflections of the one Life constitute
Life's individualities.
Life as Soul
Reflecting each other's identity, the individualities of the body of Life

forever reproduce this Life.
as
Principle
Life is one and indivisible. Life is not divided into a number of personally
possessed, personally operated lives.
as
Mind
This undivided wholeness of the infinite is Truth, the source and origin of
man.
Truth as Spirit
The lesser ideas (animals) that constitute the compound idea (man) are
man's spiritual and moral qualities unfolding his health, or wholeness.
Fifth
day
Life
Truth
Soul
Man is God's consciousness of Himself. This is man's identity, having (by

reflection) dominion over itself.
Principle
Man's oneness with God (Principle) is expressed in the wholeness of

manhood and womanhood- one-in-aU and all-in-one.
Truth as Life
His manhood and womanhood being undivided, man's individuality

multiplies.
Truth as Truth
The form of Truth's wholeness is the spiritually structured brotherhood of

all Truth's ideas.
Truth
Sixth
day
41
Truth
as
Truth
as
as
Love
This is "woman" - universal (generic) man.
42

Love as Truth
Man, the Son of God, rests in the womb of the Father-Mother Love.
Love as Love
Everything everywhere is the matrix calculus of Love's design.
Seventh
day
The unfoldment has turned full circle; it has returned to the point of Mind
as Mind; creation is the outcome of one parent Mind, the light which is
never cut off from Light.
Adam record
(negative)
Mind as Mind
Mist: The origin of mortality being a myth, mortality itself is wholly

my tho logical.
Mind as Spirit
Mist waters: Water and dust make mud. The myth of mind and matter
adulterates all human thought.
Mind as Soul
Whole face of the ground: The entire record of mortal history is grounded
in the myth of mind in matter.
Spirit as Mind
Adam: The "'first god of mythology" (S & H 580:2) is formed from mist and
dust.
Spirit as Spirit
Tree of knowledge and tree of life both in the midst of Adam's garden: The
myth of good and evil is resolved only by the Science of absolute good.
Spirit as Soul
A river divides into four heads: The tree of life and river of life (typifying
the workings of the 44seven" and the 44four") are the means, in Science, of
dissolving the myth of mortality.
Soul as Mind
Adam put into the garden: Mind is supposedly absorbed in matter as its
own subjective condition.
Soul as Spirit
Forbidden fruit of tree of knowledge: In the mortal sense of identity, or

body, subject and object are sexually two.
Soul as Soul
Adam alone and hungry: Subject hungers for an object outside of itself.
Soul as Principle
The animals come to Adam: Animality aroused, personal sense asserts

i tse If.
"
Soul as Life
Adam names the animals: Mortality

animal appetites.
IS
identified with self-destroying
CHART OF LIFE
43
Principle as Mind
Animal magnetism: Animality induces a "deep sleep" - depths of the

psychic unconscious, self-hypnosis, mesmerism.
Principle as Spirit
Eve formed from Adam's rib: Two separated personalities - dualism of

male and female of mortality.
Principle as Soul
Adatn and Eve one flesh: The male and female of mortality make
themselves one in order to be self-reproducing.
Principle as Principle
Talking serpent: Basic animal magnetism, the evil one, or one evil, the
"first lie and all liars" (S & H 16: 18),
Principle as Life
Serpent's tree of death: Under the influence of animal magnetism, the male
and female of mortality bring upon themselves destruction and death.
Life as Mind
The serpent tempts the woman: Mortality is the matrix of itself, mortality.
Life as Spirit
Adam and Eve succumb to the serpent: Male and female mortality are
charged with electrical (nerve) impulses.
Life as Soul
Adam and Eve see their nakedness: Sin is self-exposed.
Life as Principle
They hide among the trees of the garden: Mortals clothe their private lives
with hypocrisy and vain deceit.
Truth as Mind
Adam blames God for his downfall: That error originates in Truth, or that
good results in evil, is a base lie.
Truth as Spirit
Curse on Eve to bring forth in sorrow: This basic lie curses woman with
hard labour internally.
Truth as Soul
Curse on Adam to till the soil: This same lie curses man with hard labour
externally.
Truth as Principle
Severance from tree of life: In the mythology of mortality, the human is cut
off from the divine.
Truth as Life
Birth of Cain and Abel: Multiplication of mortality results in the selfdestruction of mortality.
Truth as Truth
Cain murders Abel: The evil in human nature murders the good, the
physical overcomes the moral.
44

Truth as Love
Cain identified with ignorance: A sevenfold vengeance is pronounced on

the attempt to destroy Cain by physical means; the problem of mortality is
not solved by trying to meet error with more error, but by letting "Truth
uncover and destroy error in God's own way" (S & H 542: 19).
Love as Truth
Birth of Seth: Adam's seven generations through Seth to Enoch; humanity

learns to come forth from God spiritually instead of trying to labour its
way to God materially.
Love as Love
Enoch translated: The mist is finally dispersed. Understanding divine.

origin - being the self-revelation of God - the myth of mortal origin is
dissolved, and man is found in the image of God.
Thousand-year periods of
the Bible (transitional)
First
period
Second
period
Third
period
Mind as Mind
Gen 2:6-2:20
The mist in which Adam originates.
Mind as Spirit
Gen 2:21-4: 15
Adam's deep hypnotic sleep.
Mind as Soul
Gen 4: 16-5:27
Land of Nod; Enoch's translation.
Spirit as Mind
Gen 5:28-7:5
Noah builds an ark.
Spirit as Spirit
Gen 7:6-7:24
The ark separates Noah from the flood.
Spirit as Soul
Gen 8:1-11:25
The human race is born again; tower of Babel.
Soul as Mind
Gen 11 :26-25:20
Abraham and Isaac.
Soul as Spirit
Gen 25:21-50:26
Jacob and Joseph.
Ex 1: 1-18:27
Moses leads Israel from Egypt to Sinai.
Ex 19: l-LevNum-Deut 34: 12
Commandments and tabernacle; journey from

Sinai to the Promised Land.
Josh 1: I-JudRuth 4:22
Conquest and acceptance of the land.
I Sam. 1:1-11 Sam 1:27
Reign of Saul.
Soul
as Soul
Soul as Principle
Soul as Life
rPrinCiPle as Mind
CHART OF LI FE
Principle as Spirit
II Sam 2: 1-24:25
Reign of David.
Principle as Soul
I Kings 1: 1-22:53
Reign of Solomon; kingdom divides; Elijah.
II Kings 1: 1-25:30
Elijah and Elisha; deportation of Israel and

Judah into Assyrian and Babylonian captivity.
'ourth
,.,'od
45
Principle as Principle
(I Chronicles covers same story as I and II Samuel; II Chronicles covers

same story as I and II Kings.)
Principle as Life
Ezra 1: I-NehEsther 10:3
Return to Jerusalem~ rebuilding the temple

and ci ty walls.
(The Wisdom Literature from Job to Song of Solomon restates in nonnarrative form the Bible's basic teaching. The sixteen Prophets from
Isaiah to Malachi close the door on the Old Testament and open it again
on the New.)
Life as Mind
Matt I: I-MarkLuke-John 21 :25
Career of Jesus.
Life as Spirit
Acts 1: l-EpistlesRev 22:21
Apostolic Christian Church.
'Ifth
period
(Here we merge from the story of the Bible into history itself.)
Life as Soul
Life as Principle
Christianity absorbed into the Roman Empire.

Middle Ages: Cradle of Western civilization.
Truth as Mind
Rise of Western scientific man: Magna Charta; the light of selfgovernment dawns.
Truth as Spirit
Renaissance: Western voyages of discovery; birth of the spirit of modern

SClence.
Truth as Soul
Reformation: Western man begins to free himself from, ecclesiastical

despotism; world becoming westernized; European migrations to North
America.
Truth as Principle
New World of America: Age of reason and enlightenment; Western

advances in science and democratic government.
tilth
.....Iod
46
as Life
Industrialism and democracy: Beginnings of machine age~ American

independence~ capitalism and individualism~ rise of Communism.
as Truth
Christian Science: Founding mission of Mary Baker Eddy; divine Science,

not physical science, is the source of man's dominion over the earth;
means of world peace revealed.
as Love
Present twentieth century: Era of world war; discovery of universal

Science and system of Christian Science; all periods present now, united in
the "design of God" (S & H 271:4).
Love as Truth
Matrix calculus of infinity: All must "give place to the spiritual fact by the
translation of man and the universe back into Spirit."
as Love
Problem of matter solved: Materialism Bswallowed up in the infinite

calculus of Spiri t" (S & H 209: 16-30).
Truth
Truth
Truth
Seventh
period
Love
The subject of this book being the message of the Scriptures from
Genesis to Revelation, we shall not again refer to the historical
development shown in the above outline from Life as Soul onwards. The
continuation of the story after the Bible is complete in the second tone of
the fifth period (Life as Spirit) is however implicit once more in the final
chapter on Revelation, where, through the opening of the seven seals, St
John (free from the limitations of time) anticipates the activities of
Christian Science in the sixth and seventh periods.
Within the framework of the days of creation in their spiritual
subtones, determining the unfoldment of the Bible's thousand-year
periods, let us now begin at the beginning of the world's most urgent and
compelling story and follow it through without a break to the end.
"
In making this journey humanly we necessarily move in sequence from

book to book, from idea to idea. But let us be aware that, in divine
metaphysics, every moment of life's development is contemporaneous
wi th every other in one immediate design. Order prevails, but not lineally
as time. Divinely, all things happen at once. Within the comprehension of
the Mind of Christ all the events of our spiritual unfoldment are taking
place timelessly, now.
We are not therefore turning to a book, as such, written in time, and
limited in idiom, but to this book's eternal Principle. This can never be
outdated because it is Life. The reality of the Bible and Science and Health
is the living WORD OF GOD.
CHAPTER 111-
Adam and Noah

Today, the stories of Adam and Noah, the subjects of the first two
thousand-year periods, are acknowledged to be myths. In their
relationship they are of the utmost fundamental importance to the student
of divine metaphysics. Evaluated spiritually, they are the complementary
halves of a single compound idea. This idea is the unity of the manhood
and womanhood of God which every individual must some day reflect in
order to work out the problem of being. The Genesis context in which
these stories are told is very brief indeed. Let us therefore take them
textually as constituting a single chapter of this book, even as we must take
them spiritually as constituting one idea.
Nothing is more basic to our present purpose than the fact that the
Science of immortality makes nothing of the myth of mortality. Spiritually
translated, the allegories of Adam and Noah point to the timeless Science
of man, as the opposite of primitive mythology.
As we have seen, the Adam myth, ending with Enoch's translation,
foreshadows the work of the individual Jesus, emphasizing divine
manhood. The Noah myth, standing for the complete rebirth of the human
race, foreshadows the universal mission of Christianity leading fo
Christian Science. This hints at divine womanhood. So fundamental, so
comprehensive, so Scripturally unique, are these two opening periods,
when looked at in this way, that they can be said to set the 'stage, at the
beginning of the narrative, for the entire life-drama that follows. For it is
not until we reach the third period, and the children of Israel come upon
the scene, that, as far as our own forward movement is concerned, the
drama actually begins.
When, in the third period, we identify ourselves with the compound
idea underlying the first two periods, the story of our own regeneration,
and ultimate victory over mortality, unfolds inevitably from beginning to
end - that is, from Genesis to Revelation.
In the third period, we journey (at first objectively) to the land of our
sinless, spiritual selthood, where manhood and womanhood are one. In
the fourth period, we establish (subjectively) our oneness with the
Principle of this idea. Then, in the fifth, sixth, and seventh periods, the
living demonstration of what underlies the first two periods, namely, the
mission of Christ Jesus, firstly, and Christian Science, secondly, becomes
the reality of universal being, and the problem of mortality is in process of
solution.
47
48
FROM GENESIS TO REVEL.ATION
THE ADAM MYTH
I st tone of I st period
- Mind as Mind-
The first thousand-year period opens with a symbol which is the opposite
of the light of the first day of creation. A Inist is said to go up from the
earth and water the whole face of the ground. This turns the dust of the
ground into clay (or more accurately red mud), and out of this mud Adam,
the first mortal man, is formed. The keynote is origin. Just as the "'light" of
Science is the symbol of spiri tual origin, so the ~"mist" of mythology is the
symbol of material origin.
We read in Science and Health: "The word Adam is from the Hebrew
adamah, signifying the red color oj' the ground, dust, nothingness" (S & H
338:12).
To say that Adam is made from adamah is like saying that something is
made out of itself. Adamah, one could say, is the matrix of Adam. Or, to
put it another way, mortality is the matrix of itself, mortality. Never could
mortality be the matrix of immortality, or vice versa. Only immortality is
the matrix of immortality.
Scarcely has the story begun, yet we have entered upon the negative
concept of what today, in divine metaphysics, we mean by the matrix
calculus of infinity. Matrix is to calculus as adamah is to a dam. The word
"matrix" is akin to "'mother," and the word "'mother" derives from
tnodder, meaning "mud." The mist having, as it were, saturated and
fertilized the red dust of the ground, mortal man is fashioned from the
resulting mud. The word mortal is from the root tnors, meaning death.
The mist is the myth that man has a matter origin, and is the fitting
symbol of the primeval mythology of the Adamic race. Male and female
gods, forces of good and evil, the mortal birth-death cycle, are the visible
outcome - the consolidation - of an elemental mist, or myth. Adam is
defined i!1 part in Science and Health as "'the first god of mythology"
(S & H 580:2). From earliest times, the dominant figure in mythology has
been the mother goddess, the personification of adamah, typical of mother
earth.
In the same way that mortality is the matrix of itself, mortality, so
mythology is the matrix of mythology. The entire history of mortality, the
outcome of the original mist, is mythical like its origin. The reality, of
which mythology is the unreality, is the Science of one eternal Mind.
In Arabic, the Bred mud" out of which Adam is made means "Egypt;"
while "'Eden," the garden into which he is put, is the same as HEdin,"
meaning "Babylon." The beginning and end of the life-span of a mortal is
the womb and the tomb. Birth into matter at one end of the mortal scale
leads to death out of matter at the other. The Bible's central theme is the
story of the children of Israel. In the experience of Israel, the womb and
the tomb are represented by her two captivities - her hard labour in Egypt
early in her history, and her later deportation to Babylon, when her temple
(body) is laid waste. From the latter situation, however, comes
ADAM AND NOAH
49
resurrection, and the rebuilding of the body. Science and Health declares:
'''When the mist of mortal mind evaporates, 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 [never in servitude to Egypt] and never
dying [never in servitude to Babylon], but as coexistent with his creator
[in the Promised Land]" (S & H 557: 16).
Commenting on the mist, Mary Baker Eddy writes of man, in the
second record of creation, as having supposedly "broken away from Deity
and as revolving in an orbit of his own" (S & H 522:9).
Mythology has two basic themes. The first is the supposed intrusion of
evil into the kingdom of good, effecting the rebellion of man against God
and his consequent fall from grace; the second is the intrusion of good (in
the form of a divine saviour) into the kingdom of evil, in order to redeem
fallen man, and restore the original situation. Mortals begin and end with
. the supposed assertion of an independent human will. 'Not Thy will but
mine be done,' man is supposed to have said to his Maker. Instead of his
remaining God's own image, instead of his echoing and reflecting the will
of God, mythology credits man with developing a will, a mind, an ego, of
his own.Under bombardment from satanic propaganda he becomes an
independent creative god. In other words, idea ceases to reflect its
Principle, and revolves instead in an orbit of its own. This postulates the
myth of fallen man.
An originaJ rebellion, a primordial explosion, in heaven, supposedly
splits the nucleus of infinity (the indivisibility of God and man) and
spiritual power (inherent alone in this undividedness) is expended. The
result is an expanding universe of matter fragments. Power becomes
material. It resides henceforth in two opposite realms of matter and mind:

the sub-atomic world of the matter nucleus, and the sub-conscious (or
unconscious) world of the mental psyche.
Naturally this supposed translation of Spirit into matter calls for a
sometime re-translation of matter back into Spirit. Hence, in the history of
the Adamic race, Christ Jesus and Christian Science come to reveal the
mythical nature of all mortality; to prove that, in fact, spiritual power
never was expended in a primordial revolution, and that the relationship
of God and man remains uninterrupted and intact.
In the garden of Eden, in which Adam finds himself, two trees of
exactly opposite natures occupy the same ground. These are the tree of life
and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Their very coincidence in the
midst of the garden implies that there are not really two trees at all, but
only one. Looked at from Science, the tree in the midst is the tree of life~
looked at from material sense it is the serpent's tree of death. The garden is
the symbol of body, which mythically is mortal but in Truth is immortal.
The four-headed river which waters the garden in Genesis 2 appears in
Revelation 22 as a single river of water of life fertilizing the tree of life. So
50
closely do the fundamentals of mythology simulate the fundamentals of

Science that, when reversed and translated, they point to these very
fundamentals of Science.
According to the mythologist C. Kerenyi and the psycho-analyst C. G.
Jung in their book Introduction to a Science of Mythology, two basic
themes are common to all mythology. These are the Divine Child and the
Maiden Goddess. In Christian theology, where so much ancient
mythology finds new expression, these two myths take the form of the
human Jesus as God incarnate and the Virgin Mary as the Mother of God.
Jesus' supreme purpose was to translate mythology on the individual scale,
while the purpose of Christian Science is to effect the same translation on
the collective and universal scales. That which is at work in both cases is
today's revelation of the divine matrix calculus, as the true mother-son
relationship.
Mythology has to do with origins. Hence the mist (myth) is the
antithesis of the light of the first day of creation. The origin of the divine
chi Id (so the above book tells us, p.I I) is "the beginning of a new worldunit" - it relates to the origin of the individual. The origin of the virgin
goddess, on the other hand, points to a complementary concept of origin,
namely, to that of "countless beings before and after oneself ... by virtue
of which the individual is endowed with infinity already in the germ." This
is described as "a kind of immersion in ourselves that leads to the living
germ of our wholeness." Thus the goddess myth relates to the collective
and universal, or to mankind generally throughout history. Both myths are
individualized in individual mortal man.
As already noted, the first two periods of the Bible (the myth periods)
point, respectively, to the two world-saving missions of Christ Jesus and
Christian Science, the manhood and womanhood of God. As the Adam
myth draws to a close, the individual is regenera~le in the Noah
myth the world is reborn. Christ Jesus and Christian Science are thus the
spiritual counterfacts of which the divine child and virgin goddess are the
mythical counterfeits. Hence the indispensable foundations which are laid
in the two opening periods. Based on these foundations, the story of Israel
(mankind as a whole) takes form and develops from the third period
onwards.
The first tone of the first period closes when the animals in Adam's
garden come to him to be named. Forbidden by the Lord God to eat the
fruits of the tree of mortality, Adam nevertheless hungers for these very
fruits - he craves for something to come and satisfy him from outside
himself. "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an
help meet for him," says the Lord God. As the prelude to the creation of
Eve, or the sexual division of mortal body into two separate bodies, Adam
names the animals - that is, he identifies himself with animal instincts,
emotions, and appetites.
ADAM AND NOAH
51
2nd tone of I st period

- Mind as Spirit-
"The parent of all human discord was the Adam-dream, the deep sleep, in
which originated the delusion that life and intelligence proceeded from
and passed into matter" (S & H 306:32).
A "mist" in the first tone becomes a "deep sleep" in the second. The
first reveals the mythical source of mortality, the second describes the
nature and constitution of this source, and the way it operates. We are told
about the deep hypnotic sleep that falls upon Adam after he has named the
animals. 'Deeply asleep, deeply asleep,' whispers the hypnotist to his
subject when he is about to bring to the surface of consciousness the
contents of the psychological unconscious.
Today, psycho-analysis identifies the collective unconscious (as C. G.
.
Jung has named it) with mythology. The archetypal images of gods,
~'goddesses, heroes, beasts, demons, etc., that are fundamental to mankind's
myths, stem from the unconscious stratum of the human mind and are
brought into conscious expression through hypnosis, dreams, fantasies,
reveries, drugs, and the like. "The archetypes," Jung says, "are the
imperishable elements of the unconscious" (ibid p.136); they are man's
primitive psychic "roots" from which civilization must not be allowed to
sever him if he is to maintain mental and physical health. For while

primitive man is in immediate contact with this unconscious stratum, the
more civilized and individualistic man becomes, the less this is so, It
would seem today that the endeavour on the part of primitive mortal mind
is, more and more, to suck humanity back into the dark abyss of the
mythological unconscious. This is because, in Science, the opposite is
true - Mind, God, is found the source and origin of all real consciousness,
from which man ceaselessly emanates and to which he ceaselessly returns.
Science reveals that man has never been, and can never be, cut off from his
divine roots. Two of the foremost archetypes are the divine child and
maiden goddess discussed in the preceding tone.
II is important to understand that the great and enduring myths of
mankind, be they ancient Egyptian or classical Greek, are not mere pagan
horror stories compiled by imaginative poets in a dim and distant past;
myths are recorded revelations from the collective unconscious as surely
as (on the positive side) Truth, or Science, is divine revelation stemming
from the Mind which is God.

The infinite unseen God is to man, His own conscious reflection, as
the unconscious world of the human psyche is to the conscious. The one
relates to life, the other to death, and salvation depends upon the
replacement of the one by the other at the point of individual
consciousness. There was added to the Christian Science textbook in 1908
the following entreaty: "Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that
mental malpractice cannot harm you either when asleep [the unconscious
level of human thought I or when awake [the conscious level I" (S & H
442:30). As taught and proved by Jesus, the source of man's being is God,
52
not gods, the Science of Mind, Spirit, not the mythology of matter, or
mortal mind.
Matter is mythology, mortal mind is mythology, the pleasures and
pains of matter are myths, Science and Health teaches (S & H 591 :8,
591 :26, 294:22), The unconscious psyche is likewise a wholly mythical
concept. The scientific fact of which the psychic unconscious is the
mythical fable is the unfathomable depths of one beneficent parent Mind
teeming with divine archetypal images, or ideas, which are man's primal
elements and imperishable roots. In this case, involuntary, apparently
uncontrollable sin, disease, death, as well as so-called natural disasters,
accidents, mob violence, wars, etc., have no real source from which to
arise and devastate mankind. The belief that such a lurking underworld
exists derives from primitive mythology, and is annulled by the Science of
one all-comprehending, infinitely conscious Mind.
The divine idea of which the cosmic unconscious is the human fable is
infinite Mind as infinite Spirit. We are led therefore from Mind as Mind in
the first tone of this period to Mind as Spirit in the second.
According to the Christian Science textbook, matter is the subjective
state of mortal mind, an image in mortal mind, an "alias" for unconscious
mortal mind, at the same time as being unconscious, mindless (S & H
114:29, 116: 19, 409:9, 484: 17). That matter should be the subjective state
of mortal mind, and also mindless, shows the mythical nature of both
mortal mind and matter. Mindless mind can be neither matter nor mind,
and is therefore nothing.
Not unconscious matter but ever-conscious Spirit is the subjective
state of infinite Mind. Reflecting upon its own nature, Mind declares: 'I,
Mind, am infinite Spirit; the image that I hold and maintain within me is of
myself as Spirit, not matter. This image is man.'
Under hypnosis, Adam dreams that Eve is formed from his rib. It is
said that woman is taken out of man. Man apparently loses his
womanhood. The subjective state of his being appears in his dream as
objective and separate. Hence his instinctive urge to make the two one
again. In Science, man finds his womanhood through identification with
God and his universe. The womanhood of God is the divine answer to the
deep collective unconscious.
Simultaneous with the creation of Eve, a talking serpent enters the
scene - the symbol of generic evil. This serpent, in the early chapters of
Genesis, is the original form of the red dragon in the later chapters of
Revelation. According to Revelation 13, the dragon operates through two
agents, a beast from the sea and a beast from the earth. The serpent in
Genesis likewise has two agents, Adam and Eve. The beast from the sea
stands for unconscious mortal mind, the beast from the earth for
conscious mortal mind. Jung says that, in mythology, "the sea is the
favourite symbol for the unconscious, the mother of all that lives" (ibid
ADAM AND NOAH
53
p.134). Adam names Eve "the mother of all living." Christian Science
restores to man his apparently lost womanhood by setting its right foo.t on
the sea and its left foot on the earth (S & H 559) - that is, by exercising
absolute power over both unconscious and conscious mortal mind. The
real ~'mother of us all" is, as Paul infers in Galatians, the bridal city of
Revelation 21, which appears when there is "no more sea."
As already noted, Mary Baker Eddy writes of the one evil, or evil one
(made up, as it is, of these two aspects of mortality), as "the first lie and all
liars" (S & H 16: 19). She is discussing the "first voluble lie" which the
snake-talker utters when it identifies Adam and Eve with the archetypal
gods of the mythological unconscious, knowing good and evil (S & H
533: 13). Instead of being 'as God' (instead of being the likeness, or
reflection, of the one creator, God, as in Genesis 1:26), mythology declares
that men and women are "as gods." In Science and Health, this reference
to the "evil one" is part of the interpretation of the Lord's Prayer. "Our
[one] Father-Mother God" (in contrast to Adam and Eve as fathermother) is mankind's saviour from original evil (S & H 16:27). Mind as
Spirit is the real parent of man.
Because they fall victim to the serpent's lie, Adam is cursed to till the
soil and Eve to bring forth in sorrow. The serpent is made to crawl in the
dust. Only when Revelation 22 is reached, and the fruit-bearing tree of
life, fertilized by the river of life, stands alone in the midst of man's being,
is this double curse removed. Then the tree of death is no more.
The spell is finally broken (in Revelation) because (in Genesis) Eve is
not deceived by the serpent to the same extent that Adam is. The idea of
the womanhood and motherhood of God impels in Eve, in these opening
moments of the story, a movement of thought that leads in the end to the
total surrender of the mortal sense of life, and its replacement by
immortality. In other words, the tree of the knowledge of go'od ang evil,
with which Eve is closely associated, will yield at last to the tree of life.
Only the matrix of immortality is really in the midst of man's garden.
Adam, selfishly, blames God and blames Eve for his downfall. Eve,
unselfishly, blames neither God nor Adam, but blames herself. She accepts
the responsibility herself. She says: " 'Neither man nor God shall father my
fault.' She has already learned that corporeal sense is the serpent" (S & H
533:30). Eve discovers that the serpent is mankind's corporeal sense of
self. Evil is not something to be attacked 'out there,' but handled
subjectively at the point of individual understanding. Because of this,
womanhood will, in the end, wholly overcome the serpent.
Eve makes the mistake of attaching error to herself personally. To
woman there is no self but God. Wonlan deprives error of all selfbood.
That which finally destroys the serpent is woman's total impersonalization
of self. Eve is "the belief that the human race originated ma,terially instead
of spiritually" (S & H 585:25). Woman is the understanding that the human
race originates spiritually instead of materially. Eve is a moral sense of
54
good and evil at war with each other; woman is the spiritual sense of the
absolute supremacy of good. Womanhood can no more be divided from
manhood than Mind can be deprived of its own subjective state as Spirit.
In this section of the text the relationship of Mind to Spirit has its
suppositional opposite in the relationship of Adam to Eve.
Mortality banishes itself from immortality. Adam and Eve cut
themselves off from the tree of life. When they reproduce themselves in
Cain and Abel, Cain takes after his father, and Abel after his mother. Cain
stresses the physical, Abel the moral. When the physical murders the
moral the fruit of the tree of good and evil begins to be reaped.
Nevertheless, just as Eve, through her perceptiveness, hints at the true idea
of woman, so Abel, with his sacrificial lamb, hints at what is called the
"seed of the woman" manifested later by Jesus. The difference between
Abel and Jesus is that whereas Cain destroys Abel, Cain's equivalent in the
case of Jesus is unable to repeat the crime. Jesus, at the resurrection,
shows himself unharmed by Cain. This is because Jesus' morality (that is,
his humanity) is based on an opposite premise from that of Abel. Jesus'
morality derives from love of spirituality, not from fear of physicality. Evil
can no more destroy Jesus' humanity than it can destroy his divinity, for
the two are one.
Cain is identified by the mark of the beast. He is ignorance, the
opposite of understanding. The "murderer from the beginning" is wholly
of the nature of a myth. To fight Cain on his own terms is to make
something out of nothing, a procedure impossible in Science. Hence a
sevenfold vengeance threatens any attempt to dispose of Cain by merely
physical means.
3rd tone of 1st period From the "mist" in the first tone, and the '4deep sleep" in the second, we
come to the "land of Nod" in the third. Correspondingly, in the order of
- Mind as Souldivine metaphysics, Mind in its aspect as Mind leads, secondly, to Mind as
Spiri t, and thirdly, to Mind as Soul. These three tones teach us the
fundamental spiritual idea underlying the first period.
Because murderous physicality is a state of self-destruction, or
spiritual oblivion, Cain is banished from the face of the Lord into the land
of Nod. The word Nod means "wandering, exile," and is said to suggest a
condition of extreme fright.
"If Soul sinned, Soul would die. Sin is the element of self-destruction,
and spiritual death is oblivion" (S & H 310:24). Because Soul is sinless,
Life is deathless. All that Cain typifies must pass into oblivion in the
thought of the individual Adam just as it must on a world scale in the
coming story of Noah and the flood.
As we learn from the text, the line of Cain, in the land of Nod, develops
through seven generations, and then comes to an end. The seventh
generation is fourfold. The Cainite concept of life ends, apparently, many
ADAM AND NOAH
55
times worse than it begins, for the threat of vengeance which at first was
sevenfold is now seventy and sevenfold.
"
The narrative credits Cain with starting the first civilization; though
from this point onwards we hear of him no more. As we would expect, the
progeny of Cain and all that they stand for perish in the flood in the story
of Noah. The name Cain means "acquisition." It suggests a perverted
individualism which exploits its brother man for its own personal gain.
This state of thought breeds violence and corruption and must be
expunged from the earth.
The problem begins to solve when Eve bears Adam his third son, Seth.
Seth means "substituted." He is the substitute for Abel "whom Cain slew."
Adversity forces Adam and Eve to think from a totally new point of view.
Seth is humanity, or morality, on a spiritual rather than a physical basis. In
Genesis 5: 1 Adam is no longer referred to as man made from dust (as in
Genesis 2:7) but as man in the likeness of God (as in Genesis 1:26). Let us
note therefore that, in the original Hebrew, "man" in Genesis 1:26 is
rendered "adam," like "man" in Genesis 2:7. The implication is that there
are not, and never will be, two kinds of man, one mortal and the other
immortal, any more than there are two kinds of tree in the midst of Eden.
The difference is one of standpoint. The sole reality of the adamic concept
is, in the last analysis, man in the image and likeness of God. Thus "Jesus
beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where [in exactly
the same place] sinning mortal man appears to mortals" (S & H 476:32).
Corresponding to the seven generations of Cain, exactly seven
generations unfold from Adam to Enoch, through Adam's third son, Seth.
By means of this sevenfold order, the problem of Cain is solved. "And
Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." Paul
interprets this by saying: '~By faith [understanding] Enoch was translated
that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had
translated him" (Heb 11 :5). The name Enoch means Hteacher, instructor."
Enoch is that state of thought which walks with God according to the
spiritual order of the seven days of creation, the order of understanding,
the order of the third degree. In the consciousness of Enoch, translation
takes the place of death - the myth of material origin yields to identity in
immortal Mind.
The underlying tone is Mind reflecting Soul. The senses of Soul, or
spiritual understanding, reverse and translate the evidence before the
mortal senses, and identity is found an image in Mind. No longer does
identity appear as mind imprisoned in matter, that is, as sinning, dying
mortal body.
Science and Health declares: "If Enoch's perception had been
confined to the evidence before his material senses, he could never have
'walked with God,' nor been guided into the demonstration of life eternal"
(S&H 214:5).
56
In accordance with the symbolism of the first day of

creation, where
,
the light is called Day and darkness Night, Enoch proves that Mind is all,
and therefore that matter is naught. This idea of the total solution of the
life-problem, presented in the first thousand-year period, is the logical
starting-point of our Scriptural journey, and the light which lights us on
our way. This is the "light of the world" which, in due course, Jesus will
demonstrate on behalf of all mankind.
THE NOAH MYTH
The Noah myth is to the Adam myth as the second day is to the first, as the
firmament is to the light-, and as scientific Christianity is to Jesus' original
founding mission. Moving from the first to the second period, the accent
shifts from individual man to collective and universal man. First, spiritual
individuality exemplifies the solution to the great life-problem; secondly,
as a result of this, all individuals everywhere are enabled to do the same
thing.
As we have said, the two opening periods foreshadow the missions of
Christ Jesus and Christian Science that appear in the fifth, sixth, and
seventh periods. In relation to the synonymous terms for God, Christ
Jesus, in the fifth period, accentuates Life~ Christian Science, in the sixth
and seventh periods, accentuates Truth and Love. In the first two periods,
therefore, we are already aware of the eternal trinity of Life, Truth, and
Love. The Adam story, ending with the translation of Enoch (who does not
see death), has the emphasis on Life; the Noah story, which begins with the
building of the ark and ends with the tower of Babel, stresses Truth and
Love. The ark prefigures the universal Church of Christ that rebirths the
world. In Christian Science, "church," as the body of Christ, the spiritual
reality of the human race, is,'defined as the "structure of Truth and Love"
(S & H 583: 12). 'The lesson the allegory teaches is that an all-harmonious
structure of spiritual understanding counteracts the worldly tower of
Babel, with its multitude of warring factions.
The Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God, which, throughout the Scriptural
unfoldment moves progressively on the waters of human consciousness, is
indeed "the development of eternal Life, Truth, and Love" (S & H 588:7).
The firmament of the second day, like the ark of the second period, is
the scientific understanding of the light of the first day. Understanding
makes the light universally available, and is the means whereby all men
may play their part in a new world birth. The firmament called Heaven
separates the waters above from the waters beneath, just as Noah, -in his
ark, is separated from the waters of the flood.
The firmament, like the ark, teaches humanity that there are not two
kinds of world, one beneath and one above, any more than there are two
ADAM AND NOAH
57
kinds of tree in the midst of the garden of Eden. A false' concept of the
world having been separated from the true understanding of the world, the
unreality of the one is swallowed up in the reality of the other. What seems
to mortals like a destroying flood is, in Science, the outpouring solution to
the human problem. It signifies submergence in Spirit, the baptism of
Spirit, purifying humanity of violence and corruption, and destroying, not
the world, but the world~s dualistic mortal beliefs. Humanity finds itself
~'born of the Spirit, born of God" (S & H 463: 18), born of the waters above,
not of the waters beneath. To human sense, the mortal is reborn. "Ye must
be born again" of Hwatcr and of the Spirit," Jesus says to Nicodemus.
When the floods abate, Noah and his family emerge from the ark and the
world is born again.
The story tells of the purity of Spirit cleansing the human race of its
beliefs in the douhle reality of good and evil. It concerns a moral
chemicalization, a mental fermentation, in which "all errors of belief yield
to understanding" (S & H 96:21 ). Hence as we merge from the first period
to the second, the tone changes frOITI Mind to Spirit. There are three
subtones, as in the first period: Spirit as Mind, where we build our ark,
Spirit as Spirit where the ark separates us from the forces of selfdestruction, and Spirit as Soul where, in consequcnce, our identity is
reborn.
"As the days of Noe were, so shall also the COining of the Son of man
be," Jesus says to the disciples when he is telling thenl about the worldrebirthing Science of Christianity that will C0l11C in the closing stages of
the sixth millennium. "As in the days that were before thc flood they were
eating and drinking, marrying and giving in Inarriagc, until the day that
Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took
them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of nlan he" (Matt 24:3739).
"And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is Clunc before me; for
the earth is filled with violence ... " A parallel exists hctwccn the world
situation in the story of Noah and the present twentieth century state of
immorality, violence, and corruption. Yet we are protllised that our world
today will not in fact destroy itself, despite its (-'ainitc qualities of
acquisition, exploitation, murder, and greed. Thesc Clel11cnts only will be
destroyed. Civilization will be transformed and savcd. ~The waters shall
no more become a flood to destroy all flesh," God assures Noah, after the
deluge ceases. The reason is that the spiritual reality of the race as a whole
will reveal itself in the Science of Christianity, or in the second advent of
the Son of man.
In Revelation 12, the dragon casts out of his rnouth aftcr the woman
(generic man) an equivalent of the Noahic flood. But uthc earth helped the
woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowcd up the flood."
Science and Health interprets this by saying: HWhat if the old dragon
should send forth a new flood to drown the Christ-idea? He can neither
58
FROM Gl:NESIS TO REVELATION

J
""
..
drown your voice with its roar, nor again sink the 'world into the deep
waters of chaos and old night. In this age the earth will help the woman;
the spiritual idea will be understood" (S & H 570: 18). Earth helping the
woman results today from the growing understanding that the human race
as a whole is the mother of Christian Science, and therefore the birth-giver
of its own being as the Son of man. Through this understanding, mankind
is born again.
The name Noah means "comfort," which derives from "with +
strength" - the strength inherent in the purity of Spirit. It is said of Noah,
~~this same shall comfort us." Noah is indeed a foreshadowing symbol of
the Holy Comforter, or Christianity in its Science.
....
,-
I st tone of 2nd period

- Spirit as Mind-
The Noah story, like the Adam story, opens with a reference to
fundamental mythology. The myth presented is the exact opposite of Spirit
as Mind. Because Spiri t is Mind, Spirit is creative. The dualism of good
and evil, or belief in the equal realities of Spiri t and matter, is not creative
but destructive.
We are told how the "sons of God" wed themselves to the "daughters
of men," and how "giants" are born of this union. The myth developed by
Christian theology of a Father in heaven, a mother on earth, and the birth,
in consequence, of a superhuman Son, is the supposed saviour from this
original anthropomorphic myth. The life of Jesus, spiritually understood,
eliminates this myth on the individual scale; Christian Science, spiritually
understood, eliminates it on the collective and universal scales. Only what
Spirit as Mind creates is reality. Mixing Spirit and matter, wedding the
waters above the firmament to the waters under the firmament (second
day of creation), without first separating them spiritually and scientifically
is giant error. Marriage between the divine and the human takes place
when it is understood that the waters under the firmament are not waters
of maller, Spirit's unlikeness, but waters of reflection, Spirit's likeness.
Then the two are one.
Elements of mystic dualism (reminiscent of Abel) and of acquisitive
greed (reminiscent of Cain) are the causes of the world-wi<;le violence and
corru ption seen at the beginning of the second period, even as they are the
causes of violence and corruption in the world today. These evil elements
call forth the drowning flood.
Noah, the comforter, the saviour of the situation, comes through the
line of Seth. Today, Christian Science, the holy Comforter, is of divine not
mythological origin. Noah walks with God in the second period as surely
as Enoch walks with God in the first.
"And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt . . . And
God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me. . . Make thee
an ark of gopher wood . . . and . . . pitch it within and without."
ADAM AND NOAH
59
The meaning is not that the end of all flesh, as such, is come, but rather
that the time has come in which to destroy the myth that man is flesh
instead of spirit. The significance of Hpitch" is Batonement." We
spiritually understand our world through at-one-ment with God within
and without, eliminating belief in fleshly separation.
There must be rooms in Noah's ark. There must indeed he room for all
mankind. Nothing can be left outside except a violent, se If-destroying,
untrue sense of mankind. Our ark is our understanding of the matrix, or
motherhood, of God. It holds in safety within its embrace the infant idea,
the embryo, of a totally new spiritual world. The ark is divine' Science
reduced to an ordered system of ideas in ahsolute (~h rist illn Science,
becoming the healing, rebirthing saviour of the human race in ("hristian
Science. This activity of the first translation (S & H I 15) hri ngs into
operation the three degrees of the second. Hence, Hwith lower, second,
and third stories shalt thou make it," Noah is told.
It shall be three hundred cubits long, fifty cuhits hroad, and thirty
cubits high. These symbols of three and five occur again and again. They
hint the tones of the third and fifth synonyms for God. They suggest
identity and individuality not only for man but for the animals as well. For
God "forms and preserves the individuality and identity of animals as well
as of men" (S & H 550:5).
A window shall Noah' make in his ark. The word "window" is from the
two words Hwind" and "eye." If "thine eye be single," Jesus says, "thy
whole body [world] shall be full of light" (Matt 6:22), In the measure that
Noah's eye is spiritually and scientifically single, his understanding of his
world is devoid of evil.
There must also be one door. The ark is the sanctuary of Spirit, the
door of which is closed to error and open to Truth. Within the quiet
sanctuary of his world-embracing ark, Noah must "deny sin' and plead
God's allness" (S & H 15:3-18). The ark which he builds, like the church
which the apostles build, and like the church which Mary Baker Eddy
builds, is an understanding of the matrix calculus of Truth and Love, the
world's spiritual reality.
In the case of Noah, the two translations operate on the universal scale,
just as with Enoch they operate on the individual scale. Noah himself
illustrates the work of the first translation, while his three sons, Ham,
Shem, and Japhet, typify the three degrees of the second. Not surprisingly,
Noah is given seven days in which to build his ark, and gather his family
and the animals inside. Then comes the deluge.
2nd tone of 2nd period

- Spirit as Spirit-
Noah comes out from the material world and is separate inside his ark.
His understanding of reality acts as a "line of demarcation between the
real and unreal" (S & H 505:21). Immediately he has entered into the
safety of this understanding the fountains of the great deep are broken up,
60

,--
'-
';-
and the windows of heaven are opened. The two translations operate as
one in his consciousness. Simultaneously as heaven opens (first
translation), the fountains of the deep psychic unconscious are broken up
(second translation).
Noah and his ark are lifted up. Spirit imparts the "understanding which
uplifts consciousness and leads into all truth" (S & H 505: 16). A world
baptism takes place- a twofold baptism - as in the case of Jesu's. Jesus, in
Jordan, is baptized simultaneously of the waters of repentance and the
Holy Ghost. 'You must, be born of water and of the Spirit,' Jesus says to
Nicodemus, when explaining the process of human regeneration. "I will
pour out my spirit upon all flesh," God promises the prophet Joel,
concerning the world baptism that takes place on the day of Pentecost, and
that ~ comes full flood wi th Christial} Science. "Christian Science . . .
floods the world with the baptism of Jesus," declares Mary Baker Eddy
('02.5:6). Rightly understood, the deluge in the story of Noah is the world
flooded with the baptism of Spirit, submerged in Spirit, purified by Spirit,
so that all flesh dies. Fleshly beliefs are washed away, and replaced with
the understanding of Spirit.
In the second tone of the second day of creation, the textbook quotes
the Psalmist: "The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters,
yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." The violence and corruption that
issue in belief from the depths of the unconscious psyche are broken up
and destroyed through translation; for the "greatest wrong is but. a
supposititious opposite of the highest right" (S & H 368: 1). " 'He uttered
His voice, the earth melted.' This Scripture indicates that all matter will
disappear before the supremacy of Spirit" (S & H 97:26).
"Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail . . . ..1nd all flesh died
. . . and the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days."
Again, a hint of three and five. All false identity and all false individuality
are swallowed up in the great universal baptism, or spiritual translation.
Learning to identify our world with the absolute Science of Christianity,
we submerge it. in the baptism of Spirit, and all flesh dies. But this does not
mean that persons and animals die. It means that spiritual understanding
demonstrates the nothingness of mortality, in order that identity and
individuality may be reborn.
After a hundred and fifty frightening, tempestuous days "the wind of.
God" causes the waters to assuage. The wind of God, or breath of God, is
God as Spirit moving on the face of the waters. As in the case of Jesus and
his disciples, so with Noah and his world, the Holy Ghost, or holy Spirit, is
breathed upon all mankind (John 20:22). Soon, Noah's newly conceived
world will emerge from its enveloping, formative matrix (the ark) and be
seen as mankind's real identity. "The wind bloweth where it listeth," Jesus
says to Nicodemus, "so is everyone that is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8).
ADAM AND NOAH
3rd tone of 2nd period

- Spirit as Soul-
61
In the section on Spirit as Spirit, our ark of understanding (which Spirit as

Mind builds) causes us to come out from the material world and. be
separate. This leaves us, apparently, with two creations - a material one
from which we turn away, and a spiritual one with which we seek to unite.
But two opposing creations are impossible in Science. It remains,
therefore, for Spirit as Soul to resolve this dualistic concept. Spirit as Soul
shows us that our present world is the only world and identifies it as Spirit,
not matter. Thus our world is born again. Spiritual understanding takes
away a previously held misconception of the world, and we are free to
enjoy the spiritual reality of our present, only world.
In order to solve the human problem, we must balance withdrawal with
return. Arnold Toynbee, in A Study of History, shows that amongst the
founders of the world's religions Jesus alone achieves this balance, and
thereby solves the life-problem. Others escape (so they believe) to
Nirvana, but Jesus proves conclusi vely that there is only one kind of
world. He illustrates the workings of the two translations. He withdraws to
the mountaintop to understand reality, but returns to the valley to heal and
save mankind. On the much vaster scale of the two Messianic advents
(foreshadowed in the Bible's two opening periods) the first advent
emphasizes withdrawal to heaven, the second em.phasizes return to earth
for the purpose of world salvation. "Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?"
the two angels ask the disciples in the firs! chapter of Acts, HThis same
Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."
The ark rests on the peak of Ararat. This sacred mountaintop typifies
the purity of Spirit - the corner-stone, or cap-stone, of the spiritual
rebuilding that is now to take place in the world. The baptism of Spirit
having washed the body of the impurities of flesh (S & H 241 :27), life
begins again on new foundations. "We cannot build safely on false
foundations" - we cannot bring to birth the spiritual body of
mankind - unless "old things pass away and 'all things are become new' "
(S & H 201 :7). The view from Ararat is glorious; all around us other similar
mountaintops are lifting up their heads above the receding flood. The
birth is not personal or sectarian, but is everybody's rebirth. In Christian
Science, nothing less than the whole world is being born again.
The question is, has our act of withdrawal accomplished its
preliminary purpose? Are we ready to return? We arc if our Ul'~ has gone
to the Father, if a new understanding of self has been won, and if men are
drawn to the divine Principle, Love, rather than to human personality.
To find the answer to these questions, Noah sends forth a raven which
goes to and fro. Consciousness must be rid of its dark, restless, rapacious
thinking before it can emerge from the ark. Even so, is spirituality
sufficiently evident? Have the waters receded? Is Spirit really the only Soul
there is? Noah sends forth a dove. This typifies divine Science, the Holy
62
Ghost, which makes all men one. Noah is testing himself spiritually. Are
the 'inside' and 'outside' of consciousness one? Are subject and object one
in identity? Does what is outside the ark correspond spiritually to what is
inside, so that 'here' and 'there' are no longer two?
Three times the dove goes forth. At first the waters still cover the earth,
and she comes back to Noah inside the ark. Belief in a dual sense of self is
not yet properly resolved. Noah waits seven days and sends her forth
again. She returns with an olive branch of peace. She is making "both
one." The waters are fast receding, and soon the ground will be dry. After
a further seven days he sends her out again, and this time she does not
return. The self, the I, has gone fully unto Spirit, and the face of the land is
dry. Inside and outside, subject and object, are one in spiritual identity.
Noah, his family, and the animals, emerge from the womb-like seclusion of
the ark, and a new world is born.
God says to him: "And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and
with your seed after you. . . and the waters shall no more become a flood
to destroy all flesh." A sevenfold rainbow of promise spans the heavenly
firmament. A "rainbow was upon his head," says Revelation 10 of the
angel which today brings divine Science to the consciousness of mankind.
Science is "Truth's prism and praise" (S & H 558: 13). Through a spectrum
of seven synonymous terms for God, Science makes it possible for
humanity to understand and magnify divinity. The understanding of the
one absolute God as Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love, is the
means whereby (in Revelation 12) the earth swallows up the dragon's
flood. Through this rainbow span of terms, the spiritual idea is understood
in fulfilment of the Noahic covenant.
Of Noah's three sons, Ham, Shem, and laphet (the second translation's
three degrees) Hwas the whole earth overspread." "And Ham is the father
of Canaan." We are preparing for the coming third period, when we start
to practise universal translation as taught in the first two periods. For
Canaan, in the third period, is the children of Israel's promised land! Can
such a land derive from the physical Ham? Can man's God-given heritage
really be "a sensuous belief; the testimony of what is termed material
sense; the error which would make man mortal and would make mortal
mind a slave to the body"? ("Canaan" - S & H 582:24). The explanation is
that we (Israel), in our journey from Egypt to Canaan, translate the sense
of self and body from mortality to immortality. Freeing ourselves from
Egypt, we exchange the sensuous concept of body for the land of spiritual
identity. We translate the land of the son of Ham into what this land truly
is - the coincidence of heaven and earth.
Here the posi tive part of the second period ends and the negative part
begins. We have been told the how of spiritual building, now we are shown
the how not. In the story Noah lapses into a state of dualism and
sensualism after having identified himself with the Science of Spirit.
ADAM AND NOAH
63
He becomes intoxicated with the fruits of his vineyard. This is the

opposite of imbibing the spirit of his own newborn identity. To beUeve
that we can use the things of Spirit for material satisfaction and gain is to
revert to the giant error of wedding the sons of God to the daughters -of
men.
Ham bears eager witness to Noah's sensuality, but Shem and Japhet
walk towards him backwards and cover his nakedness with a cloak.
Neither the spiritual nor the spiritually moral acknowledge animality as
real, while physicality openly affirms animality. Ham, in consequence, is
made the servant of Shem and Japhet instead of their master. The first
degree must be brought under the control of the second and third degrees
in order to make translation possible. Thus: "Understanding [third
degree] makes the body harmonious; it makes the nerves, bones, brain,
etc., servants, instead of masters" (S& H 216:14). In the third period,
Israel's mastery of the body becomes the dominant factor in her journey
from sense to Soul.
The descendants of Ham, Shem, and Japhet form the nations of the
post-deluvian world. The name Ham means "hot, black." He is the
supposed progenitor of the dark races of Africa, including Egypt. As
already noted, he is also the father of Canaan. From Shem derive the
Semitic nations of the Middle East including the children of Israel. Japhet
means "'enlargement." He is like Joseph in the coming third period, whose
name means "extension, adding." Japhet is identified mainly with the
nations of Europe and the West. He is the supposed progenitor of the
Aryan races, or the Indo-Europeans. Science, art, philosophy, and
government, as developed by the Graeco-Roman civilization of the fourth
period, and afterwards by the Western Christian civilization of the fifth
and sixth periods, are said to derive from Japhet.
Biblically, Christ Jesus comes through the Hebrew descendants of
Shem, while Christian Science comes through the Gentile descendants of
Japhet.
The final topic of the second period is the building of the tower of
Babel- though this can be said to counterfeit the period as a whole rather
than merely its third tone. Babel means "confusion" - specifically,
confusion of tongues. The name is identical with Babylon. Babylon
features in this way at the close of the second period, because the first
thing Abraham must do at the opening of the third, is to separate himself
from Ur of the Chaldees, which is Babylon.
Science and Health defines Babel as "Self-destroying error; a kingdom
divided against itself, which cannot stand; material knowledge. The higher
false knowledge builds on the basis of evidence obtained from the five
corporeal senses, the more confusion ensues, and the more certain is the
downfall of its structure" (S & H 581: 17). In the fourth period, as we shall
see, Israel endures subjugation at the hands of Babylon because she
literally becomes a kingdom divided against itself.
64
Babel is built by Nimrod, a descendant of Ham. Babylon, in

Revelation, is "mother of harlots and abominations of the earth." She is
everything that is unlike the birth-giving heaven of Spirit, the subject of
the second day of creation.
.
The first and second periods in the Old Testament correspond in the
New Testament to the mission of Jesus and the building of the Apostolic
Church. The, erecting of the tower of Babel is the exact opposite of setting
up the true Church of Christ. Babel is human thought striving to attain the
heavenly firmament by progressing from matter upwards. On the other
hand, the Christian Church (like the holy city of Revelation, and therefore
like the divine Science of Christianity) comes down from heaven to
earth - is born of Spirit, not matter. This Church, as the spontaneous
spiritual identity of the race, eliminates the processes of Babel. Its
descension in Acts 2 is the immediate outcome of Jesus' ascension in
Acts 1. According to Jesus only that which comes from heaven builds its
way to heaven. Hence the task which Nimrod sets himself is an impossible
one. The firmament, on the other hand, really does make heaven and earth
one. New Jerusalem, the true mother city, appears in Revelation only after
the harlot city Babylon has fallen. Today, through the universal Science of
Christianity, the real Christian Church is being built .
'~And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.n
Because this language is the language of matter" the language of
disintegration, the opposite of the language of Spirit, Spirit as Soul
confounds it into a babel of diverse, warring tongues. These specialized
individual tongues do not understand one another's speech, and therefore
there are wars and disagreements.
This inability of men to understand, and therefore to communicate
with each other is the state of affairs which confronts the disciples on the
day of Pentecost. The answer lies in Christianity. The builders of the
Christian Church are ,also of one language and of one speech - all are
"with one, accord in one place H - but in a very different sense from the
builders of the tower of Babel. The disciples' language is the Word of God,
the language taught by Jesus, the language of universal spiritual ideas.
This is the world's original mother tongue, already deeply innate in man.
Because this inborn means of communication is already present despite
the evidence of the personal senses, representatives from every nation
under heaven who are in Jerusalem at the time respond to the language
which the disciples are voicing, each man in his own tongue. The events of
the day of Pentecost illustrate a world state of understanding instead of
misunderstanding, of diversity of identity in harmony and unity instead of
the antagonisms which attend a falsely individualistic sense of life. The
Pentecostal solution to world problems of fragmentation, specialized
technologies, and warring relationships, is identical with what is being
revealed today in the universal Science and system of absolute Christian
Science.
\
",
ADAM AND NOAH
65
Today, this unseen Word of God, this underlying language of Spirit, is

increasingly determining present world tendencies towards co-operati.~n
and unification. As these trends gather momentum, mankind's individual
technologies and specialized tongues, reminiscent of the tower of Babel,
will be translated out of their unilateral confines. Each will take its place
within the one Science of all sciences, the one Philosophy of all
philosophies, the one Religion of all religions, the one Race of all races,
and peace will reign on earth.
The importance of the two opening periods, anticipating, as they do,
the healing, translating ministries of Christ Jesus and Christian Science in
the fifth and sixth periods, cannot surely be over estimated. Today, as
humanity heralds the immanent seventh period, we can scarcely fail to
discern the relationship (foretold by Jesus) between what is symbolized in
the story of Noah and events of our own day. Based on this realization, the
Bible is, to us, no longer historical in meaning. Its order from Abraham
onwards is that of our own timeless spiritual unfoldment in and of the
presence of God .
CHAPTER IV
Abraham Isaac Jacob Joseph

"Before Abraham was, I (the Son of God 1am," said Jesus. What is before
Abraham? Biblically, the first and second periods of Adam and-Noah,
underlying which is the twofold idea of the Son of God.
Science and Health says that the third day of creation, "the third stage
in the order of Christian Science," is "an important one to the human
thought, letting in the light of spiritual understanding" (S & H
508:28) - letting in the light of the first day, and the spiritual
understanding, or the firmament, of the second. Correspondingly, in the
third thousand-year period, human thought identifies itself with the
twofold idea implicit in the first two periods, in order that, like the
children of Israel, it may inherit the land of spiritual identity.
The third period as a whole ranges from Genesis 11 :26 (the birth of
Abraham), through the remainder of Genesis, through Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, and Judges, to the end of the book of
Ruth. It is about the spiritual upbringing of the children of Israel.
Impelled by the infinite as Soul (the third synonym in the divine order, and
the name for God which gives the true idea of body and identity) the
narrative unfolds through the five subtones of the third d~y of creation:
Soul as Mind, Soul as Spirit, Soul as Soul, Sou] as Principle, and Soul as
Life.
The first two tones, Soul as Mind and Soul as Spirit, cover the
Patriarchal period in Israel's life. These also bring the book of Genesis to a
close. With the patriarchs, the idiom changes from myth to saga. The tales
of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph are generally regarded as sagas, or
folklore. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are Israel's three fathers, or
patriarchs, the God-inspired architects of her identity. Israel herself,
conceived of generically, is represented by the fourth figure, Joseph. In the
Jacob saga the birth of Joseph leads to Jacob himself being renamed
"Israel." In the fourth period, when the kingdom divides into Judah and
Israel, the house of Joseph becomes the leading house of the kingdom of
Israel, thus identifying Israel especially with Joseph.
Soul as Mind pertains to the Abraham and Isaac sagas, where Israel is
at the point of origin; Soul as Spirit pertains to the Jacob and Joseph sagas,
where she is actually brought to birth. The spiritual significance of these
four sagas is that the seed of the idea underlying the first two periods is
sown by the divine Patriarch, or Father, in the soi] of human
66
ABRAHAM ISAAC JACOB JOSEPH
67
consciousness, where it is destined to develop with power and grace until

it conquers the whole earth - that is, until it constitutes the whole of Il)an.
The idea itself is the manhood and womanhood of God, represented
initially in the life of Israel by the two foremost sons of Jacob, Judah and
Joseph.
In the tone of Soul as Soul, at the beginning of Exodus, Moses'
identification of Israel's true I AM frees her from Egyptian servitude. In
Soul as Principle, he reduces God's law to a comprehensible system of laws
and leads her to the promised land. In Soul as Life, under the leadership of
Joshua, Israel enters and possesses the land~ she accepts her sinless,
deathless selthood as her natural divine inheritance.
From the time of the patriarchs onwards, Israel's progress (the
progress of the idea of one absolute God) towards ultimate world
supremacy is the subject not only of the remainder of the Old Testament
but of the New Testament as well. According to Paul in Hebrews,
Abraham, from the beginning, looks for "a city which hath foundations,
whose builder and maker is God." He is already seeking the city
foursquare in Revelation as the true identity of himself and his world. The
seed which the Father sows in the womb of world-consciousness, at this
point, is thus a seedlike understanding of this ultimate world-city - the
embryonic idea of the Word, Christ, Christianity, Science. Hence the sagas
of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph give us our first touch in the
Scriptural story of the significance of these four terms. Abraham, the
creative father, introduces us to the first side of the holy city, the Word;
Isaac, his son, introduces us to the 'second side, the Christ; Jacob, with his
twelvefold famity of sons, symbolizing the universal brotherhood of man,
introduces us to the third side, Christianity; while Joseph, lord of the land
of Egypt and nourisher of all mankind, introduces us to the fourth side,
Science. Thereafter, the idea of this universal matrix-city' grows and
develops in human conscJ,ousness until it constitutes heaven and earth.
The word city is from the same root as citizen, signifying government
and social order. Mary Baker Eddy wrote of the twelve tribes of Israel that
they stand in type for "the whole human race" (C S Journal April 1895).
What Abraham is looking for - the idea which is speaking through the
folklore of the patriarchs - is the ultimate order of world society, the goal
of all civilization. In the language of the third day of creation, it is indeed
an idea "whose seed is in itself." ~'In thee and in thy seed shall all the
families of the earth be blessed," is God's promise in turn to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob.
So precise is Bible ideology in respect of this mighty promise, that the
four patriarchal sagas hold within them, as a seed, the whole of the ensuing
development of the story including our present age. The Abraham saga
relates to the unfoldment of the Old Testament, the Word; the Isaac saga
points to the Gospel part of the New Testament, the Christ; the Jacob saga
relates to all that unfolds as the history of Christianity up to and including
68
the founding of Christian Science; while the Joseph saga points to the
revelation that is taking place today, namely, Christian Science as the
universal, nonsectarian Science of bcing- the true identity of "all the
families of the earth."
As discussed in the Introduction to this book, Luke says of Jesus, after
the resurrection, that "beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he
expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself."
Accepting the interpretation that "beginning at Moses" means beginning
with the story of Exodus, where Moses first appears (rather than beginning
with Genesis, the authorship of which is attributed to Moses), we might
ask ourselves the question, Why beginning at Moses? Why not beginning
at Abraham"
Beginning at Moses indicates beginning with Israel's deliverance from
Egypt. In the gospel, Joseph takes Mary and Jesus down into Egypt. This is
prefigured in the story of the patriarchs when Jacob's son Joseph takes all
Israel down into Egypt. In the Bible, it is said of Jesus as it is said of Israel,
"Out of Egypt have I called my son" - an utterance which will, in due
course, be found equally applicable to Chris/zanily and to Christian
Science.
Egypt is a symbol of organic birth. Hence Israel, Jesus, Christianity, as

well as Christian Science, must each be delivered from Egypt - freed from
belief in mortal origin. Jesus is identified with virgin conception. God, not
man, is his Father. To the faithful patriarchs, God is the Father of Israel
too. It must be established from the beginning that the Christ-idea is of
spiritual not organic parentage. The period of the patriarchs, in relation to
Israel, corresponds to Mary's conception, in relation to Jesus. In Christian
Science it corresponds to our conception of the absolute spiritual reality
of our world. Explaining Scripturally his life experience, and the way he
has been freed from birth and death, Jesus therefore begins at Moses.
In our journey through the Bible (corresponding, as this does, to our
spiritual journey through life), our thought, like that of Mary, must tind
itself overshadowed by the Holy Ghost, the development of eternal Life,
Truth, and Love (5& H 29:24,588:7). Remember that the idea underlying
the first two periods is this very idea of Life, Truth, and Love. In the two
opening tones of the third period, humanity's identity as this idea is sown
in the womb of consciousness, to come to fruition in the fifth period of
Life and in the sixth and seventh periods of Truth and Love, through the
ministries of Jesus and Christian Science, the manhood and womanhood
of God.
Let us discern the relationship between the first two periods as a whole
and the first two tones of the third period with which we are now
concerned. The first period develops the tone of Mind up to the point of
Soul (Mind as Mind, Mind as Spirit, Mind as Soul); the second period
develops the tone of Spirit likewise up to the point of Soul (Spirit as Mind,
Spirit as Spirit, Spirit as Soul). Now it is that the seed of what these two
69
periods stand for divinely is sown and conceived in consciousness

through Soul as Mind (the first tone of the third period) and Soul as Spirit
(the second tone). The balance and harmony of the ideas involved is like
music in its precision.
Soul in the aspect of Mind covers the sagas of Abraham and Isaac,
where the idea of manhood predominates; Soul in the aspect of Spirit
covers the sagas of Jacob and Joseph, where the idea of womanhood
predominates. The two together become the compound idea of God
which, in Soul as Soul (the third tone of the third period), holds its own
development irresistibly within itself.
[n the terms of the foursquare matrix-city which Abraham himself is
seeking, the Abraham saga, accentuating the Word, unfolds, as we shall
see, in tones of the Word as the Word, the Word as the Christ, the Word as
Christianity, and the Word as Science; the Isaac saga, accentuating the
Christ, unfolds through Christ as the Word, Christ as the Christ, Christ as
Christianity, and Christ as Science; the Jacob saga, accentuating
Christianity, unfolds through Christianity as the Word, Christianity as the
Christ, Christianity as Christianity, and Christianity as Science; the Joseph
saga, accentuating Science, unfolds through Science as the Word, Science
as the Christ, Science as Christianity, and Science as Science. (See
Appendix p.383).
I sl lone of 3rd period

- Soul as Mind-
Abraham's foremost qualities are fidelity and trust (S & H 579: I 0-14), and
they must be our starting-point too. Without these qualities we cannot
begin our spiritual journey. It is well to note, therefore, how the textbook's
first chapter, "Prayer," opens on this same note of absolute faith, and on
the need for trusting God with our desires.
Seeking the matrix of man's true identity, Abraham trusts God with his
desires "that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in
words and in deeds" (S & HI: 12). Note how this elementary spiritual
attitude identifies our thought with the first tone of the third day of
creation, where "Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their proper
channels, and unfolds these thoughts, even as He opens the petals of a holy
purpose in order that the purpose may appear" (S & H 506: 18). Through
Abraham (standing for the creative Word) the petals of the holy purpose
open; but it is in Isaac, his son (standing for the manifest Christ), that the
purpose itself appears. Hence the sagas of Abraham and Isaac both come
within this opening tone.
ABRAHAM SAGA
The Word as the Word
Three geographical locations, forming on the map a kind of isosceles

triangle, illustrate the symbolism at the beginning of the Abraham saga.
70
FROM GENES'S TO REVELATION
These are Ur of the Chaldees in Babylonia in the south east, Haran in

Syria (Padan-aram) in the far north, and Mamre in Canaan in the south
west. Abram (as Abraham is first called) journeys from the first to the
second and then to the third. Figuratively, he ascends from Ur to Haran,
then descends from Haran to Canaan.
The name Ur means "light." Ur of the Chaldees stands for the light (socalled) of astrology and horoscopy, based on belief in the material nativity
of man. Ur is Abram's mortal birthplace from which he must be separated.
As prospective patriarch of the children of Israel he must cease to be
identified with Babel, or Babylon. In company with his father Terah
(whose name means "delay") Abram, with the rest of Terah's family,
migrates from Ur to Haran. There Terah dies.
Haran means "exalted, elevated." It becomes the country of Abram's
kindred, the land of the pure Hebraic strain. Later, Abram insists that a
bride for his son Isaac .be brought down from Haran; and Isaac"himself
insists that his son Jacob goes up to Haran to find himself a wife. With the
exception of Benjamin, who is born in Canaan, all Jacob's sons, the
founders of the Israel nation, originate in Haran, or Padan-aram. Haran, it
would seem, represents the exalted idea of spiritual origin (in contrast to
astrological Ur) from which thought must proceed in order to inherit the
promised land. For only in the land of Canaan is the life-problem solved.
Only when divine Science is reduced to the system of ideas which is
Christian Science does divine Science solve the problems of humanity.
Hence the command to Abram: "Get thee out of thy country [Haran t. . .
and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee." Without
Christian Science, divine Science would be an abstraction. In the
promised land, divine Science and Christian Science are one.
Journeying south, Abram settles in Mamre. The name means Hfully
assimilated, abundantly supplied." Jerusalem will one day be built near
Mamre. We must not forget that Abram is looking for the city which has
foundations whose builder and maker is God - that is, New Jerusalem.
What the Christian Scientist is looking for is the system of ideas that has
rocklike fundamentals, and is of divine not human origin.
Abram's wife Sarai (later Sarah), and his nephew Lot, accompany him
to the land of Canaan. Paul explains the symbolism of Abraham and Sarah
when he writes of Abraham as the "father of us all" (Rom 4: 16) and of . .
Sarah as the "mother of us all" (Gal 4:26). In this latter reference, Sarah is
none other than "Jerusalem above," the holy city itself. Interpreted
spiritually, Abram is already wedded to what he is looking for. So it is with
the Christian Scientist; he is already one with the divine ideal which,
humanly speaking, is his goal. The tone is Soul as Mind, the one parental
source of all spiritual identities.
Lot means "dark, concealed, veiled." He is the sensuality in Abram's
thought which Abram hides and does not want to part with. Thus there is a
famine in Abram's land, and he resorts to Egypt for sustenance. In doing
71
so he fears for the purity and safety of his ideal. But Sarai is under divine
protection, and Pharaoh cannot harm her.
"
Abram profits greatly from his Egypt experience. It teaches him that he
and Lot can no longer dwell together, that the land cannot bear them both,
and so they part company. Lot identifies himself with the fertile plains
near Sodam and Gomorrah, but Abram stays in Mamre. Immediately they
are separated, Abram is given the joyous assurance: "Lift up now thine
eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward,
and eastward, and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I
give it, and to thy seed forever." His longed-for goal is seen to be the
present reality of his being.
The Word as the Christ
After parting from LaC and realizing in consequence that his Christseltbood is already his, Abram is shown what this selfhood consists of and
what he must do to experience it. In the tone of the Word as the Christ he
meets Melchizedek. According to Paul, Melchizedek is king of
Jerusalem - king of the very city which Abram has been seeking, but which
he now knows is at hand. Melchizedek is '-King of Salem . . . King of
peace; without father, without mother, without descent, having neither
beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God"
(Heb 7:2). Melchizedek gives Abram bread and wine, as Jesus does with
the disciples. Melchizedek is pure Christly at-one-ment with God, as
represented in the second chapter of the textbook.
But before Abram actually meets Melchizedek, and partakes of the
eucharist, he must comply with conditions of atonement. Mere separation
from Lot does not necessarily mean that he- has solved the problem of Lot.
Hence there is a battle in Abram's experience. This is between five kings
who come from inside the land, and four who come from outside. The five
kings include the king of Sodam; they represent the five physical senses
wi th which Lot is identified. The four kings are mortal beliefs which assail
the body from outside, and hold it in bondage. In spite of the fact that the
five kings rebel against this servitude, they are smitten and routed by the
other four, and Lot is taken prisoner. The battle is between what is
objective in Abram's thought and what is subjective.
It is imperative for Abram to vanquish the four kings and rescue Lot.
Aided by his "trained servants, born in his own house" he succeeds. He
employs those cultivated ideas which, although they are born in his own
consciousness, are still objective to him, hut which nevertheless heal his
body.
Once the four kings are slaughtered, and Lot is rescued, the birthless,
deathless Melchizedek greets Abram with bread and wine - that is, with
the true idea of body. "Take, eat; this is my body," Jesus says to his
disciples wheri he imparts to them the understanding of what identity is.
The king of Sodom wants Abram to pay him homage. But Abram will
not be tempted. He has glimpsed the reality of seltbood in Christ where
72
subject and object are one. HI will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou
shouldest say, I have made Abram rich," is his answer. Abram is made
rich by the Christly ministrations of Melchizedek, not by the subtle
enticements of the king of Sodam.
Abram is overjoyed with what he and his servants have achieved. So
much so that when this band of helpers is represented by his one faithful
steward, Eliezer, he concludes that he has found his rightful heir. "To me
thou hast given no seed," he says to God, "And, 10, one born in my house
is mine heir." But this is not the Christ way. However helpful they may be
to us, ideas which we have adopted objectively must be superseded by
revelation which comes from within ourselves. "This shall not be thine
heir," God tells him, "but he that shall c'ome forth out of thine own bowels
shall be thine heir." Abram's real heir is as the very stars of heaven for
number. The promise continues: "Unto thy seed have I given this land,
from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates." Coming
from God and returning to God, the heir to whom Abram will himself give
birth is the idea of the wholeness and immortality of man that lies at the
back of the birth-death concept. This means that he will inherit the land
from Egypt to Babylon.
The Word as Christianity
BSuffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness,"

said Jesus to John the Baptist when demanding that John should baptize
him in the waters of repentance. Mary Baker Eddy quotes Jesus' words'at
the opening of the third chapter "Marriage" in Science and Health, and
they are the words which she also uses regarding her necessity for forming
a temporary church organization (Mis 91: 10).
In the tone of the Word as Christianity, Abram is bidden by his
spiritual ideal, the temporarily barren Sarai, to wed himself to Sarai's
Egyptian bandmaid, Hagar, in order to bring forth a son. It is as if Sarai
says to him: "Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all
righteousness." She is asking him, apparently, to concede to certain
"material methods . . . for the advancement of spiritual good" (S & H
56:5). The purpose of this expediency, "requisite in the beginning" (Mis
359:2), is to teach through the use of a symbol the basic impossibility of
mixing Spirit with matter in propagating the Christ-idea. Therefore this,
marriage must, in due course, dissolve.
Abram's son, Ishmael, born of the apparent compromise, is described
as a Hwild man." He stands for the erroneous postulate that the spiritual
idea of God can be circumscribed within a material organization, a
limited mortal body, and so be the son of a bondwoman.
Once the concession is properly made, God speaks to Abram in the
name of El Shaddai, or Almighty God. Shaddai means "Nourisher,
Strength-giver, Breasted." Shad is the Hebrew for a woman's breast
(SRB p.26). Abram's willingness to let Hagar bear him a son leads to the
73
revelation that God alone is Mother; and this leads in turn to the eventual
dissolution of the organic sense of marriage. It was the same with Mrs
Eddy when she organized her church. In the chapter "Creation," in the
textbook of that time, God was referred to as Mother, She, and Her.
At once Abram's name is changed to Abraham and Sarai's to Sarah.
"Exalted father" (Abram) becomes "Father of a multitude" (Abraham).
"Dominative, contentious" (Sarai) becomes "noble woman" (Sarah). At
the same time the covenant of circumcision is introduced.
An explanation of circumcision comes later on in the book of Joshua.
Joshua 5:9 describes it as rolling away "the reproach of Egypt" from off
the children of Israel. The mortal claim that Spirit (Abraham) must mix
with matter (Hagar) in order to be fruitful must be rolled away from
Israel's thought. Abram's rnarriage to Hagar postulates the supposition
that the infinite can be circurnscrihed within the finite, and the purpose of
circumcision is to roll away this false creative sense.
The word circumcision relates to circle and circumference. The male
foreskin~ associated with mortal crcativity~ is circular. In the book of
Joshua, this "reproach of Egypt'~ is rolled away at Gilgal (meaning
"circle"). A son of God cannot he circulnscrihcd~ he does not filter
through humanly creative orifices to be inlprisoncd thereafter in a mortal
. body. Corporeality is neither his father nor his mother. As Ahraham learnt
when he met Melchizedek, the Christ-idea is Uwithout father, without
mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life;
but made like unto the Son of God."
The Word as Science
The sun is shining directly overhead, and 'Abraham sits expectantly in

the open doorway of his tent. Three men approach hilll. They arc three
angels. Yet he addresses them as "My Lord." Typifying a trini'ty in unity,
they reveal to him the "threefold, essential nature of the infinitc as (...ife,
Truth and Love (S & H 331 :26).
Before his heir can be born, Abraham must understand that (Jolt is not
only Father and Mother but Son as well. Individual spiritual identity
reflects God as Father, Son, and Mother, that is, as Life, Truth, and Love.
Spiritual sense is being overshadowed by the Holy Ghost, the divine
Spirit, eternal Life, Truth, and Love. This influx of ,f,;piriu,alily will not
only destroy in Abraham's consciousness the depravity of Sooon1 and
Gomorrah, but will also show him that Philistine rnorali,\'''' plays no part
whatever in the birth of the Christ-idea. In line with the teaching of
"Christian Science versus Spiritualism," the fourth chapter of Scit'Il('(' and
Health, the Word seen as Science eliminates from Abrahanl's experience
whatever opposes the onliness of Spirit in preparing for the c0l11ing heir.
Never does Spirit operate through matter, the opposite of Spirit, in
propagating its own idea.
H
74
With open arms Abraham and Sarah welcome the visitors into their
tent, and there they commune together. Abraham and Sarah conceive the
idea of God as "the only author of man" (S & H 29: 16). The human
representation of this idea will be their son Isaac. Because, in the story,
both are too old for childbearing, Isaac will be known as a "child by
promise." He is the first of many such sons of promise appearing
throughout the Bible. Like the woman in Jesus' parable, Sarah makes
ready three measures of fine meal. The purpose of Life, Truth, and Love is
to leaven and transform the whole of human consciousness.
While Abraham stands before the Lord, the angels turn towards
Sodom. Abraham watches the burning of Sedom from afar. Lot, on the
other hand, is personally involved with Sodom. Sodom is evil as the
unnatural perversion of good. Unless destroyed, it will seek to pervert the
purity of the idea that is soon to be born. The men of Sodom literally try to
pervert the angels with whom Abraham has been communing.
As few as ten righteous men in the city are enough to save it, God
assures Abraham. But apparently there are not even ten. Lot is saved
because of the germ of goodriess that is in him, but the city itself is
destroyed. Thus "the only power of evil is to destroy itself. It can never
destroy one iota of good" (S & H 186: 19).
Lot sits in the gate of Sodom. He is not wholly committed to carnal
ways and means, for he welcomes the angels into his house as Abraham
did when he sat in his tent door. Lot restrains the Sodomites from
assaulting the visitors, and so escapes the fire and brimstone.
Abraham witnesses the destruction from where he stands before the
Lord. Lot is reluctant to leave Sodom. He asks to dwell in Zoar (meaning
"little city"). He wishes to retain in himself a little of what Sodom stands
for. In the end, he and his two daughters flee to a cave in the mountains
where they commit incest. Of this second unnatural union, Moab and
Ammon are born. In later episodes of the story, Moabites and Ammonites
become two of Israel's foremost enemies.
But there is still another factor to be faced before Isaac can come to
birth, and that is the presumably natural and desirable one of moral
integrity. Abraham visits the Philistines. Abimelech, king of the
Philistines, is an honourable God-fearing man, yet we read how God "fast
closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah
Abraham's wife." Philistine morality, or good on a human basis, deters
rather than promotes genuine spiritual advancement. Abraham and Sarah
must understand the impotency of even the customary moral methods of
creativity before their child by promise can appear. Matter, in whatever
form, is never the medium of Spirit.
75
ISAAC SAGA
Christ as the Word
The period of compromise is over. Abraham has outgrown his early need
for concessions to materiality. His spiritual ideal is no longer barren.
Sarah herself is fruitful at last, and the promised heir is born. "And
Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah
bare to him, Isaac."
The name Isaac means "laughter." Happiness and joy come to us when
the spiritual idea is born subjectively from within our own loins. The
laughter which is Isaac is the opposite of the mocking derision of Hagar
the Egyptian, and also of the laughter of incredulity on the part of
Abraham and Sarah when they were told of the coming heir.
The time has come to dissolve the marriage with Hagar. The
bondwoman and her son must be cast out. The "son of this bondwoman
shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac," Sarah declares.
Reluctantly, Abraham accedes to the divine demand, and sends Hagar and
Ishmael away. Isaac alone is Abraham's genuine spiritual heir. Yet
because of what Ishmael provides regarding the early needs of
dualistically-minded humanity he too will become a "great nation."
Hagar and Ishmael are divinely sustained. Wells of water, rightly
belonging to Abraham, but which the Philistines claim are theirs, succor
the bondwoman and her son. Philistine morality purports to sustain
organic life, whereas this is done only by spirituality (Abraham). As Jesus
said to the woman at the well in Samaria: "Whosoever drinketh of this
water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall
give him shall never thirst: but the water that I shall give him shall be in
him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:13).
Sarah's uncompromising attitude towards the son of the bondwoman is
explained by Paul in Galatians. "Which things are an allegory," he says,
"Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond maid, the other by a freewoman
... he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the
freewoman was by promise ... Agar ... answereth to Jerusalem which
now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above
is free, which is the mother of us all ... Cast out the bondwoman and her
son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the
freewoman."
In this epistle Paul contrasts the works of the tlesh with the fruit of the
Spirit, and Mary Baker Eddy uses his words to conclude the chapter
"Animal Magnetism Unmasked," the fifth chapter of the textbook. She
shows how Christian Science, like the American nation, must declare its
independence from authoritarian motherhood. Otherwise Christian
Science is in bondage. The issue is clear cut. It is between bondage, on the
one hand, and freedom, on the other. Only when Jerusalem above, the city
foursquare, is the mother (matrix) of us all do we find within this city
freedom from organic servitude. Let us remember that throughout the
76
fourfold story of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, the self-assertive

seed of this spiritual matrix is, step by step, being sown in human
consciousness, not abstractly, not intellectually, but in terms of our life.
experience.
Christ as the Christ
The section in the tone of Christ as the Christ is in two parts. The first is
where Abraham sacrifices the organic sense of fatherhood; the second is
where Sarah dies and is buried, signifying the passing away also of belief
in organic motherhood. Isaac's real Maker is "divine Truth and Love"
(S & H 106: 11 ).
The Christ-child, symbolized by Isaac, must, in the tone of Christ as
the Christ, pattern the divine ideal that appeared to Abraham in the Word
as the Christ, namely, Melchizedek, king of the heavenly Jerusalem. Like
Melchizedek, this child must be found "without father, without mother,
without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but
made like unto the Son of God."
In the land of Moriah, on the mountaintop site of the future city of
Jerusalem, Abraham is called by God to offer up his son Isaac - that is, to
give him back to his real Maker. The story is a prefiguring symbol of
where, in the gospel, God the Father apparently sacrifices His beloved
Son. But the purpose of this is to show that, in fact, the Son was never
taken away from the Father, and therefore that no such sacrifice has really
to be made. It further prefigures the lesson taught in Revelation, where the
woman's man child is caught up unto God as soon as he is born, or
restored to his rightful creator.
Isaac typifies the Lamb of God. "Behold the fire and the wood," he
says to Abraham, "but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" In the
gospel, the Lamb is not really slain, and neither is Isaac in the present
story. Abraham's fidelity to the idea that God is the only author of man is
fully tested and not found wanting. His allegiance to one Father - one
divine Patriarch - does not falter. As he draws the knife to slay his son an
angel from heaven bids him sacrifice a ram instead - a ram that has been
caught by his horns in a thicket. Abraham sacrifices th~ belief that a ram is
father of the Lamb, or that man is the creator of man. The two-horned
dilemma which says either that man creates man independently of God, or
else that God creates man through man, is sacrificed for the real
relationship of God and man. Abraham gives Isaac back to God through
understanding that his son was never, in the first place, taken away from
God.
Almost immediately Sarah, Isaac's mother, dies. Abraham buries her in
the cave of Machpelah, a new family burial ground which he has
purchased from the sons of Heth. Heth is a descendant of Ham. Heth
means "sundered." Machpelah means 'double." Abraham himself, Isaac,
Jacob, and their wives, are all subsequently buried in the cave of
Machpelah. The double belief in male-female parentage is not part of the
77
developing spiritual idea, therefore this belief must be sundered and

buried.
Isaac stands for pure spiritual revelation, like the original revelation of
Christian Science described in the sixth chapter of the textbook. This
chapter is based on the Pauline. teaching regarding all true revelation,
namely, that "the gospel which was preached of me is not after man"
(S& H 107).
..
Christ as Christianity
A "bride" must be found for Isaac the "lamb." In the idiom of Paul, the
tone of Christ as Christianity is Christ the head, and Christianity his body,
or bride.
Isaac dwells with his father Abraham. He is that aspect of Christ, the
Son, who, in the words of Science and Health, dwells "forever . . . in the
bosom of God" (S & H 29:26). Isaac himself does not go forth to find a
bride: his bride is brought to him by that complementary aspect of the
same Christ-idea which, in the service of the Father, goes forth from and
returns to the Father. This is represented by Abraham's faithful servant,
Eliezer. We are anticipating the meaning behind Jesus' words: "And I, if I
be lifted up from the earth lif I remain in the bosom of the Father, if the I
and the Father are one], will draw all men [my bride, my body] unto me"
(John 12:32). The bride is all humanity, which the Christ-idea draws to
itself, and to which it is thereby wedded.
In the seventh chapter of the Christian ~cience textbook, this
relationship of Christ to Christianity, or of Son to bride, is the reality
behind the physiological relationship of brain to body.
Acting on his master's instructions, Eliezer journeys to Haran, the
country of Abraham's kindred, to find Isaac a wife. He meets Rebekah, the
daughter of Abraham's brother. Rebekah is the God-chosen bride who
accompanies Eliezer back to Canaan, where she becomes Isaac's wife.
"And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent . . . and she
became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his
mother's death." Here, in the Isaac saga, we find the germ of the idea
finally presented in Revelation, that in the course of man's spiritual
development, the concept of mother is replaced by bride. The
corresponding symbols in the Church of Christ, Scientist, are those of
Mother and branch. That which spiritually births us becomes our
universal body, or bride.
Christ as Science
Textually, the tone of Christ in the aspect of Science seems a slender one.
It becomes apparent however when we read that, despite Abraham's
marriage to Keturah (following the death of Sarah), and the birth in
consequence of many more sons, Abraham gives all that he has unto his
beloved Isaac. We are reminded of the father in the parable of the
prodigal, who says to the son that remains in his house: "Son, thou art ever
with me, and all that I have is thine" (Luke 15:31).
78
Abraham separates Isaac from all his other sons, and so reveals Isaac's
absolute, unassailable position. Isaac typifies the universality of the pure
Christ-idea as the Father's only begotten Son.
There is a connection between Abraham's marriage t9 Keturah and his
previous marriage to Hagar. Keturah means "incense, fragrance," and
suggests a religious emphasis. As we have already seen, Hagar, too, is
associated with organized religion. Of Hagar is born Ishmael. The
foremost son of Keturah is Midian. Ish.mael is the supposed father of the
Arabs, and Keturah comes from an Arabian tribe. The symbol of Midian
recurs and recurs in later episodes of the story. IV the Joseph saga,
Ishmaelites and Midianites sell Joseph into Egypt. Hence our need to
distinguish between what the pure Hebrew strain typifies, on the one
hand, and what Egypt and the Arabs typify, on the other. As we shall see
later on, Joseph illustrates the absolute universal Science of man in
contrast to organized religion.
In the present section of the story, Isaac's uniqueness amongst all
Abraham's sons is the uniqueness of one infinite Christ Science in
contrast to doctrines and sects. "Footsteps of Truth," trye eighth chapter of
the textbook, teaches that only what comes forth purely from God in the
first place ever returns to God. HI am supreme and give all, for I am
Mind," God is represented as saying in the closing paragraphs of this
chapter. Correspondingly, "Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac."
2nd tone of 3rd period

-Soul as SpiritChristianity as the Word
JACOB SAGA
Isaac's two sons, Jacob and Esau, lie entwined in their mother's womb.
This opening moment of the Jacob saga pinpoints its entire theme, which
is the imperative need on the part of Jacob to solve the delicate, intricate
problem of his relationship with his twin brother. Science and Health
speaks of disentangling the "interlaced ambiguities of being," and setting
free the imprisoned thought (S & H 114:26). Unless this is done in the case
of Jacob and Esau; unless Jacob proves, through translation, what his
relationship with his brother really is, we cannot arrive at what Joseph
symbolizes, which is the absolute supremacy of a universal Science of man
supplying the needs of mankind.
The Old Testament (Word) prepares the way for the Gospels (Christ);
similarly, the Christian Church (Christianity, leading to the Church of
Christ, Scientist) prepares the way for today's nonsectarian Science of
being (Science), or the truth about generic man. All this is foreshadowed
in the present patriarchal story by the way in which Abraham prepares the
way for Isaac, and Jacob prepares the way for Joseph. The seed which is
sown in consciousness in the form of these four sagas is, as we have seen,
the spiritual embryo of the eventual full fruition of the Word, Christ,
"
Christianity as the Christ
79
Christianity, Science. No wonder there comes the promise to each

patriarch in turn: In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the eaFth
be blessed.
"Spirit names and blesses." This caption to the second tone of the third
day of creation gives the essence of Soul as Spirit (S & H 506:27). The idea
of being spiritually named and spiritually blessed is likewise at the heart of
the story of Jaco~.
The name Esau means "red," Jacob means "supplanter." Esau is
slightly the elder. But Jacob has hold of Esau's heel in the process of their
twin birth. From the beginning, Jacob handles the serpent of material
sense (the belief that man has a split identity) which will otherwise impede
his progress. At all costs Esau must be prevented from taking the initiative.
Jacob is ambitious - zealous for the things of God. Ends, he thinks,
justify means. He steals his brother's name, or birthright, and also the
paternal blessing. To prevent the Hebriac ideal from being corrupted at
the hands of Esau he even assumes Esau's identity, and subtly deceives his
father Isaac. But this apparently egocentric behaviour is only temporary.
It yields in the course of the story to a totally new outlook on life. Named
with the new name of Israel, and blessed spiritually beyond anything that
matter can give, Jacob learns not to fear and hate his brother but to behold
him as the face of God. He learns to love him as himse(f He becomes in
the end "the revelation of Science, in which the so-called material senses
yield to the spiritual sense of Life and Love" ("Jacob"-S&H 589:4).
The tone of Christianity as the Word closes when Jacob, under
Rebekah's bidding, flees from Esau's wrath to the ancestral home in
Haran, there to find himself a wife. Like the teaching of the chapter
"Creation" in Science and Health, Jacob, in this opening tone of the story,
shows his desire to be free from limitation. He rebels against the mortal
confines which Esau would impose upon him. Instinctively he feels the
truth of the statement: "God expresses in man the infinite idea forever
developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a
boundless basis" (S & H 258: 13). Jacob is resolute in proving that man's
identity is without boundary or limit.
In the Christ as Christianity tone, Isaac's bride came to Isaac; in the
Christianity as the Christ tone, Jacob goes forth to find his bride. Clearly
the two situations are complementary.
We read how, early in his journey, Jacob "lighted upon a certain place,
and tarried there all night. . . and he took the stones of that place, and put
them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed,
and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to
heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it."
Jacob's ladder, let down from heaven and set up on earth, with its
ascending and descending angels, is a teaching symbol of how Jacob must
make heaven and earth one in his consciousness, and so solve the problem
80
of a dualistic world. He must bridge the gulf between himself and Esau. In
the measure that he succeeds, his identity will "spread abroad to the west,
and to the east, and to the north, and to the south," and in him and in his
seed will all the families of the earth be blessed.
The place is the threshold of the "house of God," and the very "gate of
heaven." Hence he names it Bethel. On the rock which is his pillow (his
headstone - the structure of the capitalized
terms for God) he will build
.
individually a spiritual world consciousness which will be his true body,
or church. This will take the form of a family" of twelve sons. His circle of
twelve sons will be a working illustration of the family of mankind
transforming itself step by step into the body, or church, of Christ
(Christianity as the Christ).
Beginning his work at Bethel, he will also end it at Bethel. Like the
angels on the ladder, his thought must always return to the Principle on
which it is based. The journey from earth to heaven to earth is
simultaneous with the journey from heaven to earth to heaven. This is
because, in the relation of the human to the divine, the human reflects the
divine. Reflection describes a circle. Earth is heaven's reflection, and
therefore the two are one.
Jacob arrives in Haran, at the house of Laban, his mother's brother.
Laban's daughter Rachel has gathered her father's three flocks of sheep in
front of a well. Jacob rolls away the stone from the mouth of the well and
waters this triune flock. The name Rachel means "ewe." A ewe is the
mother of a lamb. Jacob recognizes his spiritual ideal, his only true love,
and seeks to make her his wife.
But Rachel has an elder sister Leah (meaning "weary"), and such is the
law of the land that Jacob must marry Leah first before he can wed Rachel.
He must also marry the sisters' two handmaids - . Zilpah
... the handmaid of
Leah, and Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid. Of these four wives, Jacob's twelve
sons will be born. Leah accentuates the human aspect of identity, Rachel
the divine. Zilpah serves the human; Bilhah serves the divine. What Jacob
weds metaphysically is the foursquare bridal city of the Word, Christ,
Christianity, Science.
To begin with, Rachel (like Sarah before her) is barren, but Leah and
the handmaids are not. Until certain moral obligations regarding the
human have been met, divinity seems to be unfruitful. We read in Science
and Health: "The divine demand, 'Be ye therefore perfect [Rachel r, is
scientific, and the human footsteps leading to perfection [Leah 1 are
indispensable . . . God requires perfection [Rachel], but not until the
battle between Spirit and flesh is fought [Leah] and the victory won . . .
This is the cross. Take it up and bear it [Leah], for through it you win and
wear the crown [Rachell" (S & H 253:32-254:31).
In the same way, the moral law of the Old Testament must first be
obeyed in our daily lives before it can be fulfilled in the gospel of love in
the New Testament.
81
A process of tr~nsformation and regeneration is set in motion in

Jacob's experience. His consciousness must be both individual and
universal at the same time. Jacob is "the revelation of Science, in which
the so-called material senses yield to the spiritual sense of Life and Love"
(S & H 589:5-; a).
The awareness that the human is in truth divine - that earth is heaven
and heaven is earth - comes progressively, and the belief that the human is
animal and mortal disappears. Hence the qualities that characterize
Jacob's sons are sometimes spiritual, sometimes material. His twelve sons
are twelve unfolding types of consciousness that pertain to his
relationship with his surrounding world, and to the solving of the problem
of being. They are stages in the growth of Jacob's own spiritual stature,
whereby his material sense of his hrother Esau is replaced at last by the
"face of God."
symholi.wn (~r Jacoh's sons

