The writer of the Book of Revelation was before all things a metaphysician. That is to say, in every sentence he was responsible for, however material its text may seem, there is a deep spiritual force and meaning. He wrote, being a Jew, after the manner of the Wisdom Books; in other words, he conveyed his intention through a series of images, which were not intended to be taken literally. Thus the opening and the pouring out of the seven vials was intended to convey the chemicalization which takes place when the activity of Truth enrages the carnal mind, and produces a corresponding effort on the part of evil.

On pages 168 and 169 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy defines chemicalization as follows: "Here let a word be noticed which will be better understood hereafter,—chemicalization. By chemicalization I mean the process which mortal mind and body undergo in the change of belief from a material to a spiritual basis." From this, it is evident, that the violence of chemicalization must be in accordance with the demonstrated energy of Principle. The more pronounced that energy becomes, the more pronounced must necessarily be the effort of the supposititious opposite; and this supposititious opposite being a concentrated hatred of Truth in the human mind necessarily produces its most violent convulsion when Truth has become sufficiently articulate in human actions to arouse its fears and appeal to its sense of self-protection.

Now the Book of Revelation is not historical in the sense that it relates to a definite period of history, so that Nero or another is the representative of the beast. The Book of Revelation is historical, however, inasmuch as it describes the struggle which is perpetually going on between good and evil in the human consciousness. The beast, the great red dragon, the serpent, all these are evil trying to maintain themselves in the face of invading good; and they manifest their most diabolical tendencies when they represent evil masquerading as good, that is evil within the Church. At whatever period evil within the Church has been challenged to maintain its position, at that moment has the extreme of human wrath been emptied out in the effort to crush the dawning sense of Principle. As a consequence the emptying of the seven vials of Revelation, so far from causing any disturbance to the metaphysician, should fill him with a sense of thankfulness that an understanding of Principle has reached the periodical moment when it is strong enough to challenge evil to a further effort to maintain its ground. "Before error is wholly destroyed," Mrs. Eddy writes, on page 96 of Science and Health, "there will be interruptions of the general material routine. Earth will become dreary and desolate, but summer and winter, seedtime and harvest (though in changed forms), will continue unto the end,—until the final spiritualization of all things. 'The darkest hour precedes the dawn.'"

The human mind, it is quite evident, is not betrayed into activity so long as its creation pursues an uneventful, sensuous, and inactive career. To the human mind in this comatose condition, the most tremendous statements may be made without ruffling the surface of the material tenor of the universe. Never were such statements of truth made as were made by Jesus the Christ, in the first century, in Palestine, and the effects were terrific. But the mental thunderbolts of Christ Jesus were hurled home out of a spiritual catapult of demonstration and understanding, with the result that the human mind, absolutely unable to resist them, could only turn for help to the materialistic vice-regent of Rome, with the hysterical and furious demand for the crucifixion of its tormentor. Before the century was out the great metaphysician, known as the Beloved Disciple, hurled a further series of thunderbolts at sensuality in all its forms. But the demonstration of John was, of course, not equal to that of his Master, and could not have the same results. Results there were, of course, but the disciple himself so shaped his warning as to make it clear to those who read it with understanding, that it was not for an age but for all time, so long as the struggle of the flesh against the Spirit lasted.

The emptying of the seven vials, then, is typical of the arrival of the moment when the understanding of Principle has become sufficiently full to enable the uttering of metaphysical truths which evil realizes will be fatal to it if accepted. These truths may be uttered, however, at other times, without a violent chemicalization. The Romans, for instance, were at first contemptuous of the teachings of Christianity. Only as those teachings began to impress the Roman mind, and so to become dangerous to the stability of Roman ideals, were the emperors roused to pour out the vials of their wrath. And it is significant that the violence of the persecution was rather in the degree of the virtue than the vice of the emperor directing it. The emperor who was indifferent to Roman ideals, was indifferent also to the proselyting power of Christianity. So it has been all through history. The Humanist Popes were by no means the greatest patrons of the Inquisition; the Latitudinarian Bishops were by no means inclined to the violence of their more vigorously sectarian brothers.

All this the apostle on Patmos saw, with the metaphysical perception which enabled him to make of his spiritual vision a microcosm of spiritual progress and of the effort of materialism to oppose and to destroy it. God, Principle, is of too pure eyes to behold iniquity. The wrath of God, consequently, is not the anger of an individual turning upon something obnoxious to him, but is the effect of the adamantine resistance of Principle to the efforts of evil to assert itself as Truth. Principle, as reflected in mathematics, knows nothing of the mistakes of children and men in their struggle to work out the problems which are placed before them. In the same way Truth, being Truth, and being therefore all that exists, is ignorant of a lie. Nevertheless, the pains and penalties with which the liar is invariably pursued, and by which he is equally invariably punished, so long as he clings to his lie, are the wrath of Truth, inasmuch as evil is not opposed to him, but is bent on his encouragement and destruction. The wrath of God, then, is merely the metaphysical way of expressing the punishment which falls on the individual when he attempts the impossible task of proving a lie to be Truth and demonstrating the power of evil against Principle. This struggle becomes violent in proportion as the carnal mind has been destroyed by Truth and so alarmed. The more untouched this carnal mind is by Principle, the more stolid its resistance to Truth is bound to be, and the less suffering can, for the moment, accrue to it from the assault of Truth. When, therefore, the vials of wrath appear to be poured out with the greatest manifestation of affliction, the moment has come for the metaphysician to rejoice that the human mind is yielding to Principle, and is fighting affrightedly and maliciously. "The very circumstance," Mrs. Eddy writes, on page 574 of Science and Health, "which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares."

Frederick Dixon.