till he became conscious of the spiritual facts of Being, and “the New Jerusalem, descending from God, out of Vials of wrath and consolation. Heaven,” — the spiritual outpouring of bliss and glory, — which he describes as the city which “lieth four-square.” The beauty of this text is, that the sum total of human misery — represented by the seven angelic vials, full of seven plagues — have full compensation in the law of Love. Note this, — that the very message, or swift-winged thought, which poured forth hatred and torment, brought also the experience which at last lifted the seer to behold the great city, whose four equal sides are Heaven-bestowed and Heaven-bestowing.
Think of this, dear reader, for it will lift the sackcloth from your eyes, and you will behold the soft-winged dove Spiritual wedlock. presently descending upon you. The very circumstance which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares. Then thought gently whispers: “Come hither! Arise from your false consciousness, into the true sense of Love, and behold the Lamb's wife, — Love wedded to its own spiritual idea;” then cometh the marriage feast, for this revelation will destroy forever the physical plagues imposed by corporeal sense.
This sacred city, described in the Apocalypse (xxi. 16) as one that “lieth four-square,” and cometh “down The city four-square. from God, out of Heaven,” represents the Alpha and Omega of Divine Science. The builder and maker of this New Jerusalem is God, as we read in the Book of Hebrews; and it is “a city which hath foundations.” The description is metaphoric. Spiritual teaching must always be by symbols. Did not
