0.0 – Science & Health by Mary Baker Eddy Chapter 15 – Section 1 of 2 – Genesis – 1910 Edition

…GENESIS, begins with the story of the seven days of creation showing that the nature of God as sevenfold has in fact always been presented to mankind through the Scriptures. The seven days are the Bible's symbolization of what we call the seven synonymous terms. These days illustrate how the seven terms which are God generate within us the understanding of what those synonyms are. It is like a teacher in a classroom telling the children what the numbers are  and then saying that next he will show them what they represent, how to use them, and what to do with them. So the "Genesis" chapter shows us how the divine sevenfold nature of God unfolds itself in human life, regenerating our conception of ourselves, so that we are no longer born of Adam and Eve, or of Darwin's theory of evolution, but we are really consciously born of God right where material evolution seems to be. The sevenfold generative nature of God exposes the unreality of the Adam story in which mortals seem to have originated.
~ DISSOLVING BARRIERS, The Healing Work of Christian Science by John L. MorganSHOW ALL

     Chapter 15                                                                                      501

  	Genesis 

  	And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac,
  	and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty;
  	but by My name Jehovah was I not known to them. — Exodus. 

  	All things were made by Him;
  	and without Him was not anything made that was made. 
  	In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. — John. 

 1	    Scientific interpretation of the Scriptures prop-
  	erly starts with the beginning of the Old Testa-
 3	ment, chiefly because the spiritual import of	Spiritual
  	the Word, in its earliest articulations, often	interpretation 
   	seems so smothered by the immediate context as to
 6	require explication; whereas the New Testament narra-
  	tives are clearer and come nearer the heart. Jesus il-
  	lumines them, showing the poverty of mortal existence,
 9	but richly recompensing human want and woe with
  	spiritual gain. The incarnation of Truth, that amplifi-
  	cation of wonder and glory which angels could only
12	whisper and which God illustrated by light and har-
  	mony, is consonant with ever-present Love. So-called
  	mystery and miracle, which subserve the end of natural
15	good, are explained by that Love for whose rest the
  	weary ones sigh when needing something more native
  	to their immortal cravings than the history of perpetual
18	evil. 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       502

 1	    A second necessity for beginning with Genesis is that
  	the living and real prelude of the older Scriptures is so
 3	brief that it would almost seem, from the	Spiritual
  	preponderance of unreality in the entire nar-	overture 
  	rative, as if reality did not predominate over unreality,
 6	the light over the dark, the straight line of Spirit over
  	the mortal deviations and inverted images of the creator
  	and His creation. 
 9	    Spiritually followed, the book of Genesis is the history
  	of the untrue image of God, named a sinful mortal. This
  	deflection of being, rightly viewed, serves to	Deflection
12	suggest the proper reflection of God and the	of being 
  	spiritual actuality of man, as given in the first chapter
  	of Genesis. Even thus the crude forms of human thought
15	take on higher symbols and significations, when scien-
  	tifically Christian views of the universe appear, illuminat-
  	ing time with the glory of eternity. 

18	    In the following exegesis, each text is followed by its
  	spiritual interpretation according to the teachings of Chris-
  	tian Science. 

21	EXEGESIS 

  	Genesis i. 1.  In the beginning God created the heaven
  	and the earth. 

24	    The infinite has no beginning. This word beginning
  	is employed to signify the only, — that is, the eternal ver-
  	ity and unity of God and man, including	Ideas and
27	the universe. The creative Principle — Life,	identities 
  	Truth, and Love — is God. The universe reflects God. 
  	There is but one creator and one creation. This crea-
 
      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       503

 1	tion consists of the unfolding of spiritual ideas and their
  	identities, which are embraced in the infinite Mind and
 3	forever reflected. These ideas range from the infini-
  	tesimal to infinity, and the highest ideas are the sons
  	and daughters of God. 

 6	Genesis i. 2.  And the earth was without form, and void;
  	and darkness was upon the face of the deep.  And the
  	spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 

 9	    The divine Principle and idea constitute spiritual har-
  	mony, — heaven and eternity. In the universe of Truth,
  	matter is unknown. No supposition of error	Spiritual
12	enters there. Divine Science, the Word of	harmony 
  	God, saith to the darkness upon the face of error, "God
  	is All-in-all," and the light of ever-present Love illumines
15	the universe. Hence the eternal wonder, — that infinite
  	space is peopled with God's ideas, reflecting Him in
  	countless spiritual forms. 

18	Genesis i. 3.  And God said, Let there be light:  and
  	there was light. 

  	    Immortal and divine Mind presents the idea of God:
21	first, in light; second, in reflection; third, in spiritual and
  	immortal forms of beauty and goodness. But	Mind's idea
  	this Mind creates no element nor symbol of	faultless 
24	discord and decay. God creates neither erring thought,
  	mortal life, mutable truth, nor variable love. 

  	Genesis i. 4.  And God saw the light, that it was good:
27	and God divided the light from the darkness. 