The birth of Jacob's sons is indeed a crucial (crosslike) point at which
to have arrived. In fact it is not too [l1uch to say that the whole of the
remainder of the Scriptural message is ahout these sons, their
development into tribes, the way they mature into t he nation of Israel, and
the way their identity culminates as generic nlan, the spiritual idea of God.
The order of their birth is the order in which hunlanity surrenders a
dualistic sense of life, and so wins and wears its twelvefold crown.
The first four sons (Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah) arc children of
Leah: the next two (Dan and Naphtali) are children of Bilhah~ the pair
which follow (Gad and Asher) are Zilpah's children~ while the Jl10ther of
the next two (Issachar and Zebulun) is Leah again. The final pair of all
(Joseph and Benjamin) are the sons of the beloved Rachel. l~hc first seven
(from Reuben to Gad) correspond to the order of the seven days of
creation, and to the ascending rungs on Jacob's ladder. Thc rC[l1aining five
(from Asher to Benjamin) are the descending rungs. Bcnjaillin links the
unfoldment with Reuben again, thereby completing a twelvefold circle,
(~rucial
VlZ:
HEAVEN
7
Gad
6 Naphtali
5 Dan
Issacha r
4 Judah
<)
Zehulun 10
3 Levi
Joseph I I
2 Simeon
Ben.iamin 12
I
Reuhen
EARTH
82
The meaning of Reuben is "see a son." Reuben is the vision (light) at the
foot of the ladder of the divine reality that rests at the top - that is, of the
heaven which must come down to earth in proof of the fact that the two
are one. This realization is Jacob's first footstep up the ladder. Negatively,
Reuben's heaven is theoretical and abstract, unrelated to his present sense
of a solid material earth. This makes him '~unstable as water," and prone to
defile his father's bed. Reuben's vision is finally fulfilled in Benjamin,
where heaven and earth are one. Jacob must not stop at Reuben, therefore,
but must move forward from son to son in. the direction of this goal.
Simeon, Leah's second- son, is closely associated with Levi, her third.
'~Simeon and Levi are brethren," Jacob says of them. Simeon means
Hhearing." Ears are "'spiritual understanding," the same as the firmament
in the second day of cre~tion (S & H 585: 1, 586: 15). Simeon starts to
bridge the gulf between an abstract spiritual heaven and what looks like a
concrete material earth. Negatively, he would hold Spirit in the grasp of
matter. Like his namesake Simon the disciple he would keep the Christidea apparently bound in flesh. Positively, Simeon understands that
heaven and earth are one, and this is the rock on which the true priesthood
(Levi, church, body) is built.
Levi founds Israel's priestly tribe. The name means Hjoined." It might be
said of him, in the words of Jesus, Hwhat therefore God hath joined
together, let not man put asunder." His relation to Simeon is like that of
the third day of creation to the second, and like the third synonym Sou 1 to
the second synonym Spirit. Positively, Levi is earth in communion with
Uoined to) heaven. He is the human at the point of priestly identification
with the divine. Negatively, he is the human believing it is a sectarian
channel for the divine. In this sense, Simeon and Levi stand for a binding
religiosity and for ecclesiastical despotism (S & H 590: 13). Hlnstruments of
cruelty are in their habitations," Jacob says of them. Jacob must therefore
move on to Judah.
Judah, from whom comes Jesus, is Israel's kingly and governmental tribe.
The name of Leah's fourth son means "praise." Praise is magnification.
'"My soul doth magnify the Lord," Mary says when Jesus is born.
Positively, Judah magnifies the divine to such an extent that the reality of
humanity is divinity itself. This is heaven governing earth, as in the fourth
day of creation. Negatively, Judah magnifies and worships the human
symbol instead of the idea that is symbolized. Thus, in the fourth
thousand-year period, he becomes so attached to Levi's temple, as the
supposed medium of Principle, that the temple has to be destroyed.
At this point Leah leaves bearing, and the accent shifts to Rachel. But
Rachel bears through her handmaid Bilhah and not yet in her own right.
Properly used, human organization is the servant of the divine idea.
83
Bilhah's first-born is Dan, whose name means "judgment." "God hath

judged me," Rachel says when he is born. Rachel has envied L~ah's
fertility. A symbol must be employed spiritually, otherwise animal
magnetism takes control. Negatively, Dan is animal magnetism (S & H
583:26). As such he fosters the organic, personal sense of life and refuses
to lay it down. Whereas the real Dan passesjudgment on (unmasks) animal
magnetism, and so liberates humanity to spiri tual self-government.
Naphtali, Bilhah's second son, means "wrestling." Rachel says at his birth
that she has wrestled with her sister and has prevailed. Once we see the
human as symbol, servitude to an organic sense of life is overcome. This is
the positive sense of Naphtali. Negatively, Naphtali is "a hind let loose: he
giveth goodly words." Science and Health says that "thought, loosened
from a material basis but not yet instructed by Science, may become wild
with freedom and so be self-contradictory" (S & H 552: 19? The trouble
with Naphtali is that he may abuse the liberty which the true Dan gives
him. Hence we must move to the seventh rung of the ladder, where we are
instructed by Science, and are no longer prone to wild permissiveness.
The accent shifts from Rachel back to Leah. But Leah bears only through
her handmaid Zilpah. That which truly serves the human in its quest for
unity with the divine is instruction in, and the understanding of, Science.
Hence Zilpah's first-born is Gad, meaning "troop, fortune." Science and
Health defines Gad as "Science; spiritual being understood; haste towards
harmony [heaven]" (S & H 586:21). This topmost, seventh rung of the
ladder is the climax of Jacob's ascent to heaven, and the position from
which h is thought begins to descend to earth again. I t corresponds to the
seventh day of creation, and to the understanding of being in its Science.
The danger with Gad is that having, through Science, tasted heaven, he
may not want to return tb earth. But withdrawal must be followed by
return, otherwise Gad is escapism.
Asher, the name of Zilpah's second SOD, means "happy." When

understanding (ascent) and demonstration (descent) are properly
balanced there is happiness - happiness which is "spiritual, born of Truth
and Love," which "cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share
it" (S & H 57: 18). This is the happiness of individuality which is born of
the collective and universal wholeness of being. "Happy am I, for the
daughters will call me blessed," Leah says when Zilpah bears Asher. The
negative sense of Asher is "asherah," signifying phallic worship, or
creativity on a mortal basis. Hence our need to move to Issachar, and to
the divine sense of creativity.
Reuben's mandrakes, or love apples, feature in the story. Reuben, Jacob's
first-born, gives his mother mandrakes to make her fertile again. But Leah
84
trades these to the still barren Rachel in exchange for Jacob's love. The
time is near for creation on a divine basis (represented by Rachel) to be
demonstrated. This calls for surrender of belief in human creativity.
Hence Rachel, not Leah, takes the mandrakes. Jacob loves Leah for this
unselfish act, and his love is her reward. We are near the point of the
coincidence of the human with the divine. So Leah bears Jacob's ninth son
Issachar (meaning "hire, reward"). He is the second descending rung of
the ladder. The human has earned its reward by yielding up organic
creativity in favour of the divine. Negatively, ~'Issachar is a strong ass
couching down between two burdens." The danger with Issachar is that of
struggling to enjoy the fruits of two worlds - a human and a divine
creation at the same time. He can be a "servant unto tribute." The
revelation that our present world is the only world, and is spiritual not
material, disposes of Issachar's dualism. Hence we move to the tenth step
in the order, where this fact becomes apparent.
Leah bears Zebulun, Jacob's tenth son, whose name means "dwelling."
"Now will my husband dwell with me," she says at his birth. Her real
husband is God, her Maker (Isa 54:5). The stage is reached where the
divine veritably dwells with the human, and there is no more belief in two
polarized worlds. This is Immanuel, God with us. Heaven and earth are
demonstrably one. This is the moment, in Revelation, when the heavenly
city has descended to earth, and the Lamb is wedded to the bride. But this
fact must be understood in its universal Science. We therefore move to the
eleventh son, Joseph, the most illustrious son of them all. (But before
Rachel gives birth to Joseph, Leah bears Jacob a daughter, Dinah. She is
Leah's seventh and last child. As we shall see, the feminine Dinah, liable to
rape, is the negative concept of the womanly Joseph whom Rachel is about
to bear.)
No longer is Rachel barren. Jacob's ideal, his only real love, brings forth
her first-born son. "And she conceived, and bare a son . . . And she called
his name Joseph; and said, The Lord shall add to me another son." The
name Joseph means "adding, extension." He is spiritually inseparable
from Benjamin, the last of the twelve sons. "Seek ye first the kingdom of
God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you,"
Jesus says. Step by step, Jacob has been seeking the kingdom of God, and
this has come to him at last represented by his son Joseph. A totally
regenerated sense of life will therefore be added. The purpose of Joseph
and Benjamin, the two sons of Rachel, is to transform and translate
Jacob's consciousness of his world. Joseph is this world in its absolute
divine Science.
But before Benjamin can be born, and the twelvefold circle closed,
Jacob must prove the Joseph-principle in his immediate experience. In
85
accord with the eleventh chapter of the Christian Science textbook, Joseph
(the coming ruler of Egypt) answers the world's obje'ctions regarding
Christian Science. He enables Jacob to resolve his differences with what
seems to be his outside world. These objections arise from a
misconceived, fragmentary approach to Christian Science, whereby its
teachings appear contradictory (S &H 341). The answer lies in the
interwoven wholeness of Christian Science itself in its pure Science and
system. Joseph is this interwoven web of absolute Science. He is the
absolute at work in human experience, solving the problem of duality.
Jacob's outside world is, in Truth, the kingdom of God within him.
A theoretical absolutism, on the one hand, and a sense of insoluble
matter, on the other, are the two main issues which Joseph must resolve in
the consciousness of Jacob before Jacob himself is wholly regenerated and
his twelfth son Benjamin is born.
Christianity as Christianity
The section of the story in the tone of Christianity as Christianity is thus in

two parts. The first is about Jacob's relationship with his uncle Laban, the
second is about his relationship with his brother Esau. The first involves
Laban's ringstraked, speckled and spotted cattle, and every one that has
some white in it; the second involves his struggle with the angel at Peniel
and his reconciliation with Esau as a result.
As we have seen, the name Esau means "red," and Laban means
"white." Jacob has served Laban for twenty years. The birth of Joseph is
the signal for him to leave his uncle in Haran and return home to Canaan.
Rewarding himself for his years of service, he appropriates the best of
Laban's cattle and adds them to his own. The symbol of these striped and
spotted cattle, and the brown that have some white in them, suggests a
combining of what Laban (white) stands for with what Esau (red) stands
for - not in the sense of mixing Spirit and matter, but in the sense that the
absolute alone solves the problem of matter. Angered at Jacob's action,
Laban pursues him as he sets out for Canaan.
At Mizpah (meaning "watchtower") they establish their true
relationship. They set up a stone witness. God, not man, is witness between
them that neither in future shall interfere with the office and function of
the other.
The question is, what do Laban and Jacob typify when related in
divine metaphysics? Laban is white, shining, pure, noble. Dwelling in
lofty, exalted Haran, he su re ly represents, as we have said, the standpoint
of the absolute. Misconstrued, the absolute can appear as transcendental
absolutism. Jacob, on the other hand, is committed to the land of Canaan,
where the absolute is demonstrable, and the mortal problem is solved.
Jacob must take the idealism of Laban and use it to solve the problem of
Esau. But Laban himself is not concerned in this. In Science, the
application of the absolute to the problem of the relative does not touch
the absolute - does not diminish Laban's substance - but instead greatly
86
increases its value. Spirit does not mix with matter when solving the
problem of matter. What seems to the senses to be matter is proved by
Spirit to be Spirit's reflection. No wonder Esau is soon to appear in the
consciousness of Jacob as the face (reflection) of God. The solution to the
problem of Laban, Jacob, and Esau, is the fact that the divine and the
human are one in coincidence.
Jacob moves forward in the direction of Esau, while Laban returns to
his place. Simultaneously, Esau moves towards Jacob. Yet, as long as their
twoness is unresolved Jacob is still afraid. He seeks to appease Esau with
presents of the flocks and herds that he has acquired from Laban. Passing
over Jordan, he confesses to God that he is "two bands." As yet Jacob has
not the necessary spiritual nerve to face Esau. He still believes that his
world is against him instead of for him.
Sending his family ahead of him, Jacob, alone at Peniel, wrestles wi th
this mighty issue of his relationship with his twin brother. Peniel means
"face of God." Alone with God, Jacob is alone with the true identity of
man. In this identity, subject anq object are not two but one. The
adversary with whom he struggles is not an enemy at all but an angel
entertained unawares.
In Jacob's belief, a hostile power, coming from 'over there' seeks to
destroy him. But the light of the unity of Truth and Love is fast breaking
on his thought. The angel smites the "sinew, or strength, of his error"
(S & H 308:20) until he sees its unreality. A meaning of sinew is nerve. The
weakness inherent in a dual sense of life is yielding to the strength of
spiritual integrity. Jacob finds his true nerve. He is filled with divine
strength. As a result, his nature is transformed. If God is All-in-all, there is
no animal magnetism masked as Esau threatening him from over there.
Subject and object are spiritually one, and this one is God. Animal
magnetism is Jacob's belief that the presence of Esau is something other
than the presence of God. Unwittingly, he has been fighting against
God - resisting the advent of his own Christly reality as Israel. Spirit's
reflection, man; does not wrestle against Spirit. Therefore there is no
animal magnetism. On the note of the nothingness of evil, there or here,
and the presence of Soul, both here and there, Jacob's warfare ends. He
says in humility: "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."
The twin brothers meet in Science. "I have enough, my brother; keep
that thou hast unto thyself," is Esau's greeting to Jacob when he sees
Jacob's gift. "I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God," is
Jacob's joyous response. Resulting from his "face to face" struggle and
victory at Peniel, Jacob's surrounding world is the very face of God, the
reflection of Soul as Spirit (not as matter).
His name is "changed to Israel, for 'as a prince' had he prevailed and
had 'power with God and with men' " (S & H 308-309).
It is true that the Israel-idea comes primarily to the consciousness of
Jacob, just as Christian Science has come to the Western world today. But
87
Israel is not only the new identity of Jacob. Israel embodies, necessarily,
the identity of Esau as well. Otherwise the two would not be one. Likewise
Christian Science, the true identity of the world-embracing West,
embodies the reality of the Hred" East.
It is really Joseph that has wrought this miracle of transformation and
reconciliation. The coming of Joseph to the consciousness of Jacob has
led to Jacob's being renamed Israel. Hence as the story progresses, Israel
and Joseph become more and more closely identified. In the fourth
thousand-year period when the united kingdom divides into Israel and
Judah, the kingdom of Israel is ruled by the house of Joseph. When this
kingdom is dispersed among the nations of the world, its restoration
comes at last in the form of Christian Science, which is Joseph's true
identity.
In the words of Paul regarding ("1hrist Jesus. Joseph (Israel) has
"broken down the middle wall of partition" hctwccn Jacoh and Esau, Hfor
to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace" (Eph 2:14).
The tone in its positive sense comes to an end when Esau returns to his
home in Seir, and Jacob purchases from the Shechcmites a parcel of land
which he gives to his son Joseph.
As so often happens in the Bible, once a spiritual idea is presented, its
material opposite is exposed. In the present story, having heen shown the
true way of relating with our brother man, we are shown the false way.
This is the tale of the rape of Dinah, and the revenge taken hy her two
ecclesiastically-minded brothers, Simeon and Levi. Her ravisher is
Shechem, son of the ruler of the above-mentioned Shechenlite territory.
Clearly, the spiritual antidote to this offensive episode is Joseph, the real
owner of the land.
Dinah, the feminine form of Dan (animal magnetism), is hurnan ity's
personal, sectarian sense of the spiritual idea of God. A possessive
attitude towards this idea defiles the idea. But Shechem's father, Hamor,
sees nothing wrong with the rape, and recommends official Inarriagc.
Simeon and Levi agree to this, providing it is on their terms. Si mcon and
Levi stand for the conversion tactics of organized religion. They demand
that the Shechemites are circumcised before becoming mClllhcrs of the
Simeon-Levi cult. They must conform to the circumscrihing party-line.
This, it seems, is to the Shechemites' personal advantage, and so they
eagerly consent. But while they are recovering from the initiation, Simeon
and Levi come upon them boldly and slay them with the sword. They steal
the Shechemites' wealth as well as their women and children.
Ecclesiastical despotism is murder. It deprives its victims of their rights of
self-government as well as their natural creative abi Ii ty.
Little wonder Jacob says to Simeon and Levi: "Ye have trouhled me to
make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land."
88

Christianity as Science
Jacob fulfils his God-ordained mission. From Bethel, his starting-point, he

returns to Bethel, just as God promised him he would. He has
encompassed the meaning of the ladder that unites heaven and earth.
Through the birth of his eleven sons he has taken each ordered footstep
prescribed by the ladder, and so his twelfth and last son can be born. Jacob
has not deviated from "the order prescribed by supernal grace" - the
order of the "ladder let down from the heaven of Truth and Love, upon
which angelic thoughts ascend and descend" (Ret 85: 10). Once the circuit
is really complete Jacob can wear his twelvefold crown.
At Bethel, God confirms his new name of Israel. "Thy name shall not
be called any more Jacob," he is told, "but Israel shall be thy name. . . a
nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out
of thy loins."
Benjamin's birthplace is Bethlehem, identical with the birthplace of
Jesus. Bethlehem means ~'house of bread." HI am the bread which came
down from heaven" (John 6:41), Jesus says of his heaven-born, earthregenerating identity. Benjamin stands for Jacob's complete regeneration.
With the birth of his twelfth son, Jacob's "revelation of Science" is
finished - finished, that is, as far as laying its foundations is concerned.
Science itself is infinite; there can therefore be no end to its revelation.
Jacob's "so-called material senses" have yielded "to the spiritual sense of
Life and Love" ("Jacob" - S & H 589).
I t is well to note that the two terms Life and Love also define the
woman in the Apocalypse, crowned with her twelve stars (S & H 561: 10).
These stars typify "the twelve tribes of Israel with all mortals." Jacob is the
early Biblical symbol of this woman - that is, of generic man, the spiritual
idea of God, depicted as a birth-giving mother. The woman in the
Apocalypse is infinite individuality (Life) which is universal in outlook
(Love). She is the individuality of us all reflecting in itself one indivisible
spiritual world.
An entirely new concept of motherhood has dawned. Once
individuality is divinely universal there is no further need for personal
mothering. The universe itself is mother. This is why Rachel dies when
Benjamin is born. The career of Mary Baker Eddy, revelator and founder
of Christian Science, follows the same pattern. Let us remember that in the
spiri tual perspective of the thousand-year periods, Jacob initiates the very
seed of the Science of Christianity, which is chemicalizing world
consciousness today.
In the first decade of the twentieth century, when her "revelation of
Science" was complete, Mary Baker Eddy provided for the passing of her
Mother Church organization. She understood generic man, the spiritual
idea of God, to be the real mother of Christian Science. A stage had been
reached where individuality could realize its truly universal nature; where
it could be spiritually self-governed, spiritually self-led, spiritually
independent of external mothering. It could give birth from within itself to
89
its own absolute being. Hence, in 1901, Mary Baker Eddy declared that
generic man would be her successor as leader of the Christian Scien.~e
movement.
Just as the story of Jacob leads inevitably to that of Joseph, so, in the
early 19008, the door was open for Christian Science to be understood in
its universal, nonsectarian Science, as the heaven-born identity of
mankind.
JOSEPH SAGA
Before he dies, Jacob blesses his twelve sons, and the blessing he bestows
on Joseph is most revealing as regards Joseph's character. HJoseph," he
says, "is a fruitful bough, even a fru itful bough by a well; whose branches
run over the wall. . . the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands
of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of
Israel:) . . . the Almighty . . . shall bless [Joseph 1with blessings of heaven
above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and
of the womb: The blessings of thy father . . . shall be on the head of
Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his
brethren" (Oen 49:22).
The Joseph saga, as it succeeds the Jacob saga, corresponds to today's
nonsectarian Science of Christian Science, as it develops from the original
religious founding of Christian Science. Historically, the one phase
follows the other. Yet Mary Baker Eddy necessarily wrote this Science into
the Christian Science textbook in the course of her founding mission, just
as Joseph, the child of Jacob's first and only love, was born to him in the
course of his founding mission.
Immediately we enter upon the Joseph saga, Jacob's family, living (so
they believe) in the comfort and security of the land of Canaan, assume an
exclusive and circumscribed outlook. This contrasts them with the
outlook of Joseph when he is banished into the outside world. Joseph's
brethren resent the progressive spirituality and continuing revelation
which Joseph claims for himself, and they excommunicate him from their
fold. The blessing which Jacob pours upon his beloved Joseph is that of
spiritual motherhood and womanhood. As a fruitful bough, whose
branches extend over the wall, Joseph illustrates the illimitable resources
of universal man once organic confines are removed. Joseph's eventual
supremacy over the land of Egypt reveals him as the true identity of
mankind, feeding a famished human race with the Science of its own true
being.
It is not an evil thing that Joseph is excommunicated; rather it is the
providence of divine Love. God does it in order to prepare the world for
Science. As he himself tells his brothers when they are reunited towards
90
the end of the story: HGod sent me before you to preserve you a posterity
in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance." Christian
Science and the world are one. It is not in accord wi th the plan of Love
that Christian Science should be lost in a religious organization. Hence
the transfer of its pure Science to what looks like an outside world.
The saga unfolds in the main tone of Science, through the four
subtones of the Word, Christ, Christianity, Science.
Science
as the Word
Jacob loves Joseph above all his other sons. This is because Joseph is, and
always has been, the driving spiritual impulse behind Jacob's mission. To
signify this he gives him a coat of many colours. Is not this coat "the divine
Science of man . . . woven into one web of consistency without seam or
rent" (S & H 242:25) - woven, that is, with ideas of the spectrum (the
understanding) of the infinite as Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth,
Love? His coat is made from '~the entire hues of Deity," and is therefore a
"seven-hued white (Mis 194: 15, C & C v.IO).
The more his father loves him the more his brothers are jealous and
hate him. Through his dreams of the eleven sheaves of corn that bow down
to his sheaf, and of the sun, moon, and stars that make obeisance to the
star that is Joseph, he reveals the superiority of that which is inclusive and
whole (J oseph himself) over what is exclusive and partisan (his brothers).
Joseph's brethren are like the wicked husbandmen in Jesus' parable
who would slay the heir to their master's vineyard in order that the
inheri tance might be theirs. HThe stone 'vhich the builders rejected, the
same is become the head of the corner," Jesus explains to the priests and
the scribes (Luke 20: 17). The word ~'calculus" is from a root meaning
"stone." Joseph, the "stone of Israel," typifying the divine matrix calculus,
is rejected by the builders of a personally authoritarian way of life. But, as
experience shows, Joseph (this stone) becomes in the end the headstone of
the corner. Spiritually speaking, Jacob rested his head on this very stone of
Israel when he first saw the ladder uniting heaven and earth.
Joseph's brothers sell him into the hands of Ishmaelites and Midianites
bound for Egypt. As we have seen, Ishmael and Midian, sons of Abraham
by Hagar and Keturah, are closely associated with the ways and means of
ecclesiastical religion.
Believing that Joseph is dead, Jacob seeks desperately to protect his
youngest son Benjamin, his beloved Rachel's second child, from what he
thinks is worldly contamination. The real Benjamin stands for Jacob's own
regenerate individuality. Benjamin is the individualization in us all of the
universal Science which is Joseph. Once this individuality is free from
smothering, frightened, ecclesiastical restrictions it brings reconciliation
and "renewal of affections" ('~Benjamin" - S & H 582:9) between Joseph
and Jacob's family. The parallel in Christian Science is between the
religious body and its own true identity, the Science and system of
Christian Science. Like all Israel at the end of this patriarchal story,
H
91
Christian Science (when it is one united body) relates to and belongs to the
entire w o r l d . ,
Egypt symbolizes the world. Joseph is sold into the house of Potiphar,
who is Pharaoh's officer, a captain of the guard.
Science as the Christ
"And the Lord was with Joseph . . . the Lord made all that he did to
prosper in his hand . . . the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for
Joseph's sake; and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the
house, and in the field."
Such is the measure of Joseph's growing eminence. While personal
vested interests desire to be rid of troublesome new ideas, the ideas
themselves are at work in world consciousness, out of reach of
ecclesiastical control. The reason for Joseph's prosperity is that he is not a
new religion seeking to impose itself upon the world, but is the true idea of
humanity as a whole brought to birth by the whole of humanity.
Fundamentally, the Science and system of Christian Science is not at work
in the world, but is the world itse If at work. Joseph is not so much in Egypt;
Joseph is Egypt. He is Egypt's <the world's) real spiritual seltbood
appearing to itself.
This idea of the womanhood of God maintains its pure identity despite
the efforts of Potiphar's wife to defile it and misrepresent it. Even in
prison the Lord was with Joseph, "and that which he did, the Lord made it
to prosper." He interprets the dreams of Pharaoh's baker and butler who
are with him in the prison. The baker serves Pharaoh's bread, the butler
serves his wine. "Study thoroughly the letter and imbibe the spirit,"
Science and Health teaches (S & H 495:27). The butler who presses
Pharaoh's grapes is restored to his place, but the baker who allows the
birds to steal away his bakemeats is hanged. What Joseph must ,set before
the world is the living spirit (wine) of Science, not its dead letter. In the
true understanding of the Christ Science, letter and spirit are one, and
both are alive and free.
Joseph also interprets Pharaoh's dreams. The meaning, he says, of the
seven fat kine and the seven lean kine, and of the seven fat ears of corn and
the seven lean ears, is that for seven years Egypt wi 11 yield corn
abundantly, but that these will be followed by seven years of famine.
Pharaoh's gratitude is overwhelming. uForasmuch as God hath showed
thee all this," he says to Joseph, "there is none so discreet and wise as thou
art: thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my
people be ruled . . . See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt . . .
without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt."
Joseph's supremacy is unchallengeable. Man's divine reality absolutely
governs the human concept. In Science, humanity's real identity is found
to be divinity itself. The textbook teaches: HI mmortal Mind, governing all,
must be acknowledged as supreme in the physical realm, so-called, as well
as in the spiritual" (S & H 427:23).
92
"Saviour of the world," "Revealer of secrets," HGod speaks and lives,"

are the exalted meanings of Joseph's new Egyptian name Zaphnathpaaneah. He marries an Egyptian wife, who bears him Ephraim and
Manasseh. Manasseh means "making to forget" (the restrictive past)~
Ephraim means "making to be fruitful" (in the abundant present).
So infinitely productive are the seven plenteous years that Joseph
gathers in corn "as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering~
for it was without number." Then, during the seven years of famine, his
munificent granaries are opened up, and all the world comes to Joseph for
corn. For "the famine was over all the face of the earth."
In the eternal Science of being ideas are substance. Ideas are infinite,
without number. Their substance is inexhaustible. They are classified
fundamentally in Christian Science as the numerals of infinity, the
unexpendable, self-propagating understanding of Mind, Spirit, Soul,
Principle, Life, Truth, Love, the true identity of the universe. "Take, eat
this is my body," says the infinite Christ-idea regarding this very
substance. Feeding mankind with the tru th about itself, the infinite
everpresence of Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love brings with
it the proof that there is no such thing as a dearth of. true substance
anywhere on the face of the earth. And thus Joseph feeds a spiritually
famished world.
Science as Christianity
"Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals. It is the

open fount which cries, 'Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters' " (S & H 13:2). Isaiah's original text includes, "come ye, buy, and
eat~ yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price" (Isa
55: 1). Joseph's boundless spiritual resources, and his impersonal impartial
sense of them, are well described by these words.
The famine is no respecter of persons or sects. Jacob and his family
living in the land of Canaan are just as much affected as everyone else.
Hearing of Egypt's provisions, Jacob sends his sons there for corn. But he
will not let Benjamin go with them. Jacob honestly believes that he is
responsible for keeping Benjamin pure. Therefore he holds on to him and
guards him personally. Little does he know that all there is to the
forbidding outside world of Egypt is his own beloved Joseph, waiting with
open arms for Benjamin, longing to make clear that he (Joseph) is the
spiritual and scientific reality of Jacob and all his sons.
Solely on account of the absence of Benjamin, the brothers fail to
recognize Joseph. But Joseph has no difficulty in recognizing them. The
whole idea, which is Joseph, is greater than the sum of its individual parts.
Parts, seemingly separated from the whole and from each other, are unable
to appreciate the idea of their own wholeness until they find their
relationships with one another within the whole. Joseph is inclusive in hi~
outlook, the brothers are exclusive. Only the presence of Benjamin can
93
restore a state of reciprocal understanding and therefore of spiritual

recognition.
Benjamin's mother died when he was born. Benjamin is that idea of
regenerate individuality in man which gives up the ghost of a personal
'sense of motherhood in order to reflect in itself the foursquare matrix of
the motherhood of God. Because of the absence of Benjamin, Joseph
appears to his brothers not as the outpouring matrix of universal Love but
as the cruel-and exacting world of Egypt. ~If you are genuine and honest
se-ekers for Truth you will not fail to reunite me with Benjamin,' his words
to them imply.
The cause of the trouble is Simeon - the binding religiosity of an
authoritarian way of life. Therefore Simeon must himself be bound. Once
this is done, the brothers' sacks are filled with corn, their money is
restored, and they return home to Jacob with Joseph's new demand. What
Joseph has to give them is indeed without money and without price. Its
cost is the surrender of an egocentric, misconception of individuality. To
liberate Benjamin is to pay this price.
Jacob is greatly distressed to learn of Egypt's terms. Yet such is the
severity of the famine, and such is his own spiritual plight, that he has no
alternative but to let Benjamin go. The nine brothers (Simeon is held in
Egypt) return once more to Joseph, this time taking Benjamin with thenl.
Joseph weeps for joy at the sight of his younger brother. This is the
evidence he requires of his family's spiritual sincerity, and of thei r
genuine desire for Truth. At once Simeon is released. Even so, the
brothers do not recognize Joseph. Can it be they are still resisting the
demands of their own spiritual identity? There must be one last crucial
test. Their sacks are once more filled with corn, their money is again
restored, but this time Joseph's silver cup is hidden in Benjamin's sack.
"Our cup is the cross" (S & H 35:27). The need is for living proof of the
brothers' willingness to yield up the mortal sense of life. Otherwise they
must return to Jacob alone, for Benjamin is now part of Joseph.
The thought is unbearable. Jacob will die of grief. What are they to do?
At last, Judah makes the spiritual grade. He offers up himself for
Benjamin's sake. "I pray thee," he says to Joseph, "let thy servant abide
instead of the lad a bondman to my lord." One day it will be said of Jesus,
of the tribe of Judah, that he offered up himself "once for all" (Heb 10: I 0).
This is the reverse of what happens in the fourth thousand-year period
when Judah organizes and idolizes Israel's religious temple, and the tribe
of Benjamin is absorbed in Judah and lost sight of. In the present episode,
Simeon (religiosity) has already been bound, and Judah, instead of
eliminating the individuality which is Benjamin (as in the fourth period),
is willing to sacrifice the personal sense of self for the sake of this very
individuality. This is the price demanded of humanity in exchange for the
Science of its own true being.
94
Through this act of true individuality, manhood becomes aware of its

womanhood. Joseph appears to them as he really is - as the absolute a11embracing Science of their father's original ideal.
There is heartfelt rejoicing and renewal of affections. The twelvefold
circle is once more complete; Science in its Christianity is the allharmonious embodiment of a nonsectarian world. Joseph urges his
brothers: ~'Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith
thy son Joseph, God hath made me Lord of all Egypt: come down unto me,
tarry not . . . tell my father of all my glory in Egypt."
"And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and
see him before I die."
Science
as Science
The sagas of the patriarchs come to an end; and as they do, the book of
Genesis closes too. In the final sixteenth tone, Science as Science, Jacob
and his family, seventy strong, leave the seclusion of the promised land
and move to the land of Egypt.
"Fear not to go down into Egypt," God says to Jacob, "for I will there
make of thee a great nation: I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will
surely bring thee up again." The divine purpose behind Israel's sojourn in
Egypt is spiritual and scientific translation. Coming from the promised
land with this goal in view, she will surely go back to the promised land.
Coming from the land of spiritual freedom she will return inevitably to
this land, proving meanwhile her own immunity from servitude to a mortal
body. The whole of consciousness (not part of it) will be found in the end
to be Israel's promised land; the whole human race (not a particular
section of it) will prove itself God's chosen people.
Jacob and Joseph are restored to each other, and in their gratitude and
joy they bless one another. Jacob and Pharaoh also bless each other.
Under the rulership of Joseph, Egypt's love for Israel is such that, in the
land of Goshen, where Jacob and his family dwell as shepherds, great
possessions accrue to them, and they multiply and prosper exceedingly.
All the good of the land of Egypt is theirs. The twelve sons of Jacob
become the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, and the "great nation" is
formed. The greatness of the matrix of universal Love has accomplished
this formation.
Jacob is 147 years old when he dies. On his death-bed he blesses all his
sons. He wishes them to know what shall befall them in "the last
days" - that is, in the sixth and seventh millennia, when Christian Science
shall have revealed itself and proved itself to mankind. By that time, the
original patriarchal seed will have grown to fulness of stature, and the
promises that range from Abraham to Joseph will be fulfilled for the whole
human race. In Israel (the spiritual idea of God) mankind will find its true
identity, and all nations of the earth will be blessed. It is evident fronl
Jacob's blessings that his sons stand for states and stages of consciousness
that apply to mankind as a whole. By far the greatest blessing is the one
95
bestowed on Joseph. In fact, Jacob's pronouncements to his other sons

seem mostly to be analyses of their characters, and exposures of their
faults, rather than blessings.
Under the authority and care of Joseph, Jacob's children bury their
father in the land of Canaan, in Abraham's original burial ground. When
Joseph himself dies, the children of Israel embalm his body, and preserve
it in a coffin in Egypt. They make a vow that when at last they come up out
of Egypt they will take Joseph's bones with them for burial in the promised
land. And thus it is that during the period of Egyptian servi tude Joseph is
with them still.
In seeking to understand spiritually the story of the patriarchs in the
Old Testament, we have often been led to the teachings of Paul in the New
Testament. An essential part of Pauline doctrine is that the New Testament
standpoint of man "in Christ" supersedes the Old Testament standpoint of
man "under the law." Paul makes much of that stage of Israel's life before
she is under the law, and much of that stage when (ideally) she is under it
no longer. In fact, it could be said that he divides her life into three phases:
before, during, and after the period of the law. Israel begins her career at
the point offaith, then she is put under the law, and then she returns to the
standpoint of faith once more. The hallowed period before she is under
the law is the period of the patriarchs which we have just been
considering; the period when she is under the law starts at the point of
Moses in the coming book of Exodus. The time when she need no longer
be under the law is that phase of her life which follows the resurrection of
Jesus. At the opening of the Christian era, Jesus demonstrates to Israel the
way out from under the law as the divinely prescribed means of fulfilling
the purpose of the law.
Ideally, in the New Testament, Israel has returned to her spiritual
starting-point- that of the pre-law patriarchs. In doing so, she has solved
the problem of sin and mortality, which is the reason the law was
introduced. For, as Paul explains, the law was "added because of
transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made."
As we have found, and as Paul repeats over and over again, to Abraham
and his seed is the promise originally given. Hence the relationship
between the early Patriarchal era and the later Christian era. BIf ye be
Christ's," Paul says, "then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to
the pro mise. "
It is not possible for us to come out from under the law, humanly,
unless we start out from above the law, divinely. Then, like Jesus who
comes from the Father (the one divine Patriarch) and returns to the
Father, we redeem the belief of ever having been "made of a woman, made
under the law" (Gal 3: 19-4:4).
Israel's necessity (like Jesus' necessity, and our own necessity) is to
prove that her identity was never formed in, or by, the land of Egypt. She
96
must, with Moses, put herself under the law of God, reduced to her
understanding as the moral law, in order to come out from under the law
of mortal belief, which says that her identity is formed in the land of Egypt.
The matrix of immortality (presented initially by Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
and Joseph), not the matrix of mortality, is, in truth, t,he origin and
ultimate of her (every man's) being.
"'
CHAPTER V
Exodus and Leviticus
Advancing from Genesis to Exodus, we move at the same time from. the
second tone of the third period (and therefore from the second tone of the
third day of creation) to the third. We merge from Soul as Spirit, where the
infant Israel has been born, to Soul as Soul, where she has become a great
nation. For in Egypt the children of Israel have "increased abundantly,
and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty," and the land is filled with
them.
The corresponding text in the third day of creation reads: "And God
said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit
tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth
. . . " (S & H 507: 11). Relating this verse with the opening passages of
Exodus, it is evident that, spiri tually, earth brings forth its own true
identity in the form of the children of Israel. The Science and Health
commentary on this verse has these two marginal headings: "divine
propagation," and "'ever-appearing creation." There can be no Egyptian
servitude, no hard labour, no material birth, once identity brings forth
spiritually from within its own being.
This new tone of Soul as Soul, where identity's limitless resources are
found within identity itself, also marks another change in the general
scientific development. In terms of the operational ~~four" ot'the Word,
Christ, Christianity, Science, the tones so far unfolded have accentuated
the creative Word. Now that creation is self-reproducing, the tone changes
to the manifest Christ. "Israel is my son, even my firstborn," God says of
His own Christ-idea at this stage of the story. In the order of the days of
creation, earth (already created) yields her fruits subjectively. In the
course of the thousand-year periods Israel, having already been brought
to birth, propagates and multiplies from within herself.
This new "Christ" tone is further confirmed by the adven t of Moses.
Moses, mediating between Israel and Jehovah, is a foreshadowing figure
of the healing, way-showing Christ, Truth, mediating between humanity
and God.
That a Christ emphasis is now at work is again evident when we
examine the way in which Exodus unfolds. Within the perspective of the
Bible as a whole, Exodus' spiritual development is according to the Christ
order of the synonymous terms for God: Principle, Life, Truth, Love, Soul,
Spirit, Mind. (For the different orders in which these terms are stated in
97
98
Science and Health, and their respective scientific meanings, see p. 380 in
the Appendix.) This translation order of the seven terms is the one
whereby the Christ message from God to men speaks to the human
consciousness (S & H 332:9). It is thus the order whereby God, through
Moses, communes with His people Israel. The opening section of the
story, told in the tone of Principle, leads to a second section where the
accent is Life, to a third where the accent is Truth, and so on, through
Love, Soul, Spirit, Mind. At the end of the book, in the tone of Mind,
Jehovah dwells in the midst of Israel, in the tabernacle of the congregation
which He has expressly commanded her to build. This is Immanuel, God
with her, the divine ever-presence delivering her from every aspect of
Egyptian servitude, or belief in mortal origin.
Israel comes up out of Egypt only because, in the reality of her being,
she comes forth from God. This implies, secondarily, that the kingdom of
God is within her and that she comes forth from within herself. Nothing
can save her from Egypt but the knowledge that, primarily, she comes
down from God out of heaven according to the order of Principle, Life,
Truth, Love, Soul, Spirit, Mind; and that this order of unfoldment is
reflected wi thin her and as her.
Exodus and Leviticus are spiritually complementary. In our present
survey they therefore form one chapter. We read on Science and Health
113, under the heading "Principle and practice," that there is "but one
divine Principle of all Science," with "fixed rules" for its demonstration.
Exodus emphasizes Principle itself, and the translation of this to human
consciousness in terms of divine idea; Leviticus has the emphasis on the
consequent practice, or demonstration, of Principle in the details of daily
life. In this way Leviticus adds a note of Christianity to Exodus' Christ.
Through Jehovah's Ten Commandments, Exodus teaches the Law of God,
while Leviticus is concerned with obedience to, and practice of, these
divine rules and laws.
A lawyer once asked Jesus, "Master, which is the great commandment
in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and
great commandment." Jesus goes on to explain how there is a second
commandment which is like unto the first, namely, "Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments," he says, "hang all the
law and the prophets" (Matt 22:36). He resolves the entire law of God (as
revealed to Moses) into two complementary laws. Although his actual
words relative to the first come from the book of Deuteronomy, they
nevertheless epitomize absolutely the theme and purpose of Exodus. The
words he uses to define the second are taken direct from Leviticus. It is in
Leviticus that the statement: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" is
found for the first time in the Bible.
These two commandments, accentuating respectively the teachings of
Exodus and Leviticus, refer to the Principle and practice of the Science of
EXODUS AND LEVITICUS
99
Soul, or the Science of spiritual identity. A "leading point in the Science of

Soul" is that Principle is not in its idea, and therefore that Soul is "not
confined in body" (S & H 467:21). The belief that Soul is imprisoned in its
own body, and therefore that body is mortal, is the cause of all Israel's
hard labour in Egypt. Egypt's house of bondage is servitude to the belief
that body is mortal. Moses is bidden to deliver Israel from this belief by
teaching her what body is. Deliverance lies in the translation of her
present sense of body from mortality to immortality. This naturally
involves a transitional concept of body, which is symbolized by her holy
tabernacle, or ~4tabernacle of the congregation [body]."
Moses is Israel's teacher and administrator. He is her devoted pastor
and leader, mothering her, disciplining her, and even chastising her every
time she loses sight of herself, or forgets what she really is. The name
Moses means "to lead out, or draw out of the water." It has the same
meaning as educate, from the Latin e + ducere, "to lead out." Leadjng her
out from God, Principle, Moses leads Israel's identity out from within
herself, and in so doing leads her out of Egypt. This makes him a true
educator. Moses, like Mary Baker Eddy, develops a system of spiritual
education destined to deliver Israel from ~~the educational systems of the
Pharaohs, who to-day, as of yore, hold the children of Israel in bondage"
(S & H 226:27).
To show the parallel between the missions of Moses, relative to Israel,
and Mary Baker Eddy, relative to twentieth century mankind, the latter
writes of herself: HI saw before me the sick, wearing out years of servitude
to an unreal master in the belief that the body governed them, rather than
Mind . . . I saw before me the awful conflict, the Red Sea and the
wilderness; but I pressed on through faith in God, trusting Truth, the
strong deliverer, to guide me into the land of Christian Science, where
fetters fall and the rights of man are fully known and acknowledged. . .
Slavery is not the legitimate state of man. God made man free . . . Citizens
of the world, accept the ~glorious liberty of the children of God,' and be
free!" (S & H 226:22-227:25).
Neither mortal body, nor the slavery which this imposes on mortal
man, is legitimate. God is not its father. The only legitimate body is the
one whose seed is planted by the divine Father in the patriarchal period,
namely, the Christ-body of mankind. Individual man images forth the one
Christ-body.
In order to effect Israel's release, Moses reduces the law of God to the
form of the moral law. Through consistent obedience to this law, Israel
inherits the true idea of body, represented by the promised land. This
obedience is put into expression in the tabernacle, her nomadic,
wilderness concept of body, which she inhabits on her journey to the
promised land. Only in the measure that she reflects God, is she truly
obedient to God.
100
Here, then, are three degrees of body: Egypt, symbo I of ph ysical body;
the tabernacle, symbol of moral body (in the heart of which she keeps the
tablets of the law); and the promised land itself, symbol of spiritual body.
Correspondingly, Mary Baker Eddy reduces divine metaphysics
(divine Science) to a system of ideas and their symbolization, which she
denominates Christian Science. At the same time she institutes a transitory
church organization, designed to lead the way to the acceptance of this
system as the heritage of all mankind.
As referred to at the end of the last chapter, one of Paul's basic
doctrines is that the law is instituted because of sin, and therefore that the
law remains only so long as sin remains. All sin centres in one form or
another in the mortal body. And so, just as three concepts of body are to
be distinguished in the story of Israel's deliverance, so three concepts of
law are to be distinguished in the teachings of Paul. First, there is the
absolute law of God, which is permanent; secondly, there is the reduction
of this law to the moral law, which is transitory; thirdly, there is the law of
sin and death from which humanity is freed through the reduction of the
first to the second. Whether as Old Testament Israel, or contemporary
mankind, humanity has need of being delivered from the "law of sin" and
therefore from the body of death (Rom 7:24).
An important part of the moral law is its ~'laws of restitution." Science
and Health says that "the moral law, which has the right to acquit or
condemn, always demands restitution before mortals can 'go up higher' "
(S & H 11 :8). The moral law stands in the middle, as it were, between the
self-condemnatory law of sin and the perfect non-condemnatory law of
God. Restitution implies the restoration of something to a former, rightful
owner. Exodus and Leviticus teach respectively the Principle and practice
of Israel's restoration to her real owner, God, after she has supposedly
fallen from a state of grace into one of mortal sin.
Through the different sacrifices that take place in the tabernacle, Israel
makes bodily restitution. She heals herself of sin, disease, and death by
restoring her body undefiled to its true creator and owner. Mrs Eddy is
reputed to have said to her students that man has not got a body; that God
has a body, and that this body is man. In Science, the divine Principle,
Love, communes with, controls, and possesses its own body of ideas,
which is man. The sin for which the Mosaic law is instituted is the sin of
believing that man has a body, an ego - anything of his own. If such
personal possessiveness were true, man would be mortal, and there would
be no God. Men would be this world's gods.
Body is a self-evolving system of ideas whose form can never change,
and this is the only kind of body that can be given back to God. The seed
of divinity within us is God's own idea of God coming from and returning
to God. Moses teaches Israel that sin (animal magnetism) never, at any
time, stole the body of divinity away from its owner and made it mortal.
She will take her first step out of Egypt immediately she understands that
101
sin never invaded her heavenly home and stole away her identity. Animal
magnetism has never fragmented the unfragmentable. The Principle ..of
God's ownership of all things is reflected in the practice of common
spiritual ownership on the part of all Israel.
Jesus' sacrifice on behalf of humanity, his individual atonement for
world sin, his universal self-offering, is divinity's proof that animal
magnetism never attracted the Son away from the Father-Mother God,
either generically or specifically, either as head or as body. We are not the
personal private possessors either of our own bodies, or the bodies of each
other. Body, says Paul, is "the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you,
which ye have of God, and ye are not your own" (I Cor 6: 19). At the close
of Exodus, God dwells in Israel's tabernacle; she is the body of ideas
which belongs to Principle, hence she is not her own.
Sacrifice, then, concerns yielding up belief in personal, private
ownership. At the ascension Jesus left nothing of his own behind.
Translation and restitution were, at this point, total. Soul does not receive
unto itself a mortal body whatever state this is in. The only body
acceptable to Soul is Soul's own body. To give body back to God is to
identify it as it really is - to find it (as idea) in its Principle. To accomplish
this, the personal- sense of both true idea and false concept must be
sacri ficed.
The symbol of Israel's restitution is her return home to the promised
land, the scene of her nativity. Mary Baker Eddy writes: BFor the body of
Christ . . . for the cup red with loving restitution . . . we give thanks"
(My 131:7).
Israel's symbolic (tabernacle) sacrifices in the Old Testament are
fulfilled in the New Testament in one consummate Christ-sacrifice, when
Jesus offers up himself "once for all" (Heb 10: 10). Jesus' consciousness
of himself and his world passes from death to life. Hence the 'institution
in Exodus of the Passover. That which comes from and returns to God
does not experience the birth-death cycle. Because man does not pass
from Spirit to matter at a moment of birth, he does not pass from matter
to Spirit at a moment of death. Man is God's reflection. That which
comes forth spiritually from the system of capitalized terms for God in
Christian Science passes over the first death (birth) and so is delivered
from Egypt.
Not only does Exodus unfold in the Christ order of Principle, Life,
Truth, Love, Soul, Spirit, Mind (the order of coming forth from God), but
the four tones of Christ as the Word, Christ as the Christ, Christ as
Christianity, and Christ as Science are discernible also. In our present
reading, Christ as the Word unfolds the tones of Principle and Life; Christ
as the Christ appears through the term Truth; Christ as Christianity
through Love; and Christ as Science through the three remaining terms
Soul, Spirit, Mind. In Christ as the Word, the divine Principle, which is
Israel's Life, reveals itself as her true I AM. In Christ as the Christ, Truth
102
uncovers the plagues that beset the human body if its ego is not this divine
I AM. In Christ as Christianity, Love delivers her from Egypt. In Christ as
Science, through tones of Soul, Spirit, Mind, Israel is equipped with the
Commandments and Tabernacle for making the journey to the promised
land.
3rd tone of 3rd period

- Soul as SoulChrist as the Word
Principle
EXODUS
Moses, leader and disciplinarian: At the end of Genesis, Egypt was Joseph
and Joseph was Egypt~ whereas at the beginning of Exodus there arises a
new king over Egypt who knows not Joseph. It is essential, therefore, in the
experience of Israel, that the true idea of Egypt, which Joseph brought to
light, shall reverse and translate the false mortal sense of Egypt, or an
Egypt unacquainted with Joseph. For this false sense inflicts hard labour
on the children of Israel. Israel therefore must free herself from Egypt.
The bondage is really a blessing in disguise, for without it Israel will
continue to indulge the fleshpots of Egypt and make no effort to escape.
And thus, in spite of the command to the midwives to slay every male
Hebrew at birth, the more Egypt afflicts Israel the more the Israelites
multiply and grow.
The hard labour is birth pangs. Like our world today, Israel travails in
birth and is pained to be delivered of her real spiritual identity.
Involuntary resistance to birth prevents it from taking place naturally.
There is no hard labour in Soul as Soul, the third tone of the third day of
creation, where earth brings forth freely and joyously from within its own
being.
What is needed is spiritual education - instruction in spiritual
obstetrics - and Moses supplies this need. As we have said, the name
Moses means "to draw out of the water," while the root meaning of
educate is "to draw forth." Both words signify a process of obstetrics, or
birth. Moses is appointed to remove the obstacle which is Egypt from the
pathway of Israel's spiritual advancement. His mission is to educate her
out of belief in material (Egyptian) origin.
The ark which is borne upon the waters of the Nile, and which saves
the baby Moses from being slain by the Egyptians, has the same root
meaning as the ark which protected Noah from the flood. Moses' sister
Miriam watches over this cradle of bulrushes until the day Moses is
adopted by the princess of Egypt. The name Miriam, akin to Mary, implies
bitterness and strife. Kindred Bible words such as Mara, Meribah, Midian,
have the same signification. In Revelation, bitterness is associated with
indigestion and the belly. "Murmur not over Truth, if you find its
digestion bitter," Science and Health teaches (S & H 559:22). The word
"digest" derives from "to put in order, bear, carry, dissolve" (SRD). It
103
involves the idea of reduction. At Sinai Moses reduces the law of God to
digestible form as the moral law, and Israel murmurs bitterly at having to
digest this reduction. I n the desert she has murmuring indigestion and
complains continually. Yet all Moses asks her to do is assimilate the truth
, of what she really is. Bitterness, deriving from a feeling of personal
responsibility, seems to be part of Moses' experience with the children of
Israel from its earliest moments.
In the opening passages of the book, he feels personally responsible for
making Israel accept the judgment of Principle regarding her present
predicament. Consequently there is bitterness and strife. He slays an
Egyptian for striving with a Hebrew, and then upbraids a Hebrew for
contending with a fellow Hebrew. "Who made thee a prince and a judge
over us?" the Hebrew asks. The word "prince" is akin to "principle."
Moses is zealous for the judgment of Principle; but to Israel he appears as
an uncongenial moral arbiter.
Unquestionably~ in Israel's early experience, there is need for what
looks like personal leadership. Yet in the case of both Moses and Mary
Baker Eddy, Pri nciple~ not person, determines their actions and decisions.
Moses is that state of thought in Israel which knows that Principle
administers and governs, but believes that it does so through him. This
belief can never enter the promised land. The human is not a personal
medium for the divine. And thus when Israel crosses into the land of
Canaan she leaves Moses behind. Asked how she healed, Mrs Eddy is said
to have replied: ql got Mary out of God's way." She removed from her
thought all helief in personal mediumship.
Having administered what seems to be personal judgment, Moses flees
to the land of Midian. Midian (contention, strife) was, as we remember,
the son of Ahrahanl's Keturah, who stood for moral and religious
principles. Here Moses seeks refuge. He marries the daughter of Jethro,
priest of Midian. Jethro hecomes hisfather-in-law, and Moses is "content
to dwell with the Inan."
Bitterness and stri fe wi II dog Moses' footsteps so long as he appears as
a personally responsihle arhiter, and a religious and moral organizer. His
wife Zipporah hears him a son called Gershom. The name Gershom
means ~'to drive out," whereas Moses means "to lead out." Gershom is
Moses' own belief that Israel wi II not leave Egypt voluntarily, and that he
will have to drive her out. For this he will need a disciplinary rod. It is true
that in Israel's early experience Principle does call for such a rod. The
trouble with Moses is that he will continue to wield it after Israel has
outgrown its usefulness, and this will bar him from entering the promised
land.
Christ as the Word
Life
1 AM THA T I AM: Moses' deep concern is for the spiritual well-being of

Israel. What she needs, he reasons, is a parental lawgiver who will teach
her, and discipline her, and tell her what to do. He is guarding
104
conscientiously his father-in-Iaw's flock of sheep. Principle, Life, is

Israel's real Father, and therefore her only lawgiver. Moses is striving to
"reach the Horeb height where God is revealed." This kind of strife gives
the true idea of Midian. His aim, ~'a point beyond faith [second degree]"
is "to find the footsteps of Tru th, the way to health and ho liness [third
degree]" (S & H 241 :23). He is divinely compelled to lead Israel out of
Egypt, into the wilderness, and thence to the promised land. To this end,
he finds himself at the mountain of Horeb (Sinai) where God is revealed.
A bush burns with fire, and yet is unharmed. "And, behold, the bush
burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed." To human sense, Israel
burns in the fires of Egyptian affliction. Actually she is being purified by
the fires of the Holy Ghost. Because of the holy seed aflame within her, her
life is not really being consumed by Egypt, despite outward appearances.
"And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt
thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you." The
Father hath "sent" me, Jesus will tell his twelve disciples later on. Whether
as Moses, Jesus, or Christian Science, the spiritual idea is always aware
that its Principle sends it forth and that it does not send forth itself.
The Hebrew meaning of I AM THAT I AM is: I shall forever continue
to be that which I am now being. This is a statement of individuality, or
Life - the individuality of divine Principle, or God. Individuality in Israel
(man) must learn to say, by reflection, 'I am that I am.' In the forever
continuity of the Science of being, individuality is what it is. How then can
Egypt consume it?
Today, on the same Horeb height, rings out the Science of this same
declaration: I AM MIND, SPIRIT, SOUL, PRINCIPLE, LIFE, TRUTH,
LOVE. The law of Israel's God is the law of one I AM. Her I, therefore,
must go unto Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love as the
Principle, or Person, of her being. In no other way can she bring herself
under the law of God, and so escape from Egypt.
Moses is armed with "wisdom's rod" (Mis 387:20). The Christian
Science "rod" is the disciplined understanding of "wisdom, purity,
spiritual understanding, spiritual power, love, health, holiness," the order
of the third degree (S & H 116: 1). This is sen t by Mind, Spiri t, Sou I,
Principle, Life, Truth, L.ove to deliver humanity from the first degree, and
guide it through the wilderness (second degree).
The rod of immortal wisdom antidotes the subtle serpent. Hence its
purpose is to handle and destroy the serpent. When Moses throws his rod
on the ground it assumes the form of a serpent; but when he catches it by
the tail it once more becomes a rod in his hand. When the I goes to
Principle, and man's Ego is Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth,
Love, the serpent of human reason and will-power is handled and
reversed, in accordance with the law of God.
There is no such thing as a serpent and a rod at the same time. The
serpent is the suppositional reversal of the rod, just as the rod is the
105
reverse of the serpent. The rod signifies obedience to the law of God; the
serpent typifies disobedience. All there is to the serpent is divine Principte
.,
supposedly discarded - its rules thrown to the ground.
'. When Mary Baker Eddy founded her church she compiled a Manual of
rules and by-laws. The word "manual" is from manus, meaning "hand."
Moses' rod is in his hand. The Manual, in the case of Christian Science, is
the equivalent of the rod, in the case of Israel. It signifies divinely revealed
law, just as the third degree signifies divinely revealed understanding.
Through her Manual, Mrs Eddy wielded the disciplinary power of
Principle, and showed mankind the way out of Egypt. When the Manual is
disobeyed it appears in the guise of the serpent, for it holds Christian
Science in bondage to organic life. When obeyed, it liberates Christian
Science from personal and ecclesiastical confines. Always, the issue
before the children of Israel is whether to serve Pharaoh or God.
The meaning of Hwisdom" reads in part: "the choice of laudable ends,
and the best means to accomplish them" (SRD). In order (0 turn the
serpent back into a rod Moses takes it by the tail. In Science, Jhe last is
first, and the first last - the end and the beginning are one. This, in the
case of the Christian Science Manual, means obeying the last By-Law
first - abiding by tpe law of God that not a single By-Law shall be
"amended or annulled," without the founder's written consent (Man 105).
Because some thirty-nine clauses throughout this book forbid the
appointment of vital church officers without Mrs Eddy's approval and
consent, this implies that her mother organization is precluded from
functioning without her inspired supervision. It also implies that by the
time of her passing, the church's transitory purpose will have been
fulfilled. On the other hand, branch churches are liberated to individual
.evolution and self-government. To practice her provisions through divine
understanding is to foil the serpent of hierarchical control and to set Israel
free from Egypt.
Mrs Eddy once referred to her church as "the mouthpiece of Christian
Science" (My 247:6). Moses asks God for a mouthpiece for his revelation
in the person of his brother Aaron. Both Moses and Aaron come from the
priestly tri be of Levi. God grants Moses' request with the same reluctance,
it would seem, as that shown by Mrs Eddy when she agreed to organize a
church. HHe (Aaron] shall be to thee instead of a mouth," God says to
Moses, Hand thou shalt be to him instead of God." The issue is the choice
between Principle and person, and therefore between Life and death.
Moses is told to confront Pharaoh. "And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh,
Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: And I say unto
thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go,
behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn."
Pharaoh's heart hardens. Error seems to be adamant. And only when
terrible plagues are visited upon him, ending in the deaths of all Egypt's
first-born sons, does Pharaoh's heart finally melt. Our own experience as
106
mortals follows this same pattern. When a tribulation overtakes us, the
hard heart of self-love softens somewhat, and we prepare to escape from
Egypt. Yet, as soon as there is healing, and all is once more we 11 with the
flesh, the Pharaoh of mortal egotism hardens his heart again and refuses to
let us go. Tribulations follow one upon another, until the lesson is
sufficient to change our standpoint, and cause mortality to lose its hold.
Then we cease to serve Pharaoh and serve God instead.
Truth
The Plagues: 'Let humanity go that it may serve Me instead of serving

Pharaoh,' is divinity's command to mortality. In order to bring this to pass,
Christ, Truth, analyzes and exposes in the consciousness of Israel the
incarnate error which is Egypt. It smites every false belief that denies
Israers immortal wholeness. I t lays bare "the mortal errors which
constitute the material body," and the ~'physical plagues" imposed on this
body by false material sense (S & H 53:26, 575:5). Unless it does this, Israel
will be lulled into apathy and will not make the necessary effort to be free.
It is imperative that she understands the difference between what she is as
the spiri tual idea of God, and what she is not as Egypt. Egypt is the flesh
born of the flesh; Israel is the spirit born of the Spirit. Egypt therefore is
the victim of the plagues, while Israel herself is immune. Israel is aware of
her true health and wholeness only when her ego is the divine I AM.
Some scholars say there are ten plagues, others seven. As seven, they
follow the order of the seven elementary tones.
The first is that of the Nile turned to blood. The Nile fertilizes the land
of Egypt, and is identified with Osiris, Egypt's principal male god. Truth
smites the belief in man's (Israel's) material origin. Israel must understand
that blood, as the means of fleshly creativity, is not the source and
quickener of her life.
Constituting the second plague, frogs come up out of the wate-rs and
cover all the land. The word "frog" is from a root meaning Hfrothy.'~ It
signifies spume, saliva, phlegm, caused by disease or nervous excitement.
In Revelation, the dragon, beast, and false prophet spit unclean spirits like
frogs out of their mouths. In the fornl of this second plague, Truth smites
the belief that humors in the blood stream (bile, choler, melancholy) are
any part of Israel's nature and disposition. She originates in Mind, is born
of Spirit, and inherits all things from God. Poisonous genetic secretions.
such as characterize the body of Egypt, are not found, therefore, in her
body.
An affliction of lice and flies constitutes the third plague. The dust of
the ground becomes lice, and flies fill Egypt's houses. Lice and flies feed
on animal bodies. Science and Health likens "an atom of dust" to a
"sensual thought" (S & H 263:28). Egypt is identified with sensation in
matter, with thoughts of uncleanness, sin, and dirt that feed off their own
embodiment. Israel, on the other hand, is susceptible to no such parasitic
impositions, and to no such sensuous irritations.
107
Boils, blains, and murrain on the cattle follow as the fourth plague.
Friction caused by lice and flies leads to conditions of boiling .
inflammation. These are associated with ulcerous sores and swellings~ and
therefore with pain. But the boiling fury of anger and hate, engendered by
animal magnetism, does not touch the children of Israel, and none of their
herds die.
Pharaoh, it seems, has had enough~ he can bear the suffering no longer,
and agrees to let Israel go. Yet every time a plague ceases, and physical
normality is restored. he once more hardens his adamant heart and
continues to hold her in hondage.
Fire mingled with hail constitutes the fifth plague. These extremes of
heat and cold are suggestive of birth and death. According to Isaiah, the
positive meaning of hail is that which ~'shal1 sweep away the refuge of
lies," and annul man's Hcovcnant with death" (Isa 28:17). "'Only in the land
of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail."
Otherwise the destruction is devastating. ~rhe belief that existence begins
and ends organically is no part of Israel's life.
The sixth plague consists of locusts and darkness. Armies of ravenous,
devouring locusts cover the face of the earth and consume all Egypt's
food. This is followed by thick darkness. If Inan were really mortal, as
Egypt claims he is, he would be self-devouring. and live in a state of
darkness. But Israel, not Egypt, is the Illcasure of true Illanhood. Hence the
locusts do not affect the children of Israel. who havt' light in all their
dwellings.
Even at this stage Pharaoh is unrepentan t and rcfuses to let Israel go.
Evidently the error which primarily enslaves her has yet to he l' xposed and
annulled. Hence there is a seventh and final plague. This is the slaying of
all Egypt's first-born sons. The axe is laid at the root of the tree of
knowledge, or the tree of death. Spiritually interpreted. the slayi ng of the
first-born of Egypt is the slaying in Israel's consciousness of t he he lief that
man is born of the flesh rather than of Spirit, God.
The death of the first-born is accompanied by the feast of the Passover.
Israel is represented as passing over the fIrst death, or helief of hirth into
matter. For seven days, with bitter herbs and unleavened hread. she eats
the body of a slain lamb, a lamb of the first year. Anticipating the lifework
of Jesus, she identifies herself with the Lamb of God "slain from the
foundation of the world" - slain (supposedly) by helief in 1l1atcrial hirth.
Instructed by Moses, she assimilates the body of the Principle which is
Life in order to be this body- in order to be the hegotten of Ciod.
Thought that is uncircumcised-which believes it is circumscrihed
within a mortal body- is unable to pass over. The houses (hodies) of the
children of Israel are identitied with the h lnod of the lamh.
Simultaneously as the angel of the Lord slays the first-horn of Egypt.
Israel's first-born are passed over. The human passes frOlll death to life.
Passing over the first death (birth), Israel is born agai n. and therefore
passes out of Egypt.
108
And thus it is that "all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of
Egypt." According to their vow at the end of Genesis, they carry with them
the bones of Joseph for burial in the promised land.
Love
Liberation: It has been a mighty struggle. Having slain in herself the belief
in mortal origin, Israel's Henslavement to the most relentless masters" ends
(S & H 407:6).
HAnd the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Sanctify unto me all the
firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel,
both of man and of beast: it is mine . . . And it shall be when the Lord
shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites . . . and shall give it thee
. .. that thou shalt set apart unto the Lord all that openeth the
matrix . . . " The matrix of universal Love, the solvent of adamant selflove, is the fashioner of Israel's Christ-identity as Jehovah's first-born son.
No sooner has Israel reached the shores of the Red Sea than Egypt sets
out in hot pursuit. Pharaoh has still not learnt his lesson and regrets letting
Israel go. Metaphysically, the Red Sea is blood - Egypt's own creative
element. "Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward," God
says to Moses as the people reach the water's edge. Advancing Israel must
be shown that Egypt is self-destroying. While Israel passes through on dry
ground the Egyptians are engulfed and drowned.
Science and Health defines the Red Sea as the "dark ebbing and
flowing tides of human fear" (S & H 566:2). Tides result from the twelve
monthly phases of the moon. Israel, in her ultimate identity as the woman
in Revelation, has the moon under her feet. She has dominion over the
tides of the matrix of nlortality, directly associated with fleshly birth. The
slaying of Egypt's first-born is not enough in itself~ Egypt must be seen to
destroy herself in her own Red Sea. Without this sea (metaphysically
speaking) there would be no first-born of Egypt.
The liberator is universal Love (S & H 225:21 ). Moses and Miriam sing
songs of praise to the motherhood of Love for Israel's divine deliverance.
'"Thy right hand, 0 Lord, is become glorious in power," they cry, "thy
right hand, 0 Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy."
It was a mixed multitude that went up out of Egypt, and already there
are signs that certain elements are feeling the backward pull. Israel begins
to murmur at her new wilderness experience and to yearn for the old
fleshpots. Moses gets impatient. His tendency is always to chastise her for
her backsliding. How dare she murmur and complain? How can the
glorious understanding of what she really is as the child of God be so hard
and bitter to digest? Instead of the fleshpots of Egypt, God gives her
manna from heaven. The word "'manna" means '~what is it?" The food that
really sustains her is ideas that proceed out of the mouth of God.
That which satisfies us spiritually is that which answers our questions.
But these answers must be fresh day by day. For six days Israel gathers
manna, and rests on the seventh. The cure for indigestion is order - the
109
order of spiritual understanding unfolded by the seven days. Daily, Israel

must inquire of God afresh regarding everything she says and does.;
otherwise she will make no progress.
Like Enoch and Noah, she is learning to walk with God. In the"
wilderness, the answers to her questions are gathered objectively. But in
the land of spiritual identity understanding comes forth subjectively.
Hence the manna ceases when she enters the promised land.
Soon she is thirsty, and murmurs again. She has arrived at the foot of
Sinai, the mountain of God. Sinai is the same as Horeb, where the
revelation first came to Moses of the I AM THAT I AM. Moses chides and
disciplines her for her retrogressive tendencies. The Hrock" which is
Horeb, on which the Christ, Truth, descends, is, in divine metaphysics, the
"rock" which is Israel herself. Moses strikes the rock with his rod, and
water comes forth to quench Israel's thirst. Moses is training her
compulsively to bring forth ideas fronl within herself. This is the only time
God permits him to strike the rock. Later, when he does so again, Israel
will be ready for self-governmcnt~ she will have outgrown the need for
treatment such as this. Continued authoritarianism debars Moses from
entering the promised land. The sanle is true in C"hristian Science. If, when
the time comes, religious organization fails to yield to the individuality
and self-government of its membership, it dchars itself fr(lln entering upon
its truly scientific heritage.
Israel fights her first battle. This is against AIlHtlck. a descendant of
Esau. We learn in Deuteronomy that Amalek attacks Israel frolll behind.
Amalek is the cowardice in Israel's own thought which a proper sense of
courage must overcome. This early battle is essential if the journey ahead
is to be encountered successfully. Part of the definition of Moses is "1l10ral
courage" (S & H 592: 11). God says to Moses, ~~I wi 11 utterly put out the
remembrance of Amalek from under heaven."
'
A joint effort by Moses and Joshua gives Israel the victory. Moses
ascends to the top of the mountain and sits upon a stone, and Aaron and
Hur hold up his hands. Thereupon Joshua descends to the pia in and
vanquishes the enemy. We are reminded of the way in which in I~cvelation
Michael and Gabriel overcome the dragon (S& H 5(7). (iahricL,
corresponding to Moses, imparts from on high Ha sense of the cvcrpresence of ministering Love," while Michael, corresponding to Joshua,
~'fights the holy wars." Joshua (meaning Jesus, Saviour) is he who finally
leads Israel over the river Jordan and into the promised land.
The tone of Love (also of Christ as Christianity) c loses when it
becomes evident that to meet Israel's early needs Moses 1l1ust provide her
with a simple, temporary organization. He does this on the advice of his
father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. Instead of shou Idcri ng so nluch
responsibility himself, Jethro tells him, Moses shou Id de legate officers to
aid him in his work. Let Moses be "for the people to God-ward" and judge
"every great matter," but let others bear the burden of judging Hevery
110
small matter." Moses agrees. Christian Science teaches correspondingly,

"Material organization is requisite in the beginning; but when it has done
its work, the purely Christly method of teaching and preaching must be
adopted" (Mis 359:2).
4th tone of 3rd period

- Soul as Principle-
With Israel encamped before the holy mountain, ready to receive the
divine Commandments (the laws of Principle by which she will take
possession of the promised land), the third tone of the third period, Soul
as Soul, comes to an end, and we enter the fourth tone, Soul as Principle.
Subscribing to these Commandments, Israel identifies herself with the
governing Principle of the universe. This new tone of Soul as Principle
continues until she reaches the river Jordan and the borders of the
promised land. When, under Joshua, she actually takes possession of the
land, the tone will change to Soul as Life; for the land itself is her own
sinless, deathless selfuood, subjectively understood.
Christ as Science
Soul
Commandments and Tabernacle: The scene is God's holy mountain, where

the Christ translation is always at work. God is at the top of the mountain,
Israel at the bottom, and, in between, Moses translates the divine decrees
in a language which she (Israel) can understand.
Seven times he goes up and down the holy mountain in order to
commune with God. His purpose is twofold: first, to reduce to Israel's
immediate understanding the code of laws that are to make her selfgoverned; secondly, to instruct her in building a transitional sense of body
(the tabernacle) where these laws are consistently obeyed. For this body,
unlike the rebellious mortal body, is strictly a law-abiding body. Moses'
seven ascents and descents of the mountain follow the order of the seven
basic tones.'
The need on the part of Israel is absolute obedience to the divine
commands. The purpose of the first ascent is to establish this fundamental
standpoint. "I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself,"
God says to Moses, "obey my voice . . . and keep my covenant, then ye
shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people." Redemption from
mortality is impossible unless Israel is obedient to the laws of immortality.
The first two ascents are very brief. On the occasion of the second,
Moses is told to go "unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to
morrow, and let them wash their clothes." This second demand is for
cleansing and purification, which makes obedience possible. For although
God comes down on the mountain in the sight of all the people, they are
not yet sufficiently sanctified to contact the mountain direct. Only Moses
is pure enough for this. He is like the firmament in the second day of
creation, standing between the waters above and the waters beneath.
At the time of the third ascent fire comes from heaven and the
mountain burns and quakes. God explains to Israel how, at present,
identification with Him is through Moses and Aaron only. The people
111
fhemselves must not try to force a break-through, lest the Lord break forth
upon them and they perish. At this early stage of her career it is imperative
for Israel to accept the provision of a priestly mediator.
.
His Christly ministry affirmed, Moses, at the fourth ascent, is given the
Ten Commandments. First he receives the laws themselves, then what are
called the judgments. These include the laws of restitution to which
reference was made earlier. The law of absolute Principle is, in the course
of this fourth aseen t, reduced to the form of the moral law.
The Commandlnents divide naturally into two groups of four and six.
The first four concern man's relationship to God, the last six concern his
consequent relationship to his brother man. Israel's code of practical
moral principles is hased on one absolute Principle. The first
commandment, HThou shalt have no other gods before me," states this
fundamental Principle. We read in Science and Health: HThe divine
Principle of the First C"'olllillandillent hases the Science of being, by which
man demonstrates health, holiness, and life eternal" (S & H 340:20).
Obedience to the first cOllllllandrllcnL and to the corollaries of this in
the next three, ensu res that IsraeL in t he last si x, honours the true idea of
parenthood, and nei ther ki lis, adu Iterates, stca Is. hea rs false witness, nor
covets. If God is All-in-all. man and his neighhour have one and the same
Self, one and the same I, one and the saille Mind. In this case, for man to
murder, and steal from, his neighbour wou ttl he for hi m to murder and
steal from himself.
Moses sets up an altar which has twelve pillars. 'I'his is during the fifth
ascent. The altar is a representation of all twelve trihes of the children of
Israel. He sacrifices blood upon it, and sprinkles the people with the
blood. "The spiritual essence of blood is sacrifice" (S (.'\: ~I 25: 1). Israers
need is to sacrifice the mortal sense of life, of self. and of ego, and so put
into individual expression the book of the covenant, or the raws of God,
which Moses has just received.
The sixth ascent is a long one textually. It concerns the plans for
building the tabernacle. Exact scientific details are given regarding its
construction and design. Every man willingly with his heart must
contribute to the setting up of this mobile, conlmunal sanctuary. Let
them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among thenl:' Clod says to
Moses. Israel must love the idea of God for its own sake, voluntarily,
instead of being forced to accept it compulsively on account of her human
need. In this "sanctuary of Spirit," this ""heart of prayer," she J11USt ""deny
sin and plead God's allness," and so have 'audience with Spirit. the divine
Principle, Love" (S&H 15:3).
The tabernacle is not a permanent structure, but a Inovahle nomadic
tent, which has three compartments. At its heart is the holy (~rh()lies, which
houses the ark of the covenant; then there is the holy place; and thirdly,
the outer court. The ark, with its mercy seat is the actual point of
coincidence where the divine and human meet. Here, on behalf of all
112
Israel, Jehovah communes with Aaron, her one high priest. A veil
separates this inner sanctuary from the holy place. Once a year Aaron
passes through the veil into this place of at-one-ment with God. This is the
veil of the temple which, at the crucifixion of Jesus, is '~rent in twain from
the top to the bottom" (Mark 15:38). Mankind's real high priest is the one
Christ, Truth, the all-inclusive Son of God, the subject of Paul's epistle to
the Hebrews. At the opening of the fifth thousand-year period God
reveals, through His Son, the total nothingness of organic life, or of a veil
of separation between Himself and man. Thereafter (ideally) every man is
a priest unto God, entering spiritually the holy of holies, where he is one
with God and his brother man. In the present story, Israel is being
prepared for this ultimate truth by means of a teaching symbol.
Whereas the holy of holies contains the ark only, three different
articles furnish the holy place. These are a seven-branched golden
candlestick, a table for shewbread, and an incense altar. The altar is placed
nearest the veil. The odour and sanctity of unselfed love determines man's
nearness to God. As we read in Science and Health, '4Whatever holds
human thought in line with unselfed love, receives directly the divine
power" (S & H 192: 30).
The holy place, containing the holy of holies, is itself surrounded by
the outer court. Here again are three separate objects. There is an altar for
burnt offerings, a laver for washing, and the door through which the
priests go in and out of the sanctuary. The structure as a whole stands for
divine translation and human restoration. We are aware once more of the
workings of the two translations, and the Christ order of the synonymous
terms for God. The ark with its mercy seat in the holy of holies points to
divine Principle itself; the altar, the table, and the candlestick in the holy
place, stand for Life, Truth, and Love; the altar of sacrifice, the laver for
washing, and the entrance. gate, in the au ter court, typify the workings of
Soul, Spirit, and Mind.
We are in the tone of Christ as Science. The three compartments also
depict the one Christ Science in its three principal aspects as divine
Science, absolute Christian Science, and Christian Science. The holy of
holies suggests the oneness of being in divine Science - the coincidence of
God and man. The holy place suggests the means of understanding this
coincidence through Life, Truth, and Love, or through absolute Christian
Science. The outer court pertains to the application of the absolute, in
Christian Science, to the solution of the problem of dualism, through Soul,
Spirit, and Mind.
Much is made of Aaron's holy garments. Over his heart hangs a
twelvefold breastplate of judgment. A yoke on his shoulders bears the
names of Israel's twelve tribes. On his head a mitre is inscribed "holiness
to the Lord." Love (the heart) alone has strength (the shoulders) to judge
and dissolve Israel's iniquity, and to replace the mark of ignorance with
the holiness of the Father's name.
113
Two artificers, one from the tribe of Judah, the other from the tribe of
Dan, are appointed to construct the tabernacle within six days. Tbe
simultaneous workings of the two translations alone are capable of
bringing into being Israel's new transitional body. Judah, from whom
comes Jesus, emphasizes the Christly activity of the first translation; Dan,
who judges and overcomes animal magnetism, stands for the activity of the
second. "'I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in
understanding, and in knowledge," God says of the workman from the
tribe of Judah. These third degree qualities of wisdom and understanding
appear in the narrative again and again as we near the two final sections of
the Exodus story in the tones of Spirit and Mind.
We are still in the course of the sixth ascent, and Moses has been a long
time talking with God on the nlountaintop - too long, in fact, for the
impatient Israelites waiting helow. In consequence, sin gains a foothold.
Israel persuades Aaron to 111akc her a golden calf. This acceptance of
another god besides the one true (Jod hrcaks the divine commandments.
On his return~ Moses casts to the ground the two tablets of stone on which
the finger of God has inscrihed the tcn laws. Breaking the tabfets, in this
way, illustrates what Israel herself has done in worshipping the golden
calf.
We come to the seventh and final ascent. This time, under divine
instruction, Moses writes the commandments hilnself on two new tables of
stone. Evidently the previous standpoint of the absolute and divine must
be reduced to more acceptable form for Israers cOlllprchcnsion. As Moses
does this, his face shines. At present Israel can receive ('hrist~ Truth, only
through a system of symbols. She sees through a glass darkly. Hence Moses
covers his face with a veil when he is talking with Israel~ hut with God he
communes face to face.
Christ as Science
Spirit
Qualities requisite for spiritual building: With a willing, overflowing heart

Israel brings forth from within herself the qualities that provide a dwelling
place for God. "Take ye from among you an offering unto the Lord,"
Moses says to the people, '~whosoever is of a willing heart, let hinl hring it,
an offering of the Lord; gold, and silver, and brass, and hluc, and purple,
and scarlet, and fine linen . . . And they came, everyone whose heart
stirred him up, and everyone whom his spirit made willing . . . hoth men
and women . . . offered an offering of gold unto thc Lord. The spirit of
"wisdom and understanding" lies at the heart of the entire undertaking.
In the measure that the Christ-spirit, the qualities of the third degree,
dwells naturally in our hearts, the qualities of the second degree, deriving
from the third degree, are expressed in joyous ahundance. These
spiritually moral qualities provide the substance out of which our
transitional tabernacle (or body) is made. Ou t of the Hgold of human
character" (S & H 565:22), every member of the congregation of Israel
furnishes his offering of gold unto the Lord. Mary Baker Eddy tells us how
H
114
the ~'letter of Christian i ty and the spi ri t of Ch ristiani ty, dwe Hi ng forever in
the divine Mind or Principle of man's being" are revealed Hthrough the
human character" (My 246: 15-i a). This new humanity constitutes Israel's
transitory tabernacle.
Real substance cannot be spent. Israers heart overtlows. There is an
unlimited reserve of all essential qualities, and the people bring more than
enough. Mrs Eddy writes concerning her experience in Christian Science:
'~Divine Love has strengthened the hand and encouraged the heart of
every member of this large church" (My 132: 16). She said that members
"out of loving hearts" pledged to build her Mother Church (My 13: 17),
Elsewhere she quotes: "Thou must be true thyself, if thou the truth
would'st teach; Thy heart must overflow, if thou another's heart would'st
reach" (Mis 98:27).
Christ as Science
Mind
Immanuel, God with us: At last the structure is cOlnplete. The human
concept has been caused to pattern the divine reality which was shown to
Moses in the mount. ""And Moses reared up the tabernacle, and fastened
his sockets . . . and he reared up the court round ahout the tabernacle
. . . So Moses finished the work . . . And Moses was not able to enter into
the tent of the congregation, because the c loud abode thereon, and the
glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle."'
Through the order of Principle, Life, Truth, Love, Soul, Spirit, Mind
(the Christ order of the synonymous terms for God), the I AM THAT I
AM, which revealed itself to Moses on his first visit to the holy mount,
dwells in the midst of the congregation of Israel as her on ly true I. This is
Immanuel, God with her. Israel is possessed of the Mind of Christ. and is
herself the Christ-body. The tabernacle is an essential, transient teaching
symbol of this body, whereby the children of God learn to have one Mind.
The holy seed of the manhood and womanhood of God, implanted in
human consciousness at the time of the patriarchs, is the idea of the
wholeness and infinitude of God. But God Himself and the idea of God
are one and indivisible. At the close of Exodus, this indwelling idea of
God's wholeness is the presence with us of the whole of God. The purpose
of Leviticus, in consequence, is to answer the question as to how we shall
conduct our daily lives in the light of this knowledge of God's
everpresence. The answer is that this very presence impels us to lay on its
altar our earthly all, in order that it may be to us the whole of our being.
LEVITICUS
"Spiritual teaching must always be by symbols" (S & H 575: 13). A symbol
teaches the nature of the reality that is symbolized. A symbol prepares the
way for acceptance of the idea which lies behind the symbol. Paul's epistle
115
to the Hebrews teaches the divine reality of which Leviticus is the

foreshadowing symbol.
"
The name Leviticus relates to the Levites, or the priestly tribe of Levi.
Moses' brother Aaron, Israel's high priest, is the central figure of the book.
The teaching rises to its climax when Aaron enters beyond the veil into the
holy of holies. The central figure of Hebrews is Christ Jesus, ~~cal1ed of
God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec" (Heb 5: 10). The
teaching of Hebrews is that HChrist is not entered into the holy places
made with hands, which are the figures [symbols 1 of the true~ but into
heaven itself [the real holy of holies 1, now to appear in the presence of
God for us" (Heh 9:24).
Paul quotes Jesus as saying: HSacrifice and offering thou wouldst not,
but a body hast thou preparcd me" (Heb 10:5). Spiritually, the subject of
Leviticus is the truth ahout hotly. Literally. it is about the animal sacrifices
which Israel must 111akc to her God within the precincts of her tabernacle.
In the words of Paul. she 111ust offcr her hody ~~a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God." as her ~~reas()nahle service" to Him and to
humanity (Rorn 12: 1). She nlust restore her hody. sinless and whole, to its
rightful owner. God. Under the tutelage of Moses, Israel learns that she
has not a hody of her own, hut that God has a hody. and this body is all
humanity, and this body is herself.
The surrender of personal, private possessiveness regarding body, and
the acceptance of what body really is, is Israel's tabernacle service - her
true "church" service. It constitutes her practice of the Principle taught in
Exodus. She loves this Principle supremely by loving its idea (its body, her
neighbour) as her own real self. She then expresses Christ in Christianity.
We read in Science and Health: HIt is sad that the phrase divine service
has come so generally to mean public worship instead of daily deeds."
This statement is followed by one that is exactly correlative with Leviticus'
central theme. I t reads: "'The nature of Christianity is peaceful and
blessed, but in order to enter into the kingdom, the anchor of hope must
be cast beyond the veil of matter into the Shekinah into which Jesus has
passed before us" (S & H 40:28). Aaron, in Leviticus, passes symbo lically
beyond the veil of matter into this very Shekinah. He enters into the
holiness of God's omnipresence, and in so doing makes atonement for all
Israel's sins. Atonement for sin and at-one-ment with Soul are a
si mu ltaneous e xperi ence.
Three aspects of entering beyond the veil thus present thenlselves. The
first is the divine ideal illustrated by Melchisedec (who is already within
the holy of holies); the second is the symbolic entry made hy Aaron in
Leviticus; the third is the living demonstration wrought hy Jesus, who
works divinely from the Melchisedec standpoint in order to rend the veil
of matter and so find himself in the presence of God.
Melchisedec, priest-king of the heavenly lerusalclll is, as we have
already cited, "without father, without mother, without descent, having
116
neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of
God; abideth a priest continually" (Heb 7:3), He is the Christly reality of
us all, sinless, deathless, eternaL Aaron and Jesus (the one symbolically,
the other actually) bear in their bodies mankind's sin, "Jesus bore our sins
in his body" (S & H 53:25), Christly identification with sin is, selfevidently, for the purpose of proving that there is no sin.
The mission of the high priest is thus to deliver Israel from the body of
sin and death. The sacrifices symbolized in Aaron, but actually
accomplished by Jesus, enable Israel (all mankind) to be "kings and priests
unto God" (Rev I :6). Leviticus teaches the spiritualization, the
evangelization, the Christianization, of the human concept of man so that
man may demonstrate this absolute position of individual priest-king.

This ideally is the status of Israel in the coming fourth period, the era of
the prophets and kings.
Aaron could enter the holy of holies, and Jesus could rend the veil of
the temple and enter the kingdom of heaven, only because, at the point of
individual being, each took the body of Israel, the universal family of man,
into his consciousness of at-one-ment with God. Christly atonement for
sin lies in understanding the sinless, deathless truth of the human race as a
whole. Individually, we image forth (reflect) this true idea of God and
man.
Aaron's (and therefore Jesus') atonement for sin is explained in
Leviticus through the symbol of the scapegoat. Aaron lays his hands on the
head of a live goat and confesses over him "all the iniquities of the
children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them
upon the head of the goat." Then, "by the hand of a fit man" he sends the
goat away into the wilderness. "And the goat shall bear upon him all their
iniquities unto a land not inhabited." The blemishless Lamb of" God takes
away the sin of the world, because, in proving individually the allness and
perfection of God, he necessarily proves, at the same time, the nothingness
of world sin. This means, humanly, that he assumes the appearance of a
scapegoat. He causes sin to escape to a land not inhabited,
Of
to return to
its original nothingness. "Dust (nothingness) thou art, and unto dust
(nothingness) shalt thou return" (S & H 545:29), he says to the sum total of
mankind's iniquities.
Leviticus is thus in two parts. The first culminates in Aaron's entry into
the holy of holies, and concerns the order of preparation that leads up to
this event; the second, known as the Holiness Code, is the outcome of
Aaron's communion with God, and is about Israel's consequent behaviour
towards her brother man. Israel must practise the Aaronic Principle
herself in respect of all mankind. In this second part of the book,
therefore, she is bidden to luve her neighbour as herse(f In words from
Science and Health, the first part could be summed up as: "We know that a
desire for holiness is requisite in order to gain holiness; but if we desire
holiness above all else, we shall sacrifice everything for it" (S & H II :22-
117
i a). From this standpoint of holiness, the second part opens the way for us
to inherit the promised land 'as the true identity of man.

Evaluated scientifically, these two parts of Leviticus illustrate the
cyclic movement of the Christianity order of the synonymous terms for
God: Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Life, Truth, Love. In Leviticus,
everything represented by Life, Truth, and Love is restored (through
Spirit, Soul, Mind) to Principle, in order that identity shall come forth
from Principle and (through Mind, Soul, Spirit), find itself to be Life,
Truth, and Love. Thus, at the opening of the book, the operation of Life,
Truth, and Love leads through Spirit, Soul, Mind to the point where Aaron
enters the holy of holies and communes directly with Principle.
Thereafter, in the Holiness Code itself, consciousness stems from
Principle, and through the order of Mind, Soul, Spirit demonstrates reality
to be Life, Truth, and Love.
Way to holiness
Five different sacrifices, teaching the need on the part of Israel to lay
down the animalistic sense of life, open the message of Leviticus, The
sacrifice of personal bodily possession (both animal and spiritual
concepts) suggests a tone of Life. This ritualistic symbol says that a false
sense of life must be burnt, and returned to ashes, while life as it really is
must be given back to God.
There follow what are called the laws of the offerings. These stipulate
the parts of the sacrifice that are offered to God, the parts eaten by the
priests, and the parts which the priests burn. Only through obedience to
these three requirements can Israel, in a tone of Truth, realize her health,
or wholeness.
Resulting from this healing practice, the priesthood, in a tone of Love,
is consecrated in the sight of all Israel. Lovingly, the true priest devotes
himself to constant, total service. Unless this is so in the case of Aaron and
his sons, Aaron himself does not qualify to enter the holy of holies.
A long passage follows, in a tone of Spirit, concerning the different
kinds of food which mayor may not be eaten, Some food is clean, some is
unclean. Israel may partake only of that which is spiritually pure and
clean.
Instructions relating to the care of the body indicate a tone of Soul.
The topic is leprosy. Hygienic and ritualistic treatment by the priests of
this supposedly contagious, untouchable disease is described in minute
detail.
There is a treatise on male and female reproductive organs, and the
issues that flow from them. This signifies a sense of creativity, and points
(by reversal) to the parent Mind. Israelites must continually wash
themselves in water- that is, in the elements of the one creative Mind.
The final section of this first part of the book comes in a tone of
Principle. Aaron passes through the veil and, in the presence of the ark of
118
the covenant, finds himself orie with God. The occasion is Israel's Day of
Atonement (the at-one-ment of the human with the divine) when Aaron,
through the agency of the scapegoat, atones for all Israel's sins.
Holiness Code
The Holiness Code, so it is believed, was compiled under the supervision

of Ezekiel at the time of Judah's Babylonian captivity. Ezekiel was
probably responsible also for drawing up the Old Testament's Priestly
Document, which contained the detailed descriptions of the tabernacle
given in the book of Exodus. At the end of his own prophecy, Ezekiel
depicts, in like detail, Israel's ultimate spiritual temple, also called "the
sanctuary." In this vision he foresees her holy millennial estate, where she
is the Christ-body. Hence his connection with the Holiness Code in
Leviticus.
The second part of Leviticus begins by telling lsrael how she must
always work from the standpoint of Principle. Every sacrifice must be
brought unto the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord." Human
egotism must yield to what the I really is, and a body of relationships
determined by Principle must take the place of personal independence
and idolatry. Otherwise a man can be cut off frorTI among his people."
Israel must not eat blood. The life of the flesh is in the blood, she is
told, therefore no soul shall eat blood. Blood involves the belief that man
is his own creator; whereas Mind alone is Israel's creator. If she has
followed the way to holiness, and works now from the standpoint of
holiness itself- that is, from Principle- she will not partake of animal
blood', or life that is of mortal origin.
In the tone of Soul, which follows, she is commanded to love her
neighbour as herself. ~'Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against
the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,"
Moses says to her. Israel is instructed regarding the body of relationships
which constitutes her real self. Much stress is laid on sexual, marital, and
family relationships. Neither the old idols of the land of Egypt nor new
idols of the land of Canaan must be allowed to defile her. Holiness alone
identifies her with the one true God of mankind. Ye shall be holy unto
me," Soul tells her, "for I the Lord am holy."' Jesus says later of this same
idea of spiritual identity: BBe ye therefore perfect, even as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt 5:48).
A special message is addressed to the priests. It concerns their absolute
puri ty and separateness, and therefore pertains to Spirit. Whoever is of the
seed of Aaron, and yet has a blemish, shall "not approach to offer the
bread of his God." Divinity communes with humanity only through that
spiritually transparent state of consciousness which characterizes the true
priest.
The three final tones of Life, Truth, and Love are about the promised
land. This is the reality of Israel's identity which, by reason of obedience
B
119
to the foregoing decrees, she will soon inherit and inhabit.

Once she is living in the land, she shall celebrate annually seven feas~s
to the Lord. Because these are "perpetual" and "everlasting" celebrations,
they indicate a tone of L~fe. At the same time, her lamps must burn
continuously before the Lord. Everything to do with the promised land is
eternal not temporal, permanent not transitory.
A tone of Truth points out the type of manhood which is unacceptable
in the land. This is a compound of Israel and Egypt and constitutes a false
Israelite. In the measure that Israel and Egypt mix, Israel is less than
whole; and a state of thought which is not whole cannot be part of one
whole land.
Lastly, a tone of LOl'e demands a sabbath year of rest for the land.
During this time only that which grows without labour may be eaten.
There shall also be a year of jubilee for the liberation of slaves. God, not
man, being the master of the land, Israel herself is the willing servant of
God. No other fornl of slavery is permissible in her society.
The final chapter su nlnlarizcs the Levitical message. It is stated over
and over again that Israel's every thought, her every act, must be evaluated
according to Principle - it nlust he held up to the estimation of Moses and
the Levites, who are Principle's appointed representatives. The text reads:
"'As thou valuest it . . . so shall it be . . . as the priest shall estimate it, so
shall it stand."
In the spirit of the first part of Leviticus (the way to holiness), Science
and Health bids us ask the question: "Am I living the life that approaches
the supreme good?" In the spirit of the second part (the Holiness Code
itself) comes the complementary question: 'Am I demonstrating the
healing power of Truth and Love?" If the answers to these two questions
are truly in the affirmative then, in the book of Numbers, which we come
to next, our "way will grow brighter unto the perfect day,' " as we make
our journey to the promised land (S & H 496:9).
CHAPTER VI
Numbers
The very title Numbers suggests at once the metaphysical meaning of the
book. Moses is told to number Israel. His duty is to assemble the nation
into one coherent body in preparation for the march to the promised land.
To reach her destination in the end, the form which Israel must present
from the beginning is a diversity of identity in classified unity.
Individually and collectively she must pattern humanly the ultimate
divinity which she is setting out to be - the divinity which (in Science) she
already is.
Numbers, like Leviticus, can be said to be in two parts. The first is
where the people assemble and integrate before starting on their journey~
the second is the journey itself- the orderly trek to the banks of the
Jordan, the place from which to enter and take possession of the
land.
The question is, what have numbers to do with divine metaphysics?
The answer is, nothing at all if by numbering is meant the literal counting
of persons or things. In the story of David, in II Samuel, we read how
HDavid's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And
David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done" (II
Sam 24: 10). Mary Baker Eddy made it a by-law in her Church Manual that
Christian Scientists ~'shall turn away from personality and numbering the
people" (Man 48:20). It is not a question of how many individuals make up
the Christ-body, but of what constitutes individuality in its spiritually
corporate expression. In other words, what is number spiritually
conceived?
In the Science of being there is only one number, and that is one.
Infinity is the eternal, capitalized One. This One is retlected
(individualized) in infinite uncapitalized ones. But this reflection is not
quantifiable numerically. Individuality partakes of the nature of the
infinite, and it is not possible to count infinity. Christian Science teaches
that "each of Christ's little ones reflects the infinite One" (PuI4: 14). This
reflection of the total One gives the true idea of individuality in mao.
"The Ego-man is the reflection of the Ego-God" (S & H 281: 10). In
Exodus, Moses revealed to Israel the individuality of the Ego-God when
he presented the I AM THAT I AM. This infinite I, or Us, must be
infinitely reflected in Israel herself, otherwise she is not the Ego-man.
Only the Ego-man presents the true idea of individuality, and therefore
120
NUMBERS
121
the true idea of number. Israel must represent the truth that '"in Science all
being is individual~ for individuality is endless in the calculus of forms and
numbers" (Mis 104:9). To calculate man numerically is, in belief, to
finitize the infinite, and perpetuate the dream of "organization and time
l which] have nothing to do with Life" (S & H 249: 19).
~I AM THAT I AM. My individuality is determined by the fact that I
am One and indivisible,' God says, in effect. This individuality of the One
is reduced to human comprehension in Science through the sevenfold
declaration: ~I AM MIND, SPIRIT, SOUL, PRINCIPLE, LIFE, TRUTH,
LOVE.' But seven is only a symbol. There is no such thing as seven in
infinity. God's nature is not sevenfold but infinite, that is, One. From these
seven individual views of the One, in Christian Science, derive what are
called the Hnumerals of infinity" (S & H 520: 10). A numeral is a symbol of
number. The numerals of the infinite One present a range of ideas
of the One, and are the God-appointed symbols for understanding
this One.
Because God and man are indivisible, the individuality of God
includes the individuality of man. Just as the capitalized terms Mind,
Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love constitute the individuality of
God, so the uncapitalized numerals of infinity constitute individuality in
man. In Science each "little one" reflects and embodies individually the
numerals of the "infinite One." Numbering Israel spiritually teaches her
that "metaphysically and mathematically" a man is "number one, a unit,
and therefore whole number, governed and protected by his divine
Principle, God" (Pul 4:7).
Thus, ~~the numerals of infinity, called seven days, can never be
reckoned according to the calendar of time. These days will appear as
mortality disappears, and they will reveal eternity, newness of Life, in
which all sense of error forever disappears and thought accepts' the divine
infinite calculus" (S & H 520: 10).
This infinite calculus, typified by the coming promised land, is Israel's
deathless spiritual identity. In this divinely structured land, the numerals
of infinity, as the constituent elements of individuality, flow together
infinitely in absolute harmony and unity. Israel will inherit this land in the
measure that she is individually collective, and collectively individual.
The land is the forever indivisibility of infinite individuality. This is the
matrix calculus of her being, the land of Life, Truth, and Love.
The journey to her identity is, from the beginning, this very identity
unfolding step by step until, at last, she accepts it indivisible and whole.
This is why the second part of Numbers (where the journey takes place)
evolves, as we shall see, in an order equivalent to the seven days (~r
creation.
The attainment of a spiritual goal is necessarily the unfoldlnent, from
the beginning, of the elements that make up this goal. The journey to the
infinite calculus is the self-revelation of the calculus itself according to its
122
own inherent order, namely, the order of the numerals of infinity called
seven days.
In the book of Numbers, Israel, directed by her Christ-identity,
advances (humanly and objectively) to the subjective wholeness of this
identity. The key-idea throughout is individuality. Under the disciplinary
guidance of Moses she learns to be truly individuaL in order to constitute,
in the land itself, the collective and universal calculus of the ideas of God.
The book of Numbers, and Deuteronomy which follows, are still in the
tone of Soul as Principle. In these two books, Moses continues to teach the
Principle of one indivisible, healthy body - the Principle of the
harmonious embodiment of what individuality is. I n Soul as Life, the fifth
and final tone of the third thousand-year period, Israel actually inherits
the land.
Assembly for the journey
Science as the Word

Soul and Life
If we think, first, of Israel's onglnation in the patriarchal period, in

Genesis, as relating to the power of the creative Word; secondly, of God
dwelling in the midst of her, in Exodus, as relating to the love of the
mediatorial Christ; thirdly, of her sacrificial life-practices, in Leviticus, as
typical of healing and redemption in Christianity,' then, fourthly, the
opening chapters of Numbers, where Moses orders and assembles her for
the journey ahead, relate to the integri ty of her being in Science.
In the Science order of the synonymous terms for God (Appendix
p.380), Science as the Word (represented by the two terms Soul and Life)
leads to Science as the Christ (represented by Spirit and Trul-h) to Science
as Christianity (represented by Mind and Love) and to Science as Science
(represented by the all-inclusive term Principle). These four elements of
universal Science unfold respectively the numerals. calculus. matrix, and
system of the eternal reality of man. Armed with this fourfold system, as
the means of teaching her symbolically the truth of her own being, Israel
makes her way, in the second part of Numbers, towards the actual
experience of this reality, namely, the promised land.
Numerals (~r infinity: "As the Lord commanded Moses, so he numbered
them in the wilderness of Sinai." Israel's final census of 603550 is a
noteworthy symbol, with its 6, its 3, and its 5. Israel typifies generic
man - man, the subject of the sixth day of creation, determined by the
sixth synonym, Truth. Basically, man is made up of identity (third
synonym, Soul), which has individuality (fifth synonym, Life). An
infinitude of individual identity, constituted primarily of the numerals of
infinity, gives the spiritual and scientific truth regarding numbers. The
body of eternal Life (Soul and Life), formed of numberless individual
identity, ranges in classified order from the infinitesimal to infinity, and is
determined by Science as the Word.
NUMBERS
123
Reflecting the infinite ~~One" of Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life,

Truth, Love, each of Israers "little ones" embodies in himself the ideas of
this One as the elements of individual identity.
Spirit and Truth
Infinite calculus: ~'Numbering," in the tone of Soul and Life, leads to

"calculation" in the tone of Spirit and Truth. The emphasis now is on
structure and form. Differentiation and analysis lead to integration and
synthesis. Individuality must be divinely collective in order to show forth
the stature of the Son of God.
Accordingly, the twelve tribes of Israel are arranged in four groups on
the north, east, south, and west of the tabernacle in the centre, each group
consisting of three tribes. This positioning is a symbolic preview of
Israel's ultimate identity, found in Revelation, as the twelve gates of the
holy city, and as the twelve stars on the woman's crown. In this symbolic
compound formation, typifying the relationships of the divine infinite
calculus, the body of Israel is ready to move forward through the
wilderness in the direction of the reality that lies behind the symbol.
Mind and Love
Matrix (~f immortality: The text turns to the tabernacle itself- to the
central, determining, all-embracing nucleus of the foregoing unitary
formation. All twelve tribes of the children of Israel revolve around this
centre. This is the symbol of the universal '"matrix," the parental womb of
the Mind which is Love, the circumference as well as the centre of the
eventual foursq uare ci ty.
The symbolism is unmistakable. God says to Moses: ~'And I, behold, I
have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the
firstborn that openeth the matrix among the children of Israel." The
priestly tribe of Levi, whose special charge is the holy tabernacle, is
selected to represent the whole of Israel as Jehovah's first-born' son. The
tabernacle is the focal point of union and communion with God. I t stands
for the coincidence of the human with the divine - that state of
consciousness wherein the Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit, overshadows
human conception. As in the case of the mother of Jesus, this condition of
Hself-conscious communion with God" (S & H 29:32) brings forth the firstborn son of God. Hence the relationship hetween the tabernacle, the
matrix, and the house of Levi representing all Israel as this first-born son.
The question arises: If Levi is devoted to the service of the tabernacle
at the centre of the formation, how can the full numher of twelve tribes
revolve around the tabernacle? The answer is that the two sons of Joseph,
Ephraim and Manasseh, have now been accepted as two individual tribes.
Wi thout depleting the idea of the surrounding twe lye, therefore, Levi is
free to fulfil his uniquely responsible office.
It is important to observe that Levi, at the centre, is himself divided
into four distinct groupings, just as the twelve tribes are at the
circumference. One Levitical group faces north, one east, one south, and
124
one west. This creates altogether one sixteenfold symbol- the fourfold
centre and twelvefold circumference of the circle of infinite being.
As we are aware, the matrix calculus of the divine Science of man,
revealed in the twentieth century, is a sixteenfold structure. On several
occasions, as we advance through the Old and New Testaments, we shall
find ourselves confronted anew with this symbol of the centre and
circumference of being. Here, in Numbers, at the foot of the holy
mountain, it represents the pattern to which consciousness must conform
in order to journey to the promised land - that is, to the divinely
covenanted reality which lies behind this early teaching symbol.
Science as Science
Principle
Journey to the Promised

Land
Infinite system: Israel is the system of living ideas which constitutes divine
Science. Her identity is one whole body of consciousness comprising
numerals of infinity (where the accent is individuality), divine infinite
calculus (where the accent is collectivity), and matrix of immortality
(where the accent is universality). This is what assembled Israel typifies in
the closing section of the first part of Numbers where, under the sole
direction of Principle, she is equipped to advance to the promised land.
To signify her concerted devotion to the purpose facing her, twelve
princes, representing her own totality as the idea of Principle, bring gifts of
dedication to the tabernacle. United and dedicated to the service of this
Principle, Israel is at last ready to move.
The journey from Sinai to Canaan, in the second part of Numbers, is really
a mic-rocosm of the entire Scriptural unfoldment from Genesis to
Revelation. That is to say, Israel progresses in the order of the seven days
of creation - specifically, the order of the three tones of the first day, the
three of the second, the five of the third, the five of the fourth, the four of
the fifth, the seven of the sixth, and the two of the seventh - thus
patterning the development of the thousand-year periods of the Bible
story as a whole. At the stage corresponding to the seventh day of creation,
she finds herself encamped on the shores of Jordan, ready to cross over
and occupy the land. Today, after six millennia of civilizing activity,
twentieth century humanity, on the threshold of the seventh millennium, is
taking up its posi tion on these same metaphorical river banks.
"Spiritual teaching must always be by symbols" (S & H 575: 13). The
land, as we have said, is the Science and system of the numerals, calculus,
and matrix of infinity. Israel, from the beginning of her undertaking, must
be the living, law-abiding symbol of this system, otherwise she will not be
able to attain the idea, which has itself initiated the preliminary moral
symbol.
In like manner, Mary Baker Eddy, through the symbol of her church,
led the Christian Science movement to the point where it could inherit its
real and enduring spiritual estate.
NUMBERS
125
Let us not lose sight of the fact that the journey as a whole is in two
distinct phases. The first, from Egypt to Sinai, is the outcome of the initial
Mosaic revelation of the I AM THAT I AM; the second, from Sinai to
Canaan, results from the reduction of the law of one I AM to the practical
workings of the moral law. The founding mission of Mary Baker Eddy is
likewise in two parts, represented by her two phases of church
organization. The first phase, from 1879 to 1889, rested on the initial
discovery of the allness of God; the second, which began in 1892, was
launched by that pre-eminent revision of the textbook - its fiftieth edition
published in 1891. This edition declared for the first time: "Divine
metaphysics is now reduced to a system." For the first time also, it
answered the question "What is God?" through a range of capitalized,
synonymous terms for God.
Mary Baker Eddy's divinely impelled purpose was the same as God's
purpose for Israel under the leadership of Moses, namely, to teach
humanity; through the Science of self-government, to be spiritually
individual. To this end, a single divine requirement dominates not only
the journey to the land, but also its occupation afterwards. This
requirement is absolute obedience to the Mosaic Principle. Only through
such obedience can the desire for hierarchical control be spiritually
outgrown, and self-government and self-leadership under God take its
place. Treading the pathway of the days of creation, the overriding
demand on Israel is the attainment of spiritual and scientific individuality.
Then it is that as one indivisible, compound idea, she is qualified to
occupy the promised land.
First day
Mind
ongln
In the opening tone of the journey, Mind as Mind, Israel is bidden to

celebrate the passover. This feast marked her emergence, from the
darkness of Egypt (belief in mortal origin) into the light and truth of divine
origin. Before she can begin her migration Israel must remind herself that,
in her totality, she comes from the depths of infinite Mind and belongs to
no other parent.
Not a human mind, but Mind in its aspect as Spirit tells her whether she
is unclean or clean. A heartfelt desire to keep the passover shows that she
is clean. On the other hand, thought which turns from the true sense of
origin to the false separates itself from the body of Israel, and cannot take
part in the journey.
In the third tone of the first day of creation, Mind as Soul, God calls the
light Day and the darkness He calls Night. In the corresponding passage in
Numbers, God's pillar of cloud by day and His pillar of firc hy night stand
ready to guide Israel forward. As Science and Health puts it: HStately
Science pauses not, but moves before them, a pillar of cloud by day and of
126
fire by night, leading to divine heights" (S & H 566:9).

