487:3 Life is deathless. Life is the origin and ultimate of man, never attainable through death, but gained by walk- ing in the pathway of Truth both before and 487:6 after that which is called death. There is more Christianity in seeing and hearing spiritually than materially. There is more Science in the perpetual 487:9 exercise of the Mind-faculties than in their loss. Lost they cannot be, while Mind remains. The apprehension of this gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf cen- 487:12 turies ago, and it will repeat the wonder.
Understanding _versus_ belief
_Question_. – You speak of belief. Who or what is it that believes?
487:15 _Answer_. – Spirit is all-knowing; this precludes the need of believing. Matter cannot believe, and Mind understands. The body cannot believe. The 487:18 believer and belief are one and are mortal. Christian evidence is founded on Science or demonstrable Truth, flowing from immortal Mind, and 487:21 there is in reality no such thing as _mortal_ mind. Mere belief is blindness without Principle from which to ex- plain the reason of its hope. The belief that life is sen- 487:24 tient and intelligent matter is erroneous.
The Apostle James said, “Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.” 487:27 The understanding that Life is God, Spirit, lengthens our days by strengthening our trust in the deathless reality of Life, its almightiness and immortality.
Confirmation by healing
487:30 This faith relies upon an understood Principle. This Principle makes whole the diseased, and brings out the 488:1 enduring and harmonious phases of things. The result of our teachings is their sufficient confirmation. When, 488:3 on the strength of these instructions, you are able to banish a severe malady, the cure shows that you understand this teaching, and therefore you re- 488:6 ceive the blessing of Truth.
Belief and firm trust
The Hebrew and Greek words often translated _belief_ differ somewhat in meaning from that conveyed by the 488:9 English verb _believe_; they have more the sig- nificance of faith, understanding, trust, con- stancy, firmness. Hence the Scriptures often appear in 488:12 our common version to approve and endorse belief, when they mean to enforce the necessity of understanding.
All faculties from Mind
_Question_. – Do the five corporeal senses constitute 488:15 man?
_Answer_. – Christian Science sustains with immortal proof the impossibility of any material sense, and defines 488:18 these so-called senses as _mortal beliefs_, the testimony of which cannot be true either of man or of his Maker. The corporeal senses can take no 488:21 cognizance of spiritual reality and immortality. Nerves have no more sensation, apart from what belief be- stows upon them, than the fibres of a plant. Mind alone 488:24 possesses all faculties, perception, and comprehension. Therefore mental endowments are not at the mercy of organization and decomposition, – otherwise the very 488:27 worms could unfashion man. If it were possible for the real senses of man to be injured, Soul could reproduce them in all their perfection; but they cannot be dis- 488:30 turbed nor destroyed, since they exist in immortal Mind, not in matter.
Possibilities of Life
489:1 The less mind there is manifested in matter the better. When the unthinking lobster loses its claw, the claw grows 489:3 again. If the Science of Life were understood, it would be found that the senses of Mind are never lost and that matter has no sensation. Then the 489:6 human limb would be replaced as readily as the lobster’s claw, – not with an artificial limb, but with the genuine one. Any hypothesis which supposes life to be in matter 489:9 is an educated belief. In infancy this belief is not equal to guiding the hand to the mouth; and as consciousness develops, this belief goes out, – yields to the reality of 489:12 everlasting Life.
Decalogue disregarded
Corporeal sense defrauds and lies; it breaks all the commands of the Mosaic Decalogue to meet its own de- 489:15 mands. How then can this sense be the God- given channel to man of divine blessings or understanding? How can man, reflecting God, be de- 489:18 pendent on material means for knowing, hearing, seeing? Who dares to say that the senses of man can be at one time the medium for sinning against God, at another the me- 489:21 dium for obeying God? An affirmative reply would con- tradict the Scripture, for the same fountain sendeth not forth sweet waters and bitter.
Organic construction valueless
489:24 The corporeal senses are the only source of evil or error. Christian Science shows them to be false, be- cause matter has no sensation, and no organic 489:27 construction can give it hearing and sight nor make it the medium of Mind. Outside the material sense of things, all is harmony. A wrong sense 489:30 of God, man, and creation is _non-sense_, want of sense. Mortal belief would have the material senses sometimes good and sometimes bad. It assures mortals that there 490:1 is real pleasure in sin; but the grand truths of Christian Science dispute this error.
Will-power an animal propensity
490:3 Will-power is but a product of belief, and this belief commits depredations on harmony. Human will is an animal propensity, not a faculty of Soul. 490:6 Hence it cannot govern man aright. Chris- tian Science reveals Truth and Love as the motive-powers of man. Will – blind, stubborn, and head- 490:9 long – cooperates with appetite and passion. From this cooperation arises its evil. From this also comes its pow- erlessness, since all power belongs to God, good.
