  Herrick This period is big with events. Fraught with history, it repeats the past and portends much for the future. [15] The Scriptural metaphors,—of the woman in travail, the great red dragon that stood ready to devour the child as soon as it was born, and the husbandmen that said, “This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the in- heritance may be ours,”—are type and shadow of this [20] hour. A mother's love touches the heart of God, and should it not appeal to human sympathy? Can a mother tell her child one tithe of the agonies that gave that child birth? Can that child conceive of the anguish, until she [25] herself is become a mother? Do the children of this period dream of the spiritual Mother's sore travail, through the long night, that has opened their eyes to the light of Christian Science? Cherish these new-born children that filial obedience to which the [1] Decalogue points with promise of prosperity? Should not the loving warning, the far-seeing wisdom, the gentle entreaty, the stern rebuke have been heeded, in return for all that love which brooded tireless over their tender [5] years? for all that love that hath fed them with Truth,— even the bread that cometh down from heaven,—as the mother-bird tendeth her young in the rock-ribbed nest of the raven's callow brood! And what of the hope of that parent whose children [10] rise up against her; when brother slays brother, and the strength of union grows weak with wickedness? The victim of mad ambition that saith, “This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours,” goes on to learn that he must at last [15] kill this evil in “self” in order to gain the kingdom of God. Envy, the great red dragon of this hour, would obscure the light of Science, take away a third part of the stars from the spiritual heavens, and cast them to the earth. [20] This is not Science. Per contra, it is the mortal mind sense—mental healing on a material basis—hurling its so-called healing at random, filling with hate its deluded victims, or resting in silly peace upon the laurels of headlong human will. “What shall, therefore, [25] the Lord of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others.” |
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