  	    God, Spirit, dwelling in infinite light and harmony

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       504

 1	from which emanates the true idea, is never reflected by
  	aught but the good. 

 3	Genesis i. 5.  And God called the light Day, and the
  	darkness He called Night.  And the evening and the morn-
  	ing were the first day. 

 6	    All questions as to the divine creation being both
  	spiritual and material are answered in this passage, for
  	though solar beams are not yet included in          Light preced-
 9	the record of creation, still there is light. This        ing the sun
  	light is not from the sun nor from volcanic flames, but it	 
  	is the revelation of Truth and of spiritual ideas. This
12	also shows that there is no place where God's light is not
  	seen, since Truth, Life, and Love fill immensity and are
  	ever-present. Was not this a revelation instead of a
15	creation? 
  	    The successive appearing of God's ideas is represented
  	as taking place on so many evenings and mornings, — 
18	words which indicate, in the absence of solar	Evenings and
  	time, spiritually clearer views of Him, views	mornings 
  	which are not implied by material darkness and dawn. 
21	Here we have the explanation of another passage of
  	Scripture, that "one day is with the Lord as a thousand
  	years." The rays of infinite Truth, when gathered into
24	the focus of ideas, bring light instantaneously, whereas
  	a thousand years of human doctrines, hypotheses, and
  	vague conjectures emit no such effulgence. 
27	    Did infinite Mind create matter, and call it light? 
  	Spirit is light, and the contradiction of Spirit is matter,
  	darkness, and darkness obscures light. Mate-	Spirit versus
30	rial sense is nothing but a supposition of the	darkness 
  	absence of Spirit. No solar rays nor planetary revolutions

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       505

 1	form the day of Spirit. Immortal Mind makes its own
  	record, but mortal mind, sleep, dreams, sin, disease, and
 3	death have no record in the first chapter of Genesis. 

  	Genesis i. 6.  And God said, Let there be a firmament in
  	the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from
 6	the waters. 

  	    Spiritual understanding, by which human conception,
  	material sense, is separated from Truth, is the firmament. 
 9	The divine Mind, not matter, creates all iden-	Spiritual
  	tities, and they are forms of Mind, the ideas of	firmament 
  	Spirit apparent only as Mind, never as mindless matter
12	nor the so-called material senses. 

  	Genesis i. 7.  And God made the firmament, and divided
  	the waters which were under the firmament from the waters
15	which were above the firmament:  and it was so. 

  	    Spirit imparts the understanding which uplifts con-
  	sciousness and leads into all truth. The Psalmist saith:
18	"The Lord on high is mightier than the noise	Understanding
  	of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of	imparted 
  	the sea." Spiritual sense is the discernment of spiritual
21	good. Understanding is the line of demarcation between
  	the real and unreal. Spiritual understanding unfolds
  	Mind, — Life, Truth, and Love, — and demonstrates the
24	divine sense, giving the spiritual proof of the universe in
  	Christian Science. 
  	    This understanding is not intellectual, is not the result
27	of scholarly attainments; it is the reality of all things
  	brought to light. God's ideas reflect the im-	Original
  	mortal, unerring, and infinite. The mortal,	reflected 
30	erring, and finite are human beliefs, which apportion to  

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       506


1	themselves a task impossible for them, that of distinguish-
  	ing between the false and the true. Objects utterly un-
 3	like the original do not reflect that original. Therefore
  	matter, not being the reflection of Spirit, has no real en-
  	tity. Understanding is a quality of God, a quality which
 6	separates Christian Science from supposition and makes
  	Truth final. 

  	Genesis i. 8.  And God called the firmament Heaven. 
 9	And the evening and the morning were the second day. 

  	    Through divine Science, Spirit, God, unites under-
  	standing to eternal harmony. The calm and exalted
12	thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace. 	Exalted
  	Thus the dawn of ideas goes on, forming each	thought 
  	successive stage of progress. 

15	Genesis i. 9.  And God said, Let the waters under the
  	heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry
  	land appear:  and it was so. 

18	    Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their
  	proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts,	Unfolding
  	even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose	of thoughts 
21	in order that the purpose may appear. 

  	Genesis i. 10.  And God called the dry land Earth; and
  	the gathering together of the waters called He Seas:  and
24	God saw that it was good. 

  	    Here the human concept and divine idea seem con-
  	fused by the translator, but they are not so in the scien-
27	tifically Christian meaning of the text. Upon	Spirit names
  	Adam devolved the pleasurable task of find-	and blesses 
  	ing names for all material things, but Adam has not yet
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       507


1	appeared in the narrative. In metaphor, the dry land
  	illustrates the absolute formations instituted by Mind,
 3	while water symbolizes the elements of Mind. Spirit duly
  	feeds and clothes every object, as it appears in the line
  	of spiritual creation, thus tenderly expressing the father-
 6	hood and motherhood of God. Spirit names and blesses
  	all. Without natures particularly defined, objects and
  	subjects would be obscure, and creation would be full of
 9	nameless offspring, — wanderers from the parent Mind,
  	strangers in a tangled wilderness. 

