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I THANK THEE, O FATHER, LORD OF
HEAVEN AND EARTH, BECAUSE THOU HAST HID THESE THINGS FROM THE WISE AND PRUDENT,
AND HAST REVEALED THEM UNTO BABES. - JESUS
Picture Number 7
Thus olden faith's pale star now
blends
In seven-hued white!
Life, without birth and without
end,
Emitting light!
Scriptural basis:
Without father,
without mother, without descent,
having neither beginning of days,
nor end of life;
but made like unto the Son of God. - St.
Paul
ALICE ORGAIN:
The Scriptural text used as a title for picture seven,
and the poem accompanying it, together point to "the dawn of a new light"
(S&H 35:10), which the "babe" consciousness alone could receive. The
Scriptural "basis" given for the stanzas corresponding to this picture shows
that the youth of the little child and the age of the "old" gentleman do not
appertain to themselves but symbolize the messages of Science and Health and
the Bible as the new and the old. The "wise and prudent" and the "babe"
must refer to states of consciousness rather than to age and youth, for
the Scriptural "basis" denies "beginning" or "ending," and the stanza proclaims
"Life, without birth and without end, emitting light!"
Thus this picture illustrates the relative positions
of the Bible and Science and Health and the two consciousnesses that type them.
The "old" gentleman undoubtedly represents the old heaven and the old earth
that pass away before the "new heaven and...new earth" (Rev. 21), typed by the
little child, who represents the "new birth," which Mrs. Eddy says is "heaven
here" (My. 158:12) neither born nor borne to earth.
Inasmuch as the first lines of the stanza read, "Thus
olden faith's pale star now blends in seven-hued white," they show that the
"Christ" (as typed by the woman in white in the sixth picture), being the full
trinity of Life, Truth, and Love expressed in one, has gathered all ideas to a
common heavenly focus in this picture.
From the first edition of Christ and Christmas, in
1893, up to the last (ninth) edition, in 1910, Mrs. Eddy attributed to Jesus
the authorship of the Scriptural title of this picture, but in the last edition
she added "Christ" to "Jesus" as author. Jesus prophesied that his second
coming would be as the "spirit of Truth." Truth at the point of this seventh
picture is a wholly heavenly consciousness which must be received on
earth through a wholly heavenly channel, which Jesus identified as a little
child. "Of such is the kingdom of God [heaven]....Verily I say unto you,
Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not
enter therein" (Mark 10:14, 15). By adding "Christ" to "Jesus" Mrs. Eddy
accepted the position that it was the Christ of Jesus' second coming which
prophetically spoke through Jesus when he said, "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes."
"The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
neither shall they say, Lo here! or lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God
is within you" (Luke 17:20, 21). St. John was able to see "a new heaven and a
new earth" at the same time (as recorded in Revelation 21:1) "because St.
John's corporeal sense of the heavens and earth had vanished, and in place of
this false sense was the spiritual sense, the subjective state by which he
could see the new heaven and new earth....This is Scriptural authority for
concluding that such a recognition of being is, and has been, possible to men
in this present state of existence" (S&H 573:19)
The poem here reads: "Thus olden faith's [typed by the
old man] pale star now blends in seven-hued white! Life without birth and
without end, emitting light." This is typed by the little girl who is reading
the fiftieth edition of Science and Health, published during the interim
between the Boston churches.
When Mrs. Eddy dissolved the First Organization of the
Boston church in 1889, she said that she was retiring for the purpose of
revising Science and Health, which had last been revised in the sixteenth
edition. Her promised revision was this fiftieth edition, which was
copy-righted late in 1890 and given to the field in 1891. Thus the little child
also types the branch churches, which alone remained during the interval
between the dissolution of the First Organization and the formation of the
second organization of the Boston church.
Since the field branches, as rooted in the Word as
Bride (My. 125:26), figuratively kept step with Mrs. Eddy's progressive
revelation in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, they, as the only
organized churches during the interim between the first and second
organizations of the Boston church (1889-1892) subjectively type the fiftieth
edition, published in 1891 the Branch-idea typing the objective fulfillment of
the fiftieth edition.
