"This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me: there was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it: now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man."
This simple narrative, related in the ninth chapter of Ecclesiastes, has profound significance to the student of Christian Science. While the incident may have referred to a specific event in human history, yet, like so many other Bible records, it has a higher, spiritual meaning. The little city may be regarded as standing for the good in human consciousness that seems so relentlessly besieged by the arrogant, aggressive claims of evil.
The great king whose threatening hosts appeared certain of conquering the resisting few within the little city may symbolize mortal mind, or animal magnetism, whose beliefs of hatred, tyranny, and materialism are pictured as a powerful legion capable of swallowing up the forces of righteousness. But we are told that there was found in the "little city ... a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man."
