Article November 16, 1946 Issue

"The two olive trees"

FREDERICK W. STRINGER

In the fourth chapter of the book of Zechariah we read that Zechariah was awakened by an angel, a divine illumination. In this spiritually awakened state of consciousness the prophet beheld a symbolic presentation of great importance to the whole world of religious thought.

Zechariah beheld "a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof: and two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof." When he asked the meaning of this, the angel replied in so many words that it was a refutation of power in matter, or physical might, and a declaration of the supremacy of the power of Spirit. Later Zechariah asked, "What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?" And the angel replied, "These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth."

In Scriptural symbolism the candlestick represents the light of Truth, of God, and "in him is no darkness at all." The seven lamps may be thought of as representing the full radiance of God, indicated in Christian Science by these seven definitive terms for Deity: Life, Truth, Love, Principle, Soul, Spirit, Mind. The infinite manifestation of this light is the universal Christ, whose golden oil anoints all through or unto whom it flows. The divinely chosen individuals by whose teachings the reality of spiritual existence purifies human consciousness are "the two anointed ones" in whom is found no resistance to the truth that Spirit is all-power and all-substance.

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