Article November 10, 1923 Issue

The Lesson of the Plagues

LILY ROSE BULLOCK

The account of the ten plagues in the book of Exodus affords much food for thought to the student of Christian Science. Nowhere is the truth of Paul's statement, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap," more clearly brought out than in the stern experiences Egypt underwent before she would let God's people go. The Egyptians had not yet learned that the evils which befell them were not the miraculous workings of a god more malignant than their own, but the inevitable results of their own false thinking. Ignorant of the workings either of error or of Truth, the Egyptians, by their erroneous beliefs swollen and aggravated, brought about the very evils which they attributed to the God of Moses.

It is stated that after reproducing the first two plagues, the necromancers attempted to continue this course "with their enchantments ... but they could not." The failure of the magicians to imitate the unusual phenomena proved the utter powerlessness of error's mockery. Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 243), "Truth, Life, and Love are a law of annihilation to everything unlike themselves, because they declare nothing except God." Because the Egyptians were not willing to yield obedience to good, to Love, but the reverse, their afflictions grew heavier.

Pharaoh was steeped in the materiality and cruelty of his age, and could not realize the significance of Moses' mission. It is recorded that "the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart" so that he would not let the children of Israel go. On the surface, this statement would appear to imply that God, the divine Mind, who is "of purer eyes than to behold evil," deliberately forced Pharaoh into sin, for which he was unjustly punished. In the light of Christian Science we learn that it was the action of Truth upon error which roused the carnal mind to resistance, until it reached the point of self-annihilation.

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