In divine metaphysics, the single "leading factor in Mind-science" that
~'Mind is All [the cloud by day] and matter is naught [the fire by night]"
(S & H 109:2), appears before Israel to direct her on her way.
Second day
Spirit
purity
The actual journey begins. In the tone of Spirit as Mind Israel sets off in
the orderly formation rehearsed in the first part of the book. With her holy
sanctuary in the midst of her, the three tribes on the east (headed by
Judah, as the leading Christ-idea) are in the forefront of all "toward the
rising of the sun." As the earth moves annually round the sun in relation to
the twelve heavenly constellations, so the hosts of Israel advance in
relation to their divine Principle, God, which holds them all in one.
But a dangerous situation soon arises. Moses is visited by his
Midi~nite brother-in-law. A source of possible contention and strife
presents itself. In our quest for order and unity, based on a true
individuality, the organizational opposite of this must be faced and
guarded against. Midianite religiosity seeks to accompany the children of
Israel. Moses is eager to include his brother-in-law in the forward spiritual
movement. '''Leave us not," he says, "forasmuch as thou knowest how we
are to encamp in the wilderness, and thou mayest be to us instead of eyes.
This could be hazardous. Israel must learn to do her own spiritual
thinking, and not believe that outside forces, however well-intentioned,
can supply her vision of truth.
In accord with the pattern of the days of creation, where an evening
and a morning make up each successive day, Israel halts each evening to
rest in her Principle, and rises up each morning to solve the problems of
the day.
H
Remember that what originally came up out of Egypt was a mixed

multitude. Now Moses' brother-in-law is added to the throng.
Consequently, in the tone of Spirit as Spirit, some of the people fall a
lusting. They crave for the flesh-pots of the old way of life. To offset this
tendency, "the spirit of Moses" rests on the seventy elders who are
administering the journey. A firmament of spiritual understanding is at
work. In the second tone of the second day, "Spirit imparts . . .
understanding" (S & H 505: 16). The backsliders are smitten with a plague,
and they bury the people that lusted.
In a tone of Spirit as Soul, Miriam plays the leading part. Midianite
infiltration is beginning to have effect. She and Aaron bitterly resent
Moses' leadership. Individualism on a personal basis is seeking to rear its
head. "Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses?" they ask, "hath he
not spoken also by us?" No! At the present stage of the development Moses
is Israel's God-appointed leader, "faithful in all mine house." Only with
NUMBERS
127
Moses does God speak "mouth to mouth." The time is not ripe for Israel
herself to speak mouth to mouth with God.
The rebellious, self-seeking Miriam is smitten with leprosy white as
snow. '''Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed
when he cometh out of his mother's womb," Aaron pleads. Israel's real
identity is born only of Spirit as Soul- that is, of sinless virgin fidelity.
Miriam repents of her rebelliousness seven days outside the camp, and
Israel is unable to make any further progress until purity is restored and
Miriam reinstated.
'j
Third day
Soul
spiritual sense
In the order of the days of creation, the dry land called Earth is reached in
the third day of Soul. In the story of Numbers, at a point corresponding to
this third day of creation. IsraeL without further delay, finds herself at the
borders of the promised land. If she is meek enough she can at once
inherit the earth. If her thought passes over to a true sense of origin (first
day), if she purifies herself of contrary infidelities (second day), she can
immediately reach the pronlised dry land (third day). With the necessary
spiritual sense, she can, in the tone of Soul as Mind, be gathered into her
proper spiritual "channels" (S & H 506: 18), and accept her true identity.
A reconnaissance party of twelve men, one from each tribe, goes
forward to spy out the land - to "see the land, what it is.'!' Among them are
Caleb (from the house of Judah - manhood) and Joshua (from the house
of Joseph - womanhood). Caleb means "fearless," Joshua means
Hsaviour." The land itself is the manhood and womanhood of God wedded
in one identity.
The land floweth with milk and honey, the spies report unanimously in
the tone of Soul as Spirit. Joshua and Caleb recommend' immediate
possession. But the others are faint-hearted. The land is full of giants, they
complain, the sons of Anak, and "we were in our own sight as
grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." The sons of Anak derive from
the giant offspring of the sons of God and the daughters of men who
feature mythologically at the opening of the second thousand-year period.
Unless this giant dualism is overcome in the thought of Israel at a point in
her journey equivalent to the second day of creation, she will be unable to
accept her genuine spiritual selfhood at a point equivalent to the third.
But myths, however gigantic, hold no terror for Joshua and Caleb. Let us
go up at once, and possess it," they cry, "we are well able to overcome it
. rebel not ye against the Lord."
H
Except for Joshua and Caleb, Israel as a whole would SeelTI to be

lacking in Soul-sense; and in the tone of Soul as Soul, despite Moses'
entreaties to God, she is compelled to return to the wilderness by the way
of the Red Sea to rid herself of her sins - to learn. through suffering, the
128
falsity of the evidence of the five mortal senses. She endures forty years of
punishment wanderings. During this time the present rebellious
generation dies in the desert, and a new generation is born. This new
generation, in the company of Joshua and Caleb, will at last cross the river
Jordan and possess the promised land.
Panicking at her predicament, Israel makes frantic efforts to take the
land by storm. In the tone of Soul as Principle she seeks to capture it by
personal ways and means. Not being identified with Principle, however,
these efforts fail. "Go not up, for the Lord is not among you," Moses warns
her. Because "the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed
not out of the camp," Israel is defeated in her self-willed battle with the
Canaanites.
The need is for true self-sacrifice. In order spiritually to possess the

land, she must, she is told, faithfully perform the different offerings
detailed in the book of Leviticus. Soul as Life will then inspire in her the
true sense of priesthood - will resurrect her above the mortal sense of
self - and she will make the necessary spiritual grade.
Fourth day
Principle
government
As an equivalent of the fourth day of creation, Moses establishes once and

for all that, at the present stage of her experience, Israel must abide by
Principle's provision of priestly government and authority.
In the tone of Principle as Mind, rebellion rears its head again. And
this time it is not just Miriam and Aaron who rebel. A general insurrection
breaks out against Moses' leadership. Desire for personal power and
prestige is creeping in on an organized scale. The rebels say to Moses: "Ye
take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy . . . thou
make thyself altogether a prince over us." Speaking absolutely, it is true
that everyone is as holy as everyone else. But in the relative human
experience, Israel has so far shown herself unfit for self-government, and
is therefore dependent on outside control. The human senses see Moses as
a princely dictator, disciplining Israel personally. This is not true. He is
schooling her objectively in the laws of Principle, in such a way that, if she
has ears to hear, she will make these laws her own subjectively. Only then
can it truly be said that all the congregation are equally holy.
Principle as Spirit bids Moses and Aaron separate themselves from the
rebels that the latter may be consumed. "And the earth opened her mouth,
and swallowed them up . . . and they perished from among the
congregation." Government by Principle must be reflected on earth as it is
in heaven, and thought which rebels against this government reaps the
destruction it sows.
NUMBERS
129
Thereupon, Principle as Soul establishes the Levitical system of

government as definite and incontrovertible. Of twelve rods (one from
each of the twelve tribes), only the rod of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi, buds
and blossoms.
[n a tone of Principle as Principle it is reiterated once more that Moses
and Aaron, and Aaron's sons, are exclusively in charge of the tabernacle.
Likewise, Mary Baker Eddy knew that her system of church administration
was not a personal dictatorship, but the dictum of divine Principle leading
her followers step by step to the goal of self-government.
The passage in the tone of Principle as LIfe tells of the abundant good
that flows to the Levites as the reward for their steadfast obedience. These
good things come as the result of the different sacrifices. The Levites have
no material inheritance. Their inheritance is spirituality itself, which
comes direct from God. The sons of Levi are that state of thought in Israel
which, because it seeks primarily the kingdom of God, the needful things
of human experience are spontaneously added unto it.
Filth day
Life
individuality
That part of Israel's journey which corresponds to the fifth day of creation
begins with the episode of the red heifer. The tone is Life as Mind. Israel is
told to sacrifice a red heifer that is without blemish, and which has not
borne a yoke. A heifer is a young cow that has never calved. Red (as in the
case of Esau and the Red Sea) is a symbol of blood and organic life.
Israel is Jehovah's bride as well as His first-born son. She must
surrender even the belief that virgin humanhood gives birth to the Son of
God. In the order of the thousand-year periods, Jesus appears at this same
point of Life as Mind, and it is precisely this fact regarding virgin
motherhood which he proves at the resurrection. He offers up "once for
all" the belief that life is of mortal origin. It is true that the Son of God is
the Son of man, but not of man as a mortal.
The time is at hand when Israel must part not only with Miriam and
Aaron but with Moses as well- when her early need for outside mothering
must yield to the Science of divine self-government. Even though a pane
of glass lets through more light than a wall, the glass is just as material as
the wall, and the light and the glass do not mingle (S & H 295:! 6). Israel
must understand that she is the divinely originated light itself, not
mediatorial glass.
In the tone of Life as Spirit the ashes of the burnt heifer, mingled with
running water, are the means of cleansing her should she come in contact
with a dead body. In this "water of separation," Israel purifies herself of

the thought of death. So essential is it to give up belief in personal
segregation and privileged mediumship, that once she is purged of this
130
belief her punishment wanderings end. In the coming tone of Life as Soul
she is once more at the borders of the promised land. Her wanderings
have had nothing to do with a period of time, only with a process of
purification.
Life as Soul brings to her experience many important happenings.

First, Miriam dies. The name Miriam, as we have seen, is from the sanle
root as Midian and Mary, signifying bitterness and strife. Surely the death
of Miriam is the beginning of the end of the belief that it is bitter to give
. up the mortally divisive sense of life. Yet Israel must part with Aaron and
Moses too before she can enter the land. At the [noment both are with her,
and she thirsts again, and complains bitterly. Nevertheless the time has
come when, like the woman in the gospel at Jacob's (Israel's) well, the
water of life, flowing within her, is ready to spring up into everlasting life.
On the other occasion when she thirsted, God bade Moses strike the
rock with his rod, and it brought forth water to quench Israel's thirst. It
was necessary then to administer discipline objectively. Now he is told to
speak to the rock, not strike it, and it will bring forth water again. Personal
compulsion is no longer needed. Israel has reached the point when she
can bring forth the water of life voluntarily from within her own being.
But to Moses she is still "ye rebels," and he strikes the rock not once but
twice! As we know, this act of disobedience precludes him from entering
the promised land.
Israel is still approaching the land. It is still objective to her and not
yet subjective. Consequently, Edam (the red Esau who is her own kin)
obstructs her path and impedes her progress. Edam typifies the subjective
aspect of the mortal psyche; and until Israel resides in the land itself, she
must leave unresolved the problem of Esau, and circumvent Edomite
territory. Only when Jacob, at Peniel, saw God face to face could he solve
the problem of Esau.
When, following the death of Miriam, Aaron dies too, the punishment
wanderings finally end. Even so, Israel is bitten by fiery (red) serpents. In
order to heal her, Moses holds before her gaze a brazen serpent on a pole.
We read in the gospel, 'As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of man be lifted up" (John 3: (4). Israel must
understand that what seems to be 'out there' (objective) is identical with
what is 'in here' (subjective). Once stings of malice are found to be selfinflicted, they begin to be self-destroyed. Mortal mind was not really
crucifying Jesus, but itself. When Jacob had successfully wrestled with
himself he saw his brother as the face of God. In Life as Soul, the kingdom
of God is neither here nor there but is, as Jesus says, 'within."
In the tone of L~fe as Principle, Israel defeats two mountain-dwelling
kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og. These are giants, descended from the
progeny of the sons of God and the daughters of men at the opening of the
NUMBERS
131
second period. Because of what Life as Soul has taught her, Israel no
longer desires to use the things of Principle to advance herself persona.lly.
She therefore overcomes this gigantic, mountainous obstruction to her
continued spiritual growth. Because Sihon had previously conquered the
territory of the Moahites~ Israel now sojourns in the land of Moab. This
means that her inheritance east of Jordan - the territory outside the
land - has been won. Soon she will cross over into the land itself and make
this her own too.
Sixth day
Truth
wholeness
That part of the narrative which corresponds to the sixth day of Truth
opens with the story of Balak and Salaam. Salaam is a commerciallyminded, self-seeking prophet of Midian whom Balak, king of Moab, hires
to curse the people of God. Through a process of reversal, Israel must free
herself fronl Moses' original Midianite alliance before she can enter the
land. If she docs not translate this alliance into a blessing it will be to her a
curse. Religion, unresolved by Science, breeds not only professionalism
and careerislll but COlllll1Crcialislll as well.
In the 1'ruth as Mind tone, Balak pays Balaam to blot out the light of
advancing rnanhood by cursing the children of Israel. "Curse me this
people~ for they are too mighty for me," is his conlnland to Salaam, whom
he approaches with Hrewards of divination" in his hand.
At the point of Truth as Spirit Salaam obediently sets off on his ass to
carry out Balak's orders. In a place where the way is straight and narrow,
the angel of the Lord halts the ass three times. Believing the ass to be
stubborn and rebellious, Balaam strikes her three times with his staff. This
typifies Israel herse If, as a beast of burden, bearing upon her back the
curse of Midianite ecclesiasticism, and being struck three time~ by Moses.
The time has come for Israel finally to reverse this back-breaking curse of
Midianitism.
Truth as Soul changes the evidence before the mortal senses, and the
curse is turned into a blessing. Because of what Israel really is, it is
impossible for Balaam to curse her. Three times he goes up to the high
places and views her true identity. Spiritual wickedness in high places is
unable to carry out its evil threat. HHow goodly are thy tents, 0 Jacob, and
thy tabernacles, 0 Israel," Balaam is forced to admit. ~'I called thee to
curse mine enemies," cries the frustrated Halak, ""and, behold, thou hast
altogether blessed them these three tinlcs." "Behold, I have received
commandment to bless . . . and I cannot rcverse it," is Salaam's resigned
reply.
Truth as Principle shows how the wilely Balaam doctrine, if persisted

in, would cause Israel to commit whorcdolll with the daughters of Moab,
132
and offer sacrifices to other gods. This is man rejecting Principle. In the
story, a Simeonite marries a Midianite, and both of them have to be slain.
HVex the Midianites, and smite them: For they vex you with their wiles," is
God's command to Moses.
During the punishment wanderings a new generation of Israelites has
been born. This generation has grown up in the wilderness, not in Egypt.
In the tone of Truth as Life the new generation is numbered. Individuality
based on personal sense previously prevented Israel from entering the
promised land. Individuality as it is in Truth (which is individuality whole
and undivided) will now succeed where the other failed. This idea of
compound wholeness, in which individuality is preserved intact, involves
the true idea of womanhood. In the story, the daughters of Zelophehad, of
the house of Joseph, come to inquire about their inheritance.
The Moses phase of Israel's experience is at the point of yielding to the
Joshua phase. Outside authority and leadership, requisite in the
beginning, have served their temporary useful purpose, and individual
self-government is about to take their place. As already noted, in 1901
Mary Baker Eddy declared that her successor as leader of the Christian
Science movement would be generic man (My 347:5). This is man selfgoverned and self-led, because governed and led by the Principle of his
own wholeness. It is not surprising, therefore, to learn that Moses' last
service to the children of Israel is to avenge them of the Midianites. In the
battle which ensues, virgin Midianites alone are saved.
The section on Truth as Truth concerns the land itself - the inside and
outside of one whole land, which is now to be inherited. The outside is
won already, the inside has yet to be gained. The outside is the inheritance
of Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh. The inside is to be
divided amongst the remaining nine and a half tribes. This means that
Manasseh's inheritance is half inside the land and half outside. And thus
the house of Joseph (Manasseh) forms, as we would expect, a connecting
link, or bridge, between the subjective and objective aspects of the one
whole consciousness of man. The gates of the holy city, identified in
Revelation with the twelve tribes of Israel, open simultaneously within
and without. Otherwise consciousness is not whole.
As so often happens in a tone of Love, preceding events are
summarized. The text which accentuates Truth as Love is a recapitulation
of Israel's entire journey from Egypt to her present position. It is as if (in
the spirit of the closing tone of the sixth day of creation) God sees
everything that He has made - the fulness of Israel's journey to the land of
her inheritance- and, behold, it is successfully accomplished!
NUMBERS
Seventh day
Love
object ach ieved
133
The orderly approach to the land is finished, and Israel can rest and take
possession. The tone of Love as Truth concerns Love's provision for. the
Levites. Because the Levites have no inheritance but Truth itself, Israel
must care for her Levitical brethren by bestowing on them forty-eight of
her own cities, both inside and outside the land. The land is indeed the
universal brotherhood of man founded on Truth and Love.
The closing tone is Love as Love. This forbids intermarrying among
the different houses of the children of Israel. The daughters of
Zelophehad make their appearance again. These are forbidden to marry
outside their own tribe, otherwise the descendants of the house of Joseph
will lose their inheritance. We remember how Joseph illustrates the
absolute Science of universal being. If, in this Science, individuality is not
preserved, the Science i tse If is lost. We read therefore: "So shall not the
inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe." Science
depends for its validity on preserving the individual integrity of the ideas
that make up the wholeness of its structure. In the promi&ed land,
individuality enjoys inalienahle rights (S & H 227:9). The word "alien" is
from a root meaning Hanother." ~~I nalienable" means incapable of being
~~transferred" from one to another.
Numbers ends as .it began with the demand for a true appraisal of
individuality as the prerequisite for entering the promised land. In
summarizing the story of Israel's journey, let us cite once more the
reference to the numerals of infinity: "The numerals of infinity, called
seven days, can never be reckoned according to the calendar of time.
These days will appear as mortality disappears, and they will reveal
eternity, newness of Life, in which all sense of error forever disappears
and thought accepts the divine infinite calculus" (S & H 520:'10). Israel's
journey is not geographical, but a journey of spiritual education. The
order of the seven days of creation, in their spiritual subtones, teaches her
step by step to be individually and collectively self-governed. Then she
can accept the divine infinite calculus - the actual promised land.
In this foursquare land of the Word, Christ, Christianity, Science, the
ideas of God operate together as one whole idea, but never lose their
individuality in doing so. This is Israel's land of freedom - the land of
Christian Science. ~'Christian Science" and uthe infinite calculus" are one
and the same thing; as the infinite calculus, Christian Science "absolutely
refutes the amalgamation, transmigration, absorption, or annihilation of
individuality" (Mis 22: 10).
The books of Joshua and Judges, where we reach the fifth and last tone
of the third thousand-year period (Soul as Life), recount the actual
acceptance of the land. But before we enter that part of the story the
teachings of Deuteronomy must be taken into account, which is Moses'
parting message.
CHAPTER VII
Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy is a recapitulation of all Moses' teachings. It is also his

farewell oration - his tender solicitations for Israel's safe conduct over
Jordan under the leadership of Joshua, and for her entry and conquest of
the land,. 'Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land
which the Lord your God gives you,' is the keynote of this moving and
compelling discourse. In the language of divine metaphysics, Moses' plea
to Israel is: 'Accept for yourselves the divine infinite calculus as
constituting your true identity.'
Israel must not fail to enter upon her immortal heritage a second time,
as she did once before. Fearlessly and joyously she must go in and accept
the inheritance bequeathed her as the will of her heavenly Father, and as
the will of Moses, the Father's representative. For Moses dies on Hthis side
Jordan" while she herself advances into the land.
Deuteronomy concludes the tone of Soul as Principle, the fourth tone
of the third period, that began with the sojourn at Sinai. Sinai, overlooking
the wilderness was the scene of the first giving of the Law; Deuteronomy,
delivered from the plains of Moab overlooking the land itself, is the second
giving of the Law. In between these two legal pronouncements, Israe1 has
progressively identified herself with the body of Principle (Soul as
Principle) iT! order to be properly individual within this body. In the book
of Joshua, where the tone changes to Soul as Life, and where she actually
enters and possesses the land, she begins to be this deathless body.
But the teaching in the Old Testament is, as we know, of the nature of a
preparatory symbol. Actually being Principle's body is achieved only in
the demonstrations of Jesus at the opening of the New Testament - at the
beginning of the fifth period, characterized by Life itself. At the close of
the present third period (Soul as Life), Israel's thought turns spiritually
from the objective to the subjective point of view, and this prepares the
way for Jesus' eventual demonstration of sinless, deathless life.
What we shall witness, therefore, when we come to the fourth period of
Principle, is Israel consolidating her newly won subjective outlook, in
order (in the form of Christ Jesus and Christian Science) to be the
individual, collective, and universal truth of mankind in the fifth, sixth,
and seventh periods of Life, Truth, and Love.
So far-reaching is the teaching of Deuteronomy, as it closes the tone of
Soul as Principle, that it can be said to encompass and foreshadow the
134
DEUTERONOMY
135
entire spiritual development of the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh

periods. This is the nature of an idea "whose seed is in itself." This is tQ,e
nature of the idea which was first sown in consciousness in the era of the
patriarchs, and which is described in the text of the third day of creation
as fully contained within its own "seed" (S & H 507 -508).
Thus, just as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph give us for the first
time the idea of the nultrix of immortality (the womb of infinite life, the
seed of which is sc If-developing), so Deuteronomy unfolds this idea for
the second time. In other words, we find in Deuteronomy the same sixteen
tones of the Word. C"'hrisL Christianity, Science, presented from a new
point of view.
DeuterononlY. as the second giving of the law, emphasizes the need for
voluntary acceptance of this law on the part of Israel, rather than
disciplinary cnforcelnent whil:h characterizes the first giving of the law.
From no other standpoint than that of gracious, joyous, and loving
acceptance can Israel enter thl~ proilliscd land.
In the spirit of l)euteronolllY, therefore, HLet us accept Science,
relinquish all theories hased on scnse-tl~stilnony. give up imperfect models
and illusive ideals~ and so let us haVl~ one (iud, one Mind, and that one
perfect, producing His own Inollels of l'XCl~llcncc. Let the ~male and
female' [Judah and Israeli of (,od's creating appear. Let us feel the divine
energy of Spirit, bringing us into newness of lifl~ I the proll1ised iand] and
recognizing no mortal nor material power as ahle to destroy. Let us rejoice
that we are subject to the divine ~powcrs that hl'.' Su~h is the true Science
of being" (S & H 249: 1 - i a).
With the coming of DeuterononlY, the 1l1othc:ring, authoritarian
mission of Moses is, as we realize, outgrown. Writing of the Ulllaterial
organization" which is requisite in the heginning of the stUlh:nt's spiritual
development (its Mosaic phase), Mary Baker Fddy quotes frolll Paul:
\'~When I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a chi Ill, I thought
as a child: but when I became a man, I put a\\lay childish things" (Mis
359:2). Israel is no longer child but man. But this does not Inean to say that
Moses' teachings are put away; far froln it. The spirit of childlikeness
continues now from an adult point of view. ('caselcssly it is driven home
to the advancing Israelites that the Joshua rnission wi II succeed, indeed
that the whole of Israel's future world-rnission will succl'cd. only if it
develops from the foundations already laid down hy Moses.
By the time Mary Baker Eddy's mission closcd in 19 I O. the first sixteen
chapters of Science and Health patterned the sixtccnfold Illatrix of the city
foursquare. Since that time this scientific structure of the tcxthook has
begun to reveal itself, and its absolute Science and systelll has hcgun to be
understood. The present spiritual advanCetllcnt in the understanding of
Christian Science is therefore based unreservedly on the foundations laid
by Mary Baker Eddy. In fact, Joshua is to Moses. in the story of Israel as
the present era in the development of Christian Science is to the founding
mission of Mary Baker Eddy.
136
Of course, Moses is not really the author of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy, as noted in Chapter I, was not written until halfway through
the fourth period. It was the book of the law found in the temple in 621 B.C.
(II Kings 22:8) following the sacking by Assyria of the kingdom of Israel,
and Israel's dispersion among the nations of the world. The purpose of the
authors of Deuteronomy was to prevent the kingdom of Judah from
suffering the same fate at the hands of Babylon as Israel suffered at the
hands of Assyria. To ensure this, they were compelled to trace the
conditions for Israel's prosperity, and for the future success of her worldwide mission, back to the teachings of Moses. Hence Moses is accorded
Deuteronomic authorship, and the scene of the book is laid in the days
immediately preceding the conquest of the promised land.
Deuteronomy includes what is called the Palestinian Covenant.
Scofield writes in his Reference Bible (p.216) that '"it was under the
conditional Palestinian Covenant that Israel entered the land under
Joshua. Utterly violating the conditions of that covenant, the nation was
first disrupted and then cast out of the land." But~ Scofield adds, "the same
covenant unconditionally promises a national restoration of Israel which
is yet to be fulfilled." As we shall see, the Palestinian Covenant teaches,
prophetically and symbolically, the regathering of the human race to God
in the 'latter days" of Christian Science. For the twelve tribes of the
children of Israel stand in type for the whole human race. Hence Scofield
further describes this Covenant as Hthe mould of predictive prophecy in
its larger sense" (p.711).
Inevitably, Deuteronomy has n1uch in common with the work of the
sixteen writing prophets which close the Old Testament, and which anticipate the work of Christ Jesus and Christian Science, in the fifth, sixth.
and seventh periods. DeuterononlY is indeed a predictive ~nJ prophetic
.. m 0 u 1d. '" or n1 at ri x, hoI din g wit hi nit the ide a 0 f Is rae r s tot a I fu t u re
developnlent. It wou Id be impossi b Ie to over-estinlate the Illagnitude and
illlportance of this grand epitonle of Moses' teachings; so let us touch, one
by one, upon its sixteen inlperative, far-reaching tones.
'-
Way to fhe promised land: The opening chapters, determined by the Word
in its aspect as the Word, are a recapitulation by Moses of Israel's
experiences from Sinai to the plains of Moab where she is now encamped.
He recounts the story of her wilderness approach to the promised land.
The reason she can at last conquer the land is because she has learnt to be
obedient to the Word of God. In the fundamental order of the divine
synonyms, she has reached the outskirts of Principle because she has
obediently traversed the pathway mapped out by Mind, Spirit, SouL and
has begun to embody spiritually what these terms mean.
Law divinely revealed: In the tone of the Word as the Christ, Moses says to
her, in effect, 'I have brought you as far as is required of me. and here my
DEUTERONOMY
137
mission ends; I have founded your life on Principle, and now you must
advance under Joshua and be this very life.' The name Joshua has'; as
already noted, the same spiritual meaning as Jesus. Referring to Joshua, in
this way, the text introduces a Christ tone. Moses has identified Israel
objectively with the divine body of Principle; under Joshua, she must
begin to show forth this Principle herself. The determining synonyms at
this point are therefore Soul, Principle, Life; identification with divine
Principle individualizes itself as Israel's own life.
It is as if he is saying what Mary Baker Eddy says regarding her
textbook and Manual: ~In order to inherit the promised land do not amend
or annul a single rule of the revealed law of God.' Moses' actual words are:
"Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye
diminish ought from it." Correspondingly, we read in the Christian
Science Church Manual: ""No new Tenet or By-Law shall be adopted, nor
any Tenet or By-Law amended or annulled, without the written consent of
Mary Baker Eddy" (Man 105).
HO ut of heaven he made thee to hear his voice," Moses says. "I stood
between the Lord and you at that tinle, to show you the word of the Lord."
The Word of the Lord is absolute law. Thus Moses reminds Israel of his
mediatorial Christly office in revealing to her the unbreakable law, or
Word, of God.
Life-practice: Moses reiterates his fundamental revelation: "Hear, 0

Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." God's
Word must be wrought out in life-practice. To keep the divine law
humanly is true humanhood. Hence, in this tone of the Word as
Christianity, Israel is bidden to love God supremely, and to let this heartfelt love be expressed in the details of her daily life. Then she w'ill increase
mightily, and her days will be prolonged in the land that tloweth with milk
and honey.
Science and Health asks correspondingly: "Dost thou 'love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind',!
This command includes much, even the surrender of all merely material
sensation, affection, and worship. This is the EI Dorado of Christianity"
(S & H 9: 17).
In the promised land, the human is the outcome solely of the divine,
Every plant of the field and every herb of the ground is made divinely
before it is outpictured humanly (Gen 2:4). In this section of Deuteronomy, Moses tells Israel of her great and goodly cities which she hcrSl'lf
does not build, of her wells which she does not dig, and of her vineyards
and olive trees which she herself does not plant. As Jesus says in t hl'
Sermon on the Mount: "Consider the lilies of the field. how thl'Y grow~
they toil not, neither do they spin . . . if God so clothe the ~rass of lhl'
field . . . shall he not much more clothe you . . . seek ye firsl thl' kin~dol11
138
of God . . . and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt 6:28). How
different life will be in the promised land from what it was in Egypt, and in
the wilderness! In the promised land life is Truth itself.
The Word as Science
The ',few" o.f the "seven" and the '~fourn: Seven enemy nations will be
smitten and destroyed by the advancing Israelites when they enter upon
their covenanted possession. The Word in its Science, the fulness of the
order of Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love, utterly casts out
of consciousness everything in the human psyche which opposes the
authority of this one absolute God.
"And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt
smite them, and utterly destroy them . . . the Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the
face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you,
because ye were more in;' number than any people; for ye were the fewest of
a11 people . . ."
A tiny band of people, as such, has neither place nor meaning in the
divine Science of being. But the reduction of one divine Science to a
system of ideas, which becomes comprehensible humanly through as
~'few" as seven and four root-concepts has pre-eminent significance above
all other religious and scientific systems, whose elements are more
numerous and complex. This blessed system of individual, collective, and
universal ideas must, as the Word of God in its Science, and as the true
idea of Israel, be fOUIld at last to conquer and constitute all human
.
consciousness.
Christ as the Word
Words that proceed out of the mouth of God: "And he humbled thee, and
suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna . . . that he might make
thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live," Moses tells the
children of Israel.
The main tone of the Word has merged into the Christ- first as a tone
of Christ as the Word. The few root-symbols of the Word in its Science
must be acknowledged, in Christ as the Word, to proceed wholly out of the
mouth of God. These "words" pronounce the content of Israel's spiritual
seltbood. Understanding and digesting them spiritually satisfies her every
appetite. Overcoming Satanic temptations, Jesus says: HMan shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
God" (Matt 4:4), that is, by the words of Life, Truth, and Love that
proceed out of the mouth of Principle. Then, in the land where Hthe Lord
thy God bringeth thee . . . thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou
shalt not lack anything in it."
The coming conquest of the land has nothing to do personally with a
band of people. Moses says to Israel: "Speak not thou in thine heart, after
that the Lord thy God hath cast [seven enemy nations] out from before
DEUTERONOM Y
1~39
thee, saying, For my righteousness the Lord hath brought IllC in to possess
this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord doth dri vc th.l'lll
out from before thee. Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness 01
thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but . . . that he Illay
perform the word which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, Abrahanl. Isaac.
and Jacob."
Not on account of personal goodness, or personal power, docs thc
conquest succeed, but because of the fact that error is impersonally and
scientifically inoperable in Truth. The law of divine Principle, operating
through the system of the seven and the four, causes humanity to live
within the infinitude of God, and not (in belief) outside.
The calcu Ius grinds to powder its supposititious opposite: Nothing is more
fundamental to Israers mission than the fact that, as the pure Christ-idea
(Christ as the Christ), she comes down from God out of heaven to "destroy
incarnate error'" (S & H 583: 10).
In this section of the text, Moses reminds Israel of how, from the top of
the mountain, he brought her the two stone tablets of Commandments
written with the finger of God, and how he stamped out the sin of the
golden calf which she had made. "And I took your sin," he says, "'the calf
which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it
very small, until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the
brook that descended out of the mount."
Later, this same Christ-idea will be depicted by the prophet Daniel as a
stone "cut out without hands," which breaks in pieces the Babylonian idol
and becomes a great mountain that fills the whole earth (Dan 2:34). It is
likewise described by Jesus as the stone which is rejected by the builders
of a mortal way of life, but which nevertheless grinds to powder whatever
it falls upon (Matt 21:44).
'
This stone (the divine infinite calculus) breaks up everything in Israel
herself which breaks the divine commandments - every material belief
which seeks to disintegrate the oneness of God and man, These beliefs arc
the different enemy nations which she must rout from the promised land.
Centre (~f the spiritual universe: The next theme, Christ as Christianity.
reminds us of the Word as Christianity. Once again, Israel is hidden to
love God supremely. Moses says to her, "'And now, Israel, what doth lhl'
Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God. to walk in all
his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with a II thy heart
and with all thy soul." She must love God in this way hccausc Ill' has
delivered her from Egyptian servitude and has brought her III lhl.' pl;ll'l'
where she is. The difference between Egypt and the proilliscd lalld is the
difference between slavery and freedom-hetwecll tilling lhl' Stlil
materially in order to perpetuate organic life. and finding lite (n he selfrenewing as Israel's own being. In the prorniscd land ill'r ,cit' dil'l'l'tillg
140
divinity constitutes her human experience "'as the days of heaven upon the
earth. ~,
Love and obedience cause blessings to multiply, but disobedience acts
like a curse. Hence Israel must overthrow, and hew down, every idolatrous
thought. To this end, God will choose ~~a place" out of all her tribes "'to put
his name there." This "place" will be the centre of her activities. Here she
will foregather and rejoice before the Lord. Operating from this centre,
she will banish from consciousness everything of the nature of beguiling
prophets and false visionaries. She will desist from eating unclean food.
She will care for the needs of the Levite. The stranger, the fatherless, and
the widow will come to her here, and she will feed them with the truth of
the inseparability of being, and they will be satisfied.
This God-appointed place will be represented ultimately by the temple
in the midst of Jerusalem. In spiritual terms it is Israel's own oneness with
Principle as the centre of her whole universe. In the tone of the Christ as
Christianity, it stands for the capital head (Christ) of the universal body
(Christianity).
Christ as Science
Gift qf divine grace: Once she is living in the land, Israel, at the end of
every seven years, is commanded to make a gracious release. HAnd this is
the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his
neighbour shall re lease it."
Only in the measure that she forgives her debtors are Israel's debts
forgiven. As God delivered her from Egypt so must she deliver mankind. It
is as if Moses says to her, in the words of Jesus, and in the words of
Christian Science: "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast
out devils: freely ye have received, freely give" (Matt 10:8).
Three feasts shall be celebrated annually. These are the feast of the
passover, the feast of weeks (a harvest festival), and the feast of tabernacles
(a feast that follows the harvest). Instructions throughout emphasize the
seven. This appears either in the form of seven days or seven weeks (fortynine days). Forty-nine signifies the seven multiplied by the seven - that is,
seven squared - the full measure of the reflecting tones of Mind, Spirit,
Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love. This full reflection of God is Israel
herse If as the true idea of man.
Her feasts celebrate the fruitage that comes from a state of natural
spiritual fertility, in contrast to the labours of Egypt where mortals till the
soil. Released by Soul from being debtor to the body, the mind of
humanity is the healing Mind of Christ - it brings the fruits of Spirit
naturally and spontaneously to birth.
The keynote of the passage is giving. Reflecting the great Giver and His
gift, man gives, by reflection, to his brother man. Writing of her discovery
of the healing Christ Science, Mary Baker Eddy says (quoting Paul) that
this was Hthe gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual
working of His power'" (S& H 108:3).
DEUTERONOMY
Christianity as the Word
141
Governmental decrees: The text merges into the four tones of Christianity.
In the first of these~ (-"hristianity as the Word., the theme is government.
The commonwealth of Israel will be administered by judges. These will
put into operation hunlanly the system of divine government
- government by Principle on earth as in heaven.
Instructions read: .... Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy
gates, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they
shall judge the people \vith just judgnlent. Thou shalt not wrest judgment~
thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the
eyes of the wise, and pervert t he words of the righteous." The true idea of
giving (previous tone) rnust not degenerate into the practice of bribery, or
selfish getting.
Three classes of officers shall govern Israel: the priest, the judge, and
the king. These, of course. are three different aspects of government by
Principle. It could he said. therefore. that through priestly communion
\vith Principle, the judge operates the decrees of the king, who represents
Principle itse If.
Hence the stress \vhich this passage lays 011 the priesthood. Because the
Levites have no inheritance hut their own inseparahility fronl God. their
brethren to whorll they nlinister rllusl care for their hunlan needs. Thus
divinity and hUlllanity reciprocate. This true idea of priesthood (union
and communion with (rod) eliminates fronl consciousness everything
unlike itself. Fnchanters. witches, charmers~ consulters with familiar
spirits, together with all forms of spiritualistic mediumship, are
denounced in this section of the text as being an abomination unto the
Lord. In order that such superstitions shall neither influence nor govern
IsraeL Hthe Lord thy (iod doth drive them out from before thee." They are
no part of the spiritual consciousness which constitutes the .promised
land.
One Sllpre"'l' l)ro{Jhl'/: Following the treatise on true and false priesthood,
the section in t he tone of Christianity as the Christ looks forward to the
conling of one supreme, mediatorial Prophet. This great messianic
Prophet will lay before the children of Israel the absolute divine reality
which Moses, at present, prefigures.
The discourse reads: '"The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a
Prophet frOl1l the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me~ unto him ye
shall hearken." On the shoulders of this Prophet - this exemplary Christfigure - will rest the government of Israel. It is as if the prophet, in this
case, includes all the different governmental offices referred to in the
previous section. Represented eventually by Christ Jesus, this Prophet will
perfo fin not only the offices of Priest and Judge, but also the office of
King. He will put an end to false prophesying, and to vain and fruitless
theorizing.
142
As we know from the New Testament, the purpose of this priestly

Prophet is to slay the belief that man is mortal, and to replace this belief
wi th immortality. To symbolize this, Israel, in the present story, is told
how she must set aside certain of her Levitical cities as ~'cities of refuge."
The purpose of these cities is that every man slayer (every slayer of the
belief that man is mortal) may flee thither, and find safety from avenging
mortal mind. In this way innocent blood will not be shed in the land.
Instructions regarding daily conduct: Chapter after chapter goes into

minute detail regarding Israel's daily life and conduct once she is living in
the promised land. Particularly do these instructions apply to her
relationship with her brother man. Long passages concern relationships
between husband and wife, and between members of families. There are
rules concerning the treatment of rebellious sons, what to do when sheep
that belong to your brother stray into your own pasture, etc.
There are discourses on the evils of sodomy, self-abuse, castration,
adultery, divorce, the oppression of the poor, and so on. The need is for
consisten t generosi ty and chastity. "'Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he
treadeth out the corn," is one of Moses' well-known precepts that comes in
this passage. All these behavioural regulations, determining moral
conduct from the spiritual point of view, suggest the underlying tone of
Christianity purely as Christianity.
as Science
Se(f-qffering: Having entered and possessed her heritage, Israel must offer
Christianity
to God the first fruits of all her increase. Christianity in the aspect of
Science compels self-offering. It demands restoration of the newly
regenerate sense of self to the source from which it comes. Israel, as the
first-born son of God, is really the first fruits of God's increase; and this is
what she is required to acknowledge when she offers up the first fruits of
her land. In bringing her out of Egypt "with a mighty hand, and with an
outstretched arm," her Principle proved to her with signs and wonders
that her identity never passed through a mortal body in the process of
fleshly birth. Because of her deliverance from organic servitude she must
trace her newborn spiritual increase back to the Lord her God. She must
demonstrate humanly the divine fact that she comes from and returns to
God. This will prove she is spiritually whole. Hence the command, at this
point, to build an altar of "whole stones," and to "write upon the stones all
the words of [God'sllaw very plainly." Moses says to her: "this day thou
art become the people of the Lord thy God." Israel is giving herself back
obediently to God.
We read in Science and Health: HThe greatest wrong is but a
supposititious opposite of the highest right" (S & H 368: 1). Properly
understood, Egypt is the supposititious opposite of the promised land, and
not an alternative state of being. In this tone, Moses contrasts the mighty
blessings that accrue through obedience, and the curses that resu It from
DEUTERONOMY
143
disobedience. The wording of the text shows the one to be the exact
reverse of the other. The greatest curse is the supposititious opposit~ of
the highest b lessi ng.
The foremost curse of all appears as the subjugation of Israel and
Judah by Assyria and Babylon during the fourth period. For their sins,
their wholeness will apparently be torn in pieces and scattered throughout
the world. Yet the Science of Christianity will turn this dispersion into the
greatest blessing. Israel's eventual regathering in the ~"last days" signifies
the restoration of the cnti rc hUIllan race to God.
Covenant
0.1' regathering:
Science as the Word
l'hc Palestinian Covenant comes in the tone of

Science as the Word, and is t he heart of the Deuteronomic message. This
is the promise of Israel's uililllatc regathering within the unity and
harmony of the prolniscd land. It sYlllbolizcs, in Christian Science, world
salvation. Science awakens tnanki nd frolll the dream that man ever broke
his word with Ci()d~ that he can ever break (ioo's law, or Word, and thereby
disi ntegrate and 0 ie.
The Woro of (iod, redis(..:uvcrcd in ('hristian Science. is the law of the
oneness and indivisihility of being. Nanling the one infinite God Mind,
Spirit. Soul, Principle, Life. Truth, Love. C"'hristian Science reduces divine
law to a hUlnanly comprehensible system of laws. These synonymous terms
for God teach the fundamental law of life that being is infinitely one yet
infinitely diverse at the same time. Synonymous terms dijJer from one
another in so me shade of meaning, yet all refer to the same thing. This
understanding of diversity in unity solves the problem of disintegration
and regathers the human race. The system of spiritual healing
denominated Christian Science is the law of annulment to the supposed
dispersal of the body of Christ into a race of mortal bodies. The curse of
apparent scattering is translated in Science into the blessing of
differentiation and individualization. This is the way in which '''lost
Israel" (fallen man) is restored to her true heritage.
""Then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion
upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the
Lord thy God hath scattered thee," is part of Moses' comforting
reassurance at this point of the discourse.
While the numerals (~f in.flnity give the true idea of differentiation, the
divine lnalrix calculus teaches unity and integration.
Moses' song of'the Rock: Following the covenant of restoration in Science

as the Word, the accent changes to Science as the Christ. Here Moses sings
for joy at the thought of what this covenant promises.
Joshua is Moses' successor, and the new leader of Israel.just as generic
man is Mary Baker Eddy's successor in the story of ("hristian Science.
Once again, reference to Joshua (identical in l11caning with Jesus),
introduces a tone of the Christ. "'And Moses called unto Joshua, and said
144
unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage: for
thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord hath sworn
unto their fathers to give them~ and thou shalt cause them to inherit it."
The land is the matrix calculus of eternal Science, the rock-like
embodiment of the brotherhood of man. Thus Moses sings his song of the
Rock. Throughout the Scriptures, the rock, or stone, is the symbol of the
impregnable calculus of man's true being, incapable of fragmentation.
Although Moses is about to leave his beloved Israel, his song is one of
rejoicing. It is not a person who is passing from Israel's sight, but she
herself has outgrown a particular phase in her development. The objective
concept having led to the subjective, the subjective now takes the lead. The
foundational rock having been laid, Israel, based upon this rock, must
extend and develop herself infinitely.
HI will publish the name of the Lord," Moses sings, ~'ascribe ye
greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect . . . a God of
truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." Never must Israel be
unmindful, he warns, of the matrix rock which begat her.
Regarding Moses himself, God says: '~Thou shalt see the land before
thee; but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children
of Israel." The matrix calculus of the divine Science of man is inherited
only in proportion as a maternal religious organization is outgrown. But
let us not lose sight of the fact that just as today's nonsectarian Science of
Christian Science derives wholly from the foundations revealed by Mary
Baker Eddy, so the mission of Joshua is based wholly on that of Moses.
The one fulfils the purpose of the other.
Science
as Christianity Moses' .farewell blessing: As the moment comes for his departure, Moses
blesses the twelve tribes of Israel in a way they have never been blessed
before. In contrast to the blessings given them by their father Jacob,
Moses' blessings are wholly positive. Surely Moses is bearing witness to
Israel's ultimate status as the crown of twelve stars on the head of the
woman in Revelation~ whereas Jacob was concerned more with handling
claims of evil which deny this spiritual status.
As in the case of Jacob, the most outstanding of all Moses' blessings is
the one bestowed on Joseph. Inevitably, Moses links Joseph with
Benjamin. These two, as we have seen, typify the Science and system of
absolute Christian Science and the way in which this brings about,
individually, the regeneration of us all.
HAnd of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord be his land. for the
precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth
beneath, and for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the
precious things put forth by the moon . . . let the blessing come upon the
head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated
from his brethren. His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his
horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push ttc people
DEUTERONOMY
145
together to the ends of the earth."

"And of Benjanlin he said, The beloved of the Lord shall dwelLin
safety by him~ and the Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he shall
dwell between his shoulders."
Moses' farewell to Israel concludes with the joyful comforting words:
HThe eternal C"iod is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms
. . . Happy art thou. () Israel: who is like unto thee, 0 people saved by the
Lord. ,.
Science as Science
This is the lal1d: Deuteronolny's closing chapter, recounting the death of

Moses, is the final tone in the present unfoldment of the matrix, namely,
Science as Science. I'hc COllsunllnate precept is: This is the land!
"And the Lord sho\\icd hilll all the land." From the top of mount Nebo,
God shows Moses the foursquare spiritual inheritance which Israel is
about to l11ake her own. But Moses hinlself may not go over thither. He
heholds and surveys it ill its heauty and wholeness, but religious
organization. \vith which Mosl's is identified, does not inherit the land
itself.
In our journey through thL' Bihle the idea of the foursquare matrix has
unfolded for the second t i (lie. Note.: I hal the: proilliscd land, the subject of
this final, all-i nc lusi ve tone, is ide n tic a I wi t his rae rs origi na I homeland in
the story of the patriarchs, where theSl" saille sixteen tones unfolded for
the first time.
HI have caused thee to see it with thinc CYl'S:' (,od says to Moses, "'but
thou shalt not go over thither. So MosL's thL' SL'rvant of the I..,ord died there
in the land of Moab, according to the: word of the Lord."
The great symbol (requisite in the hcginning) of outside rllotherhood,
discipline, and leadership, which is the organil.ational sense of Moses,
passes from Israel's experience. But Moses' teachings do not p~lSS. On the
contrary, they become ever more profound and illlportant. Because of
this, "there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the
Lord knew face to face." How closely we arc rC(llindcd of the unique, Godinspired mission of Mary Baker Eddy in the era of the founding of
Christian Science, Israel's ultimate identity.
Moses' passing is referred to again in the New 'I'cstalllcnt in the little
epistle of Jude. It appears that, in Judaic tradition, his death is associated
with a significant legend. This legend is that Satan disputes with the
archangel Michael for the custody of Moses' holly - whether Satan shall
carry it away, or whether Michael shall hu ry it. 'rhe lesson the legend
teaches is surely that if Satan has charge of this hody. ecclesiasticism will
assume control of Israel's life; whereas if Michael buries it, Israel will,
under the leadership of Joshua, advance to her eternal heritage
"dependent upon no material organization" (S & 11 .50Y: 3 - fi fth and last
tone of third day of creation).
Without doubt Deuteronomy is one of the 1l10st profoundly significant
146
books of the Old Testament. Its teachings open the door to the fifth and
final tone of the Bible's third thousand-year period, that of Soul as Life. In
this tone, in the books of Joshua and Judges, Israel crosses the river
Jordan, and settles in the land.
CHAPTER VIII
Joshua Judges Ruth

'-I
To pass over Jordan (as Israel is about to do) and take possession of the
promised land. is to c ross what Sciellce and Health calls "the Rubicon of
spirituality" (S & II 172: I ()). and denotes a new and crucial stage in
spiritual developlllenl. Israel is laking the irrevocable, scientific step of
moving fronl the ohjective to the subjective point of view, from which
there is no tu rn i ng hal: k - no rl-lu rl1 to posi tions outgrown.
Hunlanly speaking. olle l'ould say shl? is l11idway between Egypt and
Babylon. She has Illaturl"d, shl" has grown up. and the hitherto backward
pull of the wOlllh nov." givl's \vay 1l10re and 1110re to the forward pull of the
tomh. Fruill this point onwards she Inusl grapple with the problem of
Bahylon \vi th i ncn:asi ng au I hori ty and power. u nt i L at a point in her
experience equivalent to .Jesus at the resurrection. she returns from a
tenlporary Bahylonian exile: and rehuilds her tcnlplc (hody). Then. ideally,
Bahylon will he no 11111rc.
We have rl'aChl'd the fifth and last tone of the third day of creation, and
of the third thousand-year period, Soul as Life. The land which lies before
us, which Moses has hidden us go over and accept, is our sinless, deathless
identity, or hody. ()ur journey through the wilderness, recounted in
NUJllhcrs. \vhich unfolded in the order of the nUfnerals (~r infinity, has led
us to the hanks of Jordan, and our acceptance of the divine infinite
('a/cil/us. as the reality of our being, is about to take place.
'fhe idea which Moses taught us is destined increasingly to become us,
unti l. at the close of the Babylonian captivity in the fourth period, the last
CnC1l1Y. death. will (symholically) have been overcome, and we shall be this
very idea.
As we ha Vl' realized, man does not really demonstrate eternal life un ti I
.Jcsus docs this at the opening of the fifth period, where the tone develops
to Life itself. 'fhe point to be appreciated at the moment is that, within the
perspective of the Scriptures as a whole, the present fifth tone of the third
period (Soul as Life) holds within it the seeds of the development that ends
in Jesus' resurrection. Hence the Science and Health commentary on this
tOIlC reads: ""This period corresponds to the resurrection. when Spirit is
discerned to he the Life of all, and the deathless Life, or Mind, dependent
upon no nlaterial organization" (S & H 509: 1). Having hade farewell to
Moses, Israel, under Joshua (Jesus, Saviour), has reached that stage in her
experience where she is dependent upon no nlatcrial organization.
147
148
The promised land is identical with "the land of Christian Science,

where fetters fall and the rights of man are fully known and
acknowledged." This is man's ~~heritage of freedom, his God-given
dominion over the material senses,'~ where his ~-birthright of sole
allegiance to his Maker asserts itself" (S&H 226:14-228:16). He is
dependent upon no outside control. All his activities take place within
Being itself, and no longer (in belief) outside. Led by Soul as Life,
humanity begins to be spiritually resurrected and self-governed - that is,
independent of nlaterial organization.
In their spiritual meaning, Joshua and Judges form another Scriptural
unit. But to them must be added the little book of Ruth. Ruth fulfils all that
Joshua and Judges teach. Together, these three books, Joshua, Judges,
Ruth, constitute textually the fifth tone of the Bible's third thousand-year
period, and therefore conclude this period.
Joshua's mission is exemplary in character, like that of Jesus. Joshua
shows Israel, by example, how to make the promised land her own, and
how to live in it day by day. The resu It, in the book of Judges, is that she
follows Joshua's example, depending on her oneness with Principle alone.
The keynote of Judges is that "there was no king in Israel: every man did
that which was right in his o\vn eyes."
Historically, Joshua and Judges are probably the Bible's oldest
literature. The language in which they are wri tten is very different, for
example, from that of Deuteronomy. So abstruse and quaint is some of the
symbolism in these two books that we are not surprised to find ourselves
in the presence of Israel's earliest recorded legends.
Let us turn to their spiritual structure, or their meaning in divine
metaphysics. For now it is that the sixteen tones of the matrix of
inlmortality appear in the canon for the third time. Remember that the
holy foursquare matrix furnishes the idea of Israel's (man's) ultimate
divine identity. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph showed us this idea at
the point of origin~ Deuteronomy presented it as the firm understanding of
the laws of Principle, with which we must be identified in order to cross
the river Jordan and find ourselves to be the idea. The books of Joshua
and Judges unfold these same sixteen tones for the third time, and
accentuate identity itself. As each new presentation of this foursquare idea
occurs throughout the Scriptures, a fresh note of understanding sounds on
the ascending scale of man's original and ultimate reality.
In terms of the four sides of the holy city (Word, Christ, Christianity,
Science) Joshua presents the four tones of the Word and the four tones of
the Christ~ Judges presents the four tones of Christianity and the four
tones of Science.
In the Word as the Word (in Joshua) Israel prepares to make the
crossing. In the Word as the Christ, an advance party of spies is sent over,
which is cared for by Rahab the harlot. In the Word as Christianity, Israel
crosses the river as one whole body and enters the promised land. The
JOSHUA JUDGES RUTH
149
Word as Science tells the story of the initial sevenfold conquest of the
land. Having entered and subdued the land, Israel accepts it as her own. In
Christ as the Word. the land is ready to be allocated. In Christ as the
Christ, Josh ua bestows it on the twelve tri bes of Israel. Christ as
Christianity establishes the essential relationship between the inside and
outside of the land. In C--'hrist as Science, Israel bids farewell to Joshua, and
prepares to build on the sure foundations which Moses and Joshua have
laid.
In Judges. in the lone of Christianity, she begins, individually and
collectively, to live her life in the promised land. In Christianity as the
Word. she practises the ru lcs of self-government. But apostasy creeps in,
and she goes ,l\vhori ng after other gods. In Christianity as the Christ,
judges. rising frol11 within her own tribes. are divinely appointed to save
her frOITI her sins. In ('hristianity as (""hristianity, she engages in civil war.
In Christianity as Science she works successfully internally and externally
against the COlllllH)(l foe.
The Science tOile 1l1osrly concerns the judgeship of Samson. In Science
as the Word. Sanlson prepares to deliver Israel frorTI the Philistines. In
Science as the (~hri sl he weds a Ph i list inc wi fe, purposing to translate
sp i ri tually all tha t t he Ph iii st i nl's st and fo r. S,-= icncc as ("'1hri stiani ty shows
the hazards that beset Sanlson if hl" allovvs Philistinislll to fascinate him,
and take control of his thinking. Science as Science SUl11S up the general
evil of apostasy, teaching that its antidole lilts in Israel's spiritual unity and
integrity.
5th tone of 3rd period

- Soul as Life -
JOSIJlJA
Israel poised to make the crossing: Neither a fatherland nor a l110thcrland

lies before us, but our divine Father-Mother-I.and, the land of our true
Maker. The Joshua phase of experience supersedes the Moses phase. To
show that the objective is yielding to the suhjectivl'. the keynote of the
early chapters of Joshua is that we ~~have not passed this way heretofore."
Yet there is no change in Principle. Joshua is the Ilcllural and inevitable
outcome of Moses. Joshua signifies the beginnings of thl' fulfihllcnt of
Moses~ original mission. I am not come to destroy the law, .Jesus will say
later on, but to fulfil it. The new developJllent in Israel's l"xpericnce is
based inexorably on the old. "As I was with Moses, so I will he with thee~"
God says to Joshua. Hence Joshua must "ohscrVl" to do according to all
the law~ which Moses my servant comnlanded."
Initial acceptance (~f' the subjective idea: The nalllC Jordan means
"descend~r." In the tone of the Word as the (~hrist a reconnaissance party
150
.is sent to spy out the land~ si milar to the way in which this was done on the
previous occasion in Numbers. The difference is that, in Numbers, Israel
was not prepared to accept her inheritance; she was not ready to
understand her identity as descending from God out of heaven. In Joshua,
she is.
The spies are welcomed and protected by Rahab, a harlot who lives in
the city of Jericho, the enemy city which heads the list of Israel's
forthcoming conquests. Two basic factors concern us - the objective
outside of the land and the subjective inside. Humanly, Israel is entering
the land apparently from outside~ divinely, she is already and forever the
inside. In this way she is on both sides of Jordan at once. Humanly
speaking, she is coming to herself. Like mortals awakening from the
Adam-dream, she is, as it were, 'coming to' - returning to find that
spiritual reality is continuous and uninterrupted.
Rahab means "'wide." According to Bible scholars, Rahab is typical of
both Egypt and Babylon. Spiritually reversed and translated, the harlot
city Jericho is the bridal city New Jerusalem. In Science there are not two
kinds of city. The harlotry of mortals fades into nothingness when they
open their arms wide to the descending, God-given reality of their being.
Rahab's admittance and acceptance of the Israelites into her house is
interpreted spiritually when we read: "'The admission to one's self that
man is God's own likeness . . . shuts the door on death, and opens it wide
towards immortality" (S & H 90:24). Like Rahab, we must shut the door on
mortality (Egypt and Babylon) and open it wide (Rahab - wide) to our
own immortality in the likeness of the divine, to ourselves as the true
Israel. Admitting to ourselves what we really are, thought accepts the
infinite calculus.
The spies sent over from the other side of Jordan are ourselves taking
stock of our present state of consciousness. It is imperative to discover
whether or not we are wi lling to give birth to the idea collectively from
within our own being. Are we really wanting to descend from God out of
heaven as one united body, and abide by the rules which this involves? [f
not, it is useless to imagine we are crossing the Jordan in the tone of Soul
as Life.
The symbolism of the red thread, and of Rahab letting the Israelites
down by a cord through the window of her house, which is built high on
the encircling city wall, suggests that the human is ready at last to give
heavenly birth to what it really is.
Israel as one body crosses the river: Not by our own efforts are we passing
over Jordan and entering the land: rather, the divine omnipresence is
drawing us to itself- is revealing the fact of our forever inclusion within
this omnipresence. Hence the ark of the covenant which God made with
Moses guides us across the river, that we "may know the way by which
[we J must go."
JOSHUA JUDGES RUTH
151
When Israel steps into the Jordan under the leadership of Joshua~ the
waters divide and she passes over on dry ground~ just as she did under
Moses when she crossed the Red Sea. Then she was making her exit from
Egypt~ now she is nlaking her entrance into Canaan. Whi Ie the priests that
bear the ark stand firm in the midst of Jordan. Israel, as one body, passes
over to the other side. A further instance of the passover is enacted. She is
touching the threshold of her first estate, or what Paul calls her
resurrection body. She is taking possession of her original identity, which
comes down from Clod out of heaven.
At Joshua's C011111land. a representative from each of the twelve tribes
takes a stone fronl the place where the priests' feet stand firm and carries it
on his shoulders to the other side. Individual self-government is
determined by, and rests upon the shoulders of, a united descending
Israel. Joshua replaces the twelve stones with twelve others, and the waters
ro II back and eng u 1ft he Ill. Firs t Egyp t wa sen gu I fed in th eRe d Se a ~ now
the wilderness concept of Israel herself is swallowed up in Jordan, the
descending idea of heing. 'fhal which was ohjcctive is becoming
subjective.
They pitch the stones in (iilgal, 1l1caning ~~circle." Israel's absolute
identity is the ci rc Ie, or crown, of twelve stars upon the head of the woman
i nRc vel at ion. Her en try i n toe a n aa n. wit ness e d h Y t his t we Ive fo 1d eire 1e
of stones marks the beginnings of her victory over 8ahylon - victory, that
is, over the mortal bi rth-death cycle perpetuated in Babylon ian astra logy.
In Babylon's Zodiacal horoscopy, based on the circuit of the twelve
constellations of stars, is seen the workings of involuntary an imal
magnetism (the so-called collective unconscious) which Israel, in the
coming phase of her mission, is commanded to overcome.
The Word as Science
Initial conquest qf the land: Israel's divinely subjective identity'destroys

one by one the false mortal claimants to this identity- that is, it
vanquishes the enemies which seem, at the moment~ to occupy and
constitute the promised-land. Those mortal beliefs which are supposed to
derive from her unconscious psyche (as in Babylonian horoscopy) must be
uprooted and annihilated on the basis of her origin in the Mind which is
God.
The story of her victory over these enemies unfolds in the order of the
seven basic tones. First, there is the conquest of Jericho~ then the conquest
of Ai: this is followed by a victory over five kings~ then a victory over seven
kings. Fifthly, she overcomes a multitude. In her sixth encounter she
destroys the Anakims. Seventhly, Joshua reviews the sum total of Israers
conquests both inside and outside the land.
Israel equips herself spiritually for the battles that lie ahead. The new
generation that has entered the land is circumcised at (ii Igal. where the
circle of twelve stones is laid. HThis day have I ro lied away the reproach of
Egypt from off you," God says to Joshua. "Wherefore the name of the
152
place is called Gilgal." As we remenlber, the reproach of Egypt stems from

the bondwoman, Hagar, in the story of Abraham~ and is the mocking belief
that inorganic Spirit must mix with organic matter for the purposes of
propagation. Only when the uncircumscribed circle of Israel (whose
creator is God) rolls away from consciousness the circumscribing birthdeath cycle (deriving from the myth that man is a creator) can Israel begin
the conquest and occupation of the land. She must make herself dependent
upon no material organization. This is spiritual circumcision.
The ~'captain of the Lord's hosf' appears with his s\vord drawn in his
hand. He is spiritually circumcised manhood. which alone has power to
subdue the land. In her divinely subjective reality, Israel herself is the
Lord's host, and Joshua is her captain. At Horeb, the I AM of the universe
bade Moses take off his shoes, for the ground on which he stood was holy.
Here, the captain of the heavenly host tells Joshua to do the same thing.
What Moses taught Israel objectively regarding the Ego is becoming her
own subjectively under Joshua. Fundamentally, her adversary is a
materially creative uncircumcised "r~ which clai ms to be her selj~
HThey had all to shout together in order that the walls lof Jericho]
n1ight fall," said Mary Baker Eddy to a class of students in 1889, the year
she dissolved her first centralized church organization (Mis 279:24).
Israel, likewise, must dissolve Jericho. It is said that Jericho was "straitly
shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came
in." What is this mortally mental condition which, with its exclusive,
circumscribing wall, fears the approach of the spiritual idea of God?
Surely it is the quality of ego-centric self-love which claims to be Israel
herself, but which collapses under the pressure of universal Love (S & H
242: 15). Hence the shout which brings the walls to the ground is united, or
uflse((ed.
Yet Israel retains in the recesses of her thought something of what

Jericho stands for, and this is called "the accursed thing:' The text reads:
"There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, 0 Israel: thou canst not
stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from
among you." The accursed thing turns out to be "a goodly Babylonish
garment," which is hidden in a tent. Already Babylon, Israel's last enemy,
is exerting her subversive influence.
The retention of this vestige of personal self-centredness prevents
Israel from conquering the next city on the list, Ai. The reason is that she
is not whole. While part of her moves to the attack another part holds
back. As soon as the garment is removed, however, she operates as one
unselfish body, and Ai falls.
Note that Ai is not assailed openly as is the case with Jericho, but by
the tactics of ambush. Two aspects of one basic adversary are thus
handled. The first is the conscious visible aspect, represented by Jericho,
the second the unconscious, hidden aspect, represented by Ai. The one is
the complement of the other. To celebrate Israel's victory over Ai, which
JOSHUA JUDGES RUTH
153
results from her disposal of the Babylonish garment, Joshua builds an altar
of whole stones.
The third enelny is the Gibeonites, who are intimately associated with
five kings. These kings are the five personal senses. The Gibeonites
deceive and begu i Ie t he chi Idren of Israel. Having handled voluntary and
involuntary evil, it is essential next to know the nothingness of
sympathetic, or benevolent evil. Nothing is so beguilingly deceitful as the
evidence of the five senses. While the Gibeonites perpetrate their fraud,
the five kings hide in a cave. Israel rolls a great stone against the mouth of
the cave, and the kings perish. Afterwards Joshua hangs them on five trees.
Fourthly, she dcst roys a cOlllplete range of seven enemy kings. These
signify the su pposi tiona I opposi tes of the seven synonymous terms for
God. We read how Joshua "utterly destroyed all that breathed."
The fifth cnclny is "as the: ~and that is upon the sea shore in multitude."
But it is thc Illllllt)ra/s (~r ;II.fllliIY, defining the seven synonymous terms,
which arc rcally countless. 'rhlSC nUlllcrals, tlowing in the consciousness
of Israel, OVCrC0l11C thc 111Ulliluc.il' of ('anaanitc heliefs that make up the
mortal sense of lifc.
All this tilllC, Joshua (Iikc Jcsus, later on) is cxcillplifying what Israel
(mankind) 111Ust do herself in the l'lll11ing .. ( 'hristianity" era - that is, in the
deve)opnlcnt of the story recou flted i Jl Judges. lie is t1crllonstrating the
way in which Israel herself IHust vanquish Illortal egotisln in order to
possess her true i den t i ty. f~ vi l. hl' shows, is 1l1ttdl" up fu ntla I11C n tally of
open, hidden, and benevolent phaSl"S, dl'rivilll-! frOI11 the Inachinations of
five personal senses, manifest in tht" supposititiolls opposites of Mind,
Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth. LOVl" al1d in thl" Illultitudc of individual errors that make up these oppositl'S. 'rlH' a ..:lual 1"0rl11 which this
evil assumes is seen when the sixth cncrllY. the Anakillls. is grappled with.
The Anakims are the giant errors of personal sl"lf-aggrandizCIllcnt and
personal self-will which stenl frorll that original Illythological fall of the
angels in the second period of the story, to \\lh i\.'h ou r a Ill'nl ion is so often
drawn. All the different aspects of l'vil derive frolll this fallacious,
mythological premise of an ego apart fro III I hl' Pill' d i v i Ill" I.
Although Joshua destroys most of the.: Anakillls, SOIlIC rCI11ain under thc
name of Philistines. Later, in Judges, these hl'l'Ollll' Isral'rS an.:hencI11Y.
They appear again at the beginning of the fourth period. when I)avid slays
the gian t Goliath, whose name means "c xi Ie," I-'ro 111 flO"' UIII i I I hl' rctu rn
from Babylon, Israel's purpose is to prove that Ill"VCr can she he exiled
from the one creator, God, and therefore that the allgt'ls never fell. I n this
present story she is not really returning to thl" pnlllliscd lal1d~ she is
proving that, from everlasting to everlasting, she has ncver been exiled
from the promised land.
The seventh and final stage of the conquesl COlll~S when Joshua
reviews all Israefs victories up to date: those that look place under Moses
outside the land, and those that have now taken place under hinlself inside
154
the land. 'Even so, we learn that "there remaineth yet very much land to be
possessed." Joshua has silnply exemplified the path which Israel must
follow. As we shall see when we conle to Judges, he has not done her work
for her. Like Jesus, whose task he foreshadows, he has not relieved her "of
a single responsibility" (S & H 18:9).
Christ as the Word
Joint-heirs with Christ: At last the land can he allocated. Israel, spiritually
equipped, is prepared to receive her inheritance. In the words of Paul, she
is about to become '"heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Chrisf' (Rom
8: 17) - heirs not only in the individual sense, but also joint heirs in the
collective sense. For in spite of human appearances - in spite of the
command to divide the land by 10(' - never must she think of spiritual
reality as broken up into parts. The land is one \vhole Christly inheritance~
each component heritage is inseparably jointed to every other. and the
harmony and integrity of the whole must be preserved intact.
~~They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast
lots." This dissection of the raiment of Christ is the same as a false
sectarian sense of the land. The real land is the '~divine Science of man
. . . woven into one web of consistency without seam or rent."
Speculation and supersti tion appropriate no part of Israe I's promised land
(5 & H 242:21). Her inheritance is her own being as the enveloping,
seamless robe of Christ, the divine Science of man. No wonder, in the
previous tone, she was compelled to rid herself of the accursed Babylonish
garment!
Were the land divided into personally possessed lots. it would not be
Christ's garment, but this very Babylonish garolent. Israers life would not
be governed by the certain foreknowledge of God, but by lottery, chance.
and superstition, such as is associated with Babylonian necronlancy and
methods of divination.
In the tone of Christ as the Word. she receives her inheritance outside
the land. Because Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh have
faithfully aided their brethren in the conquest of the land itself, the
territory east of Jordan, which Moses had already promised thenl,
becomes theirs.
Acceptance qf the in.finite calculus: The land itself is distributed. First

Judah, representing divine manhood, receives his inheritance. Judah is
given that part of the territory in which lerusalern will be built as the
capital city of the southern kingdom. But, unwisely, Judah fails to drive
out the Jebusites who occupy this part of Canaan, and therefore these
unconquered foes remain in Judah's consciousness to plague him later on.
Next, Joseph is given his portion. Joseph stands for divine
womanhood. This is the inheritance of the house of Ephraim and the
other half of the house of Manasseh. But, like Judah before them, Ephraim
and Manasseh fai I to drive out the Canaani tes from the territory that
JOSHUA JUDGES RUTH
155
hecomes Samaria, the capital city of the northern kingdom. These

erroneous mental conditions, which Joseph and Judah leave unexpunged
from consciousness in the heginning, lead in the end to their Assyrian and
Bahylonian captivities.
Having accounted for five of the inheritances, Joshua hestows the
remaining seven- those helonging to Simeon, Naphtali, Dan, Asher,
Issachar, Zehulun, and Benjamin. At last all twelve territories are
allocated, and we read how "they made an end to dividing the country."
The matrix calculus of infinity- a harmonious diversity of individual
identity dwelling together in classified unity- is the spiritual ideal which
lies hehind the symbol of Israel's promised land, and signifies the integrity
of generic man.
Suhjective and ohjective one: Neither shall Israel say 'here-there,' 'insideoutside,' 'suhject-object' 'us-them,' in a personal, spatial sense, for,
behold, the kingdom of God is within her. Under the impulsion, therefore,
of Christ retlecting Christianity she estahlishes the true relationship between the inside and outside of the land.
Israel is one grand hrotherhood. Paul speaks of "in honour preferring
one another" (Rom 12: 10). The keynote is love. Particularly is this love
evident in Israel's care for the Levites. Hence the distribution in this section of the text of the forty-eight Levitical cities, six of which (three inside
the land and three outside) are cities of refuge for the manslayer (see
p.142).
The two and a half tribes who helped their brethren subdue the inside
of the land return to their inheritance outside the land. As they do so they
perform a very significant act. On the shores of Jordan, where inside and
outside meet, they set up a great altar. In spite of distrustful opposition
from the nine and a half trihes living inside the land, the two and a half
outside insist on the need for maintaining a link between them. The two
halves of Israel's identity, they imply, must remain in a state of communication, and be one. Never again must Israel helieve that subject is
here. separate from object there. In the twelvefold body of ideas which is
man, inside and outside form together one indivisihle identity.
Because of this love and spiritual unity, "there failed not ought of any
good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all carne to
pass."
Christ as Science
Rock upon which to huild: The tone of the Word as Science was a
recapitulation of all Israel's conquests: the tone of the Christ as Science is
a recapitulation of the whole of the third period up to the present moment
of the occupation of the land. Israel's development thus far in the third
period enables her, in Judges (where the tone changes to Christianity), to
be spiritually self-governed, spiritually trustworthy, spiritually self-reliant.
In his heartening farewell message, which constitutes this tone, Joshua ex-
156
plains emphatically how Israel could not have arrived at her present
position had she not complied with the divine requirements that range
from Abraham onwards.
God expounds through Joshua the state of gracious subjectivity to
which He has brought His beloved Israel. He says: "I have given you a
land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye
dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye
eat. Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth:
and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the
flood, and in Egypt " .. And the people answered and said, God forbid
that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods." Obedience to the
law under Moses enables her to accept, under Joshua, the gift of divine
grace.
Then Joshua Htook a great stone [symbol of Israel herself as the lawabiding body of Principle's ideas] . . . and Joshua said unto all the people,
Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us~ for it hath heard all the words
of the Lord which he spake unto us . . . So Joshua let the people depart,
every man unto his inheritance."
Often, a tone of the Christ in Science contains this symbol of stone, or
rock. In the present instance, it stands for the foundational system of the
Mosaic law, upon which Israel, in the time of the Judges, must build her
life in the promised land.
The death of Moses, being followed now by the death of Joshua, Israel,
for the first time in her life, is without what has seemed to her ~o be a
personal leader or revelator. Individually and collectively, she is truly on
her own with her divine Principle, God.
JUDGES
To be spiritually self-led and spiritually self-governed is to be led and
governed by Principle alone. As already noted, the theme of Judges is,
"there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own
eyes." Every man must be led individually by the Principle of all men.
The simplicity of the message is that if Israel will abide by the law of
Moses, and follow the example set by Joshua (neither of whom she can
turn to personally any more) she will overcome the liability to idolatrous
self-worship, personal ambition, sectarian disunity, and therefore to
apostasy against God.
But the temptations are too great, and she persistently goes awhoring
after other gods. Consequently, judges are raised up one after another
from her different individual tribes to deliver her from these offences.
JOSHUA JUDGES RUTH

157
Beginnings (~f seff~g()l'erf1'nent: "Now after the death of Joshua it came to
pass, that the children of Israel [by themselves] asked the Lord, saying,
Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?
And the Lord said. Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land
into his hand."
As we have sa id, there are no more great leaders. We have to win the
land ourselves now under the direction of Principle alone; and manhood
and moral courage, characteristics of the true Judah, are the qualities that
lnust operate first if we are to assail the enemy successfully. Judah, from
\vhom comes Jesus, clearly stands for that state of thought which most
readily follows the cX(lInple of Joshua.
But Judah takes his hrother Simeon with him to the fray, and Simeon is
associated with rnilitant religion. Consequently, they only put the
Canaanites to trihutc. and do not utterly drive them out. They drive them
from the nlolllllaills hut not from the valleys. Yet, absolute and relative,
divine and hu 1nan, 111Ust he rou nd one and indivisib Ie, otherwise the
teachings of Moses and Joshua arc not heing put into effect- Principle
remains a nlountaintop ahstraction, rCtllote frOITI daily experience.
Thus "~the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord . . . and
served Baal and Ashtaroth." Without Moses and Joshua to control her,
Israel is already beginning to serve the 1nalc and fenlale principles of
tl10rtality instead of the Principle of the Inanhood and womanhood of
God - the Principle simultaneously of mountain and valley.
Deliverance through se(f~iudgment: Apostasy follows apostasy, and, as
occasion requires, judges arise from the different tribes to perform the
office of deliverer. In the school of daily experience. Israel is learning to
judge each and every error at the point of individual consciousness~ to
find the remedy within herself as the revelation of her own Christ Mind.
Scofield says that, in all, there are seven apostasies, seven servitudes,
and seven deliverances. The judges, he says, are the "spiritual ancestors of
the prophets." Not one of them "had anything whereof to glory in the
tlesh" (SRB p.289). We are reminded of the words of Paul in the days
following the mission of Jesus (Joshua): HNot many wise men after the
flesh. not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise . . . That no flesh
shou Id glory in his prese nee" (I Cor 1:27). In hu III i Ii ty, each i nd ividual
Israelite learns to he self-governed -learns to he a law to himself, and
thereby a law to the whole of Israel.
Othnicl, Ehud, ShaIl1gar, Dchorah. Barak, arise to judge each new
situation, and to deliver Israel frolll her sins. Dehorah and 8arakjudge
together. They arc the tnale and fcnlale representatives of the one Christidea. '~They fought frOln heaven," Dchorah declares of Israel when the
CanaanitP Sisera, is defeated, ~~thc stars in their courses fought against
Sisera." Israel's true identity is indeed the stars of heaven.
158
The Midianites challenge Israel inside the land as they did previously
outside the land. This time Gideon is the deliverer. '~Smite the Midianites
as one man," God says to him, ""throw down the altar of Baal . . . and cut
down the grove that is by it.'~ But, in doing this, Israel must not believe that
'~mine own hand hath saved me." In the measure that she thinks the
victory is personal, she is not overcoming Midian, but is herself the only
Midian there is. When, on the other hand, personal sense gives way to
Principle, then '''the s\Nord of the Lord. and of Gideon" defeats the
pretentious Midianites.
Christianity as thristianity
Disruption and civil lvar: Problems of relationship, involving envy and

jealousy, rivalry and ambition, lead to civil war. Because of his victory
over the Midianites, Israel would like to crown Gideon king, and set up a
royal dynasty. But Gideon is too wise for this ..... I will not rule over you,
neither shall my son ru Ie over you: the Lord shall rule over you," is his
reply to Israel's impulsive entreaties. Nevertheless, personal sense beguiles
him in another form. He makes an ephod of the earrings which he has
captured from the Midianites, and Israel goes awhoring after it. The
vanities inherent in the suggestion that Gideon has won a personal victory
have not been fully rooted out. As a result, Gideon's illegitimate son,
Abimelech, motivated by regal ambitions, murders seventy of his brethren
and makes himself king. Civil w~r ensues, and harlnony is restored only
when Gideon's youngest son, the legitimate Jothanl, destroys the
illegitinlate Abirnelech. The only legitimate government in Israel is
individual self-governlnent which is responsible collectively.
Give all back to God: Tala and Jair are the next two judges to minister, and
they are followed by Jephthah. Jephthah delivers Israel from the
AmIllonites.
Like EdoIn, Midian, and Moab, Ammon is one of Israel's enemies who
is, at the same tinlC, a near relative. All are specific conditions of mortal
belief claiming to operate as Israel's own thi nking. In the story of
Abraham and Lot, Moab and Ammon were, we remember, the offspring of
Lot's incest with his two daughters. Falsely accusing Israel of stealing his
lands, Ammon tries to acquire what does not lawfully belong to him.
Moab, on the other hand, is that state of thought which is frightened of
losing what is already his. Together Moab and Ammon stand for
complenlentary aspects of personal possessiveness. Ammon covets.
Jephthah, who is the opposi te of covetousness, therefore arises in the
consciousness of Israel to rid her of this Inental state.
Jephthah vows that if God will make Israel victorious over the
Ammonites, he will sacrifice to the Lord whatsoever comes forth of the
door of his house to meet hinl when he returns ~'in peace from the children
of Anlmon." This turns out to be his little vi rgin daughter, his on ly chi ld.
The nanle Jephthah ll1cans "whom he sets free." His little daughter
typifies Israel's original virgin seltnood as the sinless child of God.
JOSHUA JUDGES RUTH
159
Victory over the Ammonites involves the restoration to their rightful

source of even our nlost cherished and innocent human concepts. What
seals this victory is the truth that the divine I AM was never bereft of its
own pure ilnage by covetous , animal magnetism. Man's identity, which
mortal mind claims to have wrested from the parent Mind for its own
illicit possession, never underwent this defilement. And thus Christian
Science (Christianity in the aspect of Science) comes to restore all things,
even as Jephthah's little daughter is faithfu lly gi ven back to God.
Science as the Word
Philistinistn: The first three tones of the ~'Science" section of

Judges - Science as t he Word, Science as the Christ, and Science as
Christianity - arc cOlllposed of the legend of Samson. The final section of
all, Science as Science, recapitulates the teachings of the whole of Judges
in handling the prohicill of apostasy.
Following the period in \vhich Jephthah rules, Israel is judged in turn
by Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon. There have been twelve judges altogether up
to this point. Now conH.~S Salllson, the thirteenth and last, and the greatest
adjudicator of thelll all.
Sanlson is callcd to deliver Israel fr0l11 the Philistines. A Philistine is
one who opposes progress and the practice of progressive ideas.
Ph i list in isnl, opera ti ng in the thought of Is rae!, is any form of material
conservatism which, by reason of its allegiance to sensualism, resists fresh
revelation and change. Samson's unprecedented spiritual strength is
designed to annul this opposition, and to bring about the downfall of the
house of the Philistines.
Two main pillars hold this house together. But once Samson's strength
is brought to bear upon them the structure falls in ruins. As basic
opponents of forward-moving Christian Science, what are these two
mainstays of the Philistine edifice but mystical religion and physical
science? The supporting pillars of Christian Science are its "foundations
of Truth and Love" (S & H 558: 16), wherein science and religion, letter
and spirit, are one. The true idea of Samson is Christian Science itself.
What Samson must guard against in his enthusiasm to translate science
and religion into this unity of Truth and Love is what Christian Scientists
must guard against, namely, being seduced and blinded by the subtle
fascinations of material scientific technology and psychic and sensual
mysticism. In other words, Samson must not allow Delilah to cut off his
hair and blind his eyes, thereby expending his strength and vision. This
would reduce him to that very state of philistine thinking from which he
has come to deliver Israel.
Science and Health interprets the syl11bol of Saillson as follows:
HPhysical science (so-called) is human knowledge, - a law of mortal mind,
a blind belief, a Samson shorn of his strength. When this human belief
lacks organizations to support it, its foundations are gone . . . In a word,
human belief is a blind conclusion fronl nlaterial reasoning . . . We tread
160
on forces. Withdraw them, and creation must collapse. Human knowledge

calls them forces of matter; but divine Science declares that they belong
wholly to divine Mind, are inherent in this Mind, and so restores them to
their rightful home and classification" (S & H 124:3-3]).
Through the action of spiritual translation, Israel's purpose is to
restore everything in her universe (including science and religion) to its
rightful home and classification. To this end she is, at the moment,
securing her foundations in the promised land, dependent upon no
material organization. But physical science and mystical religion lose
their foundations when they lack the pillars of organization.
In the above reference, physical science is human knowledge.
Elsewhere human knowledge (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil)
is defined as "sensuality" (S & H 92: 19). Today, in the twentieth century,
physical science is profoundly concerned with the material atom. The
word "atom" is from a root meaning '~uncut:' while the word "sex" is from
"to cut." In both the inanimate realm of physics, and the animate realm of
biology, the process of the build-up and discharge of electrical energy
obtains.
While physical science is engaged with the sub-atomic world of inert
matter, mystical religion identifies itself more and more with the subconscious world of the mental psyche. Both concepts are products of the
corporeal senses, which testify to the polarization of consciousness into
positive and negative, male and female, good and evil, elements.
Israel is commissioned to 'eliminate from world consciousness the
apostasy implicit in the myth of a primordial explosion (or rebellion) in
heaven, when the will of man is believed to have overruled the will of God.
This revolt supposedly split the nucleus of infinity, the indivisibility of
God and man, and man and woman. Israel must prove that idea was never
uprooted, or cut, from its Principle; that light was never turned into
darkness, or Spirit in to matter; that man, in consequence, was never
blinded; that spiritual power and strength was never thereby
expended - never translated into material power, to be located
subsequently in the nucleus of the atom. Israel's purpose is to prove that
power, strength, and energy reside neither mentally in a sub-conscious
realm, nor physically in a sub-atomic realm, but in the realm of Mind,
Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love, operating eternally as the Word,
Christ, Christianity, Science. In this Science of universal being, fission and
fusion, cutting and joining, whether atomic, sexual, or psychic, are shown
to be the myths they are.
Samson is from the tribe of Dan. The name means "little sun," The
meaning of Dan is "judge." In Christian Science, Dan is defined in part as
animal magnetism (S & H 583:26). The purpose of the real Dan is to pass
judgment on that supposititious opposite of his own being - animal
magnetism, animal electricity, animal fission and fusion.
JOSHUA JUDGES RUTH
161
Samson brings into focus the entire purpose of Judges to eradicate

from the consciousness of Israel the myth that, under bombardment ,by
animal magnetism, man rebels explosively against the will of God, and
thereby becomes apostate.
In the tone of Science as the Word, Samson is born a child by promise.
This signifies that, like Israel herself, his real being is spiritual not
material. Hence he is ~a Nazarite unto God from the womb." No razor is
allowed to come upon his head. His seven locks of hair, rooted in and
uncut from his head. sYlllholize the source of his spiritual and scientific
strength. In their uncut state, these seven locks stand for the unfallen
reality of generic !llan. Man rooted in God - stemming in Science from the
capitalized tCrtllS for (iod - is man at the point of infinite power and
strength. Mary Baker Eduy declares that Christian Science is the
individualization of Uinfinitc power" (My 160:7).
Science nol hound hy r(,ligion: The Science of man's universal being

cannot he hound organically. '1'0 prove that divine Science cannot be
circunlscrih('d. SalllS0n weds a daughter of the uncircumcised Philistines.
He propounds a riddle which he knows the Philistines cannot answer. He
says: H()ut of thl' l'atcr <.:arnc forth Incat, and out of the strong came forth
sweetness." 'fhe: apparent paradoxes and anomalies that obtain in
spiritual Science arc nonsensical to Philistines. Yet the fact remains that
the strength of rnanhood holds within it the sweetness of womanhood, and
nlan is fl'd fronl within himself and not from outside. Samson's wife subtly
hetrays hi (11, and the Phi listines find out the answer to the riddle. But
Science itself is unaffected by any Philistine attempt to reverse and destroy
it through having found out intellectually the way it operates.
The Philistines try to bind Samson. The word "religion" is from a root
meaning "to hind hack." Science is the universal, self-existent Christ,
Truth. and the: efforts of mysticism and emotionalism to hold it in bonds
arc of no avail.
Wi sh i ng to placate the Phi listines, his own people seek to bind him
with two nL'W cords. But Hthe cords that were upon his arms became as flax
that was hurnt with firc, and his bands loosed from off his hands." Such is
the strength of ahsolute Science, and such is the weakness and inability of
every IH:W hUlnan theory based on dualism to hold it in fetters. Mary Baker
Eddy recounts how she "discovered the power of Spirit to break the cords
of Illatter, through a change in the mortal sense of things" (Un 30:21).
Again the Philistines try to bind him- this time with seven fresh "'green
withs." Aut Salllson hreaks "the withs, as a thread of tow is broken when it
toucheth the fire." They try yet again with new ropes that never were
occupied. But he hreaks the ropes "from off his arms like a thread."
Science can no nlore be bound within religious and technological
organizations than man himself can be bound within a mortal body.
162

I
One web qf consistency without seam or rent: We come to the legend of

Samson and Delilah. The name Delilah means Hlanguishing." Delilah's
purpose is to entice Samson into yielding up the secret of his great
strength. This means the secret of his great purity~ for spiritual strength
and spiritual purity are one and the same thing. If Samson can be robbed
of his purity, the victory of sensualism (physical science and emotional
religion) over the divine Science of man will apparently have been
achieved.
So subtle are the fascinations of sensualism that, in the story, Samson
succumbs to Delilah's wiles and tells her his profound secret. His strength,
he confesses, resides in hi~ seven locks of hair. If Deli lah weaves these
locks into a web, and then cuts this web from his head, his strength will
immediately dissipate. Samson is a Nazarite, and his strength lies in his
purity- his understanding of the absolute oneness of God and man. The
strength of Science derives solely from the fact that it is Hwoven into one
web of consistency without seam or rent" (S & H 242:25). Fission and
fusion, rent and seam, inherent in the weakness of a dual sense of life, are
unknown to the wholeness and integrity of the divine Science of man.
If this oneness could be dissected materially - if the compound idea of
Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love, could be cut from its
divine roots, so that its wholeness disintegrated - spiritual power and
strength, found only in this wholeness, would automatically be expended.
Science and Health refers to the text of the Bible as growing "in beauty
and consistency from one grand roof' (S & H 341 :7).
In Science, the web of ideas that is unfallen man is made up of the
numerals qf infinity, woven into the divine infinile calculus, and rooted
unerringly in Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love. Man's
crowning glory is his womanhood. Samson's seven locks of hair, woven
into a web, symbolize the infinite diversity of identity in unity which is
unfallen man.
In the story, Delilah cuts Samson's locks from his head - severs them
from their one grand root - and his great strength drains away. Then the
Philistines blind him. Light, like strength, exists only if it is not cut off
from its source. Samson (""little sun") is no longer WOlnan clothed in light.
The lesson which Israel is called upon to learn in order to live in the
promised land, is that man must not allow his womanhood to be taken
away from him, as Adam did in the case of Eve. Yet, in the coming fourth
period, this is exactly what happens regarding Judah and Israel, when the
united kingdom splits into two antagonistic parts. Then, like Adam and
Eve before them, both are expelled from the promised land. The land itself
is, in tru th, the forever spiri tual wedlock of the manhood and wotnanhood
of God.
But such severance is belief only, and does not exist in Science.
Therefore, just as Israel is restored eventually to the land, so Samson's hair
begins to grow again, his strength returns, and at the end of the legend he
JOSHUA JUDGES RUTH
163
brings about the downfall of the house of the Philistines just as he was
originally conlnlissioned to do.
"
Science as Science
The nothingness (~ral)(}S'asy: As we have said, the final tone of all, Science
as Science, epitoillil.cs the teachings of Judges as a whole. Scofield
describes this section of the text as Ha striking illustration of all apostasy"
(SRB p.308). The word "apostasy" is from a root meaning "revolt." An
apostate is Hone \vho has forsaken the church, sect, or profession to which
he before adhered" (SR I)).
Israel's cure for apostasy lies in understanding her (man's) forever
inseparability fro III her divine source. The myth of man's primordial,
apostate revolt against (iod, of his consequent expulsion from his native
land. necessitating a painful return to, and reoccupation of that land, is
unknown to t hl' d i vi ill'S\: iell cc of he ing.
Yet "hy feversa l. l'rrors serve as waymarks to the one Mind" (S & H
267:24). And thcl"l'folT in (hl' two following stories, which close the book
of Judges. negative tahk's point. hy reversal, to positive scientific facts.
Micah is an I':pilrailllitc whose 11lothcr rnakes him a graven image for
his "house of gods," '),his suggests self-love and self-worship, the opposite
of the wonlanhood and 1l1otherhood that characterize the real house of
Eph ra i III (.1 OSl' ph),
A I.l'vitl' frolll Judah COl1leS and lives in Micah's house. This priestly
visitor gives Micah a false sense ofsecurity, What he does in fact is to open
Micah\ doors In rhl' influx of aninlai Inagnetism. Five men of Dan (the
five senses \vhich tl'stify to Illortality) seek to enlarge their territory, and
also COrlll' alld sojourn in Micah's house. They rob Micah of his
possessi(}I\~. including his house of gods. "Ye have taken away my gods
which I 111~l(.ll', and the priesl," Micah cries, ""and ye are gone away: and
w hat h a v~: I Illl )I'C '! ..
'rhe rive 1l1l'n sct up Micah's gods in a place where the people '~dwelt
ca rc less." a nd where they imagine they are "quiet and secure." Micah
hinlsclf is desolatc. Such is the effect which vain self-worship has on Israel
if she indul!!,L's it.
III the final story of all, a Levite, also from the territory of Ephraim, has
a cOllcuhinL' ",'ho has played the harlot. The concubine typifies apostate
Israel. She returns to her father in Bethlehem-judah, the scene of the
corlling story of Ruth. The Levite sets out to recover his concubine. On the
way horlle thl~Y lodge in the territory of Benjamin. Here we see the
opposi ll' of t he true Benjamin - the opposite, that is, of spiritually
regeneratl' individuality. The Benjamites are sodomites, and they seek to
pervert thc Levite from the territory of Joseph. The Levite gives them his
concuhinl' to ravagc~ and they kill her. Thereupon the Levite cuts her dead
body in to t "'e lve pieces and distri butes them throughout all the coasts of
Israel.
164
Instead of being a twelvefold body of ideas without seam or rent,

Israel, because of her apostasies, is represented as having been
dismembered into twelve separated (falsely individual) parts. This is death
instead of life.
As we learned from the story in Genesis, the real Benjamin, in his
relationship to Joseph (Ephfaim), maintains the body of Israel in a state of
harmony and unity. Such unity is more essential than ever now that Israel,
in the promised land, is dependent upon no material organization.
Personally segregated individualism is self-love, the perversion of true
Benjamite individuality.
We are told how all Israel, as one man, sets out to exterminate this evil,
inverted sense of Benjamin. In the civil war that follows, only six hundred
Benjamites escape destruction, and these take refuge in a rock.
The tragedy is that Israel, having apparently destroyed the house of
Benjamin, is not whole, and unless she is whole she is not Israel. The
problem is resolved when the Benjamite remnant weds Ephraimite virgins
from Shiloh, where the ark of God is resting. And thus, once again, Joseph
and Benjamin reunite the children of Israel in one whole family. The end
of the story recounts how "the children of Benjamin . . . returned unto
their inheritance, and repaired the cities, and dwelt in them. And the
children of Israel departed . . . every man to his inheri tance." The healing
of the breach is accomplished~ Israel is once more the harmonious
twelvefold body of the spiritual idea of God.
Here Judges closes, and the third Biblical presentation of the
foursquare matrix is complete. Reviewing the narrative as a whole, it is
evident that the theme which has dominated the teaching from the time of
Sinai onwards is the true idea of individuality in Israel- individuality,
stemming from the Principle of the oneness of being, which alone can
inherit the promised land. Yet, a further idea must be introduced before it
can be said that the message of Joshua and Judges is fulfilled, and that the
third thousand-year period has properly come to an end. This idea is
contained in the little book of Ruth, written at a very much later date in
Israel's history, but which pertains nevertheless to '"the days when the
judges ruled."
RUTH
In Bethlehem-judah~ birthplace of Benjamin and later of Jesus (and
standing now for the true identity of Benjamin), lives Boaz, hero of the
story. Boaz marries Ruth, a Gentile, a non-Israelite, and their line
descends to Jesus.
The purpose of Ruth, the book which closes the Bible's third
thousand-year period, is to point out the fact that Israel, in order to be
Israel, must realize her relationship with the Gentile world beyond her
JOSHUA JUDGES RUTH
165
present borders. A eire Ie requires not only a centre but also a

circumference in order to be a circle. Individuality, as brought to light in
Israel, is not sectarianly exclusive but universally inclusive, that is,
inseparable fronl the rest of mankind.
Ruth is a daughter of Moab, whose king, in Numbers, hired Balaam to
curse the children of Israel. It is as if this early attempt on the part of
Moab to curse Israel is turned by Ruth into a corresponding blessing.
Ruth would seelll to sYlllholize eventual blessed acceptance by the Gentile
world of its own truL' identity as exemplified by Israel.
In addition to Boa/. there is a second contender for Ruth's hand,
whom Boaz describes as her "nearer kinsman," But this nearer kinsman
declines to Inake I{uth his wife. If he does, he says, he will mar his
inheritance. lJoes this kinslllan typify the vested interests inherent in
sectarian organi/,atiolls. in \vhit:h thl' true Israel, represented by Boaz, has
no part'? Boaz stands fot' till' universal Science of being, which is the truth
about the world itsl'IL 'rhus it is Boal WhOlll Ruth nlarries, and not her
nearer kinSlllall.
Boaz has a sister, in-law \VhnSl" nal1H: is Naoilli. Naollli's two sons have
both died. ()Ilt: was I{ lit h' s f'i rst hushand. and si nce h is death Ruth has
refused to hc parlt."d frorn Naoilli. By contrast, the wife of the other son has
returned to hcr O\\-'n people. NaOtlli refers to herself as 'Mara." The name
is fronI the S:lllll" root as Mary which, as we have seen. Incans 'bitter."
NaoJlli is hitler hecause there are no more sons in her womh for Ruth to
rna rry.
In thl' founding history of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy
instituted two phases of church organization, no more. Through her two
sons, Naoilli has touched the thought of the world. Part of this thought has
returned (0 its old hl'licfs, but Ruth (the other part) refuses to be separated
fronl her 111olhcr-in-law. Naomi need not really feel bitter, for 'Ruth does
not wish to I'll' wcdded to religious organization any longer. Her nearer
kin s rn a n hoi d S Ill> IurI II era t t ra c t ion fo r her. I n fa c the r de v 0 t ion toN a 0 m i
is not that of II daughter-in-Ill) any more. She wishes to be wedded to
Baaz - to he idelll ificd with the freedom of the universal Science of man.
Baaz 1l1CanS '"in it is strength." (We are reminded of Samson in the
book of Judges,) Rut h means "hcauty, friendship." She is the world as it
really is, lying at the feet of the universal Christ-idea, and desiring to be its
body, or hridc.
HIntreat nlC not to leave thee. or return from following after thee," she
says to Naolni. '"Let nle find favour in thy sight, my Lord; for that thou hast
comforted me," arc her corresponding words to Boaz. Her love for the one
is inseparably linked with her love for the other. Likewise Israel, having
found her identity in the proilliscd land, must not return from following
the teachings of Moses. I t is the sarnc in the case of Christian Science
regarding the founder's originallllission and today's revelation of absolute
Science. The child that is horn to Ruth and Boaz is Obed, ancestor of
166
David, and therefore ancestor of Jesus.

