Chapter XV Genesis
And I appeared unto Abraham,, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty; but by My name Jehovah was I not known to them. - EXODUS.
All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. - JOHN.
Spiritual interpretation
501:1 SCIENTIFIC interpretation of the Scriptures prop-
erly starts with the beginning of the Old Testa-
501:3 ment, chiefly because the spiritual import of
the Word, in its earliest articulations, often
seems so smothered by the immediate context as to
501:6 require explication; whereas the New Testament narra-
tives are clearer and come nearer the heart. Jesus il-
lumines them, showing the poverty of mortal existence,
501:9 but richly recompensing human want and woe with
spiritual gain. The incarnation of Truth, that amplifi-
cation of wonder and glory which angels could only
501:12 whisper and which God illustrated by light and har-
mony, is consonant with ever-present Love. So-called
mystery and miracle, which subserve the end of natural
501:15 good, are explained by that Love for whose rest the
weary ones sigh when needing something more native
to their immortal cravings than the history of perpetual
501:18 evil.
Spiritual overture
502:1 A second necessity for beginning with Genesis is that
the living and real prelude of the older Scriptures is so
502:3 brief that it would almost seem, from the
preponderance of unreality in the entire nar-
rative, as if reality did not predominate over unreality,
502:6 the light over the dark, the straight line of Spirit over
the mortal deviations and inverted images of the creator
and His creation.
Deflection of being
502:9 Spiritually followed, the book of Genesis is the history of the untrue image of God, named a sinful mortal. This deflection of being, rightly viewed, serves to 502:12 suggest the proper reflection of God and the spiritual actuality of man, as given in the first chapter of Genesis. Even thus the crude forms of human thought 502:15 take on higher symbols and significations, when scien- tifically Christian views of the universe appear, illuminat- ing time with the glory of eternity.
502:18 In the following exegesis, each text is followed by its spiritual interpretation according to the teachings of Chris-tian Science.
502:21 Exegesis
/Genesis/ i. 1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Ideas and identities
502:24 The infinite has no beginning. This word /beginning/
is employed to signify /the only/, - that is, the eternal ver-
ity and unity of God and man, including
502:27 the universe. The creative Principle - Life,
Truth, and Love - is God. The universe reflects God.
There is but one creator and one creation. This crea-
503:1 tion consists of the unfolding of spiritual ideas and their
identities, which are embraced in the infinite Mind and
503:3 forever reflected. These ideas range from the infini-
tesimal to infinity, and the highest ideas are the sons
and daughters of God.
503:6 /Genesis/ i. 2. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Spiritual harmony
503:9 The divine Principle and idea constitute spiritual har-
mony, - heaven and eternity. In the universe of Truth,
matter is unknown. No supposition of error
503:12 enters there. Divine Science, the Word of
God, saith to the darkness upon the face of error, “God
is All-in-all,” and the light of ever-present Love illumines
503:15 the universe. Hence the eternal wonder, - that infinite
space is peopled with God’s ideas, reflecting Him in
countless spiritual forms.
503:18 /Genesis/ i. 3. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Mind’s idea faultless
Immortal and divine Mind presents the idea of God: 503:21 /first/, in light; /second/, in reflection; /third/, in spiritual and immortal forms of beauty and goodness. But this Mind creates no element nor symbol of 503:24 discord and decay. God creates neither erring thought, mortal life, mutable truth, nor variable love.
/Genesis/ i. 4. And God saw the light, that it was good: 503:27 and God divided the light from the darkness.
God, Spirit, dwelling in infinite light and harmony
504:1 from which emanates the true idea, is never reflected by
aught but the good.
504:3 /Genesis/ i. 5. And God called the light Day, and the
darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morn-
ing were the first day.
Light preceding the sun
504:6 All questions as to the divine creation being both
spiritual and material are answered in this passage, for
though solar beams are not yet included in
504:9 the record of creation, still there is light. This
light is not from the sun nor from volcanic flames, but it
is the revelation of Truth and of spiritual ideas. This
504:12 also shows that there is no place where God’s light is not
seen, since Truth, Life, and Love fill immensity and are
ever-present. Was not this a revelation instead of a
504:15 creation?
Evenings and mornings
The successive appearing of God’s ideas is represented as taking place on so many /evenings/ and /mornings/, - 504:18 words which indicate, in the absence of solar time, spiritually clearer views of Him, views which are not implied by material darkness and dawn. 504:21 Here we have the explanation of another passage of Scripture, that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years.” The rays of infinite Truth, when gathered into 504:24 the focus of ideas, bring light instantaneously, whereas a thousand years of human doctrines, hypotheses, and vague conjectures emit no such effulgence.
Spirit /versus/ darkness
504:27 Did infinite Mind create matter, and call it /light?/ Spirit is light, and the contradiction of Spirit is matter, darkness, and darkness obscures light. Mate- 504:30 rial sense is nothing but a supposition of the absence of Spirit. No solar rays nor planetary revolutions 505:1 form the day of Spirit. Immortal Mind makes its own record, but mortal mind, sleep, dreams, sin, disease, and 505:3 death have no record in the first chapter of Genesis.
/Genesis/ i. 6. And God said, Let there be a firmament in
the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from
505:6 the waters.
Spiritual firmament
Spiritual understanding, by which human conception,
material sense, is separated from Truth, is the firmament.
505:9 The divine Mind, not matter, creates all iden-
tities, and they are forms of Mind, the ideas of
Spirit apparent only as Mind, never as mindless matter
505:12 nor the so-called material senses.
/Genesis/ i. 7. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters 505:15 which were above the firmament: and it was so.
Understanding imparted
Spirit imparts the understanding which uplifts con-
sciousness and leads into all truth. The Psalmist saith:
505:18 “The Lord on high is mightier than the noise
of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of
the sea.” Spiritual sense is the discernment of spiritual
505:21 good. Understanding is the line of demarcation between
the real and unreal. Spiritual understanding unfolds
Mind, - Life, Truth, and Love, - and demonstrates the
505:24 divine sense, giving the spiritual proof of the universe in
Christian Science.
Original reflected
This understanding is not intellectual, is not the result
505:27 of scholarly attainments; it is the reality of all things
brought to light. God’s ideas reflect the im-
mortal, unerring, and infinite. The mortal,
505:30 erring, and finite are human beliefs, which apportion to
506:1 themselves a task impossible for them, that of distinguish-
ing between the false and the true. Objects utterly un-
506:3 like the original do not reflect that original. Therefore
matter, not being the reflection of Spirit, has no real en-
tity. Understanding is a quality of God, a quality which
506:6 separates Christian Science from supposition and makes
Truth final.
/Genesis/ i. 8. And God called the firmament Heaven. 506:9 And the evening and the morning were the second day.
Exalted thought
Through divine Science, Spirit, God, unites under-
standing to eternal harmony. The calm and exalted
506:12 thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace.
Thus the dawn of ideas goes on, forming each
successive stage of progress.
506:15 /Genesis/ i. 9. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
Unfolding of thoughts
506:18 Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their
proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts,
even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose
506:21 in order that the purpose may appear.
/Genesis/ i. 10. And God called the dry land Earth; and
the gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and
506:24 God saw that it was good.
Spirit names and blesses
Here the human concept and divine idea seem con- fused by the translator, but they are not so in the scien- 506:27 tifically Christian meaning of the text. Upon Adam devolved the pleasurable task of find- ing names for all material things, but Adam has not yet 507:1 appeared in the narrative. In metaphor, the /dry land/ illustrates the absolute formations instituted by Mind, 507:3 while /water/ symbolizes the elements of Mind. Spirit duly feeds and clothes every object, as it appears in the line of spiritual creation, thus tenderly expressing the father- 507:6 hood and motherhood of God. Spirit names and blesses all. Without natures particularly defined, objects and subjects would be obscure, and creation would be full of 507:9 nameless offspring, - wanderers from the parent Mind, strangers in a tangled wilderness.
/Genesis/ i. 11. And God said, Let the earth bring forth
507:12 grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding
fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth:
and it was so.
Divine propagation
507:15 The universe of Spirit reflects the creative power of the divine Principle, or Life, which reproduces the multi- tudinous forms of Mind and governs the mul- 507:18 tiplication of the compound idea man. The tree and herb do not yield fruit because of any propagat- ing power of their own, but because they reflect the Mind 507:21 which includes all. A material world implies a mortal mind and man a creator. The scientific divine creation declares immortal Mind and the universe created by God.
Ever-appearing creation
507:24 Infinite Mind creates and governs all, from the men-
tal molecule to infinity. This divine Principle of all
expresses Science and art throughout His
507:27 creation, and the immortality of man and the
universe. Creation is ever appearing, and must ever con-
tinue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source.
507:30 Mortal sense inverts this appearing and calls ideas mate-
rial. Thus misinterpreted, the divine idea seems to fall
508:1 to the level of a human or material belief, called mortal
man. But the seed is in itself, only as the divine Mind
508:3 is All and reproduces all - as Mind is the multiplier,
and Mind’s infinite idea, man and the universe, is the
product. The only intelligence or substance of a thought,
508:6 a seed, or a flower is God, the creator of it. Mind is the
Soul of all. Mind is Life, Truth, and Love which gov-
erns all.
508:9 /Genesis/ i. 12. And the earth brought forth grass, and
herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding
fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw
508:12 that it was good.
