MRS. EDDY tells us that "spiritual teaching must always be by symbols" (Science and Health, p. 57). and she cites Jesus' methods in evidence of the correctness of this statement. Pure ideas exist in the divine Mind and are made known to humanity in such ways as the individual is able to understand. Thus we have in the first chapter of Genesis a series of pictures which present the unfolding of these ideas,—pictures which are as differently regarded by mankind as a great work of art would be by those whose opinions differed entirely because of education, temperament, etc. There is, however, one thing which should appeal to all students of the Bible who scan this great panorama, viz.. that God saw in it the reflection of perfect intelligence and pronounced it "good." It is also stated that the divine creation was complete, or "finished," so that anything differing from it could not be the work of the divine artist, but merely a mortal concept expressive of the belief that good and evil may blend though they are antagonistic, and though this asserted blending produces perpetual strife and suffering.
In the latter part of the prophecy of Ezekiel we find symbolic pictures of human conditions into which the truth is entering and producing its inevitable changes for the better. These pictures are in many respects similar to those which St. John saw in the vision on Patmos, except that in the latter materiality wholly disappears, and with it all sin, sorrow, disease, and death. In Ezekiel's vision is a picture of ecclesiasticism with its oblations and sacrifices which can never "make the comers thereunto perfect," as we read in the epistle to the Hebrews. Then we have a man with "a measuring reed" (as also in Zechariah's vision); and again, in Revelation, we are told that an angel gave John a reed, saying, "Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein."
The demand for justice (symbolized by the measuring reed) is made throughout all 'the ages, but the command given through Ezekiel is of special" significance at this period when the Science of Spirit is measuring the results of thousands of years of ecclesiasticism by the demand of Christ, "Be ye therefore perfect." The prophet says, "Remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord God Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah." In the 47th chapter we read of the waters which issued from the house (or temple) in an ever deepening stream, until it became a river with trees on either side, as in Johns vision of the "pure river of water of life." Ezekiel tells us that every thing touched by these waters was healed; and he says, "Every thing shall live whither the river cometh" In' both of 'these books we are told that the city had twelve gates, and Ezekiel says that its name shall be, "The Lord is there."