Here we leave the third thousand-year period, and the third day of
creation (in the tone of Soul), and enter the fourth thousand-year period,
and the fourth day of creation (in the tone of Principle). The universal
view of Israel which has now unfolded is, in this fourth period, typified by
a system of stars in the firmament of heaven, subject to the kingship and
government of Prinviple.
'j
CHAPTER IX
The Four Books of Kings

The fourth thousand-year period, like the fourth day of creation, and
like the fourth synonynl, Principle, lies at the heart of the Scriptural
unfoldment, and is the spiritual pivot upon which all seven periods turn.
In fact, the purpose of thc first three periods is to lead up to this central,
fourth position. whi Ie the purpose of the last three is to lead out from it.
I srael enters upon t he golden age of her career - the era of her kings
and prophets. Ideally, she is subject to the kingship of Principle, and in
consequence (}VCrC0I11CS suhjcction to all forms of personal domination.
Because oneness with (jod is the scientific fact of her being, despite all
outward appearances, she is ahle to give hirth to the lifework of Jesus at
the opening of the fifth period.
I n accordance with the symhol ism of the fourth day of creation,
Israel's true selfhood is a system of lights in the firmament of heaven
constituting the harmony of the universe. She is a living calculus of ideas
moving and revolving in harmonious relationship under the government
of absolute Principle. No longer is she looking up to the stars, as she was
when approaching the promised land; she is now looking "out from
them upon the universe" (S & H 125:29). This celestial identity of the
children of Israel is symbolized by the crown of twelve stars worn by
"the woman" in the Apocalypse, which is destined to bring' about the
total annulment of its zodiacal counterfeit, the astrological practices of
Babylon.
Israel is subj ect to divi ne Principle in the measure that the
foursquare matrix of the Science of man is subjective to her own
understanding. Then this Principle is spontaneously self-demonstrating
in terms of her life-experience. That which Principle
demonstrates - that which this matrix, or womb, brings forth - is Israel's
timeless, deathless life at the beginning of the fifth period.
Like the fourth day of creation, the Bible's fourth period unfolds
within a framework of five subdivisions, even as does the third day and
third period. Just as the third period takes us to the point of Soul as Life,
so the fourth period takes us to Principle as Life. Clearly the scientific
purpose in this is to lead us into the fifth period of Life itself.
The theme of the fourth period is government of earth by a heavenly
Principle, as propounded by Israel's prophets. uHe doeth according to
his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth:
167
168
and none can stay his hand,'~ teaches the prophet Daniel. The five tones
of the fourth period, Principle as Mind, Principle as Spirit, Principle as
Soul, Principle as Principle, and Principle as Life, unfold this system of
government.
Let us examine the range of literature that constitutes the period
textually. This cOI?prises the whole of the remainder of the Old
Testament from I Samuel to Malachi. The books are: I & II Samuel and I
& II Kings, known collectively as the Four Books of Kings; I & II
Chronicles, covering virtually the same ground as the four books of
Kings~ Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Israel's post-exilic literature; the five
Wisdom books from Job to the Song of Solomon; finally, the sixteen
books of the writing prophets from Isaiah to Malachi bring the Old
Testament to a close.
The four books of Kings, I & II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and
Esther complete the narrative part of the Old Testament. These furnish
us with the fourth period's five metaphysical tones. I Samuel, the story of
the reign of Saul, is in the tone of Principle as Mind; I I Samuel, the story
of the reign of David, is in the tone of Principle as Spirit; I Kings,
recounting the reign of Solomon, corresponds to Principle as Soul~ I I
Kings, beginning with the translation of Elijah and ending with the
Babylonian exile, is determined by Principle as Principle; the three
post-exilic books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, tell the story of the
return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the city in the tone of
Principle as Life.
But the four books of Kings also unfold the sixteen tones of the
foursquare matrix. Hence this now familiar metaphysical structure
makes its appearance for the fourth time. In the period of the patriarchs,
it signified universal spiritual man (Israel) at the point of origin. In
Deuteronomy it took the form of an interwoven system of laws by which
universal man is g-overned. Joshua and Judges presented it again as the
foursq uare identity which man is promised once he is obedient to this
code of laws. Now~ in the four books of Kings, it appears again. The idea
represented this time is man governed by the Principle of the
universe - the Word, Christ, Christianity, Science having become
subjective to his being.
I n detail, I Samuel unfolds the four tones of the Word, I I Samuel the
four tones of the Christ, I Kings the four tones of Christianity, and II
Kings the four tones of Science.
Divinely scientific prophecy
The key to the period as a whole lies in the idea of prophec y. That "the
word of the Lord" comes directly and spontaneously to the prophet of
I srael focuses the overridi ng import of this fourth period. The prophet
does not stand personally in the way of divine revelation. The mask-like
obstruction of a mortal pe rSOf1([ is no part of prophetic consciousness.
THE FOUR BOOKS OF KINGS
169
The kingly pride of priestcraft, the ~'prince of this world," has nothing
in the genuine prophet of I srael. To the prophet, the god of this world is
God, not mortal man.
Subject to Principle, and not to personal sense, the matrix of divine
revelation is intuitively subjective to the prophet's thought.
Consciousness is a transparency for the Word of God and for the
timeless record of oeing. Mary Baker Eddy wrote of herself: '"On what
hath not a "Thus saith the Lord,' I am as silent as the dumb centuries
without a living Divina" (My 268: 17). Through the inspiration of the
prophet, Principle declares its timeless self-knowledge regarding its
.
own unIverse.
The term Principle gives the true idea of Person. The word ~'person"
is from the root per + .\'Ollare, to sound through." Throughout the
fourth period, the living Principle of the universe sounds impersonally
through the spiritual consciousness of Israers mighty prophets. It is also
noteworthy that the Latin word personu is the root of the English word
mas k. The inesti IHable service which the fourth period prophets
perform for the hUlnan race is that they unnlask animal magnetism as the
necessary prelude to the birth (in the fifth period) of the pure Christidea.
Naturally, Science and Health has much to say about the state of
mind of the prophet. Under the headings Hscientific foreseeing" and
Hscientific foreknowing" we read: ~~The ancient prophets gained their
foresight from a spiritual, incorporeal standpoint, not by foreshadowing
evil and mistaking fact for fiction, - predicting the future from a
groundwork of corporeality and human belief" (S&H 84:3).
What is it in this fourth period which (in opposition to divine
prophecy) predicts and foreshadows evil? It is Babylonian astrology
- Babylon's astral theology - those practices of divination and so-called
prophecy which appear as horoscopy, occultism, clairvoyance,
witchcraft, psychic mind-reading, and so on, all of which are the
opposite of scientific foreseeing and scientific foreknowing.
The above reference continues: ~'When sufficiently advanced in
Science to be in harmony with the truth of being, men become seers and
prophets involuntarily controlled not by demons, spirits, or demigods,
but by the one Spirit. I t is the prerogative of the ever-present, divine
Mind, and of thought which is in rapport with this Mind, to know the
past, the present, and the future."
The tho ug h t s 0 f I s rae r s pro ph c t s rev 0 I ve i nth e 0 r bit s 0 fin fi nit e
Mind. The prophet is in inll11cdiate conllllunication with the selfrevealing, self-directing, self-reflecting universe. He is inseparable
from, and constantly receptive to. the infol'lnation regarding reality
which is held in eternal Mind. Because he is (iou-governed, the prophet
sees and prophesies involuntarily. He is controlled and directed not by
information stored in a so-called unconscious or subconscious cosmic
H
170
mind, such as obtains in clairvoyance and astrology, but by the

immediate intelligence of infinite Mind, which knows the past, the
present, and the future. This all-knowing, all-seeing Mind feeds
information to prophetic consciousness, which then gives it back again
to Mind. Reading in Mind the divine self-knowledge, the prophet
predicts the future of mankind. This is the antithesis of predictions
which rise into consciousness from the deep dark matrix of the cosmic
unconscious - a concept which is wholly mythological.
Babylonian astrology, with its Zodiacal horoscopy, is concerned
with the mortal birth-death cycle. Israers prophets are controlled by
ideas which are birthless and deathless. Held in the womb of
consciousness in this fourth thousand-year period are the two worldmissions of Christ Jesus and Christian Science that come to birth and
fulfil their purpose in the fifth, sixth, and seventh periods. What the
prophets of Israel hold in prospect for the human race is the
demonstrable Science of mankind's abundant, indestructible Life. The
prophet reads in the Word of God (the universe as it really is) the
timeless record of Mind's creation. This true Mind-reading replaces and
destroys the unseen workings of animal magnetism, practised by Assyria
and Babylon.
The foregoing reference continues: "Acquaintance with the Science
of being enables us to commune more largely with the divine Mind, to
foresee and foretell even ts which concern the uni versal welfare, to be
divinely inspired, - yea, to reach the range of fetterless Mind . . . If this
Science has been thoroughly learned and properly digested, we can
know the truth more accurately than the astronomer can read the stars,
or calculate an eclipse. This Mind-reading is the opposite of
clai rvoyance."
Israel's prophets indeed 'read the stars,' but neither as mystic
astrologers nor scientific astronomers. They read them in accordance
with the spiritual meaning of the fourth day of creation, where
happenings on earth are determined by, and are the reflection of, the
infinite harmonies of heaven. Their kind of star-reading is not mortal
mind-r~ading but immortal Mind-reading (S & H 83:29). They read the
record of the Word of God imprinted in eternal Mind.
Babylonian Astral-Theology Assyria-Babylon, the civilization of the Tigris-Euphrates valley,

becomes, in this period, the principal opponent of Israel-J udah, the
civilization of the Jordan valley. In divine metaphysics, the former is the
fable of which the latter is the fact. The scientific theology of IsraelJudah is based on her timeless identity as a crown of twelve stars; the
mystic theology of Assyria-Babylon is based on the twelve (time) signs
of the Zodiac.
171
Babylonian astral theology gained such a hold on the Semitic world

during the first millennium B.C., and fascinated the all-conquerirrg
Graeco-Roman Empire to such an extent, that the present-day Western
Christian offspring of the Roman Empire inherits its deeply penetrating
influence. Babylonian astrology relates to the hidden, involuntary
workings of what is called animal magnetism, in contrast to the
workings of the spiritual idea of God, whereby men become seers and
prophets involuntarily. Unless Israel's prophets resolutely handle
astrological an imal nlagnet ism in the fourth period, I srael herself will
not give birth to the lifework of Jesus at the beginning of the fifth.
The Encyclopaedia Ilrilannica says in its article on "'Babylonian
and Assyrian Rei igion" (Ed. I I, Vol. 3, p.114):
the astral
theology . . . of the Bahylonian religion . . . is equally pronounced in
the religious SystClll of Assyria . The essential feature . . . is the
assumption of a close: link hctween the movements going on in'the
heavens and OCl"Urrl~nCl'S 011 earth. which led to identifying the gods and
goddesses with heaven Iy hodies - planets and stars, besides sun and
moon - and to assigning the scats of all the deities in the heavens. The
personification of thl" two grl"at lurninarics- the sun and the moon [the
two g rc a t Ii g h t s () f 1h l' 1'0 urI h day 0 f l.: rc ali () n I - was the fi r s t s t e pin th e
unfolding of this sysh:nl . . . '1'0 read the: signs of the heavens was
therefore to undc:rstand (he 11lcaning of occurrences on earth . . . So
co nl pie tel y did t his s y s t l" nlin I he co u rs c () f t i 111 C S way men s min d s t hat
the cu It. . . ga Vl~ hi rl h to astrol1orny. wh ic h was assiduous Iy cui ti vated
because a knowled~c of the heavens was the very foundation of the
SystCI11 of hclicf unfolde:d hy the priests of Babylonia and Assyria.
'Chaldacan wlsdol11' hCCal11C in the classical world the synonym of this
science, which in ils character was so essentially religiqus. The
persistent proilline:ncc which astrology continued to enjoy down to the
b 0 rd e r -I inc (} f the S Lie n t i fi C 1110 ve men t of our own day s, and w hi chi s
di rectly traccah Ie to t he <.Ii vi nation methods perfected in the Euphrates
valley, is a trihute to thc scope and influence attained by the astral
theology of the Bahylonian and Assyrian priests."
Following the world-wide dispersion of Israel and Judah in the
course of the fourth period, ~~Babylonian astrology began its triumphal
march to the west. invading the domain of Greek and Roman culture and
destined to cxcn.:isc a strong hold on all nations and groups - more
particularly in f-~gypt - that came within the sphere of Greek and Roman
in fl u e nee" (E n c . B r i 1. V 0 I. 2, p. 797, art i c Ieon " As t r 0 Iog y").
The Greeks and Egyptians cultured the subject beyond Babylonian
attainments, we arc told, and from the seventh to the thirteenth centuries
A.D., the Arabs took up the Greek system. From thence, in the course of
the Middle Ages, it spread to Christendom. During the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, astrologers were the dominating influence in the
courts of Europe.
H
'I
172
Twentieth century Christian Science is destined to present to a

Westernized world the spiritual opposite of Babylonian astrology, and
in so doing liberate this world from the involuntary workings of
unconscious mortal mind, which otherwise hold it in bondage.
As the counterfeit of divine Science (the one Science of all sciences),
~~the scope~of astrology was enlarged until it was brought into connexion
with practically all of the known sciences, botany, chemistry, zoology,
mineralogy, anatomy and medicine . . . By this curious process of
combination the entire realm of the natural sciences was translated into
the language of astrology with the single avowed purpose of seeing in all
phenomena signs indicative of what the future had in store" (ibid). Not
astrology, but universal divine Science translates the manifold human
sciences into the one eternal Science of man wherein past, present, and
future are si multaneous.
Of particular interest is the fact that "the zodiac was regarded as the
prototype of the human body, the different parts of which all had their
corresponding section in the zodiac itself." The Ram, the first sign,
corresponded to the head, and the Fishes, the twelfth sign, to the feet; in
between, the Bull was the neck, Gemini (the twins) were the shoulders
and arms, Cancer was the breast, Leo was the flanks, Virgo was the
bladder, the Balances were the buttocks, Scorpio was the pubis,
Saggitarias the thighs, Capricorn the knees, and Aquarius the limbs. The
sun, the moon, and the five known planets were similarly assigned to
different parts of the body, in the belief that they controlled the body's
physical conditions.
Thus: ". . . the seat of Mercury, representing divine intelligence as
the source of all knowledge . . . was placed in the liver as the primeval
seat of the soul . . . Saturn . . . was given a place in the brain . . . the
centre of soul-life; Venus, as the planet of the passion of love, was
supposed to reign supreme over the genital organs, the belly and the
lower lim b s ~ Mars, as the vi 0 len t p Ia net, is ass 0 cia ted wit h the b i Ie, as
well as with the blood and kidneys . . . " Because of this, medicine
"became an integral part of astrology, or, as we might also put it,
astrology became the handmaid of medicine" (ibid).
An individual's horoscope is a map of the heavens at the hour of his
nativity - a record of the positions of the heavenly bodies at the moment
of birth, from which to deduce their influence upon him throughout his
life. Each zodiacal constellation is credited with possessing particular
characteristics and powers. The events of the individual life are
calculated from interrelating aspects of the twelve zodiacal signs, in
conjunction with aspects of the sun, moon, and planets constituting the
solar system. What a coun terfei t this is of the reflecting tones of the
foursquare matrix which determines and gives birth to man's spiritual
identity that is without beginning or end. Man's individual being is not
173
"born of a woman" in the mortal sense, but born of ~~the woman"

depicted in Revelation, with her crown of twelve stars. Like Jesus, man
is Universe horn, in contrast to being Mary horn.
The word ~~horoscope" is from the root '"hour + watcher." A horoscope is "a scheme or figure of the twelve houses, or twelve signs of the
zodiac, in which is rnarked the disposition of the heavens at a given tin1e,
and by which astrologers formerly told the fortunes of persons,
according to the position of the stars at the time of their birth" (SRD).
Jesus said of a wOlnan in travail, "Her hour is come." When he
himself was ahout to dCIlHlnstrate the nothingness of the birth-death
cycle, he knew that \"his hour was come." His plea to his disciples was,
"Could ye not watch with 1l1C one hour." When, in Revelation, Babylon
falls, we read that this takes place in ~"one hour." What Jesus bade the
disciples watch against was the hour of mortal nativity, and therefore
against the clainls of anilnal Inagnetism as expressed in the practice of
horoscopy.
The casting of a hor(ls~opc is the opposite of identity cast in the
mall Id (or rna t ri x) \) f l'tl'rna I I. i fc. 'r h~ horoscopic chart, wi th its frame
of twelve houses. is not unlikl" the structure in the hook of Numbers
where the twelve t ri hl's of I srac:1 arc arranged in order around the
tabernacle. Whl"n we ~nI11l' to the sixtc..'cn prophets at the close of the Old
Testarllcnl. and therl'forc at the end of the fourth period, we shall find
t his ant i dot c t 0 111 0 r t a I 11 a t i v i t Y pre sen t cd wit h eve n g r e at e r de fi nit ion.
Then we shall he rcady and waiting for the birth of Jesus.
What we Illust understand - what the C"hristianly scientific prophet
docs understand - is that infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul is the positive fact of
whi ch 111tJ ria I "' i"d, "'ll 11(' r, 111() rIa I hod y is the negative fab I e. Here we
touch the underlying J',.illciple of the universe, which demonstrates itself
It, and Lo ve.
to hc I ~U(.
As we noted with reference to mythology, matter is the subjective
state of Inortal nlind~ at the same time as being an image in mortal mind.
Let us note also that unconscious" mortal mind and "unconscious"
nlatter arc c0l11plcmcntary concepts, in which matter is "inert, mindless"
(S &.~ 1 I 4 : 30 ~ I I 0: I 8, 409: 9 & 17, 25 3 :2 1).
I f the su hjcctive state of mortal mind is really unconscious, mindless
matter. this eli I1li nates the possibility of an unconscious mental source
of cOnSl.:iOllS material existence. Self-evidently, mindless mind is no
mind. l-lcnce the fact in Science of the allness of Mind (capital M) and
the nothingness of mortal mind, or matter.
Spirit, not nlatter, is the subjective state of the Mind of man. Man's
body, therefore, is not a mind absorbed in matter, but is Mind's
reflection of itse If as Spiri t. This identity of Mind and Spiri t is sig nified
by the term Soul. Soul is Mind self-identified as Spirit, not matter. I t is
in Soul, therefore, that identity (or body) is found. The universe's own
self-knowledge is the real identity of man.
'1',.",
174
The ,astronomical heavens viewed from earth on a star-lit night are

the physical counterpart of the mythological cosmic unconscious, the
source of all conscious astrological predictions. The as tronomical
universe is no less mythical than the astrological one. On the other
hand, to survey the universe in Science is to look into the depths of
eternal Mind, and there read the Word of God. Mankind's mythologies,
recorded by mythologists, arise, as we have said, from the depths of the
cosmic unconscious, and are just as much revelations (in a counterfeit
sense) as are the truths communicated to the consciousness of the
prophet from the depths of infinite Mind.
While Babylonian astrology predicts the continuous appearing of
good and evil, the Science of Mind reveals the onliness of good. The
former is the workings of animal magnetism, the latter the workings of
Truth. And thus for Israel to un-mask animal magnetism in the fourth
period is for her to re-veal the universal Christ-idea in the fifth
period - that is, for her to bring to birth her own true selfhood by
eliminating false belief.
According to the chapter "Animal Magnetism Unmasked" in
Science and Health, the basic proposition of animal magnetism is that
"'there exists a mutual influence between the celestial bodies, the earth,
and animated things" (S & H 100:8). This shows the relationship
between mesmerism, or animal magnetism, and Babylonian astral
theology. We read that "'Animal bodies are susceptible to the influence
of this agent, disseminating itself through the substance of the nerves."
The nervous workings of the mortal body constitute a communications
system which carries messages of mind in matter from the unconscious
to consciousness, feeding these back again to the unconscious. Nerve
vibrations are the opposite of God's thoughts, or angel messages,
passing as spiritual intuitions from God to man and then back again to
God. The messages which fill the mind of the prophet, and which give
rise to his conviction, IO"Thus saith the Lord," are the opposite of
electrically sentient nerve vibrations. InN ew Testament terminology,
the prophet is filled with the Holy Ghost.
Mary Baker Eddy writes that her "own observations of the workings
of animal magnetism convince her . . . that its effects upon those who
practise it, and upon their subjects who do not resist it, lead to moral and
to physical death" (S& H lOl:21-ia).
I n our immediate story of the fourth thousand-year period, the
subjects who do not resist the supposed flow of the animal magnetic
fluid through their nervous systems are Israel (woman) and Judah (man).
In consequence, they are taken captive by Assyria and Babylon. When
Israel (woman) is deported by Assyria, this is the Biblical equivalent of
moral death. When Judah (man) is taken captive by Babylon, this
symbolizes physical death. Resurrection from these two Hdeaths" is
typified in the Old Testament when Judah returns from Babylonian
;
175
exile and rebuilds his capital city. Actual resurrection, however, comes
when Christ Jesus and Christian Science reveal on behalf of all mankind,
the sinless, diseaseless, deathless presence of Life, Truth, and Love.
I s it not self-evident that unless, in the fourth period, the revelations
of divine prophecy (stemming from the matrix of immortality) annul the
assassination work of Assyria-Babylon (stemming from a matrix of
mortality), the nativity of the spiritual idea, represented in the fifth,
sixth, and seventh periods by Christ Jesus and Christian Science, cannot
take place?
I SAMUEL
1st tone of 4th period

- Principle as Mind-
We have reached the Bible's fourth thousand-year period, emphasizing

God as Principle. The first of the period's five subtones, Principle in its
aspect as Mind, is covered by I Samuel. But I Samuel also unfolds in the
order of the Word as the Word, the Word as the Christ, the Word as
Christianity, and the Word as Science, - that is, in the first four tones of
the foursquare matrix.
The prophetic era dawns: As soon as we enter the fourth period, the light
of divine prophecy, appearing through the figure of Samuel, dawns on the
consciousness of Israel. Samuel is the first of the fourth period prophets.
Spiritual foreseeing and spiritual foreknowing are about to determine
Israel's affairs. At once her new spiritual outlook overthrows an old and
corrupt sense of priesthood, represented by Eli and his two evil sons.
The child Samuel ministers before Eli in the house of the Lord where
the ark of the covenant is. "And the word of the Lord was precious in
those days; there was no open vision." The free light of prophecy is at the
point of breaking through old dark religious confines. "And it came to
pass. . . when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax
dim, that he could not see; and ere the lamp of God went out in the temple
of the Lord. . . the Lord called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I. . .
and Samuel lay until the morning, and opened the doors of the house of
the Lord."
The fresh air of prophecy begins to pour into Israel's receptive
'consciousness through the door which Samuel has opened, and to clear
away stagnant priestcraft, where there is no open mindedness, no
.
progressive vIsion.
In an attempt to suppress the new development, philistinism enters the
scene. The Philistines capture the ark of God. Out-of-date priestcraft lets
in opposition to the advancing spiritual idea. The ark signifies unity with
God, even as does the true priest with whom the ark is associated. A
corrupt priesthood would deprive I~raers prophets of their right to
176
commune with God direct. Eli, "an old man, and heavy," falls over backwards and dies. A child is born, and is named Ichabod. Ichabod means
"the glory is departed from Israel." But this typifies the present state of
Israel's thought rather than the actual birth of a child.
The Philistines are plagued with emerods. They are the victims of
infection carried by vermin. In an article on "Personal Contagion"
(My 116), Mary Baker Eddy might well be describing this Philistine plague
of emerods. Spreading personal contagion - succumbing to the infections
of .physical personality- Israel loses her precious means of communion
with her divine Principle, God.
The plague subsides when five lords of the Philistines send the ark
back to Israel with five golden images of their emerods, and five golden
mice. This act is called a trespass offering. Infectious personal sense,
based on evidence gained from the five corporeal senses, is reversed and
translated when thought returns to Principle. Then the situation is healed.
Unyoked oxen turn "not aside to the right hand nor to the left" when, on a
new cart, they bring Israel back her ark.
Israel demands a king: In a tone of the Word as the Christ, Israel pleads
with Samuel for a king to rule over her so that she can be like other
nations. Evidently the lesson regarding personal contagion, and the
worship of personality in preference to Principle, is far from learnt. We
are therefore called upon to examine in depth I srael's apparent desire to
be ruled by person instead of Principle, and the far-reaching, desolating
consequences of this. "They have rejected me, that I should not reign
over them," God says to Samuel. Samuel warns the people: "He [the
king] will take your sons, and appoint them for himself . . . and ye shall
be his servants." Personal sense will rob I srael of her rights of freedom
and self-government. Nevertheless she persists in her demand for
personal leadership, and Samuel, in order to teach her the necessary
lesson, anoints Saul, a B enj amite, as I sraeI's first king . Fourth period
prophecy is Israel in direct communion with God, Principle, not God
sounding through the persona, or mask, of human personality.
The name Saul means "desired." Everything about him suggests a
personality cult - personal appearance, personal vanity, jealousy,
sensitiveness, aggression, and so on. Saul is "a choice young man, and a
goodly: and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person
than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the
people." We are told how he seeks his father's wandering asses. These
asses are I srael herself as a beast of burden, stupidly wandering away
from Principle and following person instead.
Jonathan, Saul's son, is a very different character from Saul.
Jonathan is that state of thought in I srael which causes her to turn from
the personal kingship of Saul to the principled kingship of David. While
Saul works independently of Principle, Jonathan depends directly on
177
Principle for everything he does. He loves to eat the honey which drops
from the trees above. Saul has not personally authorized this action, and.,
would therefore like to slay Jonathan for his apparent affront to the
king. HAnd when Saul saw any strong man, or any valiant man, he took
him unto himself." The king seeks continually to build up his own ego.
Whatever flatters his van i ty and adds to his sense of self-importance he
immediately takes to hi mself.
I n a battlc wit h the A nlalekites, Saul obeys on ly partly the divine
command. He spares the life of their king, Agag. What Saul really seeks
to save is the despot il: egot ism in his own personali ty, which has no part
in Principle. Sailluci is so angry, that when Agag comes to him
~~delicately" he hews the Amalekite king in pieces.
To reverse thl- presenl disastrous trend, Samuel, under divine orders,
anoints David as the future king of Israel. The name David means "wellbeloved." I)avid and Saul an: opposites. ~~Look not on his countenance,
or on the height of his stature," God tells Samuel when He sends him to
find the new rUll"r. "for Illan lookcth on the outward appearance, but the
Lord lookl~lh on thl' hl"art." l)avid is the eighth son of Jesse, a
Bethlchclllitc. Ill' hl'COllll"S Saul's arlllour-hearer.As the future sweet
psalnlist of Isral'l. hl' plays hefore Saul on ~he harp.
For the sakl" of I sracl's spiritual dcvclopnlent David is called upon to
slay I h l' Phi lis t i Ill' g ian L (j 0 I i a t h, (J 0 I i at h means Hex i Ie. ' , What David
nl Us t r l" a II y d L" S t roy i s t hat gig ant icc g (.) tis n1 i n t he tho ugh t of I srae I
which (rl"prl'sl"ntcd hy Saul) would exile her from divine Principle. To
have a personal ego of onc's own is to be exiled from the one divine Ego.
I)avid retuSl"S the armour and sword offered him by Saul, and relies
instead on it sling and a stone. In the interpretation given this incident in
SC;('I1('('
tllld
IIt'a/,h, Goliath is "physics," David is '~divine
tnctaphysics:" whi Ie Saul is ~'semi-metaphysics," which is' wholly
i ncl'fl'ctua I w hl"n con fron ted by physics. Semi-metaphysics can never
cotllhal thl" hel iet' that nlan is exiled from God. Only that which is not
exiled can do this. namely., divine metaphysics. Unity with God is the
IJavidic quality of wonlanhood in Israel. Hence, Blike the shepherd-boy
wit h his sli n~L wornan goes forth to battle wi th Goliath" (S & H 268: 11 ).
ur
171(' If} "t'

1)0 \'id and Jonathan: A relationship develops between
David and Jonathan which introduces a Christianity tone. ~'And . . . the
soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved
hi 111 as his own soul . . . Then Jonathan and David made a covenant,
hccausc he: loved him as his own soul." In David the qualities of
11lanhood and womanhood are in complementary balance. This is
confifllle:d later when we see him holding the peoples of Judah and Israel
together as one united kingdom. David is that state of spiritual thought
in which it is natural to love one's neighbour as one's self.
This relationship arouses in Saul envy, malice, and hate, and he seeks
178
David's life. But neither David nor Jonathan are affected by Saul's
aggression. The reason for this is that Hthe mental arrow shot from
another's bow is practically harmless, unless our own thought barbs it. It
is our pride that makes another's criticism rankle . . . our egotism that
feels hurt by another's self-assertion" (Mis 223:30).
Hence David does not strike back at Saul with Saul's own material
weapons. Instead, he goes temporarily into exile to escape Saul's wrath
and find the solution to his problem. This is the occasion when he eats
the shewbread outside the reach of priestly officialdom. Remember that
he has already slain Goliath. His exile, therefore, is not really an exile at
all, but a refuge- a refuge in which to affirm his unity with God,
whereby he loves and does not hate.
The Word as Science
David loves his enemies: The tone of the Word as Science establishes the
fact that David loves not only his friends but his enemies as well.
Throughout these four tones of the Word, the choice is being made in the
consciousness of Israel as to whether personal sense or Principle shall
govern - that is, whether Saul or David shall be king.
David knows that to love his enemies is the only way of proving, in
Science, that he has no enemies. Christian Science teaches: "'Love thine
enemies' is identical with 'Thou hast no enemies' " (Mis 9:9). Asked why
he does not destroy his enemy, Saul, in view of the fact that Saul seeks to
destroy him, David replies: ""The Lord forbid that I should . . . stretch
forth mine hand against . . . the anointed of the Lord." David knows that
Saul has arisen in the consciousness of Israel as the means of teaching her
a much needed lesson, and therefore he is the Lord's anointed. David, like
Jesus, his descendant, strives continually to behold '"in Science the perfect
man," despite the false appearance of sinning mortal man (S & H 476:32).
That David, at this point, actually takes refuge wi th Israel's archenemies, the Philistines, need not surprise us in Science. Joseph, in Egypt,
proved himself lord of the land of Egypt. Later, Israel's prophets will
prove the same thing regarding Babylon. In the case of Jesus, the tomb
gave him "a refuge from his foes, a place in which to solve the great
problem of being" (S & H 44:5). Each instance is the opportunity for Love
to prove itself "the master of hate."
>
II SAMUEL
The tone of the Word as Science includes the first chapter of II Samuel
before coming to an end. In a final battle with the Philistines, Saul and
Jonathan are both slain. David mourns them equally. He sees no
difference in Science between a personal friend and a personal enemy. It is
man in the generic sense with whom David is concerned. He cries out to
179
God in his lament: HThe heauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how
are the mighty fallen . . . Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in
their lives, and in thei r death they were not divided . . . I am distressed for
thee, my brother Jonathan . . . thy love to me was wonderful, passing the
love of women." I t is as if Jonathan is Saul's real spiritual seltbood, when
we behold Saul in Science.
2nd tone of 4th period

- Principle as Spirit-
We come, in II SaJlluel. to the four tones of the Christ, and in doing so

merge fronl the first tone of the fourth period, Principle as Mind, to the
second, Pri nciplc as Sri ri t. Here David is Israel's "great king,~' and the
dynasty that extends to the kingship of Jesus begins. Ideally, through his
allegiance to Principle, David shows forth the character of the Christ;
hence Jesus in the (,ospcls is called "the son of David."
Christ as the Word
David crowned king: H'rhy throne shall be established forever." With these
words God proclaims His covenant with David the day Israel crowns him
king. She has elected to enthrone government by Principle in her own life
in place of government by personal sense. Once this happens the house of
David waxes stronger and stronger and the house of Saul weaker and
weaker. The Christ-purpose is ~c.to translate the kingdom from the house of
Saul, and to set up the throne of David" as Israers permanent royal
dynasty. This is the symbol, at this point, of heaven's government of earth.
Jerusalem (city of peace) becomes the capital city of the united
kingdom of Israel and Judah over which David reigns. This city of
David - Zion, the city of the great king- is the foreshadowing symbol of
the eventual New Jerusalem, the universal mother-city as understood in
Christian Science.
David's heartfelt desire is to build an earthly abode for God. "I dwell
in an house of cedar," he says to Nathan the prophet, "but the ark of God
dwelleth within curtains." But this is not the Christ's way. Nathan informs
hi m: "The Lord telleth thee that he will make thee an house," not the other
way round. David's son, Solomon, not David himself, is the king who will
hu i ld a house for God.
With David, in II Samuel, the accent is Christ,' with Solomon, in
I Kings, it is ('hristianity. And thus we see the metaphysical relationship
hctwccn these two kings. lJndcr the jurisdiction of the Christ, divinity
huilds a house for hunlanity~ hut in ('hristianity humanity builds a house
for divinity. This is because (~hristianity restores humanity to its original
C'hristly status. Putting it another way, the Davidic standpoint is: Divinely
[ aln the son of (iod: and that of Solomon: Humanly I make myself the son
of God.
As in the four Jilord tones with Saul, so now in the four Christ tones
with David. we arc shown what happens to the human if, instead of
remaining faithful 10 Principle, it divorces itself from Principle, and weds
180
personal sense instead. We see David, God's well-beloved, behaving in a

way which totally belies his Christly character.
David desires to show kindness to the house of Saul for Jonathan's
sake. Jonathan's lame and gentle son Mephibosheth enters the story.
Mephibosheth's qualities are humility, selflessness, and loyalty, the
opposite of covetousness and self-will. These are really David's own
qualities, and therefore Mephibosheth eats at the king's table as one of the
king's sons.
But David feels he should show equal kindness to the house of
Ammon, and this is his undoing. Ammon, as we have found, stands for
covetousness and lust. In the case of Mephibosheth, humility operates in
David's thought; at the hands of the Ammonites he suffers humiliation.
The repercussions of David's associations with the house of Ammon
continue to the end of the four books of Kings, when Israel, having split
into two separate kingdoms, is exiled from the promised land. As a result
of his present behaviour, David himself will be exiled'from his kingdom.
He covets Bathsheba, wife of his faithful and loving servant Urriah the
Hittite. Bathsheba later becomes the mother of David's son, Solomon,
builder of Israel's sumptuous temple. But this is what the real David is not,
rather than what he is. In the story, he not only covets, but steals,
adulterates, and kills as well. In fact, he breaks all the divine
commandments. Moses, in Deuteronomy, warned Israel of the terrible
consequences of this.
At David's command, Urriah is slain in a battle with the children of
Ammon. Urriah is full of steadfastness, love, and devotion to duty.
Interpreted metaphysically, his murder is not the death of a person, but
the killing of the Urriah qualities in David himself due to his having
broken God's commandments.
David marries Bathsheba. The name Bathsheba means "daughter of
the oath of the seven." Whether the word is Bathsheba, Beersheba, Sheba
alone, or the Queen of Sheba (who later rhapsodizes so enthusiastically
over Solomon's golden temple), all these names refer in one way or
another to the symbol of the seven. Having cut himself off from Principle,
and having married Bathsheba instead, David, in Science, has broken his
oath with Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love.
The "sword of Ammon" slays Urriah. Then, as if to complete the
perfidy, the Ammonite crown is set on David's own head. Certainly the
evils of covetousness wreak their havoc in David's otherwise Christly life.
Filled with doubt and penitence, David seems almost relieved when the
child of his adultery dies. Afterwards Solomon is born in wedlock. But the
error that has beset him ever since he first associated with the house of
Ammon has not been resolved, and its influence will reach to the building
of the temple, and far beyond.

181
The son in exile: As the opposite of Christ as the Christ, the next part of
the story is about a son who rebels against his father. This concerns the
revolt of Absalom against his father David, and his usurpation of David's
kingdom.
Absalom murders his brother Amnon (a name closely related to
Ammon) for having incestuous desires towards their half-sister Tamar.
(Ammon was originally the child of Lot's inces!.) Fearing the wrath of his
father, Absalom flees the kingdom. But David, full of forgiveness, yearns
for his son to come back to him, and Absalom returns.
The handsome and attractive Absalom is all plausibility and guile. He
covets his father's throne. Easily courting popularity, he seduces the
Israelites "in their simplicity" and persuades them to make him king. Once
this is done, David himself flees the kingdom. The fact in Science is that
Christ, the Son, is incapable of ~ebelling against the Father, and is
therefore never exiled from the Father. David must find this to be true of
his own Christ-selfhood in relation to his divine Principle, God.
Realizing the extent of his sin, David makes no effort to resist the
lessons he is called upon to learn. When Shimei curses him and throws
stones at him, David neither resists this nOf resents it. The real David loves
his enemies. When the tables turn in his favour, as inevitably they do, he
calls to his men who are pursuing Absalom: "Deal gently for my sake with
the young man, even with Absalom." How else does the Christ make
nothing of evil? How else can the kingdom be restored? "Is the young man
Absalom safe?" David asks. Told of his son's death, he cries out in sorrow:
"My son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, 0 Absalom, my
son, my son!"
Christ .s Christianity
The kingdom restored: The tone of Christ as Christianity is, as we would

expect, the story of David's return to Jerusalem, and the restoration of his
kingdom.
As he crosses back over Jordan, all Israel gathers to greet him. The
quality of forgiveness abounds. Shimei is forgiven his curses and his
stone-throwing. The selfless Mephibosheth wants nothing for himself
personally, but asks only to serve David. An aged follower, Barzillai, is
only able to accompany David halfway back over Jordan. He cannot stay
the full spiritual course. David understands. In his great love, he leaves
Barzlllai in the care of Love, and exerts no personal pressure.
Back in Jerusalem, the situation returns to normal. Christ, Truth, has
healed an apparent rupture from Principle, and health is restored to the
body of Israel.
Yet there is a threat of relapse. Sheba, a Benjamite of the house of Saul,
enters the scene. Sheba is the argument that, the oath of the seven
(Bathsheba) having been broken, and the breach healed, the error can
repeat itself. All Israel's troubles are traceable, directly or indirectly, to the
fact that she desired to be ruled by person (Saul) instead of Principle at the
182
opening of the fourth period. Thus Sheba, of the house of Saul, stages a
further insurrection - that is to say, he attempts to reverse the present
healing.
Two generals feature in the story: Amasa, a general of Absalom, and
Joab, David's general. Amasa is sleepy and lethargic regarding the new
rebellion. Joab goes to the other extreme and is hot-headed. Joab kills
Amasa, whose remains lie in the roadway. Passers-by are not sure what to
do. Seeing his corpse they pause and hesitate. But Joab is definite. He
besieges Sheba in the city of Abel. In his desire to destroy Sheba and serve
David, Joab comes near to destroying the whole city.
His methods are too violent, too drastic. Hence a wise woman, a
"mother in Israel" disposes of Sheba and quells the rebellion. "I am one of
them that are peaceable and faithful in Israel," she says, "thou seekest to
destroy a city and a mother in Israel: why wilt thou swallow up the
inheritance of the Lord?" A mother in Israel does not expect to eliminate
the whole of mortality at one blow; she is ordered in the way she handles
error, and is content to proceed one step at a time.
Sheba having been defeated, David slays seven sons of the house of
Saul, and four sons of Goliath, the Philistine. That which enables him to
do this in Science is the spiritual seven and the spiritual four.
Christ as Science
A rock upon which to build: In the section on Christ as Science, David

sings his song of the rock. Moses, in Deuteronomy, also sang of the rock,
when the tone was Science as the Christ. [n divine metaphysics, the rock is
the matrix calculus of infinity, the spiritual structure of the seven and the
four, the headstone of the body of all true relationships. We arrive,
therefore, at the site of Solomon's temple - the foundations on which (in
the coming tone of Christianity) the temple itself is built.
"And David spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that
the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of
the hand of Saul: And he said, The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and
my deliverer; The God of my rock, in him will I trust ... who is a rock,
save our God? God is my strength and power ... I have pursued mine
enemies, and destroyed them ... Then did I beat them as small as the dust
of the earth ... The Lord liveth; and blessed be my rock; and exalted be
the God of the rock of my salvation."
We read in Science and Health: "The supremacy of Spirit was the
foundation on which Jesus built." Also: "Jesus established his church and
maintained his mission on a spiritual foundation of Christ-healing" (S& H
136-138). This idea of Christ-healing is strongly indicated throughout all
four tones of II Samuel, which unfold the story of David's reign.
It was David's "three mighty men," we are told, who finally triumphed
over the Philistines. In divine metaphysics, who are these three mighty
ones but the three essential views of Science, as divine Science, absolute
Christian Science, and Christian Science? - the three who, at the point of
183
Christian Science, analyse, uncover, and annihilate everything that
opposes the advancement of Science'?

Foolishly, David numbers the people. As we saw at the beginning of the
book of Numbers, the only number in Science is the infinite Olle itself.
This can never be broken up into a calculable number of individual ones.
Israel's tfue temple cannot be built on the basis of organization, space,
and time, involved in the concept of material numbers. David is deeply
repentant for having numbered the people, and the plague which was
visited upon the children of Israel because of his mistake is stayed.
The threshing l100r (in Jerusalem) of Araunah the Jebusite, where
David now stands, is the site on which Israel's temple will soon be built. If
this temple is to succeed in its healing mission, it must indeed arise from a
rock-like understanding of the difference between Truth and
error - between what is wheat on the one hand and chaff on the other, or
between Principle and personal sense.
I KINGS
3rd tone of 4th period

- Principle as SouI-
I Kings, recounting the story of Solomon and his temple, and the splitting
of the kingdom into two antagonistic parts, takes us to the four tones of
Christianity.
of Principle,
up into two
Principle as
The temple is the symbol of body. Ideally, Israel is the body

which remains forever one whole body, instead of being cut
separate entities. The story of I Kings is determined by
Soul operating as Christianity.
The wisdom (~f Solomon: David, having completed his mission, must be
allowed to pass from Israel's experience, and Solomon must take his place.
It is useless for Israel to try to infuse new life into that which has served its
essential purpose - that is, to use the young virgin Abishag in an effort to
resuscitate David in his old agc.
Once Solomon is crowned, and the kingdom is established in his hand,

Solomon prepares to build the Temple according to God's command. But
there is danger from the start. For although Solomon loves God primarily,
he has already wedded himself to a daughter of the king of Egypt.
We are first shown the character of the real Solomon, whose name
means "peace." "In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by

night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee." Solomon replies: "Give
therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I
may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so
great a people?" "Behold, I have done according to thy words," God says,
"{ have given thee a wise and an understanding heart . .. and I have also
given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honour."
Because the true Solomon seeks first the kingdom of God, riches and
honour arc added in abundance.
184
His wisdom and understanding are put to the test when he is called
upon to judge two harlots. The son of one harlot has died, while the son of
the other lives. The mother of the dead child has exchanged the live child
for the dead one. She agrees that Solomon should cut the live child into
two pieces, so that each mother has half. But the mother of the living child
pleads with Solomon to give him whole to the other woman in order to
keep him alive. Whereupon Solomon wisely restores the living child to his
real mother.
But this is not the way things work out in the coming story of Israel.
Israel will allow her body to be cut in two, and (symbolically, through the
two captivities) both parts will die. This dismembered situation will not be
properly redeemed until the time of the fifth, sixth, and seventh periods
when Christ Jesus and Christian Science restore to the motherhood of
God the undivided body of man, and all mankind is raised from the dead.
Hiram king of Tyre supplies Solomon with the materials he needs for
building the temple. These, principally, are cedars and fir trees from
Lebanon. Tyre is a city of Phoenicia, and Phoenicia is the home of
Jezebel. kzebel is the temptress who, in due course, introduces fertility
cults into Israel on an unprecedented scale.
After seven years of building, the temple with its luxurious furnishings
and adornments is finished, and the ark of the covenant is finally installed.
Covered with gold inside and out, what a magnificent structure it turns out
to be- a symbol of unlimited riches and prosperity. But, at the same time,
Solomon builds equally palatial houses for himself and the daughter of
Egypt.
"And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place,
that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not
stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled
the house of the Lord."
Israel's true body (whose symbol is this house that Solomon has
erected) is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in her, which she has of
God, and she is not her own. Therefore, Paul bids, "glorify God in your
body" (I Cor 6: 19).
In his prayer of joy and thanksgiving, Solomon wisely spreads forth his
hands to heaven and asks: "Will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold,
the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this
house that I have builded?" How can a symbol contain an idea? The
answer is that it cannot, and does not. A symbol is the means of t~ac~ing
humanity an idea. Then, having fulfilled its appointed purpose, the symbol
must dissolve. Danger arises only when symbol is allowed to take
precedence over idea - when its worshippers want it to be self~
perpetuating instead of self-dissolving. It is then no longer symbol but
counterfeit.
After the temple is dedicated, the Queen of Sheba comes to admire it.
The glorious riches of Solomon's kingdom impress her beyond words. The
185
question is, how will Solomon prevent the oath of the seven (Sheba) from
being broken by all this prosperity, popularity, and success? Only by
understanding Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love, as the
reality behind the symbol, will the symbol itself be properly evaluated,
and, in due course, dissolve.
To show the symbolic relationship between the Christian Science
church in Boston and Solomon's temple in Jerusalem let us turn to Mrs
Eddy's address to The Mother Church on the occasion of its dedication in
1895. She herself is not personally present. She writes: "Were I present,
methinks I should be much like the Queen of Sheba, when she saw the
house Solomon had erected. In the expressive language of Holy Writ,
'There was no more spirit in her;' and she said, 'Behold, the half was not
told me; thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard.'''
Mrs Eddy, like Solomon, then turns the thought of the people from the
symbol to the idea. She continues: "The real house in which 'we live, and
move, and have our being' is Spirit, God, the eternal harmony of infinite
Soul ... our true temple is no human fabrication ... how can our godly
temple possibly be demolished, or even disturbed? Can eternity end? Can
Life die? Can Truth be uncertain? Can Love be less than boundless? ..
Our surety is in our confidence that we are indeed dwellers in Truth and
Love, man's eternal mansion ... 'They shall be abundantly satisfied with
the fatness of Thy house .. .' " (Pul 1:19).
In view of Solomon's overwhelming prosperity, it is well to remember
the situation in Boston in 1889. This is the year Mrs Eddy dissolved her
first central organization. She did this in such a way as to make it the
example for what her followers must do in respect of the second
organization (called The Mother Church). Over and over again she
declares how she dissolved her College and church at the "pinnacle of
prosperity," because she had learned the "value and peril," as well as the
"uses and abuses," of centrally controlled organizations (Mis 358:26, Ret
45:5). Mrs Eddy knew that unless spiritual understanding dissolves them
as symbols, such institutions become personally controlled counterfeits of
the idea they are designed to represent and teach. The same is true in our
present story regarding Solomon's luxurious temple.
The kingdom splits in two: Through idolization of the symbol, in the tone
of Christianity as the Christ, the spiritual idea is lost sight of, and united
Israel splits into two warring camps.
Solomon has surrounded himself with a thousand foreign wives and
concubines- Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, Hittites, as
well as the daughter of Egypt- and we read how they turn away his heart
from the Lord. "For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the
Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites."
What does this multitude of wives typify? Surely it is the negative
concept of woman, generic man, the church (temple) as the body, or bride,
186
of Christ - the opposite of all that Israel, in a tone of Christianity as the

Christ. really stands for. Thus the symhol of the divine idea deteriorates
more and more into the counterfeit of the idea. If Israel puts her faith in
material organization and rcfuses to let this go, then, as we shall see \. . hen
we come to the teaching of the prophets. inevitably Bahylon will destroy
her.
Enemies assail the kingdom hoth from outside and inside. Edom and
Syria bear down upon Solomon from without. and his servant Jeroboam,
whom he has put in charge of the house of Joseph in the northern part of
the country, rebels against him from within.
Ahijah the prophet takes hold of lerohoanl's garment and rends it in
twelve pieces. We are reminded of the way in which the Ephraimite Levite
cut the hody of his faithless concuhine into twelve pieces at the end of the
hook of Judges. Ahijah gives ten of these pieces to Jerohoam and keeps
hack two. Because of her idolatries, Israel is a kingdom divided against
itself. Ten trihes form the northern kingdom of Israel under the leadership
of Jerohoam of the house of Joseph (womanhood); the remaining two form
the southern kingdom of Judah under the leadership of Rehoboam, son of
Solomon, of the house of Judah (manhood).
From this point onwards we must he clear ahout the two different ways
in which (according to the requirements of the context) the name "Israel"
is employed. Either it refers generically to the one whole nation, as it has
done in the past, or else it refers specifically to the northern kingdom of
the now divided nation. led hy the house or Joseph. As we realized at the
time of Joseph himself. '"Israel" and "Joseph" arc synonymous. It can he
said in fact that Jacob's two foremost sons. Judah and Joseph (typifying
the manhood and womanhood of God who appear in their living reality in
the fifth. sixth, and seventh periods as Christ Jesus and Christian Science)
are, from start to finish, what this remarkable story of the Aible, and the
civilization of mankind. is fundamentally about.
The two tribes constituting the southern kingdom of Judah are Judah
himself and Benjamin. But as Judah increases his dictatorial attitude,
Benjamin (spiritually inspired individuality) hecomes absorbed in Judah
and loses independent identity. Hence the southern kingdom is descrihed
later as "the house of Judah only."
Worship of the organic concept leads in the end to ahject servitude to
that concept. Thus, when Solomon dies and Rehohoam ascends the
throne, the situation goes from had to worse. "My father hath chastised
you with whips," Rehohoam tells the children of Israel, "hut I will chastise
you with scorpions."
This is more than the free-thinking, outward-looking house of Joseph
can tolerate; and therefore "Israel !the ten trihes under the leadership of
Jerohoam I rebelled against the house of David unto this day." When
idolization of the symbol destroys the symbol hy apparently severing the
idea into two counterfeit halves, these halves inevitahly become the dead
organic /('{fer of the idea, and its dead organic spirit.
187
Today, it is essential to understand that the universal Science of

Christian Science is one and undivided; that it emhodies, in proper
spiritual balance, both letter and spirit of the true idea of Gou. For in the
measure that we regard Christian Science as divided into two opposite
camps-an ecclesiastical organization and a rebellious hreak-awaj!
movement- we are aiding the purpose of animal magnetism to divide the
people of Israel into two opposing kingdoms. These two hecome the
victims of Assyria and Babylon, and succumh to moral and physical death.
The Science and system of Christian Science - the matrix calculus of
infinity- is the eternal reality of Christian Science, in which spirit and
letter are one.
Jeroboam is crowned the first king of an independent Israel. In order
to prevent his people from returning to Judah to worship in the temple, he
sets up two golden calves at Bethel and at Dan, and the people hasten to
idolize them. This early act on the part of Jeroboam "made Israel to sin,"
and is the cause of her subsequent banishment from the land. The sin of
Israel is said to be even greater than the sin of Judah. Today, in the realm
of nonsectarian Christian Science. the terminological symbols of the
"seven" and the "four" must not, unwittingly, become two golden calves,
bowed down to intellectually by the human mind.
Fricfion and warfare: There follows. in the tone of Christianity as

Christianity, the long history of frictional relationship that ensues between
the two antagonistic halves of what should he one kingdom, as well as their
wars with outside oppressors. Israel and Judah provoke the Lord God to
anger with their vanities, and idolatry is rampant in both camps.
When Ahab ascends the throne of Israel (her seventh non-dynastic
king, in contrast to the Judaic dynasty) he weds the princess Jezebel of
Tyre. This opens the doors of the northern kingdom to the intlux of
unrestrained Baal-Ashtaroth worship. Israel even rebuilds the old city of
Jericho, the city of harlotry and self-love, which was destroyed on entry
into the promised land, and which Joshua expressly commanded the
children of Israel never to raise up again.
Solely for David's sake, and for all that he stood for in holding Judah
and Israel intact as one whole kingdom throughout his reign, the Lord
God is restrained from utterly destroying the two unfaithful, idolatrous
nations.
Spiritual answer to the problem: We come to the story of Elijah and Elisha,
those two great former prophets whose missions complement one another.
The tone is Christianity as Science, the Science of Christianity, or
Christian Science.
Science and Health defines Elias (Elijah) in part as: 'Christian Science,
with which can be discerned the spiritual fact of whatever the material
senses behold; the basis of immortality." Included in this definition are
188
the words of Jesus: "Elias truly shall first come and restore all things."
Christian Science stems from the resurrection and ascension of Jesus.
Like Elijah (who does not die, and unlike Jesus who dies and is
resurrected), Christian Science, rightly understood, does not go through
the death experience, but operates from the pinnacle of translation and
life which Jesus brings to light. Christian Science is, in this way, the
saviour of a divided (dying) Judah and Israel. The relationship which
Elijah and Elisha have to each other is the relationship which Judah and
Israel should have to each other - the relationship which, as the story
proceeds into the last three periods, they do have, namely, that of Christ
Jesus and Christian Science, the manhood and womanhood of God.
The two phases of Mary Baker Eddy's church organization help us to
understand this relationship. The first phase, which founds Christian
Science on the lifework of Jesus, has the accent on ascension, Of manhood;
the second phase represents Christian Science itself, once it is thus
founded, and accentuates descension, or womanhOOD. Elijah's ascension
at the beginning of II Kings includes spiritual translation of the organic
sense of body, and corresponds to the first phase of the Christian Science
church. The subsequent mission of Elisha stems wholly from Elijah's
ascension, and the material dissolution which this involves. This
corresponds to the second church phase. Elisha deme nds that all Israel
shall follow the example which Elijah has set. But, in the story, as we shall
see, Judah and Israel refuse to obey Elisha, and suffer the awful
consequences.
In Israel's experience, what exactly is the problem which Elijah alone
is capable of solving? Drought! A drying-up of productive spiritual
activity. Worship of the two fertility deities, Baal and Ashtaroth, has
resulted in a dearth of spiritual productivity. Elijah's task is to try to make
the two kingdoms fruitful again. But this can be done only as they are
spiritually one in the Science of Christianity.
Remember that Israel as a whole has progressed into the fourth
thousand-year period, corresponding to the fourth day of creation, and
the fourth synonym, Principle. This means that she is establishing the
matrix of immortality as subjective to her own life. Spiritually fertile
within herself, she does not need to be impregnated with seed from outside
herself. If she did need this insemination she could not give birth to the
demonstrations of Jesus at the beginning of the fifth period.
Through the case of the widow woman's son, Elijah illustrates the
raising of Israel from the dead. He must restore all things (Judah and
Israel) to God, where they belong. The solving of the problem of drought
comes to a climax in a contest on Mount Carmel between himself and the
prophets of Baal. Despite the fact that four barrels of water are poured
three times on the altar, fire from heaven kindles the wood and burns the
sacrifice, to the chagrin and humiliation of Baal's impotent followers.
189
Baalism is defeated. Rain comes at last. Fresh inspiration, new

revelation, appears in Israel's consciousness.
"The heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great
rain . . . and the hand of the Lord was on Elijah; and he girded up his
loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel."
Jezreel is an important name symbol which we shall meet with again
when we come to the latter prophets. It means "God sows." As soon as
God, not Baal, sows seed divinely in the womb of Israel's consciousness,
the fruitless drought is over.
Elijah ascends up on Horeb, where he listens to the "still, small voice."
In the age of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy declares that this same
divine voice utters the message of Science and Health (S & H 559:8). She
relates the Christian Science textbook and its title with "the 'still, small
voice' that came to Elijah after the earthquake and the fire" ('02. 15:30).
It was Wyclif, she records, who originally used the phrase "science and
health" for what, in the Authorized Version of the Bible, is translated
"knowledge of salvation." The passage in question i.s Luke I :77, where
reference is made to the mission of John the Baptist, whom Jesus
associates with Elias. The words "Science and Health" signify that man in
God's image is whole. Salvation comes through knowledge of man's
wholeness in Science; and this wholeness is his manhood and womanhood
one in God, in contrast to a severed Judah and Israel.
Elias truly must first come and restore all things to their rightful owner.
Science and Health, in its final matrix structure, teaches the idea of
spontaneous spiritual fertility in man when man is one with God. Its
purpose is to mould human selfhood in the likeness of the manhood and
womanhood of God. Its message of salvation corresponds, therefore, to
Elijah's entreaty to Judah and Israel. Elijah knows that if only Judah and
Israel will accept the truth which he is offering them, they need not
succumb to moral and physical death-that is, to being ravaged and
deported by Assyria and Babylon.
At the end of I Kings, Elisha is appointed Elijah's successor, just as
generic man is understood by Mary Baker Eddy to be her successor. God
says to Elijah: "Elisha ... shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room
... So [Elijah 1 departed thence, and found Elisha ... who was plowing
with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth." Elisha is
identified generically with all twelve tribes of the children of Israel, but
specifically with the tribe of Benjamin. As we have realized, Jacob's
twelfth son Benjamin stands for regenerate individuality in us all. "And
Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen,
and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my
mother, and then I will follow thee." As in the case of Benjamin, whose
mother dies at his birth, Elisha bids farewell to the organic sense of
parenthood, in order truly to follow Elijah.
190
Finally, in this section of I Kings, there is the tale of Naboth's vineyard.

The wicked Ahab and Jezebel (male and female of mortality) murder
Naboth the Jezreelite in order to steal his vineyard. We are reminded of
Jesus' parable of the wicked husbandmen who slay the heir to their Lord's
vineyard in order that the inheritance may be theirs. According to Jesus,
this illustrates rejection by mortals of the "stone" which is the spiritual

calculus. Yet this same stone is destined in the end to become the
headstone of world consciousness. The word head has the same meaning
as capital. In Christian Science, the system of capitalized, synonymous
terms for God, taught in Science and Health, is this very foundational
headstone.
As we would expect, Jezebel comes to her untimely end in Jezreel. She
is the opposite of Jezreel itself, or the idea that God sows.
II KINGS
4th tone of 4th period

- Principle as Principle-
Underlying the story of II Kings is Principle purely in its aspect as

Principle, determining the unfoldment of the four tones of Science:
Science as the Word, Science as the Christ, Science as Christianity, and
Science as Science. Israel's main enemy is Syria: But because Israel and
Judah refuse to allow Elisha to cleanse them jointly of what Syria stands
for. they are, at the end of the book, deported separately by Assyria and
Babylon.
Science as the Word
Elijah's [ranSlafion: Elijah, through his translation, demonstrates the fact
that if identity is sinless (that is, not cut in two) it is deathless. (Note that in
the chart of the matrix on p.382, the synonyms for God which deline
Science as the Word are Soul and Life.)
Elisha will not be parted from Elijah, and together they make a
fourfold journey. From Gilgal (meaning circle) they go to Bethel; from
Bethel they go to Jericho; from Jericho they go to Jordan; and there, on the
other side of Jordan, Elijah ascends in a whirlwind into heaven, his divine
mission fulfilled. Elisha bears witness to Elijah's ascension, and
consequently receives a double portion of Elijah's spirit.
Wind is a symbol of Spirit (from spirare, to breathe). A whirlwind is an
inward and upward spiral of air, followed by one which is outward and
upward. The movement is one of suction, and accords with the meaning of
mpiration, which is to draw out by suction. Elijah is, as it were, sucked
back into heaven, where he came from. We read in the textbook: "Only as
we rise above all material sensuousness and sin, can we reach the heavenborn aspiration and spiritual consciousness, which is indicated in the
Lord's Prayer and which instantaneously heals the sick" (S & H 16:20).
Nothing is drawn back into the heavenly matrix but the aspiration which is
191
first born of the heavenly matrix, namely, Elijah's (Israel's) original sinless
selthood. Fifty men search for Elijah but cannot find him; spiritual
identity is invisible to the five corporeal senses. "And . . . they said, The
spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha."
Almost at once Elijah's successor, doubly endowed, resurrects a child
from the dead. The child is the son of a "great woman." Ideally, Israel is
this great woman, whose son is her own idea of herself. The child has died
from sunstroke- that is, as a result of Baal-worship, which is sun-worship.
In spite of the evidence of the senses, the woman (Israel) knows that so
long as she is identified with the man 4 God (with Elisha, typifying
generic man) all is well with her son.
"And [Elisha I went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon
his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and
he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm
. and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.
and when Ithe womanl was come in unto him, he said, Take up thy son."
Elisha completely identifies the human concept of man with the deathless
reality of Soul and Life. Elisha, the woman, and her son, together typify
one identity- that of generic man, the spiritual idea of God, forever one
with God.
Syria the common enemy: Unless, at the command of Science as the Christ,
Israel and Judah cleanse themselves of Syria, nothing can prevent them
from being overcome by Assyria and Babylon.
The question is, what does Syria symbolize metaphysically at this
particular point of the story? Geographically, Syria is Aram, and our
thought returns to Abraham, the father of Israel, who migrated from Ur of
the Chaldees (Babylon) to Padan-Aram (Syria), thence to the promised
land of Canaan, at the beginning of the third period. In the course of this
journey, Haran in Syria became Israel's ancestral home. In Deuteronomy,
Moses refers to Israel's "father" as "a Syrian."
The issue is Israel's origin. Is this human or divine? The material sense
of Syria must be translated spiritually. In the tone of Science as the Christ
(this fourteenth tone of the matrix where the synonyms are Spirit and
Truth) Israel's immortal identity is, in the words of Jesus, "the Spirit of
truth, which proceedeth from the Father" (John 15:26).
Her need is to come forth from her divinely parental source and be
cleansed of belief in mortal parentage. Her refusal to accede to this
demand constitutes her present war with Syria, and invites moral and
physical death at the hands of Assyria and Babylon.
Elijah, demonstrating heavenly ascension, has proved the truth of
spiritual origin. Elisha stands for the body of Israel based on what Elijah
has proved to be true. Hence the need for Judah and Israel to be identified
with Elijah and Elisha, and not with Syria, Assyria, and Babylon. Elijah
restored all things to God. It is for Judah and Israel, under Elisha, to
192
understand what Elijah has done, and practise this accordingly.

Elisha assures the Syrian captain Naaman that if he washes seven times
in Jordan he will cleanse himself of leprosy. But it is Israel herself who
needs this cleansing in order to be reborn, in order to demonstrate where
she comes from, in order that her skin becomes again like that of "a little
child." Jordan, as already noted, means "descender." Israel must find
herself descending from the heaven of Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life,
Truth, Love in order to be washed clean of Syria - that is, of an unclean,
leprous sense of isolation from God.
Elisha predicts the evil which Syria will bring upon the children of
Israel. He says to Hazael, Syria's future king: "Their strong holds wilt thou
set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and will
dash their children, and rip up their women with child."
There is a step in the right direction when Jehu king of Israel cleanses
his people of the house of Ahab, and of Baal. This is the time when Jezebel
meets her ignominious end in Jezreel. Soon afterwards, Joash king of
Judah cleanses Judah of Baalism also. Even so the basic problem of Syria
remains unresolved.
Elisha orders Joash to take his bow and arrow and open the window
eastward and shoot. "And he said, The arrow of the Lord's deliverance,
and the arrow of deliverance from Syria." He bids the king: "Smite upon
the ground. And he smote thrice and stayed. And the man of God was
wroth with him, and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times;
then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it." There is a
reluctance on the part of humanity to advance from the third step in the
order of spiritual development to the fourth, and from thence to the fifth
and sixth. This is because, at the point of the fourth, person yields to
Principle, and the door is open for the living experience of the fifth and
sixth steps, where there is no more belief in material origin.
When the great figure of Elisha passes from Israel's consciousness,
there is no spectacular ascension as in the case of El~iah. Elisha dies.
Israel's tentative, lukewarm handling of the problem of Syria prevents, at
this stage, the proper dissolution and translation of the organic sense of
life. "If the students had obeyed me, I might have done it," Mary Baker
Eddy is reputed to have said when the second phase of her church
founding was at an end, and she herself was about to leave the human
scene,
Deportation of Israel by Assyria: Historically, we have reached the fifth

century B.c., and the age of the writing prophets. As we know from the
closing books of the Old Testament there are sixteen of these. With the
exception of the three post-exilic prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and
Malachi, the ministries of the remaining thirteen fall metaphysically
within the scope of Science as Christianity (where Israel submits to
193
Assyria), and Science as Science (where Judah falls to Babylon). This

means that, within the lanes of the period as a whole, Principle as
Principle and Principle as Life are, as far as these sixteen prophets are
concerned, the fundamental factors at work. Clearly, the prophetic
purpose is to establish in Israel that subjective standpoint of unity with
Principle (Principle as Principle), whereby there is resurrection from the
sense of mortal exile (Principle as Life).
Israel's sin is such that Assyrian captivity alone is capable of teaching
her the needed lesson. When the different Assyrian kings come up against
the land, Israel's policy is bribery and appeasement. This only adds to the
certainty of herdownfall. Finally, Shalmaneser sacks Samaria, carries the
people away captive, and scatters them among the nations of the world.
The reason given is that "the children of Israel had sinned against the
Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt ...
and had feared other gods ... Therefore the Lord was very angry with
Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe
of Judah only." Israel (womanhood) divided from Judah (manhood) is
overcome by the tyrannical male militarism of Assyria. Only Judah
remains. But the king of Assyria fails to subjugate Judah in the way he has
Israel. When he attempts this, divine intervention causes him to return to
his own land and destroy himself. He is the victim of lunacy. "Sin was the
Assyrian moon-god," says the chapter "Animal Magnetism Unmasked"
(S & H 103:5). We read elsewhere: "Sin is the element of self-destruction,
and spiritual death is oblivion" (S & H 310:24).
From this time onwards Israel, as a nation, is not heard of again.
Historically, as we have noted, she is referred to as the "ten lost tribes."
She apparently goes into oblivion, or spiritual death, until the advent of
Christian Science at the end of the sixth period. The coming of Christian
Science is her spiritual resurrection. Christian Science is Israel's sinless,
deathless reality forever untouched by Assyria. When Christian Science is
brought to light at the close of the nineteenth century its discoverer says
that this "restores the lost Israel" (Man 17).
Following Israel's deportation, Assyria repeoples Samaria with Hittites
and Babylonians. These intermarry with the Israelites who remain and
become the troublesome Samaritans of the post-exilic period in the days
of Ezra and Nehemiah.
Science as Science
Depurtation of Judah by Babylon: Finally we arrive at Science as Science,

and Judah's captivity by Babylon. According to Scofield, Assyria (as a
symbol) stands for ecclesiasticism, while Babylon stands for politics (SRB
p.952). Certainly religion emphasizes the moral (Israel's "moral" death at
the hands of Assyria), while politics emphasizes the physical (Judah's
"physical" death at the hands of Babylon). And so whereas Israel does not
appear again as a physical entity, Judah returns to Jerusalem after an
194
absence of seventy years and rebuilds the city. This is imperative since the
pure Judaic (Davidic) line must continue until the life of Jesus, and
prefigure Jesus' own experience.
Hezekiah the king foolishly displays to the approaching king of

Babylon all that he has in his house. For this he is severely rebuked by the
prophet Isaiah. Isaiah tells him: "All that is in thine house . . . shall be
carried into Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord." It is as if, in his
ignorance, Judah openly admits that his body is physical, and therefore
subject to death.
Manasseh, the most idolatrous of all Judah's kings, ascends the throne.
Principally on account of the wickedness of Manasseh, God declares that
He "will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it
upside down."
Manasseh's reign is followed by that of the reformer Josiah. At the time
of Josiah, in' 621 B.C .. the Deuteronomic document, the third of the four
Old Testament documents, is found in the temple. Judah, deeply moved hy
its soul-stirring message, attempts a belated revival. "And all the people
stood to the covenant . . . and the king commanded all the people, saying,
Keep the passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of
this covenant" - that is, in the newly found book of Deuteronomy.
The passover was, as we remember, instituted when Israel came up out
of Egyptian servitude. Now, just as Jesus eats the passover before his
crucifixion, so Judah keeps the passover before her Babylonian exile.
Much stress is laid on the importance of this passover. Jesus' resurrection,
prefigured by Judah's eventual return from Babylon, furnishes the proof

that not only does man pass over the iirst death (birth) but that, in
consequence, he passes over the second death (death).
Judah soon lapses into a state of idolatry, and this is the signal for God
to remove Judah out of His sight, as He has already removed Israel.
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon sacks Jerusalem, destroys the temple,
and takes the people into captivity, just as Assyria did with Israel.
Historically, there are two Babylonian deportations. The first is in
597 B.c.. when the best in the land are taken and only the dregs remain; the
second is in 586 B.C.. when Jerusalem itself is laid waste. On this second
occasion, Nebuchadnezzar "burnt the house of the Lord, and the king's
house, and all the houses in Jerusalem . . . and the pillars of brass that
were in the house of the Lord . . . and the brasen sea that was in the house
of the Lord, did the Chaldees break in pieces, and carried the brass of
them to Babylon . . . so Judah was carried away out of their land."
Not surprisingly those who are left behind decide on a mass return to
Egypt. But the prophet Jeremiah will tell us about this when we come to
his own prophecy.
The true idea, of which the present symbolism of the death and
destruction of the mortal body is the false concept. is man secure in his
divine Principle, God. in accordance with the teaching of Science as
Science, the sixteenth tone of the matrix.
195
In the course of this fourth appearing of the matrix structure there

have been two outstanding features: tirst, the reigns of the two great kings,
David and Solomon; secondly, the missions of the two great (former)
prophets, Elijah and Elisha. As we have seen, Elijah and Elisha arrive on
the scene as the joint saviour of Israel and Judah from the evil that befalls
them following the death of Solomon, when the kingdom splits in two.
Their purpose is to provide the spiritual answer to the approach of
Assyria and Babylon.
When we come to the sixteen (latter) prophets, in their two groups of
four and twelve, we shall find the remedy outlined by Elijah and Elisha
presented in much greater detail. In fact, it is as if Elijah and Elisha give
the generalities of the solution, while the sixteen writing prophets work
out the practical ru les.
But before we reach the books of the Prophets, there are the works of
the Chronicler and the Sages to be considered.
CHAPTER X
I & II Chronicles Ezra Nehemiah Esther

The Chronicler's contribution to the Old Testament is I & II Chronicles
and Ezra and Nehemiah. As we have observed, I & II Chronicles cover
largely the same part of the story as that contained in the four books of
Kings, whereas Ezra and Nehemiah take the narrative forward into vast
new spiritual realms. For a reason which we shall appreciate later, Esther,
the last piece of Old Testament literature to be written, had to be added to
the books of the Chronicler in order to complete their spiritual meaning.
Following the recapitulation given in I & II Chronicles, Ezra,
Nehemiah and Esther form another coherent Scriptural unit; and it is in
terms of their interrelatedness that we shall consider their unique
teaching.
I & II CHRONICLES
Were it not that I & II Chronicles emphasize a vital aspect of Old

Testament revelation, their parallel relationship with the four books of
Kings would seem to make them redundant. But this is not so. Anticipating
the coming of Jesus, the Chronicler's deep concern is with the kingship of
David and the Judaic royal line. His is almost exclusively the priestly point
of view. He centres his attention on the temple in Jerusalem, and on life in
the southern kingdom. By comparison, he almost ignores the northern
kingdom.
While I & II Chronicles were compiled during the exile, Ezra and
Nehemiah were written after the return. Tracing the lineage of David from
Adam through and beyond the twelve sons of Jacob, the first nine chapters
of I Chronicles are filled with meticulous genealogical lists. The evident
intention is to put the Judaic dynasty into its proper world perspective.
Chapter 10 brings us to the reign of Saul, which is quickly dismissed. This
means that in chapter II the Chronicler reaches the heart of his story,
namely, the crowning of the great king David, and the tremendous
significance of this regarding the future history of Israel.
What does this emphasis point to in terms of scientific metaphysics?
Surely that the divine purpose always reveals itself through an unbroken
line of development. Extending through David to the kingship of Jesus,
196
I & II CHRONICLES EZRA NEHEMIAH ESTHER
197
this development brings to the consciousness of men fulfilment of the

Davidic covenant. "Thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for
ever ... thy throne shall be established for ever," God declares in the
covenant He makes with His beloved David. As the prophets are soon to
foretell, fulfilment of this divine promise will come through the two
Messianic missions of Christ Jesus and Christian Science, when the
Principle of harmonious, universal being will reign supreme over the
affairs of mankind.
To carry out his purpose, the Chronicler focuses our attention on the
city of Jerusalem and its temple. The Old Testament temple like the New
Testament church is a symbol of body. Jesus says: "Destroy this temple
(body), and in three days I (Spirit) will raise it up" (S&H 27:12). At the
close of II Chronicles, as at the close of II Kings, Babylon (because of
Judah's sins) ravages this organic sense of temple, even as the priests and
Romans (evidencing world sin) endeavour to destroy the body of Jesus.
But just as Jesus rises from the tomb with a temporarily rebuilt body, so
Judah, in the stories of Ezra and Nehemiah, is resurrected from
Babylonian captivity and rebuilds her temple and city. Eventually,
through Christian Science, the entire world body is destined to be
resurrected and rebuilt, prior to its final translation.
The temple in the centre of Jerusalem encircled by the city walls, is our
key to the Chronicler'S metaphysical meaning. In Ezra the temple itself is
restored; in Nehemiah the walls are restored. This is symbol. The reality of
this twofold restoration will be shown forth individually by Christ Jesus,
and collectively and universally by Christian Science. The temple
accentuates the idea of centre, individuality, and manhood; the
surrounding walls accentuate the idea of circumference, universality, and
womanhood.
In the final chapter of II Chronicles the author takes the story a stage
further than that reached in II Kings. According to the Bible, Judah
endures Babylonian imprisonment for a period of seventy years, and in
this last chapter the Chronicler spans the entire seventy years exile, and
advances the story to where Judah is actually liberated from Babylon
under the auspices of the king of Persia.
He records how the king of Babylon "burnt the house of God, and
brake down the wall of Jerusalem [remember that temple and walls are
specifically what Ezra and Nehemiah rebuild1 ... And them that had
escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon ... until the reign of
the kingdom of Persia ... to fulfil three score and ten years."
This period of three score years and ten suggests the lifetime of a
mortal. And thus Babylon portrays the complete mortal birth-death cycle,
or the time of man's supposed exile from God. The figure "70" stands for
this time-span on the individual scale, the figure "7000" (the seven
thousand-year periods) symbolizes the same mortal cycle on the universal
scale.
198
Having held Judah for seventy years, Babylon is overwhelmed by Ihe

powerful new empire of the Medes and Persians. Naturally, Judah hails
Persia as a heaven-sent deliverer. And indeed, Judah's resurrection from
her Babylonian tomb is sanctioned and encouraged by Cyrus the Persian
king.
This is the way it is put in the last few verses of II Chronicles: "In the
first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the
mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit
of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his
kingdom . . . saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of
the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me
to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among
you of all his people? The Lord his God be with him, and let him go up."
Cyrus, upon whom is bestowed "all the kingdoms of the earth," typifies
the Christ-idea as the saviour of the human race. The name Cyrus means
"the sun," and also "the rays of the sun." The name Esther, when we come
to it, means "a star." A star could be said to be an individual sun - an
identity whose light is in itself. Cyrus is like the woman standing in the sun
in Revelation, who symbolizes generic man. He is all the sun's rays shining
forth at once, inseparable from their source, the sun.
And let us not forget that Cyrus is a Gentile. Isaiah refers to him in
terms so exalted that they are used of no other figure in the Bible except
Jesus himself. Isaiah records how God "saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd,
and shall perform all my pleasure . . . Thus saith the Lord to his anointed,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden. ." (Isa 44:28).
Science and Health defines "sun" as the "symbol of Soul governing
man, - of Truth, Life, and Love." We read elsewhere how the "ideal man
corresponds to .. Truth," and the "ideal woman
to Life and to
Love" (S & H 517:8). Soul is Truth, Life, and Love as one identity, or
embodiment. Soul, represented by the sun, is "outside the body" (S & H
510:16), not inside it. Soul cannot be "confined in body," but is rellected
by body (S & H 467: 18). The Gentile saviour of captive Judah comes from
outside Judah. Unless Jesus' Christ identity- his true Soul identity- had
been at work absolutely and unconditionally outside the mortal sense of
body the resurrection could not have taken place. The saviour today of the
Christian Science church organization is the absolute Science of Christian
Science at work outside the sectarian concept. Nothing resurrects but the
absolute. The resurrection is the living experience of ahsolute Christian
Science.
Absolute Science
By the time Jesus rose from the tomb he had vanquished the last enemy,
death, and had "gained the solution of being" (S& H 314:8). H's
demonstration of Science was no longer at the point where Christi' ,~
Science proves step by step the nothingness of matter, or evil. The I Ie,
199
enemy having been disposed of, there was no more evil to overcome. He
was experiencing absolute Christian Science.
Of course Christian Science itself had always been absolute, it could
not be otherwise; but now. for the first time (humanly speaking) Jesus was
in the living consciousness of this great and eternal fact. Absolute Science
had pronounced. and had proved. man's total absolution from sin and
death.
We read in Science and Health: "When man demonstrates Christian
Science absolutely. be will be perfect. He can neither sin. suffer, be subject
to matter, nor disobey tbe law of God. Therefore he will be as the an8els in
heaven" (S & H 372: 14). Jesus himself said: "In the resurrection they
neither marry, nor are given in marriage. but are as the angels of God in
heaven." At tbe resurrection. the forever wedlock of Judah and Israel,
ideal manhood and ideal womanhood. were fully individualized in the
consciousness of Jesus. Using
present symbols, the temple in
Jerusalem was one with the surrounding walls; the individual and his
world were one in perfect harmony. and man was as the angels.
Mary Baker Eddy writes " ... absolute Christian Science may not be
achieved prior to tbe change called death" (5 & H 254: 16). She does not
say it will not be achieved, but that it may not be. In fact. under the
heading of "man's present possibilities," she refers to our possible
awareness here and now of a "new heaven and a new earth \a new built
sense of identity]," without our having passed through the experience
called death. This, she says, constitutes "a foretaste of absolute Christi~n
Science" (5 & H 572:20-573:28).
Tbe eternal reality of which Judah's new built temple, and Jesus' new
built body, are temporary symbols is the New Jerusalem itself (5 & H 574577). This is the city of spiritual wedlock, the city of the Lamb and the
bride- one universal matrix city, in contrast to Babylon, the harlot city,
from which Cyrus liberates Judah. New Jerusalem is the resurrection
body of us all. Its ultimate symbol in the Christian Science textbook is a
circle, or sphere, without boundary or limit. In Ezra and Nehemiab, tbis
symbol of a circle, with its centre and circumference, is represented by the
temple and walls of Judah's new Jerusalem.
oor
Centre and circumference

one
The idea before us is of the God-like man inspired "to reach the absolute
centre and circumference of his being." This must be so in order that we
may come to the standpoint of Jesus at the beginning of the New
Testament. What makes the attainment possible is the fact that God, who
alone is man's life, is "at once the centre and circumference of being"
(5 & H 262: 14, 203:32 - i a).
It is not too mucb to say that, from this point onwards, the idea of the
centre of consciousness coinciding with its own circumference. is so
immense in its spiritual meaning as to fill our whole horizon.
200
Rebuilding the temple in Ezra is the symbol of rebuilding the centre of

individual being; rebuilding the walls in Nehemiah is the symbol of
rebuilding the circumference. Individual unity with God, constituting the
centre, must be reflected and practised throughout the whole of
consciousness. This constitutes the circumference. Esther (the o;;t'4'1.") \"2where centre and circumference are found to be one in each spiritual
identity.
Seal 01 eternity set on time
During the Babylonian exile something took place historically which was
so powerful spiritually that it may well have been the cause of Judah's
liberation. This was the compiling (probably under the leadership of
Ezekiel) of the fourth and last of the sacred Old Testament documents, the
Priestly Document, where the emphasis is Science. This document
inclu~d the revelation of the seven days of creation - the fundamental
mder of universal Science, which thereafter became the basis of the Bible.
Correspondingly, in the sepulchre, Jesus "set the seal of eternity on
time," and the senses beheld his bodily resurrection. What is this seal of
eternity which all humanity must likewise set on time in order to be
liberated from the same bonds of mortality? Primarily, it is the
understanding of the Priestly Document's order of the "numerals of
infinity, called seven days," which "reveal eternity, newness of Life"
(S & H 44:8, 520: 10).
This fundamental order of divine revelation not only liberates Judah
from her seventy years of Babylonian exile, and Jesus from the mortal
sepulchre, it also introduces the liberation of mankind from time itself, by
translating the seven thousand-year periods.
Some sc holars believe that the Priestly Document was part of the law of
God which Ezra took with him to Jerusalem when he went to encourage
the work of rebuilding the temple.
Before we turn to the texts of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, let us
consider their spiritual structure. In Exodus, when Israel was delivered
from Egypt, we watched the drama unfold according to the Christ order of
the synonymous terms for God: Principle, Life, Truth, Love, Soul, Spirit,
Mind. Now she is being delivered from Babylon at the other end of the
scale, and once again the text conforms to this translation order. But in the
following way: In our present reading, Ezra unfolds the tones of Principle,
Life, Truth, Love, Soul, and Spirit, and Nehemiah the tone of creative
Mind. For what Nehemiah presents is the complete unfoldment of the days
of creation, where the universe is "image in Mind" (S&H 115:17).
5th tone of 4th period

Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther flow without a break from the closing
- Principle as Lifepassages of II Chronicles, and in reaching them, we enter the fifth and last
201
tone of the fourth thousand-year period, and therefore of the fourth day of
creation. This is Principle in its aspect as Life- Principle demonstrating
itself to be Judah's resurrected, deathless Life.
EZRA
Principle
Compulsion to rebuild: Cyrus, under divine orders, issues a decree

authorizing Judah to begin rebuilding Jerusalem. This reads: "Thus saith
Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the
kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at
Jerusalem." Cyrus, standing for the Christly operation of Principle, is the
rebuilder of Jerusalem, not Judah personally. Cyrus, king of the whole
earth, is charged with the holy charge of building a new Jerusalem, as a
symbol of the eternal, indestructible New Jerusalem itself.
Regenerate individuality, the true idea of Benjamin, necessarily comes
back into the picture: "Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and
Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God
had raised, to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem
... Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord,
which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put
them in the house of his gods . . . All these did Sheshbazzar bring up with
them of the captivity that were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem."
Sheshbazzar is Zerubbabel, who is in charge of the work. The name
Sheshbazzar means "sun-god protect the son," Zerubbabel means "born
of Babylon." Interpreted spiritually, the sun-god (Cyrus) is protecting the
son (Judah) from the belief that Judah was ever born of Babylon.
Only thought which is whole-hearted, which stems from Principle, and
which sings for joy at the prospect of the work on hand, is qualified to take
part in the building. For instance, the children of Barzillai (that state of
thought which could only accompany David halfway over Jordan when
David's kingdom was being restored to him), are unable to join in.
Life
A new slarl in life: The foundations of a rebuilt sense of life must be laid in
divine Principle. A tone of Life appears when, having set up the sacrificial
altar on its base, the foundations of the temple itself are laid. This is
followed by a united shout of thanksgiving, and a song of praise, as well as
the noise of weeping.
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature," says Paul,
"old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (II Cor
5: 17). Joy at the appearing of the new is accompanied by sorrow at the
passing of the old. "So that the people could not discern the noise of the
shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people ... "
202
The last time Israel shouted collectively with a great shout was when
the walls of Jericho fell. Now the walls of a new Jerusalem are soon to rise
on the site of the old.
Truth
Man whole within himself:' The adversary seeks to hinder the work. Judah's
adversaries are the Samaritans-those ex-Babylonians who occupied
Samaria after the Assyrians had deported Israel. There can indeed be no
substitute for true womanhood (Israel) in the consciousness of manhood
(Judah). The Samaritans feign genuine interest and assistance, but the
builders are awake to their deceitful motives. "Ye have nothing to do with
us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build
unto the Lord God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath
commanded us." In the tone of Truth, Judah is whole within himself. His
newly structured consciousness is formed from this very wholeness. What
comes deceitfully from outside, therefore. is exposed by Truth to be an

adversary.
Angry at being thwarted, the Samaritans hire counsellers to frustrate
Judah's purpose. They claim that the king did not authorize the work, and
that to allow it to proceed is against his economic interests. They say in a
letter: "Be it known now unto the king, that, if this city be builded, and the
walls set up again, then will they not pay toll, tribute, and custom, and so
thou shalt endamage the revenue of the kings."
If man rebuilds his body spiritually, then indeed he is no longer bound
by material laws; no longer does he pay tribute to, or seek to maintain, the
corporeal sense of man. The work of rebuilding is halted temporarily by
this second Samaritan argument.
Love
The new temple finished: In a tone of Love. through advice and help from
the two post-exilic prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the work of rebuilding
is resumed, and the temple completed. Haggai and Zechariah appeal to
Darius, the new Persian ruler, to confirm that Cyrus did in fact authorize
the work. Cyrus' original decree is found, and Darius, with a solicitude for
the work equal to that of Cyrus himself, commands that it continue
without further hindrance. When the temple is finished, it is dedicated
with joy. "And they builded, and finished it, according to the
commandment of the God of Israel . . . And the children of Israel, the
priests, and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept
the dedication of this house of God with joy."
Soul
Translation of the Christ-message: The date is around 444 B.C.. when Ezra,
the scribe, the translator of divine law to the human understanding, comes
from Babylon to Jerusalem, armed with the book of the law of God.
Artaxerxes, successor to Darius, is on the throne, and his reverence for the
work of rebuilding Jerusalem is equal to that of his two predecessors. He

proclaims: "And I, even I Artaxerxes the king, do make a decree to all the
203
treasurers which are beyond the river, that whatsoever Ezra the priest, the
scribe of the law of the God of heaven, shall require of you, it be done
speedily, , , Whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it
diligently be done for the house of the God of heaven,"
Clearly, the king of Persia is a symbol of the ministering Christ, and
here, in a tone of Soul, Ezra brings this Christly comfort to sustain the
builders in their work, Yet it is in Nehemiah, and not in Ezra, that Ezra
actually reads to the people from the book which he has brought. Perhaps
this indicates that the rebuilding of the temple is simultaneous with the
rebuilding of the walls, Certainly in Science it is impossible to build the
one without, at the same time, building the other,
Spirit
Purify and spiritual wedlock: Having arrived in Jerusalem, Ezra is
horrified to find that the people are already indulging in mixed marriages,
and he sets out immediately to cleanse them of this, We have entered a
tone of Spirit,
The work of rebuilding the body, prior to its ultimate translation,
cannot be undertaken on a basis of mixing Spirit and matter, The "sons of
God" must not be guilty of wedding themselves to the "daughters of men"
as they were at the beginning of the second period, Judah should have
learnt this lesson when he found it impossible to continue rebuilding the
temple in partnership with the Samaritans,
Ezra reports: "The princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel,
and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the
people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, , . For they
have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the
holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands."
He implores the people of Judah: "Give not your daughters unto their
sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons ... that ye may be
strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your
children for ever,"
In this tone of Spirit, in the Christ translation order, that which is
fundamental to a newly built, resurrection body is spiritual wedlock. We
are close to the New Testament now, and to the advent of Jesus, and the
questions which must be answered are like those asked at the end of the
chapter "Marriage" in Science and Health, namely, "'Do you have one
God and creator, or is man a creator?' . . . 'Do you teach that Spirit
creates materially, or do you declare that Spirit is infinite, therefore matter
is out of the question?' Jesus said, 'The children of this world marry, and
are given in marriage: But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain
that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are
given in marriage.' " Unless these questions are answered positively the
birth of Jesus cannot possibly take place.
204
Centred in Principle in the book of Ezra, our necessity is to look out

upon the circumference of our being in Nehemiah, and, according to the
workings of the two translations, behold this circumference - this
"immediate object of understanding" - as an "image in Mind," as the
infinite creation of Mind, not matter, revealed by the seven days
(S&H 115).
NEHEMIAH
Mind
Creatiun as image in Mind: The emphasis shifts from the centre of being,
typified by the temple, to the circumference, typified by Jerusalem's walls.

The impetus behind the story of Nehemiah is one infinite parent Mind.
The whole creation which surrounds us is image, idea, in our all-
encircling Christ Mind. Then, in Esther (a star), the conjoined messages of

Ezra and Nehemiah are individualized. There we look out from the stars
upon the universe - each of us an individual star in an infinite firmament
of stars.
The symbols which predominate in Nehemiah are thus the walls and
gates of Jerusalem. The prophet Isaiah gives us their spiritual meaning. He
says: "Thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise." And
elsewhere: "Salvation will God appoint for walls ... Open ye the gates"
(Isa 60: 18, 26: I).
It is not really the walls of a city whicl. are being built in Nehemiah; a
twelvefold paean of praise is being offered to Mind for what creation truly
is, as the means of universal salvation.
The Psalmist tells us to magnify the Lord of hosts. Magnification and

praise signify the same thing. The textbook refers to "Truth's prism and
praise" (S & H 558: 13). The optical prism analyses light into a sevenfold
spectrum of colours; the prism of Science analyses Being into Mind, Spirit,
Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love. Praise is a lens, or magnifying-glass,
synthesizing this analysis, and focusing it in individual consciousness. The
temple in the centre of Jerusalem is where the universal circumference of
Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love is bro.ught to an individual

focus.
Christian Science says: "It only needs the prism of this Science to
divide the rays of Truth, and bring out the entire hues of Deity, which
scholastic theology has hidden. The lens of Science magnifies the divine
power to human sight; and we then see the supremacy of Spirit and the
nothingness of matter" (Mis 194: 13).
This is why, in Ezra and Nehemiah, the people sing so many praises.
Spiritual and scientific praise magnifies the idea of God to such an extent
that nothing unlike God remains in consciousness. Salvation is gained
205
through praising and imaging Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth,
Love at each individual centre of world consciousness.
Truly Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love is simultaneously
the centre and circumference of being. So let us follow the Nehemiah story
in the order of these seven terms.
First day
Mind
In the tone of Mind, Nehemiah, cup-bearer to the king of Persia, hears in

Babylon, that the walls of Jerusalem have been broken down and the gates
burned with fire. He seeks the king's permission to go up to Jerusalem to
rebuild them. The urge to repair a human situation comes from the
situation as it divinely is-a forever undamaged image, or idea, in the
infinite parent Mind.
Second day
Spirit
Nehemiah arrives in Jerusalem, and the first thing he does is to make a

complete survey of the broken down walls and gates. He encompasses
spiritually the task ahead. In accordance with the heavenly firmament in
the second day of creation, he takes an orderly preview of the purpose to
which he is committed. But this idea of the salvation of the human through
magnification of the divine arouses opposition. Samaritan interference, in
the form of Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite, and Geshem
the Arabian, sets out to halt the work of restoring the walls, as it did before
in the case of the temple.
Third day
Soul
And the people said: "Let us rise up and build." In a tone of Soul,
Nehemiah and his builders commence work. Gate by gate they restore the
circuit of Jerusalem's walls until all twelve gates are repaired. (The
foundations do not feature, because it was impossible for Babylon to
destroy the city's foundations!) Taking the gates one by one they are: the
valley gate, the gate of the fountain, the sheep gate, the fish gate, the old
gate, the dung gate, the water gate, the horse gate, the east gate, the gate of
Miphkad, the gate of Ephraim, the prison gate, at which point we return to
the valley gate, having completed the twelvefold circuit.
The enemy does his utmost to hinder the work. Not only does he
operate from outside Jerusalem as the Samaritans, but he seeks to disrupt
the Israelites themselves. The effect on the workers causes them to watch
as they have never watched before. The way in which Mary Baker Eddy
insisted that her workers "watch" is well known. In her article "Watching
versus Watching Out" she quotes the words of Jesus: "What I say unto you
I say unto all, Watch" (My 232). Soul ensures the maintenance of the
watch, so that the progress of the work is neither halted nor reversed.
Nehemiah reports how everyone watches against the adversary. "We
made our prayer unto our God," he says, "and set a watch against them
day and night ... And our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither
see, till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the
work to cease." In rebuilding our consciousness of our world - in finding
206
the immediate object of understanding to be a twelvefold image in our

own God-Mind - we must watch against the hidden, unconscious
workings of the enemy, his claim to infiltrate unnoticed into
consciousness and carry out his subversive activities unawares.
The methods the builders use are as follows: "Everyone with one of his
hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon,
And I said unto, ' , the people, The work is great and large, and we are
separated upon the wall, one far from another. In what place therefore ye
hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us: our God shall
fight for us," Every builder assists every other in one whole working body
when each loves the Science of man more than he loves himself. How else
can the body be rebuilt? How else can it be one and indestructible"
Disruption comes when the rich set out to extort from the poor, thus
reversing the truth of brotherly love, Nehemiah foils this internal evil. The
situation is restored to normal when the rich agree to give back to \he poor
all that they have taken away,
The enemy feigns friendship, Nehemiah records: "Sanballat and
Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of
the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief. And I
sent messengers unto them saying, I am doing a great work, so that I
cannot come down . .. Yet they sent unto me four times . . ."
The hypocritical Samaritans then go to the other extreme. They charge

the innocent with the crime of which they themselves are guilty. This "last
infirmity ofsin will sink its perpetrator into a night without a star" (5& H
564:8). Certainly the qualities seen in Esther are not found in the
Samaritans. Nehemiah says to them: "There are no such things done as
thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart." No such
identity exists as the one which the physical senses say is man.
At last the wall is completed, in spite of the adversity. The work has
been done divinely- by Soul made manifest as the identity of the
Israelites, and not by the Israelites personally. Thus the enemy was "much
cast down in their own eyes for they perceived that this work was wrought
of our God."
Fourth day
Prjnci~e
Israel's new Jerusalem, her rebuilt capital city, is peopled with the
followers of Zerubbabel who came with him from Babylon, and who are
listed at the beginning of Ezra. As if to indicate once more the
simultaneity of rebuilding the temple and rebuilding the walls, exactly the
same list of names that appears in Ezra is repeated in Nehemiah. When a
circle is described, the circumference is drawn at the same time as one
positions the centre, otherwise there is no circle.
When the people of Judah reside once more in their land, then (as we
found in Ezra) Ezra himself arrives on the scene armed with the book of
the law. His purpose is to furnish the people with the truth about
themselves. He gives them the spiritual and original meaning of the
207
Scriptures, as being the spiritual and original meaning of man. Once he

has done this, "all the people went their way . . . because they had
understood the words that were declared unto them . . . And there was
very great gladness." We read how, "day by day, from the first day unto the
last day, he read in the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast
seven days." Such is the importance of the seven days of creation (the
basis of the Priestly document, the basis of the Bible as a whole) in
building a new Jerusalem, and in providing a new start in life.
During a further seven days, they make themselves booths to dwell in.
A booth is like a tent, and is transitory in function. Interpreted spiritually,
the newly resurrected city, foreshadowing symbolically the body of
resurrected man, is but "temporari ly rebuilt" (S & H 576: 17). Through this
temporary rebuilding ascension is reached, as the moment of complete
translation.
Fifth day
Life
Israel's life-history, from Abraham her origin to the present rebuilding

stage of her career, is recapitulated before the people. This story is not
reviewed by Ezra or Nehemiah but by a collective body of "the seed of
Israel" who have "separated themselves from all strangers," and therefore
are truly individual. The real history of Israel is that, as the compound
Christ-idea, she comes from Life and goes to Life, in accordance with the
law of her eternally circulating, deathless life.
Sixth day
Truth
Porters and singers are appointed to watch and praise. In watching we use
the prism of Science to analyze and separate; in praising we use the lens of
Science to synthesize and magnify. We praise God for being at once the
centre and circumference of being; and we watch that this truth is so
magnified in consciousness that it blots out all else.
This coincidence of centre and circumference characterizes the
dedication of the rebuilt walls. Two companies of those that give thanks
sing and make music together in the temple and on the walls at the same
time. This is the way the text puts it: "Then I . . . appointed two great
companies of them that gave thanks, whereof on~e went upon the right
hand upon the wall ... And the other company of them that gave thanks
went over against them ... So stood the two companies of them that gave
thanks in the house of God . . . And the si ngers sang loud . . . for God
had made them rejoice with great joy . . . so that the joy of Jerusalem was
heard even afar off."
A paean of jubilation praises the Lord of Hosts. In the words of
Science and Health, "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" (S & H 568:26).
208

Seventh day
Love
Lastly, in a tone of Love, Nehemiah pleads with his people to watch

without ceasing that no Ammonite or Moabite ever again takes up his
abode in their thought. Let nothing enter your city, he seems to say, which
defi les or makes a lie.
There follows, in this seventh tone of the text, a long discourse on the
sacredness of the sa~bath. when labour ceases and creation is at rest. Mary
Baker Eddy writes: "There remaineth, it is true, a Sabbath rest for the
people of God; but we must first have done our work, and entered into our
rest, as the Scriptures give example" (Mis 216:3).
Nehemiah closes his teaching in the way that Ezra closes his. The
theme once again is the danger of mixed marriages. Mixing Truth and
error, Spirit and matter, thwarts the purpose of the two translations, so
conspicuous throughout these two books. If the sons of God continue to
wed the daughters of men, as mythology says they did at the opening of the
second period, resurrection and a temporarily rebuilt body is theoretical
thinking only, and not man's actual experience. Typified by the holy city,
New Jerusalem itself, Israel comes down from God out of heaven in
accordance with the order of the first translation; she does not fall from
God out of heaven, to join forces with a material way of life.
ESTHER
The idea of our spiritual centre having been established in Ezra, and its
complementary circumference in Nehemiah, we come to Esther where the
two are one - where we are each a stir" in the firmament of heaven,
embodying by reflection all other stars. Because spiritual individuality
reflects the oneness and wholeness of Being, it is simultaneously at the
centre and circumference of its universe.
Israel's Esther is the positive fact of which Babylon's Ishtar and
Phoenicia's Ashtaroth are negative fables. Both Ishtar and Ashtaroth are
representatives of the same mother goddess of fertility. Esther is surely the
spiritual idea of woman, the true queen of heaven, royally crowned with
her circle of twelve stars, whereby the elimination of all Israel's enemies is
accomplished.
Esther, as we have already noted, is the only book in the Bible which
does not use the word God. Is this because, in its spiritual meaning, it
concerns the infinite Science of ideas, which is God?
Understood metaphysically, the story is about Christ and his body, or
bride, which is generic man. Christ, the universal head, rules over
Christianity, his own universal body. As portrayed by queen Esther,
Christianity, with the crown of Love upon her brow," must henceforth be
Israel's queen of life" (S & H 451 :6).
209
The characters in the story are Ahasuerus the Persian king, Vashti his
disobedient (Persian) queen, Esther his obedient (Jewish) queen,
Mordecai, Esther's guardian, and Haman, an Amalekite descendant of
king Agag, who is the enemy of all Israel.
In her relationship with mankind, Israel cannot possibly be the
exclusive custodian of scientific truth. In the present story (as was the case
with king Cyrus), Persia's Ahasuerus typifies the all-ruling, all-beneficent
Christ, or Truth. Vashti, his Persian queen, is rebellious humanity- a
body at variance with its governing head. Esther, his Jewish queen, is
humanity as it really is - Christ's true body, or bride. Mordecai, whose
name means "little man," is everyone of us individually constituting,
individually caring for, not only the Christ-body but also its governing
head. Haman is personal vanity and egotism, the sworn enemy of this truly
integral idea of man.
There is evidence that the story unfolds in the Christianity order of the
synonymous terms for God: Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Life, Truth,
Love. Opening on a note of Principle, with the statement of Ahasuerus'
excellent majesty and glorious kingdom, it ends on a note of Principle,
where Mordecai, each little man, is promoted to a position of such
greatness and worth that he is one with the king himself. This indicates the
cyclic nature of the Christianity order- that it ranges from Principle to
Love and from Love back to Principle. Our present reading is that the text
presents the following twelvefold circle of tones: Principle, Mind, Soul,
Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, Truth, Life, Spirit, Soul, Mind. At this point of
Mind thought has returned once more to the Principle where it originates.
The flow from Principle to Love
Ahasuerus' glorious kingdom reaches "from India even unto Ethiopia."

This description is more universal than anything we have heard of before.
Having displayed to his subjects the marvellous riches of his kingdom, the
king holds a feast for all the people, which lasts seven days. Arrangements
are such that "none did compeL" Except that Vashti is commanded to
wear the crown royal, and to appear before the king, participation is
voluntary- it is "according to every man's pleasure." But Vashti refuses to
obey her husband the king. Interpreted spiritually, she refuses to accede to
the demands of Principle regarding the crowning of generic man.
Disobedience to Principle implies that there is more than one mind.
And here we arrive at the heart of the message. Ahasuerus says, in effect,
'This is a serious matter. If the queen disobeys the king, this means that at
the centre of being the body is in revolt against its own unity. This will
have disruptive repercussions throughout the circumference - wives
everywhere will rise in revolt against their husbands.' Ahasuerus must
therefore rid himself of Vashti, and find a queen who is loyal and
obedient.
210
Paul writes in Ephesians, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own

husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even
as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body"
(Eph 5:22). The spiritual wedlock of Christ and his church is according to
the law that all men have one Mind. This law says that whatever happens at
the centre of being is reflected in everything that takes place at the
circumference.
A tone of Soul comes when the true wife, Esther, is identified.
Ahasuerus weds Esther, and sets the crown royal upon her head. At the
same time Mordecai makes his appearance. Mordecai is not only Esther's
legal guardian, but to ensure that no harm comes to Ahasuerus either, he
also sits in the gate of the king. As "a dewdrop reflects the sun," so each of
Christ's "little ones," in reflecting the "infinite One," permits neither his
sense of Christ, the head, to be violated, nor his sense of Christianity, the
body (PuI4:14). Clearly it is impossible to guard the queen without, at the
same time, guarding the king.
In a tone of Spirit, it becomes imperative to separate between all that
the selfless Mordecai represents, and the selfishness, vanity, and egotism
which is Haman. Mordecai will have no dealings with Haman. He seems
not even to acknowledge Haman's presence. This is such a blow to
Haman's pride that Haman plots revenge. The textbook teaches: "This
thought of human, material nothingness, which Science inculcates,
enrages the carnal mind and is the main cause of the carnal mind's
antagonism" (S & H 345:28).
Haman's rage and antagonism is such that he seeks the destruction of
all Jews everywhere - all those who are "scattered abroad and dispersed
among the people in all the provinces of [Ahasuerus'] kingdom." What he
seeks, in the tone of L(fe, is the destruction of all the little individual
Mordecais who, in reflecting the central unity of the king and queen, make
up the universal circumference of being, and look upon Haman as human,
material nothingness.
So long as Israel is scattered and dispersed she is vulnerable. Whereas,
when parts are held together by the whole of which they are the parts,
these parts are invulnerable. In a tone of Truth, Mordecai explains to
Esther how she must intercede with the king on behalf of all the Jews
whom Haman seeks to destroy. Unless she thus becomes their saviour, she
herself will not escape destruction. Unless the body works together as one
whole body, the body itself is in danger.
In a tone of Love, it is brought to the king's notice how, on account of
his constant watchfulness, Mordecai once saved the king's life. For this the
king decides to honour Mordecai. Haman thinks it is himself, Haman,
whom the king delighteth to honour. The opposite is the case. Haman is
compelled to array Mordecai in royal apparel, to set on his head the crown
royal, and to lead him in triumph through the streets.

