Science and Health with Key to The Scriptures

KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES

CHAPTER XV — RECAPITULATION

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1	that dust should become sentient, when all being is the reflection of the eternal Mind, and the record declares
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-
6	not be true that man was ordered to create man anew in partnership with God; this supposition was a dream, a myth.
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
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
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
18	woman. This is the first record of magnetism. Beginning creation with darkness instead of light,- materially rather than spiritually, - error now simu-
21	lates the work of Truth, mocking Love and declaring what great things error has done. Beholding the creations of his own dream and calling them real and
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
27	mankind, - that is, a kind of man.

	Mental midwifery
	But according to this narrative, surgery was first performed mentally and without instruments;
30	and this may be a useful hint to the medical faculty. Later in human history, when the forbidden

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1	fruit was bringing forth fruit of its own kind, there came a suggestion of change in the modus operandi, -
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
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,
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
12	parent.
	Genesis iii. 1-3. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God [Jehovah] had
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
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
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
24	animal kingdom which represents the species described, - a talking serpent, - and should rejoice that evil, by whatever figure presented, contradicts itself and
27	has neither origin nor support in Truth and good. Seeing this, we should have faith to fight all claims of evil, because we know that they are worthless and unreal.

	Error or Adam
30	Adam, the synonym for error, stands for a belief of material mind. He begins his reign over man some-

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1	what mildly, but he increases in falsehood and his days become shorter. In this development, the im-
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
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,
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
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
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-
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
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-
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
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
30	that something springs from nothing, that matter precedes mind. Second, it supposes that mind enters matter,

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1	and matter becomes living, substantial, and intelligent. The order of this allegory - the belief that everything
3	springs from dust instead of from Deity - has been maintained in all the subsequent forms of belief. This is the error, - that mortal man starts materially, that non-
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
9	the higher moral sentiments, as if hope were ever prophesying thus: The human mind will sometime rise above all material and physical sense, ex-
12	changing it for spiritual perception, and exchanging human concepts for the divine consciousness. Then man will recognize his God-given dominion and being.

	Biological inventions
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
18	still maintained by God in perpetuating the species? Who will say that minerals, vegetables, and animals have a propagating property of their own?
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
24	Maker?
	Which institutes Life, - matter or Mind? Does Life begin with Mind or with matter? Is Life sustained by
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-
30	rial life at no point resembles the scientifically Christian record of man as created by Mind in the image and likeness of God and having dominion over all the earth. Did

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1	God at first create one man unaided, - that is, Adam, - but afterwards require the union of the two sexes in order
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
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
9	surely die," was the prediction in the story under consideration. Adam and his progeny were cursed, not blessed; and this indicates that the divine Spirit, or Father, con-
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
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
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-
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
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-
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
30	demands that mind shall see and feel through matter, the five senses. The first impression material man had of

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1	himself was one of nakedness and shame. Had he lost man's rich inheritance and God's behest, dominion over
3	all the earth? No! This had never been bestowed on Adam.
	Genesis iii. 11, 12. And He said, Who told thee that
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
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
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,
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
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?
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-
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
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,
30	"Neither man nor God shall father my fault." She has already learned that corporeal sense is the serpent. Hence

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1	she is first to abandon the belief in the material origin of man and to discern spiritual creation. This hereafter
3	enabled woman to be the mother of Jesus and to behold at the sepulchre the risen Saviour, who was soon to manifest the deathless man of God's creating. This enabled
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
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
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
15	idea of divine power, which Jesus presented, and mythological material intelligence called energy and opposed to Spirit.
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
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
24	There will be greater mental opposition to the spiritual, scientific meaning of the Scriptures than there has ever been since the Christian era began. The
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
30	of lust. The spiritual idea has given the understanding

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1	a foothold in Christian Science. The seed of Truth and the seed of error, of belief and of understanding, - yea,
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.
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
9	husband, and he shall rule over thee.