Mrs. Eddy's consciousness was for the first time fully
revealed in this fiftieth edition, for it presented the final footsteps in even
our present edition. The fiftieth edition proved so complete as to make
possible for the first time Mrs. Eddy's later comment, "those who look for me
in person, or elsewhere than in my writings, lose me instead of find me"
(My. 120:2).
Note that in this seventh picture the Bible is closed
and there is no light resting upon it, in contrast to the open Bible upon which
the light of the star rested in the third picture. Here the Bible is embraced
in the light of the open book of the fiftieth edition of Science and Health
with Key to the Scriptures.
In this fiftieth edition, Mrs. Eddy for the first time
declared under the marginal topic, "Biblical Foundations," "I therefore plant
myself unreservedly on the teachings of Jesus, of his apostles, of the
prophets, and on the testimony of the Science of Mind [Mind being the only
exclusive quality of the fatherhood of God]. Other foundations there are none"
(S&H 269:22-25). This declaration took in the whole scope of the Bible.
Mrs. Eddy also for the first time based each and all
chapters of this fiftieth edition on Biblical texts. This edition also retained
the "Glossary" (added for the first time in the sixth edition), which presented
the metaphysical interpretation of the Biblical phases of manhood from Adam to
Jesus, and the God-crowned Woman's "man-child" as Truth (added for the first
time in the sixteenth edition. Thus the "old" gentleman is able to reassuredly
close his Bible in the inspirational consciousness of its fulfillment in
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.
The Bible is in no sense closed in obliteration or
forgetfulness of its contents, for "God requireth that which is past" (Eccl.
3:15) in embraced memory and its responsive activity. Just as the butterfly
emerges from its humble "past" carrying in its beautiful body all of the
substance of its previous state except its prior self-confining limits (not
forgetting its former body but incorporating it), so the advanced idea embodies
the "past" after having merely burst the bonds of its former limitations. Only
the limits of one's viewpoint are changed and never the true substance of an
idea as its identity.
In this seventh picture the Bible is closed because
"olden's faith's pale star (a distant, little understood promise) NOW blends in
seven-hued white." Science and Health, the "little book" open, has explained
the Bible. Every personage of the Scripture becomes an impersonal quality;
Abraham becomes fidelity, Moses becomes moral courage, etc. An article entitled
"Jacob's Ladder" in the fourth volume of the Journal, June 1886, types
"Life, Truth, Love, purity, beauty, harmony, perfection" as "the seven colors
of the rainbow," [or Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love]. The
seven days, or the seven stars, are the seven hues which are gathered into the
white light of ideas; "the rays of infinite Truth (the dry bones of Ezekiel)
when gathered into the focus of ideas, bring light instantaneously" (S&H
504:23). Mrs. Eddy's seven synonymous terms, understood as the numerals of
infinity, have explained the Bible, because they have gathered all into the
white light of ideas.
"The Bible contains the recipe for all healing"
(S&H 406:1), but it must be translated into the new tongue of the "INSPIRED
WORD," since the translators of the original Word assumed that to be first
which appeared second, and is mortal and material. (See Mis.
188:5-8.)
Bible admonitions, commands, denials and
cross-bearings help to break the bonds of the limiting walls that obstruct the
spiritual idea, but without such temporary confines the Bible could not have
been demonstrably closed.
The "old" gentleman in this picture, typing Bible
consciousness, wears heavy glasses, representing unillumined Bible
consciousness, which hears, but sees "through a glass darkly." Even St. Paul,
in his first Corinthians discourse on Love, said that he then saw "through a
glass, darkly." St. Paul saw Woman through the limitation of manhood.
His (then dim) vision of Woman as typing Love (See S&H 517:10) awaited the
channel of womanhood, typed by Mrs. Eddy, for its discovery and revelation.
The Bible, being the revelation of the ascending
consciousness of individual man, has come solely through man. Science and
Health came through one woman. Woman is generic (all-inclusive), and one woman
embraced the whole.
"The Mind or intelligence of production names the
female gender last in the ascending order of creation. The intelligent
individual idea, be it male [such as manhood, my logic, my intelligence, my
creative wisdom, etc.] or female [the love for it that sees it through], rising
from the lesser to the greater, unfolds the infinitude of Love" (S&H
508:21). Love is Womanhood. Since "WOMAN" corresponds to Love, she must be
exchanged therefore, the material, transformed into the ideal, disappears.