Mind’s pure thought
God determines the gender of His own ideas. Gen-
der is mental, not material. The seed within itself is
508:15 the pure thought emanating from divine
Mind. The feminine gender is not yet ex-
pressed in the text. /Gender/ means simply /kind/ or /sort/,
508:18 and does not necessarily refer either to masculinity or
femininity. The word is not confined to sexuality, and
grammars always recognize a neuter gender, neither
508:21 male nor female. The Mind or intelligence of produc-
tion names the female gender last in the ascending order
of creation. The intelligent individual idea, be it male
508:24 or female, rising from the lesser to the greater, unfolds
the infinitude of Love.
/Genesis/ i. 13. And the evening and the morning were
508:27 the third day.
Rising to the light
The third stage in the order of Christian Science is an
important one to the human thought, letting in the light
509:1 of spiritual understanding. This period corresponds to
the resurrection, when Spirit is discerned to be the Life of
509:3 all, and the deathless Life, or Mind, dependent
upon no material organization. Our Master
reappeared to his students, - to their apprehension he
509:6 rose from the grave, - on the third day of his ascending
thought, and so presented to them the certain sense of
eternal Life.
509:9 /Genesis/ i. 14. And God said, Let there be lights in the
firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night;
and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days,
509:12 and years.
Rarefaction of thought
Spirit creates no other than heavenly or celestial bodies, but the stellar universe is no more celestial than our earth. 509:15 This text gives the idea of the rarefaction of thought as it ascends higher. God forms and peoples the universe. The light of spiritual understand- 509:18 ing gives gleams of the infinite only, even as nebulae indi- cate the immensity of space.
Divine nature appearing
So-called mineral, vegetable, and animal substances
509:21 are no more contingent now on time or material struc-
ture than they were when “the morning stars
sang together.” Mind made the “plant of
509:24 the field before it was in the earth.” The periods of
spiritual ascension are the days and seasons of Mind’s
creation, in which beauty, sublimity, purity, and holiness
509:27 - yea, the divine nature - appear in man and the uni-
verse never to disappear.
Spiritual ideas apprehended
Knowing the Science of creation, in which all is Mind 509:30 and its ideas, Jesus rebuked the material thought of his fellow-countrymen: “Ye can discern the face of the 510:1 sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?” How much more should we seek to apprehend the spirit- 510:3 ual ideas of God, than to dwell on the objects of sense! To discern the rhythm of Spirit and to be holy, thought must be purely spiritual.
510:6 /Genesis/ i. 15. And let them be for lights in the firma-
ment of the heaven, to give light upon the earth: and it
was so.
510:9 Truth and Love enlighten the understanding, in whose
“light shall we see light;” and this illumination is re-
flected spiritually by all who walk in the light and turn
510:12 away from a false material sense.
/Genesis/ i. 16. And God made two great lights; the
greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the
510:15 night: He made the stars also.
Geology a failure
The sun is a metaphorical representation of Soul out- side the body, giving existence and intelligence to the 510:18 universe. Love alone can impart the limit- less idea of infinite Mind. Geology has never explained the earth’s formations; it cannot explain them. 510:21 There is no Scriptural allusion to solar light until time has been already divided into evening and morning; and the allusion to fluids (Genesis i. 2) indicates a supposed for- 510:24 mation of matter by the resolving of fluids into solids, analogous to the suppositional resolving of thoughts into material things.
Spiritual subdivision
510:27 Light is a symbol of Mind, of Life, Truth, and Love,
and not a vitalizing property of matter. Sci-
ence reveals only one Mind, and this one shin-
510:30 ing by its own light and governing the universe, including
511:1 man, in perfect harmony. This Mind forms ideas, its
own images, subdivides and radiates their borrowed light,
511:3 intelligence, and so explains the Scripture phrase, “whose
seed is in itself.” Thus God’s ideas “multiply and re-
plenish the earth.” The divine Mind supports the sub-
511:6 limity, magnitude, and infinitude of spiritual creation.
/Genesis/ i. 17, 18. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over 511:9 the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
Darkness scattered
In divine Science, which is the seal of Deity and has
511:12 the impress of heaven, God is revealed as in-
finite light. In the eternal Mind, no night is
there.
511:15 /Genesis/ i. 19. And the evening and the morning were
the fourth day.
The changing glow and full effulgence of God’s infi- 511:18 nite ideas, images, mark the periods of progress.
/Genesis/ i. 20. And God said, Let the waters bring forth
abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl
511:21 that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of
heaven.
Soaring aspirations
To mortal mind, the universe is liquid, solid, and aeri- 511:24 form. Spiritually interpreted, rocks and mountains stand for solid and grand ideas. Animals and mor- tals metaphorically present the gradation of 511:27 mortal thought, rising in the scale of intelligence, taking form in masculine, feminine, or neuter gender. The fowls, which fly above the earth in the open firmament 512:1 of heaven, correspond to aspirations soaring beyond and above corporeality to the understanding of the incorporeal 512:3 and divine Principle, Love.
/Genesis/ i. 21. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth 512:6 abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Seraphic symbols
Spirit is symbolized by strength, presence, and power, 512:9 and also by holy thoughts, winged with Love. These an- gels of His presence, which have the holiest charge, abound in the spiritual atmosphere of 512:12 Mind, and consequently reproduce their own character- istics. Their individual forms we know not, but we do know that their natures are allied to God’s nature; and 512:15 spiritual blessings, thus typified, are the externalized, yet subjective, states of faith and spiritual understanding.
/Genesis/ i. 22. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruit-
512:18 ful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas; and let
fowl multiply in the earth.
Multiplication of pure ideas
Spirit blesses the multiplication of its own pure and 512:21 perfect ideas. From the infinite elements of the one Mind emanate all form, color, quality, and quantity, and these are mental, both primarily 512:24 and secondarily. Their spiritual nature is discerned only through the spiritual senses. Mortal mind inverts the true likeness, and confers animal names and natures upon its 512:27 own misconceptions. Ignorant of the origin and opera- tions of mortal mind, - that is, ignorant of itself, - this so-called mind puts forth its own qualities, and claims 512:30 God as their author; albeit God is ignorant of the ex- 513:1 istence of both this mortal mentality, so-called, and its claim, for the claim usurps the deific prerogatives and is 513:3 an attempted infringement on infinity.
/Genesis/ i. 23. And the evening and the morning were
the fifth day.
Spiritual spheres
513:6 Advancing spiritual steps in the teeming universe of Mind lead on to spiritual spheres and exalted beings. To material sense, this divine universe is dim and 513:9 distant, gray in the sombre hues of twilight; but anon the veil is lifted, and the scene shifts into light. In the record, time is not yet measured by solar revolutions, 513:12 and the motions and reflections of deific power cannot be apprehended until divine Science becomes the interpreter.
/Genesis/ i. 24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth
513:15 the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing,
and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
Continuity of thoughts
Spirit diversifies, classifies, and individualizes all
513:18 thoughts, which are as eternal as the Mind
conceiving them; but the intelligence, exist-
ence, and continuity of all individuality remain in God,
513:21 who is the divinely creative Principle thereof.
/Genesis/ i. 25. And God made the beast of the earth after
his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that
513:24 creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that
it was good.
God’s thoughts are spiritual realities
God creates all forms of reality. His thoughts are
513:27 spiritual realities. So-called mortal mind - being non-
existent and consequently not within the range of im-
514:1 mortal existence - could not by simulating deific power
invert the divine creation, and afterwards recreate per-
514:3 sons or things upon its own plane, since noth-
ing exists beyond the range of all-inclusive
infinity, in which and of which God is the
514:6 sole creator. Mind, joyous in strength, dwells in the
realm of Mind. Mind’s infinite ideas run and dis-
port themselves. In humility they climb the heights of
514:9 holiness.
Qualities of thought
Moral courage is “the lion of the tribe of Juda,” the king of the mental realm. Free and fearless it roams in 514:12 the forest. Undisturbed it lies in the open field, or rests in “green pastures,... beside the still waters.” In the figurative transmission from the 514:15 divine thought to the human, diligence, promptness, and perseverance are likened to “the cattle upon a thousand hills.” They carry the baggage of stern resolve, and 514:18 keep pace with highest purpose. Tenderness accompa- nies all the might imparted by Spirit. The individ- uality created by God is not carnivorous, as witness the 514:21 millennial estate pictured by Isaiah: -
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
514:24 And the calf and the young lion, and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.
Creatures of God useful
Understanding the control which Love held over all,
514:27 Daniel felt safe in the lions’ den, and Paul proved the
viper to be harmless. All of God’s creatures
moving in the harmony of Science, are harm-
514:30 less, useful, indestructible. A realization of this grand
verity was a source of strength to the ancient worthies.
515:1 It supports Christian healing, and enables its possessor
to emulate the example of Jesus. “And God saw that
515:3 it was good.”
The serpent harmless
Patience is symbolized by the tireless worm, creeping
over lofty summits, persevering in its intent. The ser-
515:6 pent of God’s creating is neither subtle nor
poisonous, but is a wise idea, charming in its
adroitness, for Love’s ideas are subject to the Mind which
515:9 forms them, - the power which changeth the serpent
into a staff.
/Genesis/ i. 26. And God said, Let us make man in our 515:12 image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping 515:15 thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Elohistic plurality
The eternal Elohim includes the forever universe.
The name Elohim is in the plural, but this plurality of
515:18 Spirit does not imply more than one God, nor
does it imply three persons in one. It relates
to the oneness, the triunity of Life, Truth, and Love.
515:21 “Let /them/ have dominion.” Man is the family name
for all ideas, - the sons and daughters of God. All that
God imparts moves in accord with Him, reflecting good-
515:24 ness and power.