	Judgment on error
	Divine Science deals its chief blow at the supposed material foundations of life and intelligence. It dooms idol-
12	atry. A belief in other gods, other creators, and other creations must go down before Christian Science. It unveils the results of sin as shown in
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
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
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
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
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
30	called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together

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1	of the waters called He Seas." In the Apocalypse it is written: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for
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-
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,
9	is all and there is no other consciousness.

	The fall of error
	The way of error is awful to contemplate. The illusion of sin is without hope or God. If man's spiritual
12	gravitation and attraction to one Father, in whom we " live, and move, and have our being," should be lost, and if man should be governed by
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
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
21	"of few days, and full of trouble." Their supposed joys are cheats. Their narrow limits belittle their gratifications, and hedge about their achievements with thorns.
24	Mortal mind accepts the erroneous, material conception of life and joy, but the true idea is gained from the immortal side. Through toil, struggle, and sor-
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.
30	Genesis iii. 22-24. And the Lord God [Jehovah] said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good

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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
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
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
9	A knowledge of evil was never the essence of divinity or manhood. In the first chapter of Genesis, evil has no local habitation nor name. Crea-
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
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
18	nothingness.

	Inspired interpretation
	No one can reasonably doubt that the purpose of this allegory - this second account in Genesis - is to depict
21	the falsity of error and the effects of error. Subsequent Bible revelation is coordinate with the Science of creation recorded in the
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
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
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, -

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1	Love infinitely wise and altogether lovely, who "seeketh not her own."

	Spiritual gateway
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
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
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
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-
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
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,
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
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-
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,
30	real man is eternal. Eve's declaration, "I have gotten a man from the Lord," supposes God to be the author

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1	of sin and sin's progeny. This false sense of existence is fratricidal. In the words of Jesus, it (evil, devil) is
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
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,
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
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
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,
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,
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
24	gather grapes of thorns?" Paul asked: "What communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial?"

	Scientific offspring
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
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

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1	marvellous demonstrations. Christ is the offspring of Spirit, and spiritual existence shows that Spirit creates
3	neither a wicked nor a mortal man, lapsing into sin, sickness, and death.

	Cleansing upheaval
	In Isaiah we read: "I make peace, and create evil. I
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-
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
12	of evil, illusion, are aggravated, we may think in our ignorance that the Lord hath wrought an evil; but we ought to know that God's law uncovers so-called sin and its
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
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
21	false sense which hath no knowledge of God." The purpose of the Hebrew allegory, representing error as assuming a divine character, is to teach mortals never to believe
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
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
30	type of Truth and Love. Material in origin and sense, he brings a material offering to God. Abel

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1	takes his offering from the firstlings of the flock. A lamb is a more animate form of existence, and more nearly re-
3	sembles a mind-offering than does Cain's fruit. Jealous of his brother's gift, Cain seeks Abel's life, instead of making his own gift a higher tribute to the Most High.
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.
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
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
15	slew him.

	The erroneous belief that life, substance, and intelligence can be material ruptures the life and brotherhood
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
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
24	in the first instance, "Ye shall be as gods." Now it repudiates even the human duty of man towards his brother.
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.

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	Murder brings its curse
1	The belief of life in matter sins at every step. It incurs divine displeasure, and it would kill Jesus that it
3	might be rid of troublesome Truth. Material beliefs would slay the spiritual idea whenver and wherever it appears. Though error hides
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
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,
12	invoke crime, jeopardize self-control, and mock divine mercy.
	Genesis iv. 15. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto him
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
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
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
24	waymarks of God. To envy's own hell, justice consigns the lie which, to advance itself, breaks God's commandments.
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

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1	than God, having no truth to support it, falls back upon itself. This error, after reaching the climax of suffering,
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
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
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-
12	land, until mortals arrive at the understanding that material life, with all its sin, sickness, and death, is an illusion, against which divine Science is engaged in a warfare
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-
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-
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.
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
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,
30	mortal.

