The following selections from SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE
SCRIPTURES, pages 560-563, were read from the platform. The impressive
stillness of the audience indicated close attention.
_Revelation_ xii, 10-12. And I heard a loud voice saying in Heaven: Now
is come salvation, and strength, and the Kingdom of our God, and the
power of his Christ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which
accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved
not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye
that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea!
for the Devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he
knoweth that he hath but a short time.
For victory over a single sin we give thanks, and magnify the Lord of
Hosts. Then what shall we say of the mighty conquest over all sin? A
louder song, sweeter than has ever before reached high Heaven, now rises
clearer and nearer to the great heart of Christ; for the accuser is not
there, and Love sends forth her primal and everlasting strain.
Self-abnegation--by which we lay down all for Christ, Truth, in our
warfare against error--is a rule in Christian Science. This rule clearly
interprets God as divine Principle,--as Life, represented by the Father;
as Truth, represented by the Son; as Love, represented by the mother.
Every mortal, at some period, here or hereafter, must grapple with and
overcome the mortal belief in a power opposed to God.
The Scripture, "Thou hast been faithful over a few things; I will make
thee ruler over many," is literally fulfilled, when we are conscious of
the supremacy of Truth, whereby the nothingness of error is seen, and we
know that its nothingness is in proportion to its wickedness. He that
touches the hem of Christ's robe, and masters his mortal belief,
animality and hate, rejoices in the proof of healing,--in a sweet and
certain sense that God is Love. Alas for those who break faith with
Divine Science, and fail to strangle the serpent of sin, as well as of
sickness! They are dwellers still in the deep darkness of belief. They
are in the surging sea of error, not struggling to lift their heads
above the drowning wave.
What must the end be? They must eventually expiate their sin through
suffering. The sin which one has made his bosom companion, comes back to
him at last with accelerated force; for the evil knoweth its time is
short. Here the Scriptures declare that evil is temporal, not eternal.
The dragon is at last stung to death by his own malice; but how many
periods of self-torture it may take to remove all sin and its effects,
must depend upon its obduracy.
_Revelation_ xii, 13. And when the dragon saw
that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the
woman which brought forth the man child.
The march of mind and honest investigation will bring the hour when the
people will chain, with fetters of some sort, the growing occultism of
this period. The present apathy as to the tendency of certain active yet
unseen mental agencies will finally be shocked into another extreme
mortal mood,--into human indignation; for one extreme follows another.
_Revelation_ xii, 15, 16. And the serpent
cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the
woman, that he might cause her to be carried away
of the flood. And the earth helped the woman; and
the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the
flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
Millions of unprejudiced minds--simple seekers for Truth, weary
wanderers, athirst in the desert--are waiting and watching for rest and
drink. Give them a cup of cold water in Christ's name, and never fear
the consequences. What if the old dragon sends forth a new flood, to
drown the Christ-idea? He can neither 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. Those ready for the blessing you impart will give thanks.
The waters will be pacified, and Christ will command the wave.
When God heals the sick or the sinful, they should know the great
benefit Mind has wrought. They should also know the great delusion of
mortal mind, when it makes them sick or sinful. Many are willing to open
the eyes of the people to the power of good resident in divine Mind; but
they are not as willing to point out the evil in human thought, and
expose its hidden mental ways of accomplishing iniquity.
Why this backwardness, since exposure is necessary, to ensure the
avoidance of the evil? Because people like you better when you tell
them their virtues, than when you tell them their vices. It requires the
spirit of our great Master to tell a man his faults, and so risk human
displeasure, for the sake of doing right and benefiting our race. Who is
telling mankind of their foe in ambush? Is the informer one who sees the
foe? If so, listen and be wise. Escape from evil, and designate those as
unfaithful stewards, who have seen the danger and yet have given no
warning.
At all times, and under all circumstances, overcome evil with Good. Know
thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory
over evil. Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you.
The cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one
Divinity.