Theories helpless
490:12 The Science of Mind needs to be understood. Until it is understood, mortals are more or less deprived of Truth. Human theories are helpless to make 490:15 man harmonious or immortal, since he is so already, according to Christian Science. Our only need is to know this and reduce to practice the real man’s di- 490:18 vine Principle, Love
True nature and origin
“Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings.” Human belief – or knowledge gained from the so-called 490:21 material senses – would, by fair logic, anni- hilate man along with the dissolving elements of clay. The scientifically Christian explanations of the 490:24 nature and origin of man destroy all material sense with immortal testimony. This immortal testimony ushers in the spiritual sense of being, which can be obtained 490:27 in no other way.
Sleep an illusion
Sleep and mesmerism explain the mythical nature of material sense. Sleep shows material sense as either 490:30 oblivion, nothingness, or an illusion or dream. Under the mesmeric illusion of belief, a man will think that he is freezing when he is warm, and that he 491:1 is swimming when he is on dry land. Needle-thrusts will not hurt him. A delicious perfume will seem intolerable. 491:3 Animal magnetism thus uncovers material sense, and shows it to be a belief without actual foundation or va- lidity. Change the belief, and the sensation changes. 491:6 Destroy the belief, and the sensation disappears.
Man linked with Spirit
Material man is made up of involuntary and voluntary error, of a negative right and a positive wrong, the latter 491:9 calling itself right. Man’s spiritual individual- ity is never wrong. It is the likeness of man’s Maker. Matter cannot connect mortals with the true 491:12 origin and facts of being, in which all must end. It is only by acknowledging the supremacy of Spirit, which annuls the claims of matter, that mortals can lay off mortality and 491:15 find the indissoluble spiritual link which establishes man forever in the divine likeness, inseparable from his creator.
Material man as a dream
The belief that matter and mind are one, – that mat- 491:18 ter is awake at one time and asleep at another, some- times presenting no appearance of mind, – this belief culminates in another belief, that 491:21 man dies. Science reveals material man as never the real being. The dream or belief goes on, whether our eyes are closed or open. In sleep, memory and consciousness are 491:24 lost from the body, and they wander whither they will apparently with their own separate embodiment. Per- sonality is not the individuality of man. A wicked man 491:27 may have an attractive personality.
Spiritual existence the one fact
When we are awake, we dream of the pains and pleas- ures of matter. Who will say, even though he 491:30 does not understand Christian Science, that this dream – rather than the dreamer – may not be mortal man? Who can rationally say otherwise, 492:1 when the dream leaves mortal man intact in body and thought, although the so-called dreamer is unconscious? 492:3 For right reasoning there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence. In reality there is no other existence, since Life cannot be united to its 492:6 unlikeness, mortality.
Mind one and all
Being is holiness, harmony, immortality. It is already proved that a knowledge of this, even in small degree, 492:9 will uplift the physical and moral standard of mortals, will increase longevity, will purify and elevate character. Thus progress will finally destroy 492:12 all error, and bring immortality to light. We know that a statement proved to be good must be correct. New thoughts are constantly obtaining the floor. These two 492:15 contradictory theories – that matter is something, or that all is Mind – will dispute the ground, until one is acknowledged to be the victor. Discussing his cam- 492:18 paign, General Grant said: “I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer.” Science says: All is Mind and Mind’s idea. You must fight it out on this 492:21 line. Matter can afford you no aid.
Scientific ultimatum
The notion that mind and matter commingle in the human illusion as to sin, sickness, and death must even- 492:24 tually submit to the Science of Mind, which denies this notion. _God is Mind, and God is infinite; hence all is Mind_. On this statement rests the 492:27 Science of being, and the Principle of this Science is di- vine, demonstrating harmony and immortality.
Victory for Truth
The conservative theory, long believed, is that there 492:30 are two factors, matter and mind, uniting on some im- possible basis. This theory would keep truth and error always at war. Victory would perch on neither banner. 493:1 On the other hand, Christian Science speedily shows Truth to be triumphant. To corporeal sense, the sun 493:3 appears to rise and set, and the earth to stand still; but astronomical science contradicts this, and explains the solar system as working on a differ- 493:6 ent plan. All the evidence of physical sense and all the knowledge obtained from physical sense must yield to Science, to the immortal truth of all things.
Mental preparation
493:9 _Question_, – Will you explain sickness and show how it is to be healed?
_Answer_. – The method of Christian Science Mind-heal- 493:12 ing is touched upon in a previous chapter entitled Christian Science Practice. A full answer to the above question involves teaching, which enables the 493:15 healer to demonstrate and prove for himself the Principle and rule of Christian Science or metaphysical healing.
Mind destroys all ills
Mind must be found superior to all the beliefs of the 493:18 five corporeal senses, and able to destroy all ills. Sick- ness is a belief, which must be annihilated by the divine Mind. Disease is an experience of 493:21 so-called mortal mind. It is fear made manifest on the body. Christian Science takes away this physical sense of discord, just as it removes any other sense of moral or 493:24 mental inharmony. That man is material, and that mat- ter suffers, – these propositions can only seem real and natural in illusion. Any sense of soul in matter is not the 493:27 reality of being.
