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 524:18 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.



CHAPTER XVI - THE APOCALYPSE

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. - REVELATION.

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness. - PSALMS.

558:1 ST. JOHN writes, in the tenth chapter of his book of Revelation: -

558:3 And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of 558:6 fire: and he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth.

The new Evangel

558:9 This angel or message which comes from God, clothed with a cloud, prefigures divine Science. To mortal sense Science seems at first obscure, abstract, and 558:12 dark; but a bright promise crowns its brow. When understood, it is Truth's prism and praise. When you look it fairly in the face, you can heal by its means, 558:15 and it has for you a light above the sun, for God "is the light thereof." Its feet are pillars of fire, foundations of Truth and Love. It brings the baptism of the Holy 558:18 Ghost, whose flames of Truth were prophetically de- scribed by John the Baptist as consuming error.

Truth's volume

559:1 This angel had in his hand "a little book," open for all to read and understand. Did this same book contain 559:3 the revelation of divine Science, the "right foot" or dominant power of which was upon the sea, - upon elementary, latent error, the source of 559:6 all error's visible forms? The angel's left foot was upon the earth; that is, a secondary power was exercised upon visible error and audible sin. The "still, small voice" 559:9 of scientific thought reaches over continent and ocean to the globe's remotest bound. The inaudible voice of Truth is, to the human mind, "as when a lion roareth." 559:12 It is heard in the desert and in dark places of fear. It arouses the "seven thunders" of evil, and stirs their latent forces to utter the full diapason of secret tones. Then is 559:15 the power of Truth demonstrated, - made manifest in the destruction of error. Then will a voice from harmony cry: "Go and take the little book. . . . Take it, and eat 559:18 it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey." Mortals, obey the heavenly evangel. Take divine Science. Read this book from 559:21 beginning to end. Study it, ponder it. It will be indeed sweet at its first taste, when it heals you; but murmur not over Truth, if you find its digestion bitter. When you 559:24 approach nearer and nearer to this divine Principle, when you eat the divine body of this Principle, - thus partak- ing of the nature, or primal elements, of Truth and Love, 559:27 - do not be surprised nor discontented because you must share the hemlock cup and eat the bitter herbs; for the Israelites of old at the Paschal meal thus prefigured this 559:30 perilous passage out of bondage into the El Dorado of faith and hope.

To-day's lesson

The twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse, or Revela- 560:1 tion of St. John, has a special suggestiveness in connec- tion with the nineteenth century. In the opening of the 560:3 sixth seal, typical of six thousand years since Adam, the distinctive feature has reference to the present age.

560:6 Revelation xii. 1. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve 560:9 stars.

True estimate of God's messenger

Heaven represents harmony, and divine Science inter- prets the Principle of heavenly harmony. The great 560:12 miracle, to human sense, is divine Love, and the grand necessity of existence is to gain the true idea of what constitutes the kingdom of 560:15 heaven in man. This goal is never reached while we hate our neighbor or entertain a false estimate of any- one whom God has appointed to voice His Word. Again, 560:18 without a correct sense of its highest visible idea, we can never understand the divine Principle. The botanist must know the genus and species of a plant in order to classify 560:21 it correctly. As it is with things, so is it with persons.

Persecution harmful

Abuse of the motives and religion of St. Paul hid from view the apostle's character, which made him equal to 560:24 his great mission. Persecution of all who have spoken something new and better of God has not only obscured the light of the ages, but has been fatal 560:27 to the persecutors. Why? Because it has hid from them the true idea which has been presented. To mis- understand Paul, was to be ignorant of the divine idea he 560:30 taught. Ignorance of the divine idea betrays at once a greater ignorance of the divine Principle of the idea - igno- 561:1 rance of Truth and Love. The understanding of Truth and Love, the Principle which works out the ends of eternal 561:3 good and destroys both faith in evil and the practice of evil, leads to the discernment of the divine idea.