  	Genesis i. 11.  And God said, Let the earth bring forth
12	grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding
  	fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth:
  	and it was so. 

15	    The universe of Spirit reflects the creative power of
  	the divine Principle, or Life, which reproduces the multi-
  	tudinous forms of Mind and governs the mul-	Divine
18	tiplication of the compound idea man. The	propagation 
  	tree and herb do not yield fruit because of any propagat-
  	ing power of their own, but because they reflect the Mind
21	which includes all. A material world implies a mortal
  	mind and man a creator. The scientific divine creation
  	declares immortal Mind and the universe created by God. 
24	    Infinite Mind creates and governs all, from the men-
  	tal molecule to infinity. This divine Principle of all
  	expresses Science and art throughout His                Ever-appearing
27	creation, and the immortality of man and the             creation
  	universe. Creation is ever appearing, and must ever con- 
  	tinue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source. 
30	Mortal sense inverts this appearing and calls ideas mate-
  	rial. Thus misinterpreted, the divine idea seems to fall

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       508

1	to the level of a human or material belief, called mortal
  	man. But the seed is in itself, only as the divine Mind
 3	is All and reproduces all — as Mind is the multiplier,
  	and Mind's infinite idea, man and the universe, is the
  	product. The only intelligence or substance of a thought,
 6	a seed, or a flower is God, the creator of it. Mind is the
  	Soul of all. Mind is Life, Truth, and Love which gov-
  	erns all. 

 9	Genesis i. 12.  And the earth brought forth grass, and
  	herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding
  	fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind:  and God saw
12	that it was good. 

  	    God determines the gender of His own ideas. Gen-
  	der is mental, not material. The seed within itself is
15	the pure thought emanating from divine	Mind's pure
  	Mind. The feminine gender is not yet ex-	thought 
  	pressed in the text. Gender means simply kind or sort,
18	and does not necessarily refer either to masculinity or
  	femininity. The word is not confined to sexuality, and
  	grammars always recognize a neuter gender, neither
21	male nor female. The Mind or intelligence of produc-
  	tion names the female gender last in the ascending order
  	of creation. The intelligent individual idea, be it male
24	or female, rising from the lesser to the greater, unfolds
  	the infinitude of Love. 

  	Genesis i. 13.  And the evening and the morning were
27	the third day. 

  	    The third stage in the order of Christian Science is an
  	important one to the human thought, letting in the light

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       509

 1	of spiritual understanding. This period corresponds to
  	the resurrection, when Spirit is discerned to be the Life of
 3	all, and the deathless Life, or Mind, dependent	Rising to
  	upon no material organization. Our Master	the light 
  	reappeared to his students, — to their apprehension he
 6	rose from the grave, — on the third day of his ascending
  	thought, and so presented to them the certain sense of
  	eternal Life. 

 9	Genesis i. 14.  And God said, Let there be lights in the
  	firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night;
  	and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days,
12	and years. 

  	    Spirit creates no other than heavenly or celestial bodies,
  	but the stellar universe is no more celestial than our earth. 
15	This text gives the idea of the rarefaction of	Rarefaction
  	thought as it ascends higher. God forms and	of thought 
  	peoples the universe. The light of spiritual understand-
18	ing gives gleams of the infinite only, even as nebulae indi-
  	cate the immensity of space. 
  	    So-called mineral, vegetable, and animal substances
21	are no more contingent now on time or material struc-
  	ture than they were when "the morning stars	Divine nature
  	sang together." Mind made the "plant of	appearing 
24	the field before it was in the earth." The periods of
  	spiritual ascension are the days and seasons of Mind's
  	creation, in which beauty, sublimity, purity, and holiness
27	 — yea, the divine nature — appear in man and the uni-
  	verse never to disappear. 
  	    Knowing the Science of creation, in which all is Mind
30	and its ideas, Jesus rebuked the material thought of his
  	fellow-countrymen: "Ye can discern the face of the
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       510


 1	sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" 
  	How much more should we seek to apprehend the spirit-
 3	ual ideas of God, than to dwell on the objects	Spiritual ideas
  	of sense! To discern the rhythm of Spirit	apprehended 
  	and to be holy, thought must be purely spiritual. 

 6	Genesis i. 15.  And let them be for lights in the firma-
  	ment of the heaven, to give light upon the earth:  and it
  	was so. 

 9	    Truth and Love enlighten the understanding, in whose
  	"light shall we see light;" and this illumination is re-
  	flected spiritually by all who walk in the light and turn
12	away from a false material sense. 

  	Genesis i. 16.  And God made two great lights; the
  	greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the
15	night:  He made the stars also. 