Reflected likeness
Your mirrored reflection is your own image or like- ness. If you lift a weight, your reflection does this also. 515:27 If you speak, the lips of this likeness move in accord with yours. Now compare man before the mirror to his divine Principle, God. Call the mirror 515:30 divine Science, and call man the reflection. Then note 516:1 how true, according to Christian Science, is the reflection to its original. As the reflection of yourself appears in 516:3 the mirror, so you, being spiritual, are the reflection of God. The substance, Life, intelligence, Truth, and Love, which constitute Deity, are reflected by His creation; 516:6 and when we subordinate the false testimony of the corporeal senses to the facts of Science, we shall see this true likeness and reflection everywhere.
Love imparts beauty
516:9 God fashions all things, after His own likeness. Life is reflected in existence, Truth in truthfulness, God in goodness, which impart their own peace and 516:12 permanence. Love, redolent with unselfish- ness, bathes all in beauty and light. The grass beneath our feet silently exclaims, “The meek shall inherit the 516:15 earth.” The modest arbutus sends her sweet breath to heaven. The great rock gives shadow and shelter. The sunlight glints from the church-dome, glances into the 516:18 prison-cell, glides into the sick-chamber, brightens the flower, beautifies the landscape, blesses the earth. Man, made in His likeness, possesses and reflects God’s domin- 516:21 ion over all the earth. Man and woman as coexistent and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality, the infinite Father-Mother God.
516:24 /Genesis/ i. 27. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.
Ideal man and woman
516:27 To emphasize this momentous thought, it is repeated
that God made man in His own image, to reflect the
divine Spirit. It follows that man is a generic
516:30 term. Masculine, feminine, and neuter gen-
ders are human concepts. In one of the ancient lan-
517:1 guages the word for /man/ is used also as the synonym of
/mind/. This definition has been weakened by anthropo-
517:3 morphism, or a humanization of Deity. The word /an-
thropomorphic/, in such a phrase as “an anthropomorphic
God,” is derived from two Greek words, signifying /man/
517:6 and /form/, and may be defined as a mortally mental at-
tempt to reduce Deity to corporeality. The life-giving
quality of Mind is Spirit, not matter. The ideal man
517:9 corresponds to creation, to intelligence, and to Truth.
The ideal woman corresponds to Life and to Love. In
divine Science, we have not as much authority for con-
517:12 sidering God masculine, as we have for considering
Him feminine, for Love imparts the clearest idea of
Deity.
Divine personality
517:15 The world believes in many persons; but if God is per- sonal, there is but one person, because there is but one God. His personality can only be reflected, 517:18 not transmitted. God has countless ideas, and they all have one Principle and parentage. The only proper symbol of God as person is Mind’s infinite ideal. 517:21 What is this ideal? Who shall behold it? This ideal is God’s own image, spiritual and infinite. Even eternity can never reveal the whole of God, since there is no limit 517:24 to infinitude or to its reflections.
/Genesis/ i. 28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, 517:27 and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Birthright of man
517:30 Divine Love blesses its own ideas, and causes them to
multiply, - to manifest His power. Man is not made
518:1 to till the soil. His birthright is dominion, not sub-
jection. He is lord of the belief in earth
518:3 and heaven, - himself subordinate alone to
his Maker. This is the Science of being.
/Genesis/ i. 29, 30. And God said, Behold, I have given 518:6 you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every 518:9 beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it 518:12 was so.
Assistance in brotherhood
God gives the lesser idea of Himself for a link to the greater, and in return, the higher always protects the 518:15 lower. The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all leaving the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth 518:18 his brother’s need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another’s good. Love giveth to the least spiritual idea might, immortality, and goodness, which shine through 518:21 all as the blossom shines through the bud. All the varied expressions of God reflect health, holiness, immortality - infinite Life, Truth, and Love.
518:24 /Genesis/ i. 31. And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Perfection of creation
518:27 The divine Principle, or Spirit, comprehends and ex- presses all, and all must therefore be as perfect is the divine Principle is perfect. Nothing is new to Spirit. 519:1 Nothing can be novel to eternal Mind, the author of all things, who from all eternity knoweth His own ideas. 519:3 Deity was satisfied with His work. How could He be otherwise, since the spiritual creation was the outgrowth, the emanation, of His infinite self- 519:6 containment and immortal wisdom?
/Genesis/ ii. 1. Thus the heavens and the earth were
finished, and all the host of them.
Infinity measureless
519:9 Thus the ideas of God in universal being are complete and forever expressed, for Science reveals infinity and the fatherhood and motherhood of Love. Hu- 519:12 man capacity is slow to discern and to grasp God’s creation and the divine power and presence which go with it, demonstrating its spiritual origin. Mortals 519:15 can never know the infinite, until they throw off the old man and reach the spiritual image and likeness. What can fathom infinity! How shall we declare Him, till, 519:18 in the language of the apostle, “we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the ful- 519:21 ness of Christ”?
/Genesis/ ii. 2. And on the seventh day God ended His
work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh
519:24 day from all His work which He had made.
Resting in holy work
God rests in action. Imparting has not impoverished,
can never impoverish, the divine Mind. No
519:27 exhaustion follows the action of this Mind,
according to the apprehension of divine Science. The
520:1 highest and sweetest rest, even from a human standpoint,
is in holy work.
Love and man coexistent
520:3 Unfathomable Mind is expressed. The depth, breadth, height, might, majesty, and glory of infinite Love fill all space. That is enough! Human language 520:6 can repeat only an infinitesimal part of what exists. The absolute ideal, man, is no more seen nor comprehended by mortals, than is His infinite Principle, 520:9 Love. Principle and its idea, man, are coexistent and eternal. The numerals of infinity, called /seven days/, can never be reckoned according to the calendar of time. 520:12 These days will appear as mortality disappears, and they will reveal eternity, newness of Life, in which all sense of error forever disappears and thought accepts the divine 520:15 infinite calculus.
/Genesis/ ii. 4, 5. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the 520:18 Lord God [Jehovah] made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God [Jehovah] 520:21 had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
Growth is from Mind
Here is the emphatic declaration that God creates all 520:24 through Mind, not through matter, - that the plant grows, not because of seed or soil, but because growth is the eternal mandate of Mind. Mor- 520:27 tal thought drops into the ground, but the immortal creat- ing thought is from above, not from beneath. Because Mind makes all, there is nothing left to be made by a 520:30 lower power. Spirit acts through the Science of Mind, never causing man to till the ground, but making him 521:1 superior to the soil. Knowledge of this lifts man above the sod, above earth and its environments, to conscious 521:3 spiritual harmony and eternal being.
Spiritual narrative
Here the inspired record closes its narrative of being
that is without beginning or end. All that is made is
521:6 the work of God, and all is good. We leave
this brief, glorious history of spiritual creation
(as stated in the first chapter of Genesis) in the hands of
521:9 God, not of man, in the keeping of Spirit, not matter, -
joyfully acknowledging now and forever God’s supremacy,
omnipotence, and omnipresence.
521:12 The harmony and immortality of man are intact. We
should look away from the opposite supposition that man
is created materially, and turn our gaze to the spiritual
521:15 record of creation, to that which should be engraved on
the understanding and heart “with the point of a diamond”
and the pen of an angel.
521:18 The reader will naturally ask if there is nothing more about creation in the book of Genesis. Indeed there is, but the continued account is mortal and material.
521:21 /Genesis/ ii. 6. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
The story of error
The Science and truth of the divine creation have been 521:24 presented in the verses already considered, and now the opposite error, a material view of creation, is to be set forth. The second chapter of Gene- 521:27 sis contains a statement of this material view of God and the universe, a statement which is the exact opposite of scientific truth as before recorded. The history of error 521:30 or matter, if veritable, would set aside the omnipotence 522:1 of Spirit; but it is the false history in contradistinction to the true.
The two records
522:3 The Science of the first record proves the falsity of
the second. If one is true, the other is false, for they are
antagonistic. The first record assigns all
522:6 might and government to God, and endows
man out of God’s perfection and power. The second
record chronicles man as mutable and mortal, - as hav-
522:9 ing broken away from Deity and as revolving in an orbit
of his own. Existence, separate from divinity, Science
explains as impossible.
522:12 This second record unmistakably gives the history of
error in its externalized forms, called life and intelli-
gence in matter. It records pantheism, opposed to the
522:15 supremacy of divine Spirit; but this state of things is
declared to be temporary and this man to be mortal, -
dust returning to dust.
Erroneous representation
522:18 In this erroneous theory, matter takes the place of Spirit. Matter is represented as the life-giving principle of the earth. Spirit is represented as entering mat- 522:21 ter in order to create man. God’s glowing denunciations of man when not found in His image, the likeness of Spirit, convince reason and coincide 522:24 with revelation in declaring this material creation false.
Hypothetical reversal
This latter part of the second chapter of Genesis, which portrays Spirit as supposedly cooperating with matter in 522:27 constructing the universe, is based on some hypothesis of error, for the Scripture just pre- ceding declares God’s work to be finished. Does Life, 522:30 Truth, and Love produce death, error, and hatred? Does the creator condemn His own creation? Does the un- erring Principle of divine law change or repent? It can- 523:1 not be so. Yet one might so judge from an unintelligent perusal of the Scriptural account now under comment.
Mist, or false claim
523:3 Because of its false basis, the mist of obscurity evolved
by error deepens the false claim, and finally declares that
God knows error and that error can improve
523:6 His creation. Although presenting the exact
opposite of Truth, the lie claims to be truth. The crea-
tions of matter arise from a mist or false claim, or from
523:9 mystification, and not from the firmament, or under-
standing, which God erects between the true and false.
In error everything comes from beneath, not from above.
523:12 All is material myth, instead of the reflection of
Spirit.
