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The novel, Sword
of Aquarius, coincides with the highest element of development in divine
Science. Mary Baker Eddy's metaphor for this element presents the crown of
divine Science focusing a beam of light that touches the base of a cross that is
home to nine dark birds. The metaphor suggests a connection that unites all
ages, from the earliest to today's age of the dawn of the most advanced form of
Science. The early age is symbolized by the nine dark birds, which represent the
nine names of the sons of Jacob from the pages of Genesis, which Mary Baker Eddy
had specifically defined in the glossary of her textbook. But is the metaphor
true? Is science really the crown of human development? A chorus of voice is
rising today with cries that this is not so. Science has given us technology and
technology has given us the atom bomb and countless other things of war that are
still worse. Aquarius is the cup bearer, and cup he bears has all too often
proven to be a bitter cup. The novel is about such a bitter cup. But with it
emerges the question of whether mankind's development from its cradle to the
crown of civilization has really been a futile one. This question is not
answered in the novel, though it presents both sides of the coin. The question
is left for us all to answer, for the answer has not yet been given.
The overriding answer
is that science and technology are the substance of the reflection of infinite
Mind. They give us the power to make the coming Ice age to have no effect on
human living. The worst that the coming Ice Age could throw at us, even its
total elimination of outdoor agriculture on which mankind's food supply
presently depends, could all be met with scientific and technological
achievements if we stopped throwing this 'gift from heaven' into the trash can.
No miracles are needed to get us through the coming Ice Age, as we already have
everything that we need within our grasp. But are we willing go this human
route? Every misuse of science and technology for destructive purposes is
nothing less than a crime against humanity and against God - a crime against the
empire of Mind. It is also a crime against life.
If the advance of
science and technology are prevented under the mantle of fear for any of the
countless reasons that are applied today, human life may cease on this planet or
be reduced to very low levels and to a most primitive state. Only a miniscule
population of one to ten million people came out of the last Ice Age. That was
all that the primitive earth could support during the long 100,000-year deep
freeze. Some earlier human cultures apparently didn't survive the kind of
transition we presently face for our near future. Eight of them died out and
vanished; one of them after over a million years of existence. We have the
potential today to break the historic chain and master the Ice Age imposition,
with the only power we have, the spiritual strength of our humanity.
The textbook chapter
that applies here deals with the spiritual development of mankind. Its path is
from Principle to Love, with every other element of the divine included along
the way. I would like to think that the achievements of the past have taken us
beyond the point where a regression into temporary insanity can deprive the
empire of Mind of its sovereign expression. Millions may fall on the road of
insanity, but insanity is not a power to defeat the empire of Mind. Insanity
defeats and consumes only those who are mired in its swamps, and fail to rescue
themselves. And this is not the universal nature of mankind that lives on higher
ground, for whom the future is bright no matter what comes its way.
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