  	    The sun is a metaphorical representation of Soul out-
  	side the body, giving existence and intelligence to the
18	universe. Love alone can impart the limit-	Geology
  	less idea of infinite Mind. Geology has never	a failure 
  	explained the earth's formations; it cannot explain them. 
21	There is no Scriptural allusion to solar light until time has
  	been already divided into evening and morning; and the
  	allusion to fluids (Genesis i. 2) indicates a supposed for-
24	mation of matter by the resolving of fluids into solids,
  	analogous to the suppositional resolving of thoughts into
  	material things. 
27	    Light is a symbol of Mind, of Life, Truth, and Love,
  	and not a vitalizing property of matter. Sci-	Spiritual
  	ence reveals only one Mind, and this one shin-	subdivision 
30	ing by its own light and governing the universe, including
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       511


 1	man, in perfect harmony. This Mind forms ideas, its
  	own images, subdivides and radiates their borrowed light,
 3	intelligence, and so explains the Scripture phrase, "whose
  	seed is in itself." Thus God's ideas "multiply and re-
  	plenish the earth." The divine Mind supports the sub-
 6	limity, magnitude, and infinitude of spiritual creation. 

  	Genesis i. 17, 18.  And God set them in the firmament of
  	the heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over
 9	the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the
  	darkness:  and God saw that it was good. 

  	    In divine Science, which is the seal of Deity and has
12	the impress of heaven, God is revealed as in-	Darkness
  	finite light. In the eternal Mind, no night is	scattered 
  	there. 

15	Genesis i. 19.  And the evening and the morning were
  	the fourth day. 

  	    The changing glow and full effulgence of God's infi-
18	nite ideas, images, mark the periods of progress. 

  	Genesis i. 20.  And God said, Let the waters bring forth
  	abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl
21	that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of
  	heaven. 

  	    To mortal mind, the universe is liquid, solid, and aeri-
24	form. Spiritually interpreted, rocks and mountains stand
  	for solid and grand ideas. Animals and mor-	Soaring
  	tals metaphorically present the gradation of	aspirations 
27	mortal thought, rising in the scale of intelligence, taking
  	form in masculine, feminine, or neuter gender. The
  	fowls, which fly above the earth in the open firmament
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       512


 1	of heaven, correspond to aspirations soaring beyond and
  	above corporeality to the understanding of the incorporeal
 3	and divine Principle, Love. 

  	Genesis i. 21.  And God created great whales, and every
  	living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth
 6	abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after
  	his kind:  and God saw that it was good. 

  	    Spirit is symbolized by strength, presence, and power,
 9	and also by holy thoughts, winged with Love. These an-
  	gels of His presence, which have the holiest	Seraphic
  	charge, abound in the spiritual atmosphere of	symbols 
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
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-
18	ful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas; and let
  	fowl multiply in the earth. 

  	    Spirit blesses the multiplication of its own pure and
21	perfect ideas. From the infinite elements of the one
  	Mind emanate all form, color, quality, and	Multiplication
  	quantity, and these are mental, both primarily	of pure ideas 
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
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
30	God as their author; albeit God is ignorant of the ex-
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       513


 1	istence of both this mortal mentality, so-called, and its
  	claim, for the claim usurps the deific prerogatives and is
 3	an attempted infringement on infinity. 

  	Genesis i. 23.  And the evening and the morning were
  	the fifth day. 

 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	Spiritual
 9	distant, gray in the sombre hues of twilight;	spheres 
  	but anon the veil is lifted, and the scene shifts into light. 
  	In the record, time is not yet measured by solar revolutions,
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
15	the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing,
  	and beast of the earth after his kind:  and it was so. 

  	    Spirit diversifies, classifies, and individualizes all
18	thoughts, which are as eternal as the Mind	Continuity
  	conceiving them; but the intelligence, exist-	of thoughts 
  	ence, and continuity of all individuality remain in God,
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
24	creepeth upon the earth after his kind:  and God saw that
  	it was good. 

  	    God creates all forms of reality. His thoughts are
27	spiritual realities. So-called mortal mind — being non-
  	existent and consequently not within the range of im-  

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       514


1	mortal existence — could not by simulating deific power
  	invert the divine creation, and afterwards recreate per-
 3	sons or things upon its own plane, since noth-	God's thoughts
  	ing exists beyond the range of all-inclusive	are spiritual
  	infinity, in which and of which God is the	realities 
 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
 9	holiness. 
  	    Moral courage is "the lion of the tribe of Juda," the
  	king of the mental realm. Free and fearless it roams in
12	the forest. Undisturbed it lies in the open	Qualities
  	field, or rests in "green pastures, . . . beside	of thought 
  	the still waters." In the figurative transmission from the
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
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
21	millennial estate pictured by Isaiah: — 

  	      The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
  	      And the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
24	      And the calf and the young lion, and the fatling together;
  	      And a little child shall lead them. 

  	    Understanding the control which Love held over all,
27	Daniel felt safe in the lions' den, and Paul proved the
  	viper to be harmless. All of God's creatures,	Creatures of
  	moving in the harmony of Science, are harm-	God useful 
30	less, useful, indestructible. A realization of this grand
  	verity was a source of strength to the ancient worthies. 
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       515


 1	It supports Christian healing, and enables its possessor
  	to emulate the example of Jesus. "And God saw that
 3	it was good." 
  	    Patience is symbolized by the tireless worm, creeping
  	over lofty summits, persevering in its intent. The ser-
 6	pent of God's creating is neither subtle nor	The serpent
  	poisonous, but is a wise idea, charming in its	harmless 
  	adroitness, for Love's ideas are subject to the Mind which
 9	forms them, — the power which changeth the serpent
  	into a staff. 