If Jesus awakened Lazarus from the dream, illusion, of death, this proved that the Christ could improve on a false 493:30 sense. Who dares to doubt this consummate test of the power and willingness of divine Mind to hold man forever 494:1 intact in his perfect state, and to govern man’s entire action? Jesus said: “Destroy this temple [body], and 494:3 in three days I [Mind] will raise it up;” and he did this for tired humanity’s reassurance.
Inexhaustible divine Love
Is it not a species of infidelity to believe that so great 494:6 a work as the Messiah’s was done for himself or for God, who needed no help from Jesus’ example to preserve the eternal harmony? But mortals 494:9 did need this help, and Jesus pointed the way for them. Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need. It is not well to imagine that Jesus demon- 494:12 strated the divine power to heal only for a select number or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies all good.
Reason and Science
494:15 The miracle of grace is no miracle to Love. Jesus demonstrated the inability of corporeality, as well as the infinite ability of Spirit, thus helping erring 494:18 human sense to flee from its own convictions and seek safety in divine Science. Reason, rightly di- rected, serves to correct the errors of corporeal sense; but 494:21 sin, sickness, and death will seem real (even as the ex- periences of the sleeping dream seem real) until the Sci- ence of man’s eternal harmony breaks their illusion with 494:24 the unbroken reality of scientific being.
Which of these two theories concerning man are you ready to accept? One is the mortal testimony, changing, 494:27 dying, unreal. The other is the eternal and real evidence, bearing Truth’s signet, its lap piled high with immortal fruits.
Followers of Jesus
494:30 Our Master cast out devils (evils) and healed the sick. It should be said of his followers also, that they cast fear and all evil out of themselves and others and heal the sick. 495:1 God will heal the sick through man, whenever man is governed by God. Truth casts out error now 495:3 as surely as it did nineteen centuries ago. All of Truth is not understood; hence its healing power is not fully demonstrated.
Destruction of all evil
495:6 If sickness is true or the idea of Truth, you cannot destroy sickness, and it would be absurd to try. Then classify sickness and error as our Master did, 495:9 when he spoke of the sick, “whom Satan hath bound,” and find a sovereign antidote for error in the life- giving power of Truth acting on human belief, a power 495:12 which opens the prison doors to such as are bound, and sets the captive free physically and morally.
Steadfast and calm trust
When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling 495:15 steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought. Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and 495:18 calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious – as Life eternally is – can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not. Let Christian Science, 495:21 instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of being, and this understanding will supplant error with Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence dis- 495:24 cord with harmony.
Rudiments and growth
_Question_. – How can I progress most rapidly in the understanding of Christian Science?
495:27 _Answer_. – Study thoroughly the letter and imbibe the spirit. Adhere to the divine Principle of Chris- tian Science and follow the behests of God, 495:30 abiding steadfastly in wisdom, Truth, and Love. In the Science of Mind, you will soon ascertain 496:1 that error cannot destroy error. You will also learn that in Science there is no transfer of evil suggestions 496:3 from one mortal to another, for there is but one Mind, and this ever-present omnipotent Mind is reflected by man and governs the entire universe. You will learn 496:6 that in Christian Science the first duty is to obey God, to have one Mind, and to love another as yourself.
Condition of progress
496:9 We all must learn that Life is God. Ask yourself: Am I living the life that approaches the supreme good? Am I demonstrating the healing power of 496:12 Truth and Love? If so then the way will grow brighter “unto the perfect day.” Your fruits will prove what the understanding of God brings to man. 496:15 Hold perpetually this thought, – that it is the spiritual idea, the Holy Ghost and Christ, which enables you to demonstrate, with scientific certainty, the rule of healing, 496:18 based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, over- lying, and encompassing all true being.
Triumph over death
“The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is 496:21 the law,” – the law of mortal belief, at war with the facts of immortal Life, even with the spiritual law which says to the grave, “Where is thy 496:24 victory?” But “when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on im- mortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that 496:27 is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”
_Question_. – Have Christian Scientists any religious creed?
496:30 _Answer_. – They have not, if by that term is meant doctrinal beliefs. The following is a brief exposition of 497:1 the important points, or religious tenets, of Christian Science: –
497:3 1. As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.
2. We acknowledge and adore one supreme and in- 497:6 finite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God’s image and likeness.
497:9 3. We acknowledge God’s forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is pun- 497:12 ished so long as the belief lasts.
4. We acknowledge Jesus’ atonement as the evi- dence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man’s unity 497:15 with God through Christ Jesus the Way-shower; and we acknowledge that man is saved through Christ, through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the 497:18 Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming sin and death.
5. We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and 497:21 his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eter- nal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the noth- ingness of matter.
497:24 6. And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and 497:27 to be merciful, just, and pure.
KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES
These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. – REVELATION.
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 having 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