Page:Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1906).djvu/579

Rh Human sense may well marvel at discord, while, to a diviner sense, harmony is the real and discord the unreal.

We may well be astonished at sin, sickness, and death. We may well be perplexed at human fear; and still more astounded at hatred, which lifts its hydra head, showing its horns in the many inventions of evil. But why should we stand aghast at nothingness? The great red dragon symbolizes a lie, — the belief that substance, life, and intelligence can be material. This dragon stands for the sum total of human error. The ten horns of the dragon typify the belief that matter has power of its own, and that by means of an evil mind in matter the Ten Commandments can be broken.

The Revelator lifts the veil from this embodiment of all evil, and beholds its awful character; but he also

sees the nothingness of evil and the allness of God. The Revelator sees that old serpent, whose name is devil or evil, holding untiring watch, that he may bite the heel of truth and seemingly impede the offspring of the spiritual idea, which is prolific in health, holiness, and immortality.

The serpentine form stands for subtlety, winding its way amidst all evil, but doing this in the name of good.

Its sting is spoken of by Paul, when he refers to “spiritual wickedness in high places.” It is the animal instinct in mortals, which would impel