Article November 29, 1947 Issue

CARDINAL POINTS

AMY DAVISON WILBUR

When we read in the twenty-first chapter of the Apocalypse, that incomparable description of the holy city, the New Jerusalem, the city that lieth foursquare, we may be tempted to think of it as a distant place, which, while surpassingly desirable, is not attainable by us at our present point of progress. The Revelator, however, describes in metaphor its construction of gold and precious gems and points to the resplendency of the glory of God which lights it, thus precluding all need for sun or moon.

If John could see this glorious vision of reality while still on earth, may we not rightfully regard such a vision as a present possibility for ourselves? Indeed we can, since Mary Baker Eddy, referring to this vision in the textbook, declares (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 573), "This is Scriptural authority for concluding that such a recognition of being is, and has been, possible to men in this present state of existence,— that we can become conscious, here and now, of a cessation of death, sorrow, and pain."

A little girl of nine was suffering from a disagreeable cough. She and her mother read prayerfully the citations on the city foursquare which occurred in the Lesson-Sermon that week, and the understanding of the significance of the cardinal points resulted in the disappearance of the cough. On Sunday the mother facetiously asked the child if she had told her Sunday School teacher that she had moved into the New Jerusalem the night before and had been healed, Great was her gratitude at the child's reproachful reply, "As if I wasn't already there!"

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