Editorial November 16, 1918 Issue

The Stars in Heaven

William D. McCrackan

"They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera," sang Deborah and Barak. Right ideas are ever ready to fight against the Canaanites, the false beliefs in human consciousness, when spiritual understanding leads against the foe. To use in life's battle the true, living ideas proceeding from Principle is to fight from heaven, to let the light destroy darkness and so make victory certain. Stars stand for the light, for brilliancy, for rays piercing the blackness of the night; they call to mind the precious quality of radiant energy as seen in rare gems.

The greatest wickedness is symbolically represented in Scripture by "a great red dragon" of which it is said, "And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth." The greatest crimes are those which use the livery of heaven to cloak the works of darkness, attempting to soil right ideas with the dust of earth. Commenting upon this Bible text Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 563, 564): "The serpentine form stands for subtlety, winding its way amidst all evil, but doing this in the name of good.... As of old, evil still charges the spiritual idea with error's own nature and methods. This malicious animal instinct, of which the dragon is the type, incites mortals to kill morally and physically even their fellow-mortals, and worse still, to charge the innocent with the crime. This last infirmity of sin will sink its perpetrator into a night without a star."

The star which the wise men followed to the manger of Jesus was a visible representation of an invisible spiritual idea of the greatest brilliancy. It told them of the presence of the Christ-idea, the Messiah, of the fulfillment of prophecy. This understanding of the ever present Christ is to-day a star of joy to all those who perceive it, for it declares the unity between God and man by reflection and light; it establishes the healing of the sick and the raising of the dead; it outlaws sin, breaks down the oppressive statutes of the carnal mind, and rescues mortal man from the jurisdiction of the law of sin and death. This divine, absolute Science which applied to human needs is Christian and compassionate, shines with the unwavering light of a fixed star, clearing the human reason and searching the heart.

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