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them to devour each other and cast out devils through
Beelzebub.
As of old, evil still charges the spiritual idea with error's
own nature and methods. This malicious animal instinct,
of which the dragon is the type, incites mortals to
kill morally and physically even their fellow-mortals, and
worse still, to charge the innocent with the crime. This
last infirmity of sin will sink its perpetrator into a night
without a star.
(Malicious barbarity)
The author is convinced that the accusations against
Jesus of Nazareth and even his crucifixion were instigated
by the criminal instinct here described. The
Revelator speaks of Jesus as the Lamb of God
and of the dragon as warring against innocence. Since Jesus
must have been tempted in all points, he, the immaculate,
met and conquered sin in every form. The brutal barbarity
of his foes could emanate from no source except the
highest degree of human depravity. Jesus "opened not
his mouth." Until the majesty of Truth should be demonstrated
in divine Science, the spiritual idea was arraigned
before the tribunal of so-called mortal mind, which was
unloosed in order that the false claim of mind in matter
might uncover its own crime of defying immortal Mind.
(Doom of the dragon)
From Genesis to the Apocalypse, sin, sickness, and
death, envy, hatred, and revenge, - all evil, - are typified
by a serpent, or animal subtlety. Jesus
said, quoting a line from the Psalms, "They
hated me without a cause." The serpent is perpetually
close upon the heel of harmony. From the beginning
to the end, the serpent pursues with hatred the spiritual
idea. In Genesis, this allegorical, talking serpent typifies
mortal mind, "more subtle than any beast of the
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