Michael and the Dragon

Violet Ker Seymer

In revealing the supremacy of God, infinite good, Christian Science necessarily exposes the imposture called evil. Thereby it lifts the crushing burdens so long borne by mankind, burdens of needless fear, despair, disease, sin, unhappiness. With divinely guided footsteps, Mrs. Eddy threaded her way through the deep symbolism of the Bible. Quoting from the twelfth chapter of Revelation she interprets the meaning of the "dragon" as follows: "The great red dragon symbolizes a lie, — the belief that substance, life, and intelligence can be material. This dragon stands for the sum total of human error" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 563). And of Michael she says, beginning on page 566: "Michael's characteristic is spiritual strength. He leads the hosts of heaven against the power of sin, Satan, and fights the holy wars."

Christian Science initiates one into the saving art of true thinking derived from God, absolute Truth, in which there is no fear and nothing to be feared. Falsity and fear are allied, even as are spiritual fact and freedom. Then we must grasp spiritual facts in order to find human freedom, and facts are spiritual, not material. The victims of the "dragon" — materialism — are being redeemed through the hosts of strong, spiritual ideas typified by Michael.

Evil, masquerading as creative and sentient matter, is the imposture which mortals in general both worship and fear, and the result takes form in sickness, sinfulness, limitation, death. Can these material tormentors be destroyed, and mankind healed, by any material system? No, for as Christ Jesus said, "If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." Only God, divine Truth, can lift human thought above material delusion and its consequences.

In three masterly verses (Rev. 12:10-12) the Revelator shows the impotence of the attempts of evil to withstand the might of Spirit. The prophecy found in these verses is elucidated by Mrs. Eddy, and is being verified in the healing ministry of Christian Science. This Science makes war on apathy, on resignation to evil, and on sinful indulgence. It brings the illumination whereby to analyze all things, real and unreal, with unerring spiritual understanding. Truth lights the way to salvation. This way is being trodden by a mighty host of Christian Scientists and is made beautiful by healing; it is the way of spiritual understanding and overcoming, the way of spiritual strength and triumph.

The Revelator refers to the casting out of "the great dragon, . . . that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world." Spiritual understanding, gained through Christian Science, is destroying material self-deception, circuitous false thinking, and establishing thought on the basis of God, perfect Mind. Thus, when the student of Christian Science is faced with the serpentine arguments of sickness, sinful temptation, sorrow, estrangement, he knows that the foe confronting him is primarily self-deception, his own adoption of the unreal. In the light of Christian Science, he fearlessly repudiates the material beliefs which would call themselves his beliefs, his sickness, his sorrow.

In the bliss of spiritual awakening the subtlety or blatancy of mortal self-deception finds no place. In obedience to the rules of Christian Science, the student mentally drops sinful, fearsome beliefs and reaches out for that spiritual illumination which constitutes salvation. In allegiance to God, he claims the enlightenment, joy, health, and inviolable righteousness which belong to man by divine birthright. And he knows that God's will is law to every situation; that it is the law of salvation in the selfsame hour or circumstance which threatens disaster. There is no place for evil in Truth; hence evil can be successfully fought only as delusion, not as entity.

Christian Scientists hold mentally to the allness of good in order that they may prove, step by step, with humility, gratitude, and courage, the nothingness of every claim of evil. Any attempt at backsliding, induced through self-will, fear, or other erroneous influence, the Christian Scientist detects and conquers as an argument of the dragon.

In proportion as divine Love is admitted into human thought through the prayerful attitude and receptivity of the individual, the joy of spiritual heritage is revealed to him. As he calmly holds to this heritage, he is lifted above the belief in human ills. It requires fidelity to turn from the arguments of the dragon to the heavenly host of true thoughts, but these are always at hand, and the spiritual ability to grasp them is being impartially bestowed by divine Mind; hence there is no lack of inspiration or of its reward.

Today, voice after voice is being raised in a chorus of praise to God, praise for the practical healing power of Truth proclaimed in the revelation of Christian Science and proving that "now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ."

Violet Ker Seymer

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