Man (meaning my manhood, my logic, intelligence, and
creative wisdom) can only reach my womanhood (generic man) by taking in and
acknowledging my womanhood, and by acknowledging its channel, Science &
Health, and its author, Mary Baker Eddy.
This is the open door through which this old man in
the picture has seen the impersonal womanhood of Science, with only a CHILD to
present it to him; she has no claims to make for anything but her Message. When
the Bible is closed, the snarly dragon on the outside of the window is
shut out, "for the accuser is not there, and Love sends forth her primal and
everlasting strain" (S&H 568:29). When the drag-on of Old Theology is
silenced, new vision becomes operative.
One shuts the dragon (as seen through the window) out
of the room only so long as one inspirationally basks in the effulgent light of
Science and Health, until the "Spirit of Truth" that it presents becomes the
intelligent inner workings of one's consciousness (the work of the eighth
picture.) "God never said man would become better by learning to
distinguish evil from good" (Un. 14:27). (Sex and child-bearing cease.)
The embryonic conception of impersonal Truth, which the little child in this
picture types, causes the "old" gentleman's consciousness to close the Bible.
All the good in the Bible has been embraced in the Principle revealed in
Science and Health, leaving nothing unredeemed. The shutting out of the dragon
when the Bible is closed types the silencing in the light of Science and Health
of the accusative Biblical consciousness.
Note the man's beautiful intelligent face.
The clock in this picture is five minutes past five
p.m., denoting the first intelligent step of Christianity (manhood) "towards
harmony" or Womanhood, the spiritual idea of the creative symbols of the Bible.
In the numerals of infinity five o'clock types the fifth day of consciousness.
Even after the Bible is closed by the "old" gentleman, "the clock of time"
against the wall still records its "mortal measurements" (S&H 595:17), for
time's "forms" must intelligently "take on higher symbols and significations"
to earth sense before "time" is illuminated "with the glory of eternity"
(S&H 595:17).
In "the irradiance of Life"(S&H 584:1) "Mind
[intelligence] measures time according to the good that is unfolded" (S&H
584:5) in one endless day. This picture types "haste towards harmony"(S&H
586:21), that is, toward rest, but true rest, activity in "the spiritual
idea." Hence the clock hastens toward the sixth day, the spiritual idea of the
male and female, which is needed to support TRUE rest. The next picture,
number eight, embraces half-rest in whole-rest, because it embraces seven on
the same rung of the ladder.
Note the old gentleman's hair is white. His suit is
dark, and the Bible is close by, but the expression on his face indicates he
welcomes the message of Science and Health.
Little girl's face is lighted, although her back is to
the window, and there is no artificial light in the room. The light from the
Star, the CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS, beaming through the window, shines on the pages
of the opened Science and Health. The light of the textbook's pages reflects
back into her face as if from the mirror of divine understanding. "Call the
mirror divine Science" (S&H 515:29).
One can readily see that Mrs. Eddy intended to show in
this seventh picture the state of consciousness spoken of by Jesus when he set
a little child "in the midst" and said, "Except ye be converted, and become as
little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 18:3).
"The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo
here! or lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:20,
21). It is the little child-consciousness alone that receives the Word without
any preconception, and roots itself therein. "Of such is the kingdom of God
[heaven]....Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of
God as a little child, he shall not enter therein" (Mark 10:14, 15). [There
must be a willingness to learn all things rightly.]
HANNA?:
How are we to enter the kingdom of heaven? The Master
tells us we must become as little children. Only the childlike in thought can
recognize the two witnesses, accept Christian Science, witness Christian
Science healing, and perceive the Day of the Woman. The guileless, the pure,
the loving, the humble, are the ones who recognize their Leader, and are
willing to see her place in prophecy.
As this picture is revealed through "Christmas Morn,"
we again find the definition for sheep: "Innocence; inoffensiveness; those who
follow their leader." (S&H 594)
Self-esteem, self-love, hatred, guile, dishonesty,
etc., are the sins of the carnal mind--the aspects of animal magnetism--that
will keep Christian Scientists from accepting their Leader's place.
