Testimony of Healing January 7, 1911 Issue

DOORS AND GATES

HARRIET DAVIES

The Scriptures make frequent mention of doors and gates, which, if taken in a literal sense, convey but scant meaning to the reader, until divine metaphysics comes to his aid and unfolds the spiritual interpretation of the sacred writings. On page 123 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy explains that "divine Science, rising above physical theories, ... resolves things into thoughts."The above expressions must therefore be translated into thoughts before the proper understanding of them is gained.

According to dictionary definition "gate" signifies a place of entrance into any enclosure; "door" an opening into a house. Before the children of this world can possibly pass over the threshold into the kingdom of heaven, which is man's rightful inheritance, their thoughts must be spiritualized, lifted up above the region of physical sense. "Lift up your heads, O ye gates," cries the psalmist, "and the king of glory shall come in." In a later psalm very clear instruction is given as to how these gates are to be entered: "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving." The prophet Isaiah is found to say, "Thou shalt call thy ... gates Praise."

These expressive terms are employed by many of the authors of the books of the Bible to typify the mental passage to be traversed by man on his way from sense to Soul,—his eternal destiny. Moses, when describing Jacob's vision of the ladder set up from earth to heaven at Bethel, writes, "And Jacob awaked out of his sleep [his material conception of life], and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place [spiritual consciousness]; ... this is the gate of heaven." And again, "the angel of the Lord" promises Abraham, "Thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; ... because thou hast obeyed my voice." The writers of the books of Judges and Job, the psalmists, as well as the prophets Isaiah, Hosea, Malachi, all made use of the words doors and gates when transmitting their visions of Truth to writing, visions inspired by spiritual communion with the one divine Mind.

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