Distinct documents
It may be worth while here to remark that, according
523:15 to the best scholars, there are clear evidences of two dis-
tinct documents in the early part of the book of
Genesis. One is called the Elohistic, because
523:18 the Supreme Being is therein called Elohim. The other
document is called the Jehovistic, because Deity therein is
always called Jehovah, - or Lord God, as our common
523:21 version translates it.
Jehovah or Elohim
Throughout the first chapter of Genesis and in three verses of the second, - in what we understand to be the 523:24 spiritually scientific account of creation, - it is Elohim (God) who creates. From the fourth verse of chapter two to chapter five, the creator is called 523:27 Jehovah, or the Lord. The different accounts become more and more closely intertwined to the end of chapter twelve, after which the distinction is not definitely trace- 523:30 able. In the historic parts of the Old Testament, it is usually Jehovah, peculiarly the divine sovereign of the Hebrew people, who is referred to.
Gods of the heathen
524:1 The idolatry which followed this material mythology is
seen in the Phoenician worship of Baal, in the Moabitish
524:3 god Chemosh, in the Moloch of the Amorites,
in the Hindoo Vishnu, in the Greek Aphro-
dite, and in a thousand other so-called deities.
Jehovah a tribal deity
524:6 It was also found among the Israelites, who constantly
went after “strange gods.” They called the Supreme
Being by the national name of Jehovah. In
524:9 that name of Jehovah, the true idea of God
seems almost lost. God becomes “a man of war,” a
tribal god to be worshipped, rather than Love, the divine
524:12 Principle to be lived and loved.
/Genesis/ ii. 7. And the Lord God [Jehovah] formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils 524:15 the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Creation reversed
Did the divine and infinite Principle become a finite
deity, that he should now be called Jehovah? With
l8 a single command, Mind had made man,
both male and female. How then could a
material organization become the basis of man? How
524:21 could the non-intelligent become the medium of Mind,
and error be the enunciator of Truth? Matter is not
the reflection of Spirit, yet God is reflected in all His
524:24 creation. Is this addition to His creation real or un-
real? Is it the truth, or is it a lie concerning man and
God?
524:27 It must be a lie, for God presently curses the ground.
Could Spirit evolve its opposite, matter, and give matter
ability to sin and suffer? Is Spirit, God, injected into
524:30 dust, and eventually ejected at the demand of matter?
Does Spirit enter dust, and lose therein the divine nature
525:1 and omnipotence? Does Mind, God, enter matter to be-
come there a mortal sinner, animated by the breath of
525:3 God? In this narrative, the validity of matter is opposed,
not the validity of Spirit or Spirit’s creations. Man re-
flects God; /mankind/ represents the Adamic race, and is
525:6 a human, not a divine, creation.
Definitions of man
The following are some of the equivalents of the term /man/ in different languages. In the Saxon, /mankind, a 525:9 /woman, any one/; in the Welsh, /that which rises up/, - the primary sense being /image, form/; in the Hebrew, /image, similitude/; in the Icelandic, /mind/. 525:12 The following translation is from the Icelandic: -
And God said, Let us make man after our mind and
our likeness; and God shaped man after His mind; after
525:15 God’s mind shaped He Him; and He shaped them male and
female.
No baneful creation
In the Gospel of John, it is declared that all things were 525:18 made through the Word of God, “and without Him [the /logos/, or /word/] was not anything made that was made.” Everything good or worthy, God 525:21 made. Whatever is valueless or baneful, He did not make, - hence its unreality. In the Science of Genesis we read that He saw everything which He had made, 525:24 “and, behold, it was very good.” The corporeal senses declare otherwise; and if we give the same heed to the history of error as to the records of truth, the Scriptural 525:27 record of sin and death favors the false conclusion of the material senses. Sin, sickness, and death must be deemed as devoid of reality as they are of good, God.
525:30 /Genesis/ ii. 9. And out of the ground made the Lord God [Jehovah] to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, 526:1 and good for food; the tree of life also, in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Contradicting first creation
526:3 The previous and more scientific record of creation
declares that God made “every plant of the field be-
fore it was in the earth.” This opposite
526:6 declaration, this statement that life issues
from matter, contradicts the teaching of the first chap-
ter, - namely, that all Life is God. Belief is less than
526:9 understanding. Belief involves theories of material hear-
ing, sight, touch, taste, and smell, termed the five senses.
The appetites and passions, sin, sickness, and death,
526:12 follow in the train of this error of a belief in intelligent
matter.
Record of error
The first mention of evil is in the legendary Scriptural 526:15 text in the second chapter of Genesis. God pronounced good all that He created, and the Scriptures declare that He created all. The “tree of 526:18 life” stands for the idea of Truth, and the sword which guards it is the type of divine Science. The “tree of knowledge” stands for the erroneous doctrine that the 526:21 knowledge of evil is as real, hence as God-bestowed, as the knowledge of good. Was evil instituted through God, Love? Did He create this fruit-bearer of sin in contra- 526:24 diction of the first creation? This second biblical account is a picture of error throughout.
/Genesis/ ii. 15. And the Lord God [Jehovah] took the
526:27 man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and
to keep it.
Garden of Eden
The name Eden, according to Cruden, means /pleasure/, 526:30 /delight./ In this text Eden stands for the mortal, mate- 527:1 rial body. God could not put Mind into matter nor in- finite Spirit into finite form to dress it and 527:3 keep it, - to make it beautiful or to cause it to live and grow. Man is God’s reflection, needing no cultivation, but ever beautiful and complete.
527:6 /Genesis/ ii. 16, 17. And the Lord God [Jehovah] com- manded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good 527:9 and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
No temptation from God
Here the metaphor represents God, Love, as tempting 527:12 man, but the Apostle James says: “God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man.” It is true that a knowledge of evil would 527:15 make man mortal. It is plain also that mate- rial perception, gathered from the corporeal senses, consti- tutes evil and mortal knowledge. But is it true that God, 527:18 good, made “the tree of life” to be the tree of death to His own creation? Has evil the reality of good? Evil is un- real because it is a lie, - false in every statement.
527:21 /Genesis/ ii. 19. And out of the ground the Lord God [Jehovah] formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he 527:24 would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
Creation’s counterfeit
Here the lie represents God as repeating creation, but
527:27 doing so materially, not spiritually, and ask-
ing a prospective sinner to help Him. Is the
Supreme Being retrograding, and is man giving up his
527:30 dignity? Was it requisite for the formation of man
528:1 that dust should become sentient, when all being is the
reflection of the eternal Mind, and the record declares
528:3 that God has already created man, both male and
female? That Adam gave the name and nature of
animals, is solely mythological and material. It can-
528:6 not be true that man was ordered to create man anew
in partnership with God; this supposition was a dream,
a myth.
528:9 /Genesis/ ii. 21, 22. And the Lord God [Jehovah, Yawah]
caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and
He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead
528:12 thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God [Jehovah] had
taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto
the man.
Hypnotic surgery
528:15 Here falsity, error, credits Truth, God, with inducing a sleep or hypnotic state in Adam in order to perform a surgical operation on him and thereby create 528:18 woman. This is the first record of magnet- ism. Beginning creation with darkness instead of light, - materially rather than spiritually, - error now simu- 528:21 lates the work of Truth, mocking Love and declar- ing what great things error has done. Beholding the creations of his own dream and calling them real and 528:24 God-given, Adam - /alias/ error - gives them names. Afterwards he is supposed to become the basis of the creation of woman and of his own kind, calling them 528:27 /mankind/, - that is, a kind of man.
Mental midwifery
But according to this narrative, surgery was first per-
formed mentally and without instruments;
528:30 and this may be a useful hint to the medical
faculty. Later in human history, when the forbidden
529:1 fruit was bringing forth fruit of its own kind, there
came a suggestion of change in the /modus operandi/, -
529:3 that man should be born of woman, not woman again
taken from man. It came about, also, that instruments
were needed to assist the birth of mortals. The first
529:6 system of suggestive obstetrics has changed. Another
change will come as to the nature and origin of man,
and this revelation will destroy the /dream/ of existence,
529:9 reinstate reality, usher in Science and the glorious fact
of creation, that both man and woman proceed from
God and are His eternal children, belonging to no lesser
529:12 parent.
/Genesis/ iii. 1-3. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God [Jehovah] had 529:15 made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of 529:18 the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
Mythical serpent
529:21 Whence comes a talking, lying serpent to tempt the children of divine Love? The serpent enters into the metaphor only as evil. We have nothing in the 529:24 animal kingdom which represents the species described, - a talking serpent, - and should rejoice that evil, by whatever figure presented, contradicts itself and 529:27 has neither origin nor support in Truth and good. Seeing this, we should have faith to fight all claims of evil, be- cause we know that they are worthless and unreal.
Error or Adam
529:30 Adam, the synonym for error, stands for a belief of
material mind. He begins his reign over man some-
530:1 what mildly, but he increases in falsehood and his days
become shorter. In this development, the im-
530:3 mortal, spiritual law of Truth is made manifest
as forever opposed to mortal, material sense.
Divine providence
In divine Science, man is sustained by God, the divine
530:6 Principle of being. The earth, at God’s command, brings
forth food for man’s use. Knowing this, Jesus
once said, “Take no thought for your life,
530:9 what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink,” - presuming
not on the prerogative of his creator, but recognizing God,
the Father and Mother of all, as able to feed and clothe
530:12 man as He doth the lilies.
/Genesis/ iii. 4, 5. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day 530:15 ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Error’s assumption
This myth represents error as always asserting its su-
530:18 periority over truth, giving the lie to divine Science and
saying, through the material senses: “I can
open your eyes. I can do what God has not
530:21 done for you. Bow down to me and have another god.