The flow from Love to Principle
211
From the tone of Love, in which Mordecai is triumphant and Haman is

humiliated, we return to Truth again. At a banquet given by Esther,
Haman seeks even to violate the majesty of the queen. He is the exact
opposite of the faithful Mordecai who would preserve her body whole and
intact. For his treachery, Ahasuerus hangs Haman on the very gallows
which Haman had erected for Mordecai. Thus, "The only power of evil is
to destroy itself. It can never destroy one iota of good" (S & H 186: 19).
This self-destruction of evil suggests an underlying tone of L(fe.
On a note of Spirit, the king decrees that Israel shall destroy all her
enemies everywhere instead of herself being destroyed. This is the
opposite of everything Haman intended. The king says to Esther and to
Mordecai: "Write ye also for the Jews, as it Iiketh you, in the king's name,
and seal it with the king's ring: for the writing which is written in the king's
name, and sealed with the king's ri.ng, may no man reverse." Evil cannot
reverse the dictum of Spirit that good (represented by Israel) is all, and evil
(represented by Haman) is naught. The decree is published in every
language of the king's province, so that all may understand.
Soul thus reverses the testimony of the senses. Everything Haman
sought to do is turned to the contrary, for "the king granted the Jews which
were in every city to gather themselves together . . . to cause to perish, all
the power of the people and province that would assault them."
The feast of Purim, or feast of lots, that follows, indicates a Mind tone.
Every generation, every family, every province, every city, is commanded
to remember forever their victory over their enemy, Haman, who had
"cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them." Israel is
indestructible only to the extent that she is of one Mind. Haman was
steeped in superstition. He drew lots in order to discover the propitious
moment for destroying the Jews. This is no part of the intelligent activity
of Israel's all-comprehending parent Mind.
Returning again to Principle, the greatness of Mordecai, the little man,
is established next to the king. "And all the acts of his power and of his
might, and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the
king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of
the kings of Media and Persia? For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king
Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews."
Jews, in the spiritual sense, are not a God-chosen nation superior to
other nations; a "Jew" is that spiritual quality in individual man
(Mordecai) which chooses Principle instead of person to govern him.
Morllecai, who is every little man, and Esther the queen, who is the
whole body of little men, are one with king Ahasuerus, the body's
governing head. The conclusion which emerges from these symbols is that
"each of Christ's little ones reflects th.e infinite One, and therefore is the
seer's declaration true, that 'one on God's side is a majority' " (Pul 4: 14).
The I, or Ego, of each little one is the infinite One itself, as Jesus will fully
demonstrate.
212
As far as the Scriptural narrative is concerned, the next recorded

happening following the triumph of Mordecai, is the nativity of Christ
Jesus at the opening of the New Testament. But before we reach this
epoch-making event there are the Wisdom books and the Prophets to be
considered. Surely Esther, the star, is the "daystar of divine Science"
(S & H vii: 11), on which Israel's Sages, the authors of her Wisdom
literature, orient their spiritual position, and which, in the form of the
teachings of the sixteen Prophets, guides them at last to the manger of
Jesus.
CHAPTER XI
The Five Poetical Books

The glimpse we shall take of Israel's poetical books, or what is known as
her wisdom literature, is for the purpose of seeing their indispensable
position within the general canonical perspective.
Written by her wisemen, or, as they are called, her sages, Job, Psalms,
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon, reiterate, in an entirely
different idiom, the idea which has persisted ever since Israel first crossed
the Jordan, namely, the need "to preserve Christ's vesture unrent."
Through the logic of these books of Wisdom, Israel's monotheism refutes
the arguments of dualistic philosophizing which make up the general
thinking of mankind.
Divine wisdom versus

human philosophy
Message to The Mother Church, 1901 gives the spirit of the teachings of
these five books. Mrs Eddy writes: 'The unity and consistency of Jesus'
theory and practice give my tired sense of false philosophy and material
theology rest ... The five personal senses can have only a finite sense of
the infinite: therefore the metaphysician is sensual that combines matter
with Spirit. In one sentence he declaims against matter, in the next he
endows it with a life-giving quality not to be found in God! and turns away
from Christ's purely spiritual means to the schools and matter for help in
times of need. I have passed through deep waters to preserve Christ's
vesture unrent" (,01.26:1).
However deep the waters, however virulent the opposition, the
endeavour on the part of the sages, as well as the coming prophets, as well
as ourselves today, is to preserve the divine Science of being in its purity
and undividedness, without seam or rent.
To succeed in their great undertaking, it is essential for Israel's wise
men to handle and annul the many subtle arguments of mortal mind,
whose constant effort is to rend this garment into fragments, to dismember
Christ's body into cliques and factions, defiling it with dualism and the
viewpoints of many minds.
The contentions of the talking serpent, inherent in all human
philosophy and scholastic theology, in everything in fact which is based
on the "sensuous reason of the human mind" (S & Hili :3), are. what these
books handle and overthrow. Their call is for that measure of wisdom to
be manifest in man which defeats the purpose of the serpent to deceive the
213
214
very elect. This wisdom is to the serpent as the philosophy of Christian

Science is to all forms of sensuous philosophy.
The serpent, in order to rend the garment of Truth, is "every hour
weaving webs more complicated and subtle" (S&H 102:19). Nothing
defeats the arguments with which it indoctrinates mankind but the purity,
consistency, and irrefutable logic of divine philosophy - that is, divine
Science reduced to the absolute, all-translating system of ideas which is
Christian Science, or the Word of God.
We read in the article on "Science and Philosophy": "Christian
Science refutes everything that is not a postulate of the divine Principle,
God. It is the soul of divine philosophy, and there is no other philosophy.
It is not a search after wisdom, it is wisdom: it is God's right hand grasping
the universe ... It stands on this Scriptural platform: that He made all
that was made, and it is good, reflects the divine Mind, is governed by it;
and that nothing apart from this Mind, one God, is self-created or evolves
the universe" (Mis 364: I 0).
Having told us that "the supposed coexistence of Mind and matter an j
the mingling of good and evil have resulted from the philosophy of the
serpent," the textbook continues: "Human philosophy has made God
manlike. Christian Science makes man Godlike" (S & H 269:3). With this
fundamental issue of a Godlike man on the one hand, and a manlike God
on the other, the sages confront the thinking of the world. Due to the
premise on which it builds, human philosophy cannot help making God
manlike; whereas the Old Testament, the New Testament, and Christian
Science (in their original spiritual meaning) make man Godlike.
In concert with the teachings of Christian Science, the five wisdom
books advocate spiritua1 education based on spiritual sense, in contrast to
scholasticism and intellectualism based on the evidence of the five
physical senses. It seems we should think of Ecclesiastes as the Head of a
School rather than merely a Preacher.
The paragraph under the caption "One school of Truth" (S & H 112)
sums up much of the underlying substance of the five wisdom books. We
read: "Is there more than one school of Christian Science? Christian
Science is demonstrable. There can, therefore, be but one method in its
teaching. Those who depart from this method forfeit their claims to belong
to its school, and they become adherents of the Socratic, the Platonic, the
Spencerian, or some other school. By this is meant that they adopt and
adhere to some particular system of human opinions. Although these
opinions may have occasional gleams of divinity, borrowed from that truly
divine Science which eschews man-made systems, they nevertheless
remain wholly human in their origin and tendency and are not
scientifically Christian." Remember that the celebrated Greek
philosophers belong to this same fourth period of the human story as do
Israel's sages and prophets.
THE FIVE POETICAL BOOKS
215
In Job, for example. personal opinions as to what is and what is not

truth are particularly active. Job's friends seem unable to stop talking, and
Job himself is bewildered. Their arguments undoubtedly have occasional
gleams of divinity, but this is what makes them so subtle and deceptive.
The reason they "remain wholly human in their origin and tendency" is
that, divinely, there are no such things as half-truths, or fragmentary,
isolated truths. Either what is stated is a whole truth (that is, reflects
Truth's wholeness) or it is not scientifically true. This is why the
serpentine doctrine of dualism, embodied in the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, is all evil. The tree of life alone is good, because this gives
rise to no fragmentary half-truths. That which, in belief, is part truth and
part error rends the seamless robe of Truth, and therefore, in Science, is
wholly untrue.
No truth, no part of Truth, can ever depart from Truth's wholeness and
remain true. If it did so depart, it would immediately become error and
not truth. The word error implies a departure from truth. Likewise, no
fragmentary so-called truth can ever be restored to the wholeness of Truth
and remain what it was as a fragment. Fallen man, with his sin, sickness,
and death, is the primordial myth that a part of Truth can be abstracted
from one whole Truth, and the result remain true. Israel's purpose
throughout the Bible, and throughout her dealings with the human race, is
to replace the error of fallen man with the idea of one integral absolute
Truth. This is her glorious monotheism, in contrast to mankind's dualism
and polytheism.
The five Wisdom Books and

the five tones of the fourth
period
To confirm that the teaching of the Bible as a whole is focused

(ideationally) in the five wisdom books, in the same way that the span of all
seven periods is focused in the fourth period, a relationship arises
between these five books and the five tones of the fourth period, and
therefore between these books and all the books of the fourth period
which have unfolded so far.
Let us examine this relationship of the five wisdom books with the five
spiritual tones, and also with the fourth period literature from I Samuel to
Esther. Remember that I Samuel relates to Principle as Mind, II Samuel to
Principle as Spirit, I Kings to Principle as Soul, II Kings to Principle as
Principle, and Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther to Principle as Life.
What is the idea that lies behind I Samuel? That of discarding the selfopinionated egotism of Saul for the non-opinionated truth of Principle, as
expressed in the outlook of David. David typifies idea whose origin is
divine Principle (Principle as Mind). This points also to the creative
Word. As often happens in a tone of the Word, thought leaves that which
is unprincipled and comes into line with Principle itself. This is precisely
what Job does as he turns away from his so-called comforters and
communes directly with the Word which is God.
216
II Samuel is the story of David's own reign. David is king of a united

Israel, of the holy city of Jerusalem, and is therefore a figure of the Christ.
Ideally, his reign (like the second tone of the fourth day of creation) 'haws
forth heaven's government of earth, where heaven and earth are seen to be
inseparable (Principle as Spirit). But David is also the sweet psalmist of

Israel. And thus the hero of II Samuel is also (Scripturally) the author of
the second of the five wisdom books, Psalms.
The subject of I Kings is the reign of Solomon, builder of the temple.
Unlike the mobile tabernacle, the temple is a fi xture - a symbol of the
whole body of Israel held in divine Principle (Principle as Soul). Like the
concept of church, the temple represents the living activities of
Christianity. Proverbs, the third of the five poetical works, is known
Scripturally as the Proverbs of Solomon. Solomon, in his wisdom, stands
for the workings of Principle in a way that meets the people's needs. His
Proverbs, it is said, are designed to meet the needs of the ordinary man.
The standpoint of II Kings is the absolute workings of Principle, seen
in the translation of Elijah (Principle as Principle). But II Kings also
recounts the fate of Israel when Principle is not adhered to. Through his
constant reiteration that all mortality is "vanity under the sun,"
Ecclesiastes, the schoolmaster, teaches pure Science; and this is what
Elijah proves at the beginning of II Kings, and what will save Israel and
Judah from Assyria and Babylon if only they will obey the Principle
involved.
Judah's return from Babylonian captivity is the subject of the three
post-exilic books, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther. In captivity she listens to
her divine Principle and this brings her back to life (Principle as Life). As
evidence of her resurrection, she rebuilds the centre and circumference of
her being. The Song of Solomon, or Song of Songs, the fifth and last of the
poetical books, depicts this same idea, but in different symbolism. It tells
of the marriage of a bridegroom and his bride. Spiritual wedlock,
symbolized by this marriage, is, as we have already seen, the criterion of
resurrection, as signified by Judah's return.
Primarily we are concerned with ideas. Symbols may change, as they

constantly do, but ideas, interpreting an eternal Principle, remain forever
the same.
Jesus said, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men
unto me" (John 12:32). If, in Job, we think of the I as lifted from a personal
sense of ego to the Ego which is Principle, then, in Psalms, the I is this very
Principle. In Proverbs, as a result, the true idea of I begins to permeate and
transform the details of daily life. In Ecclesiastes we find ourselves proving
THE FIVE POETICAL BOOKS 217
the allness of one divine I and the nothingness of vain egotism. This means
that, as the bridegroom in the Song of Songs, we are lifted to the spiritual
centre of being, and draw all men (the universal circumference, our bride)
unto us.
Let us examine the fivefold message again, this time in relation to the
two translations, and the way in which this loosens the grip of the five
personal senses,
Through spiritual and scientific translation, "Science so reverses the
evidence before the corporeal human senses, as to make this Scriptural
testimony true in our hearts, 'The last shall be first, and the first last,' so
that God and His idea may be to us what divinity really is and must of
necessity be, - all-inclusive" (S & H 116:5).
Why do the godly suffer? This is a constant question in the book of Job.
Job is good, patient, and moral. Why, then, does he suffer so much? We are
taught in Christian Science that we progress spiritually through "suffering
or Science, or both" (Mis 21 3:5). In Science, Job is already an image of the
divine Principle, Love, and not (as in material sense) a corporeal mortal,
working his painful way out of a physical first degree, into a moral second
degree, up to a spiritual third degree, in his longing to be one with God.
Job must be disabused of this belief in order that he may commune with
God directly and spontaneously in accordance with the meaning of the
first translation. Then there is comfort, and divine Science, instead of
suffering. Job's real 'suffering' lies in the fact that he must suffer evil
beliefs to disappear from consciousness in the light of the appearing of
spiritual ideas.
The Psalms, on the other hand, in their ceaseless magnification and
praise of God, are already working basically from the standpoint of the
first translation. Here, thought accepts the way in which the operation of
the Christ translation solves all human problems. In Psalms, the divine
message from God to man consistently speaks to, and comforts, the human
consciousness. Job longs for this comfort; and when, at the end of the
book, he communes with the Comforter itself, instead of his so-called
comforters, he finds what he has been so desperately yearning for.
Through Job we reach the standpoint of the Psalms which overflow with
divine comfort.
Proverbs are maxims, or epigrams, which are dual in construction.
There are two types of proverb: those that are synonymous, or where there
is agreement between two component phrases, and those that are
antithetic, or where there is disagreement. Is not this indicative of thought,
positioned in the second degree, having to decide which way it shall go,
218
whether in the direction of the first degree or the third? A sense of choice
seems to pervade Proverbs. Yet, in fact. wisdom is there all the time
beckoning us in the direction of the third degree, and away from the first
degree.
By contrast, Ecclesiastes is uncompromisingly scientific. Ecclesiastes

says definitely that the third degree alone is real, and that the first degree
is emptiness and vanity. The emphasis with Ecclesiastes is on the allness of
Spirit and the nothingness of matter. whereby the garment of Christ is

preserved unrent.
If Job tells us what not to do (that we do not try to work our way
painstakingly upwards through the three degrees), then Psalms, Proverbs,

and Ecclesiastes tell us what to do, namely, to be identified with the third
degree. This means that here and now, at the point of the second degree,
we prove. the nothingness of Ihe first degree. What makes this possible is
that Job, at the end of his story, leads us to the point of sponlaneous
involvement with the operation of the first translation.
Looking beyond the immediate imagery of Solomon's Song to the idea
of spiritual wedlock, we find the operation of the two translations in

proper complementary balance. Through identification with the first
translation, the second comes naturally into effect, and the wedding of the
Lamb and the bride increasingly becomes our life-experience.
Remember that the purpose of this cen 'ral fourth period, which closes
the Old Testament, is to prepare us for the demonstrations of the Lamb of
God which open the New Testament.
JOB
Job's patience in tribulation, and his yearning for solace, comfort, and
healing, is the dominant theme of his book. Are we not shown what is the
wrong attitude and what is the right attitude in Christian Science practice
towards the suffering patient? The entreaty wrung from the depths of Job's
very soul is that his zealous comforters shall stop talking' He is sick unto
death of their torrents of words. He asks only that he may be aware of the
presence of God. "Miserable comforters are ye all," he cries out to the
four of them in his agony.

But the arguments go on and on and on. The attempts to find a cause
for error, to rationalize the evidence of the senses, to blame persons, the
condemnation implicit in assuring Job that his suffering is only in his own
thinking, etc., are void of healing. Indeed there can be no real healing until
the philosophical, psychological, sectarian attitudes of the four
THE FIVE POETICAL BOOKS 219
comforters yield to the fourfold Comforter itself.

"If hypocrisy, stolidity, inhumanity, or vice finds its way into the
chambers of disease through the would-be healer, it would, if it were
possible, convert into a den of thieves the temple of the Holy Ghost, - the
patient's spiritual power to resuscitate himself' (S & H 365:25). Job's body
is, in truth, the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in him, which he has of
God. His only real body is the body of God, which belongs not to himself
but to God. Self-resuscitating spiritual power liberated from within him,
not theory superimposed from outside, is the Love-practice that heals.
The "tender word and Christian encouragement of an invalid, pitiful
patience with his fears and the removal of them, are better than hecatombs
of gushing theories, stereotyped borrowed speeches, and the doling of
arguments, which are but so many parodies on legitimate Christian
Science, aflame with divine Love" (S & H 367:3).
Job's four comforters are the elderly Eliphaz, the elderly Bildad, the
elderly Zophar, and the youthful Elihu. They counterfeit Ihe one fourfold
Comforter of the Word, Christ, Christianity, Science. They are four
capable and erudite religionists, four intellectual dogmatists, well versed
in the dialectic of theology and philosophy, but with no comfort in them.
In fact there is no lasting comfort anywhere but in the unarguable Word of
divine Science- the divine theology of the Theos-Logos, which is God
Himself speaking.
Job sees the utter futility of trying to interpret human happenings with
the sensuous reason of the intellect. Only the divine Principle of the
universe can rightly interpret the universe~ and when divine Principle does
Ihis, it explains the nature of both Truth and error. The flood of lifeless
words reaches saturation point, and lob cries out in his anguish: "I know
that my redeemer liveth .. yet in my flesh shall I see God."
At the end of the book, this proves 10 he true. Divine Love comlorts,
heals, and blesses him abundantly. For Job there is "full compensation in
the law of Love" (S & H 574: 18). Thus "the Lord blessed the latter end of
Job more than his beginning."
Job exclaims in his joy: "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear:
but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself [as mortality I, and
repent in dust and ashes." He has turned forever away from mortal
egotism and mere human goodness to union with divine Principle, Love.
Commenting on these words of Job, the textbook teaches: "Starting from a

higher standpoint, one rises sponta~eously, even as light emits light
without effort; for 'where your treasure is, there will your heart be also' "
(S&H 262:24). Job's heart finds its treasure when, like the children of
Israel reaching the promised land, he understands God for himself.
220
PSALMS
Commentators agree that there are five books of Psalms. How the symbol
five keeps recurring! First, there are five spiritually scientific tones in the
fourth period, then there are five poetical books, and now we find that the
second of these books is itself fivefold. In preparation for Jesus'
demonstration of Life at the beginning of the fifth period, Israel's
paramount need, in the fourth, is to be at one with the Principle of the
universe and to cease to believe any more the evidence of the five senses.
The five parts into which the book of Psalms is divided correspond, say
the scholars, to the five books of the Pentateuch, or the five books of the
Law of Moses. A relationship exists, that is to say, between the five Mosaic
books of the Law and the five Davidic books of the Psalms. Clearly, this
confirms the words of Science and Health that "the [Mosaic J law of Sinai
lifted thought into the song of David" (S & H 200:3).
The Pentateuch ranges from Genesis to Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy,
as we have seen, closes the objective (wilderness) phase of Israel's career,
and opens the door to the subjective phase (the promised land). The
Psalmist presents this same development from Genesis to Deuteronomy
subjectively, from the standpoint of the land itself.
Scholars say also that the five books of Psalms foreshadow the two
Messianic advents. For this to be so, the law of Sinai in the third period
would indeed have to be lifted into the song of David in the fourth. The
law of Moses punishes the tribes of Is:ael for their sins. But no song is
nearer to the heart of David than that of the sinless unity of Judah and
Israel, destined to come to fruition in the fifth, sixth, and seventh periods
as the world-saving missions of Christ Jesus and Christian Science, the
manhood and womanhood of God.
Scofield tells us that Psalm 22 is the "holy of holies of the Bible." It
reveals, he says, "all that was in the mind of Christ when He uttered the
desolate cry, 'My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken MeT" This was
the moment of final surrender of the testimony of the mortal senses. Psalm
60 is "an anticipation of what will be in the heart of Israel when she shall
turn to Jehovah again," or when she is regathered to God at the time of the
second advent. "Other Psalms," he says, are directly prophetic of "the
sufferings of Christ, and the glories which should follow." Psalm 2, for
instance, presents "Jehovah's Anointed as rejected and crucified . . . but
afterwards set as King in Zion" (SRB p.599).
Thus the keynote of Psalms is Christ as the holy Comforter: Christ as
"the divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy
incarnate error" (S & H 583: 10): Christ, the Saviour that will in due course
be represented by Jesus and Christian Science.
John Doorly showed his students how the book of Genesis relates with
the infinite as Mind because it involves the idea of origin and creation;
how Exodus relates with the infinite as Spirit because here Israel separates
221
herself from Egypt; how Leviticus relates to the infinite as Soul because
Leviticus concerns the happenings within the tabernacle; how Numbers
relates with the infinite as Principle because Israel advances through the
wilderness only in the measure that she demonstrates the power of
Principle; how Deuteronomy relates to the infinite as Life because
Deuteronomy resurrects Israel's thought sufficiently to enable her to
inherit the promised land.
If this order pertains to the Mosaic standpoint of the Pentateuch it
must apply equally to the Davidic standpoint of the five books of Psalms.
Indeed the Psalms of the fourth period lift the Pentateuch of the first three
periods to the point of Principle itself (that is, to Principle as Mind,
Principle as Spirit, Principle as Soul, Principle as Principle, and Principle
as Life) where it merges into the song of David. Thus with the five books of
the Psalms as with all five of the Wisdom books, we find our thought
moving within the five fundamental tones of the fourth day of creation in
preparation for the fifth, sixth, and seventh days of Life, Truth, and Love.
PROVERBS
In "the Proverbs of Solomon the son of David," a father is said to instruct

his son in "wisdom and understanding." These terms, wisdom and
understanding, pertain specifically to the third degree of the scientific
translation of mortal mind (S&H 116). The father schools his son in
spiritual understanding in order that the son shall put this understanding
into practice in his daily thought and deeds. Wisdom and understanding,
reduced to rules for everyday conduct, would seem to be Proverbs'
dominant theme.
Proverbs are popular by-words, regarded as the wisdom of the streets.

Their purpose is the evangelization of the human sense of self, the
"spiritualization of thought and Christianization of daily life, in contrast
with the results of the ghastly farce of material existence" (S & H 272: 19).
The two forms of proverb mentioned earlier involve parallelism. One
is called synonymous, the other antithetic. An example of the synonymous
proverb is: "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that
ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." In this case, synonymous
statements are joined by the conjunction and. An example of an antithetic
proverb is: "In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that
refraineth his lips is wise." Here, opposing statements are joined 'by the
conjunction but.
Although, in effect, he is consistently entreated by the father to devote
himself to the third degree, the son, in Proverbs, operating at the point of
the second degree, is having to decide whether to identify himself with the
third degree of spirituality or the first degree of physicality.
222
Let us take one or two excerpts: "My son, hear the instruction of thy
father, and forsake not the law of thy mother. . My son, if sinners entice
thee, consent thou not.. .. Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice
in the streets . . . When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge
is pleasant unto thy soul; Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding
shall keep thee." The standpoint of the third degree is clearly signified by
the father's words: "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom:
and with all thy getting get understanding ... Say unto wisdom, Thou art
my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman ... Wisdom hath
builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars." The seven pillars
of wisdom and the seven fundamental qualities of the third degree:
wisdom, purity, spiritual understanding, spiritual power, love, health,
holiness, are surely the same thing.
Proverbs shows us the need for reducing the language of Spirit in such
a way that the 'man in the street' recognizes it in his own tongue, and
understands that it relates to his own life. But this reduction does not
imply weakening spirituality in order to make it materially acceptable. The
moral qualities of the second degree are not third degree qualities watered
down, they are transitory human symbols evidencing the fact that
spirituality has appeared to humanity in a form that is living and real, and
which therefore heals and translates.
ECCLESIASTES
The "head of a school," in Ecclesiastes, teaches his pupils something

much more absolute and radical than is the case with the father and son in
Proverbs. Whereas Proverbs advocates turning away from the first degree
to the third, Ecclesiastes wipes out the first degree altogether. There is
really no choice, the schoolmaster tells us, the content of the first degree is
vanity, nothingness, and only the spirituality of the third degree is truth.
Science and Health confirms this when it defines the one as "unreality"
and the other as "reality" (S & H 115-116).
This is the way Ecclesiastes puts it: "Vanity of vanities, saith the
Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his
labour which he taketh under the sun? .
All things are full of labour
. . . " The sum total of mortality, he implies, is vapidity, emptiness,
nothingness~ reality is constituted of immortality alone.
Mortality is a belief of time, which is unsubstantial; immortality is
timeless and substantial. Hence we read: "The thing that hath been, it is
that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and
there is no new thing under the sun ... 1 have seen all the works that are
done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit."
223
Ecclesiastes scorns the materialist's efforts to build himself up on the

basis of the first degree, and so make something out of nothing! He says
reprovingly: '" made me great works; , builded me houses; , planted me
vineyards . . . Then' looked on all the works that my hands had wrought
. . . and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no
profit under the sun."
He then puts forward the positive alternative. '" know that, whatsoever
God doeth, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken
from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him. That which
hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God
requireth that which is past."
He closes on the note: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man."
Science and Health says in explanation: "Let us hear the conclusion of the
whole matter: love God and keep His commandments: for this is the whole
of man in His image and likeness. Divine Love is infinite. Therefore all
that really exists is in and of God, and manifests His love" (S & H 340:9).
All the time we feel our thought being drawn nearer and nearer to the
teachings of the Prophets and the Gospels.
SONG OF SOLOMON
Concerning the fifth and last of the poetical works, Mary Baker Eddy
wrote in 1910: "Give us not only angels' songs, But Science vast, to which
belongs The tongue of angels And the song of songs" (My 354:21).
The theme of "Science vast . . . the song of songs" is the spiritual
(
wedlock or the bridegroom and the bride - the marriage of Christ and his
body, or church, signifying once again, the indivisibility of the centre and
circumference of being.
'n the article "Emergence into Light," in her autobiography
Retrospection and IntrospeClion, Mrs Eddy illustrates spiritually, in terms
of her own experience, the way in which the teachings of Ecclesiastes
merge into those of the Song of Solomon.
Of "the illusion that this so-called life could be a real and abiding rest,"
she writes: "As these pungent lessons became clearer, they grew sterner.
Previously the cloud of mortal mind seemed to have a silver lining; but
now it was not even fringed with light. Matter was no longer spanned with
its rainbow of promise. The world was dark . . . " It is as if she is saying, in
the spirit of Ecclesiastes, 'all materiality is vanity under the sun.'
This does not mean, however, that our present world has literally to
become dark and desolate: very much the reverse. The world dark, without
a single gleam of light, implies the recognition, in Science, that mortality,
224
as such, is completely devoid of reality. And unless we face this truth fairly
and squarely at this point of the Old Testament, the era of the human and
divine coincidence, signified by the four Gospels at the beginning of the
New Testament, cannot logically appear as the reality of our own lives.
The fifth period of Life is the living demonstration of the Principle
unfolded in the fourth period.
The reference continues: "Thus it was when the moment arrived of the
heart's bridal to more spiritual existence." Here the spirit of Ecclesiastes
merges into the Song of Songs. "When the door opened, I was waiting and
watching; and, 10, the bridegroom came! The character of the Christ was
illuminated by the midnight torches of Spirit." The midnight hour is the
moment of acknowledgment of the total nothingness of matter. "My heart
knew its Redeemer. He whom my affections had diligently sought was as
the One 'altogether lovely,' as 'the chiefest,' 'the only among ten thousand.'
Soulless famine had fled. Agnosticism, pantheism, and theosophy were
void. Being was beautiful, its substance, cause, and currents were God and
His idea. I had touched the hem of Christian Science" (Ret 23:1-24). In
this passage Mrs Eddy has quoted directly from the Song of Solomon.
Superficially, the Song of Solomon is a love poem about a shepherd
boy and his sweetheart. At a much deeper level it is a beautiful
metaphysical symbol of the wedding of the Lamb and his bride.
"He is altogether lovely," says the bride of her groom. "This is my
beloved, and this is my friend, 0 daughters of Jerusalem." "He whom my
affections had diligently sought was as the One 'altogether lovely,' " writes
Mary Baker Eddy of this same immortal bridegroom.
Individual spiritual identity embodies in itself both bridegroom and
bride. When, as bridegroom. we look out upon our universe from the
central position of unity with God, the I has been lifted from person to
Principle, and the circumference of our being (our bride) gravitates
spiritually to this centre. Simultaneously, as bride, at the circumference,
we are all the time being drawn to the one I, or Us, at the centre. In this
"divinely united spiritual consciousness" (S & H 577:9), centre and
circumference, bridegroom and bride, manhood and womanhood, subject
and object, are one in eternal wedlock.
The simultaneity of the two translations, signified in this way by the
teachings of Israel's wisdom literature, leads us to the climax of the entire
prophetic age - the messages of the prophets themselves. Overshadowed
by the Holy Ghost, the womb of Israel's prophetic consciousness is, at the
close of this fourth period of Principle, pregnant with "the development of
eternal Life, Truth, and Love" (S& H 588:7)- that is, with the reality
underlying the last three periods.
CHAPTER XII
The Sixteen Prophets

To evaluate rightly the momentous stage in spiritual advancement which
we reach with the sixteen prophets, it is more imperative than ever to look
beyond historical, geographical, and national boundaries regarding Israel,
ourselves, and our world, and to look instead into the universe of Principle
and its infinite idea.
Gathering and focusing in one consummate outpouring all that the
Bible has taught uS so far, the sixteen latter prophets bring the Old
Testament to a close. This marvel of inspiration and revelation reiterates
the demands which Principle makes on us before our absolute Christselfhood, exemplified by Jesus, can be born at the beginning of the New
Testament. And so although the prophetic message rings down the curtain
on the Old Testament, this but marks the end of a long period of
preparation which raises it again on the New.
As confirmed by Malachi, the last of them all, the prophets open wide
the windows of heaven, through which Principle pours forth its universal
blessing such that there is not room enough in the human experience to
receive it. At this point of the fourth period, Israel's womb-like
consciousness, as portrayed by her prophets, is wholly subject to the
divine Principle, Love, Therefore, in the fifth period, its gates are
open - the heavenly firmament is open - and its waters bring forth the
abundant life recorded in the four Gospels.
Thus, within the development of the Scriptures as a whole, the sixteen
writing prophets present us with the idea of the matrix of immortality for
the fifth time.
Let uS briefly summarize the appearings so far of this idea of selfrevelatory, universal being which we call "the matrix." The first time this
pattern unfolded to us was in the era of the patriarchs, when Israel was in
her infancy, and where it represented the eternal source of her being. The
second time was in the book of DeUferonomy, where it took the form of an
ordered understanding of Principle and its laws with which Israel must be
identified. The third time was in Joshua and Judges. There it was the
actual land of spiritual identity, which Israel was promised should be hers
once she had identified herself with this Principle. The fourth time was in
the.fimr books of Kings, where it signified the universal idea, Israel, at-one
with her all-governing Principle. In the fifth appearing, which we come to
now with the sixteen prophets, its form is the total reality of mankind (the
225
226
symbol of which is Israel), which Principle holds within itself, and of

which it is forever cognizant. In each successive presentation, the pattern
remains the same, but the idea develops step by step according to divine
order.
Israel, then, is type and symbol of the spiritual identity of the whole
human race, The prophets in the fourth period stand for the virgin
motherhood of all lsrael- that motherhood which characterizes the race
as a whole when humanity is conceived of spiritually. This ensures that, in
the course of the fifth, sixth, and seventh periods humanity, as God knows
it. will give birth to its own divinity as the indivisible expression of God.
The finite mortal senses misinterpret this stupendous happening, They
view it, first, as the personal Mary and the personal Jesus: secondly, as the
personal discovering and founding of Christian Science. Christ Jesus and
Christian Science (as they are divinely) must therefore reverse the
testimony of the mortal senses and interpret the t\\-o advents
spiritually- that is, impersonally, scientifically, universally.
The virgin and her son are temporal organic symbols of the matrix
calculus of infinity, and its timeless self-revelation. What the senses
conceive of historically as the miracle of Mary and Jesus is the divine
Principle of the universe expressing itself now as indivisible, indestructible Life, Hence the demonstration on the part of Christ Jesus of what
individuality is. In Christian Science, this same Principle declares itself to
be Truth and Love - that is to say, the demonstration becomes compound
and universal. But there is no Life without Truth, without Love. Principk
expresses itself simultaneously as Life, Truth, Love, without any time lag.
Returning to the fourth period, the prophets, like the Virgin-mother,
are in self-conscious communion with God. The Holy Ghost, the
"development of eternal Life, Truth, and Love" (the spiritual reality of the
last three periods), overshadows their pure impersonal sense of being, and
the idea of the manhood and womanhood of God. manifest in due course
as Christ Jesus and Christian Science, forms in the womb of universal
consciousness prior to its birth into the world - preparatory, that is, to
becoming palpable to humanity,
It is recorded that Jesus once pointed to his disciples and to the
multitude and said: "Behold my mother and my brethren'" Like the twelve
sons of Jacob in the Old Testament, Jesus' twelve disciples in the New
Testament represent a spiritually regenerated human race, Not only do
they typify Jesus' brethren, therefore, but his mother as well. Jesus
understood that he was Universe-born, instead of Mary-born. therefore he
could solve individually the universal mortal problem, According to the
Gospel of John, the starting-point of this solution was the occasion of the
marriage in Cana of Galilee, when he said to the world's concept of
motherhood: "Woman, what have I to do with thee')"
Instructed in the teachings of the Old Testament (as revealed In
Christian Science) we reach (at the stage of development represented by
THE SIXTEEN PROPHETS
227
the prophets) the "glorious perception that God is the only author of
man." That the twin advents of this man take place during the coming fifth
and sixth periods is due to the way in which the prophets resolutely assail
animal magnetism, which otherwise would obstruct the birth. The
illumination of the prophets' spiritual sense puts to silence "material law
and its order of generation." For unless the mortal sense of generation
falls away, the Christ,idea cannot be born. Until the material order of
generation is silenced through self-conscious communion with God, it is
impossible for the demonstration of man's sinless, deathless life to be
made manifest (see S & H 29: 14,30: I).
And so what we must steel ourselves for, as we follow the teachings of

the prophets, is the most tremendous, unremitting denunciation of the
workings of mortality that the world has ever heard. At the same time the
teaching is a tender and moving outpouring of comfort and care for
OUf
total well,being.
The prophetic message as Like the sixteen sections of the matrix which they pattern, the individual
utterances of the sixteen prophets each relate with and reflect one
a whole
another's teaching thereby forming one divine integral revelation. Their
canonical order is their spiritual order.
The books fall naturally into two groups of four and twelve. First there
are the four from Isaiah to Daniel, known as the major prophets; then the
twelve from Hosea to Malachi known as the minor prophets. Although
Daniel was not at t1rst classed among the prophets, the decision to place
him after Ezekiel, together with his meaning within the perspective as a
whole, compels us to regard Daniel as a fourth major prophet.

At the stage of development signified by the prophets - the point at
which our culture of the idea of God becomes intuitively subjective - the
figure of the divine matrix is best represented by a circle, rather than a
square. The four books of Kings, for example, build up the columns of the
matrix one by one according to the symbol of the square. But the prophets
give a new and different aspect. In the survey from Genesis to Revelation
carried out in this book, the prophets' matrix takes the form of the centre
and circumference of a circle, or sphere. The circle then embraces the
square. Mrs Eddy is reputed to have said to a class of students: "Christian

Science [is] a square to material sense, but to spiritual sense a sphere. The
square is composed of 4 sides . . . The sphere of Christian Science is

without limits: it is one and all and all because one" (Course in Divinity
and General Col/ectanea p. 169).

In ancient times, mathematicians as well as mystics sought to solve the
problem of 'squaring the circle.' A square inside a circle (both figures

having the same centre) is, according to the discoveries of psycho-
analysis, the basis of that ubiquitous psychic image (rising in dreams from
the collective unconscious) known as the mandala. C. G. lung says that the
228
mandala is a fusion of opposites (circle and square), and is the symbol of

wholeness in man. It signifies, he says, man's true "individuation"
(Introduction to a Science of Myllwlogy, p.21-22).
This concept of the square in relation to the circle is familiar to the
student of Christian Science, In his textbook, the description of the holy

city, New Jerusalem, from which the figure of the matrix derives, is
presented from two complementary points of view, The first is called "city
foursquare" (S & H 575), the second "city of our God" (S & H 577), The
first (with its four equal sides) is square in delineation; the second (with its
four cardinal points of the compass) is circular. The first is the city of
divine Science, which is referred to as "our city;" the second is the city of
Christian Science, described as "the city of our God." In order to
understand the one whole city, the one Science of being, both views are
requisite.
Once again we see represented the manhood and womanhood, the

head and body, of one whole Son of God, In wholeness lies individuality,
Science (the city itself) comes to us individually (that is, indivisibly) as
divine Science, and in this sense is our city. Christian Science restores all
things, collectively and universally, to the source from which they
emanate~ in this sense the city is not our city but the city of our God.
This is not a fusing of opposites, but a marriage of viewpoints which
are complementary, Man's wholeness and individuality, born of the
fathomless Mind which is God, is the divine translation of the psychic
mandala which comes to the surface of mortal consciousness from the
depths of the collective unconscious,
In the Bible, the idea of the unity of centre and circumference first
came to light in Numbers, when Israel arranged herself in geometric form
for her journey through the wilderness, She was a fourfold centre (Levi
and the tabernacle) and a twelvefold perimeter (the individual tribes),
This pattern was suggested again in the missions of Elijah and Elisha,
Elijah typified the centre and Elisha the circumference, (We remember
how Elisha was ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen and he with the
twelfth,) It came again in Ezra and Nehemiah with the rebuilt temple in
the centre of Jerusalem surrounded by the walls with their twelve gates,
But not until we reach the sixteen latter prophets, in their two groups of
four and twelve, do we find the symbol fully developed, and spiritually
comprehensive in meaning,
The major prophets are the circle's fourfold centre, and the minor
prophets its twelvefold perimeter. At the centre, the Christ-idea (both
head and body) is held in its divine Principle. At the circumference, twelve
open gates send forth the idea to human consciousness as the truth about
all mankind. This, in Science, is the world itself one with God giving birth
to the reality and unity of its being. And thus, at the opening of the fifth
period, the calculus of abundant life, propounded by the four Gospels, is
born to the world ,,( the world, as the world's own true identity. In the
THE SIXTEEN PROPHETS 229
remainder of the New Testament and in Christian Science, mankind
returns through these same open gates into the heart of Principle. As we
read in Revelation, the gates of the heavenly city open within and without.
Paul calls the city "the mother [matrix] of us all" (Gal 4:26). From this
moment onwards, the immaculate conception with which we are presented
is man as God's reflection coming from, returning to, yet ever remaining
one with, God.
Scientific structure
Let us envisage the order and structure which underlie the unity of the
sixteen prophets.
Because the symbol of this structure is primarily a circle rather than a
square, thought starts out from Science itself (the matrix's fourth column)
instead of appearing to approach Science through the Word, Christ, and
Christianity (the first three columns). The major prophets (which appear
in the canon first) correspond to the four tones of the fourth column; the
minor prophets (which follow) correspond to the twelve tones of the first
three columns.
As we know, Moses' golden candlestick is the model of the matrix's

fourth column, Science. Principle is the centre, and the three pairs of
branches, Soul and Life, Spirit and Truth, Mind and Love, radiate
outwards in ever-widening circles.
Represented by Daniel, the fourth major prophet, the spiritual idea of

God, untouched by Babylon, is found in its Principle at the centre uf
universal being. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel have, as it were, reached out
their all-embracing arms and have gathered and established the idea on
this absolute foundation.
Instead of moving down the fourth column vertically in the familiar
way, the prophets (in our present reading) start with the candlestick's
outermost branches and move towards the centre. They gather the world
to God. That is to say, Isaiah corresponds to Mind and Love, in the tone of
Science as Christianity; Jeremiah to Spirit and Truth, in the tone of
Science as the Christ; Ezekiel to Soul and Life, in the tone of Science as the
Word; while Daniel corresponds to Principle itself, in the tone of Science
as Science.
Isaiah's emphasis is that Principle's universal purpose is eternally

fulfilled (Love) at the point of its origin (Mind). This is infinity as the
matrix of its own being. Of Science as Christianity.
In the tone of Science as the Christ, where the synonyms are Spirit and
Truth, Jeremiah's emphasis is what the matrix forms and embodies,
namely, the Christ-calculus. This is the "Spirit of truth," the divine
Comforter (John 14:17), which makes nothing of incarnate error. How to
make nothing of the invader Babylon is precisely what Jeremiah teaches
Israel.
230
Ezekiel, in the tone of Science as the Word, where the terms are Soul
and Life, testifies to the sinless, deathless identity of the idea which Isaiah
and Jeremiah have proclaimed. To the senses, Ezekiel is a captive in
Babylon; but such is his understanding of man's incorporeality that he
seems oblivious of being there. Because he identifies Life as all, Ezekiel
lives outside the confines of the Babylonian tomb.
Daniel, in the tone of Science as Science, holds the idea in its universal
Principle, while he explodes the dream of Babylonian exile on behalf of all
mankind.
We come to the minor prophets. Let us think of them as twelve open
gates through which the idea revealed by the major prophets is radiated to
the world.
Here, our thought does not move down the matrix's first three columns
vertically (as it does when the figure is a square) but across them
horizontally in four groups of three tones. These four groups constitute
three gates on the north (the Word), three gates on the east (the Christ),
three gates on the south (Christianity), and three gates on the west
(Science). (See Appendix diagram p.385.)
Thus, Hosea, Joel, and Amos correspond to the Word as the Word,
Christ as the Word, Christianity as the Word; Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah
correspond to the Word as the Christ, Christ as the Christ, Christianity as
the Christ; Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah correspond to the Word as
Christianity, Christ as Christianity, Christianity as Christianity; Haggai.
Zechariah, and Malachi (the prophets of the return from Babylon)
correspond to the Word as Science, Christ as Science, Christianity as
Science.
The twelve-pointed star in the diagram (p.385) is formed by joining the

four Word tones, the four Christ tones, and the four Christianity tones. Is
this the star symbolized by Esther? Is this the star on which wise followers
of the spiritual idea orient their position in the Old Testament in order to
be guided to the birthplace of Jesus at the beginning of the New
Testament?
THE FOUR MAJOR PROPHETS

(1)
ISAIAH
"Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else;
I am God, and there is none like me, DedarinR the end from the heginning,
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done" (lsa 46:9-ia).
Perhaps the keynote of Isaiah lies in one supreme, transcendent idea,
namely, that the end of all being (Love) exists from the beginning (Mind);
therefore that the universe consists of the infinitude of God.
231
The marvellous outpouring of power and glory that comes to us as the

prophecy of Isaiah ranges over sixty chapters of the canonical writings. It
is written, we are told, in three distinct parts. Three different authors
contribute to the book as a whole, and are known as I, II, and III Isaiah.
This knowledge helps us tO,simplify what would seem otherwise to be
an overwhelmingly complex message. I Isaiah is written in pre-exilic days;
II Isaiah (also known as Deutero-Isaiah) is written at the time of the exile;
while III Isaiah (or Trito-Isaiah) is written after the return. At once we
perceive the vast spiritual territory covered by the book as a whole.
Unfolding in the tone of Science as Christianity, Isaiah rellects and
embodies the spirit of the entire matrix. This signifies that the idea which
underlies all sixteen prophets (the matrix itself) is present from the
beginning of their concerted message.
In the reading given in this book, I Isaiah relates to the matrix's first
three columns, where the emphasis,is the Word, Christ, and Christianity;
II Isaiah relates to the first three tones of the fourth column - Science as
the Word, Science as the Christ, Science as Christianity; while III Isaiah
adds the final tone of all, Science as Science, thereby completing the
sixteenfold structure. When, at the end of the book, Trito-Isaiah beholds
his new heavens and new earth, he fulfils the work of Deutero-Isaiah, who
has, in turn, fulfilled that of I Isaiah, just as this is true of the
corresponding tones in the final model of the matrix.
Because of the vastness of the text, we can do no more in this chapter
on the prophets than feel for the spirit of one or two representative
statements from each of the main tones- from the Word, Christ, and
Christianity sections of I Isaiah; from Science as the Word, Science as the
Christ, Science as Christianity in II Isaiah; and from the final tone of all,
Science as Science, in III Isaiah.
I Isaiah
The Word
In the timeless eternity of four dimensional consciousness, creation is

without beginning or end - the end is forever the beginning and the
beginning forever the end. Isaiah writes: "And it shall come to pass in the
last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the
top of the mountains. , . and all nations shall Ilow unto it ... and he will
teach us of his ways .. ,and he shall judge among the nations ... and
they shall beat their swords into plow-shares . . . nation shall not lift up
sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Isaiah is
reading the content of the Mind which is Love; he foresees what is
happening in the "last days" (the days of Christian Science), and the
overturning and transforming of human consciousness which is taking
place today.
Mary Baker Eddy writes in fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy: "When
God called the author to proclaim His Gospel to this age, there came also
the charge to plant and water His vineyard" (S & H xi:22). Isaiah foretells:
"My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: And he fenced it,
232
and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine,
and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and
he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild
grapes . . . What cou ld have been done more to my vineyard, that I have
not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes,
brought it forth wild grapes'" Mrs Eddy says that the Manual of The
Mother Church of Christ, Scientist is "uniquely adapted to form the
budding thought and hedge it about with divine Love" (Man 104). Isaiah's
vineyard, tower, and fence, are all referred to by implication in her words
regarding the mission of her church.

The solution to the problem of the wild grapes lies in individual
cultivation of spiritual understanding. In contrast to the foregoing lament
over the vineyard, Isaiah records how he "saw also the Lord sitting upon a
throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood
the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and
with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried
unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole
earth is full of his glory . . . Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying,
Whom shall I send, and who will go for us' Then said I, Here am I; send
me." Spiritual individuality, voluntarily culturing the truth of being as
universal Science and system, is the answer to the entanglements of
religious organization devoid of scientific order.
This is the only time the Bible refers to the seraphims. Each one has six
wings, just as the golden candlestick has six branches. The candlestick
with its branches is a universal ie:fler symbol, while the seraphims with
their wings typify the individual spirir which moves and is alive. Their
wings are Soul and Life, Spirit and Truth, Mind and Love, on either side of
Principle, the divine Person of each. The seraphims individualize the
structure and symmetry of the idea of God. "Here am I; send me," says that
reflex image of the Principle of the universe which is Isaiah.
Manual, Mother Church, and branch church all feature prophetically
and symbolically in the rod which grows from a parent stem, and the
branch which grows from this stem's own roots but not from the stem
itself. The rod corresponds to the Manual, the stem to the Mother Church,
and the branch to the branch church. Individuality, rooted in the
Principle of mankind, is the essential ingredient of the true branch church.
Individuality is likewise the primal quality of that "millennial estate
pictured by Isaiah," in which "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard shall lie down with the kid; And the calf and the young
lion, and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them"
(S&H 514:21).
Included in these passages, indicative of the creative Word, is the
prophecy of the virgin who conceives a son, whose name is called
Immanuel. The virgin to whom the child is born is us, man, in the
universal reality of our being. World government and peace will he upon
the shoulders of this Son of man - this idea of our (man's) unity,
indivisibility, and harmony in God.
The section ends with the joyful words: "Sing unto the Lord; for he
hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth . . . great is the
Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee."
I Isaiah
Christ
I Isaiah
Christianity
Divine revelation coming from God destroys incarnate evil coming from
the so-called cosmic unconscious. The Christ section of I Isaiah concerns
ten burdens on ten enemy nations, the first and me"t conspicuous of
which is Babylon. Here Christ, the divine manifestation of God, the idea
of divine Principle, Life, Truth, Love, Soul, Spirit, Mind, "comes to the
nesh to destroy incarnate error" (S & H 583: I 0) through analysis,
uncovering, and annihilation.
Christ, Truth, comes to the flesh to prove that man never, in the first
place, fell away from Spirit, God, to be embodied thereafter in tinite nesh.
One of the outstanding features of the "burden of Babylon" is the familiar
passage: "How art thou fallen from heaven, 0 Lucifer, son of the morning!
how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations' For
thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven I will exalt my
throne above the stars of God . . . I will be like the most High."
Jesus says later on: "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." The
name Lucifer means "light-bringer, day-star." Isaiah is disposing of the
myth of mortality at the point of its supposed origin. He is handling the
belief that the "daystar of divine Science" (S&H vii:ll) ever asserted a
wi 1\ of its own contrary to the wi II of Principle, and thereby fell from Spirit
to matter. If it had fallen from Principle in this way, divine Science would
no longer be divine Science, but would have reversed its nature and
character and become physical science instead; the Holy Ghost would
have transformed itself into destructive electricity, or lightning, with all
the potential thermal-nuclear activities which this involves.
The theme changes. In "that day" - the day of the Science of

Christianity- human consciousness will ferment, and will overturn, as the
leavening, chemicalizing Christ, Truth, makes its universal impact. We
read: "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and
turneth it upside down .. " There will be a levelling out of class barriers
and hierarchical authority. Thus: "It shall be, as with the people, so with
the priest; as with the servant. so with his master . .. the foundations of
the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean
dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly."
Compensation for this great world-upheaval lies in the fact that "in
that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book; and the eyes of the blind
shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. The meek also shall
increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the
Holy One of Israel. For the terrible one is brought to nought."
234
The people are consistently warned not to go down into Egypt in an

effort to escape the turmoil. For the strength of Pharaoh shall he their
shame, and trust in the shadow of Egypt their confusion. Therefore, says
Isaiah, "Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help."
In place of Egypt there will be spiritual healing and redemption. So
much so that "the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose." Across the
desert a highway will run, which will be called the "way of holiness." The
ransomed of the Lord will discover this highway, and will "return, and
come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads."
I Isaiah covers the first 39 chapters of the book. His contribution ends
with the history of how Sennacherih, king of Assyria, having conquered
the kingdom of Israel, seeks to assault the kingdom of Judah. But
Scnnacherib fails to overcome Judah in the way he overcame Israel. God
causes him to return to Assyria by the way he came, and there destroy
himself. Babylon, not Assyria, is destined to devastate Judah. Indeed, at

the time I Isaiah makes his prophecy the conquest of the second of the two
kingdoms is imminent. Thus I Isaiah proclaims his message prior to the
Babylonian exile.
II Isaiah
Science as the Word
II Isaiah
The prophecy of Deutero-Isaiah pertains to the period of the exile; it

contains some of the most beautiful, inspiring, and heart-warming
passages in the Bible. It radiates the spirit of the Comforter itself- that is,
divine Science. According to our present reading, II Isaiah takes the three
main themes of I Isaiah- his three long sections emphasizing the Word,
the Christ, and Christianity- and presents them from the standpoint of
Science. Hence the tones: Science as the Word, Science as the Christ,
Science as Christianity.
We read: "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye
comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is
accomplished." This opening passage stresses the need for that state of
spiritual preparedness in Israel which is characteristic of John the Baptist.
She must prepare herself to be the pure Christ-idea. Hence II Isaiah
continues the theme of the highway referred to by I Isaiah. He says: "The
voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be
exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked
shall be made straight, and the rough places plain . . . The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever." This
passage (Science as the preparatory Word) relates with the corresponding
section in I Isaiah on the founding work of the Word itself. It prepares the
way (like John the Baptist) for the coming of God's servant, in the tone of
Science as the Christ.
This beautiful section of the text opens with one of the several "servant
songs." The words apply, of course, to the Christ-idea at every stage of its
235
unfoldment, and therefore to its present status as Christian Science.

II Isaiah writes: "Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom
my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth
judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice
to be heard in the street . . . He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he
have set judgment in the earth."
In the immediate context, Israel herself is God's servant. Hence the
words: "I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.
I have formed thee; thou art my servant
Thus saith the Lord, thy
redeemer, and he that hath formed thee from the womb . . . Declaring the
end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet
done.
I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass." Again and again
one feels from the discourse that the womb which forms the true servant of
God is the Mind which is universal Love.
The references to Cyrus, king of Persia, Israel's deliverer from
Babylon, also come in this part of the text. That which is formed in the
matrix of Science is the Christ-identity of Israel herself, God's beloved
son, who is also His adored servant. In the Christ section of I Isaiah, this
identity blots out Israel's transgressions typified by the ten enemy nations.
The universal idea of God, whose first name is Jacob. and whose surname
is Israel, is in II Isaiah, gathered under the protection of the Holy One of
Israel from the very ends of the earth.
II Isaiah
The servant songs continue, as do also the manifold references to the

womb. or matrix, which gives Israel birth. Over and over again we are told
how Israel's God is creator and king of the whole universe. over which He
holds sovereign power. We are reminded that the entire creation is the
work of God, and that whatever denies this glorious truth will be utterly
wiped out of consciousness.
Actual deliverance from Babylon. at a time known to scholars as "the
kingdom age." is particularly stressed in this part of the book. Principle
thunders its wrath at Babylon: "There is no throne, 0 daughter of the
Chaldeans. . thou shalt no more be called. The lady of kingdoms.
desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know ...
Let now the astrologers. the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators,
stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee."
Israel and Judah shall call themselves the holy city, and their
deliverance from the dream of mortality is referred to again and again.
The text reads: "Hearken unto me, 0 Jacob and Israel, my called. . Go
ye forth of Babylon . . . with a voice of singing declare ye . . evcn to the
end of the earth . . . The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob. . the
redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion.
Awake, awake . . . put on thy beautiful garments, 0 Jerusalem. . all the
ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God." From tlrst to last, the
vision of Isaiah encompasses nothing less than the ends of all the earth.
236
Destruction of the BabyJonish sense of life is foretold in the references

to the messianic lamb. When this lamb is brought to the slaughter, he does
not give reality to mortality by opening his mouth in protest, but allows
mortality to destroy itself. Proof of eternal, indestructible life is furnished
by a lamb-like sacrifice of the mortal sense of life. Hence the call: "Sing, 0
barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud,
thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the
desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord . . . thy
Maker is thine husband . . . The God of the whole earth shall he be
called." All who thirst for immortal life may partake of it freely at its
fountainhead. "Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and
bestowals," says the textbook with reference to this open fount
(S& H 13:2).
Some of the most beautiful and powerful passages in the whole of
Isaiah fall within this section of the text. Not only do they relate spiritually
with the Christianity section of I Isaiah, but they also confirm the position
of the book of Isaiah within the general prophetic matrix-that is, in
relation to Science as Christianity, where the synonyms are Mind and
Love.
III Isaiah
Science as Science
The writings ofTrito-Isaiah pertain, as we have said, to Israel's post-exilic

era, and therefore to her resurrection body. The vision is of new heavens
and a new earth. The tone is Science as Science. focused in the term
Principle.
The "high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy,"
is the source from which the message comes. In the days to which the
prophecy refers, Israel will call and God will answer; she will cry, and He
will say, "Here I am." The result (as taught by Ezra and Nehemiah) is that
Israel will become the "repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to
dwell in." She will rebuild her body on wholly spiritual foundations.
The demand for resurrection is imperative. Hence the sublime
assurance: "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is
risen upon thee . . . the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the
brightness of thy risi ng " thou shalt see, and flow together.. the
abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee. . thy gates shall be
open continually
Through the mother-city'S twelve open gates (typified later by the
minor prophets) the universal Christ-idea will become perceptible to
mankind. To signify this. in the post-ex.ilic period, a new Jerusalem arises

on the site of the old with new walls and gates. According to III Isaiah (and
as we noted in the chapter on Ezra and Nehemiah), walls stand for
Salvation and gates for Praise. Violence will no more be heard in the land
of Israel's new built identity.
Instead, a standard will be lifted up before the people. Israel will be
"called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name."
237
Applying these words to the twentieth century, Christian Science (Israel as

she really is) will be "Sought out, A city not forsaken," Science will be
"sought of them that asked not for me, , . found of them that sought me
not." The world will come to itself. Through the work of the Science of
Christianity, mankind will recognize its genuine spiritual being.
We arrive at the conclusion of the whole stupendous prophecy. Similar

to the way in which St John concludes Revelation, Isaiah records the
glorious words: "Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the
former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind . . . behold, I create
Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy . . . before they call, I will
answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear."
As if to epitomize the spirit of universal motherhood, and to assure us
of the fulfilment of its great ingathering purpose, Isaiah says finally: "Shall
I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth') saith the Lord: shall I
cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God . . . Behold, I will
extend peace to her I Israel, mankind I like a river, and the glory of the
Gentiles like a flowing stream . . . As one whom his mother comforteth, so
will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem . . . For as the

new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me,
saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain."
A great symphonic structure of interweaving spiritual tones, played by
the orchestra of the universal family of man, and conducted by the
Principle of the absolute oneness of being, sounds in our spiritual ears as
we let the book of Isaiah unfold to us. The fulfilled ends of creation exist
from the beginning - that is, at the point of their eternal origin. This surely
is the key to Isaiah's divinely scientific message. The infinitude of identity
which makes up our universe is a calculus of spiritual ideas held in the
matrix of the divine Principle, Love. This truth, understood, delivers us

from mythological, astrological. psychological Babylon, and builds our
life anew.
(2)
JEREMIAH
In our present reading, Jeremiah corresponds (within the structure of the

matrix) to Science as the Christ, where the synonyms are Spirit and Truth.
Behind the colossal character of Jeremiah lies the fortitude and
integrity of foursquare man. With unshakeable firmness Jeremiah offers
unyielding resistance to error on every side. He stands for the rocklike
calculus of Spirit which grinds to powder everything on which it falls. His
message, in consequence, unfolds in the Christ order of the synonymous
terms for God: Principle, Life, Truth, Love, Soul, Spirit, Mind.
This explains why the book of Jeremiah is followed by a second book
that bears his name: The Lamentations of Jeremiah. This consists of five
238
laments, uttered by the people of Judah when Jerusalem and the temple
have been laid waste by Babylon, and the people themselves have been
taken captive. Jeremiah is concerned with spiritual translation. While the
book of Jeremiah itself relates to the first of the two translations

(S & HilS), Lamentations relates to the second. Judah bitterly laments the
loss of the organic sense of life which the sacking of Jerusalem has forced
upon her.
Jeremiah is regarded by many as the greatest of the prophets. This is
not surprising when we realize that what he expressly teaches Israel is the
way to make nothing of evil. Evil is typified by Babylon. While Isaiah
assures us that Babylon is in fact nothing, Jeremiah shows us the way of
proving that Babylon is nothing. Ezekiel then stands for the proof itself.
Finally, Daniel makes it plain that this proof applies not only to the people
of Judah, but to the whole of mankind.
Isaiah himself is not involved with Babylon. Jeremiah is involved, but
does not actually go to Babylon. Ezekiel is taken into Babylon, but seems
oblivious of this once he is there. Daniel, like Ezekiel, actually takes part
in the Babylonian experience.
The spiritual "tones" of the prophets cannot be confined. In addition
to the order: Christianity, Christ, Word, relative to Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, the order: Word, Christ, Christianity also obtains. For, clearly,
what Isaiah elucidates is the great universal Principle, or Word, whereby
the nothingness of evil is proved. Jeremiah, typifying the Christ, shows the
way in which this proof takes place. But the proof itself, which comes with
Ezekiel, necessarily involves Christianity. The simultaneity of this
outward-inward, inward-outward movement (Christianity-Christ-Word,
Word-Christ-Christianity), implicit in these three major prophets, hinges
upon the teachings of Daniel, that the world in Science is not, and never
has been, in bondage to Babylon. The pulsating movements of the spiritual
universe are those of the body of Israel herself.
We are fast approaching the New Testament. What Jesus initiates in
the fifth period of Life, Christian Science will emulate in the sixth and
seventh periods of Truth and Love. But this reality of Christ and its
Science must be already present in the fourth period of Principle,
otherwise it cannot come to birth in the course of these last three periods.
Jesus puts into effect the Principle of God's all ness and evil's
nothingness as propounded by Isaiah. This Principle instructs him how to
make nothing of mortality (death) according to the teachings of Jeremiah.
At the crucifixion and entombment he proves the truth of these teachings
as prefigured in the visions of Ezekiel. And he does this on behalf of the
human race as a whole in accordance with the message of Daniel. What
Christ Jesus does individually applies to all humanity in Christian Science.
How does Jeremiah teach us to make nothing of evil"' Tills is the mighty
question. The text contains an apparent paradox. Christ, as we know,
demands constant and unyielding resistance to evil in every form. Yet the
cry of Jeremiah is: 'Do not resist Babylon; let her take you captive; go and
put your neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon.' How do we assess
spiritually such a seeming contradiction?
Confusion disappears when we turn to the example set by Jesus. In the
coming New Testament, Jesus demonstrates in his own life all that the Old
Testament teaches us as it ranges from Egypt to Babylon. Understanding
Jeremiah's attitude to Babylon we understand Jesus' attitude to the
crucifixion and entombment - that is, to the way in which mortality
(death) claims to lay waste the organized temple, or body.
To resist Babylon is, in belief, to make something out of nothing. Jesus
makes nothing of his enemies, including the last enemy, death. His policy
of non-violence, non-resistance, accords with the words of Isaiah that he
"opened not his mouth." But this does not mean to say that Jesus is pacific
regarding the encroachments of evil. The reverse! In offering no
resistance, Jesus offers total resistance. He proves evil nothing. Jesus faces
up to evil. He, as it were, walks up tb death, through it, and out the other
side, proving as he does so that he is face to face with Life, God. To resist
death is to become its victim, even as Abel was the victim of Cain.
What Jeremiah advocates is what Jesus advocates: 'Do not surrender to
mortality, but surrender mortality! Otherwise mortality will destroy you.'
If Judah refuses to surrender Jerusalem and the temple; if she identifies
organic life with herself personally rather than with Babylon; if she fights
to preserve her own so-called material existence, then Jerusalem and the
temple will inevitably be laid waste. In the mortal concept, selfpreservation and self-destruction are one and the same thing. To avoid
death and destruction, mortality must be surrendered. Otherwise we
surrender ourselves to mortality and its forces of self-destruction. In the
words of Jesus: "He that findeth his life I in the organized temple I shall
lose it: and he that loseth his life Igoes forward into Babylon I for my sake
shall tind it" (Matt 10:39).
Jeremiah implores Judah to work out the problem of mortality through
Science, and not through suffering. Either way she will be compelled to
work it out. Resisting Babylon (seeking to preserve Jerusalem) she will do
it through suffering. Going forward into Babylon (surrendering Jerusalem)
she will do it through Science. Surrendering to mortality, suffering is
inevitable; yielding up mortality, there is nothing to suffer. As in the case
of Jesus, Judah's need is to go faithfully forward into Babylon, leaving
Jerusalem and the temple behind. In Babylon (as in the sepulchre) God
will prove to her that there is no Babylon, no death, only the presence of
Life, God. Afterwards, like Jesus, she will return to Jerusalem and rebuild
her body, prior to its final translation. Surrendering now, in Science, the
organic sense of divisibility from God and our brother man, death is
behind us not in front-our life is God, Life.
Let us take the tones of the Jeremiah text one by one in the Christ
translation order.
240

Principle
Divine commission: At the beginning of the record. in a tone of Principle,

Jeremiah receives his Christly commission. He himself must be found
equal to this great mission. That his mission is foreordained by the matrix
of all creation (unfolded by Isaiah) is evident when Jeremiah is told of its
(his own) pre-existence. "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee,"
God says to him, "before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified
thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." As matrix is to
calculus, so Isaiah is to Jeremiah.
Jeremiah's task is to analyse, uncover, and annihilate error in a process
of spiritual translation. Hence the words: "See, I have this day set thee
over the nations and over the kingdoms. to root out, and to pull down, and
to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant." Note that the charge
to build and plant comes aner the command to uproot and destroy. "We
cannot build safely on false foundations," the textbook tells us, "Truth
makes a new creature, in whom old things pass away and 'all things are
become new' " (S & H 201 :7).
Knowing that the Christ purpose is to come to the nesh to destroy
incarnate error, Jeremiah records how he is "full of the fury of the Lord
. weary with holding in." Israel's unrepentant harlotry is the cause of
all her trouble, and she will learn her lesson only if Babylon takes her
captive. She has "played the harlot with many lovers," therefore
"destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled." The
work which Jeremiah is commissioned to perform is that of
uncompromising Principle. He must prove Principle absolute and divine.
Life
Willingness to yield up Ihe organic sense (~f' life: Israel has put her trust in
the organized temple (the belief thai life resides in the body) instead of in
the Principle which is infinite Life. God's words, uttered by Jeremiah.
sternly reprove this false belief. He says: "Trust ye not in lying words,
saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the
Lord. . Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal,
murder, and commit adultery. . and burn incense unto Baal. . Is this
house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?
. . . the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven."
The queen of heaven is the mother-goddess of fertility, referred to again at
the end of Jeremiah when the people who are left behind in Jerusalem
clamour to return to Egypt.
Only through yielding up the organized temple and going forward into
Babylon, will Israel prove that Life is all and death has no dominion.
Truth
Man's health and wholeness: With tremendous force and authority,

Jeremiah uncovers the mortal errors that claim to operate as the
consciousness of Israel. The section of the text in the tone of Truth
consists of wholesale denunciations. When, at last, she can bear
Jeremiah's deep, stern analysis no longer, Israel cries out to her God:
"Heal me, 0 Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for
thou art my praise." But the repentance is inadequate, and it comes too
late. Nevertheless, because of what Israel is in Truth, she will, in due
course, return from her selt~imposed captivity, and "this city shall remain
forever," God assures her.
Love
Surrender sdf-!ove: The presence and power of universal Love will

compel her to give up self-love. Jeremiah tells her how disastrous it will be
to try to hold on to Jerusalem with this false sense of pride and attachment.
Israel believes, in her ignorance, that if Jerusalem is taken away from her
she will be faced with a vacuum. If only she understood that "this seeming
vacuum is already filled with divine Love"! Jeremiah tells her of the
wonderful hour of development which is at hand if only she will be
obedient, and that even if she clings to a "sense of personal joys," spiritual
Love will force her to accept what best promotes her growth. It is as if he
asks her: 'Would existence without the temple organization be to you a
blank? Then the time will come when you will be solitary, left without
sympathy. Thus God teaches you to lay down your fleshliness and gain
spirituality. This is done through self-abnegation' (S & H 266:6-19).
If she refuses to surrender self-love, Jerusalem will be destroyed before
her eyes, and she will be helpless to prevent it. Such is the wine cup of
Jehovah's fury. The king of Babylon will carry her away captive. "He that
abideth in this city shall die by the sword," God says, "but he that goeth
out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live." Israel's
sins have brought her to the point of mortal extremity, but in Science this
extremity is God's opportunity. Such is the nature of Love that it will
eventually restore her to the land, and there will be full compensation for
all her tribulations. Thus "Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell
safely. "
Soul
Translation of sense testimony: Again she is bidden not to resist what shall
befall her, but to bring her neck under Babylon's yoke. The evidence of the
senses is wholly false; the reverse of this evidence is true. If she will obey
the rule of translation, Soul will reverse what appears to be happening to
her and will prove the nothingness of Babylon. This is the rule which Jesus
obeys when facing the crucifixion, and the result is resurrection. The same
applies to Israel.
According to her fidelity, Israel will receive a new covenant - she will
enter the era of a new testament. Jeremiah is the prophet of this new
covenant, and formulates the way it will work. He says: "And it shall come
to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break
down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch
over them, to build, and to plant, saith the Lord . . . After those days ... I
will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will
be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more
242
every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the
Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of
them, saith the Lord."
If Israel obeys the rule of Soul- if she reverses sense evidence by
offering no resistance to Babylon in the way Jeremiah advocates - she will
find that heaven is within her subjectively and spontaneously, and she will
cease her vain strivings to acquire it from outside. This is her new
testament, her new covenant with God - the promise of the self-revelation
of Christly perfection from within her own being.
Spirit
Go not back to positions outgrown: In Israel's belief, the Babylonian threat

is so terrible that, 'in order to counter it, she seeks an alliance with Egypt.
This is always mortality's way. To offset organic death, it resorts to organic
birth. The alliance fails, Babylon overruns the country, and the first
deportation begins.
The best of the nation are taken to Babylon and only the dregs remain.
Jeremiah elects to stay behind with the dregs. Those who are left in
Jerusalem howl to go back to Egypt, and Jeremiah accompanies them even
there. This is the nature of the Christ-spirit, it never abandons so-called
mortal man however far he falls. The purpose of the Christ is to rid mortal
man of his belief in mortality and thus save him from himself. Until the
mortal is fully translated it cannot be abandoned. Never shall we rid
ourselves of the belief that body is mortal except through Christly
translation.
A certain Gedaliah is put in charge of the remnant left in Judea, but he
is slain by Ishmael. As we remember, the original Ishmael was the son of
Abraham and the Egyptian bondwoman Hagar. It is not surprising,
therefore, to find this later Ishmael inciting the people to go back to Egypt.
God says to them: "50 shall my fury be poured forth upon you, when ye
shall enter into Egypt ... 0 ye remnant of Judah; Go ye not into Egypt."
Yet, "they came into the land of Egypt: for they obeyed not the voice of the
Lord." This return to positions outgrown is the antithesis of the tone of
Spirit. The textbook teaches: "Spiritualism would transfer men from the
spiritual sense of existence back into its material sense. This gross
materialism is scientifically impossible, since to infinite Spirit there can be
no matter" (5 & H 75:8).
Jeremiah is bidden: "Take great stones in thine hand, and hide them in
the clay in the brickkiln, which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house ..
Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my
servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid ... And
when he cometh, he shall smite the land of Egypt, and deliver such as are
for death to death." Thus organic death occupies the throne of organic
birth.
In Egypt, despite Jeremiah's entreaties, Israel offers sacrifices to the
queen of heaven. Her excuse is: "Since we left off to burn incense to the
queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted
all things ... " The mother-goddess is common to all the Semitic nations.
In Egypt her name is Isis, in Babylon it is Ishtar. James Fraser in The
Golden Bough shows that the Roman Madonna, also called "queen of
heaven," is a derivative of the Egyptian Isis.
We are approaching the New Testament now, and the counterfact in
Science to the mythical mother-goddess and her son is very close at hand.
Mind
Man's true origin: Finally, Jeremiah enumerates the different incarnate

errors which the Mind of Christ eliminates from Israel's consciousness so
that she may realize her spiritual origin. These take the form of nine
enemy nations. They range, as we might expect, from Egypt to Babylon,
with Babylon supreme over all. They are: Egypt, Philistia, Moab, Ammon,
Edam, Syria, Kedar, Elam, and finally Babylon herself, the harlot city, the
opposite of the holy foursquare city which is the divine origin of us all.
LAMENT A TIONS
In the five dirges that make up the book of Lamentations, Jeremiah

beseeches Israel not to distress herself over the loss of Jerusalem, not to
bemoan the laying off of the organic sense of life, but rather to mourn it
spiritually. In the measure that she does this, she will be amply
compensated and blessed. He seems to say to her in the words of Jesus:
"Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted."
The book is full of the comfort that will come to Israel if only she is
spiritually minded enough to let the mortal go. If not, there can be no real
comfort. She will find herself solitary, left without sympathy, faced with a
seeming vacuum. Hence we read: "How doth the city sit solitary, that was
full of people! how is she become a widow ... among all her lovers she
hath none to comfort her ... Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore
she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen
her nakedness . . . she had no comforter."
Jeremiah implores Israel not to grieve because Babylon has sacked
Jerusalem. He begs her, as he has done all along, to go forward into
Babylon at God's command. There, a new Jerusalem will be revealed to
her as the sale reality of what she thought was Babylon, and of which she
was so afraid. The vacuum which she dreaded will be filled with Life and
Love. Thus will the nothingness of Babylon be demonstrated, and she
herself will return and rebuild Jerusalem, and enter into newness of life.
Lamentation's five poems seem to take our thought through an
equivalent of the first five days of creation to the point of the surrender of
the mortal sense of life. This implies that while the book of Jeremiah has
the accent on the first of the two translations (translation from the divine
244
thought to the human), Lamentations accentuates the second, where the

problem of mortality is in process of being solved, or where Science
"reverses the evidence before the [five J corporeal human senses"
(S & H 116:5).
(3)
EZEKIEL
The prophecy of Ezekiel develops through a succession of finely drawn

apocalyptic images. It reaches its climax when the writer discloses his
vision of Israel's incorporeal temple, or body, which Babylon has never
touched.
Within the total prophetic matrix, Ezekiel corresponds to Science as
the Word, where the synonyms are Soul and Life. Isaiah having
emphasized the matrix as a whole, and Jeremiah having emphasized the
calculus which the matrix embodies, Ezekiel puts the emphasis on the
numerals of infinity, the elements out of which the calculus is formed, and
the means of understanding what constitutes sinless, deathless man.
Ezekiel must put before Israel the Life which is Soul, and the Soul
which is Life, in order that she may behold her identity as it reaJJy is,
forever unspoiled by Babylon. Unless this happens, how can she possibly
come up out of the Babylonian tomb with her body resurrected? That
Ezekiel performs this inestimable service is not only evident from the text
itself, but is also true historically. For Ezekiel, as we have said, is believed
to have been the principal architect of the Old Testament's Priestly
Document, based on the numerals of infinity, or the seven days of
creation. It is not surprising, therefore, that when we ponder the book in
its Science, we find it unfolding in the order of these same seven days.
Ezekiel stands for the actual experience that even while Israel is lying
apparently in the Babylonian tomb, her body is alive and unharmed.
So let us quote once more: "The numerals of infinity, called seven days,
can never be reckoned according to the calendar of time. These days will
appear as mortality disappears, and they will reveal eternity, newness of
Life ..." (S & H 520: 10).
Time is symbolized by Israel's seventy years of Babylonian exile - the
threescore years and ten of the life of a mortal as it ranges from the womb
to the tomb. This is time on the individual scale. On the universal scale, its
symbol is seven thousand years - the seven thousand-year periods which
underlie the Bible as a whole, as well as the history of civilization.
There is little doubt that Israel's ability to rise regenerated into
newness of life after her seventy years captivity, is due to the revelation of
Soul and Life that comes to the prophet Ezekiel.

Unlike Jeremiah, Ezekiel has perforce to accompany Israel into
Babylon, and he and Daniel are the prophets of the exile. Throughout the
245
book, Ezekiel calls himself the "Son of man." What he stands for
spiritually is the Son of woman, or generic man. And this is precisely what
Jesus shows his identity to be when, reversing the evidence of the
entombing senses, he rises regenerated at the resurrection and proves his
immunity from a maternal womb. Perhaps as we grow to understand
Ezekiel and the wonder of the idea which lies behind his imagery, we shall
perceive the state of consciousness which lifted Jesus from the grave.
Certainly the feeling one has in pondering the message is that although
Ezekiel IS a captive in Babylon he is not conscious of Babylon at all. He
lives in the reality of the New Jerusalem. Hence his vision ends with the
measuring of Israel's ideal temple, or body. In view of this it is well to
observe that throughout his entire discourse nothing condemnatory is said
regarding Babylon. Ezekiel refuses to make something of nothing.
The tones of the days of creation, which unfold Ezekiel's message, are
in each instance introduced by the fact that the "hand of the Lord" was
upon him - a theme which occurs exactly seven times.
First day
Mind
The first of Ezekiel's symbolic images is four living creatures. Here, at the
beginning of his prophecy, Mind presents and thought accepts the fourdimensional calculus of reality as Israel's sinless, deathless body.
"And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great
cloud, and a fire infolding itself ... out of the midst thereof came the
likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had
the likeness of a man." The foursquare calculus, infinitely infolded within
itself, is man in the spiritually generic sense as the true idea of Israel. "And
every one had four faces, and every one had four wings." Each aspect of
the four reflects every other aspect. The faces stand for identity, or Soul;
the wings for individuality, or Life. Reflection is instantaneous,
simultaneous, spontaneous; therefore "the living creatures ran and
returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning." We read how "their
appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a
wheel." In the "cycles of eternal existence" (S&H 319:13), that make up
the movements of the infinite calculus, centre and circumference are
immediately one. Spiritual truth flows ceaselessly from centre to
circumference and from circumference to centre.
Arnold Toynbee, in A Study of History, uses the symbol of the wheel.
Describing what he calls the movements of cyclic recurrence in the
universe, he shows how minor repetitive movements bear on their wings
major irreversible movements, and illustrates this by the rotating wheels of
a forward moving vehicle. In Science, the revolving wheels are the
numerals of infinity, as the tones of the synonymous terms for God. The
vehicle, which is propelled forward by these rotations, is the divine
infinite calculus moving within its matrix, and typified by Ezekiel's
chariot.
246 FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION

This comprehensive vision comes to Ezekiel as a blaze of light. Science
and Health teaches: "Mind is perpetual motion. Its symbol is the sphere.
The rotations and revolutions of the universe of Mind go on eternally"
(S&H240:14).
The symbol changes to a flying roll. The idea is still one of spiritual
evolution. The word "roll" is from the Latin for "wheeL" Ezekiel sees a
scroll unfolding itself. He is told: "Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat
this roll ... cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I
give thee." St John, in Revelation, is commanded to eat the little book
(Science and Health); and the disciples, in the gospel, eat the Christ-body
in order that they themselves shall be this body. Like the light of the first
day of creation, the idea presented is the omniaction, the revolving
movements, of the body of infinite Mind.
Second day
Spirit
Third day
Soul
When the hand of the Lord is upon him for the second time, Ezekiel is
called to be a watchman. Unless we are resolute watc~men we cannot, as
we found in Ezra and Nehemiah, engage in the work of rebuilding the
body after Babylon has been overcome. Inspired by Ezekiel, Israel, in
Babylon, is learning to be a watchman. "And it came to pass at the end of
seven days, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, I
have made thee a watchman unto the house of IsraeL"
The Spirit tone is a short one; it shows the necessity for remaining
constantly in the sanctuary of Spirit, of being a vigilant porter at the door
of thought, in order that Spirit (the firmament) can impart the understanding of its own infinitude, and destroy the belief that we live in
Babylon.
The vision of the four living creatures, in the first tone, causing Ezekiel to
be a watchman in the second, enables him to storm Israel's citadels of sin
in the third - in a tone of Soul, correlative with the third day of creation.
When the hand of the Lord is upon him for the third time, Ezekiel is told:
"Son of man, take thee a tile . . . and pourtray upon it the city, even
Jerusalem: And lay siege against it ... and thou shalt bear the iniquity of
the house of Judah forty days." We are reminded of Jesus' forty days in the
wilderness, when he overcame Satan, or sin.
To lay siege to the sins of Jerusalem, Ezekiel must shut himself up in
his house. He must understand within himself that sin (and therefore
death) is not something going on 'out there.' And he can do this, as he
himself explains, because from his youth up he has "not eaten of that
which dieth of itself." For the same reason Jesus experiences the
resurrection. Immortality causes mortality (sin) to be self-destroying - to
die of itself. To achieve resurrection, neither Ezekiel nor Jesus identify
themselves with mortality and its sins.
Mary Baker Eddy writes of the way in which "spirituality lays open
siege to materialism" (S&H 216:9); also of how "Jesus stormed sin in its
247
citadels and kept peace with God" (Mis 211 :27). In his siege of Jerusalem,
Ezekiel, like Jesus, forces sin to surrender unconditionally; he causes it to
be self-seen and self-destroyed. He surrounds it on all sides at once.
Besieging it completely, he allows it no way of escape.
During the siege, Ezekiel shaves his head. He divides the hair into
three parts. One part he burns with fire, another he smites with the sword,
and the third he scatters in the wind. Remember the story of Samson and
his hair. Sin is the belief that the numberless individual identities which
make up generic man can be cut from their divine roots. In himself,
Ezekiel bears witness to the nothingness of the three foremost illusions of
fallen man - sin, disease, and death.
day
This leads, in the tone of the fourth day of Principle, to the dismissal of
Principle
evil as one evil, or as the evil one. The theme is the personification of evil,
Fourth
the god
Ezekiel
Evil
Ezekiel
of this world, the mental despotism, or animal magnetism, which

must unmask (S&H 103:3)".
appears in the guise of jealousy. The "image of jealousy," which
now shows us, epitomizes everything to do with the hidden,
unconscious workings of primitive mortal mind.
He is brought "in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the

inner gate ... where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which
provoketh to jealousy." God says to him: "Son of man, hast thou seen what
the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the
chambers of his imagery?" Ezekiel must understand the nothingness of
unconscious animal magnetism, whose mythological images lie "hidden in
the dark recesses of mortal thought" (S & H 102: 18), ready to spring into
uncontrolled expression under the general impulse of jealousy. "Then he
brought me to the gate of the Lord's house which was towards the north;
and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz." Tammuz is the
Semitic equivalent of the Greek god Adonis.
We read in the chapter "Marriage" in Science and Health: "Jealousy is
the grave of affection" (S & H 68:9). And elsewhere of "Envy, the great red
dragon of this hour" (Mis 254: 18). This section in Ezekiel is by far the
longest in his prophecy. It ranges over 25 chapters. It contains terrible
denunciations of Israel's lewd harlotry, and of the many enemy nations
such as Egypt and Babylon, Edom and Phoenicia, who have aided in her
defilement. The tremendous force with which Jeremiah assailed animal
magnetism in his prophecy is increased here by the spiritual detonations
of Ezekiel. The need is to bring the "sword" of true manhood "against all
flesh from the south to the north." This sword "contemneth the rod of my
son, as every tree." It vanquishes "the sword of the great men that are
slain, which entereth into their privy chambers." "I will overturn,
overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it
is," says Israel's divine Principle that shall "judge thee in the place where
thou wast created, in the land of thy nativity."
248
There is the vision of the seething pot, the scum of which rises to the
surface. With growing vigour Ezekiel continues to devastate animal
magnetism. "Woe to the bloody city," he says, "to the pot whose scum is
therein ... For her blood is in the midst of her ... that the filthiness of it
may be molten in it, that the scum of it may be consumed. She hath
wearied herself with lies, and her great scum went not forth out of her ...
Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a
stroke ... Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead." In terms such
as these Ezekiel denounces the efforts of carnal belief to hold Israel
captive in the grave of mortal body.
The purpose of Principle in these closing stages of the fourth period is
to bring unconscious "scum" to the surface of consciousness so that it may
pass away. In no other way can the birth of Christ Jesus take place at the
beginning of the fifth period.
We read in the textbook's third chapter: "The mental chemicalization,
which has brought conjugal infidelity to the surface, will assuredly throw
off this evil, and marriage will become purer when the scum is gone"
(S & H 65:29). The harlotry of Israel, her self-divorcement from God, is
seen in the conjugal infidelity, the evil scum, which, as it is thrown off,
makes way for the resurrection sense of wedlock. Hence the note on which
"Marriage" closes: "But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain
.. resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage."
Israel's resurrection takes place symbolically as her return from Babylon

to Jerusalem.
Fifth day
Life
The hand of the Lord is upon Ezekiel for the fifth time. The tone is the
fifth day of Life. The deadness of an organic sense of life is likened to the
dead letter of a lifeless lip-service to God which, because it is devoid of
love, is cold and inanimate. Israel listens to the words of Ezekiel, "but they
will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart
goeth after their covetousness."
The selfish shepherds of Israel are condemned for leaving their nocks
to be scattered and destroyed. They feed themselves but do not search out
the flock. Therefore, says the Lord, "I, even I, will both search my sheep,
and seek them out . . . I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall
feed them ... and lI) will ... cause the evil beasts to cease out of the
land." Clearly this alludes to the coming of Jesus in the fifth day of Life.
Israel has fallen victim to a dead spirit of moralism and a dead
technological letter. She has multiplied her words against God, and has
been "taken up in the lips of talkers." As the spiritual reversal of this, the
text has much to say about the multiplication which shall take place in
Israel when she sows her land anew. God assures her: "Behold, I am for
you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown ... And I
will multiply upon you man and beast ... A new heart also willI give you,
and a new spirit will I put within you ... I the Lord build the ruined
places, and plant that that was desolate ... and they shall know that I am
the Lord." Thus life takes the place of death when scattered Israel is
resurrected and restored to her own land.
Sixth day
Truth
The form which the answer to this deadness takes is not however given
until we reach the tone of the sixth day of creation, and the sixth synonym,
Truth. Then we are shown the "valley of dry bones," and the way in which
these become the living structure of spiritual consciousness, which is
Israel herself as the idea of God.
Again "The hand of the Lord was upon me. . . and set me down in the
midst of the valley which was full of bones ... behold, there were very
many in the open valley; and, 10, they were very dry." There is no life, no
movement, in the dead, dismembered letter of Science.
Ezekiel is bidden to address the bones: "0 ye dry bones ... I will
cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live ... I will lay sinews upon
you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put
breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord."
"And as I prophesied," Ezekiel says, "there was a noise, and behold a
shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone." A fragmentary
array of truths are never living truths until seen in their integrity as
constituting one whole Truth. Only in their living wholeness do the
numerals, calculus, and matrix of the divine system of Truth form the
actual structure of Truth itself.
The text continues: "Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind
... Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, 0 breath, and
breathe upon these slain, that they may live ... and they lived, and stood
upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then said he unto me, Son of
man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our
bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut offfor our parts ... Thus
saith the Lord God; Behold, 0 my people, I will open your graves, and
cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of
Israel. "
Through divine inspiration, which is the breath of Spirit, God, Ezekiel

foresees the resurrection of Israel from her Babylonian grave, and the
restoration of her body to a new sense of life. Remember it is the "whole
house of Israel" - the wholeness of Israel as both Judah and Israel,
manhood and womanhood - which is necessarily represented in this sixth
tone of Truth. This is why, in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, the temple
and walls, as the centre and circumference of consciousness, typify the
simultaneous resurrection of both these aspects of man.
Seventh day
Love
Just as we did not see the life of the fifth tone until we came to structure in
the sixth, so now, we do not see the beauty and perfection of the structure
until we come to the seventh tone of Love, correlative with the seventh day
of creation.
250
.~
The prophecy rises to its mighty climax in the vision of Ezekiel's

temple. In the words of Paul used in Science and Health to elucidate the
seventh day of creation, we arrive at the "'measure of the stature of the
fulness of Christ" (S & H 519:20). Ezekiel beholds the foursquare structure
of Truth and Love, the matrix calculus of eternal Life, as the only body
Israel has ever had, and therefore that which resurrects the temporal
human concept of body. The idea of foursquareness permeates this
concluding section of the book.
Ezekiel is taken to the top of "a very high mountain, by which was as
the frame of a city on the south." Remembering that in Jeremiah the
"queen of heaven" is organic motherhood which the Christ-idea must
needs translate, it is interesting that an alternative rendering of "queen of
heaven" is "frame of heaven." Is not the foursquare matrix of immortality
this very frame of heaven?
The idea of scientific measurement dominates Ezekiel's description of
man's ideal temple, or body. The word "measure" is from the same root as
"dimension." What Ezekiel beholds is Israel's spiritually dimensional
consciousness. A man with a measuring reed stands in the gate measuring
the beauty and perfection of her divinely structured, deathless body. In
Revelation, this same structure, in the shape of the holy city itself, is
likewise measured. In Revelation, he who measures is an angel who is a
man, whose final calculation is the measure of himself. Israel, generic
man, must measure (divinely) the stature of her own Christ-being, and in
so doing measure up (humanly) to this stature. She must understand her
identity in terms of the line, plane, space, and fourth dimension of
scientific consciousness.
Spiritually dimensional consciousness is that ideal "structure of Truth
and Love" (S&H 583:12) in which no part can depart (or be abstracted)
from the holiness of the whole, because Love holds all in one.
Once he has described his vision, Ezekiel is bidden to "shew the house
to the house of Israel ... and let them measure the pattern." "Shew them
the form of the house, and the fashion thereof," he is told, "that they may
keep the whole form." Israel must understand that this beautiful
impregnable temple is her own original spiritual selfhood, her divinely
structured resurrection body, forever unravaged by Babylon.
Surely this measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ not only
brings Israel up out of Babylon but, correspondingly, resurrects Jesus
from the grave at the beginning of the fifth period.
(4)
DANIEL
Although, textually, the book of the fourth major prophet is short by

comparison with the other three, its message is so vast, so fundamental, so
251
comprehensive, that, in the words of The Scofield Reference Bible, it

"sweeps the whole course of Gentile world-rule to its end in catastrophe,
and to the setting up of the Messianic kingdom" (SRB p.898). Daniel
foresees the resurrection of the whole human race from Babylonian
servitude, and the ultimate reign of the kingdom of heaven on earth.
Within the frame of the matrix as a whole, Daniel corresponds to the
sixteenth and final tone, Science as Science, with the synonymous term
Principle. ]n Science as Science the universe is interpreted by its divine
Principl~, and therefore can be understood.
The exploration of reality made by Daniel differs from that other
mighty survey carried out by Isaiah. Daniel corresponds to the golden
candlestick's central, foundational shaft; Isaiah corresponds to the
candlestick's two outermost branches rooted in this shaft. Perhaps it could
be said that Daniel pertains especially to the idea that the whole is greater
than the sum of its parts. For just as the candlestick's three pairs of
branches stem from one central shaft, so the book of Daniel embraces
within it the essential ideas of the other three major prophets. In
confirmation of this, the book unfolds in four main divisions, giving the
general tones of the Word, Christ, Christianity, Science.
The name Daniel means "God is judge." Daniel is the reverse of Dan in
his aspect as animal magnetism (S& H 583:26). Underlying the message of
Daniel is man and the universe one with Principle (divine 'magnetism'),
whereby everlasting judgment is passed on Babylon (animal magnetism).
As in the case of Ezekiel, the setting of Daniel is the seventy years span
of Israel's Babylonian exile. Thus Daniel's symbolism, too, bestrides the
full range of organic life, or the period of man's supposed deportation
from God. But because Daniel's "time of the end" looks forward to the
salvation of mankind as a whole, it could be said that he relates to the span
of the seven thousand-year periods, or the time during which the problem
of life in matter is solved on the universal scale.
Babylon thus becomes the comprehensive symbol of life in matter, or

mortal body. Animal magnetism declares that man enters this body at
birth and (after a sojourn of threescore years and ten) vacates it at death. If
it were true that an animal magnetic force did in fact steal man away from
God, passing him through one mortal body in order to imprison him in
another, this would be the worst of all possible crimes, and the work of the
murderer from the beginning. It would be the equivalent of crucifying the
Son of God. The demonstrations of Jesus prove that both criminal and
crime are a dream, and that neither really exists. Just as it is impossible for
a principle to be robbed of its idea, so it is impossible for man to be
abstracted from the oneness and wholeness of God. Only to mortal sense is
the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. Once the truth is
accepted in divine Science, each of us, like the innocent Lamb, is alive for
evermore.
Prophesying the Christ's second advent, and the time of the great
252
tribulation (which historically is in progress today), Jesus refers us to the

book of Daniel. We read in Matthew 24: "And ye shall hear of wars and
rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come
to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and
kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and
earthquakes, in divers places ,. When ye therefore shall see the
abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the
holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in
Judaea flee into the mountains . . . but for the elect's sake those days shall
be shortened."
Foretelling the fury of the ferment which accompanies the overthrow
of animal magnetism (described in Bible language as the end of Genlile
world-rule), Daniel refers to "the abomination that maketh desolate." In a
single succinct phrase he pinpoints primitive evil as the abomination
which, unless it is reversed and translated by the Science of Mind, will
desolate mankind. Yet neither Daniel nor Jesus tells us what the
abomination is. The text implies that we understand its meaning only
through divine revelation. We must approach this symbol, therefore, in

the spirit of the words of Jesus that, whoso pondereth deeply the inspired
Scriptural text will be led to evaluate rightly the "abomination of
desolation."
Suffice it to say here that the word "abomination" is used Ihroughoul

the Scriptures with reference to the worship of idols. To abominate means
to turn away from with the deepest disgust and loathing. The textbook
speaks of loathing sin and rebuking it "under every mask" (S & H 30:28). It
uses the word "loathe" in connection with morbid cravings, appetites, and
drunkenness.
"Desolate" is from a root meaning "alone," "It is not good that the
man should be alone," says the Lord God in Genesis. So Adam is divided
into Adam and Eve. Translated divinely, alone means all one with God.
Hence "happiness.
. cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to
share it" (S & H 57: 18). Clearly, the "abomination of desolation" does not
enter the spiritual wedlock of God and man which characterizes
resurrection.
Word
Understanding Science: The opening section of Daniel, in a main tone of

the Word, tells us of the need to understand Science in its absolute purity
in order to be untouched by animal magnetism, and so prove the
impotence of Babylon.
The story is about Daniel and his three Hebrew friends, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego- the four of whom typify spiritually the Word,
Christ, Christianity, Science. For just as the term Science includes within it
the signification of the other three terms, so Daniel, the book's principal
character, includes the qualities represented by his three friends.
There is no blemish in any of them. All four are "well favoured, and
skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding

science." Of supreme importance for the work that lies ahead is this
quality of purity, or having no blemish.
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, endeavours to defile this purity by
compelling his four prisoners to eat Babylonian food. But they refuse.
Only by abstaining from the meat and drink of Babylon, and digesting and
imbibing instead the letter and spirit of the pure Science of being, can they
hope to reverse the false evidence of the senses which says that they are in
captivity in Babylon. As a result of their steadfastness we read that "at the
end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than
all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat."
Christ
Science the interpreter: In the Christ section of the text, Daniel (in
Babylon) interprets Nebuchadnezzar's dreams in much the same way that

Joseph (in Egypt) interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh.
What do all these dreams typify? Surely, the Adam-dream of life in
matter from which [srael, asleep in this belief, needs to be awakened. The
hypnotic dream of the birth-death cycle, or the time of her supposed exile
from the promised land, is that from which all the prophets strive to rouse
her.
The dream is in two phases. The first concerns belief in inanimate
matter, and is typified by the Babylonian image made up of the different
metals; the second concerns animate matter, and is illustrated by the
vision of the tree.
Until the divine Principle of the universe interprets the universe in
Science, there is no true understanding either of what the universe is or of
what it is not. Evidently Daniel has "thoroughly learned and properly
digested" the divine Science of being. Evidently he has reached "the range
of felterless Mind" and knows "the past, the present, and the future." [n
fact, he knows "the truth more accurately than the astronomer can read
the stars or calculate an eclipse" (S & H 84:3-85:6). Thus he is able to give
the correct interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dreams, which the
Babylonian astrologers, necromancers, and clairvoyants fail to do.
Consequently Daniel is raised to a position of authority in Babylon, as
Joseph was in Egypt.
The king has forgotten the first part of his dream - the part that deals
with the inanimate, unconscious level of mortal belief- but he remembers
the second part, which has to do with the animate, conscious level.
Through his practice of immortal Mind-reading, in contrast to the
psychology methods of mortal mind-reading, practised by the Chaldeans,
Daniel reveals to Nebuchadnezzar the deep and secret things of Science
that will be made known to mankind in the "latter days." He says: "Thou,
o king, sawest, and behold a great image Imatter as an image in mortal
mind I ... and the form thereof was terrible. This image's head was offine
gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his
254
legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a
stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that
were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces ... and the stone that
smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth."
This stone, like the one used by David to slay Goliath (exile), is the
untouched calculus of Spirit which smites matter in its dual foundations
and causes the entire illusion to disintegrate and disappear. The stone
itself grows into a great mountain, and fills the whole of consciousness.
This stone is Israel herself coming from God, the absolute answer to
dualistic Babylon.
The different ml'tals stand for different world empires, all subservient
to Babylon, the golden head of them all. Once he realizes that his dream
foretells Babylon's downfall, Nebuchadnezzar sets up an image entirely of
gold. This is the assertion that Babylon herself constitutes the whole
material world. Anyone who refuses to worship this golden image which
Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up is cast into a burning fiery furnace.
The immediate victims of the devouring flames are Daniel's three
friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who decline to idolize the
image of matter which is held in mortal mind. Instead, they worship Spirit,
the subjective state of immortal Mind. "Lo, I see four men loose, walking
in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is
like the Son of God," says the incredulous king, when he comes to see the
destruction wrought by the flames of lust and hate. Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego know that the only real flames are those of the Holy Ghost,
divine Science, which is present with them, and which indeed is them.
Nebuchadnezzar recounts to Daniel the second part of his dream - the
part which he remembers. He says: "I saw, and behold a tree in the midst
of the earth . . . and the height thereof reached unto heaven ... and,
behold, a watcher and an holy one came down from heaven; He cried
aloud, and said thus, Hew down the tree ... "
This time, it is not a heaven-sent "stone" smiting an inanimate idol, but
a heaven-sent "watcher" ordering the felling of a live tree. The command
is to "leave the stump of his roots in the earth." The phallic symbol of the
upright tree stump was common, we are told, to all Semitic fertility cults. It
is found in Old Testament lore under the name "asherah," meaning
"upright, erect." It is said to be the reason why Yahweh, in his relations
with the faithless harlot, Israel, is known as the "jealous God." (See article
on "The Asherah," CB Appendix 42). The phallic idol, whether in the
form of tree-stump or stone, is but a surface symbol of the unconscious,
thrusting egotism of primitive mortal mind. We are fast reaching the New
Testament, where God is Father of the Christ-idea that is born to human
consciousness.
The tree, like the golden image, signifies Nebuchadnezzar himself.
This is evident when both king and tree are identified with the beasts of
the earth. Daniel tells the king that his dwelling will be with the beasts of
255
the field, that he will eat grass as oxen, and that he will be wet with the dew
of heaven until "seven times" shall pass over him. Then he will be saved
from himself. Ceasing his mortal arrogance, he will bless the most High
and "praise and extol and honour the King of heaven." In other words,
"mortal mind ... is a myth, and must by its own consent yield to Truth"
(S&H 151:31).
There are not two attractions, contending with one another for
supremacy. There is not a harlot city, Babylon, as well as a bridal city, New
Jerusalem. The first is but the false mortal concept of the second. The
problem of mortality is solved on the basis of the sole reality of
immortality. Hence the Christly transformation of Nebuchadnezzar from
animality to spirituality.
Christianity
Science the deliverer: The topics in Daniel's Christianity section are, first,
the fall of the kingdom of Babylon and, secondly, the rise of the kingdom
of the Medes and Persians. The first includes the episode of the writing on
the wall; the second concerns the inflexibility of Media-Persia's laws.
King Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar's successor, holds a feast at which
the sacred vessels looted from the temple in Jerusalem are desecrated.
During the drunken orgy a hand writes on the wall (near where the golden
candlestick is standing) the four words: Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.
None of Babylon's soothsayers can interpret these words, and once again
Daniel is called in to do so. They foretell the fall of Babylon, and this
strikes terror into the heart of the king.
Their meaning, Daniel says, is numbered, numbered, weighed, divided.
"God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it ... Thou art weighed
in the balances, and art found wanting . . . Thy kingdom is divided, and
given to the Medes and Persians."
In their association with the golden candlestick, surely the four words
stand for the numerals, calculus, matrix, and system of the universal
Science of man. Only these elements of the bridal city are truly capable of
bringing about the downfall of the harlot city.
Thus the empire of the Medes and Persians arises and overwhelms the
Babylonian empire, and sets Israel free.
But the law of the Medes and Persians, by which the new regime is
governed, is rigid and inflexible and "altereth not." Daniel's enemies use
this law in an effort to enforce his obedience to the Persian king Darius,
instead of to God. Only the law of Principle really altereth not, and Daniel
refuses to honour personal dictatorial decrees. Before Israel can rebuild
Jerusalem she must understand that neither can man be encased in a
mortal body, nor can the absolute Science of his being be made, as it were,
to set hard in a humanly prescribed legal mould.
Daniel's refusal to subscribe to Persia's dogmatic laws, means that the
good king Darius has no alternative but to have him thrown to the lions.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (in relation to Babylon) were cast into
256
a fiery furnace; Daniel (in relation to Media-Persia) is cast into a den of

man-eating lions. This, figuratively, is what happens when the advancing
spiritual idea challenges the dead, legalistic letter of the law.
Daniel is full of moral courage, the quality of "the lion of the tribe of
Juda" (S&H 514:10). Spiritual translation of the animalistic concept of
life leaves the human unscathed. Only when humanity fights animality as
reality does it get itself torn to pieces. To Darius' overwhelming relief,
God sends His angels and shuts the lions' mouths. When, however,
Daniel's assailants are cast into the den instead of Daniel, their bodies are
so brittle that the lions "brake all their bones in pieces or ever they came at
the bottom of the den ... So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius,
and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian."
Does not the double kingdom of Media and Persia typify the letter and
the spirit of the universal Science of Life? When letter and spirit are one
and indivisible they deliver Israel from Babylon; but if in belief they are
two separate factors both become the prey to the single-minded
materialism of the next world-empire to appear- Greece.
Science
Science the deliverance: The fourth main section, in the tone of Science,
concerns Daniel's interpretations of his own dreams, rather than his
interpretations of Babylon's dreams. These are called his "night visions."
They foreshadow the uncovering, in the latter days, of the supposititious
workings of involuntary, unseen evil. Writing of these days, Mary Baker
Eddy says that "Science only can explain the incredible good and evil
elements now coming to the surface" (S & H 83:6). She is referring to that
which comes to consciousness as the natural self-revelations of Truth, and
to the surfacings of the so-called unconscious stratum of mortal mind,
called the collective unconscious.