  	Genesis i. 26.  And God said, Let us make man in our
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
15	thing that creepeth upon the earth. 

  	    The eternal Elohim includes the forever universe. 
  	The name Elohim is in the plural, but this plurality of
18	Spirit does not imply more than one God, nor	Elohistic
  	does it imply three persons in one. It relates	plurality 
  	to the oneness, the tri-unity of Life, Truth, and Love. 
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-
24	ness and power. 
  	    Your mirrored reflection is your own image or like-
  	ness. If you lift a weight, your reflection does this also. 
27	If you speak, the lips of this likeness move in	Reflected
  	accord with yours. Now compare man before	likeness 
  	the mirror to his divine Principle, God. Call the mirror
30	divine Science, and call man the reflection. Then note
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       516


 1	how true, according to Christian Science, is the reflection
  	to its original. As the reflection of yourself appears in
 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;
 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. 
 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	Love imparts
12	permanence. Love, redolent with unselfish-	beauty 
  	ness, bathes all in beauty and light. The grass beneath
  	our feet silently exclaims, "The meek shall inherit the
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
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-
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. 

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. 

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	Ideal man
30	term. Masculine, feminine, and neuter gen-	and woman 
  	ders are human concepts. In one of the ancient lan-
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       517


 1	guages the word for man is used also as the synonym of
  	mind. This definition has been weakened by anthropo-
 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
 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
 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-
12	sidering God masculine, as we have for considering
  	Him feminine, for Love imparts the clearest idea of
  	Deity. 
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,	Divine
18	not transmitted. God has countless ideas, and	personality 
  	they all have one Principle and parentage. The only
  	proper symbol of God as person is Mind's infinite ideal. 
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
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,
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. 

30	    Divine Love blesses its own ideas, and causes them to
  	multiply, — to manifest His power. Man is not made
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       518


 1	to till the soil. His birthright is dominion, not sub-
  	jection. He is lord of the belief in earth	Birthright
 3	and heaven, — himself subordinate alone to	of man 
  	his Maker. This is the Science of being. 

  	Genesis i. 29, 30.  And God said, Behold, I have given
 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
 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
12	was so. 

  	    God gives the lesser idea of Himself for a link to the
  	greater, and in return, the higher always protects the
15	lower. The rich in spirit help the poor in	Assistance in
  	one grand brotherhood, all having the same	brotherhood 
  	Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth
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
21	all as the blossom shines through the bud. All the varied
  	expressions of God reflect health, holiness, immortality — 
  	infinite Life, Truth, and Love. 

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. 

27	    The divine Principle, or Spirit, comprehends and ex-
  	presses all, and all must therefore be as perfect as the
  	divine Principle is perfect. Nothing is new to Spirit. 
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       519


1	Nothing can be novel to eternal Mind, the author of all
  	things, who from all eternity knoweth His own ideas. 
 3	Deity was satisfied with His work. How could	Perfection
  	He be otherwise, since the spiritual creation	of creation 
  	was the outgrowth, the emanation, of His infinite self-
 6	containment and immortal wisdom? 

  	Genesis ii. 1.  Thus the heavens and the earth were
  	finished, and all the host of them. 

 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-	Infinity
12	man capacity is slow to discern and to grasp	measureless 
  	God's creation and the divine power and presence which
  	go with it, demonstrating its spiritual origin. Mortals
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,
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-
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
24	day from all His work which He had made. 

  	    God rests in action. Imparting has not impoverished,
  	can never impoverish, the divine Mind. No	Resting in
27	exhaustion follows the action of this Mind,	holy work 
  	according to the apprehension of divine Science. The
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       520


 1	highest and sweetest rest, even from a human standpoint,
  	is in holy work. 
 3	    Unfathomable Mind is expressed. The depth, breadth,
  	height, might, majesty, and glory of infinite Love fill all
  	space. That is enough! Human language	Love and man
 6	can repeat only an infinitesimal part of what	coexistent 
  	exists. The absolute ideal, man, is no more seen nor
  	comprehended by mortals, than is his infinite Principle,
 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. 
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
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
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]
21	had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not
  	a man to till the ground. 

  	    Here is the emphatic declaration that God creates all
24	through Mind, not through matter, — that the plant
  	grows, not because of seed or soil, but because	Growth is
  	growth is the eternal mandate of Mind. Mor-	from Mind 
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
30	lower power. Spirit acts through the Science of Mind,
  	never causing man to till the ground, but making him
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       521


 1	superior to the soil. Knowledge of this lifts man above
  	the sod, above earth and its environments, to conscious
 3	spiritual harmony and eternal being. 
  	    Here the inspired record closes its narrative of being
  	that is without beginning or end. All that is made is
 6	the work of God, and all is good. We leave	Spiritual
  	this brief, glorious history of spiritual creation	narrative 
  	(as stated in the first chapter of Genesis) in the hands of
 9	God, not of man, in the keeping of Spirit, not matter, — 
  	joyfully acknowledging now and forever God's supremacy,
  	omnipotence, and omnipresence. 
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
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. 