This picture is coupled with "Christmas Morn" because
it indicates the level of thought we must attain to be able to follow the two
witnesses. The book, Science and Health Key to the Scriptures, is open.
The childlike thought is searching; and this searching is not going unrewarded,
as you will notice the radiancy in her face. Her shoes symbolize mortality, but
her age symbolizes innocence and inoffensiveness, which is the only way out of
the mortal dream. The understanding of the Christ is given only to babes. These
are spiritually-minded enough to perceive the message and the messenger. This
young girl aptly symbolizes that type of thinking. Pure thinking understands
what mature human wisdom does not comprehend. Notice that childlikeness has
risen above materiality to a certain degree. She has a support to rest her
feet.
Notice that Old Theology has his feet on the floor, on
materiality. The child represents the best of the second degree reaching forth
for spiritual understanding. His vision is blurred, inadequate, and he thinks
he needs ceremonies, creeds and dogmas, symbolized by glasses, to interpret the
Scriptures, to view creation and to acknowledge the Christ idea. He must listen
to the childlike, the pure in heart, to receive his healing. He must attain the
humility, innocence and inoffensiveness, to do so. When the advent of the Woman
is revealed, then Old Theology will listen to the childlike.
Why is the child a little girl? Because a little girl
is symbolic of the beginning of the understanding of the Woman [Science]. The
little girl is a type that has not been recognized in its maturity as yet.
Generic man is symbolized by a woman, [which stands for the Christ].
Old Theology will listen to this type of womanhood,
though not yet in its mature state. It is a recognition of her divine
purpose.
The poem accompanying this picture tells us the
message. The pale star of early Christianity is now more visible. It has become
full orbed with the revelation of the seven synonyms found in our textbook. The
guiding star of being has shone and is shining. It reveals infinite life, the
vitality of Christian Science healing, expressing itself in light and
understanding. In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy makes this clear when
she says, "Immortal and divine Mind presents the idea of God: First, in light;
second, in reflection; third, in spiritual and immortal forms of beauty and
goodness" (p. 503). The light is most visible in this picture. The reflection
is seen in the child's face; it is the reflection of the Word. The "spiritual
and immortal forms of beauty and goodness" are seen when we recognize the woman
even to a degree, or as a girl-child. Then comes Christian Science healing.
The Biblical verse with this poem is a reference to
Melchisedec, the priest of Salem, a forerunner of the Christ-idea. What then is
the true priest? Christ-likeness, the childlike and pure in heart. This
childlikeness is the complete opposite of Old Theology who, for thousands of
years, has been dwelling in darkness, the darkness of false manhood. Witness
the dark clothing on the old man. The Bible is closed to this old man, Old
Theology; and he cannot understand it except through the Woman; and she is
found in her writings as being read by the childlike. The true priesthood is
attained to the degree that we approximate the purity of thought of this little
one in other words, obtain an understanding of the woman's mission and light,
although at first it may not be the full recognition.
Mrs. Eddy was able to give us this Truth because, from
the time she was just a small child, this purity, innocence, and
inoffensiveness was expressed in boundless measure, and the retention of this
purity enabled that consecrated one to give us Science and Health, Key to
the Scriptures, as the textbook is entitled in the seventh
picture.
Christian Science healing comes through the childlike
consciousness and a recognition of the Woman. Lectures, teaching, church work,
and advertising are poor substitutes for purity; and it is this purity that
will bring forth healing.
William McKenzie, a member of Mrs. Eddy's household,
wanted her to have the book Science and Health [with Key to the Scriptures]
published omitting the "with" but she said, "No, Will dear, the world isn't
ready for that yet." That is, she felt she should not force Science and
Health on the world as the Key to the Bible, but
with the Key. This [picture] is the only place Mrs. Eddy ever
allowed "with" to be omitted. She is telling us that Christian Scientists must
recognize this fact and appreciate Science and Health much more than it
is now being appreciated.
