Article August 8, 1914 Issue

"Within the veil"

LOUISE RAVENS

When Moses was commanded to build the tabernacle, as we read in the twenty-fifth chapter of Exodus, he was given explicit directions respecting the plan, the dimensions, the material to be used, and the manner of erecting the structure. While most of these instructions seem to the casual reader to be but ordinary specifications, there are certain passages whose deep spiritual significance can be discerned only in the light of the Christianly scientific interpretation of the New Testament, for they speak of that which is but the copy and shadow of "heavenly things."

While we are apt to think of the crucifixion of Jesus as the nailing of his body to the cross, the truer meaning of it was the denial of the false sense of selfhood through the acknowledgment of his divine sonship, and the meek submission to all that might follows as result of his fidelity to the Christ-idea, the spiritual sense of being. It was the denial, the crucifixion, of the flesh, that is, of the belief of mind in matter; and this belief stands as a barrier, a veil, between mankind and the presence of the most High. It is this barrier of the flesh which seems to be symbolized by the veil that in the building of the tabernacle was to be hung "between the holy place and the most holy," or the holy of holies, signifying the presence of the infinite; for "there," said the most High, "I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee."

In this inner sanctuary was to be found the ark, which is defined on page 581 of Science and Health as "God and man coexistent," above which glowed the shekinah, the visible symbol of the divine presence, which, according to an ancient writer, could not, in its greatest splendor, be beheld with mortal eyes, that light which, as St. Paul declares, "no man can approach unto." Until the coming of the Wayshower, the high priest alone was allowed entrance into the holy of holies, and he only once a year; and it remained for the immaculate Son of God to rend the veil of the temple, that is to say, the flesh, that we might have access "by a new and living way" to that within the veil. In his epistle to the Ephesians, Paul says, "For he ... hath broken down the middle wall of partition;" and, "Ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ."

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