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. 

21	Genesis ii. 6.  But there went up a mist from the earth,
  	and watered the whole face of the ground. 

  	    The Science and truth of the divine creation have been
24	presented in the verses already considered, and now the
  	opposite error, a material view of creation, is	The story
  	to be set forth. The second chapter of Gene-	of error 
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
30	or matter, if veritable, would set aside the omnipotence
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       522


 1	of Spirit; but it is the false history in contradistinction
  	to the true. 
 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	The two
 6	might and government to God, and endows	records 
  	man out of God's perfection and power. The second
  	record chronicles man as mutable and mortal, — as hav-
 9	ing broken away from Deity and as revolving in an orbit
  	of his own. Existence, separate from divinity, Science
  	explains as impossible. 
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
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. 
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-	Erroneous
21	ter in order to create man. God's glowing	representation 
  	denunciations of man when not found in His
  	image, the likeness of Spirit, convince reason and coincide
24	with revelation in declaring this material creation false. 
  	    This latter part of the second chapter of Genesis, which
  	portrays Spirit as supposedly cooperating with matter in
27	constructing the universe, is based on some	Hypothetical
  	hypothesis of error, for the Scripture just pre-	reversal 
  	ceding declares God's work to be finished. Does Life,
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-
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       523


 1	not be so. Yet one might so judge from an unintelligent
  	perusal of the Scriptural account now under comment. 
 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	Mist, or
 6	His creation. Although presenting the exact	false claim 
  	opposite of Truth, the lie claims to be truth. The crea-
  	tions of matter arise from a mist or false claim, or from
 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. 
12	All is material myth, instead of the reflection of
  	Spirit. 
  	    It may be worth while here to remark that, according
15	to the best scholars, there are clear evidences of two dis-
  	tinct documents in the early part of the book of	Distinct
  	Genesis. One is called the Elohistic, because	documents 
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
21	version translates it. 
  	    Throughout the first chapter of Genesis and in three
  	verses of the second, — in what we understand to be the
24	spiritually scientific account of creation, — it is	Jehovah
  	Elohim (God) who creates. From the fourth	or Elohim 
  	verse of chapter two to chapter five, the creator is called
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-
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. 
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       524


 1	    The idolatry which followed this material mythology is
  	seen in the Phoenician worship of Baal, in the Moabitish
 3	god Chemosh, in the Moloch of the Amorites,	Gods of the
  	in the Hindoo Vishnu, in the Greek Aphro-	heathen 
  	dite, and in a thousand other so-called deities. 
 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	Jehovah a
 9	that name of Jehovah, the true idea of God	tribal deity 
  	seems almost lost. God becomes "a man of war," a
  	tribal god to be worshipped, rather than Love, the divine
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
15	the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 

  	    Did the divine and infinite Principle become a finite
  	deity, that He should now be called Jehovah? With
18	a single command, Mind had made man,	Creation
  	both male and female. How then could a	reversed 
  	material organization become the basis of man? How
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
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? 
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
30	dust, and eventually ejected at the demand of matter? 
  	Does Spirit enter dust, and lose therein the divine nature
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       525


 1	and omnipotence? Does Mind, God, enter matter to be-
  	come there a mortal sinner, animated by the breath of
 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
 6	a human, not a divine, creation. 
  	    The following are some of the equivalents of the term
  	man in different languages. In the Saxon, mankind, a
 9	woman, any one; in the Welsh, that which rises	Definitions
  	up, — the primary sense being image, form; in	of man 
  	the Hebrew, image, similitude; in the Icelandic, mind. 
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
15	God's mind shaped He him; and He shaped them male and
  	female. 

  	    In the Gospel of John, it is declared that all things were
18	made through the Word of God, "and without Him [the
  	logos, or word] was not anything made that	No baneful
  	was made." Everything good or worthy, God	creation 
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,
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
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. 

30	Genesis ii. 9.  And out of the ground made the Lord God
  	[Jehovah] to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight,
  

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       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. 

 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	Contradicting
 6	declaration, this statement that life issues	first creation 
  	from matter, contradicts the teaching of the first chap-
  	ter, — namely, that all Life is God. Belief is less than
 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,
12	follow in the train of this error of a belief in intelligent
  	matter. 
  	    The first mention of evil is in the legendary Scriptural
15	text in the second chapter of Genesis. God pronounced
  	good all that He created, and the Scriptures	Record of
  	declare that He created all. The "tree of	error 
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
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-
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
27	man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and
  	to keep it. 

  	    The name Eden, according to Cruden, means pleasure,
30	delight. In this text Eden stands for the mortal, mate-
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       527


 1	rial body. God could not put Mind into matter nor in-
  	finite Spirit into finite form to dress it and	Garden of
 3	keep it, — to make it beautiful or to cause it	Eden 
  	to live and grow. Man is God's reflection, needing no
  	cultivation, but ever beautiful and complete. 