Daniel dreams that "the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great
sea." In mythology, the sea is the symbol of the psychic unconscious. As
we have already seen, it is interpreted by mythologists as the "mother of all
that lives." The four winds of the Spirit of God correspond to the four
sides of the holy city, the true "mother of us aiL" When the new heaven
and new earth appear in Revelation, as the result of the mission of the
God-crowned woman and her child, there is no more sea - no more
unconscious source of conscious human experience.
In Daniel's first vision four great beasts rise up out of this sea of
matter, or unconscious mortal mind. They are the antitheses of the Word,
Christ, Christianity, Science, which come down from God out of heaven.
The fourth beast is "dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly." He
has ten horns. Among these arises a "little horn," which speaks great
things. This little horn appears again in the second dream, and is evidently
a very important symbol.
The second dream is about a fight to the death between a he-goat and a
ram. The he-goat has one horn, the ram has two, and the he-goat is easily
the victor. In his choler, and in the fury of his power, the single-horned
goat casts the double-horned ram to the ground and destroys him
ruthlessly.
Historically, the two-horned ram is the empire of the Medes and
Persians, while the all-conquering Greek empire under Alexander the
Great (which is the next world power to arise) is the one-horned goat. An
important feature of Media-Persia is the religion of Zoroaster, whose
teachings on the warfare between good and evil exert great influence on
early Christianity. Similarly, classical Greece is the cradle of the singleminded materialism of modern Western physical science. Certainly, in the
twentieth century world, to which Daniel's symbols are prophetically
related, Western physical science has demonstrated its devastating power
over dualistic religion.
When the goat has waxed very great, his great horn is broken. Its place
is taken by four other horns. From one of these comes a "little horn,"
which waxes "exceeding great." This is the second version of the little
horn of the first dream. Historically, the vision is about the carve-up of
Alexander's empire at his death amongst his four generals. One of these
divisions includes Syria. The little horn is supposed to represent the
Syrian tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes who desecrates Israel's temple in
175 B.C.. by sacrificing a sow on the sacred altar. This starts the Maccabean
revolt on the part of the outraged Jews, and is the time when the book of
Daniel is reckoned to have been written.
The little horn magnifies himself "even to the prince of the host." This
shows the horn as the negative of which the archangel Michael is the
positive. Because it enters into and defiles Israel's holy sanctuary, the
symbol of her true body, Daniel specifically identifies it as "the
abomination that maketh desolate." Of this heinous and abominable
pollution, perpetrated by the king of Syria, the body of Israel must be
cleansed.
The horn is the symbol of aggression and strength. We read in the
Christian Science textbook: "The belief of sin, which has grown terrible in
strength and influence, is an unconscious error in the beginning" (S & H
188:4). If the origin of sin is unconscious nothingness, then however
gigantic its build-up, it must always remain myth, like its origin.
Spiritual strength, characteristic of Michael, is the reversal in Science
of physical strength (nerve, muscle, sinew) symbolized by the "little horn."
In Revelation, Michael (manhood) leads the hosts of heaven against the
great red dragon, because he is fortified by Gabriel (womanhood).
Michael and Gabriel work conjointly in Daniel even as they do in
Revelation (S & H 567). The closing chapters of Daniel teem with
references to strength - the spiritual strength ,\,herewi th Daniel is
strengthened, in contrast to the strength of the little horn.
Daniel's dreams pertain to "the time of the end" - to "the end of error,
when all discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth" (S & H 96: 19).
258
"Understand, 0 son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision,"
Gabriel tells him. "0 Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words
that I speak unto thee, and stand upright ... I am come to make thee
understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days ... fear not:
peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong ... there is none that holdeth
with me in these things, but Michael your prince." That which stands
upright and delivers Israel from Babylon is the manly strength of spiritual
understanding in contrast to the little horn.
"At that time," the last chapter declares, "shall Michael stand up, the
great prince which standeth for the children of thy people." Finally,
Daniel is told: "Go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and
stand in thy lot at the end of the days." Time disappears when the
numerals of infinity, the uncapitalized elements of Mind, Spirit, Soul,
Principle, Life, Truth, Love, translate the dream of thousand-year periods,
and dispel the myth of mankind's Babylonian exile.
The creative "I" of the divine Principle, Love, stands in the midst of its
own eternal universe. This surely is the idea which the major prophets, in
their harmony and unity, utter most powerfully of all. By contrast, the
abomination of desolation, standing in Israel's holy temple, is the basic
illusion of the Adam-dream. Cosmic consciousness is a state of divine selfrevelation. We are being led to the birth of our own Christ-selfhood at the
beginning of the New Testament. That which reveals itself to itself, and in
so doing forms in consciousness the image which is man, is He whom
Jesus calls "Father."
THE TWELVE MINOR PROPHETS
The minor prophets - the twelvefold circumference of the circle whose

centre is the four major prophets - perform, as we have said, the double
function of closing the door on the Old Testament and opening it
simultaneously on the New.
Presenting the idea of the matrix of immortality for the fifth time in the
Scriptural order, the sixteen prophets prepare the way for us to enter the
fifth period itself. They portray the waters of the "open firmament" (fifth
day of creation) bringing forth abundantly mankind's eternal life. The
demands of the Old Testament having been met, we reach, at the
beginning of the New Testament, the point where individual being is the
outcome of Principle- where we are sent by this Principle to transform
the world, in accordance with the example of Jesus.
We are truly born again. The means of spiritual birth lies in
understanding the nothingness of death - understanding the nothingness
of mortal creation, which the deep divinity of the Old Testament has, from
the beginning, been teaching us. Because the matrix of immortality is
259
simultaneously the origin and ultimate of life, so, in the dream of

mortality, the fleshly womb and earthly tomb are complementary
concepts.
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, having established that the idea of
God (represented later by Christ Jesus and Christian Science) is held in its
Principle at the centre of universal Being, the minor prophets, which we
come to now, show the order whereby this idea is born to world
consciousness, for the purpose of bringing about the redemption and

translation of mankind.
By the time the Old Testament closes, this idea constitutes the
universe; it tills the womb which has conceived and formed it throughout
the first four periods. Ideally, we have reached the centre and
circumference of individuality, or the se!f It remains, in the last three
periods, for us to experience the unending birth of this self- to be
conscious of Principle showing itself forth as us, its own idea.
Let us touch one by one on the messages of the minor prophets,
typifying the twelve "gates" of the circumference of the circle that enfolds
this foursquare idea. What is foreshadowed is the crown of twelve stars
which adorns the head of the woman (generic man) in Revelation, as she
brings forth her man child. At the same time, what is put to silence is the
birth-death cycle of Babylonian horoscopy, and the order of material
generation. Remember that to cast a horoscope is to cast a nativity. Mary
Baker Eddy writes of Christ Jesus that "his nativity was a spiritual and
immortal sense of the ideal world" (Mis 74:14).
(1)
HOSEA
The name means "salvation," the same as Joshua, and Jesus. How natural.
then, in view of the approaching birth of Jesus, that Hosea should
correspond to the first of the twelve open gates through which salvation
comes - salvation that lifts mankind out of the depths of Babylonish
whoredom.
"And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whored oms
and children of whored oms: for the land hath committed great whoredom,
departing from the Lord. So he went and took Gomer . . . which
conceived, and bare him a son. And the Lord said unto him, Call his name
Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon
the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of
Israel."
Our thought returns to the reference to Jezreel in II Kings where, in the
reign of Ahab and Jezebel, Israel committed her greatest whoredom.
Hosea is referring to the blood of Naboth in the story of Naboth's
vineyard. which was located in Jezreel. In their worship of Baal and
Ashtaroth, Ahab and Jezebel had, in effect, slain the heir of their Lord's
260
vineyard in order that the inheritance might be theirs- so that they

themselves might possess what rightly belongs to God. For this, the blood
ofJezreel must be avenged, and this is done through v,ihat the word kneel
means, namely, "God sows." When God, not man, sows the seed of the
manhood and womanhood of God in the womb of human consciousness.
the whoredom of mortality ceases; the vineyard of life belongs to Life, and
there is salvation for mankind.
As we have realized, the prophets gather into one transcendent
epitome all the major teachings of the Old Testament. Beginning with the
patriarchal period (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph), where the seed of
the world's true identity (Israel) is sown in consciousness by God the
Father. the prophets bring into focus the whole mighty process of \vodd
salvation. The idea that God, not man, "sows," is surely the fundamental
theme of Hosea's prophecy.
As in the case of the major prophets, the epoch anticipated is "that
day." "And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear. saith the Lord, I
will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth: And the earth shall
hear the corn, and the winc, and the oil: and they shall hear lezreel. And I
will sow her unto me in the earth."
,he subject is spiritual fertility. From the heaven to the earth, from the
earth to the corn, from the corn to the wine, from the wine to the oiL aU
processes of creation and productivity must respond spiritually to the call
of lezreel. The idea that God is Father applies not only to man, but to all
crcation. The seed of true manhood - the seed of the spiritual idea of
God - must be conceived and aHowed to germinate, instead of being cast
out of the vineyard, rejected by the huilders of an organic sense of life.
The message concludes on the same note: "Ephraim /Joseph, Israel]
shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and
observed him: I am like a green fir tree. from me is thy fruit found."
Because God is the sower of the pure Israelite seell, this seed will
inevitahly bear fruit and fulfil its divine purpose.
In this tone of the creative Word, we acknowledge God (Principle) as
the true source of human identity. Once this idea takes possession of
consciousness whoredom disappears. and the first gate on the north
opens.
(2)
Christ as the Word
JOEL
Scholars agree that the significance of the little book of Joel is

tremendous. Joel means "Yahweh is God." We come to the tone of Christ
reflecting the Word, and to the second gute on the north.
From the opening chapter onwards, the idea of spiritual fertility
persists. The text reads: "That which the palmerworrn hath left hath the
locust eaten: and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm
261
eaten; and that vvhich the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.
Awake, ye drunkards, and weep.
Be ye ashamed, 0 ye husbandmen;
howl. 0 ye vine-dressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the
harvest of the field is perished."
What has caused Israel's pitiful lack of spiritual fruitage? Unless it is
understood that the seed of her identity is sown by God the Father, pests
of palmerworms, locusts. cankerworms, and caterpillers inevitably come
upon the scene and devour what she believes she has propagated
personally. These forces of destruction are fundamentally lust, malice,
revenge, deceit, covetousness, etc., which Science and Health calls an
"army of conspirators" and says are "appctites to be abandoned" (5 & H
404:5,405:10).
When, however, God sows (in Hosea) then (in Joel) consciousness is
fertile and conception takes place. When God not man is acknowledged as
Father "the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with
wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten,
the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army
which I sent among you." The reason this army of conspirators is God's
army is because the devastation it causes forces mortals to turn from
matter to Spirit for reality, and thereby find salvation.
Juel fureshadows what is to happen on the day of Pentecost following

Jesus' ascension: and this. in turn, foreshadows what is destined to take
place "in the last days," when Christian Science is at work in world
consciousness. Perhaps it is this far-reaching vision which gives rise to
Scofield's surprising statement that "Joel . . . gives the fullest view of the
consummation of all written prophecy" (SRB p.930).
"And it shall come to pass," Joel writes, "that I will pour out my spirit
upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old
men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions" (see
Acts 2: 17). This prophecy relates to the time when human consciousness
is filled with the Holy Ghost, as on the day of Pentecost ~ when a common
mother-tongue, a means of spiritual communication among men, reveals
itself divinely, and puts itself into universal expression.
I n anticipation of this, Joel cries: "Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is
ripe: come, get you down: for the press is full, the fats overflow
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is
near in the valley of decision."
When (in a tone of Christ as the Word) the spiritual seed is accepted
and conceived in its universal meaning (as implied in the message of Joel)
the second gate on the north opens, and we move to a stage of spiritual
gestation. or where human consciousness bears the idea.
262
(3)
AMOS
Amos, the third minor prophet, brings us to our third gate on the north,
Christianity as the Word. The name Amos means "hurden," and the
symbol he uses is labour- the oppression of the poor by Ihe rich.
Following the impartial outpouring of the Spirit in Joel, Amos looks
forward to a just and equitable human society. Amos' ideal is that "the
rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood. all having the same
Principle, or Father" (S&H 518:15).
Consciousness labours to bring forth. Because of oppression by the

rich in matter, consciousness travails in hirth, and is pained to he
delivered. Amos reproves the oppressors: "Hear this word. yc kine of
Bashan . . . which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to
their masters, Bring, and let us drink.

I know your manifold
transgressions and your mighty sins: they aftlict the just, they take a bribe,
and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right." Jesus said:
"Blessed arc the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"
(Matt 5:3),
The spiritual idea, represented by the poor in spirit. seems to be in the
very gate of the womb, pushing against the sin in Israel which would
impede the spiritual birth. It is as if an "infant Christianity," or "Christian
Science infant" (Mis 15:29, S&H 463:17), is ready to be brought forth.
Yet those who "drink wine In howls, and anoint themselves with the chief
ointments: but. . are not grieved for the aftliction of Joseph" would. in
their ignorance, deliver Israel to Assyria instead.
Amos asks: "By whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small. . Then said
I, 0 Lord God, cease, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is
smaiL" The answer comes: "I will set a plumbline in the midst of my
people IsraeL" When Israel measures herself spiritually according to
God's standard of truth and equity, she will bring forth the Christ-idea.
The prophecy concludes with the assurance: "Behold, the days come,
saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader
of grapes him that soweth seed. . And I will plant them upon their land,
and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land whieh I have given
them, saith the Lord thy God." There will be no more labour. no more
tilling the soil to make it fruitful, no more destitution imposed by the
belief that matter not Spirit is substance. In the words of Genesis, every
plant of the tleld and every herb of the tield is already embodied in Israel's
identity before it is in the earth.
No longer will humanity labour its way in poverty up to God; man and
woman (Judah and Israel) will be found coming forth from God together,
already richly endowed with their true Christ-identity.
(4)
OBADIAH
The tiny prophecy of Obadiah brings us to the tone of the Word as the
Christ. and to our first gate on the cast. Its single theme is a denunciation
of Jacob's twin brother Esau (Edoln). Esau is red and hairy, and stands for
ani mality. As such he is no part of Jacob's real identity. Hence, in the story
of Jacob and Esau in Genesis, Jacob translates this false sense of Esau into
the expression, or "face," of God (Gco 33),
We read in Ohadiah: "How are the things of Esau searched out~ how
are his hidden things sought up!. . For thy violence against thy brother
Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt he cut off forever.
. the
house of Jacob shall bc a fire. and the house of Joseph a tlame. and the
house of Esau for stubble.
. and there shall not be any remaining of the
house of Esau; for the Lord hath spoken it.
Through the idea that God sows (in Hosea). that spiritual conception
takes place (in Joel), that there is spiritual travail (in Amos), we reach the
understanding (in Obadiah) that an animal counterpart does not lie
entwined with our real selfhood in the womb of consciousncss.
(5)
263
JONAH
The fifth minor prophet is Jonah, who is our second gate on the east.
Jonah means 'dove." This immediately relates him with "divine Science"
(S& H 584;26). and therefore with the integrity of Christ as the Christ.
In line with this. Scofield says that Jonah "typifies Christ as the sent
One, raised from the dead, and carrying salvation to the Gentiles" (SRB
p.943). The story is about Jonah's divine commission relative to the
people of Nineveh (Assyria). It foreshadows the mission of Jesus relative
to all mankind.
Jonah fears he will not be able to discharge the mission with which he
is entrusted, and there is a violent chemicalization of consciousness. He is
in a ship at sea, and a tempest arises. Knowing that he himself is the cause
of the tempest Jonah bids the ship's crew throw him into the waves.
Swallowed by a whale, he spends three days and nights in the animal's
belly. This points prophetically to Jesus three days and nights in the
sepulchre, when he proves the unreality not only of the mortal tomb but
also of the mortal womb. But whereas Jesus did not feel personally
responsible for his mission, Jonah does feel responsible for his, and this is
the cause of his doubts and difficulties.
In Obadfah only one kind of identity occupies consciousness. To
demonstrate this identity as the spiritual selthood of mankind is the holy
mission with which Jonah is charged. Jonah's necessity, like our necessity,
is to prove himself equal to his mission by faithfully discharging it- by
264
hringing tn hirth the spiritual idea of God as the saviour of the human
race.
He is entrusted v,:ith the salvation of Nineveh. capital of Assyria. the
ntlfiOfl (hilt rakes lsrae-! captive. Because of Ninevch's /thc \.vorlLJ"s) great
sins, the moral Jonah would like to sec her punished. But this is not the
Christ way. Christ does not destroy sinning murtal man: Christ replaces
the mortal appearance with th~ imnwrtal image of God. The idea that is
horn to the \vorld (in the fifth period). as a rr.:~ult of the work of the sixteen
prophets (in the fourth). is charged with the acc(l11lplishment 01 this very
translation.
It is true that under the impact of the Christ. evil as a false concept
destroys itself. and this makes it appear asifChri~t destroys evil. But eh.rist
is commissioned only to translate. Desiring that the world (Nineveh)
should he punished. as Jonah seems to. we have not impcr-;onaii7.ed evil.
and therefore we arc not equal to our mission llfs;livation alllI translation.
In this case a \\'or111 destroys the gourd that othenvise protects Jonah from
the ~un.
(6)
\UC\H
Acceding to the attitude demanded in Jonah ensures that spiritual identity

will be sah:l~. . hurn - that \vhat Principle has predctermined as our Christly
mission will he faithr\l1\~i and impersonally accomplished. Micah forc~ees
this work of redemption neginning !o take place, The tone is Christianit.y
<l~ the Christ. which opens our third gate on the cast.
""Yet will I hring an heir unto thee." ~ays the text. ""The breaker is come
up hefore them: they' have hroken up, and have passnl through the gate.
,llld arc gone out hy it: and their king shall pa~s before them, and the Lord
un the head of thelll." It is as if the Christ-idea. the kingly head of the
universal hlH..i)i of l11an, is pas~if1g ""rhrnugl1 the open gdtl.' of" Christian
Sciencc" (S& H ))):15). in the prncess of ~piritual hirth.
Hence: ""Be in rain. and labour to bring forth. 0 daughter nf Zion, like
a woman in trav"lil: for now shalt thou go forth nut uf the cit;
. (huu
shalt go even to Babylon: there shalt thou be (kliHTed
th()u,
Bethlehem Erhratah ) hirthplace of Jesus I. though thou he little alllong the
thousands of Judah. yet out of thee shall he cOllle forth unto me that is tn
he ruler in Israel.
. this man shall be the peace. when the i\~sJrian shall
C0111e into our land
He hath shnwed the('. () Illall. what is good: and
what doth the Lord requirc of thee. but to do .iuqi~. and to lo\c me n..: y. and
to walk humhly \vith thy Ciod'?"
These \\"ords from tvIicah afC quo/cd hy .\1r~ Eddy \I'hen she
,\(.:k!1tlwlcdgl'~ her appointment in IY07 as '"Fnndateur (11' the Assnciatio!l
fnr Intcrnatiunal Conciliatinll" Sill' writes: ";-"'1ay the fruit~ nt said grand
265
A~snciati()ll, pregnant with peace, find their hirthright in divine Scil:TlcC
Individuals, as nations. unite harmoniously on the hasis of justice,

and this is accomplished when self IS lost in Love - nr Goo's own plan of
salvation. 'To uo justly, and to love mercy', and to walk humbly" is the
standard of Christian Science" (My 2H3: 12).
The idea which Micah presents in the tone of Christianity as the Chr\'St
is the advent of world unity and peace in v..'hat scholars call the kingdom
age. Christianity (body) under the control of Christ (head) is this vcry
associatil)O of the hrotherhood of man, bringing into human expression
conciliatioll and peace.
Micah declares at the end of his prophecy: "Thou wilt perform the
truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, \vhich thou hast sworn unto our
fathers from the days of o\u," That which Gou sware to each patriarch in
turn \vas: :'In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be
blessed," That \\'hich blesses anu reconciles all the LlIllilies of the earth is
surely the original "heir" of God which hxlay is heing born to the world as
the universal Science of Christianity.
(7)
NAHUM
Nahum means "consolation." and his message, in the tone of the Word as
Christianity, becomes our first gate Oil the south.
He teaches that once the foregoing spiritual idea has been duly
revealed it dissolves the authoritarian concept of itself. typified hy
Nineveh, Humanity need feel no loss of identity when this dissolution
takes place. for what the senses fear as a material vacuum is already filled
\\"ith universal Love. Thus there is consolation.
Nahum records: "There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil
against the Lord. a wicked counsellor.
. Thus saith the Lord.
now
will 1 hreak his yokc from off thee. and will hurst thy honds in sunder.
Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that hringcth good tidings, that
puhlisheth peace'"'
In I XX9, when Mary Baker Eddy dissolved her first central church
organization she referred to these words of Nahum. She wrote: "I
recommendeu that the church he dissolved
This measure was
illlmediately followed hy a great revival of mutual love, prosperity, and
spiritual power. The history of that hour holds this true record. Adding to
its ranks and influence, this spiritually organized Church of Christ.
Scientist. in Boston, still goes on. A ne\'.: light broke in upon it. and more
beautiful became the garments of her who 'hringcth go oJ tidings, that
publisheth peace' " (Ret 44:23).
There was immediate consolation (Nahum) for the memhers of her
church in thc form of this great revival of love. prosperity. and spiritual
266
power. Under divine guidance, her follo\vers had (symholically). through

the dissolution of material organization, agreed unanimously to lay down
the mortal sense of life, and to enter upon an era of spiritual organization
(body) instead.
Thus, as Nahum declares: "The gates of the rivers shall he opened, and
the palace shall be dissolved. . Nineveh is of old like a pool o(\I/"Her: yet
they shallilee away. Stand. stand. shall they cry: hut none shall look hack:'
(8)
HABAKKUK
Hahakkuk means "emhrace." The tone nnw is Christ reflecting

Christianity. Following the dissolution of the organic sense of life. in
Nahum, we come, in Hahakkuk. to the outcome of this. or to where
divinity (Christ) emhraces humanity (Christianity) "in Life and its
demonstration" (S& H 5hl:lh). This longed-for state of "human and
divine coincidence" opens our second gate on the south.
The prophecy reads: "Behold ye among the heathen. and regard. and
\vonder marvelluusly: for [will work a work in your days, \\hich ye will not
helieve. though it he told you.
. Art thou not from everlasting, 0 Lord
my (Jod, mine Holy One? \\le shall not die.
. Thou art of purer cyc~ than
to hehold evil. and canst not look on iniquity."
The wonder to which Hahakkuk refers, and which is wrought "in your
days," is the revelation of the Science of ah'lo/llfC go()d. In the immediate
experience of Israel this delivers her from the heathen Chaldeans. The
Principle of the Science of good is of purer eyes than to hehold evil. it
knows no such thing as evil. therefore it eliminates evil from human
experience. This is Science as divine Science made humanly
apprehensihle as Christian Science- Christian Science itself being
simultaneously ahsolute and applied.
Christ as Christianity, within the frame of the matrix, teaches that in
Science there is hut one "plane" of consciousness (sec Appendix p.3H2).
In this case. the human and divine arc one in coincidence. and humanity
lives in the emhrace of divinity.
[n the spirit ofHahakkuk, in Unif.v()fGO()d. we read of the wonder that
"God knows no such thing as sin" (Un 1:3). God destroys sin, hut docs not
know sin. What God knows regarding sin is its eternal non-existence. Thi.'I.
says Mrs Eddy. "may justly he characterized as \t'onder/it!."
Hahakkuk continues: "For the vision is yet for an appointed time. hut
at the end it shall speak. and not lie: though it tarry. wait for it: hccause it
will surely come, it will not tarry." Unify oIGood says:" '\Vait patiently on
the Lord;' and in less than another fifty years His name will he. magnified
in the apprehension of this new subject." This is where. in accord with the
words of Habakkuk, the author foresees human thought advancing from
267
an elementary "Science of physical harmony" to the absolute Science of

"God's hlindness to error and ignorance orsin." This absolute "perfection
of the infinite Unseen" confers the power which corrects and heals
humanity (see Un h-71.
Scofield says that Habakkuk "alone of the prophets was more
concerned that the holiness of Jehovah should he vindicated than that
Israel should escape chastisement" (SRB p.955). Hahakkuk is more
interested in absolute Truth than in solving prohlems of dualism.
(9)
ZEPHANIAH
Zephaniah, in the tone of Christianity as Christianity, opens our third gate

on the south. The name means "Je.hovah has hidden; protected of
lehnvah."
His stirring proclamation is that "the day of the Lord is at hand." He
writes: "The great day of the Lord is ncar, it is near, and hasteth greatly
. the mighty men shall cry there bitterly.
. Wait ye upon me, saith the
Lord. until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to
gather the nations. that I may assemble the kingdoms. to pour upon them
mine indignation. even all my fierce anger." Science and Hcalth says that
"During this final contlict" those who "discern Christian Science will hold
crime in check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They will maintain
law and order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection"
(see S& H 96-97).
Then comes Zephaniah's supreme prophecy. As this world upheaval
develops. he foretells. God will "turn to the people a pure language that
they may all call upon the name of the Lord. to serve him with one
consent" (ia).
The solution to the awful turmoil lies in a language of absolute ideas.
universally adaptable spiritual values. born to a world divided against
itself as a stable means of communication. Understanding a common
Principle. men understand each other. Each man learns to love his
neighbour (generic man) as his true self. Thus "the Lord thy God.
. will
save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love."
The symbol of this language (and therefore the means whereby
humanity may learn to speak it) is the language of capitalized, synonymous
terms for the infinite which. in the "great day" to which Zephaniah looks
forward, lies hidden in the Christian Science textbook. and is pro{cc(ed
there until the time is ripe for it to be discovered and understood (refer
meaning of "Zephaniah"). This. fundamentally, is the language of Mind.
Spirit. Soul, Principle. Life, Truth. Love. teaching what the universe is
constitutionally, and the Word, Christ. Christianity. Science, teaching how
the universe operares structurally. Each term refers to infinity. or God.
268
God declaring His Word (language), and man appointed to voice the
Word of God. afC one and simultaneous. This language of Spirit is the
language voiced by the disciples on the day of Pentecost, and understood
hy men out of every nation under heaven. each in his 0\\/11 longue. Such a
language is inherent in the idea of God which the fourth period prophets
afC bringing to hirth. and \vhich will appear and bless all the families of the
earth in the three succeeding periods.
Zephaniah's prophecy closes with the assurance: "'At that time will I
bring you again, even in the time that [ gather you: for I \vill make you a
name and a praise among: all people of the earth, when I turn back your
captivity hefore your eyes. saith the Lord."
(0)
The Word
as Science
HAGGAI
The coming of Zephaniah's "pure language" means that (ideally)

mankind's exile from God is over and the period of rehuilding can begin.
Haggai. Zechariah, and Malachi, the three remaining prophets. lead us
therefore into the post-exilic era. where hody is ahsolved from mortality
and the grave and "temporarily rehuilt" (5 & H 570: 17),
No wonder the name Haggai means "festal." His prophecy, in the tone
of the Word as Science, is our first gate on the \vest. The "Sciencc" tone
enters for the first time into the messages of the minor prophets. This is
what \ve \vould expect onc.e the exile is ended. and the human has a new
huilt identity.
Haggai's theme concerns the huilding of the universal "house of the
Lord." in contrast to the little privately owned "cieled houses" of men. He
says: "Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts. saying. This people say. The time
is not come. the time that the Lord's house should he huilt. . Is it time
for you, 0 ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie \vaste'? .
Ye have sown much, and hring in little: ye eat, hut ye have not enough: ye
drink, hut )ore are not filled \vith drink: ye clothe you. hut there is none
warm.
. Yc looked for much, and, In, it came to little. . Wh~/? saith the
Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste. and yc run every man
unto his o\vn house."
Echoing the \,./Ords of Haggai. Mrs Eddy is reported once to have said
to her students: "I gave so much. and you have done so little with it." Tv.'o
factors are to hlame: an organized collectivism. on the nne hand, and a
disorganized, segregated individualism. on the other. The word
"individual." as we have often noted, means "not divisihle." Hence
spiritual and scientific individuality does not exist in isolation. It is
impossihle to segregate it from the one whole body of man, or the
universal "house of the Lord." However proud \ve may be of them. our
privately o\vned cieled houses. our little personal achievements, must be
269
transformed and translated. through wedlock with one another, into a

spiritually structured universal consciousness, symholized in Haggai as
the house (~f the Lord. Reflecting this one house. or body, constitutes
individuality in Science. Zephaniah's pure language is the means wherehj!
a false sense of individualism yields to a truly universal and scientific
outlook, and therefore to individuality itself. in Haggai. Then our day hy
day human experience becomes spiritually collective. or compound.
"Then spake Haggai the Lord's messenger in the Lord's message unto
the people, saying. . Who is left among you that saw this house in her
first glory? and how do ye see it now'? is it not in your eyes in comparison
of it as nothing?"
When, at the resurrection, Jesus presented what appeared to the senses
as his original material body absolved from death and the grave, he tinally
proved that body is spiritual and not material. Mortal man. loving his
belief of life in matter. prefers the first of the two houses to the second.
But, in Science. "the glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the
former. saith the Lord of hosts." With all its material and personal
splendour the former is subject to destruction and death: the latter. which
has so much less to offer the senses, is in process of merging into eternal
life.
(11)
Christ as Science
ZECHARIAH
If the new language (in Zephaniah) causes the segregated sense of self to
yield to a new universal integrity (in Haggai), then Zechariah's "Branch"
(which is one of the principal themes in his prophecy) is scientifically
structured individuality re11ecting in itself the individual. collective, and
universal truth of mankind. In the inspired provisions for the Christian
Science Church. each individual hranch reflects one universal selfgoverning Branch. so that all constitute together the new "house of the
Lord."
The tone of Zechariah is the Christ in its Science, and is our second
gate on the west. The book teems with apocalyptic symbolism, similar to
that found in Ezekiel. Daniel, and Revelation. Zechariah foreshadows the
order and categories of the pure Science of Christian Science. the reality
underlying the symbol of the Christian Science branch church.
He records these words of Jehovah: "Hear now, 0 loshua the high
priest. . hehold. I will hring forth my servant the BRANCH. For hehold
the stone that I have laid before Joshua: upon one stone shall be seven
eyes." How often throughout the Old Testament, in a tone of Christ as
Science, the symbol of the stone, or rock, has appeared, typifying the
divine infinite calculus. The essence of the Science of Christ is Principle.
God, analj.'Led and understood through the S(;'V(;,11 eyes of Mind, Spirit.
270
Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love, and operating as the stolle of the Word,
Christ, Christianity, Science.
"And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a
man that is wakened out of his sleep. And said unto me, What seest thou')
And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl
upon the top of it, and his seven Jamps thereon, and seven pipes to the
seven Jamps, which arc upon the top thereof: And two olive trees by it, one
upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof."
According to Revelation, the two olive trees are the "two witnesses,"
the manhood and womanhood of God, the Bible and Science and Health,
Christ Jesus and Christian Science- seen here by Zechariah in intimate
association with seven golden candlesticks, and therefore with the Science
order of the synonymous terms for God. Zechariah calls them "the two
anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth."
Reference is made to a "great mountain." The question is asked: "Who
art thou, 0 great mountain? before Zeruhbabcl thou shalt become a plain:
and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying,
Grace, grace unto it." Again. a symhol of the system of capitalized terms
for God! This idea of divine capitalization is the headstone, or capstone,
of God's great mountain. In the article on "Capitalization," we read that
the correct use of capital letters in Christian Science "caps the climax of
the old 'new tongue' ,. (My 225:7). Scientific capitalization is both the
beginning and the end, the}iJUndajiol1 slOne and capSlOne, of the Janguage
spoken in the house of the Lord. In the text, "the hands of Zerubbabel
hath laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it."
Everything in God's universe comes from, and returns to, the one divine
Principle, Love.
"Take silver and gold, and make crowns, and set them upon the head of
Joshua," Zechariah is told, "And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh
the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH;
and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the
Lord." Joshua, identical with Jesus, signifies that state of consciousness
which leads the children of Israel into the promised land, whether this is
represented as taking place symbolically in the Bibles third thousand-year
period, here at the close of the fourth thousand~year period, or in what the
prophets call "the last days," under the auspices of the absolute Science of
Christian Science. The self-governing branch church, as founded by Mrs
Eddy, is the symbol of this man whose name is 'The BRANCH," and who
is generic man. Because it is "dependent upon no matcrial organization"
(S& H 509:3), this branch is Israel's new built, resurrection body.
(12)
271
MALACHI
Malachi completes the twelvefold circle drawn by the minor prophets. The
name means "my messenger." Coming in the tone of Christianity as
Science (the Science of Christianity. or Christian Science), Malachi
epitomizes in onc short message the entire prophetic purpose. He
embodies in himself the spirit of all God's messengers.
"Behold, I will send my messenger. and he shall prepare the way before
me," God says to him, "and the Lord, whom yc seek, shall suddenly come
to his temple. even the messenger of the covenant."
The purpose of the sixteen prophets, like that of the Old Testament as a
whole, is. as we have said, to prepare the way for the revelation of the Son
of God (the world's twofold saviour, Christ Jesus and Christian Science) to
appear initially at the opening of the New Testament.
The Bible and Science and Health teach that messengers and their
messages are one and the same thing, namely, "angels" - "God's thoughts
passing to man" (S& H 581:4). As wc shalilcarn from Paul in Hebrews,
God's ministering angels precede, in our experience, the coming of His
all-inclusive Son. The absolute divine idea (Son) develops through an

unfoldment of ideas (angels). These prepare the way for us to accept the
idea in its oneness and wholeness, and discover our reality as this idea. At
the close of the Old Testament, the angels have completed their
preparatory work, and we arrive at the fulness of the Son himself.
beginning with the New Testament. (Whcn we come to Hebrews, the last of
the Pauline epistles, we shall find that it occupies the same position in the
pattern of the matrix as does Malachi, the last of the minor prophets.)
"Return unto me, and I will return unto you," God says to Israel
through Malachi. "Will a man rob God" Yet ye have robbed me . . . even
this whole nation." With the coming of the New Testament, the proof is at
hand that God has never been robbed of His Son. On behalf of the human
race,
from
there
man
Christ Jesus will prove that animal magnetism never wrested man
the Father-Mother God and put him in a mortal body. In Science
is no intrrruption of the eternal spiritual order, no temporal exile of
from God.
Focused initially in Elijah, the prophetic purpose has been to teach

man's fundamental unity with God, so that mankind can at last be
regathered to God. Jesus will say of Elijah (whom he likens to John the
Baptist): "Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things" (Matt 17:11).
This work of first restoring all things {() God, in order, secondly, to witness
all things corning forth j"om God, summarizes the mission of Israel's
prophets, and therefore of the Old Testament.

Hence the words of Malachi: "Bring ye all the tithes into the
storehouse. that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now
herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of
272
heaven, and pour you oul a blessing, that there shall not be room t:!1ough
to receive it."
Throughout this stupendous prophetic era, emphasis is laid on lsrael"s
natural spiritual fertility- Israel. the living representation of generic man.
typified later by the woman in the Apocalypse who hrings forth her man
child. Rut. necessarily, the prophets also expose and denounce the claIms
of animal magnetism, the prospective devourer of the woman"s son.
Therefore. says Malachi. "The day cometh. that shall hurn as an oven~
and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, ,hall be stubble.
. Bul
unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise \\lith
healing in his wings.
. Behold, I will send you Elijah I Elias I the prophet
hefore the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord."
As the prophet messengers (summarized in Malachi) are to the New
Testament. so John the Baptist is to Christ Jesus, and Elias to universal
Christian Science.
The prophetic message has turned full circle. God has sown the
spiritual seed. and the fruit is ready to he reaped. The sixteen prophets
have carried out their guiding mission. and their star radiates its light. OUf
vision henceforth is outwards from the Principle which is Life, Truth, and
Love. Israel. the woman. the ,vorld as it truly is, is clothed \',;ith the healing
rays of the Sun of righteousness. Her womh teems with the true identity of
mankind. She is about to confront the material world with the reality of its
ovm being.
Quoting from Isaiah. the first or the prophets, and the one \.... hose
vision epitomizes the matrix as a whole, Mary Baker Eddy writes: .. 'For
unto us ! universal man I a child is born, unto us a son i.\ given: and the
government shall he upon his shoulders.' .,
She concludes the essay in which this reference appears with the
words: "The shepherds shout. 'We behold the appearing of the star" - and
the pure in heart clap their hands" (Mis Ibo-lbR, "A Christmas Sermon").
CHAPTER XIII
The Four Gospels

As the fourth day of creation and the fourth thousand-year period merge
into the fifth day and the fifth period, the heavenly firmament's gates are
open, and the waters of the matri x of universal Love bring forth abundant
life. Historically, according to the evidence of the corporeal senses, Jesus
is born of Mary.
"I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more
abundantly," says Jesus. 'Let the waters bring forth abundant life,' the fifth
day of creatioo says correspondingly. As the outcome of what the first four
periods have meant to us, we have reached the point of life; we are the very
idea of God showing forth Principle spontaneously.

The personal senses marvel at the phenomenon of Mary and Jesus, and
at Jesus' demonstration of deathless life. But spiritual sense, penetrating
sense evidence, looks at the underlying spiritual cause that determines the
outward appearance. To spiritual sense, at the opening of the fifth period,

the eternal Principle (or Person) of the universe declares itself to be Life.
Because Life is the oneness and indivisibility of Being, the Principle of the
universe shows itself forth as one and indivisible- that is, as individual.
Hence what Jesus brings to light is the true idea of individuality. As a
result. the mortal sense of individuality passes from his experience.
Reflecting in itself the indivisibility of Life, individuality, as exemplified

by Jesus, is undivided from the whole of creation.
This means to say that Life, in order to be Life, must, at the same time,
be Truth and Love. Principle and its universe are at once Life, Truth and
Love. Christ Jesus, showing forth divine manhood, appears historically at

a time corresponding to the fifth day of creation, where the accent is Life;
Christian Science, showing forth divine womanhood, appears at a time
corresponding to the sixth and seventh days of creation, where the accent
is Truth and Love. But eternal Principle, having revealed itself as Life,
does not wait another nineteen centuries before declaring itself to be
Truth and Love. Principle expresses itself simultaneously as Life, Truth

and Love.
The manhood and womanhood of God, typified in the Old Testament
by Judah and Israel, and thereafter by Christ Jesus and Christian Science,
are indivisibly one. They are the opposite of the two sex concepts to which
the personal senses testify. Individuality, in order to be individuality, must

reflect in itself the collective and universal wholeness of being. At the
273
274
same time, the collective and universal must he onc and indivisible - that
is. constituted of individuality. Manhood (the one) is not manhood unless
it embodies womanhood (the a\l); and womanhood (the a\l) is not

womanhood unless it expresses and reflects manhood (the one). Christian
Science teaches that in the idea of all-in-one and one-in-all lies "the
inalienable, universal rights of men" (My 247:1).

As idea sent forth to prove its Principle, Jesus' necessity is to show that
he is Universe-born, not Mary-born; that he belongs to eternity. not to
time. The same is true of Christian Science. To dissolve mortality in the
way Jesus does, individuality, in Science, must find itself born of the
spiritual universe, and therefore universal in nature. In the sight of
Principle, the one Christ and the one Christian Science are sent forth
together now and forever as one compound idea. Only in this timeless
spiritual wedlock are they mankind's saviour from sin and death.
When the 'T' thus goes to Life, Truth and Love, personai egotism
yields to Principle. The issue is not what Mary is doing, what Jesus is
doing, what any person or persons are doing, but what Principle's selfrevelation is as a matrix calculus of ideas. What the senses outpicture as
Mary and Jesus, or Mary Baker Eddy and the Christian Science movement,
are, in Truth, simultaneous unfoldments of thjs mother-son relationshjp
taking place timelessly, now.

As we have said, God's beloved Israel in the Old Testament is type and
symbol of the human race. Israel, in the spiritual transparency of her real
identity, is represented by the sixteen prophets. Once the testimony of the
senses is penetrated, Mary, the mother of Jesus, is seen to individualize
this universal, prophetic consciousness. Jesus, in consequence, is
individuality which is universe-born. The calculus of God's ideas is the
matrix of its own being. Matrix and calculus are inconceivable apart from
each other- hence the term matrix calculus. The concepts Mary and Jesus,
Mary Baker Eddy and the Christian Science organization (as formed by
her), are sense images, the reality of which is the human race one with
God, giving birth to itself as the Son of God.

Jesus' career unfolds in the order of the seven days of creation.
Spiritually understood, it reveals "eternity, newness of Life," and cannot
be reckoned in terms of time (S& H 520:10). "Father. . I have finished

the work which thou gavest me to do. . glorify thou me," he says in the
spirit of the seventh day of creation when his career is drawing to a close.
Jesus does not live in time but as the consciousness of eternal creation. He
individualizes universal being as unfolded by the seven days. Of necessity,
therefore, he individualizes the seven periods also. If this were not so - if
Jesus did not focus ind;vidually all that is signified by the seven thousandyear periods - he could not solve, in the way he docs, the universal
problem of mortality, or time.

The record of his God-impelled achievement appears in the Gospels of
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The inspiration behind these four
THE FOUR GOSPELS
275
hiographies is the Word, Christ. Christianity. Science. In fact. the four
Gospels are to Christ Jesus what the four sides of the Holy City are to
Christian Science.
Each Gospel accentuates a particular, indispensable view of Jesus'
lifework. In order to furnish one whole conception, each is essential to
every other; each reflects in itself the elements of the other three. Thus, in
our survey of the Bible as a whole, the Gospels present us once more with
the pattern of the foursquare matrix. They constitute the matrix's sixth
appearing. Following the work of the sixteen prophets, we arrive, with the
four Gospels, at the actual farm of the idea that first took foot in our
awakened consciousness at the time of [srad's patriarchs.
In his notes on the Gospels, Scofield describes most helpfully their
matrix structure. The terms he uses relate metaphysically with the Word,
Christ, Christianity, Science. Matthew he says, has the emphasis on Jesus
as King, Mark on Jesus as Servant, Luke on Jesus as Man, and John on
Jesus as Son of God. But, he continues, "not only so: for Matthew's King is
also Servant, Man, and God; and Mark's Servant is also King, and Man,
and God; Luke's Man is also King, and Servant, and God: and John's
eternal Son is also King, and Servant, and Man" (SRB p.990). Each office
rctlects in itself the other three offices. and the result, as we shall see, is a
further matrix of sixteen tones. The idea of God, represented by the four
Gospels, is one whole immaculate conception.
Matthew tells Jesus' story through the four tones of the Word, Mark
through the four tones of the Christ, Luke through the four tones of
Christianity, and John through the four tones of Science.
Individual fulfilment of the

seven days of creation and
Ihe seven thousand-year
periods
To perceive the way in which Jesus' career (requiring all four Gospels to
describe it) follows the order of the seven days and seven periods, let us
imagine the fnur different versions blended together to form a single
record of his life. Examining this synthesis spiritually and scientifically,
certain outstanding happenings characterize not only the seven days of
creation hut also, necessarily, the seven periods.
First day
First period
Science and Health speaks of the "spiritual origin of man, the divine
Science which ushered Jesus into human presence" (S & H 325:27). The
first day of creation, signifying man's spiritual origin in contrast to the
material origin of Adam (as given in the myth of the first thousand-year
period), is represented hy Jesus' advent, or nativity. As Jesus himself says,
his original identity is the light of the world. This is the "light" of the first
day of creation, chasing away the darkness of a mortal sense of origin.
Using the symhols of light, and the hread that comes down from heaven,
Jesus declares, in effect, that the source of his being is the eternal parent
Mind.
276

Second day
Second period
Third day
Third period
Fourth day
Fourth period
The second day and second period are indicated by his haptism. This, as
we have seen, is twofold. He is baptized with water by John the Baptist,
and with the Holy Ghost by his heavenly Father. Water stands for
repentance - repenting of the belief of having been born of the flesh, born
of a woman, such as applies to mortal man. Simultaneously as he comes up
out of the waters of Jordan, the Holy Ghost comes down from heaven and
identifies him as the Son of God. In accordance with the symbolism of the
second day of creation, Spirit imparts the undersranding (the waters above
the firmament) that enahles him to come up out of the fleshly sense or Me
(the waters beneath the firmament). His consciousness is submerged in
Spirit, flooded with spiritual understanding. like Noah, in the second
period, he is equipped with an ark of pure understanding whereby to
rebirth his consciousness of himself and his world. He sees, in the holy
Spirit, his own divine reality as the foursquare identity of mankind. This is
his "bride" (the holy city in Revelation is the bride of the lamb) to which
he weds himself in order to solve the problem of a dual sense of life.
Correspondingly, in Christian Science, we understand the Christ-body
through the influx of the meaning of the capitalized terms tor God. This
system of ideas is our true universal body to which we wed ourselves.
The third day and third period are typified in Jesus' career when,
furnished with the understanding of what his body really is, he goes into
the wilderness (like the children of Israel in the third thousand-year
period) and overcomes the temptations of Satan. He overcomes in himself
the liability to sin. In accordance with the third day of creation. the waters
under the heaven (the human concept) are gathered together unto one
place (are identified with the universal Christ-idea), and his humanity
finds its true form. Jesus relates himse II' humanly with the divine reality of
mankind. Thereby human and divine are one in identifY. Because the
human retlects the divine, it is as immune from sin as the divine itself.
Jesus is aware that subject and object are one in Soul, and therefore that
everything everywhere is the operation of Soul.
Following the experience in the wilderness, his period of public ministry
begins. This stage of Jesus' mission corresponds to the fourth day of
creation and the fourth thousand-year period. The emphasis is on
Principle's absolute, infallible government on earth as it is in heaven.
Symbolized by the celestial system of the fourth day of creation, and by the
teachings of the prophets in the fourth period, heaven controls absolutely
all happenings on earth. In his relationship with his surrounding world,
Jesus proves, in every particular, the allness of what his Principle is and
the nothingness of what it is not. Revolving in the universe of Principle, he
heals every phase of sin, disease, and death among the people. Because the
human (earth) is a reflection of the divine (heaven), humanity has no ego
of its own. Divinity is humanity's only Ego. Jesus is not looking up to
THE FOUR GOSPELS
277
Principle, from a supposed position outside of Principle, he is looking out

from Principle upon Principle's own universe - upon Principle itself. His
"[" is the Principle of all that exists, and which governs itself
harmoniously, He lives, moves, and has his being in an eternally selfgoverning, selt'~regulating, all~harmonious universe. Because no
inharmonious condition exists in this universe subjectively, it does not
exist there objectively either.
Fifth day
Fifth period
In the fifth stage of his career, corresponding to the fifth day of creation
and the fifth thousand-year period, Jesus enters Jerusalem. Here the
crucitlxion leads to the resurrection. The accent is on infinite Life.
Because, historicaHy, he himself appears at the opening of the fifth
period - because, in the idiom of the fifth day, he comes that the world
might have more abundant life - this stage of Jesus' development marks
the very crux of his mission. He proves that Life is indivisible (therefore
deathless), and that this is the life of all mankind. In accordance with the
teachings of the prophet Jeremiah, he does not seek to perpetuate the
temple (mortal body), but puts his neck under the yoke of the king of
Babylon unresistingly. Opening not his mouth, obeying not his own but his
Father's will, he goes forth obediently to face the crucifixion. He lays
down the mortal sense of life once for all. He proves that there is no
Babylon. New Jerusalem is the all-in-all of his being. All is Life and there
is no death. The motives of the real world towards him (Principle's world)
have already been proved in the fourth stage of his mission. This world has
neither the ability nor the will to destroy him. If it had it would destroy
itself. Jesus' resurrection is the proof that life is not organically selfdestroying, but perpetually self-renewing.
Sixth day
Sixth period
The sixth day of creation and the sixth thousand-year period are typified
in Jesus' career by the interval between the resurrection and ascension,
when he exercises the full dominion of man in God's image, as described
in the sixth day. He is in himself, both man and woman. Individuality that
embodies the true idea of its world, is every whit whole in Truth. Jesus is
conscious of that dominion over all the earth which Christian Science (the
spiritual translation of physical science) promises mankind in the sixth
thousand-year period. As he himself says: "All power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth." All things are put under his feet. Objectively as well
as subjectively, subjectively as well as objectively, his divinity as the
Christ, Truth, has absolved the human concept from all sin, disease, death,
and the grave.
Seventh day
seventh period
The seventh day and seventh period are signified by Jesus' final act of
translation, popularly called the ascensiun. As the last vestige of sense
evidence disappears from consciousness, the senses themselves say that
Jesus has gone away- that he has returned to the place where he used to
278
be before he appeared on earth. But this is not true. The ascension is the
final proof that the individual and his world never at any time, departed
from the presence of their divine Principle, Love. Spirit. never having
been translated into matter, matter does not have to he fe-translated back
into Spirit. Jesus does not go anywhere. He remains where he is
etcrnally- in he"aven and on earth at the same time. The same is true of us
all. Heaven and earth are one and indivisible. The only thing that goes
away is the mortal illusion that they are two. This illusion is replaced by
the universe of divine Science, the universe of eternal Love, the matrix
calculus of infinity, which is destined to impel itself on the thought of

mankind in the course of the seventh millennium.
"Wholly symmetrical; the

one altogether lovely"
(Mis 167:6)
Let us examine this sevenfold order again; not, this time, as a sequence of
events unfolding from the first to the last (as presented by the $even days
of creation), but from the standpoint of the all-emhracing Principle in Ihe
centre of the panorama, wherein the outward and inward movements of
Mind and Love, Spirit and Truth, Soul and Life (symbolized by the
branches of the golden candlestick), describe the pulsations of the
universe. As we do this, let us bear constantly in mind that God is at once
the centre and circumference of His own universe. Eternally, the living.
flowing, circulating universe, individualized in Jesus. moves from and to
its divine Principle, Love, whilst always remaining in and of this Principle.
We are glimpsing the wholly symmetrical, altogether lovely structure of

the Christ-idea. This idea is the universal Science of being elucidated for
human comprehension through the three outstanding synonymous terms
for Science: divine Science, absolute Christian Science, Christian Science,
as we find them employed in Science and Health.
To solve the problem of mortality, we understand Science as
simultaneously divine and Christian, and the Christian aspect as
simultaneously absolute and applied. Christian Science ("Science as
applied to humanity"-S&H 127:16) is fundamentally absolute, for only

the absolute is capable of disposing of duality, and therefore of solving the
problems of humanity.
divine Science
As we have already noted, the textbook defines divine Science as the

spiritual origin of man which ushered Jesus into human presence. But if
divine Science (Science in its oneness and indivisibility, wherein divinity
and humanity are one) is Jesus' origin, it must be his ultimate as well. That
is to say, his coming from the Father (advent) and his going to the Father
(ascension) denotes the cyclic movement of his being in eternal divine
Science. There is spiritual symmetry, therefore, between the beginning and
end of his life-mission, even as there is between the outermost branches of
the golden candlestick, where the terms are Mind and Love.
THE FOUR GOSPELS
absolute Christian Science
279
But knowledge of the oneness of heing in divine Science must, for the
practical purposes of human demonstration, be reduced to understanding

in the form of the system of ideas which is Christian Science. As we have
said, these ideas are absolute because they are ideas of the oneness and
indivisibility of divine Science. As an infinite structure of harmonious,
classified relationships, this system of ideas is absolute Christian Science.
Divine Science, reduced to these ideas, pours into the consciousness of
Jesus at his baptism, and fills him with spiritual understanding. He is
suhmerged by the holy Spirit in the awareness of his universe as the
universe of Mind. Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love, operating as
the Word, Christ, Christianity, Science.
In the second stage of Jesus' mission, these ideas do not apply
themselves to the solution of mortal problems, any more than they do in
the sixth stage. In the second stage, application has not begun; in the sixth
stage (the period between the resurrection and ascension), application is
over, for the last enemy. death, has been overcome. When we consider the
second and sixth stages, therefore, the emphasis has shifted to absolute
Christian Science. Like the first and the last, these two stages of Jesus'
career are spiritually symmetrical and reciprocal, like the corresponding
branches of the candlestick, where the synonyms are Spirit and Truth.
Christian Science
It is in the third stage that the need for application arises; for this is where
(resulting from the understanding gained in the second stage) Jesus
confronts and overcomes sin. He must prove that man is as immune from
sin humanly as he is divinely; that the human reflects and patterns the
divine; that the two are one and indivisible in accordance with divine
Science. The emphasis shifts, therefore, from absolute Christian Science
to Christian Science. or to where the problem of mortality is in process of
heing so lved. This continues until the close of the fifth stage, where Jesus
overcomes death. The reason he can make nothing of death in the fifth
stage is hecause he has already made nothing of sin in the third. Thus the
third and fifth stages are a further expression of spiritual symmetry, like
the inner branches of the candlestick, where the terms are Soul and Life.
Science
This brings us to the central, all-embracing fourth stage. Looking out from
the Principle of his universe - having no "I" but Principle - Jesus' world is
the innermost harmony of his own being as this is in Science. The
structure of scientific consciousness. symbolized by the system of
capitalized, synonymous terms for God (the spiritual equivalent of which
came to him at his baptism), is the only world he has, the only world there
truly is. Inasmuch as he heals all manner of sin. disease, and death among
the people the emphasis is still on Christian Science. Here. however, he is
not healing himself subjectively of sin and death, but is ridding himself
objectively (in terms of his apparently outside world) of every
fundamental phase of mortal belief. In stages three, four, and five, his
280
thought moves from the subjective to the objective, then back again to the
subjective, all within the compass of his own God-being.
50 all-embracing are the implications of this central, fourth stage of his
mission that what we see here is Science itself operating simultaneously as
divine Science, absolute Christian Science, and Christian Science.
Correspondingly, the central shaft of the golden candlestick holds within it
the activities of its three pairs of branches.
His I is the Principle of all mankind. Jesus is at work in the eternal
oneness of Being. Having no other I, no other Self, he is Being itself at
work. The su m total of All moves every part of its own al1ness in harmony
with every other part.
Thus he corrects error scientifically. The meaning of error is, as we
have seen, a wandering or a departure from truth. But the thought of
Christ Jesus never departs from the oneness and wholeness of Truth. To
him, man has never departed (fallen) from God; therefore the correction
of error is instantaneous. The break-up of Truth - the fall of man - is a
nonsensical lie. The error to be cast out of consciousness in order to heal
the sick is the myth that man was ever cast out of God. At once, man is the
operation of divine Science, absolute Christian Science, Christian
Science- that is, of Science itself.
Regarding the correcting of error in Christian Science, Matthew's
Word emphasizes the order according to which the mortal problem is
solved; Mark's Christ emphasizes the divine means for solving it; Luke's
Christianity emphasizes the solution actually taking place through the
restoration of all things to God; and John's Science emphasizes the fact
that from everlasting to everlasting the problem is already solved.
Simultaneity of the four

Gospels
The Gospels, we might say, are synonymous in their relationships. Each

differs from the others in certain particulars, yet all four refer to the
activities of the same Christ-idea.
In terms of their coincidences and peculiarities, it is interesting to note
that, according to students of the New Testament, 42 per cent of Matthew
is peculiar to Matthew and 58 per cent coincident with the other three
Gospels. In the case of Mark, only 7 per cent is peculiar to Mark, while 93
per cent is coincident with the other three. With Luke, 59 per cent is
peculiar to Luke and 41 per cent coincident with the other three. With
John, 92 per cent is peculiar to John, and only 8 per cent coincident with
Matthew, Mark, and Luke (A Guide ro the Gospels p.436- W. G.
Scroggie). Luke, then, is almost the exact complement of Matthew, while
John is almost the exact complement of Mark. These assessments serve to
confirm the reciprocal relationship which we know exists between H/'ord
and Christianity, and between Christ and Science.
When we turn to the texts themselves, and follow their teachings
THE FOUR GOSPELS
281
throughout the sixteen tones of the foursquare matrix, let us realize that it
is always the total matrix which determines everyone of its tones. Also,
because each Gospel tells basically the same story, the operation of
Matthew's Word is simultaneous with Mark's Christ, Luke's Christianity,
and John's Science. The fulness of one undivided universe lies at the back
of all the recorded happenings. [n God's creation, where Jesus is at work,
all is simultaneity, spontaneity, instantaneity. Because he is in communion
with an ordered universe, he is instantly supplied with the ideas he needs
for resolving each mortal problem.
1st tone of 5th period

- Life as Mind-
Advancing from the fourth period to the fifth, and from the Old Testament
to the New, we enter the first tone of the fifth day of creation - Life in its
aspect as Mind. This tone relates specifically to the mission of Jesus as
recorded in the four Gospels. Jesus stands for individuality (Life)
inseparable from its divine origin (Mind).
MATTHEW
In purely technical terms, Matthew is the story of the Word of Life in
divine Science revealing itself as the Word of Life, Truth, and Love in
absolute Christian Science, unfolding through the order of Mind, Spirit,
Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love, in Christian Science, within the
framework of the Word as the Word, the Word as the Christ, the Word as
Christianity, the Word as Science.
Mind Spirit Soul
Matthew traces Jesus' genealogy all the way from Abraham at the
beginning of the patriarchal period. This was where the divine matrix
unfolded to us for the first time, and was the point at which God the Father
sowed the seed of man's divinity in the womb of human consciousness.
At the beginning of Matthew, correlative with this patriarchal era, the
Holy Ghost overshadows Mary's pure spiritual sense with the understanding of man's tfue origin. Mary's acceptance and conception of the
idea of humanity's original divinity appears to the senses as the divine
Science of being ushering Jesus into human presence.
But belief in the material origin of man, represented by Herod, seeks to
devour the child as soon as he is born. So Mary's husband Joseph (like an
earlier namesake) takes Mary and Jesus down into Egypt for safety. While
Mary is the realization that God, Spirit, is the creator of man, Joseph
realizes that matter is not man's creator. Egypt is the supposition that the
Christ-idea is propagated organically, and safety lies in discovering that
such a belief is powerless to harm the idea. Because of this immunity, the
danger from Herod subsides, and the holy family comes up out of Egypt,
even as Israel did in the Old Testament.
282
The saying, "Out of Egypt have I called my son," has first to be uttered
regarding Israel, the Word; then regarding Jesus, the Christ: later, it will
apply equally to Christianity; and later again to Science.
At his baptism in Jordan, the holy Spirit (which has already
overshadowed the consciousness of Mary) imparts to Jesus the
understanding that God is not only Father but Mother as well. He and his
world are born of Spirit, God. From this moment onwards, the belief of
being born of a woman (like John the Baptist) must be repented of step by
step until it is finally eliminated altogether. What Jesus beholds through
the symbol of the dove is the "body" that has really given him birth. This
body is man, the spiritual idea of God, the foursquare Christ-body, the
mother, the woman, whom he makes his "bride."
Armed with this understanding, he is led by the same Spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted by sin for forty days and nights. As we have
already seen, once the human is identified with the divine (once it is
understood that humanity is divinity's reflection) the human is as immune
from sin as the divine. Jesus proves this in the wilderness, even as (ideally)
Israel did when Moses instructed her in the law of God reduced to the
moral law. Note the impulse of Mind, Spirit. Soul in this opening section
of the tex/.
Soul Principle Life
Jesus is assured that the human and divine are one in identity, and that
this identity is free from sin. Because he himself is without sin
subjectively, he can minister to the needs of mankind objectively. He
chooses his first four disciples. These four initiate the foursquare idea of
generic man. Jesus must prove that this same coincidence, this same
sinlessness, applies equally to mankind as a whole as it does to himself. At
once he heals "all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the
people."
He delivers his famous Sermon on the Mount to the multitude, much as
Moses delivered Deuteronomy to Israel prior to her entry into the
promised land. The multitude represents the Christ-body. Contrary to the
evidence of the senses, the multitude consists of the foursquare Spirit that
appeared to Jesus at his baptism, and which is typified by his four early
disciples.
The Sermon is a general statement of Principle. Having delivered it,
Jesus starts to perform the many and varied individual healings that are
recorded in Matthew's Gospel. Looking at his world from the standpoint
of Principle, he sees God's reflection everywhere. Everything he fore him is
the body of Christ - Principle's idea, or reflection of itself. This body (his
body, everyone's body, Principle's own divine system. or body) is neither
leprous, palsied, nor fevered; in fact it is incapable of sin, disease, or
in harmony of any kind.
"Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead," Jesus says to the
wavering thought of mankind desiring to enjoy the best of two worlds. This
THE FOUR GOSPELS
283
arouses storms and emotions, allofwhich must be stilled. In the process of

calming them, the swinish elements of the carnal mind drown in the waters
of their own heliefs. On the hasis of the unreality of these beliefs. Jesus
forgives humanity its paralyzing sins. Knowing that mortality is not the
matrix of immortality, he heals a woman of a hemorrhage that has lasted
twelve years. At the same time he raises the body of a twelve-year old girl
from the dead. In Israel's experience in the Old Testament. she takes
possession of her twelvefold promised land. symholizing her true body. In
this section of the Gospel. note the impulse of Soul. Principle, Life.
Life Truth
The number of disciples increases to twelve. In the tone of the Word as

Christianity. Jesus sends these twelve into the world to follow the example
\vhich he has set. In the Old Testament. in the hnok of Judges, Israd put
into practice in her own experience. what she had been taught by Joshua.
Jesus.' disciples are not a personal following; hut John the Baptist's
disciples arc. John's disciples go out to see a person, Jesus says. The
followers of Christ go out to understand a Principle- to follow step by
step the scientific unfoldment of Principle.
David ate the shewbread without permission from the priests. Jesus
cites this incident when his disciples pluck corn on the sabbath, and he
himself denounces ecclesiastical officialdom. Immediately he restores a
withered hand. He demonstrates to the temple (body) that monopolistic
Pharisaism cannot dry up the natural output of spiritual power. For the
same reason, blindness and dumbness are healed. The self-controlling
body of Christ is neither withered. blind. nor dumb. Organized
restrictions have never been imposed upon it. Therefore it is free to be
itself. Turning from sense evidence, he stretches forth his own two hands
and identifies his disciples as his mother and his brethren.
A sequence of seven parables illustrates the workings of the kingdom
of heaven on earth. Coincidentally. John the Baptist, who has passed
moral judgment on the sensualism of Herod, loses his head. When a body
is severed from its head. both head and body die. But the head which is
Christ cannot he cut from its body (generic man), and so both remain
alive.
With nve loaves and two small fishes Jesus feeds the five thousand.
Life (the five) is everywhere present and unexpendable when found to be
Spirit (the two), and not absorbed in matter. In [his case. matter is not
matter but symbol. and symbol is reproduced by the idea that is
symbolized so long as the symbol is required. This reverses the limiting
evidence of the five physical senses, and the five thousand are fed. 'Be not
afraid of discordant sense testimony. all men have one I: implies the
master of divine metaphysics to his storm-tossed disciples when he
descends from the mountaintop and walks to them over the trouhled sea.
"Not that which gocth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which
cometh out of the mouth, this detileth a man:' is his rebuke to hypocritical
284
Pharisaism. But this does not apply to the woman from Syrophenicia. She
is a humble Gentile, not an arrogant Jew. Because 'she sees in Jesus the
Christ of all mankind, she is eager to eat the crumhs of truth that fall from
Truth's table. As a result. her daughter is healed. Afterwards, Jesus feeds a
multitude. four thousand strong, with seven loaves and a few fishes, and
they gather up seven baskets of crumbs. Multiplicatinn of the symbol
through reflection of true substance does not waste or deplete this
substance onc iota.
The tone is the Word as Christianity, and Jesus refers to his "church."
This is the Christ-body, which is universal man. The rock on which it is
built is Peter's understanding that the Son of (generic) man is the Son of
the living God. All men everywhere are one in Christ. This realization
implies spiritual not material birth-giving, and the need to surrender the
mortal sense of life. Yet Peter resists the thought of the impending
crucifixion, and Jesus rebukes him severely_ "Get thee behind mc, Satan~
thou art an offence unto me," he says. The understanding of what Life is
must be seen to demonstrate the nothingness of death.
Jesus shows his disciples that "organization and time [the opposite of
the church, his body J have nothing to do with Life" (S & H 249: 19). Peter,
James, and John accompany him up a mountain, and witness his
transfiguration. Before he proves the nothingness of death he must bear
witness to the allness of Life. Moses and Elias are with him on the
mountain. Elias represents Christian Science (5& H 585:10). Jesus
displays the radiant truth that past (Moses) present (Jesus) and future
(Elias) are all one now. Peter misunderstands, and wants to build three
separate tabernacles for Moses, Jesus. and Elias. But it is the spiritual
unity of past, present, and future which is truly the Father's "beloved Son."
At the foot of the mountain, a father's lunatic son is healed. Jesus stills
the convulsions which his understanding of Life (Father) brings to the
mortal sense of creation. He points to the childlike qualities of innocence,
spontaneity, etc., as qualities of the kingdom of heaven. This leads to a
dispute with the Pharisees on the question of marriage. The highest
earthly estate, Jesus says, is to be a eunuch for the sake of the kingdom of
heaven. "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put
asunder," he declares regarding the manhood and womanhood of God.
from whose wedlock springs eternaJ life.
The idea of Life (individuality) in relation to Truth (the corporate
whole) is outstanding in this third section of Matthew's text.
The Word as Science
Life Truth love
The tone changes to the Word as Science. The theme is total Christly
surrender of the mortal sense of life. A rich young man is bidden to leave
his sense of personal possessiveness and to he identified instead with true
Christian values. All the workers in God's vineyard receive in the end the
same reward. The wife of Zebedee is rebuked for her selfish ambitions
regarding her two sons. As a result. two men are healed of blindness.
THE FOUR GOSPELS
285
Jesus enters in triumph into Jerusalem. He cleanses the temple (body)

of its self-centred corruption and commercialism. Through the symbol of
the barren fig tree. he curses the fru itlessness of materialism. The parable
of the wicked and ambitious husbandmen shows how the builders of an
organic way of life reject the thought of a calculus of ideas, in which man
possesses nothing of his own but rellects spiritually what belongs to God.
Jesus' denunciation of the Pharisees and Sadducees is followed hy his
prophecy of world upheaval in the days of the second advent. He bids the
world watch against the "abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel
the prophet." As the midnight hour approaches, he says. men must be like
the five wise virgins in his parable, and be ready for the bridegroom's
coming.
The Passover, eatcn on the night before the crucifixion, closes forever
"Jesus' ritualism or concessions to matter" (S & H 33: I). The period of

"suffer it to be so now," which began at his baptism, is over. Organic life is
fully repented of and is in process of dissolution. "Suffer it to he so now:
for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness," he had said to John the
Baptist. As crucifixion leads to resurrection all righteousness is fulfilled.
Jesus has sutfered mortality to he progressively nothing all the way up to

this moment of grace.
Jeremiah told Judah not to resist going forward into Babylon. Jesus
prays in Gethsemane: "0 my Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from
me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." Jesus confronts death
(Bahylon) knowing that if he does this spiritually and scientifically he will

find that all is Life.
The textbook says that he "bore our sins in his body;" that the "real
cross. which [he [ bore up the hill of grief, was the world's hatred of Truth
and Love" (S& H 53:25.50:30). His cross is the heavy body of world
sin - hatred of mankind's true hody as the structure of Truth and Love.
Yet the matrix calculus of Truth and Love, the true Mother-Son
relationship, rolls the stone "from the cave's mouth," and Jesus steps forth
from the tomb. Spiritual obstetrics dissolves material obstetrics- that is, it
dissolves belief in the sinning, dying concept of man.
At the resurrection, the material sense of body, absolved from birth
and death. is temporarily rebuilt. As we have seen, the equivalent of this in
the Old Testament is the building of Judah's new Jerusalem following the
release from Babylon.
"Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," is,
according to Matthew, Jesus' final assurance to his joyful disciples. These
words contradict the testimony of the senses that Jesus has left them for a
far-off heavenly realm. The world's belief in a matter universe has been
finally eliminated from the consciousness of Jesus. Nothing else has
disappeared.
Note the impulsion of Life, Truth. Love underlying this final section of
Matthew's text, as that which is with us - is us, always.
286
MARK
The Gospel of Mark is the story of Christ, Truth, in divine Science,

speaking to humanity as the Christ of Truth, Life, and Love in ahsolute
Christian Science, through the translation order of Principle, Life, Truth,
Love, Soul, Spirit, Mind, in Christian Science, within the framework of
Christ as the Word, Christ as the Christ, Christ as Christianity, and Christ
as Science.
Christ as the Word
Principle Life
Mark's Gospel, like John's, gives no account whatever of Jesus'

conception, birth, Of genealogy. Matthew and Luke alone do this. Mark is
compelled to stress the Christ's absolute divine origin. This rids humanity
of belief in fleshly birth. and so saves it from incarnate error. To Mark,
Mother is God. Hence Mary is not mentioned. Note that the terms which
define "Mother" in the Science and Health Glossary are the same 25 those
which open the Christ order, namely, Principle, Life, Truth, Love. Mark
tells the story of Jesus' nativity simply with the words: "The beginning of
the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God."
To Mark, Jesus' identity is like that of Melchisedec, described by Paul
in Hebrews as "without father, without mother, without descent having
God."
But in order for this Son of God to be the Saviour of humanity, the
human Jesus must be baptized of John in Jordan at the same time as being
baptized from heaven with the Holy Ghost. This twofold baptism
illustrates the way in which the two translations (S&H 115-116) operate
together as one, and in so doing heal and save mankind.
The events recorded by Mark are largely the same as those in Matthew;
but Mark's statements are shoner, simpler, and more direct.
To begin with, the dominant idea is the One. Jesus teaches as "one that
[has[ authority." The unclean spirit which asks to be let alone, hut which
is cast out of the man in the synagogue, addresses him as "the Holy One of
God." The tone is Principle at the beginning of the Christ order. Jesus
retires to a solitary place where he is alone (all-one) \vith this Principle.
This true aloneness (oneness with God) enables him to heal a lonely,
isolated leper. The result is the opposite of loneliness. All men seek for
him, and come to him from every quarter. Principle, Life, is expressed in a
true and impersonal sense of individuality.
A patient sick of the palsy is "horne of four." These four let the man
down through the roof into the midst before Jesus. "Son, thy sins be
forgiven thee," is Jesus' instant treatment. Never having fallen away from
God, man is not held in the grip of paralyzing sins. The truth hehind his
apparent loss of voluntary movement is TTlan as the foursquare holy city
coming down from God out of heaven. Because his emphasis is Christ,
Mark lays great stress throughout his Gospel on this idea of coming down
THE FOUR GOSPELS
287
from God out of heaven. Hence the man's four companions let their
patient down through the roof.
It is useless for humanity to try to patch up an old material way of life.
as advocated by John the Baptist. Old things must pass away and all
hecome new. Life is always new when it comes forth directly from divine
Principle, God. Instead of becoming withered by old Pharisaical laws and
customs, men should be like David and partake of the shewbread outside
the bounds of a personal sense of authority. Jesus' real mother and
brethren are the surrounding multitude who freely and spontaneously
accept what he is teaching.
Truth
In the tone of Christ as the Christ, the emphasis is translation - Christ as

"the divine message from God to men speaking to the human
consciousness" (5& H 332:10). Through the parable of the sower. for
instance, Jesus shows the way in which the seed of Truth is divinely sown
and propagated in the soil of human consciousness.
"Let us pass over unto the other side," he says. Desiring to cross the
sea of mortality we should identify ourselves with that which is divinely
self-propelling, instead of trying to steer ourselves humanly. When they
are on the water, Jesus sleeps by the rudder of the ship, and a storm arises.
"Peace, be still," says the all-controlling Christ, Truth. "And the wind
ceased, and there was a great calm." On the other side of the lake the
legion of unclean spirits which infest the Gadarene demoniac drown in the
sea of their own swinish elements, the nothingness of the psychic
unconscious.
Jairus is the ruler of the synagogue. Nerve claims to he a "ruler of
Body" (5&H 437:1). But when nervous disorders are overruled by
Christ - when the body's nerve messages are translated into one
omnipresent Christ-message- not only does the woman's twelve-year old
issue of blood cease, but Jairus' little twelve-year old daughter awakens
from her dream of death. Brain controlling hody through nerve-messages
must be replaced in human thought by the true head-body relationship of
Christ (head) and man (body).
Knowing that the body of the Christ-idea can never he parted from its
controlling head, Jesus sends his twelve disciples into the world in pairs.
Their work is to put into expression the two translations. But in the case of
the evangelizing John the Baptist, his head is cut off from his body. The
multitude of five thousand hungry people who surround Jesus are as sheep
without a shepherd, that is. a body without a head. Jesus feeds them with
five loaves and two fishes. When all are satisfied, twelve baskets of
fragments are gathered up. The apparently scattered Christ-body is fed
only when it is properly gathered into one fold-that is, under one head.
The head is the "I" of the body. When this I walks over the elements of
mortality unafraid, the body is not afraid either. The people touch the
border of Jesus' garment and are healed. Identification with the divine
288
Science of man "woven into one weh of consistency without SCam or rent"
reveals the body completely whole.
Retlecting this wholeness within himself. man is not defiled by what
seems to be outside. He is clean externally and internally. But the
hypocritical Pharisees are defiled by what is within them and blame what
is without. If the messages that come apparently from without are the same
as those which come divinely from within, then, as Jesus proves, man is
neither deaf nor dumb.
For the same reason, seven loaves and a few small fishes satisfy the
four thousand. Reflection does not expend the substance it reflects.
Hence, seven full haskets of fragments arc gathered up. Moreover. the
suhstance itself being infinite, the symbol which reflects this suhstance
(the loaves and fishes) is not limited either.
Healing the blind man in two stages indicates that vision itself is
twofold. The need is to "see" ideas; and idea (as defined in the two
translations) is both a subjective "image in Mind," and "the immediate
object of understanding." This is the idea which Peter sees, when, in
answer to Jesus' question, "Whom say ye that I am?" (what is the
immediate object of understanding'?), Peter replies, "Thou art the Christ"
(an image in Mind).
Love
This part of Mark's text opens with that preview of ultimate Christly
perfection known as the transfiguration. Jesus puts before Peter, James,
and John convincing proof that all past, present. and future being (typified
hy Moses, himself, and Elias) is here and now on one plane of
consciousness, and does not live in three separate tabernacles of time.
This shining glory of the Christliness of all things is "my beloved Son,"
says the Father's voice from out of the cloud.
At the foot of the mountain the convulsions that tear the son of mortal
fatherhood are healed by this true Father-Son relationship. But prayer (in
respect of the first translation) andfasling (in respect of the second) alone
hring such healing to pass. And so, whereas the transfiguration reveals the
allness and ever-presence of Life (fi rst translation), the coming crucifixion
is for the purpose of proving the nothingness of death (second
translation).
Little children play an important part in this section of the text.
Childlike innocence and receptivity to good, in contrast to greedy
ambition and acquisitiveness, are the qualities men need most. These
qualities rellect not only the Christ-idea but also the Principle which
commissions the idea. They are involved in the true sense of marriage, and
answer the Pharisees on the subject of divorce. They would enable the
young man, rich in materiality, to leave his sense of personal
possessiveness and follow the Christ-example. Blind Bartimaeus possesses
no light of his own; Christ. the light of the world, is Bartimaeus' light. and
this truth heals him of blindness.
THE FOUR GOSPELS
289
Jesus enters Jerusalem. "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the
Lord," the people shout. But, from the spiritual point of view, their
thought is as fruitless and sterile as a barren fig tree. It is like the
commercialism that pollutes the temple. The real house of God, "called of
all nations the house of prayer," is the Christly body of mankind. The
temple must therefore be cleansed of its material greed and corruption.
Through the parable of the wicked husbandmen, and their treatment of

their master's heir, Jesus shows how the builders of a selfish way of life
reject an impartial, equitable calculus of relationships. The thought which
accepts and loves this headstone of the corner is typified by the woman,
widowed from reliance on substance-matter, who, "of her want," throws
her two mites into the treasury. Hers is the state of thought that keeps the
two great commandments; she loves God supremely by loving her
neighbour as herself. She is one who will wisely watch and pray for the
Christ's second coming as revealed in Christian Science.
Christ as Science
Soul Spirit Mind
Christ as the Word has accentuated Principle and Life; Christ as the Christ
has accentuated Truth; Christ as Christianity has accentuated Love; and
now, fourthly, Christ as Science unfolds the tones of Soul, Spirit, Mind.
This fourth section of Mark's Gospel disposes finally of the belief that
body is material and therefore subject to death.
In the house of Simon the leper a woman anoints Jesus' head with
ointment. She typifies, it seems, ultimate grateful acceptance on the part of

the whole world of the Christ Science, and its rejection of the ingratitude
(the commercialism and vested interests) which characterizes Judas
Iscariot.
At the passover, Jesus explains to his disciples the truth about the
universal body of man. His hour has come at last, and, in the garden of
Gethsemane, he begs the disciples to watch with him "one hour." This is
the "hour" in which (in Revelation) the harlot Babylon falls. This is the
moment of Jesus' final proof that man's identity is of divine origin.
Deserted and alone (so it seems to the senses), Jesus holds

"uncomplaining guard over a world." In Science, this is Principle holding
guard over its own beloved Christ-idea, which is the world's spiritual
reality. In order to experience this divine guardianship, Jesus turns
"forever away
. from sense to Soul" (S & H 48:4-9).
A Soul tone blends to a Spirit tone. Because man was never born into
matter, he does not die out of matter. Because "Spirit never entered
matter" it is "therefore never raised from matter" (5 & H 76: 11). In
overcoming the last enemy, death, Jesus is really overcoming the first
enemy, birth.
It is said that at the ninth hour the Son of God gives up the ghost. Yet,
at this moment, Jesus is filled as never before with the breath of Spirit, or
the Holy Ghost - that is, with the understanding of what truly gives him
birth. The rock in which the body is laid is the opposite of the matrix of
290
everlasting life, embodying the precious calculus of ideas which is man.

Joseph, the husband of Mary, never violated with mortality the virgin
womb in which (to the senses) the body of Jesus began; likewise Joseph of
Arimathaea has never allowed death to enter the virgin tomb in which this
body will supposedly end. As Spirit's reflection of itself, man is
inseparable from the Father-Mother God; and this truth rolls from
consciousness the adamant belief in material birth and death.
Resurrection leads to ascension. That man's origin is the eternal
parent Mind is fully and finally demonstrated. Appearing first to Mary
Magdalene, Jesus promises the disciples that they shall see him in Galilee
(meaning "circle"). Throughout his lifework, the operation of the two
translations has proved progressively that man revolves in the orbits of
Mind, that he comes from Mind and returns to Mind. This is the gospel
which must be preached to all the world, and heard hy every creature.
LUKE
Mark has the accent on the Son of God, and therefore on the motherhood
of God; Luke has the accent on the 50n (~f' man, and therefore on this
motherhood rellected in generic man. In the teachings of Luke, the Son of

man comes to save and restore that which (to the senses) is lost. Renan
wrote that Luke's Gospel is the most beautiful book that has ever been
written.
Luke, the physician, is also the author of the Acts of the Apostles. The
standpoint from which he writes is Christianity. In Matthew's Word, we
see Jesus solving the problem of being according to divine order: in
Mark's Christ, we see him as the very idea, the emanation of Principle,
which brings this solution to pass; in Luke's Christianity, we see the actual
working out of the solution through the restoration of individual worldconsciousness to God.
The spiritual pattern within which Luke unfolds his story is thus the
return aspect of the Christianity order of the synonymous terms for God.
Because all things must at last he found in Principle, we begin, in Luke,
with the tones of life, Truth, and Love (presenting the idea of man's
individual, collective, and universal reality), and then follow the
restoration of this ideal, through Spirit, Soul, Mind, to the Principle on
which it is based. This means that the framework within which the work is
done is: Christianity as Science (where the tones are Life, Truth, Love),
Christianity as Christianity (where the tone is Spirit), Christianity as
Christ (where the tone is Soul), leading to Christianity as the Word (where
the tones are Mind and Principle).
When the human prohlem is thus in process of solution, tHe accent, as
we know, is on Christian Science. But the impulsion which puts Christian
THE FOUR GOSPELS
291
Science into operation is. in Luke's Christianity Gospel. the Christianity

of universal Love in divine Science, appearing as the Christianity of Life
and Love in absolute Christian Science.
In Luke. as the successor to Mark, the emphasis shifts from Christ, the
(individual) head, to Christianity, the (universal) body.
Life Truth Love
Chri stianity in its Science is expressed through the three terms Life. Truth,
Love. The idea of "one Father [Life [ with His universal family [Truth 1,
held in the gospel of Love" (S & H 577:3) is divinely imparted to human
consciousness for the purpose of restoring mankind to the Father-Mother
God.
Whereas Mark makes no reference at all to Jesus' birth, Luke records
this in a wealth of detail. And he wou Id seem to do so through a
microscopic epitome of the tones of the matrix. Four main tones make up
this opening section of the text: first, the announcement of the coming of
John the Baptist; secondly, the announcement of the coming of Jesus;
thirdly, the birth of John; fourthly, the birth of Jesus. Thus the Word
prepares the way for the Christ, even as Christianity prepares the way for
Science.
The birth of John and the birth of Jesus are almost simultaneous. The
detail is beautiful beyond words. At first Zacharias and Elisabeth are
barren. We learn in Science and Health that unless we are grateful for
"Life, Truth, and Love . .. we cannot conceal the ingratitude of barren
lives" (5 & H 3:27). Evidently Zacharias and Elisabeth accept with
gratitude the idea of infinite Life, Truth, and Love.
The angel Gabriel announces to Zacharias the advent of John, and this
is followed by the announcement to Mary of the advent of Jesus. In due
course Mary goes to visit Elisabeth. When the women meet, John leaps
into life in the womb of Elisabeth the moment he is conscious of the
presence of Jesus in the womb of Mary. The human leaps for joy at the
presence of its own divinity. the moment this divinity comes to salute its
humanity. Remember it is Mary who visits Elisabeth, not vice versa.
Elisabeth says to Mary: "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is
the fruit of thy womb . . . whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord
should come to me')" Mary responds: "My soul doth magnify the Lord,
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour . . . from henceforth all
generations shall call me blessed."
In a tone of Christianity, John is born. "And thou, child, shalt be called
the prophet of the Highest. . To give knowledge of salvation unto his
people by the remission of their sins," his father Zacharias says to him.
This phrase "knowledge of salvation" is, as we have already noted,
rendered "Science and Health" in Wyclifs translation of the Bible
C02. 16:4). Today we know that the initial purpose of the Christian Science
textbook is to prepare the way for the revelation of this textbook's
absolute, universal Science, which shall supersede sectarian religion.
292
In a tone of Science. Jesus is born. "Glory to God in the highest. and on

earth peace. good will toward men," sing the multitude of the heavenly
host to shepherds who are watching for his coming. "And the child grew.
and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was
upon him."
Luke alone refers to Jesus' boyhood. He records the incident in the
temple when Jesus is twelve years old. "Wist ye not that I must be about my
Father's business?" he asks Mary and Joseph who seek him sorrowing.
From the beginning of his career he must establish the fact that he belongs
to one universal Father-Mother GOd. and not to Mary and Joseph
personally.
Spirit
The lovely section on Christianity as Christianity, impelled by the infinite

as Spirit, opens with Jesus' baptism. As in the case of Matthew and Mark.
this teaches us that, through the continuous influx of spiritual
understanding, material belief must be progressively repented of, un ti I it
disappears altogether.
Christian Science "floods the wodd with the 'baptism of Jesus"
('02.5:6). That this baptism points to the spiritual translation of the whole
human face is indicated when, immediately after it. Luke traces Jesus'
genealogy back through the line of Mary to "Adam. which was the son of
God." What appears to the senses as the Adamic race is in truth the Son of
God. Luke's great family tree contains exactly seventy-four generations.
Today, in Science, the seven and the fbur teach the restoration of man to
God by revealing man's original divinity. Luke's need. in Christianity, is to
show that the sale reality of the mortal Adam is Christ, the Son of God.
Understanding this, Jesus overcomes Adamic and Satanic temptations.
But to the thought which believes in material origin. such an idea is
unacceptable. Personal sense precludes a prophet from being accepted in
his own country. Mortal mind seeks to thrust Jesus out of his own city, and
to "cast him down headlong" from the brow of the hill.
He begins his healing ministry. The miraculous draught of fishes
illustrates to his first four disciples that universal humanity is already
enveloped in the divine Science of man - that is, in the "net" of primeval
spiritual reality, which is without SCam or rent.
The truth behind the net full of fishes leads to the healing of the man
full of leprosy. The net let down into the deep and raised up again,
prefigures also the healing of the man sick of the palsy, who is let down
through the tiling into the midst before Jesus. and who rises up healed.
That which comes forth wholejrom God, restores humanity whole to God.
After accomplishing many individual healings (detailed also in
Matthew and Mark), Jesus distinguishes hetween the missions of John and
himself. Mary Baker Eddy says that to "one 'born of the flesh,'. . divine
Science must be a discovery" (Ret 26:22). John the Baptist is that state of
thought which, being "born of a woman," discovers divine Science; but to
THE FOUR GOSPELS
293
Jesus, born of the "kingdom of God," divine Science is the subjective

revelation of his own being. The least particle of Christ's divinity is
therefore greater than the whole of John's humanity.
Discovery of the Science of Spirit causes us simultaneously to repent of
the l1esh. There follows, therefore, the story of Mary Magdalene, the
penitent harlot, and the way in which she acknowledges and adores her
newly discovered Christ-identity. She anoints Jesus' feel. Mary Baker
Eddy records her own discipleship in similar terms. She writes of how she
too hegan "at the feet of Christ and with the numeration table of Christian
Science." She tells how she never departed from the "absolute simple
statement" of the allness of Spirit and the nothingness of matter "all the
way up to the infinite calculus of the infinite God" - that is. up to the head
of Christ (,01.22:15). Through the orderly culture of her spiritual
discovery, the Magdalen typifies humanity laying down the harlot sense of
self and becoming, metaphorically, the bride of the Lamb.
Soul
The section concerning Christianity as the Christ is in the tone of Soul,

and opens with the parable of the sower. Once the seed of humanity's real
selfhood is sown in human consciousness, it becomes self-propagating.
We see from the text that this seed is the idea of the Word, Christ,
Christianity, Science. Immediately he has taught the parable, Jesus turns
from the mortal sense of "mother" and "brethren" to the surrounding
multitude, and declares: "My mother and my brethren are these which
hear the word of God. and do it." His mother and his brethren are those
who receive and cultivate the heavenly sower's seed- that is. who
conceive and give birth to the Christ-idea, as the divine reality of man.
Luke recounts the many demonstrations of spiritual power that have
featured already in Matthew and Mark. Beginning with the stilling of the
tempest. these include the feeding of the multitudes. the transfiguration,
and the healing of the father's epileptic son. "Let the dead bury their dead:
but go thou and preach the kingdom of God," Jesus says to a would-be
disciple wavering between loyalty to God and loyalty to mortal
fatherhood.
Luke alone records the sending forth of the seventy disciples. On their
return. Jesus tells them how he "beheld Satan as lightning fall from
heaven." He says: "Rejoice not, that the spirits are suhject unto you; but
rather rejoice. because your names are written in heaven." Sending the
seventy into the world reverses the myth of fallen man. and signifies the
restoration of mankind to its original unfallen estate.
The parable of the good Samaritan illustrates the practice of the two
great commandments to love God supremely by ioving one's neighbour as
one's self. To obey these commandments is to inherit eternal life. This
involves the true sense of service. Mary serves both God and man by
sitting at the feet of Christ, instead of being like Martha "cumbered about
much serving."
294
Jesus teaches his disciples the Lord's Prayer. Science and Health calls
this the "prayer of Soul" which "covers all human needs' (S& H 14:23,
16:11). In this prayer the body (man) acknowledges its divine parentage.
"Blessed is the womb that bare thee," says a certain woman. "Yea rather,
blessed are they that hear the word of God. and keep it," is Jesus poignant
reply. There follows, significantly, a tremendous denunciation of
Pharisaical hypocrisy.
"0 Jerusalem. Jerusalem, which killest the prophets." Jesus cries. "how
often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her
brood under her wings, and ye would not!" The real Jerusalem is the
home, or heaven, of all humanity. Paul calls this the "Jerusalem. . above
. which is the mother of us all" (Gal 4:26). Jerusalem beneath. over
which Jesus sorrows, is, according to the definition in the textbook,
"Mortal belief and knowledge obtained from the five corporeal senses; the
pride of power and the power of pride." (S & H 589: 12).
Mind Principle
The idea which dominates the fourth section of Luke's Gospel

(Christianity as the Word) is humanity's restoration to the source (Mind)
from which it has seemingly been lost, and the recovery of its unity with
God (Principle).
The parables of the wedding feast and the great supper teach us that
only through a deep humility does mankind rise to this exalted, ultimate
position. Principle's purpose is to have its house filled with individuality
which is dispossessed of personal aggrandizement. A tower is being built,
Jesus says, and the cost which everyone must count before he can help to
build is that of parting with the mortal sense of ego; otherwise he will be
unable to finish what he has begun.
The parables of the lost sheep, the lost piece of silver. the prodigal son,
all tell of the restoration to an original owner of what has supposedly been
lost. Humanity will be received "into everlasting habitations," even as
Lazarus. the humble beggar, is received into the bosom of Abraham in
heaven. while the materially rich Dives suffers far off in hell. The kingdom
of God, to which man is restored through having unselfed the mortal ego.
is neither here nor there physically, but within us spiritually.
Jesus forecasts the coming of Christian Science. The healing Science of
Christianity is the means whereby spiritual restoration, or spiritual
recovery, actually takes place. He speaks of "the day when the Son of man
is revealed," and likens it to the days of Noah. An ark of spiritual
understanding will save man from the t100ds of corruption, and the
permanent reality of himself and his world will be born of this
understanding.
The parable of the nobleman who goes into a far country to receive a
kingdom, and of his servants whom he commands to make proper use of
what he has given them before he comes again, reiterates the present
persistent theme of working out the problem of salvation through the
THE FOUR GOSPELS
295
restoration of all things to Mind, God. The stumbling block is material

riches; whereas the beggar for spiritual riches, blind to materiality, is
healed of material blindness.

