Editorial July 3, 1920 Issue

The Seven Vials

Frederick Dixon

The writer of the Book of Revelation was before all things a metaphysician. That is to say, in every sentence he was responsible for, however material its text may seem, there is a deep spiritual force and meaning. He wrote, being a Jew, after the manner of the Wisdom Books; in other words, he conveyed his intention through a series of images, which were not intended to be taken literally. Thus the opening and the pouring out of the seven vials was intended to convey the chemicalization which takes place when the activity of Truth enrages the carnal mind, and produces a corresponding effort on the part of evil.

On pages 168 and 169 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy defines chemicalization as follows: "Here let a word be noticed which will be better understood hereafter,—chemicalization. By chemicalization I mean the process which mortal mind and body undergo in the change of belief from a material to a spiritual basis." From this, it is evident, that the violence of chemicalization must be in accordance with the demonstrated energy of Principle. The more pronounced that energy becomes, the more pronounced must necessarily be the effort of the supposititious opposite; and this supposititious opposite being a concentrated hatred of Truth in the human mind necessarily produces its most violent convulsion when Truth has become sufficiently articulate in human actions to arouse its fears and appeal to its sense of self-protection.

Now the Book of Revelation is not historical in the sense that it relates to a definite period of history, so that Nero or another is the representative of the beast. The Book of Revelation is historical, however, inasmuch as it describes the struggle which is perpetually going on between good and evil in the human consciousness. The beast, the great red dragon, the serpent, all these are evil trying to maintain themselves in the face of invading good; and they manifest their most diabolical tendencies when they represent evil masquerading as good, that is evil within the Church. At whatever period evil within the Church has been challenged to maintain its position, at that moment has the extreme of human wrath been emptied out in the effort to crush the dawning sense of Principle. As a consequence the emptying of the seven vials of Revelation, so far from causing any disturbance to the metaphysician, should fill him with a sense of thankfulness that an understanding of Principle has reached the periodical moment when it is strong enough to challenge evil to a further effort to maintain its ground. "Before error is wholly destroyed," Mrs. Eddy writes, on page 96 of Science and Health, "there will be interruptions of the general material routine. Earth will become dreary and desolate, but summer and winter, seedtime and harvest (though in changed forms), will continue unto the end,—until the final spiritualization of all things. 'The darkest hour precedes the dawn.'"

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