Only admit that I am real, that sin and sense are more
pleasant to the eyes than spiritual Life, more to be de-
530:24 sired than Truth, and I shall know you, and you will be
mine.” Thus Spirit and flesh war.
Scriptural allegory
The history of error is a dream-narrative. The dream 530:27 has no reality, no intelligence, no mind; therefore the dreamer and dream are one, for neither is true nor real. /First/, this narrative supposes 530:30 that something springs from nothing, that matter pre- cedes mind. /Second/, it supposes that mind enters matter, 531:1 and matter becomes living, substantial, and intelligent. The order of this allegory - the belief that everything 531:3 springs from dust instead of from Deity - has been main- tained in all the subsequent forms of belief. This is the error, - that mortal man starts materially, that non- 531:6 intelligence becomes intelligence, that mind and soul are both right and wrong.
Higher hope
It is well that the upper portions of the brain represent 531:9 the higher moral sentiments, as if hope were ever prophe- sying thus: The human mind will sometime rise above all material and physical sense, ex- 531:12 changing it for spiritual perception, and exchanging hu- man concepts for the divine consciousness. Then man will recognize his God-given dominion and being.
Biological inventions
531:15 If, in the beginning, man’s body originated in non-
intelligent dust, and mind was afterwards put into body
by the creator, why is not this divine order
531:18 still maintained by God in perpetuating the
species? Who will say that minerals, vegetables, and
animals have a propagating property of their own?
531:21 Who dares to say either that God is in matter or that
matter exists without God? Has man sought out other
creative inventions, and so changed the method of his
531:24 Maker?
Which institutes Life, - matter or Mind? Does Life begin with Mind or with matter? Is Life sustained by 531:27 matter or by Spirit? Certainly not by both, since flesh wars against Spirit and the corporeal senses can take no cognizance of Spirit. The mythologic theory of mate- 531:30 rial life at no point resembles the scientifically Christian record of man as created by Mind in the image and like- ness of God and having dominion over all the earth. Did 532:1 God at first create one man unaided, - that is, Adam, - but afterwards require the union of the two sexes in order 532:3 to create the rest of the human family? No! God makes and governs all.
Progeny cursed
All human knowledge and material sense must be
532:6 gained from the five corporeal senses. Is this knowledge
safe, when eating its first fruits brought death?
“In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
532:9 surely die,” was the prediction in the story under consid-
eration. Adam and his progeny were cursed, not blessed;
and this indicates that the divine Spirit, or Father, con-
532:12 demns material man and remands him to dust.
/Genesis/ iii. 9, 10. And the Lord God [Jehovah] called
unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he
532:15 said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid,
because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Shame the effect of sin
Knowledge and pleasure, evolved through material
532:18 sense, produced the immediate fruits of fear and shame.
Ashamed before Truth, error shrank abashed
from the divine voice calling out to the cor-
532:21 poreal senses. Its summons may be thus paraphrased:
“Where art thou, man? Is Mind in matter? Is Mind
capable of error as well as of truth, of evil as well as of
532:24 good, when God is All and He is Mind and there is but
one God, hence one Mind?”
Fear comes of error
Fear was the first manifestation of the error of mate-
532:27 rial sense. Thus error began and will end the dream of
matter, In the allegory the body had been
naked, and Adam knew it not; but now error
532:30 demands that /mind/ shall see and feel through matter, the
five senses. The first impression material man had of
533:1 himself was one of nakedness and shame. Had he lost
man’s rich inheritance and God’s behest, dominion over
533:3 all the earth? No! This had never been bestowed on
Adam.
/Genesis/ iii. 11, 12. And He said, Who told thee that 533:6 thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man said, The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave 533:9 me of the tree, and I did eat.
The beguiling first lie
Here there is an attempt to trace all human errors directly or indirectly to God, or good, as if He were the 533:12 creator of evil. The allegory shows that the snake-talker utters the first voluble lie, which beguiles the woman and demoralizes the man. Adam, 533:15 /alias mortal error/, charges God and woman with his own dereliction, saying, “The woman, whom Thou gavest me, is responsible.” According to this belief, the rib taken 533:18 from Adam’s side has grown into an evil mind, named /woman/, who aids man to make sinners more rapidly than he can alone. Is this an help meet for man?
533:21 Materiality, so obnoxious to God, is already found in the rapid deterioration of the bone and flesh which came from Adam to form Eve. The belief in material life and in- 533:24 telligence is growing worse at every step, but error has its suppositional day and multiplies until the end thereof.
False womanhood
Truth, cross-questioning man as to His knowledge of 533:27 error, finds woman the first to confess her fault. She says, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat;” as much as to say in meek penitence, 533:30 “Neither man nor God shall father my fault.” She has already learned that corporeal sense is the serpent. Hence 534:1 she is first to abandon the belief in the material origin of man and to discern spiritual creation. This hereafter 534:3 enabled woman to be the mother of Jesus and to behold at the sepulchre the risen Saviour, who was soon to mani- fest the deathless man of God’s creating. This enabled 534:6 woman to be first to interpret the Scriptures in their true sense, which reveals the spiritual origin of man.
/Genesis/ iii. 14, 15. And the Lord God [Jehovah] said 534:9 unto the serpent,... I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Spirit and flesh
534:12 This prophecy has been fulfilled. The Son of the Virgin-
mother unfolded the remedy for Adam, or error; and the
Apostle Paul explains this warfare between the
534:15 idea of divine power, which Jesus presented,
and mythological material intelligence called /energy/ and
opposed to Spirit.
534:18 Paul says in his epistle to the Romans: “The carnal
mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that
534:21 are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the
flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell
in you.”
Bruising sin’s head
534:24 There will be greater mental opposition to the spirit- ual, scientific meaning of the Scriptures than there has ever been since the Christian era began. The 534:27 serpent, material sense, will bite the heel of the woman, - will struggle to destroy the spiritual idea of Love; and the woman, this idea, will bruise the head 534:30 of lust. The spiritual idea has given the understanding 535:1 a foothold in Christian Science. The seed of Truth and the seed of error, of belief and of understanding, - yea, 535:3 the seed of Spirit and the seed of matter, - are the wheat and tares which time will separate, the one to be burned, the other to be garnered into heavenly places.
535:6 /Genesis/ iii. 16. Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception: in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy 535:9 husband, and he shall rule over thee.
Judgment on error
Divine Science deals its chief blow at the supposed ma-
terial foundations of life and intelligence. It dooms idol-
535:12 atry. A belief in other gods, other creators,
and other creations must go down before Chris-
tian Science. It unveils the results of sin as shown in
535:15 sickness and death. When will man pass through the
open gate of Christian Science into the heaven of Soul,
into the heritage of the first born among men? Truth is
535:18 indeed “the way.”
/Genesis/ iii. 17-19. And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast 535:21 eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: thorns 535:24 also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field: in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it 535:27 wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
New earth and no more sea
In the first chapter of Genesis we read: “And God 535:30 called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together 536:1 of the waters called He Seas.” In the Apocalypse it is written: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for 536:3 the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.” In St. John’s vision, heaven and earth stand for spir- 536:6 itual ideas, and the sea, as a symbol of tempest-tossed human concepts advancing and receding, is represented as having passed away. The divine understanding reigns, 536:9 is /all/ and there is no other consciousness.
The fall of error
The way of error is awful to contemplate. The illu- sion of sin is without hope or God. If man’s spiritual 536:12 gravitation and attraction to one Father, in whom we “live, and move, and have our be- ing,” should be lost, and if man should be governed by 536:15 corporeality instead of divine Principle, by body instead of by Soul, man would be annihilated. Created by flesh instead of by Spirit, starting from matter instead of from 536:18 God, mortal man would be governed by himself. The blind leading the blind, both would fall.
True attainment
Passions and appetites must end in pain. They are 536:21 “of few days, and full of trouble.” Their supposed joys are cheats. Their narrow limits belittle their gratifica- tions, and hedge about their achievements with thorns. 536:24 Mortal mind accepts the erroneous, material concep- tion of life and joy, but the true idea is gained from the immortal side. Through toil, struggle, and sor- 536:27 row, what do mortals attain? They give up their belief in perishable life and happiness; the mortal and material return to dust, and the immortal is reached.
536:30 /Genesis/ iii. 22-24. And the Lord God [Jehovah] said,
Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good
537:1 and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take
also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever; therefore
537:3 the Lord God [Jehovah] sent him forth from the garden
of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
So He drove out the man: and He placed at the east
537:6 of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword
which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of
life.
Justice and recompense
537:9 A knowledge of evil was never the essence of divin-
ity or manhood. In the first chapter of Genesis, evil
has no local habitation nor name. Crea-
537:12 tion is there represented as spiritual, entire,
and good. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he
also reap.” Error excludes itself from harmony. Sin
537:15 is its own punishment. Truth guards the gateway
to harmony. Error tills its own barren soil and buries
itself in the ground, since ground and dust stand for
537:18 nothingness.
Inspired interpretation
No one can reasonably doubt that the purpose of this allegory - this second account in Genesis - is to depict 537:21 the falsity of error and the effects of error. Subsequent Bible revelation is coordinate with the Science of creation recorded in the 537:24 first chapter of Genesis. Inspired writers interpret the Word spiritually, while the ordinary historian interprets it literally. Literally taken, the text is made to appear 537:27 contradictory in some places, and divine Love, which blessed the earth and gave it to man for a possession, is represented as changeable. The literal meaning would 537:30 imply that God withheld from man the opportunity to reform, lest man should improve it and become better; but this is not the nature of God, who is Love always, - 538:1 Love infinitely wise and altogether lovely, who “seeketh not her own.”