Adam Dickey in his memoirs of Mrs. Eddy writes, "On
one occasion Mrs. Eddy called me into her room and I found her considering a
change in the title of her book, Science and Health. Instead of having it
"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," she proposed making it read,
"Science and Health, Key to the Scriptures." She asked me what I thought of the
idea and if I understood the import of it. I told her that I did indeed, and
that I thought it would be a splendid change as it would at once convey to
people the thought that her book was the "key" which unlocked the Scriptures,
and not just chapters 15, 16, 17 as would appear from the inscription "Key to
the Scriptures," found on page 499 of her book as it stood at that time. Mrs.
Eddy was quite pleased with the idea and spoke favorably of it. She talked it
over with her publishers and explained that she would like to make this change
in the title of her book, provided it did not in any way conflict with her
copyrights. Mr. Stewart, her publisher at that time, made the inquiry from Mrs.
Eddy's Boston lawyer, and the word came back that they would not advise her to
do this, as it might materially affect the copyrights of her book. Thus our
Leader abandoned one of the inspired thoughts that came to her, and which would
have enlarged considerably the thought of all Christian Scientists regarding
her book, Science and Health."
Mrs. Eddy also asked Mr. William Nicholas Miller in
London to try to get the textbook published in England with the omission of
"with," but she met the same caution about her copyright from her lawyers there
as she did in this country.
The grandfather clock says 5:05; this is a reference
to Revelation, chapter 5, which refers to the book being unsealed by the Lion
of the Tribe of Judah. "And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice,
Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in
heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book,
neither to look thereon. . . And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not:
behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to
open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof." The Christ has prevailed
to open the pages of the book and have them revealed. Only as we become as
little children can we remove the signet of error from our own consciousness,
because only then can we understand Christian Science, experience healing, and
enter heaven.
Time is behind Old Theology with the Bible closed, but
there is no time in the revelation of Science and Health. In the book of
Revelation, the book dictated by Jesus to St. John, about the Woman, we read
from chapter ten verse five, the words of the angel with the little open book:
"And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his
hand to heaven, And sware by him that giveth for ever and ever, who created
heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that
therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should
be time no longer." [Just as there is no time element in the science of
mathematics.]
The clock representing time is not behind the little
girl. Again we repeat the definition for time given by Mrs. Eddy: "Mortal
measurements; limits, in which are summed up all human acts, thoughts, beliefs,
opinions, knowledge; matter; error; that which begins before, and continues
after, what is termed death, until the mortal disappears and spiritual
perfection appears."
There is no limitation or finity, which is the false
definition of Euphrates, in this picture. This little child fulfills Isaiah's
prophecy that a little child, the Christ-idea, shall lead them.
Immediately after the chapter on 'Recapitulation' in
Science and Health, we have the title page, "Key to the Scriptures," and
under it the quote:
These things saith He that is holy, He that is true,
He that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth, and
shutteth and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee
an open door, and no man can shut it. Revelation.
To the Christ idea, it is an open book, unsealed.
The curtains in this picture are sheer. They are
letting in the light. They symbolize the consciousness of the world that has
been leavened by Christian Science and the recognition of the Woman. The
world's thinking is being parted for the Christ light; it no longer obscures
the brightness of divine Light. Mortal mind is therefore giving up its false
claims and beliefs.
The star of Truth is clear and angular with Science
and Health becoming the light of the world. "God has set His signet upon
Science, making it coordinate with all that is real and only with that which is
harmonious and eternal." (S&H 472:6)
Are we seeking Christian Science to build bigger
churches, nicer homes, more comfortable fortunes, more money, clothes, and all
the accompanying pleasures of this world? Are we using Christian Science for
mortal gain? That is certainly not Christian Science. If we are seeking His
righteousness first, then we are becoming little children, and indeed all will
be added unto us naturally and necessarily.
The two witnesses are recognized in "Christmas Morn"
as the light shines forth. We must become as little children in order to enter
this scientific heaven. These two elements firmly held in consciousness, the
Message and the Messenger, lead us to Christian Science Healing.
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The third verse of
Blessed Assurance will be sung without musical accomplishment. |
Star of Boston book sections
Introduction | Part 1a |
Part 1b | Part 2 |
Part 3
Christ & Christmas
Pictures
1 |
2 | 3 |
4 | 5 |
6 | 7 |
8 | 9 |
10 | 11
Summary |
Conclusion |