 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
 9	and evil, thou shalt not eat of it:  for in the day that thou
  	eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. 

  	    Here the metaphor represents God, Love, as tempting
12	man, but the Apostle James says: "God cannot be
  	tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any	No temptation
  	man." It is true that a knowledge of evil would	from God 
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,
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. 

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
24	would call them:  and whatsoever Adam called every living
  	creature, that was the name thereof. 

  	    Here the lie represents God as repeating creation, but
27	doing so materially, not spiritually, and ask-	Creation's
  	ing a prospective sinner to help Him. Is the	counterfeit 
  	Supreme Being retrograding, and is man giving up his
30	dignity? Was it requisite for the formation of man
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       528


 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. 

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	Hypnotic
18	woman. This is the first record of magnet-	surgery 
  	ism. Beginning creation with darkness instead of light,
  	 — materially rather than spiritually, — error now simu-
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
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. 
  	    But according to this narrative, surgery was first per-
  	formed mentally and without instruments;	Mental
30	and this may be a useful hint to the medical	midwifery 
  	faculty. Later in human history, when the forbidden
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       529


 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. 

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	Mythical
24	animal kingdom which represents the species	serpent 
  	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, be-
  	cause we know that they are worthless and unreal. 
30	    Adam, the synonym for error, stands for a belief of
  	material mind. He begins his reign over man some-
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       530


 1	what mildly, but he increases in falsehood and his days
  	become shorter. In this development, the im-	Error or
 3	mortal, spiritual law of Truth is made manifest	Adam 
  	as forever opposed to mortal, material sense. 
  	    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	Divine
  	once said, "Take no thought for your life,	providence 
 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. 

  	    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	Error's
  	open your eyes. I can do what God has not	assumption 
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. 
  	    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	Scriptural
  	true nor real. First, this narrative supposes	allegory 
30	that something springs from nothing, that matter pre-
  	cedes mind. Second, it supposes that mind enters matter,
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       531


 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 main-
  	tained 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. 
  	    It is well that the upper portions of the brain represent
 9	the higher moral sentiments, as if hope were ever prophe-
  	sying thus:  The human mind will sometime	Higher
  	rise above all material and physical sense, ex-	hope 
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. 
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	Biological
18	still maintained by God in perpetuating the	inventions 
  	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 like-
  	ness of God and having dominion over all the earth. Did  

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       532


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. 
  	    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? 	Progeny
  	"In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt	cursed 
 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-
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. 

  	    Knowledge and pleasure, evolved through material
18	sense, produced the immediate fruits of fear and shame. 
  	Ashamed before Truth, error shrank abashed	Shame the
  	from the divine voice calling out to the cor-	effect of sin 
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 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	Fear comes
  	naked, and Adam knew it not; but now error	of error 
30	demands that mind shall see and feel through matter, the
  	five senses. The first impression material man had of
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       533


 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. 

  	    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	The beguiling
  	snake-talker utters the first voluble lie, which	first lie 
  	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. 
  	    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	False
  	eat;" as much as to say in meek penitence,	womanhood 
30	"Neither man nor God shall father my fault." She has
  	already learned that corporeal sense is the serpent. Hence
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       534


 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 mani-
  	fest 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. 

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	Spirit and
15	idea of divine power, which Jesus presented,	flesh 
  	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." 
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	Bruising
27	serpent, material sense, will bite the heel of	sin's head 
  	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
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       535


 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. 

  	    Divine Science deals its chief blow at the supposed ma-
  	terial foundations of life and intelligence. It dooms idol-
12	atry. A belief in other gods, other creators,	Judgment
  	and other creations must go down before Chris-	on error 
  	tian 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. 

  	    In the first chapter of Genesis we read: "And God
30	called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       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
 3	the first heaven and the first earth were passed	New earth
  	away; and there was no more sea." In St. 	and no more
  	John's vision, heaven and earth stand for spir-	sea 
 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 way of error is awful to contemplate. The illu-
  	sion of sin is without hope or God. If man's spiritual
12	gravitation and attraction to one Father, in	The fall
  	whom we "live, and move, and have our be-	of error 
  	ing," 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. 
  	    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 gratifica-
  	tions, and hedge about their achievements with thorns. 
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-	True
27	row, what do mortals attain? They give up	attainment 
  	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
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       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
 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. 

 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-	Justice and
12	tion is there represented as spiritual, entire,	recompense 
  	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. 
  	    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. 	Inspired
  	Subsequent Bible revelation is coordinate	interpretation 
  	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, — 
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       538


 1	Love infinitely wise and altogether lovely, who "seeketh
  	not her own." 
 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	Spiritual
 6	of understanding to note the proper guests. 	gateway 
  	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. 
  	    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	Contrasted
  	eternal reality or being. The "tree of knowl-	testimony 
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]. 