Spiritual gateway
538:3 Truth should, and does, drive error out of all selfhood.
Truth is a two-edged sword, guarding and guiding.
Truth places the cherub wisdom at the gate
538:6 of understanding to note the proper guests.
Radiant with mercy and justice, the sword of Truth
gleams afar and indicates the infinite distance between
538:9 Truth and error, between the material and spiritual, -
the unreal and the real.
Contrasted testimony
The sun, giving light and heat to the earth, is a figure 538:12 of divine Life and Love, enlightening and sustaining the universe. The “tree of life” is significant of eternal reality or being. The “tree of knowl- 538:15 edge” typifies unreality. The testimony of the serpent is significant of the illusion of error, of the false claims that misrepresent God, good. Sin, sickness, and death have 538:18 no record in the Elohistic introduction of Genesis, in which God creates the heavens, earth, and man. Until that which contradicts the truth of being enters into the arena, 538:21 evil has no history, and evil is brought into view only as the unreal in contradistinction to the real and eternal.
/Genesis/ iv. 1. And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she
538:24 conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man
from the Lord [Jehovah].
Erroneous conception
This account is given, not of immortal man, but of mor-
538:27 tal man, and of sin which is temporal. As both mortal
man and sin have a beginning, they must
consequently have an end, while the sinless,
538:30 real man is eternal. Eve’s declaration, “I have gotten
a man from the Lord,” supposes God to be the author
539:1 of sin and sin’s progeny. This false sense of existence
is fratricidal. In the words of Jesus, it (evil, devil) is
539:3 “a murderer from the beginning.” Error begins by
reckoning life as separate from Spirit, thus sapping the
foundations of immortality, as if life and immortality
539:6 were something which matter can both give and take
away.
Only one standard
What can be the standard of good, of Spirit, of Life, 539:9 or of Truth, if they produce their opposites, such as evil, matter, error, and death? God could never impart an element of evil, and man possesses 539:12 nothing which he has not derived from God. How then has man a basis for wrong-doing? Whence does he obtain the propensity or power to do evil? Has Spirit 539:15 resigned to matter the government of the universe?
A type of falsehood
The Scriptures declare that God condemned this lie as
to man’s origin and character by condemning its symbol,
539:18 the serpent, to grovel beneath all the beasts
of the field. It is false to say that Truth and
error commingle in creation. In parable and argument,
539:21 this falsity is exposed by our Master as self-evidently
wrong. Disputing these points with the Pharisees and
arguing for the Science of creation, Jesus said: “Do men
539:24 gather grapes of thorns?” Paul asked: “What com-
munion hath light with darkness? And what concord
hath Christ with Belial?”
Scientific offspring
539:27 The divine origin of Jesus gave him more than human
power to expound the facts of creation, and demonstrate
the one Mind which makes and governs man
539:30 and the universe. The Science of creation,
so conspicuous in the birth of Jesus inspired his wisest
and least-understood sayings, and was the basis of his
540:1 marvellous demonstrations. Christ is the offspring of
Spirit, and spiritual existence shows that Spirit creates
540:3 neither a wicked nor a mortal man, lapsing into sin, sick-
ness, and death.
Cleansing upheaval
In Isaiah we read: “I make peace, and create evil. I 540:6 the Lord do all these things;” but the prophet referred to divine law as stirring up the belief in evil to its utmost, when bringing it to the surface and re- 540:9 ducing it to its common denominator, nothingness. The muddy river-bed must be stirred in order to purify the stream. In moral chemicalization, when the symptoms 540:12 of evil, illusion, are aggravated, we may think in our igno- rance that the Lord hath wrought an evil; but we ought to know that God’s law uncovers so-called sin and its 540:15 effects, only that Truth may annihilate all sense of evil and all power to sin.
Allegiance to Spirit
Science renders “unto Caesar the things which are
540:18 Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” It
saith to the human sense of sin, sickness, and
death, “God never made you, and you are a
540:21 false sense which hath no knowledge of God.” The pur-
pose of the Hebrew allegory, representing error as assum-
ing a divine character, is to teach mortals never to believe
540:24 a lie.
/Genesis/ iv. 3, 4. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord [Jehovah]. And Abel, he also 540:27 brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof.
Spiritual and material
Cain is the type of mortal and material man, conceived in sin and “shapen in iniquity;” he is not the 540:30 type of Truth and Love. Material in origin and sense, he brings a material offering to God. Abel 541:1 takes his offering from the firstlings of the flock. A lamb is a more animate form of existence, and more nearly re- 541:3 sembles a mind-offering than does Cain’s fruit. Jealous of his brother’s gift, Cain seeks Abel’s life, instead of mak- ing his own gift a higher tribute to the Most High.
541:6 /Genesis/ iv. 4, 5. And the Lord [Jehovah] had respect
unto Abel, and to his offering: but unto Cain, and to his
offering, He had not respect.
541:9 Had God more respect for the homage bestowed through
a gentle animal than for the worship expressed by Cain’s
fruit? No; but the lamb was a more spiritual type of
541:12 even the human concept of Love than the herbs of the
ground could be.
/Genesis/ iv. 8. Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and 541:15 slew him.
The erroneous belief that life, substance, and intelli-
gence can be material ruptures the life and brotherhood
541:18 of man at the very outset.
/Genesis/ iv. 9. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto Cain,
Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am
541:21 I my brother’s keeper?
Brotherhood repudiated
Here the serpentine lie invents new forms. At first it
usurps divine power. It is supposed to say
541:24 in the first instance, “Ye shall be as gods.”
Now it repudiates even the human duty of man towards
his brother.
541:27 /Genesis/ iv. 10, 11. And He [Jehovah] said,... The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth.
Murder brings its curse
542:1 The belief of life in matter sins at every step. It in-
curs divine displeasure, and it would kill Jesus that it
542:3 might be rid of troublesome Truth. Material
beliefs would slay the spiritual idea when-
ever and wherever it appears. Though error hides
542:6 behind a lie and excuses guilt, error cannot forever be
concealed. Truth, through her eternal laws, unveils
error. Truth causes sin to betray itself, and sets upon
542:9 error the mark of the beast. Even the disposition to
excuse guilt or to conceal it is punished. The avoidance
of justice and the denial of truth tend to perpetuate sin,
542:12 invoke crime, jeopardize self-control, and mock divine
mercy.
/Genesis/ iv. 15. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto him 542:15 Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord [Jehovah] set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
Retribution and remorse
542:18 “They that take the sword shall perish with the
sword.” Let Truth uncover and destroy error in God’s
own way, and let human justice pattern the
542:21 divine. Sin will receive its full penalty, both
for what it is and for what it does. Justice marks
the sinner, and teaches mortals not to remove the
542:24 waymarks of God. To envy’s own hell, justice con-
signs the lie which, to advance itself, breaks God’s
commandments.
542:27 /Genesis/ iv. 16. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord [Jehovah], and dwelt in the land of Nod.
Climax of suffering
The sinful misconception of Life as something less
543:1 than God, having no truth to support it, falls back upon
itself. This error, after reaching the climax of suffering,
543:3 yields to Truth and returns to dust; but it
is only mortal man and not the real man,
who dies. The image of Spirit cannot be effaced, since it
543:6 is the idea of Truth and changes not, but becomes more
beautifully apparent at error’s demise.
Dwelling in dreamland
In divine Science, the material man is shut out from
543:9 the presence of God. The five corporeal senses cannot
take cognizance of Spirit. They cannot come
into His presence, and must dwell in dream-
543:12 land, until mortals arrive at the understanding that ma-
terial life, with all its sin, sickness, and death, is an illu-
sion, against which divine Science is engaged in a warfare
543:15 of extermination. The great verities of existence are
never excluded by falsity.
Man springs from Mind
All error proceeds from the evidence before the mate-
543:18 rial senses. If man is material and originates in an
egg, who shall say that he is not primarily
dust? May not Darwin be right in think-
543:21 ing that apehood preceded mortal manhood? Minerals
and vegetables are found, according to divine Science,
to be the creations of erroneous thought, not of matter.
543:24 Did man, whom God created with a word, originate
in an egg? When Spirit made all, did it leave aught
for matter to create? Ideas of Truth alone are reflected
543:27 in the myriad manifestations of Life, and thus it is
seen that man springs solely from Mind. The belief
that matter supports life would make Life, or God,
543:30 mortal.
Material inception
The text, “In the day that the Lord God [Jehovah
God] made the earth and the heavens,” introduces the
544:1 record of a material creation which followed the spiritual,
- a creation so wholly apart from God’s, that Spirit
544:3 had no participation in it. In God’s creation
ideas became productive, obedient to Mind.
There was no rain and “not a man to till the ground.”
544:6 Mind, instead of matter, being the producer, Life was
self-sustained. Birth, decay, and death arise from the
material sense of things, not from the spiritual, for in
544:9 the latter Life consisteth not of the things which a man
eateth. Matter cannot change the eternal fact that
man exists because God exists. Nothing is new to the
544:12 infinite Mind.
First evil suggestion
In Science, Mind neither produces matter nor does
matter produce mind. No mortal mind has the might
544:15 or right or wisdom to create or to destroy.
All is under the control of the one Mind,
even God. The first statement about evil, - the first
544:18 suggestion of more than the one Mind, - is in the fable
of the serpent. The facts of creation, as previously re-
corded, include nothing of the kind.
Material personality
544:21 The serpent is supposed to say, “Ye shall be as gods,”
but these gods must be evolved from materiality and be
the very antipodes of immortal and spiritual
544:24 being. Man is the likeness of Spirit, but a
material personality is not this likeness. Therefore man,
in this allegory, is neither a lesser god nor the image and
544:27 likeness of the one God.