	Material inception
	The text, "In the day that the Lord God [Jehovah God] made the earth and the heavens," introduces the

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1	record of a material creation which followed the spiritual, - a creation so wholly apart from God's, that Spirit
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."
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
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
12	infinite Mind.

	First evil suggestion
	In Science, Mind neither produces matter nor does matter produce mind. No mortal mind has the might
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
18	suggestion of more than the one Mind, - is in the fable of the serpent. The facts of creation, as previously recorded, include nothing of the kind.

	Material personality
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
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
27	likeness of the one God.
	Material, erroneous belief reverses understanding and truth. It declares mind to be in and of matter, so-called
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-

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1	ciple, and explains Deity through mortal and finite conceptions.
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
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
9	by thought tending spiritually upward as to destroy materiality. Man, created by God, was given dominion over the whole earth. The notion
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,
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-
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
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
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
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]
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

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1	myth, for man is immortal. The false belief that spirit is now submerged in matter, at some future time to be eman-
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-
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
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-
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
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.
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
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.
24	The great spiritual facts of being, like rays of light, shine in the darkness, though the darkness, comprehending them not, may deny their reality.
27	The proof that the system stated in this book is Christianly scientific resides in the good this system accomplishes, for it cures on a divine demonstrable Principle
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

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1	authenticate all the others. A simple statement of Christian Science, if demonstrated by healing, contains the
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-
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
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
12	was able to see in the egg the earth's atmosphere, the gathering clouds, the moon and stars, while the germinating speck of so-called embryonic life seemed a
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
18	Mind produces its opposite, matter, and endues matter with power to recreate the universe, including man. Material evolution implies that the great First Cause must
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
24	have them understood spiritually, for only by this understanding can truth be gained. The true theory of the universe, including man, is not in
27	material history but in spiritual development. Inspired thought relinquishes a material, sensual, and mortal theory of the universe, and adopts the spiritual and
30	immortal.

	Scriptural perception
	It is this spiritual perception of Scripture, which lifts humanity out of disease and death and inspires faith.

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1	"The Spirit and the bride say, Come! . . . and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Christian
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-
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
27	genius of great men. Modern discoveries have brought to light important facts in regard to so-called embryonic life. Agassiz declares ("Methods
30	of Study in Natural History," page 275):
	"Certain animals, besides the ordinary process of generation, also increase their numbers naturally and constantly by self-

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1	division." This discovery is corroborative of the Science of Mind, for this discovery shows that the multiplication
3	of certain animals takes place apart from sexual conditions. The supposition that life germinates in eggs and must decay after it has grown to maturity, if not before,
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
9	Creatures of lower forms of organism are supposed to have, as classes, three different methods of reproduction and to multiply their species sometimes
12	through eggs, sometimes through buds, and sometimes through self-division. According to recent lore, successive generations do not begin with the birth of
15	new individuals, or personalities, but with the formation of the nucleus, or egg, from which one or more individualities subsequently emerge; and we must therefore look
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
21	culminate in such vague hypotheses as must necessarily attend false systems, which rely upon physics and are devoid of metaphysics.

	Deference to material law
24	In one instance a celebrated naturalist, Agassiz, discovers the pathway leading to divine Science, and beards the lion of materialism in its den. At that
27	point, however, even this great observer mistakes nature, forsakes Spirit as the divine origin of creative Truth, and allows matter and material law to
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

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1	the germ of humanity is in a circumscribed and non-intelligent egg.

	Deep-reaching interrogations
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
6	and preserves the individuality and identity of animals as well as of men. God cannot become finite, and be limited within material bounds.
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-
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
15	Error of thought is reflected in error of action. The continual contemplation of existence as material and corporeal - as beginning and ending, and with
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-
21	point whatsoever, then the great I AM is a myth. If Life is God, as the Scriptures imply, then Life is not embryonic, it is infinite. An egg is an impossible enclosure for
24	Deity.
	Embryology supplies no instance of one species producing its opposite. A serpent never begets a bird, nor
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
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

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1	must father these absurdities, for both the material senses and their reports are unnatural, impossible, and unreal.

