9. Matthew 19
27 Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?
28 And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
It struck me that Christ Jesus wasn’t offering them a literal position as judge, but that this was symbolic. So I looked to the Glossary in Science and Health to see what Mrs. Eddy had to say about “the twelve tribes of Israel.”
ASHER (Jacob’s son). Hope and faith; spiritual compensation; the ills of the flesh rebuked.
BENJAMIN (Jacob’s son). A physical belief as to life, substance, and mind; human knowledge, or so-called mortal mind, devoted to matter; pride; envy; fame; illusion; a false belief; error masquerading as the possessor of life, strength, animation, and power to act.
Renewal of affections; self-offering; an improved state of mortal mind; the introduction of a more spiritual origin; a gleam of the infinite idea of the infinite Principle; a spiritual type; that which comforts, consoles, and supports.
DAN (Jacob’s son). Animal magnetism; so-called mortal mind controlling mortal mind; error, working out the designs of error; one belief preying upon another.
GAD (Jacob’s son). Science; spiritual being understood; haste towards harmony.
ISSACHAR (Jacob’s son). A corporeal belief; the offspring of error; envy; hatred; selfishness; self-will; lust.
JOSEPH. A corporeal mortal; a higher sense of Truth rebuking mortal belief, or error, and showing the immortality and supremacy of Truth; pure affection blessing its enemies.
JUDAH. A corporeal material belief progressing and disappearing; the spiritual understanding of God and man appearing.
LEVI (Jacob’s son). A corporeal and sensual belief; mortal man; denial of the fulness of God’s creation; ecclesiastical despotism.
REUBEN (Jacob’s son). Corporeality; sensuality; delusion; mortality; error.
Mrs. Eddy does not list Naphtali, Simeon, or Zebulun, but she does write the following on page 562:
The spiritual idea is crowned with twelve stars. The twelve tribes of Israel with all mortals, — separated by belief from man’s divine origin and the true idea, — will through much tribulation yield to the activities of the divine Principle of man in the harmony of Science. These are the stars in the crown of rejoicing. They are the lamps in the spiritual heavens of the age, which show the workings of the spiritual idea by healing the sick and the sinning, and by manifesting the light which shines “unto the perfect day” as the night of materialism wanes.
From this, and with other things I have learned in Plainfield, I see that I must constantly be alert and judging my own thought against the standard that Christian Science is imparting upon me. These godly and ungodly qualities, as Mrs. Eddy listed above, give the good and the bad that must be sorted and judged so that I can finally “yield to the activities of the divine Principle of man in the harmony of Science.”
Christian Science gives much to live up to, but with the Bible, Mrs. Eddy’s writings, all that Plainfield offers, it also provides the map to find our way and keys to open the right doors. I am so grateful for these lessons! Thank you!