Material, erroneous belief reverses understanding and
truth. It declares mind to be in and of matter, so-called
544:30 mortal life to be Life, infinity to enter man’s nostrils
so that matter becomes spiritual. Error begins with
corporeality as the producer instead of divine Prin-
545:1 ciple, and explains Deity through mortal and finite con-
ceptions.
545:3 “Behold, the man is become as one of us.” This could
not be the utterance of Truth or Science, for according
to the record, material man was fast degenerating and
545:6 never had been divinely conceived.
Mental tillage
The condemnation of mortals to till the ground means this, - that mortals should so improve material belief 545:9 by thought tending spiritually upward as to destroy materiality. Man, created by God, was given dominion over the whole earth. The notion 545:12 of a material universe is utterly opposed to the theory of man as evolved from Mind. Such fundamental errors send falsity into all human doctrines and conclusions, 545:15 and do not accord infinity to Deity. Error tills the whole ground in this material theory, which is entirely a false view, destructive to existence and happiness. Out- 545:18 side of Christian Science all is vague and hypothetical, the opposite of Truth; yet this opposite, in its false view of God and man, impudently demands a blessing.
Erroneous standpoint
545:21 The translators of this record of scientific creation
entertained a false sense of being. They believed in
the existence of matter, its propagation and
545:24 power. From that standpoint of error, they
could not apprehend the nature and operation of Spirit.
Hence the seeming contradiction in that Scripture, which
545:27 is so glorious in its spiritual signification. Truth has
but one reply to all error, - to sin, sickness, and death:
“Dust [nothingness] thou art, and unto dust [nothingness]
545:30 shalt thou return.”
Mortality mythical
“As in Adam [error] all die, even so in Christ [Truth]
shall all be made alive.” The mortality of man is a
546:1 myth, for man is immortal. The false belief that spirit is
now submerged in matter, at some future time to be eman-
546:3 cipated from it, - this belief alone is mortal.
Spirit, God, never germinates, but is “the same
yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” If Mind, God, cre-
546:6 ates error, that error must exist in the divine Mind, and
this assumption of error would dethrone the perfection
of Deity.
No truth from a material basis
546:9 Is Christian Science contradictory? Is the divine
Principle of creation misstated? Has God no Science to
declare Mind, while matter is governed by un-
546:12 erring intelligence? “There went up a mist
from the earth.” This represents error as
starting from an idea of good on a material basis. It
546:15 supposes God and man to be manifested only through
the corporeal senses, although the material senses can
take no cognizance of Spirit or the spiritual idea.
546:18 Genesis and the Apocalypse seem more obscure than
other portions of the Scripture, because they cannot
possibly be interpreted from a material standpoint. To
546:21 the author, they are transparent, for they contain the deep
divinity of the Bible.
Dawning of spiritual facts
Christian Science is dawning upon a material age.
546:24 The great spiritual facts of being, like rays of light, shine
in the darkness, though the darkness, com-
prehending them not, may deny their reality.
546:27 The proof that the system stated in this book is Chris-
tianly scientific resides in the good this system accom-
plishes, for it cures on a divine demonstrable Principle
546:30 which all may understand.
Proof given in healing
If mathematics should present a thousand different examples of one rule, the proving of one example would 547:1 authenticate all the others. A simple statement of Chris- tian Science, if demonstrated by healing, contains the 547:3 proof of all here said of Christian Science. If one of the statements in this book is true, every one must be true, for not one departs from the stated sys- 547:6 tem and rule. You can prove for yourself, dear reader, the Science of healing, and so ascertain if the author has given you the correct interpretation of Scripture.
Embryonic evolution
547:9 The late Louis Agassiz, by his microscopic examination of a vulture’s ovum, strengthens the thinker’s conclusions as to the scientific theory of creation. Agassiz 547:12 was able to see in the egg the earth’s atmos- phere, the gathering clouds, the moon and stars, while the germinating speck of so-called embryonic life seemed a 547:15 small sun. In its history of mortality, Darwin’s theory of evolution from a material basis is more consistent than most theories. Briefly, this is Darwin’s theory, - that 547:18 Mind produces its opposite, matter, and endues matter with power to recreate the universe, including man. Ma- terial evolution implies that the great First Cause must 547:21 become material, and afterwards must either return to Mind or go down into dust and nothingness.
True theory of the universe
The Scriptures are very sacred. Our aim must be to
547:24 have them understood spiritually, for only by this under-
standing can truth be gained. The true the-
ory of the universe, including man, is not in
547:27 material history but in spiritual development.
Inspired thought relinquishes a material, sensual, and
mortal theory of the universe, and adopts the spiritual and
547:30 immortal.
Scriptural perception
It is this spiritual perception of Scripture, which lifts
humanity out of disease and death and inspires faith.
548:1 “The Spirit and the bride say, Come!... and whoso-
ever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Christian
548:3 Science separates error from truth, and breathes
through the sacred pages the spiritual sense of
life, substance, and intelligence. In this Science, we dis-
548:6 cover man in the image and likeness of God. We see that
man has never lost his spiritual estate and his eternal
harmony.
The clouds dissolving
548:9 How little light or heat reach our earth when clouds cover the sun’s face! So Christian Science can be seen only as the clouds of corporeal sense roll away. 548:12 Earth has little light or joy for mortals before Life is spiritually learned. Every agony of mortal error helps error to destroy error, and so aids the apprehension 548:15 of immortal Truth. This is the new birth going on hourly, by which men may entertain angels, the true ideas of God, the spiritual sense of being.
Prediction of a naturalist
548:18 Speaking of the origin of mortals, a famous naturalist says: “It is very possible that many general statements now current, about birth and generation, will 548:21 be changed with the progress of information.” Had the naturalist, through his tireless researches, gained the diviner side in Christian Science, - so far apart from 548:24 his material sense of animal growth and organization, - he would have blessed the human race more abundantly.
Methods of reproduction
Natural history is richly endowed by the labors and 548:27 genius of great men. Modern discoveries have brought to light important facts in regard to so-called embryonic life. Agassiz declares (“Methods 548:30 of Study in Natural History,”) “Certain ani- mals, besides the ordinary process of generation, also increase their numbers naturally and constantly by self- 549:1 division.” This discovery is corroborative of the Science of Mind, for this discovery shows that the multiplication 549:3 of certain animals takes place apart from sexual condi- tions. The supposition that life germinates in eggs and must decay after it has grown to maturity, if not before, 549:6 is shown by divine metaphysics to be a mistake, - a blunder which will finally give place to higher theories and demonstrations.
The three processes
549:9 Creatures of lower forms of organism are supposed to have, as classes, three different methods of reproduc- tion and to multiply their species sometimes 549:12 through eggs, sometimes through buds, and sometimes through self-division. According to recent lore, successive generations do not begin with the /birth/ of 549:15 new individuals, or personalities, but with the formation of the nucleus, or egg, from which one or more individu- alities subsequently emerge; and we must therefore look 549:18 upon the simple ovum as the germ, the starting-point, of the most complicated corporeal structures, including those which we call human. Here these material researches 549:21 culminate in such vague hypotheses as must necessarily attend false systems, which rely upon physics and are de- void of metaphysics.
Deference to material law
549:24 In one instance a celebrated naturalist, Agassiz, dis-
covers the pathway leading to divine Science, and beards
the lion of materialism in its den. At that
549:27 point, however, even this great observer mis-
takes nature, forsakes Spirit as the divine origin of
creative Truth, and allows matter and material law to
549:30 usurp the prerogatives of omnipotence. He absolutely
drops from his summit, coming down to a belief in the
material origin of man, for he virtually affirms that
550:1 the germ of humanity is in a circumscribed and non-
intelligent egg.
Deep-reaching interrogations
550:3 If this be so, whence cometh Life, or Mind, to the
human race? Matter surely does not possess Mind.
God is the Life, or intelligence, which forms
550:6 and preserves the individuality and identity
of animals as well as of men. God cannot
become finite, and be limited within material bounds.
550:9 Spirit cannot become matter, nor can Spirit be developed
through its opposite. Of what avail is it to investigate
what is miscalled material life, which ends, even as it be-
550:12 gins, in nameless nothingness? The true sense of being
and its eternal perfection should appear now, even as it
will hereafter.
Stages of existence
550:15 Error of thought is reflected in error of action. The
continual contemplation of existence as material and cor-
poreal - as beginning and ending, and with
550:18 birth, decay, and dissolution as its component
stages - hides the true and spiritual Life, and causes
our standard to trail in the dust. If Life has any starting-
550:21 point whatsoever, then the great I AM is a myth. If Life
is God, as the Scriptures imply, then Life is not embry-
onic, it is infinite. An egg is an impossible enclosure for
550:24 Deity.
Embryology supplies no instance of one species pro- ducing its opposite. A serpent never begets a bird, nor 550:27 does a lion bring forth a lamb. Amalgamation is deemed monstrous and is seldom fruitful, but it is not so hideous and absurd as the supposition that Spirit - the pure and 550:30 holy, the immutable and immortal - can originate the impure and mortal and dwell in it. As Christian Science repudiates self-evident impossibilities, the material senses 551:1 must father these absurdities, for both the material senses and their reports are unnatural, impossible, and unreal.
The real producer
551:3 Either Mind produces, or it is produced. If Mind is first, it cannot produce its opposite in quality and quantity, called matter. If matter is first, it cannot pro- 551:6 duce Mind. Like produces like. In natural history, the bird is not the product of a beast. In spiritual history, matter is not the progenitor of Mind.