	The real producer
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-
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
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
12	the lower grades of existence. Evolution describes the gradations of human belief, but it does not acknowledge the method of divine Mind, nor see that ma-
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
18	nature, transmitted through these bodies called eggs, - themselves composed of the simplest material elements, - by which all peculiarities of an-
21	cestry, belonging to either sex, are brought down from generation to generation?" The question of the naturalist amounts to this: How can matter originate or trans-
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
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
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,

	PAGE 552
1	the egg or the bird? is answered, if the egg produces the parent. But we cannot stop here. Another question
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
6	philosophy, modern geology, and all other material hypotheses deal with causation as contingent on matter and as necessarily apparent to the corporeal senses, even
9	where the proof requisite to sustain this assumption is undiscovered. Mortal theories make friends of sin, sickness, and death; whereas the spiritual scientific facts of exist-
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
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
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
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
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
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
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

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1	existence in the various forms of embryology, and accompany their descriptions with important observations,
3	which should awaken thought to a higher and purer contemplation of man's origin. This clearer consciousness must precede an under-
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
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
12	formed under circumstances which made material conditions essential to their maintenance and reproduction, or important to their origin and first introduction."
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
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
21	by general mortal thought to account for human origin, that theory is sure to become the signal for the appearance of its method in finite forms and operations. If con-
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-
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
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

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1	only be replied, that Christian Science reveals what "eye hath not seen," – even the cause of all that exists, – for
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,
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
9	of life, following from a misconception of life, is erroneous, because it is destitute of any knowledge of the so-called selfhood of life, destitute of
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-
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
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
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?"
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
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
30	sickly than those possessing higher organizations, especially those of the human form. This would indicate that there is less disease in propor-

PAGE 555

1	tion as the force of mortal mind is less pungent or sensitive, and that health attends the absence of mortal mind.
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
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."
9	This is the nature of error. The mark of ignorance is on its forehead, for it neither understands nor can be understood. Error would have itself received as
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
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-
18	existent and eternal. Only impotent error would seek to unite Spirit with matter, good with evil, immortality with mortality, and call this
21	sham unity man, as if man were the offspring of both Mind and matter, of both Deity and humanity. Creation rests on a spiritual basis. We lose our standard of
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
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
30	death. Knowing that God was the Life of man, Jesus was able to present himself unchanged after the crucifixion. Truth fosters the idea of Truth, and not the be-

PAGE 556

1	lief in illusion or error. That which is real, is sustained by Spirit.

	Genera classified
3	Vertebrata, articulata, mollusca, and radiata are mortal and material concepts classified, and are supposed to possess life and mind. These false beliefs
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-
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
12	at last forever; for life everlasting is not to be gained by dying. Christian Science may absorb the attention of sage and philosopher, but
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
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.
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
24	dream.

	Ontology versus physiology
	Ontology receives less attention than physiology. Why? Because mortal mind must waken to spiritual
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-
30	point.
	It is related that a father plunged his infant babe, only a few hours old, into the water for several minutes, and

PAGE 557

1	repeated this operation daily, until the child could remain under water twenty minutes, moving and playing with-
3	out harm, like a fish. Parents should remember this and learn how to develop their children properly on dry land.

	The curse removed
6	Mind controls the birth-throes in the lower realms of nature, where parturition is without suffering. Vegetables, minerals, and many animals suffer no
9	pain in multiplying; but human propagation has its suffering because it is a false belief. Christian Science reveals harmony as proportionately increasing as the
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,
15	disease, and mortality, the better for him, - the less pain and sorrow are his. When the mist of mortal mind evaporates, the curse will be removed which says to woman,
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
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
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,

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