In the tinal tone of Principle, Jesus ascends up in triumph to
Jerusalem. At the descent of the mount of Olives multitudes acclaim him.
The coming ascension of Christ into heaven will lead, on the day of
Pentecost, to the descension of generic man from heaven. No longer will
the world be "a den of thieves." No longer will it appear as if man has been
thieved from his rightful owner. The world will be cleansed, and will be a
true "house of prayer" for mankind.
As in Matthew and Mark, the parable of the wicked husbandmen tells
of the rejection by priestcraft of the vineyard's rightful heir. Yet the stone
which these builders reject will become, in the end, the headstone of the
corner. Then the great problems of resurrection, marriage, progeny, etc.,
which Jesus discusses in this part of the text, will be solved. The need is to
be like the poor widow woman who possesses nothing of her own, and
casts her last two mites into the treasury.
"There shall not be left one stone lof the temple of mortality I upon
another, that shall not be thrown down," Jesus says. When "wars and
commotions . . . fearful sights and great signs" come to pass, a mouth of
wisdom shall be given the true Christian, which all his adversaries "shall
not be able to gainsay
nOf
resist." The material sense of heaven and earth
will inevitably pass away, but the "words" that proceed out of the mouth of
Principle, which are the stones of the true temple, and constitute the real
heaven and earth, will never pass away.
Jesus and his disciples eat the passover. Humanity must learn to pass
over from mortality to immortality. This is done through spiritual
franslafion of the old way of life, not its destruction, or death. We achieve
this translation in the measure that each one eats (understands) the Christbody as constituting his own body.
Gethsemane sees the final surrender of human endeavour and human
will to the one divine will. The myth of an original willful rebellion of man
against God yields to the absolute oneness of Principle and idea.
Mass mesmerism, generated in the so-called collective unconscious,
causes the mob to identify itself with the murderer Barabbas ("son of a
father") rather than with Christ (the Son of God). Luke alone reports
Jesus, on the way to the crucifixion, as turning to the daughters of
Jerusalem with the words: "Weep not for me, but weep for yourse lves, and
for your children. For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall
say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare."
In the dream of life in matter the Son of God is crucified between two
robbers - a temporal past, and a temporal future - belief in organic birth
and belief in organic death. Past regrets and future fears rob mortals of the
living now. Animal magnetism, inseparable from the myth of time,
supposedly robs God of His Son, and murders him. Not the Son of God,
296
but the world's belief in mortal sonship is what suffers, is crucified, and
dies.
Luke lays great emphasis on the women, These "followed afteL"

"beheld the sepulchre. . how his body was laid," and came and "found
the stone rolled away from the sepulchre." That which rolls the stone from
the mouth of the tomb is woman's understanding of scientific
obstetrics - the workings of the matrix calculus of life.
On the walk to Emmaus, in the light of the resurrection, the disciples
see the risen Jesus for the first time. During this walk, he opens their
understanding that they might understand the scriptures, and all slowness
of heart and lack of spiritual perception disappears. This is the moment
when, "beginning at Moses and all the prophets" he expounds to them "in
all the scriptures the things concerning himsel!"." As we have found
throughout our Biblical journey, the Scriptures, in their scientific
meaning, reveal pre-eminently "the spiritual origin of man" (S & H 534:7),
Truly, the foursquare matrix of immortality is the Key to the Science of the
Bible, The crucifixion having rent in twain the veil of the temple (body),
the disciples, at the resurrection, enter the understanding of the origin and
ultimate of man.
At the point of the Glossary in Science and Hull/h, the Key to the
Scriptures has turned in the lock and the door into the Bible is open. The
translation of the Bible's literal, surface meaning into its profound
spiritual meaning (as taught by the Glossary) signifies the restoration of
the entire human concept to God. The Glossary, therefore, relates to the
operation of Christianity. This is why, in the Glossary, the synonymous
terms for God are in the Christianity order. Inevitably, Luke's Christianity
Gospel closes on the note of Jesus' revelation to the disciples of the
original meaning of the Scriptures.
The description of the ascension reads as follows; "And it came to
pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into
heaven." This is Luke's final word on the restoration of all things to
Principle. But such parting is the evidence of the senses only. The teaching
of Christian Science is that "Soul never saw the Saviour come and go,
because the divine idea is always present" (Un 59: 17). Man never fell from
grace, necessitating restoration.
JOHN
The Century Bible makes the following helpful and instructive comment
regarding the four Gospels. It says: "If the first Gospel represents Jesus in
relation to the Jewish past, the second to the Roman present, the third to
the Greek future: the fourth may be said to depict him in his relations to
the universe, in that eternity in which past, present, and future are alike
THE FOUR GOSPELS
297
included. In keeping with this is its frequent usc of the \vord kosmos.
("The Gospel of 5t John Introduction" p.25).
The word "cosmos" is translated "world" in the Authorized Version.
The fourth Gospel, heing the Science Gospel. is concerned with nothing
less than world, or universe. So different is John's treatment of Jesus' life
from that of the other three evangelists, that John's is sometimes known as
the "spiritual" gospel in contrast to the "hodily" gospels. The Word,
Christ. and Christianity of Matthew, Mark. and Luke are rollccted in a
more spiritual and scientific degree in John's Science of the Cosmos.
Cosmos relates to Logos, or Word, and is the suhject of John's opening
paragraphs on which the whole of his Gospel is based. The definition of
cosmos IS:
. order. harmony..
The doctrine of the universe; the
system of law, harmony, and truth comhined within the universe" (SRD).
In the case of John, we feel ourselves in the midst of an in fin itely inclusive,
selt'-comprehending universe - in the realm of Science itself as the matrix
calculus of Being.
Science and logic, as we know them today, have their origin in the
Greek civilization of the Western world \vhich flowered so magnificently
in the first millennium B.c., that is, in the fourth thousand-year period.
Correspondingly, in the East at that time, religion flourished as never
hefore. When the fourth millennium merged into the fifth, and
Christianity was born, it became imperative to explain Je~us' teachings
logically and scientifically, in order that Christianity might be propagated
throughout the world. Initially, it fell to the Apostle John, through his
adoption and adaption of Greek ideology, to wed together religion and
science in his account ot Jesus' life.
Whether in the fourth Gospel. his three Epistles, or the book of
Revelation with its preview of Christian Science, the keynote of the
writings of John is always Science, in which letter and spirit. science and
religion, are inseparahle and complementary.
Stated technically, the impulsion at work in the Gospel of John is the
Science of divine Principle Love in divine Science, appearing as the
Science of Truth and Love in absolute Christian Science. unfolding
through the order of Soul and Life, Spirit and Truth. Mind and Love, and
Principle in Christian Science, within the framework of Science as the
Word, Science as the Christ, Science as Christianity, and Science as
Science.
Science as the Word
Soul and Life
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God." This is John's great opening theme.
To Heraclitus. the Greek "Logos" (translated Word) signified the
regulating principle of the universe. Mary Baker Eddy detines the Word as
"the Principle of Christian Science" (Mis 363:24). That the Word is willi
God and at the same time is God, means that "Principl~ and its idea is one,
and this one is God
." (S & H 465: 17). The oneness of Principle and
298
idea, God and His Christ. defined scientificaUy through the two ranges of
capitalized terms, Mind. Spirit. Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love, and
Word, Christ. Christianity. Science, constitutes the universe, or cosmos.
Therefore "God is the sum total of the universe" (Mis 105:32). Thus the
"only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father" (the theme at the
heart of John's Gospel) is the idea of Principle, which expresses Principle,
and which remains f(uever in and of Principle.
Jesus is ceaselessly at work in the self-contained. self-determined, selffulfilled system. Of universe, of infinite Principle, and never outside. We
knew this would he so from what the prophets taught us; we realize that it
must be so from what Matthew, Mark, and Luke teach us; hut it remains
for John to estahlish absolutely that it is so.
The note on which John's Gospel opens is correlative with the note nn
which it closes: "And there are also many other things w'hich Jesus did, the
which, if they should be written everyone. I suppose that even the world
itself [cosmos! could not contain the books that should he \vritten." A
word is that which is spoken, written, or read. The record of'the universe
and the Word which is the universe are one, The self-revealing Word and
the selt'-revealing universe are one and the same reality. Jesus is conscious
of heing the divine Word because his Ego is the Principle of the universe.
John's supreme service to humanity is that he makes it impossible for us to
think of Jesus personally.
A dominant symbol in the opening section is waleI'. signifying the
primal element of the creative Word, and detined by the synonyms Soul
and Life.
John contrasts the mission of the al1-powcrful Word, represented hy
Jesus, with that of John the Baptist scnt from God to prepare the way for
the Word's acceptance - that is, t()r the Lamb of God to take away the sjn
of the world. Thus John's baptism by water and Jesus' baptism hy the Holy
Ghost work hand in hand. As Jesus says afterwards to Nicodemus, these
two baptisms of water and the Spirit are the means wherehy humanity is
born again, and the sin of the world is purged.
This idea is further presented at the marriage in Cana of Galilee \vhen
Jesus turns the water of repentance into the wine of the Spirit. "Woman,
what have I to do with thee?" he says to the mortal sense of parenthood.
His need is to turn human thought away from the tlesh "horn of the tlesh"
to the spirit "born of the Spirit."
"The wind bloweth where it listeth," he tells Nicodemus, "so is every
one that is born of the Spirit." Spirit is omnipresence, and that \vhich is
horn of omnipresence is itself omnipresent, and not personally localized
or channeled. This means it is born of the universe - renects the oneness
of God. Christ, man. Only then is it truly individual. "He must increase,
hut I must decrease," John the Baptist says regarding these two alternative
propositions of impersonal and personal birth-giving.
At Jacob's welL Jesus talks with the Samaritan woman \vhn has had tive
THE FOUR GOSPELS
299
hushands. He tells her ahout the truly creative waters of life which are
within her. in contrast to that sense of creativity that comes from outside
through the five physical senses. The water that I give to man, he says,
"shall he in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."
Having raised the nobleman's dying son, he makes the impotent man at
the pool of Bethesda (with its five porches) every whit whole. The
evidence of the five senses (porches) is that man is not whole, and must
therefore he made whole. Jesus knows that from all eternity man is made
whole by God, and that this fact in Science changes sense testimony.
Spirit and Truth
We come to the chapters on Science as the Christ. \vhcre the accent is

Spirit and Truth. The sym~ol changes from water to bread. "Thou the
water, the hread, and the wine" says the hymn (Mis 399: 15). It is as if the
Gospel's first section emphasizes water and wine, while the second
emphasizes bread. The clements of the first section take .fi:>rm in the
second. The keynote now is Christ sent from God, and descrihed as bread
that comes down from heaven.
Jesus certainly beholds the bread of life (his own spiritual selfhood)
coming from its divine source when he feeds the five thousand with five
loaves and two fishes. In Science, man lives by (indeed man is) that which
comes forth out of the mouth of God. He does not live by that which is fed
into him from outside himself.
This is made beautifully clear in the discourse on the bread of life.
Jesus says to the people: "My Father giveth you the true bread from
heaven.
I am that hread of life. . I am the living bread which came
down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever.
Except ye eat the tlesh of the Son of man, and drink his hlood, ye have no
life in you
." John indeed makes it impossible for us to think of Jesus
according to the evidence of the five personal senses. In Science, man is
idea; everything about him is infinite.
Knowing how hard it is for personal sense to accept this idea of man,
Jesus asks: "Doth this offend you?" Many have already turned back to
their old habitual ways of thinking, and so he asks the twelve: "Will ye also
go awayT Simon Peter replies for them all. "Lord, to whom shall we goT'
he says, "thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure
that thou art that Christ the Son of the living God." The people themselves
respond hy asking: "Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very
Christ'?"
That which sees fallen man is fallen man. That which sees the Son of
God is the Son of God. Jesus refuses to accept the Pharisees' judgment
regarding the woman taken in adultery. He writes on the ground - returns
their accusations to dust. nothingness. When he looks up at the woman,
her accusers are no longer there. The Pharisaism which believes that man
IS fallen and a sinner. is itself the adulterer. or fallen man.
Jesus sets up an ahsolute line of demarcation between these two
300
opposite viewpoints. "Ye arc from beneath: I am from ahove," he tells the
Pharisees, "ye arc of this world: I am not of this world," The Pharisees
bitterly resent this scientific assessment. "We be not horn of fornication."
they sa)', "we have one father, even God. Jesus said unto them. If God
were your Father. ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from
God; neither came l of myself. but He sent me. . Yc arc of your father
the devil. and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from
the beginning." His concluding words: "Before Ahraham was, 1 am:' arc
more than they can hear, and they take up stones to cast at him.
Ideas of unparallckd import follow one another in scientific order.
The final incident in this section is the healing, at the pool of Siloam, of
the man born hlind. The name Siloam means "Sent." The fad in Science is
that man is idea, and idea can never be cut off from the Principle \\'hich
sends forth the idea. For man to be born blind is for materia I birth
supposedly to have cut him off from his divine source - for human
conception to have turned light into darkness. Jesus impersonalizes this
claim of evil scientifically. 'Neither hath this man sinned. nor his
parents," he says, "hut that the works of God should be made manifest in
him."
Blindness (fa lien man) is not a material condition, hut the impossible
supposition that light can be cut off from Light. Hence Jesus' 3v.'areness
that his own Christ-being is the ligh! (~r Ihe world.
He anoints the man's eyes with day, bidding him \vash this away in the
po()1 of Siloam. Light sends forth itself. light. The light which is one with
its source. anu which is man, dissolves the dark, adamic. clay sense of mao.
The man is no longer hlinded. therefore, hy the myth of mortal origin. He
sees that Christ. his light, (which is himself). \vas never horn materially.
'Whereas l was blind. nO\V 1 sec:' he says.
"l am come into thi5. \'-"or/d, that they which see 110t might sec; and that
they which see might he made hlind," Jesus tells the people. Jusl as matter
is blind to Spirit. so Spirit is blind to matter. Spirit sees only its own
infinitude, and therefore sees that there is no matter.
Mind and Love
The section in the tonc of Science as Christianity opens with the discourse
on the "one fokL and one shepherd," It ends with the prayer on hehalfof
all humanity: "Father. . that tht..:y all may be one," In Science. the Mind
\\"hich is Love restores mankind to its truc parentage, where one is all and
all are one.
There is hut onc way to God, Jesus tells the Pharisees, and it is useless
for mcn to Ify to climb up into the sheepfold by some other way. This way
is first to come forth from God. The end and the heginning arc the same,
Only thieves and robbers try to climb up to God from a basis of matter. "}
am the door of the sheep," he says. "by me if any man enter in. he shall be
saved, and shall go in and OUL and find pasture, .1 am come thaI they
might have life. and that they might have it more ahundantly. . there
shall he one fokL and one shepherd
[ and my Father arc one,"
THE FOUR GOSPELS
301
We come to the story of the raising of Lazarus, and one wonders \,,,'h~y
John's Gospel alone records this. It is as if Science only can explain it, and
therefore Matthew, Mark, and Luke leave it for John to relate. This mighty
demonstration of divine power and presence furnishes Jesus with the
necessary objective proof of the nothingness of death. that must precede
the final subjective proof. when he himself rises from the grave. Certainly,
the two situations (Lazarus' resurrection and Jesus' resurrection) arc
remarkably complementary.
In the case of Lazarus. Jesus is on the outside of the grave, which is
sealed with a great stone; later he will be on the inside. With Lazarus, the
mourners take away the stone which they themselves have placed in
position; later, he (Christ) will roll it away himself. Lazarus has lain in the
grave "f()ur days already:" Jesus will lie there three days. The total number
of "days" required for the complete resurrection of the human concept is
seven. As we have found, the first four of these (as confirmed by the first
four thousand-year periods) accentuate the objective approach to life: the
last three accentuate the subjective standpoint of life ilself.
"And Jesus lilted up his eyes, and said. Father, I thank thee that thou
hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always. . And when he
thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he
that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes .
Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go." Jesus docs not wait for
material evidence to change before acknowledging the deathless
perfection of God and man. He knows that the demonstration is already
made divinely, before it is retlected humanly- before it is objectified to
human perception. In this case, sense evidence is compelled to change,
and conform to the facts of Science.
After Lazarus is restored to life, Caiaphas the high priest wants not
only to put him to death again, but to kill Jesus as well.
Lazarus' sister Mary was represented in Luke's Gospel as the
Magdalen. Here, in John, she anoints Jesus' body "against the day of [his J
burying." She prepares for his proof of the nothingness of death. This so
enrages the priests that they entice Judas Iscariot to act as Jesus' betrayer.
Judas has the bag. He is a thief who would climb up into the sheepfold hy
some other way.
As Jesus enters Jerusalem certain Greek Gentiles express their desire
to sec him. The moment the outside world responds in this way to the
presence of Truth he knows that his hour is corne. "Now is the judgment of
this \vorld," he says, "now shall the prince of this world be cast out." Once
the Christ appears in its Science it is lifted up from the earth and draws the
\vorld unto it. Priestcraft, the prince of this \vorld, is then no more.
It is as if John alone understands Jesus' meaning. At the passover, this
beloved disciple, the author of Revelation, the forecaster of Christian
Science, leans on Jesus' bosom and lies on his breast. John prefigures the
womanhood of God which reveals Christian Science to the world.
302
"That thou doest, do quickly," Jesus bids Judas, who departs into the
night. Jesus has washed the disciples' feet. They must. like him. be pure
and humble before God. With their right foot upon elementary. latent
error. and their left foot upon error's visible j(Hms (S & H 559:2-8), they
will have power over Judas. and prove man's immunity from death.
The words, "Take, cat: this is my body." (\vith the accompanying
symbols of bread and wine) arc not used in John as they are in the other
three Gospels. John is concerned with what body actually is. Jesus, in
John, tells the disciples about the Comforter, divine Science. This. he says,
is "the Spirit of truth" which (like himself) "proceedeth from the Father."
which "dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." The purpose of the
Comforter is to teach the world all things and lead it into all truth. That
which truly comforts mankind is the revelation of the motherhood of Gnd,
appearing through a system of spiritual education, the workings of which
is man himself as the Christ-hody hirthing his own being.
The disciples are perplexed at Jesus' explanations. and he has need to
clarify his meaning. Accordingly. he makes a simple fourfold statement of
how the Word, Christ. Christianity. Science solves the problems of
humanity, He says: "I came forth from the Father [\\lord J. and am come
into the world [Christ [: again, I leave the world [the problem solved in
Christianity I. and go to the Father [Science I," "Lo. now speakest thou
plainly, and speakest no proverb," is the disciples' glad response.
This spiritually cyclic statement regarding the workings of Principle is
the reality, in divine metaphysics, that lies behind the fourj()ld cycle in
today's science of cybernetics. Jesus' overwhelming desire is that. first the
disciples, and then the world. shall know that when truth speaks to
humanity it is sent by its Principle and is not vniced personally. The
disciples are convinced at last. They assure him: "By thi~ we believe that
thou camest forth from God."
Perhaps the underlying principle of modern c.vbcrnetics (inputprocess-output-feedback). working in conjunction with the science of
ecoloRY, may come to serve as a teaching symhol of the Principle of divine
Science. Certainly the prayer of intelligent twentieth century man is that
the \\.'orld may be one world, which is the prayer offered hy Jesus at the
close of this section of the text. He pleads: "That they all may he one: as
thou. Father. art in me, and I in thee. that they also may be one in us. ,I
in them, and thou in me. that they may he made perfect in one; and that the
world may know that thou hast sent me,"
Science as Science
Principle
If \ve cite Jesus' words to Mary and John from the cross, we touch.
perhaps, the essence of the final. sixteenth section of the four Gospels,
Science as Science, expressed through the term Principle.
The text reads: "When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple
standing by, whom he loved. he saith unto his mother. Woman, behold thy
son~ Then saith he to the disciple. Behold thy mother! And from that hour
THE FOUR GOSPELS
303
that disciple took her unto his own home." It is as if Jesus says to his
world: "Humanity, take the matrix of immortality into your subjective
consciousness; understand it. cherish it, love it; for then. as the calculus of
God's ideas, you will risc universa\\y from the dead.'

In John, the arrest, trial, and crucifixion. follow the same order as in
the other Gospels. "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into
the world. that I should bear witness uoto the truth," Jesus says to Pilate.
"What is truth?" Pilate asks. With the words. "I find no fault in him at all."
Pilate answers his own question. Truth is indeed the Son of God in whom
is no element of error.
The two angels who appear to Mary Magdalene at the time of the
resurrection are surely the twofold truth that the man of God's creating
has neither hirth nor death. Though the mortal senses, viewing this man,
may sce him as a gardener, aftcr the form of Adam, this does not make him
mortal man. The man of the seven days of creation, whose body is (to the
senses) temporarily rebuilt at the resurrection, is not a man who tills the
ground.
"Peace he unto you: as my father hath sent me, even so send I you,"
are the words with which the resurrected Jesus greets the joyous disciples.
'"And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them,
Receive ye the Holy Ghost." The timeless, space less fourth dimension of
Spirit is in the midst of them, and they in the midst of it. It inspires them
with the und.erstanding of the order, harmony and unity of their world.
The final episode in the fourth Gospel is what Science and Health calls
the "last spiritual breakfast." This takes place "'in the bright morning
hours at the joyful meeting on the shore of the Galilean Sea." Jesus'
resurrection is also his disciples' resurrection. It raises them "somewhat
from mortal sensuousness. . into newness of life as Spirit." The glorious
truth dawns that life (small I) is Spirit (capital 5)1 This is indeed a new
light.
Consciousness receives the holy Comforter, the Holy Ghost, or
Christianity in its Science. The standpoint of the resurrection is the
standpoint from which alone genuine Christian Science operates. In other
words. this is "the morning meal which Christian Scientists
commemorate" (5 & H 34:29- I 2). Universal Christianity, which follows in
the wake of Christ Jcsus. is really the divine Science of Christianity- that
is, Christian Science.
Hence Peter questions Jesus regarding the mission of the beloved
John. Jesus replies: "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee""
Spiritually recognized, John is the universal. unseen Science of Jesus' own
mission. It is John, therefore. who receives Revelation on the island of
Patmos, and whose spiritual potential tarries in world consciousness to
prepare mankind for the second advent.
As we come to the Acts of the Apostles, and the spiritual leaven. which
is John, starts to ferment the whole of human thought, the second phase of
the Christ-mission can hc said to have already begun.
CHAPTER XIV
Acts of the Apostles

The teachings of Jesus begin to radiate from their centre in Jerusalem
towards their world circumference. The reason for this is that "God is at
once the centre and circumference of being" (S & H 204: I).
Jerusalem is the scene of Jesus' resurrection, and Christianity (as it is
divinely) is the living spirit of the resurrection revealing itself to be world\vide. Christian Science is the Science of this original Christian movement.
It is the understanding of Jesus' resurrection resurrecting all mankind.
At the beginning of the fifth period, following the mission of Jesus, the
era of Christianity (both Bihlically and historically) opens with the Acts of
the Apostles. Christianity's teaching is interpreted by the twenty-one
Epistles that follow the book of Acts. Thcn, as prophesied in Revelation, the
Bible's tinal book, Christianity's mission is tulfliled in the sixth and seventh
millennia. when its absolute Science is at last brought to light. Thinking of
the Bible as a whole in relation to the four sides of the holy city, the Old
Testament corresponds to the Word, the Gospels to the Christ, Acts and the
Epistles to Christianity, while Revelation looks forward to Science.
Just as the story of Israel in the Old Testament ranges, in the main, from
Egypt to Babylon, so the story of Christianity in the New Testament ranges
from Jerusalem to Rome. Between these complementary stories. the
lifework of Jesus unfolds from the womb to the tomb. Whatever the
symholism, at whatever stage of the development. the purpose of the
spiritual idea of Grxi is to prove itself hirthless and deathless.
According to sense evidence, Jerusalem is the birthplace of Christianity.
Through the ministry of Paul, as recorded in the latter part of Acts,
Christianity reaches Rome. There, some three centuries later, according to
this same material evidence, Christianity dies. Healing ceases and ritualism
takes its place. But just as Israel is resurrected from Babylon. and Jesus
from the Jerusalem sepulchre, so Christianity, some twelve centuries after
its Roman capture. is, in a measure. resurrected from Rome. Its reformation begins. Protestantism. coming at the beginning of the sixteenth
century, prepares the way for Christian Science at the end of the nineteenth
century. To this same mortal sense, the womb and the tomb of Christian
Science is its own denominational religious organization centred in Boston,
America.
Mankind's metropolises are counterfeit symbols of the one holy city of
the Word, Christ, Christianity, Science, detined hy Paul as the "mother" of
304
ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
305
us all. This universal matrix-city, with its four equal sides, comes to
humanity to reveal and to prove that the mortal concepts of Babylon,
Jerusalem. Rome. and Boston have never, and can never, entomb the
foursquare idea of God, which is this vcry city. The Son of God comes to
prove his own birth less. deathless reality. The Son of God is never
entomhed within his own body. The hody of Christ (universal man) is
indeed the immortal womb of Christ. but never its mortal tomh.
TeKiay. the revelation of the absolute Science of being marks the
beginnings of the resurrection of Christian Science. But this revelation. too,
must include the understanding that an organic terminology is neither its
\\'omh nor its tomb. Freed from the dangers of enslaving technology, our
thought returns to the exemplar, Jesus. and to his living demonstration that
organic body is neither the hirthplace nor deathplace of man. The purpose
of all forms of spiritual and scientific symbolism is to teach humanity to
liberate itself from the confines of mortal body.
Christianity'sjourney from Jerusalem to Rome, described in the hook of
Acts, typifies the world setting in which the Christianity of the Epistles is
propagated. Correspondingly, in the Old Testament. Israel'sjourney from
Egypt to Bahylon is the background against which the original Judaism of
the Prophets is propagated. We come to the conclusion that there is a
reciprocal relationship between all that the Prophets stand for as they close
the Old Testament. and all that the Epistles stand for as (in conjunction
with Revelation) they close the New Testament. This means, in summary,
that the Prophets arc to the Gospels as the Epistles arc to Revelation. Or,
again, Word is to Christ as Christianity is to Science.
Following the tirst eight chapters. the outstanding figure of Acts is Paul.
Paul is Christ's Apostle to the Gentiles. Christianity, in the care of Paul,
moves steadily outwards from its Jewish centre, Jerusalem, to its Gentile
circumference, the World. The Christian convert, Paul. typifies in himself
world conversion to Christianity- translation, that is, from an attitude of
rejection and persecution to one of acceptance and dedication. Spiritually.
Paul is the founder of Western Christian civilization which, in the course of
the sixth thousand-year period, becomes world~enveloping. For just as a
\vorid-elllbracing Roman Empire is the requisite setting for the first
Messianic advent (Christ Jesus), so Western Christendom must likewise
hecome world-emhracing as the setting for the second Messianic advent
(Christian Science). The individual Jesus is counterfeited by the personal
god-king Caesar; universal Christian Science has as its counterfeit the
impersonal physical sciences. Only in respect of its scientific technology
does Western civilization conquer the world: Western man does not
conquer the world culturally through his sectarian Christian religion.
Despite his auspicious Christian heginnings, Western man's Christianity
degenerates into moralism and ritualism, in which the spirit and letter of
original Christianity are for the most part dead. In the affections of Western
man, Christianity's place is taken by a materially scientific technology
306
which is exceedingly virile and alive. Christian Science is horn into a

technologically Westernized world for the purpose of translating this world
into what the Bible calls the kingdom of heaven on earth - that is. into the
divinely self-governing world civilization depicted in Revelation. In this
world of Truth and Love, Science is not physical. Truth is not a soulless
legalized letter divorced from the spirit of the brotherhood of man, which is
the essence of the religion of Love. In the holy city. the letter of Science.
stressed by the term Truth. is inseparable from the spirit of Science. stressed
hy Love.
Through the advent of the sciences of ecology and cyhernetics in the
closing decades of the twentieth century, the physical sciences and arts,
hitherto fragmentary and disconnected, are becoming unified and
interdependent. This means in practice that their status is changing from
counterfeit to symbol. They are beginning to reflect the diversity in unity
which characterizes Science itself. In the form of symbol, instead of
counterfeit, the civilized world can he translated by the idea it symbolizes
into this very idea. No longer need it be divided against itself. and therefore
self-destroying.
A language of mutual understanding, a common mother tongue, a
means of universal communication, must impel itself divinely on the
consciousness or mankind. Through such a language, Jesus' scientifically
Christian prayer, "Father. . that they all may be one," will begin to be
realized and fulfilled. A mode of spiritual intercourse binds one-in-all and
all-in-one.
The language of timeless ideas speaking to receptive hearts today as
the language of the system of absolute Christian Science, founds this
spiritual mother tongue. As we begin the story of Acts, and the events of
the day of Pentecost instruct us regarding the true meaning of Christianity,
we are shown a practical working model of the way in which an infinitely
diverse world understands and responds to a common spiritual tongue. In
fact, we are provided with an illustration of what must increasingly
occupy the thought of humanity as it crosses the threshold from the sixth
to the seventh millennium.
Scientific structure
Basically, Acts is written from the standpoint of Christianity. The book is in

two parts: the first emphasizes the work of Peter, leading to that of PauL the
second concerns the great world mission of Paul himself. While Peter's
place is with the Church in Jerusalem, as Christianity's Jewish centre, Paul
takes Christianity further and further afield into its Gentile circumference.
It could be said that Paul represents the Church Universal huilt on the
Rock represented by Peter. Christ is the foundational headstone, the
Church is his universal body.
The structure of Acts is according to the Christianity order of the
synonymous terms for God. The tones that unfold the first part of the hook
307
are Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Life, Truth, Love; in the second part, we
start with Life, Truth, Love, and return through Spirit. Soul, Mind, to
Principle. The cyclic operation of Christianity is thus encompassed.
Radiating from its Principle (typitied by Jerusalem), Christianity radiates

to this Principle (symbolized initially by Rome). This is understood
spiritually by the fact that God, Principle, is at once the centre and
circumference of being.
But as well as the tones of the seven, the operation of the fhur is also
evident. Starting with Christianity as the Word in the tone of Principle, we
move to Christianity as the Christ in the tone of Mind, to Christianity as
Christianity where the terms are Soul and Spirit. and to Christianity as
Science where they are Life, Truth, and Love. In the "return" journey, in
the second part of the book, Christianity as Science is expressed through
Life, Truth, and Love, Christianity as Christianity through Spirit and Soul,
Christianity as the Christ through the term Mind, so that in Christianity as
the Word we have returned once more to Principle.
We must remember also that as soon as the Apostles begin their work,
we enter the second main tone of the fifth day of creation, and of the fifth
thousand-year period, Life as Spirit. As we have said, the events of the day
of Pentecost foreshadow the advent of Christian Science. Inevitably,
therefore. Mary Saker Eddy says that what she glimpsed at the time of her
discovery in 1866 was the great fact of "Life in and of Spirit" (Mis 24: 15).
Jesus, having shown forth life of divine origin in the tone of Life as Mind,
individuality everywhere is increasingly tilled with the Holy Ghost - is

haptized by the holy Spirit - in the tone of Life as Spirit.
As discussed on p. 46, this is the last of the tones of the days of creation,
and of the thousand-year periods, to feature in this book. This is because the
scope of the book is specifIcally the message of the Sible, and the Sible (as
far as its compilation is concerned) is finished in the first century of the
Christian era where the tone is Life as Spirit. The remaining tones, from
Life as Soul to Love as Love, lightly touched upon at the end of Chapter 2,
are implicit in the book of Revelation which we reach in Chapter 16. Thus
the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is complete in itself, and this book is
likewise complete.
2nd tone of 5th period

- Life as SpiritChristianity as the Word
Principle
ACTS (Part I)
"And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of
the twelve apostles of the Lamb" (Rev 21: 14). Unless Jesus' twelve apostles
are consciously working from the standpoint of the Principle to which the
Christ-idea is ascended - unless Christendom's twelve jimndalions are
undcrst(xxi to be in heaven, in Principle - Christianity cannot begin its
great world mission of restoring humanity to heaven, to Principle.
308
Acts begins, therefore, by recounting Jesus' ascension. "Wilt thou at this

time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" the disciples ask him. "And he
said unto them. It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the
Father hath put in his own power." The disciples wish to know if the
universal Science of Jesus' teaching will come and restore mankind to God
immediately. and Jesus indicates that the world must undergo a proces.';; of
preparation first. Therefore he says to them: "Ye shall be witnesses unto me
both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea. and in Samaria, and unto the
uttermost part of the earth."
"And when he had spoken these things, while they heheld, he was taken
up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And. . two men stood hy
them in white apparel; Which also said. Ye men of Galilee. why stand ye
gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus. which is taken up from you into
heaven, shall so come in like manner as yc have seen him go into heaven."
The meaning of Galilee is "circle." Ascension, therefore. is necessarily
followed by descension - withdrawal to divinity must always be followed by
return to humanity for the purpose of solving the problem of heing. This
completes the scientific circle.
Returning to Jerusalem, as Jesus commanded, the disciples meet
together with one accord under one roof. The "women. and Mary the
mother of Jesus, and. . his brethren" are with them. The presence of the
foursquare matrix is essential to the demonstration of spiritual unity and
accord.
Because of the defection of Judas Iscariot the disciples are only eleven
in number, and the twelvefold crown is incomplete. (:Ieariy, this must be
remedied before Christianity's world mission can begin. The question arises
as to whether "Joseph called Barsahas, who was surnamed Justus," or
Matthias, whose name means "gilt of God," shall till Judas' place. Mere
moral justice is no substitute for the depravity and physicality of Judas.
Genuine spirituality, implicit in the gift of God, is the quality required. And
so Matthias is elected. Spiritual unity, reciprocity, and wholeness determine
that thought is proceeding from divine Principle. that one is in all and all
are in one, and therefore that Christianity is in operation.
Mind
There follows, on the day of Pentecost. the spontaneous intlux of the Holy
Ghost. Not that the disciples first congregate humanly, and then the Holy
Ghost descends: but that heing divinely and scientifically "with one accord
in one place" is the quality of the Holy Ghost itself, wherein the human and
the divine are one. This oneness has nothing to do with a band of people as
such. What the senses behold as the united hody of disciples is an essential.
exemplary symbol of the human race as a whole in the divine reality of its
heing- all humanity in reciprocal accord, hased upon one Principle, having
one Mind. The descent of the Holy Ghost is the Christ-identity of the
human race born in Christianity. What humanity is at last (in divine
Science) must he accepted from the first (on the day of Pentecost),
309
otherwise humanity's divine reality is not present in \vorltl consciousness to

prepare the way for its full-orbed appearing.
Mary Baker Eddy writes that "the disciples met together in an upper
chamber. . were of one mind." She adds: "We, to-day, in this class-room.
arc enough to convert the world if we are of one Mind"(Mis 279:22). She
distinguishes between early historical Christianity (mind - small m) and the
time of the divine Science of Christianity (Mind - capital M). In Science,
Christianity in its aspect as Christ is the total embodiment of the human
race proceeding from one parent Mind.
"And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty
wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there
appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of
them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. and hegan to speak with
other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."
According to Jesus, "The wind hloweth where it listcth.
. so is every
one that is born of the Spirit" (J ohn 3:8). The happenings of the day of
Pentecost illustrate the world heing horn again. This is made possible by the
advent of what Zephaniah called a pure language. The Holy Ghost
(represented humanly hy the united disciples) speaks to the world in a
language of ideas which the world already understands- with which it is
spiritually and inherently familiar. In Science. man is this language of
ideas; he already is the state of mutual understanding and instant
communication which is the activity of these ideas. In what the disciples afe
voicing. mankind recognizes its true mother tongue, or the language of
unfallen man. The devout Jews "out of every nation under heaven" who are
in Jerusalem at the time. symholize the human race, in all its diversity,
understanding what the one Spirit is imparting, each man in his own
tongue.
Not only is the pure language referred to by Zephaniah being put into
expression hut, as Peter points out to the multitude. the prophecy of Joel is
in process of fulfilment too. "This is that which was spoken by the prophet
JoeL" Peter says, "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I
will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy. . I will pour out in those days of my Spiric and they shall
prophesy." At the heginning of the Christianity epoch mankind is baptized
with the Holy Ghost, just as Jesus himself. at the beginning of his career,
was baptized with this same Holy Ghost. The Pentecostal happening
foreshadows the coming of Christian Science, which "floods the world with
the haptism of Jesus" ('02.5:8).
The church (hody) of Christ has hegun to he demonstrated humanly.
The universal holy city has begun to come down from God out of heaven.
When this church has postulated an organic symbol of itself (the early
Apostolic Church), and this has developed (eighteen centuries later) into
the Church of Christ. Scientist. then the original spiritual body of Christ
must dissolve its temporal symbol. as the prelude. in "the last days," to
310
world resurrection from the mortal sense of life. For. as Peter hrings out in
his address. Christianity stems from the resurrection. Without the
resurrection. Christianity has no real basis on which to huild, no real
purpose to fulfil, is without a genuine premise or conclusion.
Luke records the heartening words: "And all that believed were
together. and had all things common.
. And they, continuing daily in the
temple. and hreaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with
gladness and singleness of heart
Soul, Spirit
Because of what Christianity as the Word and Christianity as the Christ

have achieved through the workings of Principle and Mind, mankind\
actual salvation starts in Christianity as Christianity, where the tones are
Soul and Spirit. This means to say, the era of apostolic Irealrirg begins.
We read how "Peter and John went up together into the temple at the
hour of prayer. . And a certain man lame from his mother's womh was
carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called
Beautiful." This certain man is mankind lame from the belief of having
been born of an organic temple. or body. Humanity's spiritual identity,
typified here by the manhood of Peter and womanhood of John, as they
enter the temple together, invokes the healing power of Truth and Love
\\/ith which to correct error. The values they express are the spiritual
opposites of "silver and gold." "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise
up and walk," they command. The body stands on its feet. Thc church, as
the "structure of Truth and Love," "conceived and born of Truth and
Love," is built on "foundations of Truth and Love" (S & H 583: 12, 463:14,
558: J 6). Until thjs is understood, the human concept is a lame counterfeit
of body instead of its balanced, mobile symbol. The tone outstandingly is
Soul.
"There is none other name under heaven given among men. whereby
we must be saved," Peter says. "There is no other \vay under heaven
wherehy we can be saved," writes Mary Baker Eddy, except "selfrenunciation of all that constitutes a so-callcd material man. and the
acknowledgment and achievement or his spiritual identity as the child of
God" (Mis I R5:7). The pride of personal priestcraft resents this thought of
self-renunciation. "And they I the priests! called them, and commanded
them not to speak at all nor leach in the name of Jesus." But Peter "filled
with the Holy Ghost" is undeterred. "This is the stone which was set at
nought of you builders," he tells them, "which is become the head of the
corner
The tonc of Spirit comes when Ananias and Sapphira, in selling their
possessions on hehalf of the church, keep back part of the price for
themselves. They are not whole in their service and devotion. Declining to
lay their earthly all on the altar of Spirit. they are not scientifically pure.
This is death to the body in Christianity, and both Anemias and Sapphira
die.
311
The Jewish teacher Gamaliel says to the enemies of Christianity: "If this
counselor this work be of men, it will come to nought: But if it be of God, ye
cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God."
Life, Truth, Love
In the tone of Life in Christianity as Science (the Science of Christianity, or

Christian Science) it is found expedient to set in motion the elements of a
church organization. Seven deacons are appointed to manage church
affairs. "Look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy
Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business," the twelve
apostles hid the church membership. In the Christian Science Church
Manual there are precisely seven Otlicers, and the order in which they are
presented is the Christianity order of the synonymous terms for God
(Man 21).
Chief among the deacons are Stephen and Philip. Their thought is
conspicuously non-ecclesiastical. Stephen, fuJI of faith and power, is the
first Christian (after Jesus) to undergo martyrdom. The reason is plain.
"And all that sat in the council [the Jewish synagogue in contrast to the
Christian church I. looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been
the face of an angel." An angel typifies the standpoint of the resurrection,
and the ah.w)/ute. Stephen's outlook is that "organization and time have
nothing to do with Life" (S & H 249: 19). He declares that "the most High
dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet." The
opposition is ferocious. "When they heard these things. . they gnashed on
him with their tceth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up
steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God. . And said, Behold, I
see the heavens opened. and the Son of man standing on the right hand of
God." That which stands on the right hand of Principle is absolute Life.
Truth, and Love. "Then they . . . ran upon him with one accord, And cast
him out of the city. and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their
clothes at a young man's feet. whose name was Saul."
Our introduction to Saul (later Paul) is thus at the scene of Stephen's
martyrdom. Saul, at this stage, typifies world opposition to Christianity;
later he will stand for world conversion to Christianity. Then he will be
re na med Pau I.
In a tone of Truth, Philip plays the leading role. Under his leadership
the first missionaries set out from Jerusalem to Samaria. The first wave of
spiritual radiation travels from Jerusalem, capital of Judah (manh()(xJ), to
Samaria, capital of the old kingdom of Israel (womanhood).
Philip meets an Ethiopian eunuch. This man "of great authority" sits in
his chariot reading from the hook of Isaiah. He is studying the passage: "He
was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his
shearer, so opened he not his mouth." When Philip tells the eunuch about
Jesus and the resurrection, the eunuch is converted to Christianity and is
haptized. They never see each other again. We are shown the impersonal
basis on which Philip propagates Truth, or Christ. "Leaving the seed of
312
Truth to its own vitality [as Philip doesl. it propagates: the tares cannot
hinder it" (Mis III: 15).
"The greatest wrong is but a supposititious opposite of the highest right"
(S & H 368: I). The Love tone begins when Saul is converted to Christianity.
from heing Christianity's most virulent opponent. suddenly his character is
transformed, and he becomes its most devoted. whole-hearted exponent.
The name of this "colossal character" (Mis 360:7) is accordingly changed
from Saul to Paul. Paul is a spiritual colossus because of his inestimable
service to the outside Gentile world.
So sudden and powerful is the light that tloods him on the road to
Damascus that it makes him temporarily blind. Paul, in Christianity,
literally extends the light of the Christ to hecome the light of the world. The
vision of a world other than the world of Christianity is taken away from
him until he understands the world to be the world of Christ.
From Paul (the Gentile circumference of the Christianity circle) the
story returns to Peter (the Jewish centre). Simon Peter is a guest in the
house of Simon, a tanner. A tanner cleans and processes the skins of
animals. Cornelius, a Roman centurion, a convert to Christianity, is told by
an angel to persuade Peter to come and lodge in Cornelius' house. Peter
goes on to the roof of the tanner's house, and there he has a vision. Hungry
for Christian converts, he beholds heaven open "and a certain vessel
descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners,
and let down to the earth: Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of
the earth, and wild beasts. and creeping things, and j()wls of the air. And
there came a voice to him, Rise. Peter; kill, and cat. But Peter said, Not so.
Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean." Peter is
rebuked severely for this unspiritual, unchristian attitude. "What God hath
cleansed, that call not thou common," the voice tells him. "This was done
thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven."
Evidently some spiritual cleansing and spiritual tanning needs to take
place in Peter's own thought in order that the fourfold net of fourfooted
beasts can be caught up again into heaven. Peter foresees Christianity
restoring the material world to God by cleansing and converting the animal
concept of man. This cleansing process is soon to he represented hy Paul's
three missionary journeys. Hence the vision is repeated three times. But
conversion, as such. is a misapprehension of the method of divine Love.
Only because the sheet first comes down from heaven, with its animals
already clean be.f{Jre God, will it ever be taken up again into heaven.
Peter is torced to admit. regarding Gentile conversion to Christianity,
that "God is no respecter of persons." Yet a great controversy over
circumcision arises between him and Paul. Peter contends. in effect. that
the Gentile circumference of the Christianity circle must be circumcised
like its Jewish centre. Paul strongly disagrees.
Paul wins the day for the Gentiles. Circumcision, he argues, does not
apply to the outside world. Christianity is universal, not esoteric, all-
313
inclusive, not a sect. The experiences of newcomers are not those of lsracl's
pioneers. Organizing mankind in conformity with rules requisite in the
heginning of the founding mission is not only unnecessary hut Christianly
and scientifically absurd. Already the world is Christianity, and
Christianity is the world. The world in Christianity comes forth clean from
God. To believe otherwise is to misunderstand the method of translation
and therefore of Christiani:.!ation. "What God hath cleansed. that call not
thou common." Peter was told. And so "they of the circumcision which
believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the
Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost."
The first Gentile converts are Romans of Antioch. where the name
Christian is used for the first time.
We are shov.-'O what constitutes fundamental human resistance to
Christianity. The object lesson is Herod the king. "And upon a set day
Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration
. And the people gave a shout. saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of
a man." As we shall see through the ministry of Paul the deification of
human personality, rather than the worship of Principle. is what primarily
opposes the spiritualization and Christianization of mankind. "And
immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the
glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost."
Whether depicted by Herod, or by the Caesar of the whole Roman
world, there is no truth in the belief that mall is God. What ecclesiastical
Christendom will endeavour to propagate, and what Paul must forestall in
his missionary journeys, is the incarnate error of believing that the
corporeal Jesus is God.
ACTS (Part II)

The purpose of Paul's three journeys into the Graeco-Roman world is to
reveal to this world its true Christian status, and dispossess it of the pagan
mythology that God is incarnate in mortal man. Paul's fourth and final
journey (which closes the book of Acts) is to Rome itself, where he is taken
as Caesar's prisoner. As the capital city of the whole civilized world, Rome
is Christianity's goal. Christianity must prove that as the real identity of a
Romanized world, it cannot be held captive by this world. Later, Christian
Science must do the same thing in respect of a Westernized world.
Life, Truth, Love
Christianity in its Science, expressed through the Trinity of Life. Truth, and
Love, extends Christianity beyond its Jewish centre and reveals its
universal Gentile nature. Life, Truth, and Love are the triune Principle. or
Person, of the Godhead, who is Father. Son, and Mother in Himself.
Humanity finds its identity in the Science of Christianity in the measure
314
that Life (Father) disposes of belief in organic fatherhood, Truth (Son)

disposes of belief in organic sonship, and Love (Mother) disposes of belief
in organic motherhood. Paul's first missionary journey is accordingly
impelled by Life, the Father.
First missionary journey: Historically and geographically Paul rcaches
Cyprus. Interpreted spiritually, the first necessity of an expanding
Christianity is to handle incarnate error as represented by the sorceror Barjesus.
The name Bar-jesus means "son of Jesus," Paul addresses him: "0 full
of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all
righteousness. wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord,"
Jesus taught: "Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your
Father. which is in heaven." To Jesus, the infinite Godhead, Life, Truth,
and Love, is the only creator of man. No truth is more fundamental to
Christ and to Christianity than that God, not man, is Father. "Son of Jesus"
is divinely and humanly impossible.
If man, not God, is really the father of man, or if it is rcally Paul and
Barnabas, and not God, who heal the man in Lycaonia lame from his
mother's womb. then the pagan people of Lystra are right in concluding
that "the gods are come down to us in the likeness of men." Just as the first
healing in Christianity (by Peter and John) was of a Jevl-" lame from his
mother's womb. so the first Genrile healing (hy Paul and Barnabas) is also
of a man lame from the belief that man, not God, is the creator and father of
man. Christ's Christianity handles the one evil, or evil one, at its roots when
it denounces the original lie of the mythological serpent. "ye shall be as
gods." and replaces this with the Science of "Our Father-Mother God"
(S&H 16:15-27).
Second missionary .iounJ ey: On Paul's second journey, where the emphasis
shifts from Life to Truth, Christianity reaches Europe. Paul is inspired to
carry Christianity to the Greek mainland, to such centres as Athens and
Corinth. This is because the next phase of error which Christianity must
handle (as world opposition to its teachings) is classical Greek philosophy,
which the Roman world has adopted and adapted to suit its own
requirements.
This philosophy focuses in the doctrines of the Epicureans and Stoics.
The Epicureans have no time for reason; their outl(X)k is based on
experience only. Pleasure and happiness, they say, not absolute truth, is the
goal for which man should strive. Stoicism, on the other hand, is based on
intellectual egotism and pride, and on human ability to reason about God.
It turns away from pleasure and pain, and from external good and evil. It
could he said that Epicureanism has a taste for the spirit without the letter,
and Stoicism a taste for the letter without the spirit. But Truth, as presented
in Christianity, involves the balanced relationship of both letter and spirit,
315
manhood and womanhood, the ideal and the real. the ahsolute and the
applied. Christ. Truth, the true knowledge of God, consists of spiritual
agreement hetween these pairs of concepts, not their philosophical
argumentation.
Accordingly, the second missionary journey concentrates on Athens. the
seat of philosophy and learning. On Mars Hill, Paul delivers his celehrated
oration on the unknown God, whom the Athenians ignorantly worship. "As
I passed hy," he says, "and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this
inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD . . . Him declare I unto you." Paul
explains how God is the creator of all things, and has "made of one blood
all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." We, as man,
"live. and move, and have our being" in God, as His offspring, he tells the
Athenians. The q'uestion. therefore, is: what constitutes divine sonship?
Sonship lies in being the understanding, or idea, of God, which lives and
moves in Gex:l. "Father-Mother is the name for Deity," the Christian
Science textbook declares correlatively, "which indicates His tender
relationship to His spiritual creation. As the apostle expressed it. . 'For
wc are also His offspring' " (S & H 332:4).
On the subject of human philosophy, Science and Health says that there
is only "one school of Truth," that such schools as "the Socratic, the
Platonic. the Spencerian . . . may have occasional gleams of divinity,
harrowed from that truly divine Science which eschews man-made
systems," but that "they nevertheless remain wholly human in their origin
and tendenc), and are not scientifically Christian" (S & H 112:6).
Thus Christianity, under the leadership of Paul, analyzes and handles
paganism and agnosticism in the Graeco-Roman world. It shows that these
doctrines have no place in genuine Christianity. and arc therefore no part
of the world's true identity.
Third missionary journey: With the third missionary journey, in the tone of
Love, the geographical focus is Ephesus. Ephesus is the religious centre. in
the Mediterranean world, for the worship of the goddess Diana. Diana is
the Roman version of the many-hreasted pagan fertility deity. known as the
Great Mother Goddess. Because of her association with the moon, Ephesian
artisans make silver images of Diana. and also silver shrines at which the
people come and worship. By contrast, the birth-giving mother In
Revelation has the mlXJn under her feet.
The commercially successful Ephesian craftsmen are furious at
Christianity's affront to their goddess. "Not alone at Ephesus, but almost
throughout all Asia," they say. "this Paul hath persuaded and turned away
much people. . So that not on ly this our craft is in danger to be set at
nought; hut also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be
despised, and her magnificence should bc destroyed, whom all Asia and the
world worshippeth
Great is Diana of the Ephesians." Certainly no
image is more adored and revered throughout the world than that of human
motherhood.
316
On the tirst missionary journey, Life. Truth, and Love handle the
organic sense of fatherhood from the standpoint of Life, the Father: on the
second .journey, Life, Truth, and Love handle the organic sense of sonship
from the standpoint of Truth. the Son: on the third journey. this same holy
trinity of Life, Truth, and Love handles the organic sense of motherhood
from the standpoint of Love, the Mother. Hence the tcaching of Science and
Health that "self-abnegation. . is a rule in Christian Science"-a rule
which interprets God "as Life. represented by the Father: as Truth,
represen ted by the Son; as Love, represented by the Mother" (S & H
568:30). Later, the dogma of the Holy Trinity will become a fundamental
doctrine of Roman Christendom, and the suqject of many heresies.
Paul's third journey stresses the need on the part of the Gentile
circumference (in gratitude for the truth of Gentile identity that has come
from the Jewish centre) to send gifts of money to the church in Jerusalem.
Paul decides to take these gins to Jerusalem himself. Spiritually, this almsgiving betokens the return to divine Love of the go(xi that has first come
from Love, and the translation of the world from paganism to Christianity
as a result. But Paul is warned how the Jews will pervert this circulation of
love by interpreting it materially. They will say it is the duty of the Asian
children to supply their Jerusalem mother financially. for the purpose of
sustaining her.
The Jews will lay hold on Paul and he will be their prisoner, and
afterwards they will transport him bound to Rome. "And
. a certain
prophet, named Agabus. . took Paul's girdle. and hound his own hands
and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at
Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into
the hands of the Gentiles." Therefore his companions heseech him not to go
back to Jerusalem. But Paul pays no heed. He is a\vare of Christianity's
long-term purpose. His vision is spiritual, scientific, universaL theirs is
short-sighted and personal. "What mean ye to weep and to hreak mine
heart'?" he asks. "I am rcady not to be hound only. but also to die at
Jerusalem h)r the name of the Lord Jesus
. The will of the Lord be
done."
In the case of Jesus, the Christ-idea faced the arrest, trial, crucifixion.
and entombment; in the case of Paul, Christianity faces a corresponding
sequence of situations. Just as it was necessary for Jesus to he bound in
Jerusalem and imprisoned in the tomb, so Paul must first go back to
Jerusalem in order to be taken a prisoner to Rome. The emphasis has
shifted from the individual Christ to universal Christianity. Spiritually
translated, Paul's journey from Jerusalem to Rome typifies the birthless,
deathless movement of Christianity itself- the spiritual idea of God and
man transforming the civilized world.
Spirit, Soul
The remainder of Acts is concerned with Paul's return to Jerusalem, and his
journey from there to Rome, This part of the story begins in the tone of
317
Christianity as Christianity, where the terms are Spirit and Soul.

The Jerusalem mob is inflamed. at the way Paul has presumed to convert
Gentiles to Christianity. without regard (apparently) for Judaic laws.
particularly the rite of circumcision. A frenzy is whipped up by Asian Jews.
"This is the man." they cry. "that teacheth all men every where against the
people. and the law. and this place: and further brought Greeks also into
the temple. and hath polluted this holy place." Rome. famed for her ability
to administer taw, takes charge of the situation, and savc'5 Paul from his
fellow Jews. A Roman captain arrests him, and the long series of trials
begins.
"And as they bound him with thongs. Paul said unto the centurion that
stood hy. Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and
uncondemned?
. Then the chief captain came, and said unto him, Tell
me. art thou a Roman? He said. Yea. And the chief captain answered. With
a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said. But I was free born."
Paul is hoth Jew and Gentile. God is at once the centre and circumference
of being. Christianity (as represented by Paul) knows that. in truth. the

Roman world is the kingdom of heaven. the holy city. where all reflect the
One which is All. and therefore where all are free. Under the heading
"Native freedom." the texthook declares: "God made man free. Paul said.
'1 was free born.' All men should he free" (S&H 227:16).
With Roman permission, Paul defends himself before the .lewlSh
Sanhedrin. But the Jews are incensed beyond control. Paul is comforted by
a vision of Jesus. He sees Jesus standing by his side and saying, "Be of good
cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear
witness also at Rome." Christianity must he taken to Rome in order,
eventually, to be resurrected from Rome, As Israel came up out of Bahylon,
and Jesus out of the tomh. so. at last. Christianity will be freed from Rome.
This same liberation will also apply in the case of Christian Science.
Neither is Rome the tomb of early Christianity, nor is it the womh of
later Christianity. When Christianity is Roman\zed by the Emperor
Constantine in the fourth century. this appears as the death of early

(healing) Christianity. When Western Christian civilization hegins to rise
from the ashes of the old Roman Empire later in the Middle Ages. this
appears as the hirth of later Christianity. Not Rome. but Christianity
itself- the Christianity of Jesus and Paul- is the womh whereof the real
identity of the present world-encompassing Western civilization is horn.
Freedom is claimed by Western man as the keynote of his society. When this
world-society understands its identity in terms of the original Science of
Christianity (Christian Science) all mankind will echo the words of Paul. "[
was free horn."
Following his plea to the Sanhedrin, Paul is sent to Caesarea to be tried
by Felix, the Roman governor. Metaphysically, the story enters the tone of
Soul. The charge is heresy. Paul defends himself by showing the
contradictory nature of the Pharisaical argument. The Pharisees denounce
318
him for preaching the very doctrine which they themselves profess to
believe, namely, resurrection. He says: "Except it be for this one voice. that
I cried standing among them, Touching the resurrection of the dead I am
called in question by you this day." Were there no resurrection there would
be no Christianity, and therefore no salvation for the race. Even felix is
touched by the magnitude of the resurrection issue. Trembling. he says to
Pau 1: "Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season. I will call
for thee."
Paul's third trial is before Festus, Felix's successor. and this is when he
lodges his appeal to Caesar. But does Paul really desire to appeal to the
personal Caesar? Paul never ceases to appeal to Principle, and this divine
appeal causes him to do the right thing humanly. Paul's real appeal is to
SouL which reverses the evidence of the personal senses. festus says to him:
"Hast thou appealed unto Caesar? unto Caesar shalt thou go."
At his fourth trial he faces Agrippa. Christianity before Agrippa
reminds us of Christ before Pilate. Paul asks him: "King Agrippa, believest
thou the prophets' I know that thou believest." Agrippa replies: "Almost
thou persuadest me to be a Christian." Summing up the case, the king gives
his verdict: "This man doeth nothing worthy of death or of bonds. . This
man might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed unto Caesar."
Pilate said of Jesus, "I find in him no fault at all." But just as Israel was
impelled to go to Babylon, and Jesus to the tomb, so Christianity is divinely
impelled to go to Rome. In no other way can Soul reverse the evidence of
the senses and reveal the free and universal nature of the Christ-body.
Mind
Christianity as the Christ, operating through the omnipresence of Mind, sets

in motion this final Pauline journey. Jesus prayed that the world might
know that God had sent him. In giving itself back to divine Principle,
Christianity, represented by Paul, must likewise prove that its origin is the
universal parent Mind.
There is a great storm at sea. Elementary mortal mind rages against the
clements of Mind, of which Christianity (and therefore the world) is
constituted. But to Christianity there is "no vapid fury of mortal mind"
(S & H 293:21), whether this fury is uncollscious (the sea) or conscious (the
land). The ship. in which Paul is prisoner, is wrecked otT the island of
Malta. Yet not one of the ship's company perishes. Immortal Mind makes
nothing of the so-called unconscious source of error's visible forms. Paul
reports how "There stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am,
and whom I serve, Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before
Caesar."
Once the company and their prisoners are safely washed ashore, the
fundamental danger facing Christianity is re-enacted. Paul, having thrown
a poisonous viper from his hand into the fire, and having shown himself
unharmed, is hailed by the islanders as a glXI. On behalf of Christianity.
Paul has the wisdom to handle and reduce to nothingness the claim of the
319
original talking serpent, that men shall be as gods, After this, many of the
islanders are healed of diseases. Such is the power of the Mind of
Christianity- the Mind of the universal body of man,
Principle
In the final tone of all- Christianity as the Word - Paul arrives in Rome.
From its origin in Principle (typitied at the beginning of Acts by Jesus'
ascension, and by the disciples as a body working from the ascension
standpoint). Christianity is represented as having circled back to Principle,
once it has reached Rome. lnterpreted spiritually, the Roman Empire, and
therefore the world, is the kingdom of heaven (Christianity) under the
government of absolute Principle. The successor civilization to the Roman
Empire is, as we realize, the present Western Christian society into which
Christianity's original divine Science has been born.
Paul, in bonds, approaches the city. Roman Christians come out to meet
him, to thank him, and encourage him. In Rome, the centurion delivers him
to the captain of the guard, and he is "suffered to dwell by himself."
"Yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the
Romans," he explains to the Jews of the city, "Who, when they had
examined me, would have let me go, because there was no cause of death in
me. But when the Jews spake against it, I was constrained to appeal unto
Caesar; not that I had ought to accuse my nation of . . . because that for the
hope of Israel I am bound with this chain,"
For the hope of this same IsraeL Jesus, the representative of the Christ,
was bound: and now Paul, the representative of Christianity, is bound.
Christ the head, and Christianity the body, together constitute one world,
The divine purpose behind the experiences of both Jesus and Paul is the
hope of deliverance for the human race from the binding restrictions of the
mortal sense of life,
The book of Acts closes with these words: "And Paul dwelt two whole
years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him,
Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern
the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him," It
would seem from the text that Paul is free in Rome, and not a prisoner at
all. Nor is there record of his ever appearing before Caesar, which was the
apparent reason for his journey. Nor, we are told, is there evidence of his
having died in Rome a martyr's death.
Paul in Rome, the point at which we leave the Acts of the Apostles, is,
spiritually translated, the symbol of birthless, deathless Christianity under
the government of its world-wide Principle. What could be more natural,
therefore. as we come to the Epistles (where the actual teachings of
Christianity are laid before us), than to find the first epistle of all addressed
to the Romans? Romans is the l1rst of the fourteen Pauline epistles.
Surely nothing can be nearer, dearer, or more real to our hearts
throughout the entire Bible than the living love which fills the Epistles, and
which therefore fills and constitutes man.
CHAPTER XV
The Twenty-One Epistles

The Epistles form the last integral group of canonical writings before the
book of Revelation brings the Scriptures to a close. They present us with the
pattern of the matrix for the seventh and last time in the Bible. In this
seventh appearing, the ascending Scriptural order reaches its natural
climax, where it signifies the restoration of humanity to its original unfallen
estate- the home, or heaven, of the Principle which is Love.
Just as the Prophets, writing against the background of Isracl 's journey
from Egypt to Babylon, teach pure Judaism. and comprise the two
categories of four major prophets and twelve minor prophets, so the
Epistles, written against the background of Christianity's journey from
Jerusalem to Rome, teach pure Christianity, and comprise two similar
categories, thefburteen Pauline Epistles. from Romans to Hebrews. and the
seven General Epistles. of varying authorship, that range from James to
Jude.
Again, just as the Prophets represent the matrix as a circle, or sphere,
for the first time, so (in our present reading) the Epistles assume this
figure, for the second time. The one is the complement of the other. In the
case of the Prophets, the major prophets (the centre of the circle) precede
textually the minor prophets (the circumfereoce). In the case of the
Epistles, the Pauline epistles (which form the circumference) precede the
General epistles (the centre). Paul's concern is primarily with the outside
Gentile world. and his inspired purpose is to draw this world back to its
true Israelite centre, or its unfallen unity with its divine Principle. Love.
Three fundamental spiritual factors thus stand out to us which together
epitomize the entire Scriptural teaching. They arc the Prophet'>. the
Gospels, and the Epistles. The true idea of man and the universe, found in
the Gospels, is, in the Prophets, held in the heart of its timeless Principle.
This idea comes from Principle, returns to Principle. yet remains forever
within the embrace of its determining, all-governing Principle. The impact
which the idea makes upon human consciousness disabuses mankind of the
belief that man ever fell away from God. This regathers humanity (as the
idea itself) to its original unfallen position. The actual point of restoration is
represented by the third of the above three factors, the Epistles.
It could be said that a subjective-objective movement (Prophets leading
to Gospels) is complemented by an objective-subjective movement (Gospels
leading to Epistles). Christian Science, appearing historically in the sixth
320
THE TWENTY-ONE EPISTLES
321
thousand-year period. furnishes the Science of this spiritual rotation, and

relates it with the teaching of the sixth day of creation, where man is God's
reflex image. Retlection signifies simultaneity and instantaneity, in contrast
to processes of history and time. Instantaneously, unfallen man comes from
God and returns to God as God's retlection of Hlmself. Spiritually
understood. Prophets, Gospels, and Epistles are three facets of one timeless
happening. namely, the instantaneity of divine reflection wherein man is
the image of God.
The standpoint of the Prophets is that the Christ-identity of mankind
(found in the Gospels) is born of the womb of eternal Life. The standpoint
of the Epistles is that, in consequence. the whole human race is born into
the womb of eternal Life. Simultaneously as the gates of the heavenly
matrix open to emit the idea to the world, so they open to receive the world
hack into their embrace in the form of the idea itself. Man as the unfallen
retlection of God makes nothing of the myth of fallen man. Thus the fifth
day of creation depicts life as coming from its divine source (the fishes), and
soaring hack to its divine source (the hirds).
In her article, "The New Birth," Mary Baker Eddy uses terms which
help us to appreciate this idea of coming ./c)rth from, signified by the
Prophets, and II'ling back 10, signified by the Epistles. She writes of the
"centripetal" and "centrifugal" forces of "spiritual gravitations" (Mis
19:25). Centrifugal means impulsion outwards from a centre of rotation:
centripetal means impulsion inwards to a centre of rotation. Spiritually the
t\l./O are one, forever maintaining the equilibrium of being.
Inevitably, the Epistles conclude with .Iudes doxology as an
acknowledgment of the truth of unfallen man. He writes: "Now unto him
that is able to keep you from falling. and to present you faultless before the
presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour,
be glory and majesty, dominion and power, hoth now and ever." Science
and Health expresses this idea scientifically when it says: "Science knows
no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine order or spiritual
law. in which God and all that He creates are perfect and eternal, to have
remained unchanged in its eternal history" (S&H 471:1). As antiCipated
nn p.7 of this book. the vast complexities of the Scriptures as a whole
have led us to an idea which is profoundly simple.
Spiritual structure
The word epistle is from the same root as apostle, meaning to send. The
Christly message of resurrection is, from its centre, Jerusalem, sent forth
into the world, as the absolute truth ahout the world. The world, in
consequence, returns regenerated to its divine centre, whence the message
comes. The epistles of James, Peter, John, and Jude signify this Jerusalem
centre. Those of Paul concern the Gentile circumference, whose capital city
is Rome. Note. therefore, how Paul's epistles are named according to the
recipients of the messages, while the others are named according to the
322
senders. It could he said that the Pauline group emphasizes the ohjective
aspect of identity. and the other group the suhjective. Paul's epistles range
from Romans (the outermost reaches of the spiritual radiation) to Hebrews
(the point at which this radiation returns to its centre).
Presented graphically, the structure he fore us is a further fourfold
centre and twelvefold circumference. The question arises. therefore. as to
why, in the case of the Prophets. the numbers of writings are actually four
and twelve. and, in the case of the Epistles. fourteen and seven. It \. . ou1d
seem, with the fourteen epistles of Paul, that the three Pastoral epistles (I &
II Timothy and Titus) constitute. spiritually, a single tone. They concern
three phases of the single theme of early church organization. The number
of tones associated with Paul is thus reduced from fourteen to twelve. With
the General epistles, the tones are determined by the ./iHlr senders.
Translated into basic idea, the twenty-one epistles thus present us once
more with a twelvefold circumference and a fourfold centre.
Within the pattern of the matrix, the twelve tones that make up the first
three columns correspond to the epistles of Pau L the remaining four tones,
that make up the last column, correspond to those of James. Peter. John and
Jude. Compare this with the pattern formed by the Prophets, where the
matrix's last column corresponds to the four major prophets. and its first
three columns to the twelve minor prophets. Recall also the idea of the
twelve open "gates" furnished by the minor prophets.
In the reading given the Epistles in this book. our three gates on the
north are Romans, I Corinthians, II Corinthians. in the tones of the Word as
the Word, Christ as the Word, Christianity as the Word; our three gates on
the east are Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. in the tones of the Word as
the Christ, Christ as the Christ, Christianity as the Christ: our three gates on
the south are Colossians, I Thessalonians, II Thessalonians. in the tones of
the Word as Christianity. Christ as Christianity. and Christianity as
Christianity; and our three gates on the west are I & II Timothy and Titus
(one gate). Philemon, Hebrews. in the tones of the Word as Science, Christ
as Science, and Christianity as Science.
The purpose of these twelve tones is to lead us to the matrix's fourfold
centre. namely. to James in the tone of Science as the Word, to the two
epistles of Peter in the tone of Science as the Christ, to the three epistles of
John in the tone of Science as Christianity, and finally toJude in the tone of
Science as Science.
Expressing this idea diagrammatically. we arrive at the chart drawn up
on p.3R7 of the Appendix. Compare this with the corresponding Prophets'
chart on p.38). Consider also the diagram illustrating the relationship
between Prophets, Gospels, and Epistles on p.,'88,
LeUer and spirit one
Having outlined, in this way. the leller of the two categories of epistles. let
us turn to their spiril.
323
The teaching of the Pauline epistles is that "works" (pertaining to an

intlexible sense of Old Testament "law") are outgrown in Christianity. The
Christian, Paul says, is one who comes forward from the old Judaic
standpoint of law to the new Gospel standpoint of faith. In other words,
Paul bids us advance from "works" to "faith,"
But this is only the first step. The General Epistles complement the
Pauline. The standpoint of James. Peter. John. and Jude is that "faith
without works is dead" - understanding without demonstration is valueless.
nonexistent. And so, while Paul plants Christianity on foundations of
spiritual understanding (in Greek, faith implies understanding), the
General Epistles teach that out of understanding must flow
demonstration, otherwise it is not understanding. In genuine Christianity,
understanding and demonstration are interdependent, simultaneous.
PAULINE EPISTLES
ROMANS
Romans points to no less a concept than the whole civilized world. In giving
our world (ourselves) back to God in Christianity, we must have a right
attitude towards world conversion - that is to say, regarding its translation
from paganism to Christianity. from matter to Spirit. from fragmentation to
wholeness. from an apparent body of mortality into the body of Christ.
Paul bases our thought on the simple, elementary order of Mind, Spirit,
Soul. In the measure that consciousness partakes of this order. the first gate
on the north opens, and our world begins to be restored to its original
unfallen position.
The world in Science is image in Mind. Coming from Mind, returning to
Mind, remaining forever in and of Mind, this image (idea) reflects the
substance of Spirit - is Spirit's reflection of itself. This reflection is the
\vorld's sinless identity as it exists in infinite Soul. Such an idea is the
reverse of the evidence of the physical senses regarding the race of Adam.
Let us look at one or two of the subjects in Paul's text. He writes: "I
thank my God through Jesus Christ t(lf you all. that your faith is spoken of
rhrouullOlU rhe whole wurld" (ia). Then comes the following momentous
statement: "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world
are clearly seen. being understood by the things that are made."
The world as it really is (invisible to the senses) teaches us about itself
through the symbols in which it temporarily appears (is understood by the
things that are made). Christian Science teaches: "Every material belief
hints the existence of spiritual reality; and if mortals are instructed in
spiritual things. it will be seen that material belief, in all its manifestations,
reversed, will be found the type and representative of verities priceless,
eternal. and just at hand" (Mis 60:28).
324
A white object viewed through a sheet of blue glass is not a blue object.
Ignorantly imagining that it is blue is like believing that the world of Spirit
is a matter world. Thus "Christ Jesus' sense of matter was the opposite of
.. His earthly mission was to translate
that which mortals entertain
substance into its original meaning, Mind" (Mis 74:13), Jesus viewed
humanity from the standpoint of divinity, not divinity from the standpoint
of humanity. To him. humanity was a symbol in process of translation, not a
mortal counterfeit, sinning and dying.
Paul enlarges on vain imaginings. He says of the mortal sense of man:
"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the
glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man
. Who changed the truth of God into a lie." The purpose of Christianity
is plain. It is to translate back into a state of incorruption that which the
senses say is corrupted. The lie facing humanity, which Christianity dispels,
is the supposed translation of Spirit into matter, necessitating a retranslation back into Spirit. The universe in Science is the forever
uncorrupted reflection of Spirit. (The word "corrupt" is from "to

break" - implying fragmentation of the oneness of being.)
Mortal corruption is unnatural. Paul writes: "For this cause Goo gave
them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural
use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the
natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another."
Christianity analyzes and eliminates a suppositional perversion, an
apparent inversion, of what is true.
Healing, in Christianity, is the conversion of a perversion. World
conversion to Christianity is world translation by Christianity. The world is
Christianity, and Christianity is the world. Our world has never been
converted into a perversion of itself. necessitating re-conversion.
"Spiritual teaching must always be by symbols" (S & H 575: 13). We
read elsewhere in the textbook: "Divine metaphysics reverses perverted
and physical hypotheses as to Deity

and shows what this inverted
image is meant to represent" (S & HIlI: 14). Again: "The human mortal
mind, by an inevitable perversion, makes all (hings start from the lowest
instead of from the highest mortal thought. The reverse is the case with all
the formations of the immortal divine Mind" (S & H 189: 18).
Our world is made up of formations of Mind which are retlections of
Spirit. and which, in turn, are identities of Soul. These identities reverse the
evidence of the senses which present a materially perverted image of them.
In the degree that physical perversion yields to spiritual conversion. our
consciousness of our world is in process of translation.
Paul develops this same idea when he considers the subject of "the law."
Jesus said he had not come to destroy the law but to fulfil it. Unless the Old
Testament law evolves into the New Testament gospel. it becomes a rigidly
organized perversion of God's irreversible law. In this case symbol has been
perverted into counterfeit. Paul describes such formalism as "outward
325
circumcision," and pleads for "circumcision of the heart." This is the
standpoint of the gospel, wHich includes the living spirit of the law, not its
dead letter.
He writes: "Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers
of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law,
do by nature the things contained in the law, these. having not the law, arc a
law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their
hearts," Christianity, stemming as it does from spiritual Israel, is the true
identity of the Gentile world. It is the world's revelation of the reality of its
own being. Christianity, therefore, is not something to be superimposed
upon the world, but understood as coming forth from the world.
Paul continues: "By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified
in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Forbidding man to sin,
the law presupposes him a sinner, broken away from God. But the gospel
revelation of Jesus Christ is that man is the son of God. Paul tells the
Romans that man does not climb up to God from the standpoint of Adam,
but comes forth from God from the standpoint of Christ. He then ascends
the scale of being in the only possible way.
"Do we then make void the law through faith')" Paul asks, "God forbid:
yea, we establish the law." Indeed, the gospel fulfils the law. Demonstrating
that man is sinless destroys sin scientifically, and this fulfils the moral law.
Paul, therefore, contrasts Adam, who is sin, and for whom the law came
into being, with Christ, who is sinless, and through whom comes salvation.
He writes of the gospel standpoint of the "glorious liberty of the children of

God." The textbook interprets this as the freedom of all the "citizens of the
world"
from
sin,
disease,
and
dcath - that
is.
from
mortality
(5 & H 227:24 l.
After discussing at length the need for the Christian to love his
neighbour as himself- to realize that because all men have one Mind
therefore they are one body- Paul concludes his letter to the Romans with
that fundamental precept of Christianity, that there be no divisions among
the brethren. He has cxplained to the Romans the law of universal love.
I CORINTHIANS
Christ as the Word
Having signified, in Romans, the Christian attitude towards world

conversion, Paul, in the first of his letters to the Corinthians, offers the
means tor accomplishing this. The tone is Christ as the Word, and is our
second gate on the north. It would seem that the epistle as a whole unfolds
in the order of the Christ translation, illustrating how. in Science, divine
metaphysics is reduced to a system of universal ideas that all may
understand.
326
I Corinthians opens where Romans finishes, with a plea for no schisms

in the body. Paul implores the Corinthian hrethren to abide in the ChristPrinciple. He says: "I beseech you. brethren. . that there be no divisions
among you: but that yc he perfectly joined together in the same mind." The
Corinthians have heen fooled into thinking, "I a111 of Paul; and I of Apollos
and I of Cephas; and I of Christ." So, Paul asks decisively, "Is Christ
divided""
Behind the belief of a separate Apollos. a separate Peter, a separate
Paul, and a separate Christ. lies the absolute unity of the Word, Christ.
Christianity, Science. This idea tcaches men to be one with God. and
therefore one with each other. Christ shows forth the integrity and harmony
of all things. Therefore. says PauL "other foundation can no man lay than
that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."
We come to the heart of I Corinthians. The text reads: "There are
there are diversities of
diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit
operations, hut it is the same G(xi which worketh all in all . . For to one is
given by the Spirit the word of wisdom: to another the word of knowledge by
the same Spirit . . . to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit
I Corinthians teaches the synonymity, in Christianity, of spiritual
individuality. The paraliel, in the divine Science of Christianity, is a living
system of synonymous ideas of God. In this system, we each reflect the
identity of all in order to be ourselves. Synonyms are words which dUrer
from one another in some particular meaning (diversities of gifts), yet all
refer to the same identity (the same Spirit). A scientific letter of
synonymous terms for G(xi is our means of understanding the synonymity of
individuality itself, as the living spirit of Christianity.
Hence Paul continues: "All these worketh that one and the selfsame
Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. For as the body is one, and
hath many members, and all the members of that one hody, being many, are
one body: so also is Christ. . For the b(xiy is not one member, but many. [f
the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the hody; is it
therefore not of the body?
. If the whole h(xiy were an eye, where were
the hearing? If the \vhole were hearing, where were the smelling? .. And
if they were all one memher, where were the body"? But now are they many
members. yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have
no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
Now ye are the body of Christ. and members in particular." The body of
Christ, the universal church of Christianity, comprises an infinite diversity
of individual identity held in reciprocal, harmonious unity. The means of
understanding this body, and therefore of being this body- the means of
converting. or translating, our present sense of a dismembered world - is
the language of the system of synonymous terms for God, revealed in
Christian Science.
This is the language of universal Love. the letter of which is inseparable
from the spirit. Paul says: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of
327
angels, and have not charity [love], I am become as sounding brass, or a

tinkling cymbal." The letter of Science without the spirit of Christian
Science (where letter and spirit arc one) is "pulseJcss, cold, inanimate" (see
S&H 113:3-8, where the heading is "Principle and practice").
On the other hand, the spirit without the letter is of no lasting value,
because it is incomprehensible. This is the topic which Paul tu[ns to next.
Spirit and letter one and Indivisible show forth Christ as the Word. In
converting the world to Christianity, the living spirit must animate the
scientific letter, otherwise the spirit is not genuine, and the world will not
listen.
Paul discourses on this great fundamental truth. He writes: "He that
speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto Gex:i: for
no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries. But
he that prophesieth, speaketh unto men to edification . . . He that speaketh
in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edilieth the
church." An unknown tongue which no one can understand is a personally
subjective religious spirit without a scientific letter. Whereas he that
"prophesieth" imparts to others, through an intelligible letter, the truth
which he has received. Hence: "If I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit
prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then') I will pray
with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding [letter! also: I will
sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also."
The result is the properly balanced Christian outlook which is requisite
for demonstration. Finally, in I Corinthians, Paul shows how this perfect
unity of letter and spirit was exemplified in the resurrection and ascension
of Jesus. There, in the fulness of scientific translation, mortal mind
disappeared, and everything everywhere - the immediate object of
understanding- was, to Jesus, an image in eternal Mind (S & H 115).
II CORINTHIANS
If Romans outlines the order of world translation, and I Corinthians the

means for accomplishing this, II Corinthians is the point where we start
practising. The tone is Christianity as the Word, the third gate on the north.
Humanity begins to give itself and its universe back where they belong.
The keynote of the message is the comfort and grace of unselfed love.
Pau I writes of "the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our
tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any
trouble .. " Mary Baker Eddy writes of "where heart meets heart
reciprocally blest" (Mis 207:2). Paul's letter is alight with his own heartfelt,
universal love which, as it enfolds and comforts the Corinthian brethren, is
a retlection of divine Love. In fact, the love wherewith Paul loves mankind
is the return to Love of the very love that firs( emanates from Love.
328
"Ye are our epistle written in our hearts," he says. "written not with ink.
but with the Spirit of the living God: not in tables of stone, but in tleshy
tables of the heart." We read in Science and Heal!h: "Through spiritual
sense you can discern the heart of divinity. and thus begin to comprehend in
Science the generic term man" (S&H 258:31). The "epistle" which
Science sends into our world today is the idea of all humanity held in the
heart of divinity. It tells of the forms of living love embraced in one infinite
Mother Love.
To love one's neighbour as one's own true self is to be part of the Christhody, and therefore to he reconciled to God. It signifies that "old things are
passed away," that "all things are become new," that "all things are of
God." Paul writes of how God "hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus
Christ." Therefore, he says, "we pray you in Christ's stead, he ye reconciled
to God."
Through the grace of unselfed love we are reconciled to God. We give
ourselves and each other hack where we belong. Paul commends the
Corinthians for exemplifying the desire of the true Christian to give himself
toGod. They have shown this by their generosity in giving to the work of the
church. Because of "the grace of God bestowed on the churches of
Macedonia," these churches "first gave their own selves to the Lord, and
unto us hy the will of God."
In II Corinthians we give hack to God what first comes to us from God in
I Corinthians, namely, the spiritual synonymity of individuality which
constitutes our being as man.
"Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give,"
Paul writes, "not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver
. Thanks he unto God for his unspeakable gift." Unselfed love restores
to the Giver the love which the Giver Himself has bestowed.
Signified hy the first three epistles, Romans, I Corinthians, II
Corinthians, which open our three gates on the north (the three Word
gates), the world, in the consciousness of individual man, begins its
homeward journey.
GALATIANS
A cogent warning arrests our thought. The tone is the Word as the Christ.
The message of comfort and love, which pervades II Corinthians, is
followed, in the letter to the Galatians, by a stern admonition against heing
trapped once more by sinister encroachments of the law. This topic of the
law was first handled in the epistle to the Romans. (Within the frame of the
matrix, note the relationship of Romans to Galatians- p.387.)
Beware the subtle infiltrations of legalistic organizers, Paul counsels the
Galatians. Defence against this in Science is through Soul. Principle, and
329
Life. Once we arc identified (Soul) with universal Principle, and our
individuality (Life) emanates, in consequence, from this Principle, we are
no longer identified with personally dominated legal institutions. Galatians
is known as the "Magna Charta of Christian liberty." It advocates spiritual
freedom and self-government.
The fickle Galatians, whom Paul addresses, are not Greeks but Gauls.
Just as non-Jews are gentiles, so non-Greeks arc harbarians. Because the
Galatians are barharians they have fallen victim to Judaizing missionaries
from Palestine. These have sought to bind the Galatians within ohsolete
confines of the old Judaic law. So Paul writes: "{ marvel that ye are so soon
removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel . . . there be some that trouble you. and would pervert the gospel of
Christ." He gives them the answer in terms of his own experience. He says:
"When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and
called me hy his grace, To reveal his Son in me
immediately I
conferred not with flesh and hlood." The Galatians have heen seduced into
conferring with an outgrown parent organization which Paul himself has
left behind. "false brethren unawares," he says, "came in privily to spy out
our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into
hondage. "
"0 foolish Galatians." he chides, "who hath hewitched you, that ye
should not obey the truth?
. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of
the law
. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto
Christ." Thus the Old Testament brought us to the New. This likewise
descrihes the purpose of the Christian Science church organization in
leading thought to the universal Science of Christian Science. In neither
case does the one make the other void, hut fulfils the other's original
mission. Trouble arises when the old does not move forward into the new,
but seeks to maintain an obsolescent authority.
In a passage which pinpoints the entire message, Paul contrasts the two
standpoints. He says: "For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one
hy a bond maid the other by a freewoman
he who was of the
bondwoman was born after the tlesh; but he of the freewoman was by
these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai,
promIse
which gendereth to bondage. . and answereth to Jerusalem which now is,
and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free,
which is the mother of us all. . Cast out the hondwoman and her son: for
the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the frecwoman
brethren. we are not children of the hondwoman, but of the free."
Like Romans, Galatians condemns the doctrinaire Jewish demand for
circumcision of the Gentiles. When Abraham tlrst circumcised his son. this
symholized the impossibility of circumscribing organically the idea of God.
But Judaism. between the Testaments, perverted this symbol into the very
circumscription which circumcision set out to prevent. So it is with all
monolithic organizations. ecclesiastical or political. Hence Paul's continued
330
warning: "If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. . every

man that is circu mciscd.
. is a dehtor to do the whole law. . hrethren.
yc have been called unto liberty."
The close of the chapter "Animal Magnetism Unmasked," in Science
and Health, alludes to Paul's "great epistle to the Galatians." Under the
heading "Proper self-government," it refers to the American nation's
Declaration of Independence as applying also to Christian Science. Just as
America freed herself from hondage to a dictatorial mother country. so
must Christian Science learn to assert its own freedom from outside
maternal control. Likewise must the Galatians free themselves from
bondage to the old Judaic law. thereby exemplifying spiritual liberty on
behalf of all mankind.
EPHESIANS
After the warning given in Galatians, Ephesians is a wholly positive

spiritual message. In the tone of Christ as the Christ, it points to the ideal
Christian church - the church spiritual and inorganic, the very body of
Christ.
It rings with the tones of Truth, Love. Soul, Spirit. The ideal church is
the "structure of Truth and Love' (S & H 5R3:12) which, as the sinless
hody of mankind (Soul). is unassailably integral and pure (Spirit). It was at
Ephcsus that Paul denounced the goddess Diana.
Paul writes of God's "mighty power, which he wrought in Christ. when
he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the
heavenly places.
and gave him to be the head over all things to the
church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that fillcth all in all.'
To a greater extent than in any other epistle, Ephesians uses the
symbolism of the '"head" and "hody" of Christ. as the two essential,
complementary aspects of the Son of God. Within the totality of the Son of
God. no part is separate from any other part. l:3ecausc the individual and his
universe are naturally, spiritually one, one is in all and all are in one.
"For he is our peace," Paul says, "who hath made both one, and hath
hroken down the middle wall of partition between us. . for to make in
himself of twain one new man, so making peace
In whom all the
huilding I1tly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord."
The Christ,body, Gc){fs holy temple, the true idea of the Christian church,
is (in m(xiern terms) the matrix calculus of Truth and Love, in which all
things arc fitly framed together. and are spiritually structured and whole.
The message continues: "There is one hody, and one Spirit. even as ye
are called in one hope of your calling. . One Gexi and Father of alL who
is ahove all. and through all, and in you all. . Till we all come in the unity
of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man,
331
unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Paul reaffirms how
Christ "is the head.
. from whom the whole body filly joined logether and
compacted by that which every joint supplieth . . . maketh increase of the
body unto the edifying of itself in love." Soul is the body of Truth and Love,
which is totally enfolded within itself. To be itself, each individual identity
reflects every other, and as such is the reflection of God, Spirit.
This divine wedlock of head and body, Christ and man, precipitates
humanly the symbol of monogamous marriage. One husband and onc wife
point to one Principle and one idea. Hence Paul's plea: "Husbands, love
your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.
So ought men to love their wives as their own b<xiies. He that loveth his wife
loveth himself . . . For we are members of his body. . I speak concerning
Chrisl and the church." The indivisibility of the infinite all brings into
expression the wedding of the individual and his world. Understanding his
world as it really is, the Christian loves it as himself, and so finds his true
body. The world-embracing nature of his new individuality clothes him in
the "armour of God."
Paul ends his epistle to the Ephesians with a treatise on Christian
armour. He begs his brethren: "Put on the whole armour of G(xi, that ye
may he able to stand against the wiles of the devil." For, he says, "we
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world." The rulers of the
darkness of this world are, in mooern terms, the mythological architypes of
the psychic unconscious. But the Christian is clothed in a panoply of light,
and the ruler of his world - this present, only world - is not a mythological
pantheon of gods, but one absolute universal Cod.
PHILIPPIANS
Philippians, in the tone of Christianity as the Christ, opens our third gate on
the east. Full of the spirit of reciprocal love, it is the natural outcome of
Ephesians. In Philippians. the ideal church of Ephesians is put into living
expression. The individual must maintain a state of Christly relationship
with his brother man. The keynote, therefore. is Christianity
individualized - that is to say, Christ lives by retlection in individual man.
Because the Christians of Philippi have not left their firsl love, they are
Paul's joy and crown. The epistle's theme is the joy of spiritual re lationships
that abound in Christianity, where we all are one in Christ. This is true
happiness - happiness horn of Truth and Love, happiness which is
unselfish, happiness which "cannot exist alone. but requires all mankind to
share it" (S&H '57:18).
Philippians concerns the inward joy which the Christian feels despite
outward circumstances. This inner happiness enables Paul to make nothing
332
of his bonds. Out of the depths of an unselfed love, he assures his hrethren
that he has them in his heart; that they arc all partakers of his grace. He
tells them how greatly he longs after them-longs for their love to abound
more and morc. As he gives to them. so let them give to him. He shares with
others his deep spiritual happiness; but this must become reciprocal on the
part of all mankind.
Whereas II Corinthians emphasizes the primary idea of giving back to
God what God has first bestowed, Philippians emphasizes the corollary of
this, namely, giving to, and accepting from, each other. The pulsations of
love which animate the body of Christ thus he come our own experience,
and control the harmony of our bcxlies.
The plea to "let each esteem other better than themselves," is perhaps
the essence of Philippians. Paul writes: "For to me to live is Christ, and to
die is gain." He longs for the death of mortal helief. Here is an example of
how his great unselfed love cares for his brethren. He says: "I am in a strait
betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far
hetter: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. . Fulfil
ye my joy. . Look not every man on his own things, hu t every man also on
the things of others."
The message concludes: "Therefore, my brethren dearly heloved and
longed for. my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord. . Rejoice in the
Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice." In the spirit of reciprocal love, the
faithful Philippians are bidden to "joy and rejoice" in the one whole body of
Christianity, even as this body rejoices in them. The unique characteristic of
the church in Philippi, Paul says, is this church's ready partiCipation in the
work of "giving and receiving."
COLOSSIANS
The beautiful spiritual freedom which we experience in giving and

receiving from each other in Philippians is followed, in Colossians, by
another stringent warning similar to the one in Galatians. (Note the relative
positions of Galatians and Colossians in the matrix - p.387.) This epistle
becomes our first gate on the south.
The warning in Colossians is the complement of that given in Galatians.
Galatians bids us beware of tyrannical outside influences seeking to return
us to positions outgrown. Colossians commands us to guard against inside
influences that would make us uncritically expansive in our acceptance of
new ideas. In the practice of giving and receiving (in Philippians) we must
(in Colossians) watch that we do not accept blindly every notion put before
us in the name of Christ, or Truth. Paul warns the Colossians against the
dangers of religious syncretism. The need, he implies, is to learn the art of
impersonal spiritual analysis. Everything must be examined critically in the
333
uncompromising light of Principle, in order that we are not suhtly deceived.

The danger is no longer that of being exclusively organized, as in Galatians,
but of being inclusively massed, in our desire to he universal man.

Paul, in Colossians, is handling the incipient heretical philosophy later
known as Gnosticism. The Gnosti(.'S took from the religions and
philosophies of their day all that they believed was knowledge of truth, and
syncretized it. The Christians at Colosse are in danger of being intluenced
by this kind of teaching, They are tempted to mingle their Christianity not
only with Greek philosophy but also with the many religious mystery cults
that flourish throughout the Mediterranean world. In this way, impurity
and confusion are liable to invade their thoughts and their lives.
Paul writes to them: "For this cause we also, since the day we heard it.
do not eease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the
knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
. and
increasing in the knowledge of God, . Who hath delivered us from the

power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son
. Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature."
Then comes the warning: "This I say, lest any man should beguile you with
enticing words, ,Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and
vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and
not after Christ." These traditions of men and rudiments of the world were
embodied in the teachings of Gnosticism,

The answer today lies in the rudiments (or fundamentals) of the healing
system of Christian Science. This infinitely diverse, yet unitary system of
ideas is the divinely scientific reality which lies behind the practice of
religious and philosophic syncretism, or the amalgamation of different
inteUectual concepts, purporting to build up one whole truth. Scientific
Christianity, whose elements all stem from the same divine Principle, is the
reverse of what appears to the senses as the joining together of the
intellectual fragments that make up the thought of the world, The Word in
its aspect as Christianity, which is the tone of Colossians, is the infinitely
individualized expression of one divine Principle, or Word.
Paul continues: "Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary
humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he

hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his tleshly mind, and not holding the
Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment
ministered. and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God,"
Uncritical acceptance of whatever is offered us in the name of Truth betrays
an unwise "voluntary humility," the opposite of the unselfed love, and true
humility, that characterizes Pauline Christianity.
334
I THESSALONIANS
The church in Thessalonica is reputed to be a model Christian church; we

arc not surprised, therefore, to find ourselves in a tone of Christ as
Christianity. Having handled, in Colossians, the dangers of philosophic
syncretism, we are qualified, in I Thessalonians, to accept the divinely
synchronous system of ideas which constitutes Christ as Christianity. We are
free to re!lect the body of Christ in the form of the infinitude of ideas that
make up this body.
I Thessalonians is the first of the epistles to anticipate the second
Messianic advent. or the coming of Christian Science. We are free to accept
the divine Science of Christianity (Christian Science) in I Thessalonians
only if we have duly heeded the warning given in Colossians. For only then
is it safe to give to, and receive from. each other, in accordance with the
teaching of Philippians.
Paul writes to this model Christian church: "Ye were ensamples to all
that believe in Macedonia and Achaia . . how ye turned to God from idols
to serve the living and true God; And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom
he raised from the dead.
." The second advent is foreshadowed. Christ
Jesus having proved the nothingness of death, the coming of Christian
Science is the advent of Life for all mankind.
An "ensample" (from the word "sample") signifies a complete
reflection of a whole. An ensample partakes of every quality of the whole of
which it is a sample. Individual ensamples are in no danger from uncritical
syncretism (Colossians), but are free to participate in the living Science of
Christianity, foreseen in I Thessalonians.
"For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing'?" Paul asks, "Are not
even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming'?"
Lying at the heart of this epistle is the idea of only one real plane of
consciousness (see matrix diagram, p.382, Christ as Christianity). Paul
writes: "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archange!, and with the trump of God: and the dead in
Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught
up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall
we ever be with the Lord." This surely points to the human and divine
coincidence- to "divinity embracing humanity In Life and its
demonstration" (S & H 561: 16) - as the universal truth of man's being
revealed in Christian Science.
The theme continues: "For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the
Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and
safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a
woman with child . .. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us
watch and be sober." Each Christly advent comes as a thief in the night
hecause it steals away from us the mortal belief in a self stolen from God.
"Wherefore comfort yourselves together," Paul concludes, "and I pray
335
God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
II THESSALONIANS
II Thessalonians. in the tone of Christianity as Christianity, is the last of the
gates on the south. The message is the inevitable outcome of

I Thessalonians.
The teaching now is that the immanent presence of Christian Science
forces hidden evil to come out from under cover and destroy itself; and this
is essential before humanity can experience Christian Science itself as the
reality of universal being.
The Thessalonians are perplexed, and Paul writes to comfort them, He

says: "To you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven with his mighty angels." In Christian Science, divine
metaphysics is reduced to a system of absolute angelic values which men
can identify and understand. This reduction of divinity to human
comprehension destroys hidden evil "in flaming fire."
He comes to the heart of his message. He writes: "We beseech you,
brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering
together unto him, , ,Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day
shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin
be revealed, the son of perdition,"

We can go on talking, thinking, reading. and writing about Christian
Science, but the palpable reality of Christian Science itself, which is our
own spiritual selthood born of God, cannot come unless it is preceded by
the falling away first of the man of sin or son of perdition,
"Man of sin" can apparently be translated "man of lawlessness." Every
mortal is this man of lawlessness, inasmuch as he derives from the original
mythological premise of a celestial rebel against God in heaven - an
heretical revolutionary willfully desiring to revolve in an orbit of his own
independent of God. Clearly this man of lawlessness is the man for whom
the law was instituted; and we cease to be a celestial rebel only when, in our
growth heavenward, the gospel of Christ and Christian Science supersedes

the need for disciplinary law,
Paul's description of the "son of perdition" reminds us of Daniel's
description of the "ahomination of desolation," namely, that "he shall exalt
himself. and magnify himself above every god" (Dan II :36). Paul writes
that the son of perdition "opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is
called God . , . so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing
himself that he is God."
This heretical mortal concept will be consumed by the Lord "with the
spirit of his mouth" and destroyed "with the brightness of his coming." As
336
we noted in the section on Daniel in Chapter 12, "Science only can explain
the incredible good and evil elements now coming to the surface" (S & H
83:6), Today, in world consciousness. the man of sin is being brought to the
surface of human thought to an extent unknown hefore. At the same time.
the incredible good of Science itself is becoming more and more evident.
"Finally, brethren," Paul writes, "pray for us, that the word of the Lord
." The glorified Word, moving
may have free course, and he glorified
freely throughout the world, is Christian Science at work. Hence the plea by
Mary Baker Eddy: "Let the Word have free course and he glorified. The
people clamor to leave cradle and swaddling-clothes. The spiritual status is
urging its highest demands on mortals, and material history is drawing to a
close" (No 45 :24). Material history draws to its close when the revelation of
eternity dissolves the myth of a primordial. lawless rebellion of man against
God. Christian Science is the universal revelation that man never rehelled,
never fell. was never turned into a man of sin.
In the matter of rebellious heresy, three aspects confront us,
corresponding to the three degrees. There is the Son of God, incapable of
rebellion, who never leaves the care of Principle and its scientific discipline
(third degree); there is the heretical son of perdition who is always
excommunicated from this Principle (first degree); and there is the true
heretic, who secedes from an organic. dying sense of life and so, to human
sense, returns home to God (second degree). The third degree makes
nothing of the first, and so brings salvation to humanity through the
workings of the second. As the would-be perpetrator of organic life,
dictatorial material organization, alias mortal body, is the archheretic, the
son of perdition, the offspring of mortal mind.
For an illustration of the way in which the problem posed by these three
factors is resolved, we are led to the three Pastoral Epistles, concerned with
the organizing of the early Christian Church.
I & II TIMOTHY, TITUS

The Word
8S
Science
The tone of the Word as Science, comprising all three Pastoral Epistles.
presents us with the first gate on the west. One by one. from Romans
onwards, the Epistles teach the way in which the universal Christ-idea
translates humanity from paganism to Christianity by ridding it of the
organic sense of self.
A pastor is the shepherd of a flock. The following gives the Christianly
scientific idea of pastor: "Your dual and impersonal pastor, the Bible and
'Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,' is with you: and the Life
these give, the Truth they illustrate, the Love they demonstrate, is the great
Shepherd that feedeth my flock, and leadeth them 'beside the still waters' "
(Mis 322: I 0). The Bible (Word of Life), together with Science and Health
337
(structure of Truth and Love), give us the true idea of church, of which the
early Apostolic Church, and the later Church of Christ, Scientist, are
symbols requisite in the beginning of humanity's Christian development
(Mis 359:2). The Holy Ghost, eternal Life, Truth, and Love, is the real
Pastor, or Shepherd, of the race.
But, we ask, if ecclesiastical organization is not to endure, why is it
required at all" As the Bible has frequently taught us (for instance, through
the story of Abraham and Hagar, and later through Moses and his
associations with Midian), it is essential. in the beginning, to postulate
material organization in order that the spiritual idea shall prove itself
inorganic. Under the leadership of Mary Baker Eddy, Christian Science put
before the world an organization which was self-dissolving; and it would
seem as if Paul's need regarding early Christianity is to do the same thing.

If, however, this material organization, "requisite only in the carliest
peri(xis of Christian history," is not self-dissolving, it becomes the tool of
ecclesiastical despotism. As we learnt in the case of Israel and Babylon,
mortal man's desire to perpetuate his mortality leads inevitably to his
death.
We read. therefore, of material organization having its "value and
peril" and "uses and abuses" (Ret 45:5-15). It is as if, in I Timothy, Paul
tells us of organization's value and uses; in II Timothy of its peril and
abuses; and that, in Titus, his purpose is to bring the church back from the
state of disobedience into which it has fallen to one of spiritual rectitude.
I Timothy, then, emphasizes the early human need for organization;
II Timothy. the ruin that comes if, atier the leaders departure, there is
disobedience
to
his (or
her)
divine
provisions;
Titus
emphasizes
reinstatement of the leader's purpose through the work of local churches.

Paul writes in I Timothy: "But we know that the law is good. if a man use
it lawfully: Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but
for the lawless and disobedient." As we said regarding II Thessalonians, the
law is instituted on behalf of the man of lawlessness. As soon as the law has
done its work, and the gospel reveals man as righteous. disciplinary law.
with its accompanying material organization, is obsolete.
Paul appoints Timothy to the bishopric of Ephesus, and to be an

apostolic delegate. As we remember. Ephesus is the centre for Diana
worship.
The Companion Bible makes an interesting comment on the duties
entrusted to Timothy. It says: "To Timothy were given the earliest

instructions for orderly arrangement in the church, these instructions being
of the simplest nature . . . 'altogether of an ethical, not of an hierarchical,
lind.' These directions afford no warrant whatever for the widespread
organizations of the 'ch~r~hes' as carried on to-day" (CA p. I 799).

With the words: "0 Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust,
avoiding profane and vain habblings. and oppositions of science falsely so
called," Paul brings his first pastoral letter to a close.
338
II Timothy now concerns the ruin that inevitably hefalls the church if
there is heretical departure from original. simple, apostolic doctrine.
"Study to shew thyself approved unto God." Paul admonishes his

beloved Timothy. "a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. rightly
dividing the word of truth." He warns: "In the last days perilous times shall
lovers of pleasures
come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves.
more than lovers of God: Having a form of godliness. but denying the power
thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into
Ever learning.
houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins.
and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."
A tlippant. superficial grasp of the letter of Science is valueless. hut

study, whereby we show ourselves approved by divine Principle, is
indispensable. Paul continues: "From a child thou hast known the holy
scriptures. . All scripture is given by inspiration ofGnd, and is protitahle
for doctrine, for reproof. for correction. for instruction in righteousness."
Note the four terms: the doctrine of the Word, the reproofof the Christ, the
correct inn that comes in Christianity, and the instruction in rigllleousness
which is Science.
The Scriptures, spiritually adhered to in their universal meaning. make
heresy and apostasy impossible. Today. the Bible and Science and Health
are a single impersonal pastor and teacher. Departure from what these
textbooks represent, namely, the Principle of one all-inclusive Being, must.
in the end, bring spiritual ruin.
Paul goes on: "I am now ready to be offered. and the time of my
departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. [ have finished my course

. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness." The
leader's passing is at hand. After he has left them. his followers must abide
strictly by the rules he has laid down. This waS [srael's need in the Old
Testament with regard to Moses; it is the church's need in the New
Testament regarding the teachings of Paul; it is the need today regarding
Mary Baker Eddy's provisions for the advancement of Christian Science.
Scofield says of I Timothy: "As the churches of Christ increased in

number, the questions of church order. of soundness in the faith. and of
discipline became important. At first the apostles regulated these things

directly. but the approaching end of the apostolic period made it necessary
that a clear revelation should be made for the guidance of the churches.
Such a revelation is in First Timothy, and in Titus.
. Well had it heen
with the churches if they had neither added to nor taken from the divine
order" (SRB p.1274). Note the parallel with the instructions left by Mary
Baker Eddy in her Church Manual. forhidding her officers either to take
from. or add to. her prescribed rules and by-laws (Man lOS).
In his comments on II Timothy. Scofield tells us how the Asian churches
(led by Ephesus) "turned away from the doctrines of grace distinctively

revealed through the Apostle Paul." Paul's key-phrase. he says. is: "'All
they which are in Asia be turned away from me' . .. This was the proof that
already the apostasy had set in in its first f("m. legalism" (SRB p.1279).
339
This too is significant, when we remember how, following Mrs Eddy's

passing. her Manual was immediately submitted to human law for
interpretation. Her church, which she had "rescued from the grasp of legal
power" and "put back into the arms of Love" was, unwittingly, put back
again into the grasp of legal power (Mis 140:22). There followed. ten years
later, the decision by the Supreme Court of Massachusetts to grant the
church's Directors absolute control over the Christian Science organization;
then, in 1971, came a ruling by the United States Senate to give them
copyright ownership of Science and Health which, in 1907, when she
ceased to copyright it, Mrs Eddy had virtually bestowed upon the world.
In Titus, Paul continues his indictment of heretics, and condemns the
lust for "filthy lucre." Outside the arms of Love. religious organization
becomes a seed hed for commercialism, careerism, and vested interests.
Paul writes to Titus: "There arc many unruly and vain talkers and
deceivers, especially they of the circumcision: Whose mouths must be
stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not,
for filthy lucre's sake." The antidote to this perverted course of action is
"the kindness and love of God our Saviour.
the washing of
regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." In other words, the
church must be reborn.
According to Scofield, the distinction between the teachings of
I Timothy and Titus is that in I Timothy "sound doctrine is more
prominent.. in Titus the divine order for the local churches" (SRB
p.1283). In the parallel case of the Church of Christ, Scientist, the message
to Titus relates to the branch churches. For it is to branch churches that
the "washing of regeneration" applies. Following the translation of the
central Mother concept, the Christian Science church organization is
designed to be "temporarily rebuilt" in the form of spiritually selfgoverning branch churches only. "Behold the man whose name is The
BRANCH," says Zechariah, "he shall build the temple of the Lord."
In her autobiography, Retrospection and Introspection, after recording
the way in which. in 1889, she dissolved her first central organization.
Mary Baker Eddy inserts the hymn, "Feed My Sheep." It pays tribute to
the one impersonal Pastor, or Shepherd (Ret 44-46).
The poem has three verses which, upon examination, may be seen to
relate to the three Pastoral Epistles. For instance, compare the spirit of
I Timothy with verse 1:
'Shepherd. show me how to go
O'er the hillside steep,
How to gather. how to sow.How to feed Thy sheep .
Compare II Timothy (forecasting ruin through disobedience) with verse 2:

Thou wilt bind the stubhorn will.
Wound the callous breast.
340

Make self-righteousness be still,
Break earth'~ stupid rest
Compare the message to Titus, with its pica for the washing of regeneration,
with the poem's third and final verse:
So, when day
groViS
dark and cold,
Tear or triumph harms,

Lead Thy lambkins to the fold,
Take them in Thine arms~

Feed the hungry, heal the heart.
Till the morning',> hcam~
White as won!, ere they depart,
Shepherd, wash them clean"
PHILEMON
Christ as Science
The little epistle to Philemon is in the tone of Christ as Science. It concerns

a slave who, having been converted to Christianity, returns home to his
Roman master from whom he ran away. This illustrates the way in which
Christianity absolves man from the sin of having supposedly rebelled
against God, and restores him to his Master. Thus Jesus presented "his
material body absolved from death and the grave" (My 218: 14) prior to
being restored to the Father. Restoration to what is called "the right hand of
the Majesty on high" is the subject of the last of Paul's epistles, Hebrews,
which comes after Philemon.
If (as taught in the Pastoral Epistles) the requirements of a temporarily
instituted religious organization are properly complied with, then penitent
humanity is forgiven its rebelliousness, and the result is regeneration.
The slave is Onesimus, his Roman mastcr is Philemon. Paul is
responsible for having converted both mastcr and slave to Christianity. Paul
begs Philemon to receive Onesimus back into his household, and in so doing
forgive him utterly.
The name Onesimus means "useful," Philemon means "loving."
"Useful" is an attribute which Mary Baker Eddy frequently employs with
reference to material organization. She speaks of organization as being
"useful to the Cause;" she tells her church officers to retire to "higher
usefulness in this vast vineyard of our Lord" (Ret 85:7, My 250: I 0); and, as
already noted, she writes of organization's "uses and abuses." Organization
serves a truly useful purpose only if it fosters that degree of spiritual
development which dissolves organization. Otherwise it becomes abusive.
To Paul, Onesimus is "my son." Onesimus typifies Paul's own self
returning to Goo, absolved from sin, and so rehorn. The lawless heretic
which, to mortal sense, has deserted its Lord, is organic life. But once this
rebellious sense of life dissolves in the baptism of Christian conversion,
restoration is assured, and the wayward servant is restored to God absolved
from death and Ihe grave.
THE TWENTY-ONE EPISTLES 341
Of course, nothing really returns to God but that which first comes from
God, namely, Christ in its eternal Science, the tone determining this epistle.
The relation of Paul to Onesimus is evident in Paul's words to Philemon:
"I beseech thee for my son Onesimus whom I have begotten in my bonds
. . . thou therefore receive him, that is, mine own bowels. . . he therefore
departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him for ever; Not now as
a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, especially to me, but how
much more unto thee. . . If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him
as myself" (i a).
In its spiritual signification Paul's letter to Philemon is of far greater
consequence than a mere plea to a Roman nobleman on behalf of a
rebellious slave. It is a prayer to God, in Christianity, on behalf of the
human race. The spiritual dissolution of the organic sense of life,
simultaneous with the absolution of penitent humanity from the sin of
heretical secession, brings about the restoration of mankind to its original
home, or heaven. Hence the subject of Hebrews is man's final restoration to
the Majesty on high.
HEBREWS
Whoever is the author historically, Hebrews, from both the Biblical and
spiritual standpoints, is the last of the fourteen epistles of Paul, and the
indispensable forerunner to the seven General epistles. It is the sublime
consummation of all Paul's Christian teaching.
The apostle to the Gentiles addresses the Jews. In doing so, he
completes the twelvefold spiritual circle that began with his letter to the
Romans. The Gentile circumference of universal being is at the point of
returning to its Jewish centre. In fact, Paul's epistles from Romans to
Hebrews signify spiritually the whole Gentile world passing through the
gates of the holy city to rest on man's original divine foundations. What does
this mean in practice? Understanding, spiritually and scientifically, the
resurrection and ascension of Jesus we find ourselves restored to the unity
of God - we find we are the Christ-body.
The tone is Christianity in the aspect of Science, and constitutes our
third gate on the west. At this point of the Science of Christianity, or
Christian Science, all twelve gates of a seemingly lost Paradise have been
reopened for mankind. But man regains his Paradise only as he awakens to
the fact in Science that Paradise was never lost. Hefinds himself "unfallen,
upright, pure, and free" (S & H 171:6 - "Paradise regained"). He is born
anew into the heavenly foursquare matrix. Commenting on the early
Genesis curse on Eve, the textbook asks: "When will man pass through the
open gate of Christian Science into the heaven of Soul, into the heritage of
the first born among men?" (S & H 535: 15). Surely Paul's epistles represent
342
nothing less than mankind's passing through the open gate of Christian
Science into the universal homestead of Love, Jesus having first offered up
the mortal sense of origin (as Hebrews puts it) "once for all."
Following the teaching in Philemon (the release of humanity from
enslavement to mortal body), the keynote of Hebrews is that the Son of
God, having "purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on
high." To this end, Hebrews teaches the way in which the true idea of
priesthood dissolves hierarchical priestcraft.
I t contrasts the priesthood of Christ (prefigured in Genesis by
Melchisedec) with the old hereditary Levitical priesthood. This calls for a
review of the story of Israel and her tabernacle as given in Leviticus and
Numbers. The Levitical priesthood is useful in its place in the Old
Testament, provided this place duly yields to the New Testament's one
High Priest, and does not become a dictatorship.
In the Levitical tabernacle, Aaron, the high priest, passed once a year
through the veil into the holy of holies in order to commune with God. This
was when Israel was subject to the disciplinary statutes of the moral law.
Now that she has entered the era of the gospel- now that she has developed
from Judaism to Christianity- her outlook has radically changed. She has
found her identity in Christ, Truth, itself. She no longer needs an outside
priesthood (an outside motherhood) to connect her with her divine source.
At the crucitixion, the veil of the temple of mediatorial priestcraft was rent
in twain from top to bottom. Through the resurrection and ascension, Christ
Jesus, the new High Priest of mankind, entered the holy of holies of the
Majesty on high. The living reality of the Shekinah, or Tabernacle, makes
priestcraft obsolete. Man (body) in and of Christ (the head of the body) is in
immediate communion with his divine Principle, Love. The descent of the
Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost signified that this absolute
demonstration of divinity applies to all humanity.
Melchisedec, we remember, appeared to Abraham following the
latter's victory over five kings - that is, over the five corporeal senses. At
that early point in the Scriptures, the seed of humanity's original divinity
was sown in human consciousness. Melchisedec (like Jesus) brought forth
bread and wine. He explained to Abraham the truth about humanity as the
universal body of Christ. From that moment, as we have seen, this seed
developed from within itself, until here, at the point of the Epistles, we
behold it in full flower. It has become nothing less than the living
experience of man's unity with God.
According to Paul, in Hebrews, Melchisedec is "King of Salem ...
King of peace; Without father, without mother, without descent, having
God; abideth a priest continually." As the type of the Christ-ideal, he is
King of the New Jerusalem, the city where, as the result of the ministries of
Jesus and Paul, the Gentile world finds peace and home.
Hebrew's opening theme is the relationship of angels to the Son of
343
God. Paul establishes the truth about angels and their inseparability from
God. in order that the General epistJes- the epistles sent out from
Jerusalem itse If- can finally affirm that there are not. and never were, any
fallen angels.
We read: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in
time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son . . . Being made so much better than the angels, as he
hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto
which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I
begotten thee""
Science and Health defines Christ the Son. as "the divine message
from God to men speaking to the human consciousness" (S & H 332:10).
"Angels" are "God's thoughts [messages [ passing to man" (S & H 581:4).
The first definition shows the idea of God whole and indivisible; the
second refers to the countless individual identities of being which make
up this wholeness. We are able to journey successfully through the Old

Testament and reach the New Testament, because God sends His angels to
guide us on our way. The New Testament standpoint of the Son is then "so
much hetter than the angels."