The ascent of species
551:9 One distinguished naturalist argues that mortals spring
from eggs and in races. Mr. Darwin admits this, but he
adds that mankind has ascended through all
551:12 the lower grades of existence. Evolution de-
scribes the gradations of human belief, but it does not
acknowledge the method of divine Mind, nor see that ma-
551:15 terial methods are impossible in divine Science and that
all Science is of God, not of man.
Transmitted peculiarities
Naturalists ask: “What can there be, of a material 551:18 nature, transmitted through these bodies called eggs, - themselves composed of the simplest material elements, - by which all peculiarities of an- 551:21 cestry, belonging to either sex, are brought down from generation to generation?” The question of the natu- ralist amounts to this: How can matter originate or trans- 551:24 mit mind? We answer that it cannot. Darkness and doubt encompass thought, so long as it bases creation on materiality. From a material standpoint, “Canst thou 551:27 by searching find out God?” All must be Mind, or else all must be matter. Neither can produce the other. Mind is immortal; but error declares that the material 551:30 seed must decay in order to propagate its species, and the resulting germ is doomed to the same routine.
Causation not in matter
The ancient and hypothetical question, Which is first,
552:1 the egg or the bird? is answered, if the egg produces the
parent. But we cannot stop here. Another question
552:3 follows: Who or what produces the parent of
the egg? That the earth was hatched from the
“egg of night” was once an accepted theory. Heathen
552:6 philosophy, modern geology, and all other material hy-
potheses deal with causation as contingent on matter
and as necessarily apparent to the corporeal senses, even
552:9 where the proof requisite to sustain this assumption is un-
discovered. Mortal theories make friends of sin, sickness,
and death; whereas the spiritual scientific facts of exist-
552:12 ence include no member of this dolorous and fatal triad.
Emergence of mortals
Human experience in mortal life, which starts from an egg, corresponds with that of Job, when he says, “Man 552:15 that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.” Mortals must emerge from this notion of material life as all-in-all. They must peck 552:18 open their shells with Christian Science, and look outward and upward. But thought, loosened from a material basis but not yet instructed by Science, may become wild 552:21 with freedom and so be self-contradictory.
Persistence of species
From a material source flows no remedy for sorrow, sin, and death, for the redeeming power, from the ills 552:24 they occasion, is not in egg nor in dust. The blending tints of leaf and flower show the order of matter to be the order of mortal mind. The 552:27 intermixture of different species, urged to its utmost limits, results in a return to the original species. Thus it is learned that matter is a manifestation of mortal 552:30 mind, and that matter always surrenders its claims when the perfect and eternal Mind is understood.
Better basis than embryology
Naturalists describe the origin of mortal and material
553:1 existence in the various forms of embryology, and ac-
company their descriptions with important observations,
553:3 which should awaken thought to a higher and
purer contemplation of man’s origin. This
clearer consciousness must precede an under-
553:6 standing of the harmony of being. Mortal thought must
obtain a better basis, get nearer the truth of being, or
health will never be universal, and harmony will never
553:9 become the standard of man.
One of our ablest naturalists has said: “We have no
right to assume that individuals have grown or been
553:12 formed under circumstances which made material con-
ditions essential to their maintenance and reproduction,
or important to their origin and first introduction.”
553:15 Why, then, is the naturalist’s basis so materialistic,
and why are his deductions generally material?
All nativity in thought
Adam was created before Eve. In this instance, it is
553:18 seen that the maternal egg never brought forth Adam.
Eve was formed from Adam’s rib, not from a
foetal ovum. Whatever theory may be adopted
553:21 by general mortal thought to account for human origin,
that theory is sure to become the signal for the appear-
ance of its method in finite forms and operations. If con-
553:24 sentaneous human belief agrees upon an ovum as the
point of emergence for the human race, this potent belief
will immediately supersede the more ancient supersti-
553:27 tion about the creation from dust or from the rib of our
primeval father.
Being is immortal
You may say that mortals are formed before they 553:30 think or know aught of their origin, and you may also ask how belief can affect a result which precedes the development of that belief. It can 554:1 only be replied, that Christian Science reveals what “eye hath not seen,” - even the cause of all that exists, - for 554:3 the universe, inclusive of man, is as eternal as God, who is its divine immortal Principle. There is no such thing as mortality, nor are there properly any mortal beings, 554:6 because being is immortal, like Deity, - or, rather, being and Deity are inseparable.
Our conscious development
Error is always error. It is /no thing/. Any statement 554:9 of life, following from a misconception of life, is errone- ous, because it is destitute of any knowledge of the so-called selfhood of life, destitute of 554:12 any knowledge of its origin or existence. The mortal is unconscious of his foetal and infantile existence; but as he grows up into another false claim, that of self-con- 554:15 scious matter, he learns to say, “I am somebody; but who made me?” Error replies, “God made you.” The first effort of error has been and is to impute to God the 554:18 creation of whatever is sinful and mortal; but infinite Mind sets at naught such a mistaken belief.
Mendacity of error
Jesus defined this opposite of God and His creation
554:21 better than we can, when he said, “He is a liar, and the
father of it.” Jesus also said, “Have not I
chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?”
554:24 This he said of Judas, one of Adam’s race. Jesus never
intimated that God made a devil, but he did say, “Ye
are of your father, the devil.” All these sayings were to
554:27 show that mind in matter is the author of itself, and is
simply a falsity and illusion.
Ailments of animals
It is the general belief that the lower animals are less 554:30 sickly than those possessing higher organiza- tions, especially those of the human form. This would indicate that there is less disease in propor- 555:1 tion as the force of mortal mind is less pungent or sensi- tive, and that health attends the absence of mortal mind. 555:3 A fair conclusion from this might be, that it is the human belief, and not the divine arbitrament, which brings the physical organism under the yoke of disease.
Ignorance the sign of error
555:6 An inquirer once said to the discoverer of Christian
Science: “I like your explanations of truth, but I do
not comprehend what you say about error.”
555:9 This is the nature of error. The mark of igno-
rance is on its forehead, for it neither understands nor
can be understood. Error would have itself received as
555:12 mind, as if it were as real and God-created as truth; but
Christian Science attributes to error neither entity nor
power, because error is neither mind nor the outcome of
555:15 Mind.
The origin of divinity
Searching for the origin of man, who is the reflection of God, is like inquiring into the origin of God, the self- 555:18 existent and eternal. Only impotent error would seek to unite Spirit with matter, good with evil, immortality with mortality, and call this 555:21 sham unity /man/, as if man were the offspring of both Mind and matter, of both Deity and humanity. Crea- tion rests on a spiritual basis. We lose our standard of 555:24 perfection and set aside the proper conception of Deity, when we admit that the perfect is the author of aught that can become imperfect, that God bestows the power 555:27 to sin, or that Truth confers the ability to err. Our great example, Jesus, could restore the individualized manifestation of existence, which seemed to vanish in 555:30 death. Knowing that God was the Life of man, Jesus was able to present himself unchanged after the cruci- fixion. Truth fosters the idea of Truth, and not the be- 556:1 lief in illusion or error. That which is real, is sustained by Spirit.
Genera classified
556:3 Vertebrata, articulata, mollusca, and radiata are mor-
tal and material concepts classified, and are supposed to
possess life and mind. These false beliefs
556:6 will disappear, when the radiation of Spirit
destroys forever all belief in intelligent matter. Then
will the new heaven and new earth appear, for the for-
556:9 mer things will have passed away.
The Christian’s privilege
Mortal belief infolds the conditions of sin. Mortal
belief dies to live again in renewed forms, only to go out
556:12 at last forever; for life everlasting is not to be
gained by dying. Christian Science may ab-
sorb the attention of sage and philosopher, but
556:15 the Christian alone can fathom it. It is made known
most fully to him who understands best the divine Life.
Did the origin and the enlightenment of the race come
556:18 from the deep sleep which fell upon Adam? Sleep is
darkness, but God’s creative mandate was, “Let there be
light.” In sleep, cause and effect are mere illusions.
556:21 They seem to be something, but are not. Oblivion and
dreams, not realities, come with sleep. Even so goes on
the Adam-belief, of which mortal and material life is the
556:24 dream.
Ontology /versus/ physiology
Ontology receives less attention than physiology. Why?
Because mortal mind must waken to spiritual
556:27 life before it cares to solve the problem of
being, hence the author’s experience; but when
that awakening comes, existence will be on a new stand-
556:30 point.
It is related that a father plunged his infant babe, only
a few hours old, into the water for several minutes, and
557:1 repeated this operation daily, until the child could remain
under water twenty minutes, moving and playing with-
557:3 out harm, like a fish. Parents should remember this
and learn how to develop their children properly on dry
land.
The curse removed
557:6 Mind controls the birth-throes in the lower realms of nature, where parturition is without suffering. Vege- tables, minerals, and many animals suffer no 557:9 pain in multiplying; but human propagation has its suffering because it is a false belief. Christian Sci- ence reveals harmony as proportionately increasing as the 557:12 line of creation rises towards spiritual man, - towards enlarged understanding and intelligence; but in the line of the corporeal senses, the less a mortal knows of sin, 557:15 disease, and mortality, the better for him, - the less pain and sorrow are his. When the mist of mortal mind evap- orates, the curse will be removed which says to woman, 557:18 “In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children.” Divine Science rolls back the clouds of error with the light of Truth, and lifts the curtain on man as never born and as 557:21 never dying, but as coexistent with his creator.
Popular theology takes up the history of man as if he
began materially right, but immediately fell into mental
557:24 sin; whereas revealed religion proclaims the Science of
Mind and its formations as being in accordance with
the first chapter of the Old Testament, when God, Mind,
557:27 spake and it was done.