Espousals supernal

Agassiz, through his microscope, saw the sun in an 561:6 egg at a point of so-called embryonic life. Because of his more spiritual vision, St. John saw an "angel standing in the sun." The Revelator 561:9 beheld the spiritual idea from the mount of vision. Purity was the symbol of Life and Love. The Revelator saw also the spiritual ideal as a woman clothed in light, a 561:12 bride coming down from heaven, wedded to the Lamb of Love. To John, "the bride" and "the Lamb" repre- sented the correlation of divine Principle and spiritual idea, 561:15 God and His Christ, bringing harmony to earth.

Divinity and humanity

John saw the human and divine coincidence, shown in the man Jesus, as divinity embracing humanity in Life 561:18 and its demonstration, - reducing to human perception and understanding the Life which is God. In divine revelation, material and corporeal self- 561:21 hood disappear, and the spiritual idea is understood.

Spiritual sunlight

The woman in the Apocalypse symbolizes generic man, the spiritual idea of God; she illustrates the coincidence 561:24 of God and man as the divine Principle and divine idea. The Revelator symbolizes Spirit by the sun. The spiritual idea is clad with the radiance 561:27 of spiritual Truth, and matter is put under her feet. The light portrayed is really neither solar nor lunar, but spirit- ual Life, which is "the light of men." In the first chapter 561:30 of the Fourth Gospel it is written, "There was a man sent from God . . . to bear witness of that Light."

Spiritual idea revealed

John the Baptist prophesied the coming of the im- 562:1 maculate Jesus, and John saw in those days the spiritual idea as the Messiah, who would baptize with the Holy 562:3 Ghost,- divine Science. As Elias presented the idea of the fatherhood of God, which Jesus afterwards manifested, so the Revelator completed this 562:6 figure with woman, typifying the spiritual idea of God's motherhood. The moon is under her feet. This idea reveals the universe as secondary and tributary to Spirit, 562:9 from which the universe borrows its reflected light, sub- stance, life, and intelligence.

Spiritual idea crowned

The spiritual idea is crowned with twelve stars. The 562:12 twelve tribes of Israel with all mortals, - separated by belief from man's divine origin and the true idea, - will through much tribulation yield to 562:15 the activities of the divine Principle of man in the har- mony of Science. These are the stars in the crown of rejoicing. They are the lamps in the spiritual heavens 562:18 of the age, which show the workings of the spiritual idea by healing the sick and the sinning, and by manifesting the light which shines "unto the perfect day" as the night 562:21 of materialism wanes.

Revelation xii. 2. And she being with child cried, travail- ing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

Travail and joy

562:24 Also the spiritual idea is typified by a woman in tra- vail, waiting to be delivered of her sweet promise, but re- membering no more her sorrow for joy that 562:27 the birth goes on; for great is the idea, and the travail portentous.

Revelation xii. 3. And there appeared another wonder in 562:30 heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

The dragon as a type

563:1 Human sense may well marvel at discord, while, to a diviner sense., harmony is the real and discord the unreal. 563:3 We may well be astonished at sin, sickness, and death. We may well be perplexed at human fear; and still more astounded at hatred, which lifts 563:6 its hydra head, showing its horns in the many inventions of evil. But why should we stand aghast at nothingness? The great red dragon symbolizes a lie, - the belief 563:9 that substance, life, and intelligence can be material. This dragon stands for the sum total of human error. The ten horns of the dragon typify the belief that mat- 563:12 ter has power of its own, and that by means of an evil mind in matter the Ten Commandments can be broken.

The sting of the serpent

563:15 The Revelator lifts the veil from this embodiment of all evil, and beholds its awful character; but he also sees the nothingness of evil and the allness of 563:18 God. The Revelator sees that old serpent, whose name is devil or evil, holding untiring watch, that he may bite the heel of truth and seemingly impede the 563:21 offspring of the spiritual idea, which is prolific in health, holiness, and immortality.