Article March 19, 1910 Issue

THE ARK OF GOD AND DAGON

FLORENCE E. B. DONALDSON.

In our Leader's brief but wonderful description of the unfolding to her thought of the great verities of Spirit, she affirms that the Bible was her only text-book, and adds: "The Scriptures were illumined; reason and revelation were reconciled, and afterward the truth of Christian Science was demonstrated" (Science and Health, p. 110). Most of us can see that only in proportion to our clear realization of the omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience of Spirit, shall we be able to comprehend the unreality of evil. As we progress in the understanding of Christian Science, we see more and more clearly that great spiritual truths underlie the Scriptures throughout.

From the very beginning of our serious study of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," the Bible becomes a new book to us. The deeper teachings of philosophical and metaphysical passages are elucidated; practical statements are brought home to us, and shown to be as direct guidance for today as when they were first uttered or penned. Stories and simple episodes, which seemed to mean little or nothing to us in the old days; touches which, if noticed at all, were apt to be considered as showing the forceful descriptive narrative of the Jewish historian, rather than of any spiritual significance,—all these are now seen in new aspects. For, whether we understand a passage at present or not, we soon learn in Christian Science that every story or episode, however slight, however veiled to material thought, is for our learning, and that when spiritually understood it assuredly expresses some healing truth which destroys error, and which it is ours to assimilate whenever we have the understanding to discern it.

Some time ago. as I was working in Science, the episode of the falling of the idol Dagon, when the ark of God was placed by it, came suddenly to my thought. The brief narrative, as given in the fifth chapter of I Samuel, was illumined in the light of Christian Science, and was at once seen to be full of helpful meaning. In the metaphysical interpretation of "ark," we learn that it signifies in part: "The understanding of Spirit, destroying belief in matter" (ibid., p. 581). The incident of the fall of Dagon seems to show that, however secure a position material belief may claim to fill, when the power of Spirit, Truth, is brought to bear upon it, error totters to its fall. "Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord." Error is abashed before Truth, and so we are told that the idol fell face downward. Then we read: "And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again." How often does mortal mind, in resisting the control of Spirit, seek to reestablish its idol! But the story relates how the inevitable second fall was greater than the first. "And the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold." In this second fall we see that the claim of intelligence, symbolized by the head, and of power, by the palms of the hands, were both destroyed. "Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon's house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day." So complete had been the manifestation of the supremacy of Spirit, that mortal mind instinctively drew back and yielded up its claim.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

THE ARK OF GOD AND DAGON

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access