The Son is cvery whit whole, and the whole is greater than any
particular part, or parts, which serve to form the whole. He is greater than
the sum of all the parts of which the whole is formed. In Hehrews, Paul
traces one by one the succession of Old Testament figures (the individual
parts) that lead to the revelation, in the New Testament, of one whole Son
of God.
In the Christian Science textbook, the difference between angels and
Son is represented by the ditTerence between divinely uncapitalized terms
(signifying man) and divinely capitalized terms (signifying God). In our

early experience, uncapitalized "angels" spiritualize our daily lives in
order to lead us to the capitalized idea of God Himself. This idea is

"Son." The idea of Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love, Word,
Christ, Christianity, Science, is one whole divine idea, one integral Son.
The capitalized terms then embody the uncapitalized terms, just as the Son
embodies the angels. Therefore, as Paul says, we come to "mount Sian.
the city of the living God.
. and to an innumerable company of angels
to the general assembly and church of the firstborn

We arrive at the resurrection body of us all. No longer joining one with
another to create, or form, an organic body, we are, in our divinely
structured relationships, as the angels of God in heaven. Every identity
constituting the Christ-body lives at the point of spiritual and scientific
wedlock with all other identities. This is our resurrection body.
Thc Son who is thus so much better than the angels, the angels
themselves. and man who (to human sense) is made "a little lower than the
angels," relate, in the language of divine metaphysics, with the three
synonymous terms for Science: divine Science, absolute Christian Science,
344
and Christian Science. Science and Health says that "when man
demonstrates Christian Science absolutely.
. he will be as the angels in
heaven" (5& H 372:14). Absolute Christian Scicnce is specifically the

standpoint of the resurrection, where the last enemy, death, has heen
overcome. The "Son," in divine Science, reveals himself through the
"angels" of absolute Christian Science. in order to dispose of the myth of
"fallen angels" (the mortal sense of man) at the point of Christ jan Science.
Hence in Christian Science, or "Scicnce as applied to humanity" (5 & H
127:16), "Thou hast put all things in subjection under his Iman'sl fect."
To make this glorious truth available to mankind, Jesus Christ offered
up himself once for all. "Then said he, La. I come to do thy will, 0 God
. By the which will we are sanctitled through the offering of the body of
Jesus Christ once for all.
. this man, after he had offered one sacrifice
. For by one
for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.
offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified."

The words "once" and "all" arc clearly of great significance. As the
time element fades, and eternity takes its place, "once" is no longer
regardcd historically, but as the operation of the One now. In Science, the
One (capitalized) embodies the all (uncapitalized). The eternal life of the
One is at once the Life of alL The nothingness of death with regard t'..1 the
individual Christ Jesus is at once the nothingness of death \vith regard to
us all.
As the marvellous teaching '..11' Hebrews draws to its dose, Paul rcfers to
Jesus Christ as "the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." Science afld
Health says correlatively: "Life is, like Christ. 'the same yesterday. and today, and forever.' Organization and time have nothing to do \vith Life"
(S&H 249:18).
As Paul knows so well, "There remaineth therefore I in the New
Jerusalem/ a rest to the people ofGod"-a rest on the "right hand of the
Majesty on high." Christian Science confirms: "There remainerh, it is true,
a Sabbath rest for the people of God; but we must first have done our
work, and entered into our rest, as the Scriptures give example"
(Mis 216:3).
In his actual experience, as we havc found, Paul travels from Jerusalem
to Rome~ in his systematic teaching of Christianity, in his epistles, he
travels from Romans to Hebrews. Hence, when we come to the General
Epistles we have, ideally, returned home to the apostles in Jerusalem,

where we enter into our rest.
GENERAL EPISTLES
There are Gentiles who live at the Jewish centre of the circle, just as there
are Jews who live at the Gentile circumference. Spiritually interpreted,
345
this must be so, for God is at once the centre and circumference of heing.
James, the first of the Jerusalem writers, addresses his letter to "the
twelve tribes which are scattered abroad." This scattering refers to the
dispersion of Israel among the nations of the world that began at the time
of the captivities. That Israel was scattered far and wide is itself a symhoL
just as her eventual regathering is a symhol. It teaches that the idca of God
does not exist alone at the centre of heing but radiates out to the
circumference as well, leavening and transforming with its spiritual
idealism the whole of human consciousness. Israel is the world, and the
world is Israel. Israel's purpose is always to regather the human race into
the fold of universal Love.
Moving from the twelvefold circumference (signified by the Pauline
epistles) to the fourfold centre (signifIed by the General epistles) we
merge. in the matrix. from the first three columns to the fourth - that is.
from the Word. Christ. and Christianity to Science. James' one epistle
relates to Science as the Word, Peter's two epistles to Science as the Christ.
John's three epistles to Science as Christianity, and finally thc single
epistle of Jude pertains to Science as Science. James accentuates Life and
Soul, Peter accentuates Truth and Spirit. John accentuates Love and
Mind. and Jude accentuates Principle.
Mary Baker Eddy refers to a book called TllOuKhts Oil rhe Apocalypse.
A quotation reads: 'The church at Jerusalem, like a sun in the centre of its
system, had other churches, like so many planets, revolving around it. It
was strictly a mother and a ruling church." She comments: "According to
[this [ description, the church of Jerusalem seems to prefigure The Mother
Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston" (My 13:4). She writes elsewhere of
her Mother Church as symbolizing man's 'home. and heaven" (Pul 11 :8).
The seven General epistles signify. spiritually, our coming to rcst in the
holy city- the matrix of all creation.
The standpoint of fairh, required by the Pauline epistles, must he
demonstrated now as works. Resulting from the intlux of the Holy Ghost
on the day of Pentecost. humanity (ideally) returns to its divine origin.
This appears humanly as the demonstration of healing, as proof, and as
\\iorks. The real identity of humanity having been horn (~f" the kingdom of
heaven, mankind (accepting and understanding this identity) is born inro
the kingdom of heaven.
Remember that Peter, James. and John were present at Jesus'
transfiguration. They saw timeless being. Moses, Jesus, and Elias showed
them past. present, and future glorified in the living now, The first three
authors of the General epistles were witnesses to the Life which "was and
is and shall hc, whom nothing can erase" (S & H 290: I).
346
JAMES
Science as the Word
James, as we have observed. writes his letter to the tribes of Israel

scattered throughout the world. His plea is for patience and wisdom- the
patience and wisdom of a divine sense of motherhood, which ensures that
hirth is natural and safe- which ensures universal regathering.
"A double minded man is unstable in al1 his ways," he says, The
continuous temptation to mother. teach, and gather things humanly
becomes, in Science, the joyous opportunity for thought to yield to the
motherhood of God- to the truth of God as Mother. and generic man, not
persons, as showing forth this motherhood. The holy matrix city is the
perfect mother of us all. At once James writes: "My brethren, count it all
joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of
your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye
may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."
In its treatise on "scientific obstetrics" (S& H 463), the thirteenth
chapter of the textbook recalls these words of lames. "When this new birth
takes place," it says, "the Christian Science infant is born of the Spirit,
born of God, and can cause the mother no more suffering. By this we know
that Truth is here and has fulfilled her perfect work." Elsewhere we read:
"Wait patiently for divine Love to move upon the waters of mortal mind.
and form the perfect concept. Patience must 'have her perfect v,:ork' .,
(S & H 454:22).
Conceived of spiritually, patience has to do with order. not with time.
It is involved in the natural unfoldment of the "numerals of infinity, called
seven days." The revelation of cternity- newness of Life - signified by the
seven days of creation. is the work of Science as the Word, bringing to
birth, wisely and patiently, the body of eternal life,
James continues: "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for
when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath
promised to them that love him." He says that of God's "own will begat he
us. . that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."
We are the body of sinless, deathless being when we fulfil the law of
spiritual relationships in the details of daily life. James writes: "If ye fulfil
the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighhour as
thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin.
For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is
guilty of aiL" Christian Science teaches: "To obey the principle of
mathematics ninety-nine times in one hundred and then allow one
numeral to make incorrect your entire problem, is neither Science nor
obedience" (Mis 118:8). Identifying ourselves with the numerals of
infinity, as constituting the integrity of the universe and man, none of life's
details are insignificant. The oneness of being in divine Science demands
the correct accounting of each new detail of life as it unfolds in Christian
Science.
347
"'For as the body without the spint is dead, so faith without works is
dead also," James says, as he denounces the deadly poison of the
maipractising tongue that defiles the whole body. Man's words in Science
are the constituent elements of God's divine Word. Then his words are
wisdom, and not the poison of the talking serpent.
James continues his theme of patient motherhood. and of the fruits of
spiritual birth. "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the
Lord," he says, "'Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of
the earth. . Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the
Lord draweth nigh."
The patient and orderly birth of the numerals of infinity within our
own being means that our identity (in Soul) and our individuality (in Life)
partake of the nature of the ideas of God. We are born into the universe of
Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love. Humanity is restored to
divinity. Uncapitalized being is (in the language, or Word, of Science) the
body of capitalized Being. The hitherto scattered body of man is gathered
and classified under one capital Head.
I & II PETER
The epistles of Peter are in the tonc of Science as the Christ. The synonyms
now are Truth and Spirit. The accent has shifted from numerals to
calculus. [ Peter concerns the foundational rock (the headstone, or
calculus) which enables II Peter to expunge from consciousness the myth
of fallen angels - that is, thoughts which have severed themselves from this
rock, and believe that the uncapitalized ideas of God can become
detached from the capitalized Godhead.
Like James, Peter teaches that we must rejoice to suffer for
righteousness' sake, in contrast to suffering as the result of sin. Those
whom he addresses are strangers scattered throughout Asia. He bids them
"greatly rejoice. though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness
through manifold temptations." The trial of their faith, he tells them, is
"much more precious than of gold that peri sheth;" therefore they should
not find it difficult to rejoice.
The theme of spiritual obstetrics continues, for Peter likens the
recipients of his letter to "newborn babes." Christians, he says, have come
"as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed-of men, but chosen of God, and
precious." As individual "lively stones" (uncapitalized) they are "built up
a spiritual house. an holy priesthood" unto one living (capitalized) stone.
For confirmation of this he quotes the prophet Isaiah: "Wherefore also it
is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone,
elect. precious: and he that believeth on him shall not 'be confounded.
Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be
348
disohedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the
head of the corner."
A "stone most precious" is the description given the holy city in
Revelation. Today, this precious spiritual stone, or rock, is the matrix
calculus of the Science of man founded on the capitalized terms for God.
It is the holy Comforter of Spirit and Truth compelling the regeneration or
mankind.
The two epistles of Peter correspond to the workings of the two
translations. In I Peter the living stone descends from God out of heaven
in accordance with the first translation: in II Peter this disposes of the
myth of fallen man, in accordance with the second.
The way this is put in II Petcr is that "the day star" of divine Science shall
"arise in your hearts" and destroy "any private interpretation" of the
Scriptures. For, says Peter. "the prophecy came not in old time by the will
of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved hy the Holy
Ghost." The daystar of divine Science is the opposite of the self-willed.
self-opinionated Lucifer, in the prophecy of Isaiah, who. unlike the holy
city which comes down from God out of heaven, fell from heaven to earth.
OUf need, therefore, is to understand the original God-inspired
meaning of the Bihle, and avoid "damnahle heresies." In Science, fallen
angels are personal and private interpretations of the Scripturesinterpretations which have fallen away from the Bible's original meaning
as the (capitalized) Word of God.
Peter cites the instances of the flood, at the time of Noah. and the
burning of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, in the days of Ahraham, as
evidence that "God spared not the angels that sinned." With "eyes full of
adultery
. heguiling unstahle souls," these sinning angels are the
antitheses of the thoughts of the prophets who, hearing the Word of God.
compiled the Scriptures impersonally and faithfully.
In order that we may approach the real Scriptural meaning - the divine
Science of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation - Peter makes the
following hasic and profound statement. He says: "BELOVED. BE NOT
IGNORANT OF THIS ONE THING. THAT ONE DAY IS WITH THE LORD AS A
Relating the seven

days of creation (upon which the Bible as a whole is based) with the seven
thousand-year periods of the history of civilization (during which
humanity solves the problem of time and mortality), Peter, in this one
- sentence, provides the essential framework within which to understand the
Bible's original meaning, and therefore the meaning of Life itself. In the
light of scientific Scriptural revelation, there are no fallen angels.
Peter concludes: "'The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and
the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that
are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be
dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation
THOUSAND YEARS. AND c\ THOUSAND YEARS AS ONE DAY."
349
and godliness. Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God
, Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and
a new earth, wherein dwclleth righteousness."
When Science as the Christ puts into operation the two aspects of
translation indicated in I & II Peter. the myth of fallen man is. in the words
of Science and Health, "swallowed up in the infinite calculus of Spirit"
(S & H 209:29)
I II & III JOHN

John, the beloved, writer of the fourth Gospel. to whom is attributed the
compiling of Revelation. is also. the author of the next three epistles. Their
standpoint is Science in the aspect of Christianity, where the synonyms are
Mind and Love. The paramount theme of John's epistles is that God is
love-the infinite, eternal, universal Love which is the Mind of generic
man.
"That which was from the beginning" is a phrase repeated over and
over again, and is the keynote of all three epistles. This means that being is
fulfilled in Love at the point of its origin in infinite Mind. (We are
reminded of the message of Isaiah which, in the matrix of the Prophets,
occupies the same position as do these letters of John in the matrix of the
Epistles-Appendix p'}S5, 387.)
The words that begin the first epistle are almost identical with those
which open John's Gaspe\. l.fohn reads: "That which was from the
beginning, which we have heard. which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of
life
." It is not expressly stated to whom the letter is addressed, except
to "my little children," Let us assume, therefore, that, in the tone of
Science as Christianity, it is scnt to regenerated mankind.
John says: "Brethren. I write no new commandment unto you, but an
old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old
commandment is the word which ye have heard from the heginning .
this is the message that ye heard from the beginning. that ye should love
one another." When Jesus bade the disciples love one another. and called
this his /lew commal1dmellf, the two great commandments to love God
supremely and to love one's neighbour as oneself were reduced to this one
simple command. To love one another spiritually is to love God: to love
God is to love one another; for God and man are one. To love one another
in Science as Christianity is to be born into the womb of deathless life.
Thus John writes, "We know that we have passed from death unto l!fe,
hecause we love the brethren."
There follows his supreme treatise on love, and its relation to
continuous, unending life. We read: "Beloved, let us love one another: for
350
love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth
God. He that loveth not knoweth not God: for God is love. . Herein is
love. not that we loved God, but that he loved us. . Beloved, if God so
loved us, we ought also to love one another . .. If we love one another,
God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us . . God is love; and he
that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. . There is no fear
in love: but perfect love casteth out fear. . We love him. because he first
loved us . . he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he
love God whom he hath not seen?
. this commandment have we from
. everyone that
him. That he who loveth God love his brother also.
loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him
whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world
As Jesus himself demonstrated, love (uncapitalized), the re!lection of
Love (capitalized), overcometh the world. We can scarcely doubt. from
these words of John, that through spiritual and scientific love for one
another we are born into the realm of the Mind which is Love, or the
consciousness of deathless being.
John's second epistle is very brief. It is written to an "elect lady and her
children." Some scholars say this refers to the Jerusalem mother church
and her branches, rather than to a family of people as such.
The original theme continues: "And now I beseech thee, lady, not as
though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had
from the beginning, that we love one another
." He warns the lady and
her children, whom he loves in the truth, about the many deceivers who
are come into the world, who would cause them to do unchristian things.
If anyone comes to visit the lady and brings not the "doctrine of Christ,"
which is the doctrine of the unity of "the Father and the Son." John begs
her not to receive him into her house.
John sends his third letter to a single individual, and it is likewise very
short. In spirit. it is akin to what he wrote to the lady and her children. H~
addresses himse If now to the "wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in the
truth." Gaius is a very ordinary Roman name, and the implication is that,
in his third epistle, John is speaking to each one of us individually, or to
every so-called common man.
Gaius entertains and nourishes strangers; he offers unselfish
hospitality to visitors. and John commends him highly for this. In this
respect he is quite unlike the selfish Diotrephes, who loves to have
preeminence for himself, and will not receive the brethren. The name
Diotrephes means "nourished by Zeus."
We read in Science and Health how "Science is the 'stranger that is
within thy gates,' " and also how a stranger is the "guest of God" (5 & H
146:20,254:32). A spiritual stranger is each new idea of God that comes to
us to be entertained. What Gaius embraces so hospitably are ideas which
351
have their home in the Mind which is Love. These are his brethren.
Diotrephes, on the other hand, "casteth them I the brethren lout of the
church." Diolrephes is exclusive and. religious in his outlook~ Gaius is
indusive and sclentific. To \ove as Gaius \aves is tfU\)! to be "born 0\
God," and therefore to pass "from death unto life," To love as Gaius loves
is to be the faithful retlection of Love.
While the lady in the second epistle is liable to entertain the wrong
kind of visitor, Diotrephes, in the third epistle, rejects the right kind.
Gaills entertains only the right kind. That is to say, Gaills loves in the way
we are all taught to love in John's first epistle. In the thought of Gaius, the
world has its home and heavenly rest in the heart of the God who is Love.
JUDE
Science as Science
Finally, there is the little epistle of Jude, impelled by the idea of Science as
Science, and expressed through the synonym Principle. Jude writes to all
those who are "sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus
Christ. and called." Like II Peter, his topic is the fallen angels.
The name Jude is identical with Judas in Judas Iscariot. What is being
obliterated as the Epistles come to a close, is that state of thought which
would betray and murder the Son of God by rebelling against the will of
Principle.
Accordingly, Jude denounces "the angels which kept not their nrst
estate." He takes our thought back to the story of Noah, and to the worldwide corruption and violence that necessitated the drowning flood.
Because Jude is the last Scriptural message before Revelation (which

foretells the coming of Christian Science) it is well to remember how Jesus
likens the days of Noah to the time of the second advent. In Revelation,
the original Noahic tlond becomes the tlood of the great red dragon.
Christian Science is the saviour of the world hecause it swallows up in
translation this otherwise engulfing tlood. In giving birth to the Science of

Christianity, as constituting its own real being, the world swallows up the
myth of its own wilful wickedness and fallen state of thought.

Historically, Jude is denouncing a sect of professing Christians called
Docetists. These people argue that because Spirit and flesh are opposites.
and because Spirit has no actual knowledge of the flesh, Christians are free
to enjoy the best of both worlds. Goodspeed writes that "they felt so secure
in their spirituality that they thought it did not much matter what they did
in the tlesh, and so they permitted themselves without scruple all sorts of
indulgence. Such people could not help being a scandal in the
churches
." (The Story (,f the Bible p.132).
This corruption of Christian principles is the same in essence as the sin
of the fallen angels in the second thousand-year period that called forth
352
the purifying flood. It condones the intermarrying of the sons of God

(Spirit) with the daughters of men (t1esh). As we learnt from the story of
Noah, this supposed mixture of opposites produces gigantic evil.
Whereas Jesus exemplifies unfallen manhood, the promiscuous angels
typify fallen man. In human belief, the latter is the betrayer and murderer
of the former. This is Judas in relation to Jesus. As described in the first
chapter of Acts, Judas Iscariot "purchased a field with the reward of

iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his
bowels gushed out." The evil in question is primitive human will.
Christian Science teaches that "will- blind, stubborn. and headlong- cooperates with appetite and passion." It likens human will-power
to a "headlong cataract" (S & H 490:8, 192: 13). First and foremost, Science
comes to the flesh to exterminate rehellious. self-seeking human will as the
mythical cause of a fallen human race.
Jude's closing doxology holds us to absolute infallible Principle. from
which man has never strayed. He writes: "Now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of
his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour. be glory
and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever."
The textbook teaches correlatively: "To him [manl belongs eternal
Life. Never born and never dying, it were impossible for man, under the
government of God in eternal Science, to fall from his high estate"
(S & H 258:26).
The Epistles have unfolded the matrix of immortality for the seventh
and last time in the Bible. Through this Biblical range of matrices. the
music of the Science of Life has sounded the development of its
fundamental scale up to the seventh note. The spiritual idea of God.
symbolized by Israel, has risen to the point where it signifies the human
race as a whole restored to its original unfallen position of absolute unity
with God.
Yet there is a further step. An eighth note. expressing in itself the full
compass of the octave. must sound. This is foretold in the book of
Revelation. That is to say, it is sounded by the idea which Revelation
forecasts, which is the coming to mankind of Christian Science, and its
textbook Science and Health. For Christian Science is none other than the
Bible's original, underlying Science as it ranges from Genesis to
Revelation.
CHAPTER XVI
Revelation
Whether Of not the apostle John actually wrote Revelation is of far less
importance than the fact that what Revelation stands for spiritually is what
Jesus' beloved disciple, John, stands for, namely, the vision of forthcoming
Christian Science. Within the Bible's total scientific meaning it is essential
that the authorship of Revelation be attributed to St. John.
Recorded in the first century of the Christian era- that is, at the
beginning of the fifth thousand-year period - Revelation depicts
prophetically, through apocalyptic symbols, the advent, in the si xth
period, of Christian Science. and its scientifically structured textbook.
In the development as a whole, which we have now followed from
Genesis to Revelation, Science and Healrh with its Key to the Scriptures
furnishes. as we have said. the eighth appearing of the foursquare matrix.
This consummate appearing is to the sevenfold scale in the Bible as the
sounding of the octave is to the diatonic scale in music. With the advent of
the Christian Science textbook, sequence becomes simultaneity.
Compassing the octave in music invites, at the same time, the playing of
the scale's fourfold chord. Here. individual notes harmonize, and order
has developed from sequence to structure. In terms of our own
experience, Life is now, not something for which we have to wait. As
Revelation puts it, "the time is at hand."
Relief. satisfaction, and a feeling of fulfilment comes to the listener
when the first seven notes of the musical scale have led to the sounding of
the eighth note. How much more is this so when, in the scale of life itself,
the Bible leads to Science and Health. The seventh note in music is called
the leading note. As the sevenfold career of Jesus led to the descent of the
Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost; as the founding mission of Mary
Baker Eddy led to the revelation of the absolute Science of her discovery;
so the sevenfold scale of matrices in the Bible leads to Science and Health
as the original compelling Science and system of its own orderly
unfoldment.
The eighth note is the first note played again an octave higher.
Likewise, the idea presented in the Christian Science textbook is the key
that unlocks the Bible from the heginning and also fulfils it at the end.
Because Revelation forecasts the mission of Christian Science, the Bible is
a complete survey in itself of human translation and salvation, spanning
I
353
354
the full range of the seven thousand-year periods as the time it apparently
takes the idea of God to accomplish this salvation.
Science and Health with

Key to the Scriptures
There are a total of eighteen chaptcrs in the Christian Science textbook,

The seventeenth of these. "Glossary," was added in order to give the
metaphysical meaning of Bible terms (S & H 579:4), The eighteenth,
"Fruitage," is a collection of healing testimonials - healings that came
solely from studying and pondering the book (S& H 600:4), The first
sixteen chapters, therefore, constitute the body of the book itself, and
these furnish comprehensively the pattern of the foursquare matrix.
"Glossary" and "Fru itage" signify this matrix at work in us and as us,
bringing spiritual translation and healing.
The first four chapters, from "Prayer" to "Christian Science versus
Spiritualism," accentuate the four tones of the JVord,- the second t(wr,
from "Animal Magnetism Unmasked" to "Footsteps of Truth," accentuate
the four tones of the Christ; the third four, from "Creation" to "Christian
Science Practice," accentuate the four tones of Christianity; the last four,
from "Teaching Christian Science" to "The Apocalypse," accentuate the
four tones of Science.
The Apocalypse
The sixteenth and last of these chapters, The Apocalypse, has for its
subject the book of Revelation. A short excerpt from Revelation 10,
practically the whole of Revelation 12, a short excerpt from Revelation 21,
and the 23rd Psalm, together with the interpretation of all these passages
Examination
in the light of Christian Science, make up this chapter.
shows that the chapter itself has precisely sixteen sections, and that these
correspond, section by section, with the sixteen chapters of the textbook
as a whole. Just as the one whole matrix is epitomized and focused in its
sixteenth and final tone, so the whole of Science and Health is epitomized
and focused in its own sixteenth chapter. The 23rd Psalm, which appears
as the sixteenth section of this chapter. thus sums up the teaching of the
chapter itself. This implies that in the 23rd Psalm lies the essence of the
book of Revelation, and therefore the very essence of Christian Science.
23rd Psalm
In the 23rd Psalm, divine Love is the shepherd of mankind, and therefore
there is no wallf. The resources of the matrix of the motherhood of Love
are represented as inexhaustible and everpresent. Because substance is the
substance of idea. not matter, man lives in a universe where everything is
infinite, At the point of development represented in "The Apocalypse" by
the 23rd Psalm, humanity has been weighed in God', balances and is not
found wanring. These balances are the allness of Spirit, on the one hand,
and the nothingness of matter, on the other. Subject and object being one
in identity neither is in want of the other. Manhood and womanhood are
one and indivisihle. Manhood does not lack womanhood, and
womanhood does not lack manhood. In the symbol of music, the sevenfold
REVELATION
355
scale no longer yearns for its eighth note. The Bible is one with Science
and Health, and neither is in need of the other. Together, the Bible and
Science and Health, as we have already cited, stand for the Pastor, or
Shepherd, of the universal church of Christ, which is Keneric man
(Mis 322:10).
Revelation 10, 12, and 21
The question arises as to why the particular extracts from chapters 10, 12,
and 21, taken from Revelation's total of twenty-two chapters, are an that is
needed to fullil the requirements of the chapter "The Apocalypse'''' Also,
why is most of the chapter devoted to Revelation 12"
Revelation 12 prophesies the founding of Christian Science in world
consciousness at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth
centuries. The divine idea which underlies the imagery of this particular
chapter ushered Christian Science into human consciousness and fulfilled
the mission of Mary Baker Eddy. Clearly, the writing of Science and
Healih was the pinnacle of Mrs Eddy's lifework. It is essential, therefore,
that Revelation \0, in which the angel hrings the "little hook" from
heaven, should be considered in immediate relationship with Revelation
12.
Just as the personality of Jesus yields to Christ, so that of Mary Baker
Eddy yields to Christian Science, the universal Christ-body, the true idea
of man, The God-crowned woman in Revelation 12 does not refer to Mary
Baker Eddy personally but, as the text itself says. to "generic man" (5 & H
561 :22). Man in the universally generic sense, as the spiritual identity of
mankind, gives birth to a "man child," and is thus the mother of Christian
Science. No one knew this at the time but Mary Baker Eddy, hence her
individuality uniquely rellected and showed' forth this motherhood. But
generic man is not only the mother of Christian Science, he is its leader as
well. Hence the statement made by Mrs Eddy in 1901 that her successor as
leader of the Christian Science movement would be "man the generic term
for mankind" (My 347:5). Man is self-mothered and self-led when he is

mothered and led by his divine Principle, Love.
Christian Science itself is symbolized hy the holy city of Revelalion 21.
This city is the nonsectarian Science of Christian Science, which is being
understood today through the system of capitalized, synonymous terms

for God that permeate Science and Health. This Science and system of the
seven and the four, together with the different combinations of Life,
Truth, and Love, and also the different synonymous terms for Science
itself, was necessarily written into the Christian Sd.cnce textbook during
the lifetime of Mrs Eddy, and therefore during the period represented by
Revelation 12, But it was not discovered and understood until after the
founder'S mission was fulfilled, when (ideally) generic man had succeeded
to the leadership.
The Christian Scientist John W. Doorly was the first to discern the
spiritual and scientific meaning of the synonymous terms for God as they
356
range throughout the textbook. In due course, his work revealed the
matrix-like structure of the book as a whole. His researches into the God-
inspired text thus brought to light the prot()und scientific meaning of the
city foursquare of Revelation 21.
Hence the spiritual inseparability of chapters 10, 12, and 21 of

Revelation as found in "The Apocalypse" in Science and Hea/lh.
The discovery of this Science of timeless ideas, hidden in the depths of
the textbook, enables us today to continue the development of Christian
Science from the point where its founder left it. We can begin to "bridge
over with life discerned spiritually" the fatal interval of organization and
time that has claimed to intervene in the historical picture since her
passing in 1910 (5 & H 598:26, 249: 19).
Bridging this interval we shall, secondly, bridge the much greater

interval between today and the happenings of the day of Pentecost, which
immediately followed Jesus' ascension. Bridging this second interval. we
shall, thirdly, begin to take up the position of sinless human hood prior to
the supposed Edenic expulsion. Finally, and fourthly. we shall find
ourselves at the point of timeless unity with God. where a primordial
intrusion of evil into the kingdom of divine Science, resulting in the myth
of rebellious, fallen man, never took place.

Thus, in Science and Health, Revelation lOis followed immediatcly by
Revelation 12, and Revelation 12 by Revelation 21, with no "death"
intervals between. The purpose of this immediacy is to teach the
uninterrupted "life" of man. However, in the book of Revelation itselt~
chapter II intervenes in the one instance, and chapters 13-20 in the other.
Revelation 1 J is the story of the two dead and resurrected witnesses,"
typifying Christ Jesus and Christian Science, the Bible and Science and
Health. These are dead when not understood, but alive for evermore when
Science has explained them (5 & H 334:26). Chapters 13-20 have for their
main subject the judgment and fall of Babylon; and Babylon, in the Old
Testament, is associated with [srael's captivity and apparent death. While
Science and Health presents the ideal workings of Principle, the Bible
illustrates the way in which the Christian Science story has unfolded in
human experience.
The harlof city, Babylon, is the antithesis of the bride city, New
Jerusalem; and the mother of harlots must fall to her doom before the
Lamb's wife can appear. Ideally, Babylon (death) is eliminated in the
course of the founder's mission, as represented by Revelation 12.
Therefore, in Science Gild Health, New Jerusalem (life) follows
immediately in the wake of this mission.
Mary Baker Eddy writes that Revelation 12 "typifies the divine method
of warfare in Science, and the glorious results of this warfare" (S & H
568:6). This confirms the relationship between this chapter and her own
mission, for she records elsewhere that "from first to last, The Mother
Church [the focus of her founding activity I seemed type and shadow of
REVELATION
357
the warfare between the flesh and Spirit" (Pul 20:14). Once divine
Principle is understood and obeyed, the mother of harlots is no more;
Babylon can no longer prevent New Jerusalem from appearing. A "new
heaven and a new earth" result from the work of the God-crowned woman.
and there is "no more sea." Man need not pass through the "transitional
stage in human experience called death" any more (S & H 572:23). In
mythology, as we have noted, the sea stands for "the mother of all that
Ii ves."
The chapters that follow Revelation 12 (with its divine method of

warfare) depict, we are told, "the fatal ellects of trying to meet error with
error." This order of Revelation 12 leading to Revelation 13 and beyond,
is the same as "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" (S & H 568:8). The true
method of creation is presented by the seven days (~f creation, the false
method by the myth of Adam and Eve.
The warfare in Science which renders Babylon obsolete is waged in
Revelation 12 against the great red dragon. This dragon (so we learn from
the text) is the final version of the talking serpent which deceived Adam
and Eve. Hence the parallel between the true and false methods of wwfare
and the true and false methods of crearion.
Jerusalem means "city of peace." New Jerusalem is a state of spiritual
world peace. But instead, the career of Mary Baker Eddy is t()llowed
almost immediately by a prolonged period of world war.
Revelation 13, where the fatal effects of trying to meet error with error
begin, is the story of two beasts. The tirst rises up ou t of the sea, the second
out of the earth. These are the servants of the great red dragon, and
promote the dragon's purpose to deceive and destroy the world. But this
can take place only if the teachings of Science and Health are not
understood. For Science and Health has two "feet," or "foundations" - a
twofold spiritual power which curtails the activities of the beasts. "And he
[the angel with the little book] set his right foot upon the sea, and his left
foot on the earth." This prevents the beasts from rising up out of the sea
and out of the earth. In its own words, the textbook's right foot, or
dominant power, is "upon elementary, latent error" (sea), while its left
foot, or secondary power, is "upon visible error and audible sin" (earth).
The understanding of the Christian Science textbook renders
inopcrabl,e what psycho-analysis calls the unconscious and conscious strata
of the human mind. In the myth of mortal mind, the unconscious stratum
determines the conscious, and is the unseen source of all human bondage.
In 1908, Mary Baker Eddy added to the textbook the following
admonition: "Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that mental
malpractice cannot harm you either when asleep or when awake" (S & H
442:30). When it is understood that Science and Health's dominant power
is on the "sea," and its secondary power on the "earth," mental
358
malpractice cannot harm humanity either when asleep (the unconscious

level of mortal belief) or when awake (the conscious level); for the two
beasts of Revelation 13 are thereby prevented from operating. The
concept of sea and earth (where earth is the outcome of sea) is replaced in
Revelation 21 by heaven and earth (where there is no more sea), In this
case, earth is the outcome of heaven - conscious human experience is
born of the matrix of unfathomable Mind. and not of a mythological
cosmic unconscIous.
Opening the Sixth Seal
One of the principal subjects in Revelation is the opening of the book

sealed with seven seals. This is done by a Lamb that had bcen slain. but
which is resurrected - that is, alive for evermore. The ability of the Lamb
to break open the book's seals causes all creation to rejoice. When the
seals arc loosed, the book reveals life as it really is- a universe of
boundless Life. Truth. and Love. The Lamb performs this work on behalf
of the whole human race.
Science and Health says that the twelfth chapter of Revelation has "a
special suggestiveness in connection with the nineteenth century," and
adds: "In the opening of the sixth seal. typical of six thousand years since
Adam, the distinctive feature has reference to the present age"
(S & H 559;32).
As we have seen, Revelation 12 refers particularly to the founding of
Christian Science, that takes place mostly in the nineteenth century. But
that which has reference to the presenl age, namely. the opening of the
sixth seal, implies something much vaster in scope than the closing
decades of the nineteenth century. It includes the close of the nineteenth
century, but very much more besides. Note how, in the sequence of the
chapters, the opening of the sixth seal takes place in Revelation 7 whereas
that which refers to the nineteenth century does not come until Revelation
12.
A book has necessarily to be written in linear or sequential form. But
the overall vision of Revelation, like that of Science and Healrh, is
structural and not linear. We hegin to solve the mystery of Revelation in
the measure that we view its manifold images panoramically- that is. in
their relationship with one another outside a sense of time. For example.
the sounding of the trumpets does not really follow the opening of the
seals as two separate events. From beginning to end al\ is one great cosmic
happening, relating to the simultaneity of the system of ideas that
constitutes Chrbtian Science.
Historically, we are told, the opening of the sixth seal corresponds to
six thousand years since Adam. But does this imply that a further
thousand years must elapse before the seventh seal is loosed? Science and
Health appears during the sounding of the sixth trumpet in chapters 9 and
10. But without the "little book" none of the seals can be unloosed. for it
alone has the Key that opens them. Yet the opening of all seven seals takes
REVELATION
359
place in chapters 6, 7 and 8. Again, all seven seals dissolve, and all seven
trumpets sound, before the mission of the God-crowned woman in chapter
12. Yet, without the mission of the woman none of these happenings really
take place. Again, inasmuch as the pouring of the seven vials, the judgment
and fall of Babylon, the final revelation of the New Jerusalem, (which
come after ghapter 12) are all implicit in the teachings of Science and
Health, they pertain to the mission of this same God-crowned woman.
And inasmuch as this mission unfolds, necessarily, under the auspices of
the opening of the sixth seal, it is evident that the opening of this
particular seal is of paramount significance in the message of Revelation
as a whole.
Indeed, the symbols that appear from chapter I onwards (such as the
seven golden candlesticks, the seven Spirits of God, the key of David, the
four beasts, the twenty-four elders, and so on) all relate to fundamental
concepts found in the "little book," and therefore relate to the work of the
woman, and therefore to the opening of the sixth seal.
It seems that when human development reaches the point of six
thousand years since Adam all seven seals are liberated. This is because
Christian Science and its textbook, in opening up the spiritual and
original meaning of the Bible, enables humanity to perceive for the first
time the spiritual and scientific contemporaneity of all human civilization
and history. There shall be "time no longer," says the angel in Revelation
10 when he brings the little book from heaven.
Remember it is a resurrected Lamb, typical of the resurrected Jesus,
who opens the seven seals, and who sees life panoramically instead of in a
time sequence. Therefore, in Luke's Gospel, it is not until after the
resurrection that Jesus opens his disciples' unde'rstanding that they might
understand the Scriptures. Correspondingly, in our own day, it was only
when thought had been liberated from organizational Christian Science
that it could unlock the Bible from beginning to end with the Key 10 the
Scriptures which is Science and Health. John W. Doorly began this work at
the time of his excommunication from the church body.
Let us note carefully the following. In the ordered footsteps of Jesus
lifework (which we traced in Chapter 13 of this book), the period belween
the resurrection and ascension constituted the sixth stage of his mission.
This corresponds to the sixth day of creation (in which man has dominion
over the earth) and to the sixth thousand-year period (which includes the
advent of Christian Science with its inherent world dominion). During this
sixth (resurrection) stage of Jesus' experience he took the limits off his
disciples' understanding by unlocking the meaning of the Scriptures. This
sixth major step in his development, together with its equivalent in
Christian Science. loosens from world thought the seven binding seals of
mortal ignorance and time.
The Lamb opens this vital sixth seal in Revelation 7. Four angels stand
on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth. The
living spirit of the Word, Christ, Christianity, Science is at work in human
360
consciousness. Another angel ascends from the cast having the seal of the
living God. This is the seal of eternity which, in the sepulchre, Jesus set on
time (S & H 44:8). It operates as a matrix of spiriwal educat ion and moulds
human consc'\ousness 'm the hkeness of God. Rooted in the seven time Ie"
days of creation this educational system dissolves the myth of mortality
and time represented by the thousand-year periods.
As touched on in the Introduction to this book. the seals of mortality.
which none but the Lamb can loose from the book of life, arc the literal.
sequential, time sense of the Bible which keep the Bihle's scientific
meaning hidden from human sight. Like the angcl with the seal of the
living God, the Lamb has in his possession the solution to the problem of
being; therefore he can break open the seals. and enable abundant.
indestructible Life to tlood the consciousness of mankind. No wonder the
scene is of unparalleled cosmic rejoicing!
Typical of generic man himself, "an hundred and forty and four
thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel" arc sealed in their
foreheads with this seal of the living God. The matrix of spiritual
education is set in motion on a world scale. The servants of God arc
impressed in their foreheads with their Father's image, and ignorance, the
mark of the beast, the alternative impress, is erased. Science and Health.
based on its system of capitalized, synonymous terms for God, and
brought to light during the opening of the sixth seal. is this seal (~l rhe
lh'ing God.
Mary Baker Eddy writes: "The student who heals by teaching and
teaches by healing, will graduate under divine honors, which are the only
appropriate seals for Christian Science" (Mis 358:4).
Once the sealing is accomplished- once the students have graduated,
and the honours are conferred -"a great multitude, which no man could
number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people. and tongues [stand I
before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and
palms in their hands." This is the human race having come out of great
tribulation, and'having washed its robes and made them white in the blood
of the Lamb.
Gathered under the wings of the divine Science of man, revealed at the
opening of the sixth seal, is everything in Revelation that has led up to this
point, and also all that unfolds until the end of the vision. Let us therefore
touch on certain outstanding issues that range throughout Revelation as a
whole, bearing constantly in mind their relationship to Christian Science,
and to the teachings of Science and Healrh.
From Revelation 1 to
Revelation 22
The message concerns infinite life, which flows from eternal Life, or
Being. Timeless self-existence is everywhere self-expressed, Through the
seven Spirits which are before Life's throne, the Life which is, and which
was, and which is to come is in timeless communion with its own being.
REVELATiON
361
The end is from the beginning. Life is the forever circulation of life,
without beginning or end. "I am Alpha and Omega, the heginning and the
ending, . the first and the last," declares the trumpet voice of eterna\
Life.
The message is addressed to the seven churches which are in Asia. The
church of Christ is the body of Christ, governed by one head. Seren Spirits
communing with seven churches denotes that the happening is universal.
Spiritually, John is us. The voice behind him is the voice behind us. We
are looking out from infinite Life. When we turn and face the voice. we are
looking into infinite Life. We arc looking out from Life and hack to Life
simultaneously. Turning, we see seven golden candlesticks. The voice of
Life, or Being, is the voice of Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth,
Love, the source of our illumination. The Son of man stands in the midst
of these candlesticks, with seven stars in his hand. God and man are one.
The Son of man, our (man's) Son, is therefore the Son of God. He is the full
sevenfold idea of Principle in the midst of the divine order of Mind, Spirit,
Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love.
Science dispels mysticism. The Son of man interprets the vision.
Principle explains itself through its idea. The seven candlesticks arc the
seven churches themselves to whom Life's message is addressed. The
seven stars are the angels, tne absolute identities, of these seven churches.
The churches are all humanity. The sole reality of mankind (the seven
churches) is thus Mind, Spirit, Sou!, Principle, Life. Truth, Love (the seven
candlesticks), This is man's celestial reality which overcomes the mortal
sense of man, in order that ignorance shall disappear from consciousness
and humanity he saved through spiritual enlightenment.
The resolution of the mystery is that Mind, Spirit. Soul. Principle. Life,
Truth, Love reveals itself to itself through its idea, man. In this divine selfretlection man gives birth to the Son of man. which is himself as the Son of
God. Hence the relationship between the seven churches and the seven
candlesticks. in the midst of which stands the Son of man.
The churches arc synonymous in character, like the candlesticks or
synonymous terms. They embody the synonymity of countless
individuality which is man. The symbol "seven" signifies the full and
perfect idea of Principle. The Son of man, linked in thc text with the Spirit
of God, addresses the angel (the absolute identity) of each church in turn
in order to eliminate from consciousness the dual sense of man. We aTe
witnessing the activity of Science: Science as divine Science, speaking as
absolute Christian Science, and solving the problem of duality at the point
of Christian Science. Each church, understanding what its identity is,
overcomes what this is not.
Let us touch on the message to the sixth church, the church of
Philadelphia, the "church of brotherly love," corresponding to the
seal. "He that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth:
and shutteth and no man openeth." is the description given the Son of man
si.,,"
362
when he addresses the angel of this particular church. The key of David is
the Key to the Scriptures in Science and Heal,,, (S & H 499). and signifies
thc Lamb-like state of spiritual understanding which unlocks the Bible's
seals. Because, through brotherly love, it sacrifices the mortal sense of self,
the church in Philadelphia is rewarded as follows: "I will write upon him
the name of my God. and the name of the city of my God. . I will write
upon him my new name." Mary Baker Eddy predicts the possibility that
"in the twentieth century Isixth periodl
Christ will give to
Christianity his new name, and Christendom will be classified as Christian
Scientists" (Pul 22:9).
The sixth church having been given a Key. we read regarding the
seventh (Laodicea): "Behold. I stand at the door and knock: if any man
hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with
him, and he with me. To him that ovcrcometh willi grant to sit with me in
my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his
throne," The SOil of man, heing set down in the throne of Principle, mall
himself necessarily sits in this same throne. Because in Truth they are one
in coincidence, the human enters the presencc of the divine
simultaneously as the divine enters the presence of the human.
The key opens the door of heaven. Immediately we are "in the spirit"
inside. Principle is enthroned in the centre of its universe, surrounded by
all its creation. Our vision of the heavenly kingdom is a vision of the
content of infinite Mind. "Thou hast created all things. and for thy
pleasure they are and were created," cry four and twenty elders to the One
who sits on the thronc. This symbolism in Revelation 4 is quickly
identifiable with certain basic precepts which we meet with in Science and
Health. The twenty-four seats are the twenty-four questions in
"Recapitulation," the twenty-four elders, who sit in the seats, are the
answers to these questions. Then there are seven lamps of fire, which are
the seven Spirits of God. At the same time, j()ur beasts (in company with
the four and twenty elders) emerge out of the midst of the throne.
The enthroned One holds in his right hand the book scaled with the
seven seals. It is imperative for mankind that these seals be loosed. The
Lamb who alone is worthy to do this likewise comes forth from the midst
of the throne. His seven horns and seven eyes are "the seven Spirits of God
[therefore the seven lamps of fire, therefore the seven synonymous terms'
sent forth into all the earth."
In Science, creation is already of the nature of Mind, Spirit, Soul,
Principle. Life. Truth. Love. We read in Science and Health that "Spiritual
evolution alone is worthy of the excrc ise of divine power" (S & H 135:9).
The entire cosmos acknowledges with rejoicing the worthiness of the
resurrected Lamb (spiritual evolution in contrast to material creation) to
take the book, usc his divine power to open the seals, and thereby redeem
the human race.
One by one the seals are broken. According to divine order, the seal of
REVELATION
363
eternity is set on time. The seven days of creation. unfolding the cosmos as
it really is, translate the thousand~year periods of human history, and in so
doing swallow up time. Human consciousness undergoes fermentation,
upheaval, and change. "Marvels, calamities, and sin will much more
abound as truth urges upon mortals its resisted claims; but the awful
daring of sin destroys sin, and foreshadows the triumph of truth"
(S & H 223:28).
Correlative with the opening of the seven seals, seven angels sound
seven trumpets, and judgment is passed on error. In terms of our human
experience, and according to the Christian Science textbook, these
soundings are seven successive calls ofwisdol11 "in the growth of Christian
character." Instead of a final day of judgment, the "judgment-day of
wisdom comes hourly and continually, even the judgment by which mortal
man is divested of all material error" (S& H 291:7-31).
During the sounding of the sixth trumpet, corresponding to the
opening of the sixth seal, a mighty angel brings the little open book
(Science and Health) from heaven. Again the symbol of the "four" is
prominent. There are four horns on God's altar, and four angels "bound in
the great river Euphrates" are loosed. There shall be time no longer, the
angel says on behalf of all creation.
The dominant power (right foot) of the book is upon primordial belief
in the collective unconscious; its secondary power (left foot) is upon the
supposedly conscious outcome of this. Note how Science and Healrh is
open, whereas the Bible was sealed (closed). When the little book's key
opens the Bible, the Bible is no longer closed. John, like ourselves, is
bidden to eat (understand) the book from beginning to end. As Israel ate
the passover lamb, so the body of Principle, symbolized by this book.
becomes our true body. The body of the book and the body of the
resurrected Lamb are the same spiritual body.
We come to chapter II. God's two witnesses, the Bible and Science and
Health, are represented as rejected (not understood) by the Gentile world.
The bodies of the manhood and womanhood of God lie dead in the streets
of Sodom and Egypt. But the "Spirit of life from God" (the living Science
of them both) enters into them, and they are resurrected. As a result, the
seventh trumpet sounds and the entire human condition is changed. The
"kingdoms of this world. . become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his
Christ."
Our vision throughout is of the heaven into which we entered
originally when the key first opened the door. Almighty Life "which art,
and wast, and art to come" is still the central figure. Before this Life the
four and twenty elders capitulate continually. At last the temple of God is
opened in heaven, and we see "in his temple the ark of his testament." The
ark is the means of man's union with God. Man is in a state of "selfconscious communion with God" (S & H 29:32), with no obstructing veil
between. The curtain is thus lifted on the God-crowned woman - that is,
on God and (generic) man in everlasting spiritual wedlock.
364
The great wonder of the woman in heaven is countered mythologically

hy a great red dragon in heaven. The woman is man as he rcally is, the
dragon is the serpentine (Adamic) sense of man. The woman is great with
child. At the point in history of the opening of the sixth seal the world is
pregnant with the truth ahout itself. The dragon seeks to devour the child
as soon as he is horn. Animal magnetism would break up the oneness Dr
heing into organic sects and fragments. The woman, on the other hand,
gives her child \vholc to God; she preserves his divine integrity. Her child
is "caught up unto God.
. found in its divine Principle" (S & H 565:27),
safe from the persecuting dragon. Eating the little hook saves us from
heing devoured hy the dragon- that is, from heing destroyed through
disintegration. The two archangels. Michael and (J'abrieL thc manhood
and womanhood of Truth and Love (S& H 5(7). cast the dragon into
nothingness, and there is salvation for mankind. The \voman's man child is
our O\\ln divinely mature manhood always at the point of unfolding
childhood.
But Truth and Love are also the feet of the angel \\'ho hrings the little
book from heaven (5& H 55H:16). In this "mighty angel" Michael and
Gahriel comhine as one. "These angels deliver us from the depths" (S & H
567:3). It is thus Gahriel's power over the sea and Michael's power over
the earth that neutralize the heasts of Revelation 13. These two heasts of
{USl and hypocrisy (S & H 567:2R) are the twin agents of the great red
dragon. "Woe to the inhahiters of the earth and of the ~ea~" says the text.
when the deceiving dragon has heen expelled from heaven and cast into
the earth.
His nothingness must he estahlished on earth as well as in heOl'cl/. As
the text of "The Apocalypse" shows, this means, in practice. that divine
Science and Chri.'Ilian SCit'flCl' must he found to operate as one.
None of the inhabiters of the earth and the sea. \vhether they are small
or great. rich or poor. free or hond. may huy or sell unless they have the
"mark, or the name of the heast. or the numher of his name" stamped in
their right hands, or in their foreheads.
We arc still in the scene of the opening of the sixth seal. Those who can
neither huy nor sell unless they are impressed with the mark of the heast
are the antitheses of the hundred and forty and four thousand who have
their Father's name written in their foreheads, as recorded in Revelation
7. These. now. in company \vith the Larnh, sing a new song of rejoicing.
They do this "hefore the throne, and hefore the four heasts, and the
elders," showing that the setting is still the original heaven depicted in
Revelation 4. The hundred and forty and four thousand rejoice in the
understanding that human consciousness (earth) is horn of unfathomahle
Mind (heaven), and does not come up out of the depths of the collective
unconscious (sea).
The earth is in process of heing reaped. and we arrive at the fall of
l1ahy[on. The fully ripe clusters of the vine of the earth are cast into the
REVELATION
365
"winepress of the wrath of God," Judgment is still heing passed on evil;

therefore we arc still in the scene of the sounding of the trumpets. \\lhcn
the trumpets tirst sounded. "the temple of God was opened in heaven, and
there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament." Here, in Revelation
IS. we are told once again that "the temple of the tahernacle of the
testimony in heaven was opened." Man's unity with God (typified by the
woman in Revelation 12 who appears when the ark is revealed in heaven)
ensures the fall of the harlot Bahylon.
Rut is there a harlot as well as the woman'? Not in Science. The woman
is soon to appear as the holy city, New Jerusa lem, the bride and wife of the
Lamb. in contrast to the harlot city. Bahylon. In the sense that "the
greatest wrong is but a supposititious opposite of the highest right" (S & H
368: I), the one is the reverse presentation of the other.
The "seven golden vials full of the wrath of God" which seven angels.
emerging from the temple. pour upon the earth, are vials of consolation as
well as of wrath. These seven angelic vials. full of seven plagues. have "full
compensation in the law of Love." That which our "suffering sense deems
wrathful and afflictive" is. in Science, the very presence and activity of
divine Love (S&H 574:17-30). Love demands perfection. and what
appears as the wrath of God is the actual perfection of Love itself
eliminating imperfection.
The pouring of the vials corresponds with the sounding of the
trumpets. The purpose of both sequences is to hring judgment on the
harlot Babylon. and on the great red dragon with which she is identified.
The name in her forehead is "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother
of Harlots and Ahominations of the Earth." Decked in purple. scarlet. and
precious stones, the great whore sits on many waters. These are "peoples,
and multitudes. and nations, and tongues" - that is. the mortal race of
Adam. Her cup is "full of ahominations and filthiness of her fornication,"
and she is drunk with the blood of saints. She is carried on the hack of a
scarlet coloured heast, typical of the red dragon.
Chapters 17 and 18 describe intimately the state of thought which is
Bahylon. Time after time we read how her fall takes place in one hour.
"Babylon the great is fallen. is fallen.
. utterly burned with fire.
. Alas,
alas, that great city Babylon. . for in one hour is thy judgment come.
in one hour so great riches is come to nought.
. in one hour is she made
desolate." The text continues: "And a mighty angel took up a stone like a
great millstone. and cast it into the sea, saying. Thus with violence shall
that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at
aiL"
At the last supper, prior to the crucifixion. Jesus "knew that his hour
was come" (John 13: I). Speaking to the disciples of a \voman in travail he
said that her "hour" is come. "Could ye not watch with me one hour?" he
pleaded with his disciples, as he was about to dissolve the birth-death
cycle, typified in the Bihle by Babylon.
366
Once Babylon has fallen, the multitude of the human race- the many
waters on which the harlot sat- is released to appear in its true identity.
The jubilant cry goes up, "Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent
reigncth." This is accompanied by the announcement of the marriage of
the Lamb and the hride. We read: "Let us be glad and rejoice. . for the
marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb."
A marvellous moment follows. The vision that arises foreshadows the
ahsolute Science of Christian Science. Scofield calls it "the second coming

of Christ in glory" (SRB p.1348). A rider on a white horse is followed by
armies of riders all on white horses. The Leader's name is "Faithful and
True," and also "The Word of God." He is clad in a vesture dipped in

blood. His appearing is the signal for the final battle of Armageddon to
begin. The only leader today is God's impersonal Word.
In order to defeat the dragon, and liberate mankind from his subtle
deceptions, Christian Scientists must be faithful and true to the Word of
God as taught by the Bible and Science and Health in their spiritual and
scientific wedlock. The wedding of these two textbooks and the wedding of
the Lamb and the bride are two aspects of the same wedding. Faithfully
wedded to the divine Word - coming forth together from the same divine
source- we, man, are the Christ, Christianily, Science, hringing to birth
the holy city of Revelation 21, as the true idea of ourselves and our world.
Infidelity to God's Word is the result of Babylon's seduction and
captivation of mankind, as instigated by the dragon and his two beasts. To
overcome this. an "angel standing in the sun" (identical with "the woman"
of Revelation 12 - S & H 561 :8) sets in motion the battle of Armageddon,
during which the rider on the horse and his armies cast the dragon and his
beasts into a lake of fire and brimstone.
To secure the victory. an angel comes down from heaven "having the
key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand." He hinds the
dragon for a thousand years and seals him up in the pit. The pit of the
psychic unconscious, with its primordial time sense, and archetypal
myths, is indeed bottomless. The further thought goes hack in time the
more insoluble becomes the problem of origins. Mary Baker Eddy once
wrote that the thousand years referred to in this text is a "unit of
nothingness" (Essays and Olher Foolprints p.137). The "numerals of
infinity called seven days" being units (ideas) of eternity, the thousandyear periods of time are, as time, units of nothingness. The dragon "loosed
a little season" signifies his ultimate dissolution. The key, the chain, and
the seal, which achieve this dissolution are the same key to the Science of
the Scriptures, the same chain of Mind, Spirit. Soul. Principle, Life, Truth,
Love, and the same seal of the living God which seals in their foreheads
the hundred and forty and four thousand at the opening of the sixth seal.
This vanquishment of animal magnetism is called the first
resurrection. "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first
REVELATION
367
resurrection: on such the second death hath no power." Let uS always

remember that the Lamb which accomplishes the opening of the seals is a
resurrected Lamb. Primarily, what Jesus overcame at the crucifixion was
the/irst death, or birth into matter. The bride which he wedded thereafter
as his body was the foursquare matrix of eternal life over which the second
death (death itselO has no power. Mary Baker Eddy once said that "to be
born into the belief of matter is the last enemy to be overcomedeath - physical life," She added: "Mankind has reached the last enemy
and knows it not" (Collectanea p.31).
The holy city of Revelation 21 is the goal of all human society. Faithful
and true to the Word of God, humanity is the Christ, Christianity, Science.
We are man in God's image when we come forth together from the
divinely creative Word as one harmonious Christ-body. Then we are the
Lamb wedded to the bride.
The textbook says of this boundless spiritual habitation, or body: "The
Lamb's wife presents the unity of male and female as no longer two
wedded individuals, but as two individual natures in one: and this
compounded spiritual individuality retlects God as Father-Mother, not as
a corporeal being" (S & H 577:4).
"And there shall be no more curse." In the Bible's final chapter,
Revelation 22, the curse on Adam to till the soil, and on Eve to bring forth
in sorrow, is removed forever. The threat of an inordinate population
explosion by the end of the twentieth century- the belief that the
resources of Adam's earth are incapable of satisfying the demands of Eve's
progeny- no longer imperils mankind. Instead, the tree of life
(womanhood) is fertilized and nourished by the river of life (manhood),
that proceeds out of the throne of God and the Lamb.
The Lamb and his bride have become the "Lord God Almighty and the
Lamb." The world's (bride's) reality is the self-revealing Word of God.
Everything everywhere is Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love
declaring their own infinitude. The tree of life, which bears her twelve
manner of fruits, and whose infinitely individual, in-breathing leaves are
for the healing of the nations, is the foursquare matrix of the Word, Christ,
Christianity, Science, the source of every man's boundless life.
The symbol of this inexhaustible storehouse of Life, Truth, and Love,
is the sixteen chapters of Science and Health - the Christian Science
textbook, in its matrix structure, voicing THE WORD OF GOD.
Finally, therefore, let us glance at the spiritual correlation, which we

now know exists, between the sixteen chapters of the textbook and the
sixteen sections of "The Apocalypse," its own sixteenth chapter. This will
sound for us the eighth note of our spiritual octave, the first seven of
which the Bible has already fathomed.
368
The following is a brief summary. touching the way in which the idea
that unfolds from Genesis to Revelation is thus fulfilled in Science Clnd
Health.
1. "Prayer" - the angel with tlie little book: God's work is done. Infin ity is
wholly accomplished. Love has already bestowed all good. Mind already
knows all- embodies all reality. Desiring to he this work of wisdom is
fundamental prayer. Our prayer is to be humanly what we are divinely.
The all good, already bestowed, already received and accepted. which we
learn about in the first chapter, "Prayer," is signified by the contents of
Science and Health as a whole- that is, by the "little book" which features
in the first section of "The Apocalypse." This book states
comprehensively the Word, or Principle, of Christian Science, which we
are bidden to assimilate from beginning to end. Unless, in this way. the
end is from the beginning, there is no possibility of the idea of God
unfolding from beginning to end according to the order of the sixteen
chapters.
2. "Atonement and Eucharist"-Gnd-crowned woman: Nothing in the

Word of God can be taken out of context. Every detail of God's universe
(Word) has "part" with every other detail "in the at-one-ment with Truth
and Love." As taught in the chapter "Atonement and Eucharist." the
individual Jesus proved this universal oneness and wholeness on hehalf of
all mankind. He illustrated and demonstrated it in his own being through
his relationship with his surrounding world. Coming forth from the unity
of the Word and returning to this unity, he proved the nothingness of
fallen man, or a fragmentary material universe. He said in effect to
mankind: 'Atone for the sin of fragmentation; understand that you are the
integral body of Christ, Truth, voicing the divine Word.' The Godcrowned woman in the second section of "The Apocalypse" is generic
man one with God, voicing His Word. He "whom God has appointed to
voice His Word" is universal man. Hence the relationship between
Science and Health and the woman. The reality of Science and Health is
man in the generic sense, just as the reality of generic man is the divine
idea of Science and Health. Parts of God's universe (Word) do not come
together to be joined organically; they are joined already and forever, and
therefore are together. This is divine at-one-ment, or marriage.
3. "Marriage" - mother in travail: We are spiritually fruitful when we

work from the standpoint of at-one-ment in the Word. This involves
dissolution of the belief that separated fragments join themselves together
to form a propagating body. Gently, step by step, we suffer this dissolution
to be so now in order to fulfil all righteousness. In the third section of
"The Apocalypse" we, the woman, mankind. are pregnant with. and
"pained to be delivered" of, this idea of universal at-one-ment.
REVELATION
The Word as Science
369
4. "Christian Science versus SpirilUalism"-greal red druR(m: Spirit does
not mix with its opposite, matter. Principle does not speak through
personal mediums, or segregated individualities, in order to voice its
Word. Spirit speaks through its own spiritual idea- that is, through
generic man. Man is Spirit self-revealed. There is no outside to Spirit.
Spirit is the inseparability of God and man. The helief that Spirit speaks
through matter is spiritualism, the doctrine of the great red dragon. [n the
universe, or Word, of Spirit everything is in instant communion with
everything else. This indivisibility of all things is Life. The dragon (the
subject of the fourth section of 'The Apocalypse") contends that Spirit
requires persons (spirits), electricity, and matter, in order to communicate
itself to man. Spiritualism is based on division. Of death. Spiritualism
hreaks the Ten Commandments by breaking up (in belief) the at-one-ment
of God and man.
Christ as the Word
5. "Animal Magnetism Unmasked" - the drag()n seeks to devour the child:
The Latin persona (pcrsonare - "to sound through") means "a mask."
Animal magnetism is the supposition that infinite Principle sounds
through the mask of finite personality. It would devour the God-idea (the
woman's man child) by breaking it up into fragments- identifying it with
persons, followings, factions, and sects. It would draw the third part of the
stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. It would rend man from God,
putting itself in priestly guise between them. Evil, personified in the guise
of good, is "the god of this world." To unmask animal magnetism is to
reveal the face of God, and the qualities that proceed out of the heart of
God. Man is these God-qualities. Sounding through the mask of hypocrisy,
animal magnetism deceives humanity regarding the evil thoughts that
proce.ed out of the heart of mortal man. The dragon "swollen with sin" is
the mythological opposite of the woman (the world) pregnant with the idea
of her own harmony and undividedness. Thus the "works of the tlesh"
yield to the "fruit of the Spirit" (Gal 5, S& H 106:20).
Christ .s the Christ
6. "Science, Theology, Medicine" - birth oflhe man child: In the words of

Paul, in Galatians, the son of the bondwoman yields to the son of the
freewoman. To un-mask animal magnetism is simultaneously to dis-cover
Christian Science. "In the year 1866, I discovered the Christ Science . . .
and named my discovery Christian Science," writes Mary Baker Eddy at
the beginning of the sixth chapter. "And she I the woman, generic man J
brought forth a man child . . . and her child was caught up unto God, and
to His throne," says the sixth section of "The Apocalypse." Christian
Science, the man child. is the divinely integral identity of the human race
as a whole. He is born simultaneously of God and man, because God and
man are one. He is the revelation of Truth to humanity- the resurrecting
"leaven" of divine wholeness raising the whole lump of human

consciousness from the dead. He is the rock-like precipitation - the
370
concrete revelation - of the human and divine coincidence, upon which

the church (body) of mankind is built. Only the Son of (generic) man is the
Son of the living- God. The keynote of his activity, is the translaliun of
humanity from physicality to spirituality- from fragmentation to
wholeness. Only when Science is the "religion of Love" (S & H
138: 15)- the Theos-logos, or God Himselfspeaking - does it medicine and
heal mankind.
7. "Physio[ogy"-journey through rhe human wilderness: The

physiological concept of identity (based on the relationship of brain and
body) yields to one universal Christ-body (Christ the head and Christianity
the body) in the spiritually educational journey of mankind. In the
"passage from sense to Soul," referred to in the seventh section of "The
Apocalypse," and corresponding to the seventh chapter, "Physiology,"
humanity is translated from the land of Egypt (house of bondage,
physiological body) to the promised land (house of freedom, body of
Truth and Love). Humanity's woes stem from man having supposedly
eaten the apple, physiology. from the tree of knowledge, or the serpent's
tree of death. This, in belief, lost him his paradise, his God-given
dominion over the body. Reproducing himself physiologically, he
transmitted his beliefs to his ensuing generations. In the promised land he
regains conscious bodily control- he awakens to the fact in Science that
this control was never .taken away from him. A build-up of false material
knowledge never lost him his at-one-ment with God.
Christ as Science
8. "Footsteps of Truth"-deliverance by Michael and Gabriel: Only that

which comes forth from perfection makes the journey to perfection. The
"human footsteps leading to perfection" (which the eighth chapter,
"Footsteps of Truth," tells us are indispensable) are the footsteps of
divinity appearing humanly and leading humanity back to divinity. In the
course of this circular journey "the battle between Spirit and flesh is
fought and the victory won." Only by working from the perfection of
Gabriel (Love) has Michael (Truth) the necessary spiritual strength to
overthrow the dragon, and so end "the conflict between the flesh and
Spirit," as presented in the eighth section of "The Apocalypse." "These
angels deliver us from the depths" of the dragon's sea by bringing our
identity forth from God.
9. "Creariun"-dragon cast frum heaven to earth: Instead of the dragon

casting to earth the stars of heaven, he is himself cast from heaven to earth.
In Science, earth is held in the embrace of heaven, and the two are forever
one. For the dragon to be cast to the earth presupposes an outside to
heaven. From the point of view of heaven, therefore, the dragon is cast
into nothingness. This is "the divine method of warfare in Science," which
Michael and Gabriel, the manhood and womanhood of Truth and Love,
REVELATION
371
wage against the dragon. He is handled generically from the standpoint of

divine Science before being handled specifically from the standpoint of
Christian Science. That is to say, he is exterminated from heaven before
being exterminated from earth. (Note that the term "Christian Science"
does not appear in "The Apocalypse" until the next section of the text.)
The world-deceiving dragon is "the corporeal sense of creation" (S & H
56: II). We learn this from the chapter "Marriage" (the Word as
Christianity), the complement of "Creation" (Christianity as the Word).
The false method of creation is, according to this ninth section of "The
Apocalypse," the method used by Adam and Eve (the mortal opposites of
Michael and Gabriel) when they eat the fruit of physiological knowledge.
True creation, the subject of the textbook's ninth chapter, is creation as
stated in the first chapter of Genesis, in which man does not fall from
heaven to earth, but remains one with God.
10. "Science of Being" - universal salvation: Salvation in Science is now,
not going to be. "Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of
our God, and the power of His Christ," says the voice from heaven when
the dragon has been cast to the earth - when the truth is revealed that man
was never cast out of heaven. The teaching of the chapter "Science of
Being" is that Mind is all and matter is naught. This is "divine
metaphysics," which alone overcomes "physics," or the corporeal sense of
creation. "Semi-metaphysics" (moralism) plays no part in the divine
method of warfare waged by Science, or divine metaphysics. The tenth
section of "The Apocalypse" declares accordingly that the rule of our
warfare is "self-abnegation, by which we lay down all for Truth, or Christ."
This rule, it says, "clearly interprets God as divine Principle,-as Life,
represented by the Father; as Truth, represented by the Son; as Love,
represented by the Mother." In other words, the Science of being, in order
to bring salvation to mankind, rules out the mortal sense of creation.
Christianity as Chl'istianity
11. "Some Objections Answered" - the dragon persecutes the woman on

earth: Only wholeness and consistency (characterizing the true identity of
mankind) will succeed in answering the world's objections to Christian
Science. Fragmentation, detached parts, personal factions, misunderstandings, are fundamentally the work of occultism, and are the dragon's
foremost weapons in impeding world salvation. Subjection to the onene"
of Principle- fidelity to the Word of God, signified by the wholeness of
Science and Health - answers and annuls personal, outside objections
based on dislocated parts. The word "persecute" is from a root meaning
"to follow." Following personality, instead of following (understanding)
Principle for oneself, leads to monopoly and occultation, in which one
celestial body obscures the light of another. Both the eleventh chapter and
(by implication) The Apocalypse's eleventh section teach that when "a
drop of water is one with the ocean," and "a ray of light one with the sun,"
372
harmony reigns and disagreements are no more. Everything constituting

the divine Word is forever in context with everything else.
12. "Christian Science Practice" - the earth helps the woman: Christian
Science healing brings regeneration. 'The prisoner rose up regenerated,"
says this twelfth chapter of the textbook. Regeneration involves spiritual
consistency and wholeness of outlook in which subject and object, us and
them, are one in identity, and not two. Every part of the healthy Christ
body works in harmony with every other part. This implies love, the
essence of Christian Science practice, and the opposite of mental
malpractice. In the measure that Principle is practised, the earth helps the
woman instead of objecting to her. Earth swallows up the dragon's flood of
mental malpractice in the measure that the spiritual idea is understood
through love and regeneration. Mankind (earth) finds itself to be the

woman - discovers that it is generic man, the spiritual idea of God - and is
no longer in opposition to its own heing.
According to The Apocalypse's twelfth section, " 'Love one another'
(I John, iii.23), is the most simple and profound counsel" of John the
Revelator. We read in this same epistle of John: "We know that we have
passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." Through the
practice of love in Christian Science, the body passes from death to life
and is therefore regenerated.
Science as the Word
13. "Teaching Christian Science"-new heaven and new earth: The

thirteenth section of "The Apocalypse," correlative with the textbook's
thirteenth chapter, opens with the words: "The Revelator had not yet
passed the transitional stage in human experience called death, but he
already saw a new heaven and a new earth." John has learned to "love the
brethren" spiritually and scientifically, and his thought, in consequence,

has passed "from death to life." In the words of Jesus he is "born again."
The "scientific obstetrics" (S & H 463) involved in this new birth enable
him to teach Christian Science in accordance with the thirteenth chapter.
His "present possibility" is absolute Christian Science, in which past,

present, and future are one. Heaven and earth are one and indivisible. The
new heaven and new earth of Revelation 21: 1 are the original heaven and
earth of Genesis 1:1. In neither case is there any "sea." Earth is heavenborn, not sea-born. The mythical concept of "sea" as the "mother of all
living," with its accompanying sense of time, has passed into oblivion
through the operation of divine obstetrics (spiritual education), or the

realization that man has his origin in God. Man is indeed the holy
foursquare city which comes down from God out of heaven, as presented
in the next section of the chapter.
Science
8S
the Christ
IA. "Recapitulation" - "city foursquare ": Thus the city has heavenly
foundations. In the opening section of "The Apocalypse," the "little
REVELATION
373
book" (Science and Health) likewise has feet, or foundations. These

"foundations of Truth and Love" are the two fundamental categories of
synonymous terms for God: the seven of Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life,
Truth, Love, as stated in the fourteenth chapter "Recapitulation," and the
four of the Word, Christ, Christianity, Science, which define the four sides
of the holy city in this fourteenth section of "The Apocalypse." One of
these feet has dominion over the sea, the other over the earth. They teach
that earth is born of God out of heaven, not out of the dragon's sea. The
system of capitalization in Christian Science denotes man coming forth
directly from the Word which is God, thus being the Christ, Christianity,
Science. Herein lies the divine method of education, or teaching.
"Recapitulation" is the chapter in the textbook on which Mary Baker
Eddy based all primary instruction in Christian Science.
The "city foursquare" in this section of "The Apocalypse" is
specifically the city of divine S~ience. It is the "bride" which the Father
gives away for each individual to make his own. In this sense the city of
divine Science is, as the text says, "our city." Man's timeless present
having appeared in the previous section (with its reference to absolute
Christian Science), divine Science represents the eternal source and origin
of every moment of his being. As cited earlier, the "divine Science which
ushered Jesus into human presence" is "the spiritual origin of man"
(S & H 325:27).
Science as Christianily
15. "Genesis" - "city of our God": The "city of our God" (fifteenth
section) is specifically the city of Christian Science. Science, bestowed in
its oneness and undivided ness as divine Science ("our city"), is the gift to
us all of our everlasting individuality as man. Through Christian Science,
we give this individuality back where it belongs. We acknowledge that it
constitutes the indivisibility of "our God." "To-day and forever" are the
words used to describe the city of Christian Science in this fifteenth
section of the text. Involved is the "perfectibility of God's creation."
"Perfectibility" is "the capability of becoming or being made perfect"
(SRD). The forever unfoldment of man's present perfection as the city
(body) of our God solves every human problem. That is to say, nothing can
ever enter this body which "defileth .. or maketh a lie."
There is "no temple [tempus, timel therein." Correspondingly, the
seven days of creation, which begin the fifteenth chapter, "Genesis," can
"never be reckoned according to the calendar of time" (S & H 520: I I).
This "spiritual, holy habitation," in which "male and female are no longer
two wedded individuals, but . .. two individual natures in one," is quite
unlike the world of Adam and Eve as described in the second part of
"Genesis."
Science as Science
16. "The Apocalypse" - Psalm X XIII: When the textbook's sixteen

chapters have culminated in "The Apocalypse," and The Apocalypse's
374
sixteen sections have attained their climax in the 23rd Psalm, the point is
reached where "DIVINE LOVE" is every man's "shepherd," and therefore

there is no want, Together, the Bible and Science and Health with Key 10
the Scriptures typify the shepherd, pastor, and leader of the universal
sheepfold of man, The tone is Science as Science, where, in the survey
carried out in this book, the matrix of immortality has unfolded fully for
the eighth time. Its resources are unexpendable, inexhaustible, instantly
available everywhere at once.
Substituting "DIVINE LOVE" for "the Lord" in the 23rd Psalm gives, we
are told, the "incorporeal or spiritual sense of Deity." This "spiritual
sense" regarding one particular Bible term thereafter applies to the
Scriptures as a whole as represented by the "Glossary."
Let us note carefully the method of capitalization used in this final
section of "The Apocalypse," indicating, as it must, the essential workings
of the textbook as a whole, and therefore of Christian Science. In the
Bible, man's "shepherd" is "the Lord." The "Lord" is "Jehovah," and
Jehovah (as we learn from the previous fifteenth section) is the "human
sense of Deity," which must, "through spiritual transfiguration" yield to
the "divine sense." This transfiguring is represented as having taken place
in the sixteenth and last section, in the 23rd Psalm, where the "sense" is
"DIVINE LOVE."
Humanity is accorded its ultimate divinity. The uncapitalized word
"love" is fully capitalized as "LOVE." and is written "LOVE" only when the
larger capital is needed to begin a sentence. Man is found in God. He is
possessed of God, and does not possess himself. Man is not God, but God
and man are indissolubly one. "Our city" (fourteenth section) is indeed
the "city of our God" (fifteenth section). The human is transfigured, and
the body (temple) is resurrected. Like Jesus at the transfiguration, and at
the resurrection, man, the idea of God, is, was, and ever will be abundantly
sustained by the Science of his own being. He is the Word of God
declaring itself. He is what I AM.
Thus, in the wake of the resurrection, Christ Jesus revealed to the
disciples "in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." Likewise,
the Christian Science Textbook unlocks in the Scriptures, from beginning
to end, the birthless, deathless truth of man.
Conclusion
The story of FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION would not have been complete
had we not developed it to its logical conclusion by advancing it from the
Bible to Science and Health. In doing so, we have, as we now see, fulfilled
the scale unfolded in the Bible by completing the spiritual octave.
In music, the corresponding diatonic scale comprises what are called
two {efrachords, each consisting of four notes. The pattern and structure,
of hoth are (as far as the major scale is concerned) precisely the same. OUf
eightfold scale of matrices in the Bible and Science and Health is likewise
formed of two perfectly structured spiritual tetrachords - the one being
the complement of the other. The fIrSt ranges from the Patriarchs to the
Kings, the second from the Prophets to Science and Health. Each follows
the pattern of the Word, Christ, Christianity, Science, and the purpose of
the first is fulfilled in the second (Appendix p.3H9).
In conclusion, therefore, let us briefly fe-examine and re-assess the
values of these two divinely metaphysical tetrachords. And let us do so by
taking each note of the first in relation to the corresponding note of the
second. in order to emphasize the simple fact that what we are concerned
with in Christian Science is, from start to finish, the foursquare holy city of
the Word, Christ, Christianity, Science.
Reviewing the eightfold scale as a whole, the Patriarchs matrix leads to
the Deuteronomy matrix, to the Promised Land matrix. to the Kingdom
matrix. These constitute the first tetrachord. They lead, in turn, to the
Prophets matrix, the Gospels matrix, the Epistles matrix, and finally to the
Science and Health matrix. These form the second tetrachord. In the case
of the first four, the Word, Christ, Christianity, Science are, as far as the
student is concerned, objective in emphasis: in the case of the second four.
the Word. Christ, Christianity. Science are subjective in emphasis.
So let us compare and evaluate the two Word matrices. the Patriarchs
and the Prophets; the two Christ matrices, Deuteronomy and the Gospels;
the two Christianity matrices, the Promised Land and the Epistles; and the
two Science matrices, Israel's Kingdom and "Science and Health."
At the point of the Patriarchs, Israel, generic man, the spiritual idea of
all humanity, is in embryo in the womb of world consciousness. At the
point of the Prophets, she is fully formed and ready to !load the world with
the truth of the world's own being - that is, with the missions of Christ
Jesus and Christian Science her own ultimate identity. Underlying and
determining these two first notes of the two spiritual tetrachords is the
creative Word of Life.
375
376
The work of Moses in Deuteronomy foreshadows that of Jesus in the

Gospels. Deuteronomy teaches the way whereby the children of Israel
inherit and inhabit their promised land. The Gospels teach the way
whereby universal humanity inherits and inhabits the kingdom of God.
Each at its particular stage of the development is dominated and
determined by the way-showing Christ, Truth.
In Joshua and Judges (the Promised Land matrix), as a result of
obedience to the laws set forth in Deuteronomy, Israel is restored to the
land of Canaan, her divinely covenanted homeland. Ideally, in the
Epistles, as a result of obedience to the teachings of the Gospels, mankind
is restored to its original homeland, the universal kingdom of God. That
which is at work in both instances is the regathering, healing mission of
Christianity, impelled by divine Love.
Government by the Principle of the whole human race is the theme of
Israel's Kingdom period in the four books of Kings. This true idea of
government is likewise the fundamental theme of Science and Health. In
the story of the Kings, Israel is established in the land of her at-one-ment
with her divine Principle, God; and the same is true finally of universal
man, as taught by Science and Health. In each case, Science is the
dominant factor at work, to which the Word, Christ, and Christianity lead.
Science and Health, in its final matrix structure, brings to our
understanding the one Kingdom of us all. the holy City which is us all; for
it elucidates the Word from which we all must stem in order to be the
Christ, Christianity, and Science.
Music, with its balance of science and art, based on the eight-note
scale, is perhaps the pre-eminent symbol for illustrating the workings of
Christian Science. It is good to listen at a keyboard to the way in which the
Erst three notes of each tetrachord of the major scale lead to and resolve
into the fourth note, and also how the first tetrachord as a whole prepares
the way for, and culminates in, the second. In our eightfold scale of
matrices, unfolded by the Bible and Science and Health, the subject of the
first tetrachord is Jehovah's redemptive purpose regarding the children of
Israel. This resolves naturally into the second, where the subject is God's
purpose of salvation for the whole human race. The original patriarchal
"seed" thus blesses "all the families of the earth." It does this because,
from the beginning, it holds within it in embryo the spiritual identity of
mankind, brought to fruition at last in the foursquare civilization of man,
which is Christian Science.
When the Old Testament was being compiled by Israel's priests and
prophets, Greek philosophers and mathematicians were looking out upon
the universe and conceiving of its movements and relationships as what
they called the music, or harmony, of the spheres. The scale of universal
being which leads us to accept the matrix calculus of infinity as
constituting the harmony, or music, of our universe is, we now see, the
scale of the SEVEN DAYS OF CREATION placed at the beginning of the Bible.
CONCLUSION
377
Christian Science teaches that this range of ahsolute cosmic values

changes "chaos into order and discord into the music of the spheres"
(S&H 255:3).
Using the Christian Science textbook, Sc'iCllct {{lid Hco/rh H'i!11 Key fo
r/ie ScripIllrcs. to open the Bihle and reveal the Bihle's universal Science
from Genesis to Revelation - letting the seven thousand-year periods of
time be translated spiritually into the eternity of the "seven days" - the
chaos of mortal existence yields to order, and its discords to the music of
Mind Spirit Soul Principle Life Truth Love
in everlasting harmony as
the Word Christ Christianity Science.
Appendix
379
THE FOUR ORDERS

of
THE SEVEN SYNONYMOUS TERMS FOR GOD
'!---w-o-r-d---I~---C-h-ri-s-t--~:-C-h-ri-st-i-a-n-it-y--~-----s-c-ie-n-c-e----'
i
Mind
Spirit
Soul
Principle
Life
Truth
~--Lo-v-e-
(S& H
Principle
Life
Truth
Love
Soul
Spi rit
:
i
II
Principle
Mind
Soul
Spirit
Life
Truth
Soul- Life
Spirit - Truth
Mind- Love
M
__i__n_d
____~-- ___
Lo-ve-------~-p-r-in-c-i-p-le-_4
___
46~ (S& H 115)
(S& H 587)
(S& H 465)
GOLDEN CANDLESTICK
(Ex 25:31)
symbol of fourth order
- the Science orderwhich embodies the other three orders
Mind
Spirit
Soul
Principle
380
Life
Truth
Love
"This chart Illustrates how various combinations of the synonymous terms lor God are accented
when spiritual thinking is operating from the standpoint of Divine SCience, Absolute Christian
Science, or Christian SCience, the three metaphysical standpoints of the one ail-inclusive
Science," (J, W. Doorly)
,
divine
Science
The Word
Ch rist
Life
Christianity
Science
Truth
Love
divine
Principle
Love
The Word
The Christ
Christianity
Science
Life
Truth
Love
Truth
Life
Love
Life
Love
See S & H 575 7-21.
2982-3
absolute
Christian
Science
See S&H 57712-27,
57323-28
Christian
Science
See S&H 12714-16
123:16-18
Mind
Spirit
Soul
Principle
Life
Truth
Love
Principle
Life
Truth
Love
Soul
Spirit
Mind
Principle
Mind
Soul
Spirit
Life
Truth
Love
(This chart and the matrix chart on the following page

are reproduced by permission.)
381
Truth
Love
P
r
Soul
Spirit
I
Life
n
c Truth
I
p
Mind I Love
e
Principle
"THE MATRIX"
based on the four orders of the seven terms

as presented in The Pure Science of Christian Science
(2nd Ed)
by John W. Doorly
The
Word
The
Christ
Christianity
Science
The Word
The Christ
Christianity
Science
order
manifestation
reflection
numerals of infinity
Mind
Spirit
Soul
Principle
Life
Truth
Love
Principle
Mind
Soul
Spirit
Principle
identity
translation
reality
Soul
Principle
Life
Truth
Love
Soul
Spirit
Spirit
Life
Truth
line
plane
space
Life
Truth
Love
Soul
Spirit
Mind
Mind
Soul
Spirit
Life
Truth
Love
omnipotence
omniscience
omnipresence
Life
Truth
Love
Soul
Spirit
Mind
Life
Truth
Love
382
Life
infinite calculus
I
Spirit
I
I
I
I
Truth
- "INFINITE SELF-CONTAINMENT"(S& H 519:5)
Soul
I
I
I
I
fourth dimension
Mind
I
I
I
I
Love
I
I
I
I
omn i-action
I
I
Principle
PATRIARCHS MATRIX
1
Word
Christ
Christianity
Science
ABRAHAM
ISAAC
JACOB
JOSEPH
Word
Christ
Christianity
Science
Divinely we are
what humanly we
seek
So, of the Ireewoman
AmbigUity of Jacob
replaces son of the

bondwoman
a,d Esau; hostile
Joseph transferred
from Canaan 10
tWin brothers
Egypt
Melchizedek
. without father
without mother"
brings forth
bread eod wine
Abraham sacrifices
mortal sense of
fatherhood; death
of Sarah
Ladder uniting
heaven and earth;
Jacob's sons from
Reuben to Joseph
Joseph supreme
In the land of
Egypt
Concessionary
marriage 10
Hagar; "suffer
it 10 be eo now"
A wife for Isaac

Rebekah comes to
him to be made his
bride
Jacob renamed
"Israel"; problem
of Esau solved
Joseph feeds a
famished world:
the family reunited
Destruction of
Sodom a,d
Gomorrah
Isaac IS his father's

beloved son anc
heir
Birth of Benjamin;
human regeneration;
the twelvefold
Circle complete
Israel occupies the

land of Egypt
DEUTERONOMY MATRIX
DEUTERONOMY (MOSES AND THE LAW OF GOD)
Word
Christ
Ch ri sti an ity
Science
Word
Ihe
Lawful way 10
promised
land
Law proceeds from

the mouth 01
Principle by which
man shall live
Legal system of
government
Law of universal
regathering to God
Christ
The law of God

revealed through
Moses
Divine law eliminates

what IS unlawful
One supreme
law-abiding
Prophet
Rock-like divine
law
Christianity
Practice 01
law
Centre of the
law-abiding body
01 Israel
Detailed laws for

daily conduct
Law of universal
blessing
Science
Law of Ihe
"few" fundamentals
Laws of release
and restoration
Law of self- offering
"This is the land"

of divine law
God's
383
PROMISED LAND MATRIX
JOSHUA
Word
JUDGES
Christ
Christianity
Science
Word
Objective yielding
to subjective,
"ye have ,ot
passed this wey
heretofore"
Joshua prepares to
distribute the land
No personal
leaders; attempt
at self-government:
apostasy enters
Israel's life
The great strength

oj SCience (Samson)
delivers Israel
from the Philistines
Christ
Preview ot
promised land
The twelve tribes of

Israel inherit their
true Identity
Judges deliver
Israel from her
SCience not bound

by religion or the
physical sCiences
Christianity
Science
SinS
Israel crosses the

river Jordan eod
enters the
promised land
No separation
between the inSide
and outside of the
land
Civil wat
Samson beguiled
by Delilah, his
seven locks of hair
cut from his head
Initial
The miSSion of
Joshua fulfilled
Faithfully, Israel
must give herself
back to God
Israel whole and

undivided IS the
scientifiC answer to
apostasy
conquest
eod occupation
of
the
land
KINGDOM MATRIX
I SAMUEL
II SAMUEL
I KINGS
II KINGS
Word
Christ
Ch risti an ity
Science
DaVid crowned:
Jerusalem built as
city of the great king
Reign of Solomon:
the temple built
in Jerusalem
EliJah's ascenSion
mission of Elisha
his successor
Demand foe
king: Saul must
Yield to David,
the slayer of
Goliath {exile)
The SO'l rebels

against hiS father.
DaVid goes into
eXile
Kingdom splits
in two: Israel
(northern kingdom)
Judah (southern
kingdom!
Israel and Judah

fall to cleanse
themselves of
Syria
of
Christianity
RelatIOnship
DaVid aod
Jonathan
Restoration of
Davld-s kingdOM
Warnng relations
between the two
Kingdoms
Period of exile
beginS, Israel
deported and
dispersed by Assyria
Science
DaVid loves
enemy Saul
hi s
Foundations on which
Israel must bUild
her temple
Elijah comes to
heal the breach
and relieve the
spiritual drought
Judah deported by
Babylon, Jerusalem
destroyed
Word
Samuel opens the

prophetic eco
Christ
384
PROPHETS MATRIX
N
JOEL
AMOS
HOSEA
"
; ,
\\
\
EZEKIEL
JEREMIAH - - -
ZECHARIAH
JONAH
ZEPHANIAH
HABAKKUK
S
12 MINOR PROPHETS
5
Word
Word
HOSEA
God sow,
spintual
Christ
Christianity
the
seed
OBADIAH
Spir'llual idea
unambiguous
Christianity
JOEL
Spi ritual fertility and
conceptIOn
AMOS
JONAH
Humanity entrusted
with the holiest
charge
MICAH
Birth of the true
heir
Labouring to
bring forth
Science
EZEKIEL
Temple (body)
untouched by Babylon
JEREMIAH
Way to make nothing
ol Babylon, lellhe
organic temple go
NAHUM
HABAKKUK
ZEPHANIAH
ISAIAH
Consolation for
the human when
Th.e human. held in
Birth of a "pure
The "end" fulfilled
language," mealls
of universal
spiritual understanding
from the "beginning,"'

origin and ultimate one
dissolves
the embrace of the

diVine where evil
is unknown
HAGGAI
Individuality must
be universal In
order to bUild the
house of the Lord
ZECHARIAH
Structure of
spiritual and
scientifiC
consciousness
organizalioll
Science
Christ
4 MAJOR PROPHETS
385
MALACHI
The windows at
heaven (gales of the
city) open; message
and messenger
poured (orth
DANIEL
All human'lty freed
from Babylon
GOSPELS MATRIX
6
Word
Christ
Christianity
Science
MATTHEW
MARK
LUKE
JOHN
Word
Christ
Christianity
Science
om
Advent, baptism,
temptation ie the
wilderness
The Son of God comes

forth from God
The Son of man

restores all
things to their
true origin
I, the Logos,
the Cosmos
Sinless humanhood,
Sermon on the
Mount: healing
mission begins
Divinity's impact 00
humanity
Seventy disciples
sent into the
world to redeem
It from the myth
of fallen man
Bread of life and

light of the world
Twelve disciples;
this rock 1 will
build my juniversalJ
church"
One plane of
conSCIOusness:
translation of the
human by the divine
The Son 01 man

comes to restore
that which is lost
Body of Christ in
eternal Science:
"Father
that
they all may be one"
The Son of God

returns 10 God
Birth of the
Son of man
Resurrection;
"newness of life as
Spirit' standpOint
of Christian SCience
"on
Passover, crucifixion.
resu rreci ion: 'Lo,
I am with you alway.
even unto the end
01 the world"
386
EPISTLES MATRIX
N
CORINTHIANS
ROMANS
II CORINTHIANS
/
GALATIANS
PHILEMON
COLOSSIANS
II THESSALONIANS
I THESSALONIANS
7
Word
Christ
Christianity
Science
PAULINE EPISTLES
Word
ROMANS
Convert your world to
Christianity, understand
it as it is
GENERAL EPISTLES
Christ
Christianity
Science
I CORINTHIANS
Synonymity of
individuality makes
the body indivisible
CORINTHIANS
Give yourselves
and each other
back to God
"
JAMES
Be born into the
matrix of the
motherhood 01 God
GALATIANS
Christianity
sP'Ir'ltual, beware
of returning fa
positions outgrown
EPHESIANS
Humanity is the one
integral church of
Christ
PHILIPPIANS
As members of
the one body give
to and receive
from each other
I & II PETER
The uncapitalized
body (man) is
found in rts
capitalized head (Christ)
COLOSSIANS
Beware religious
syncretism
your
deSire fa be
universal
I THESSALONIANS
As seen in the
advent of Christian
Science, the real
church comes down from
God out of heaven
II THESSALONIANS
Rebellious man
must fall away first
before Christian
Science can appear
I II & III JOHN

Universal love
(uncapitalized) IS
the reflection of
Love (capitalized)
PHILEMON
HEBREWS
JUDE
The lawless rebel

(organic life)
returns translated
to his Lord and
Master
Restorat'lon fa
"the right hand
of the Majesty
on h'lgh"
Man held perfect

in God no fallen
angels
"
"
I & II TIMOTHY
TITUS
The organ'lzation
requisite in the
beginning must
obey the law of
God and dissolve
387
ESSENCE OF BIBLE TEACHING
PROPHETS
GOSPELS
"I came forth from the Father,
and am come into the world:

again, I leave the world,
"Science unfolds the eternal verHy, that
MAN
is the spiritual, eternal
REFLECTION OF GOD"
(S & H 296:2)
388
EPISTLES
and go to the Father" (In 16:28).
SCIENCE AND HEALTH MATRIX

Its sixteen chapters epitomized in the sixteen sections of
"THE APOCALYPSE"
Word
PRAYER
Word
Christ
little open
book
ATONEMENT
EUCHARIST
God_crowned
woman
AND
MARRIAGE
Christianity
humanity
travail
Science
"
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
VERSUS SPIRITUALISM
great ced dragon
Christianity
Christ
ANIMAL MAGNETISM
UNMASKED
dragon ready to
devour the child
dragon cast
oul of heaven
SCIENCE. THEOLOGY.
MEDICINE
bi rth of the man
child
SCIENCE OF
BEING
"Now IS come
salvation"
PHYSIOLOGY
SOME OBJECTIONS
ANSWERED
dragon persecutes the
woman on earth
GENESIS
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
PRACTICE
earth swallows up
the dragon's flood
THE APOCALYPSE
journey through
the wilderness
FOOTSTEPS OF
TRUTH
Michael and Gabriel
overcome the dragon
CREATION
Science
TEACHING
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
new heaven and new
earth. no more sea
RECAPITULATION
city foursquare
city of our God
man does not want
SPIRITUAL OCTAVE
EIGHTFOLD SCALE OF MATRICES
Word
First
Tetrachord
SeconJ
Tetrachord
Christ
3
2
Patriarchs
Deuteronomy
Gospels
389
Science
4
Joshua-Judges
6
Prophets
Christianity
Kings
8
Epistles
SCIENCE AND
HEALTH
ASSOCIATED LITERATURE
A Catalogue of publications concerning the scientific evolution
of Christian Science, to which this book is a contribution, is
supplied by The Foundational Book Co Ltd. London, England,
and by the Rare Book Company. Freehold. N.J.. USA
Catalogue of publications ranging from important archive material of

Mary Baker Eddy. to writings by her Immediate students, to books
and pamphlets by contemporary authors, obtainable from The
Bookmark, P.o. Box 60148, Pasadena. California 91106, USA, or
from The Bookmark, 24A Cranley Road, Gwldford, Surrey, GU1 2JS,
England

From Genesis To Revelation

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

From Genesis To Revelation

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

From Genesis To Revelation

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

From

PUBLISHED BY GORDON & ESTELLE BROWN

By the same author:

Copyright W. Gordon Brown 1973, 1984

Photo-typeset and Printed in Great Britain by

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures

FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION

"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the

is the revised edition of the book which

Christian Science. Their purpose is to open wider an already open door.

FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION

In opening up the Scriptures to thl' disl:iplcs" Jesus was opening up

to unloose the seals of a seven-sealed book, so that the contents of this

FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION

Testarnent. or by the coming of Christianity: while the sixth and seventh

FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION

The Bible and Science and Health

With a feeling of wonder and gratitude we discover that the Bible's

FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION

THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE AND HEALTH

S & H 23:2]), relating respectively to the Old Testanlen L the Nl'\v

FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION

Late in the third thousand-year period, lauding her conquest of the

THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE AND HEALTH

FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION

demands the rededication of life to God, and transformation of the human

THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE AND HEALTH

Testament which is not written by individual authors such as prophets,

FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION

The last piece of ()Id 'I"cslalllcni literature ever to be \vritten is

THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE A~JD HEALTH

None of Jesus' utterances are, it seems. comlnitted to writing during his

FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION

THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE AND HEALTH

The English Bible

The first translation of importance to follow the all-Greek Septuagint is

FROM GENESIS TO REVELAT'ON

In 1620, Puritan Separatists (Calvinists who have fled from England to

"Science and Health"

THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE AND HEALTH

FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION

Apocalypse" is a treatise on Revelation 12 - the spiritual interpretation of

THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE AND HEALTH

Pure Science and System

FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION

By 1924. following the famous Christian Science Litigation in Boston,

THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE AND HEALTH

disappears. In the "newness of Life'" thus revealed, "all sense of errn r

A numeral is a symbol of number, and the symbol of infinity is a circle.

creation, are the pure generative Htones," the rounded understanding, of

There is a second symbol, equally essential, which teaches how

FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION

A symbol has appeared of the infinite diversity of identity in unity that

Our thought is revolving in the orbits of Science, the Science of our

THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE AND HEALTH

Key to the Scriptures

FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION

It is imperative therefore to understand the Science of translation. Science

FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION