Editorial November 9, 1912 Issue

"EVERLASTING GOSPEL."

Annie M. Knott

In the fourteenth chapter of Revelation we read of an angel who was sent forth to proclaim the everlasting gospel to "every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people"—none being unprovided for by divine Love and wisdom. It is interesting to note that these angels who announced to men the divine will, did so with "a loud voice," and yet no one could claim that these voices were ever heard by mortal ears, although the beloved John not only heard but transcribed their messages, so far as it was possible to translate the terms of Spirit into human language. John tells of an outpouring of melody from the mighty host of the redeemed, those who were the "firstfruits unto God" from among men, and he says that no one could learn that song but those who had gained the spotless purity of the divine idea called the Lamb,—those in whose mouth was no guile, and who were "without fault before the throne of God."

At the same time that we read of this everlasting gospel, or message of divine Love, we are told in startling terms of the fiery destruction of error and its every manifestation, and some earnest students of the Scriptures are troubled over what to them seem to be contradictions in the divine nature,—the tenderness toward the good, and what is characterized as fierce wrath toward wrong-doing and wrongdoers. This Scripture is, however, made wonderfully clear by our revered Leader, who tells us John was so exalted that "he became conscious of the spiritual facts of being" (Science and Health, p. 574); and when this consciousness comes to us, we shall no longer be troubled, but will understand her further statement that "the sum total of human misery, represented by the seven angelic vials full of seven plagues, has full compensation in the law of Love."

The old Greeks had possibly a glimpse of this everlasting truth when they pictured the steeds of the morning driving irresistibly before them all the dark shadows of the night. If, in our belief, we were for a moment to endow these shadows with intelligence and reason, we could easily imagine that they suffered when they were being crushed out of existence by the victorious hosts of the skies; but men of this practical age would smile at the fancy, and yet hold to the delusion that humanity can suffer in the process of error's destruction, and this because of the deeper delusion that wrong thinking and wrong doing bring even momentary pleasure, a morbid belief which Christian Science uncovers and dispels by its declarations of divine law.

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