|
- 536 -
of the waters called He Seas." In the Apocalypse it is
written: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for
the first heaven and the first earth were passed
away; and there was no more sea." In St.
John's vision, heaven and earth stand for spiritual
ideas, and the sea, as a symbol of tempest-tossed
human concepts advancing and receding, is represented
as having passed away. The divine understanding reigns,
is all, and there is no other consciousness.
The way of error is awful to contemplate. The illusion
of sin is without hope or God. If man's spiritual
gravitation and attraction to one Father, in
whom we "live, and move, and have our being,"
"should be lost, and if man should be governed by
corporeality instead of divine Principle, by body instead
of by Soul, man would be annihilated. Created by flesh
instead of by Spirit, starting from matter instead of from
God, mortal man would be governed by himself. The
blind leading the blind, both would fall.
Passions and appetites must end in pain. They are
"of few days, and full of trouble." Their supposed joys
are cheats. Their narrow limits belittle their gratifications,
and hedge about their achievements with thorns.
(True attainment)
Mortal mind accepts the erroneous, material conception
of life and joy, but the true idea is gained from the
immortal side. Through toil, struggle, and sorrow,
what do mortals attain? They give up
their belief in perishable life and happiness; the mortal
and material return to dust, and the immortal is reached.
(Justice and recompense)
Genesis iii. 22-24. And the Lord God [Jehovah] said,
Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good
|
