Editorial June 13, 1908 Issue

"WHAT ARE THESE?"

Annie M. Knott

In reading the Scriptures and striving to gain their spiritual sense, we are sometimes startled to see how great a hold traditional belief has upon us. Then we awake, as from a dream, and realize the importance of making a practical and present application of all the truth taught in the Bible. We see that all the experiences which it depicts are to be found in the panorama of the great eternal present,—that to Truth it is always "now." The "loud voice" from heaven forever calls, "Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ;" and this voice is being heard to-day as never before above the din of materiality.

In speaking to some one recently upon the supreme effort needed to gain entire freedom from the bondage of sin, disease, and death, reference was made to those who come "out of great tribulation,"—those seen by St. John in his wonderful Apocalyptic vision,—and the question was asked whether this beautiful passage in the seventh chapter of Revelation referred to any who are to-day struggling to reach the overcoming so often mentioned by the beloved apostle. It then became apparent that this wonderful word-picture of the redeemed has usually been thought of in the old way, as relating only to those who have suffered and striven and passed on to another plane of experience; but as the light of divine Science was turned upon it, the vision grew larger and larger, until it embraced "a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," and included those who are on this plane of experience as well as those who have passed beyond it. The important thing to note is that they have come "out" of great tribulation,—they are no longer in bondage to it,—and they have attained to the spotless purity of God's ideas, symbolized by white robes, while they carry the palms of the victor.

In Science and Health (p. 562) Mrs. Eddy makes clear the reason for the sorrow and suffering of human experience, when she speaks of all mortals as "separated by belief from man's divine origin and the true idea;" and she adds that they "will through much tribulation yield to the activities of the divine Principle of man in the harmony of Science." Her teachings agree at every point with the demands of Scripture, and from them Christian Scientists learn how to "serve him [God] day and night in his temple," by consecrating to the service of Spirit each thought, word, and deed; realizing ever that divine Love—"he that sitteth on the throne"—dwells with them, feeding, leading, protecting; and wiping away all tears from their eyes.

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