Article April 20, 1929 Issue

Patmos

LAURA DUNBAR HAGARTY

Remote from the friends among whom he had been laboring in the Christian ministry, John, in exile on the desolate island of Patmos, so subdued physical sense that spiritual sense controlled his consciousness. In this state he received the revelation of the real heaven and the real earth, the reality from which material sense is excluded.

In that lonely island, it would appear the only hope for even tolerable conditions lay in renouncing that which matter claims to embody, and in embracing that which infinite Spirit supplies. It would not be surprising if John occasionally looked longingly toward Ephesus, with the thought that were he only free to mingle with his fellow workers, his witnessing for the healing Christ would be of service to the cause of Christianity. Time, however, has proved that in giving the book of Revelation to humanity he served the cause of Christianity in exactly the manner that the ages have needed.

Like John, the Christian Scientist is not always free to choose the way, the place, or the time of his witnesssing for the healing Christ. In our day it frequently occurs that the follower of Christ, Truth, when under the greatest stress of circumstances offers his highest proofs of the allness of God, good. At such times, he receives and expresses in a measure his revelation of "a new heaven and a new earth," wherein physical sense is unknown.

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