Science and Health With Key to The Scriptures

M >> Mary Baker Eddy >> Science and Health With Key to The Scriptures

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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