IN studying the Bible narrative of the journeyings of the children of Israel, one cannot fail to be astonished at the chronic disobedience of this rebellious race. No people ever received such numerous and striking proofs of God's protecting care, yet we find them continually murmuring over some imaginary wrong. In the 21st chapter of Numbers it is recorded that King Arad the Canaanite, having heard that the children of Israel were coming by the way, sent and fought against them, and took some of them prisoners. "And Israel vowed a vow unto the Lord. And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities." Shortly after this victory had been won a reaction or mental chemicalization set in, and we read that "the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water" here.
As a consequence of their distrust and ingratitude there came a visitation of fiery serpents which "bit the people; and much people of Israel died." After a period of severe physical suffering, according to their usual custom the people came to themselves, and having acknowledged their error, asked Moses to pray to the Lord to deliver them from their punishment. Then the Lord commanded Moses to make "a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived."
Whence came the healing virtue to this serpent of brass? Could an image set upon a pole have any influence in healing disease? The first commandment of the Mosaic law forbade the Hebrew people to make unto themselves "any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." Had not Aaron been publicly rebuked for making an image in the form of a golden calf? Surely they must have argued that Moses was in the wrong, for was he not leading the people back into the forbidden practice of heathen idolatry? Is it not probable that these and many other subtle suggestions were uppermost in their thoughts?
In commenting on the foregoing subject, William Smith, LL.D., in his dictionary of the Bible, says: "On the one side it has been maintained that to present the serpent form, as deprived of its power to hurt, impaled as the trophy of a conqueror, was to assert that evil had been overcome, and thus help to strengthen the weak faith of the Israelites. Others again look to Egypt as the starting-point of all the thoughts which the serpent could suggest, and they find there that it was worshiped as the symbol of health and life." From the Christian Science point of view, however, it is more probable that the dead serpent was used as a symbol of evil to be overcome. Moses had been told to show Pharaoh the power of Yawah by casting down his rod, which turned into a serpent. Moses at first fled before it, but when told to put forth his hand and take it by the tail, it became a rod (strength) in his hand.
The Israelites had been worshiping what St. John has described as the image of the beast—finite personality. They had been catering to the carnal appetites, and were constantly crying out for the flesh-pots of Egypt. They did not want to overcome the lusts of the flesh, and were afraid, like Moses, to handle the serpent. In the language of Christian Science, they were not willing to uncover the falsity of the claim of animal magnetism. They did not then realize, as some do not now, that in seeking the pleasures of material sense they were sowing the seeds of inevitable pain. In his day Plato saw and described this state of mind when he said. "How strange is the thing called pleasure, and its opposite called pain, for they who seek the former are almost sure to find the latter."
It is worthy of note that Moses did not command the people to look upon the serpent. He was merely told to "set it upon a pole," for the Lord had said, "It shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live." In the light of Christian Science, it is easy to see that those who were wise enough to know that Moses had a reason for erecting the serpent took in the true meaning of its symbol and type. They saw in this brazen effigy of the serpent of Eden a rebuke which at once awakened a sense of their own dereliction and humbled their pride. This changed point of view brought them within the range of that omnipotent force which, in the words of the psalmist, "healeth all thy diseases" and " forgiveth all thine iniquities." Thus they were restored scientifically to their right state of mind, and once more reflected the likeness of their heavenly Father. Those who did not understand the true meaning of the fiery serpent naturally assumed that it possessed some supernatural healing power. So prevalent was this belief that when King Hezekiah came to the throne, some eight hundred years later, we are told that "he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those, days the children of Israel did burn incense to it." The tendency to lose sight of cause in effect is an evidence of idolatry by no means peculiar to the children of Israel. Dr. Smith declares that "the passion for relics has prevailed even against the history of the Bible. The Church of St. Ambrose, at Milan, has boasted for centuries of possessing the brazen serpent which Moses set up in the wilderness."
The obvious parallelism of the Scriptural account of the brazen serpent and the culminating tragedy of Jesus' earthly life is specifically referred to in the following instance: In his effort to make clear to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, that he was the Messiah, Jesus said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." Is it not a strange travesty on human nature that the history of the brazen serpent is even now repeating itself? The same mistake which the Hebrews made in worshiping the image of the serpent in the wilderness is again being repeated in the present tendency to exalt and rely upon the personality, instead of the Christ-principle which Jesus came to reveal. His mission was to teach the world that life is not in matter, but in divine Mind. He permitted his enemies to crucify his mortal body in order that he might show the immortality of his real being, thereby rending the fleshly veil which hid from view the true temple or body. (See Science and Health, pp. 333, 334.)
Christian Scientists have been taught to worship the Father not materially, but "in spirit and in truth." They are striving to live under the divine law, as interpreted by the Master, which, according to St. Paul, "thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." To Mrs. Eddy, the Leader of the Christian Science movement, belongs the honor of being the first to interpret practically to this and succeeding ages the teachings of Jesus. The Bible tells us that he came to destroy the works of the serpent or devil, and he taught that the devil was "a liar, and the father of it," saying to the erudite theologians of his time, "Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?"
Mrs. Eddy, perceiving the true significance of this luminous statement, logically concludes that if sickness and sin, in destroying which Jesus spent most of his time when on earth, are the works of the devil, evil, then they are not the works of God, and consequently have no real existence; therefore she says, "Man is never sick, for Mind is not sick and matter cannot be. A false belief is both the tempter and the tempted, the sin and the sinner, the disease and its cause" (Science and Health, p. 393). Following this line of thought to its logical conclusion, we are forced to admit that the children of Israel were merely the victims of a false belief. From their point of view they were convinced that matter was the fixed and only reality; that Spirit was above and beyond their ken. Those, however, who were willing to look upon the serpent were enabled to see their own errors and to learn from experience that God could, and in some way would, deliver them from all evil, if they put their trust in Him and had no other trusts.
The lesson of the brazen serpent should have a moral for all Christians to-day. Those who are working their way out of the "wilderness of sin," material sense, with the help of Christian Science, are approaching the "promised land" of spiritual consciousness. Animal magnetism, the modern name for the serpent or devil, must be "looked upon" and "handled" fearlessly before its effects can be overcome. Every one knows that murmuring over the troubles which beset us by the way does not remove them nor even make them less; but looking right at them and seeing through them with the search-light of Truth, reveals the risen Christ, and is the logical and effective remedy which our beloved Leader prescribes.