  	    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	Erroneous
  	consequently have an end, while the sinless,	conception 
30	real man is eternal. Eve's declaration, "I have gotten
  	a man from the Lord," supposes God to be the author
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       539


 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. 
  	    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	Only one
  	impart an element of evil, and man possesses	standard 
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? 
  	    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	A type of
  	of the field. It is false to say that Truth and	falsehood 
  	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 com-
  	munion hath light with darkness? And what concord
  	hath Christ with Belial?" 
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	Scientific
30	and the universe. The Science of creation,	offspring 
  	so conspicuous in the birth of Jesus, inspired his wisest
  	and least-understood sayings, and was the basis of his
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       540


 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, sick-
  	ness, and death. 
  	    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	Cleansing
  	utmost, when bringing it to the surface and re-	upheaval 
 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 igno-
  	rance 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. 
  	    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	Allegiance
  	death, "God never made you, and you are a	to Spirit 
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
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. 

  	    Cain is the type of mortal and material man, conceived
  	in sin and "shapen in iniquity;" he is not the	Spiritual and
30	type of Truth and Love. Material in origin	material 
  	and sense, he brings a material offering to God. Abel
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       541


 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 mak-
  	ing 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 intelli-
  	gence 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? 

  	    Here the serpentine lie invents new forms. At first it
  	usurps divine power. It is supposed to say	Brotherhood
24	in the first instance, "Ye shall be as gods." 	repudiated 
  	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. 

 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       542


 1	    The belief of life in matter sins at every step. It in-
  	curs divine displeasure, and it would kill Jesus that it
 3	might be rid of troublesome Truth. Material	Murder brings
  	beliefs would slay the spiritual idea when-	its curse 
  	ever 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. 

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	Retribution
21	divine. Sin will receive its full penalty, both	and remorse 
  	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 con-
  	signs 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. 

  	    The sinful misconception of Life as something less
  

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       543


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	Climax of
  	is only mortal man and not the real man,	suffering 
  	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. 
  	    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	Dwelling in
  	into His presence, and must dwell in dream-	dreamland 
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
15	of extermination. The great verities of existence are
  	never excluded by falsity. 
  	    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	Man springs
  	dust? May not Darwin be right in think-	from Mind 
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. 
  	    The text, "In the day that the Lord God [Jehovah
  	God] made the earth and the heavens," introduces the
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       544


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	Material
  	ideas became productive, obedient to Mind. 	inception 
  	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. 
  	    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. 	First evil
  	All is under the control of the one Mind,	suggestion 
  	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 re-
  	corded, include nothing of the kind. 
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	Material
24	being. Man is the likeness of Spirit, but a	personality 
  	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-
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       545


 1	ciple, and explains Deity through mortal and finite con-
  	ceptions. 
 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. 
  	    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	Mental
  	destroy materiality. Man, created by God,	tillage 
  	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. 
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	Erroneous
24	power. From that standpoint of error, they	standpoint 
  	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." 
  	    "As in Adam [error] all die, even so in Christ [Truth]
  	shall all be made alive." The mortality of man is a
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       546


 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. 	Mortality
  	Spirit, God, never germinates, but is "the same	mythical 
  	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. 
 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-	No truth
12	erring intelligence? "There went up a mist	from a
  	from the earth." This represents error as	material basis 
  	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. 
  	    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, com-	Dawning of
  	prehending them not, may deny their reality. 	spiritual facts 
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
30	which all may understand. 
  	    If mathematics should present a thousand different
  	examples of one rule, the proving of one example would
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       547


 1	authenticate all the others. A simple statement of Chris-
  	tian Science, if demonstrated by healing, contains the
 3	proof of all here said of Christian Science. If	Proof given
  	one of the statements in this book is true, every	in healing 
  	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. 
 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	Embryonic
12	was able to see in the egg the earth's atmos-	evolution 
  	phere, 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. Ma-
  	terial 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. 
  	    The Scriptures are very sacred. Our aim must be to
24	have them understood spiritually, for only by this under-
  	standing can truth be gained. The true the-	True theory
  	ory of the universe, including man, is not in	of the
27	material history but in spiritual development. 	universe 
  	Inspired thought relinquishes a material, sensual, and
  	mortal theory of the universe, and adopts the spiritual and
30	immortal. 
  	    It is this spiritual perception of Scripture, which lifts
  	humanity out of disease and death and inspires faith.   

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       548


1	"The Spirit and the bride say, Come! . . . and whoso-
  	ever will, let him take the water of life freely." Christian
 3	Science separates error from truth, and breathes	Scriptural
  	through the sacred pages the spiritual sense of	perception 
  	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. 
 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. 	The clouds
12	Earth has little light or joy for mortals before	dissolving 
  	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. 
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	Prediction of
21	be changed with the progress of information." 	a naturalist 
  	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. 
  	    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	Methods of
  	embryonic life. Agassiz declares ("Methods	reproduction 
30	of Study in Natural History," page 275): "Certain ani-
  	mals, besides the ordinary process of generation, also
  	increase their numbers naturally and constantly by self-
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       549


 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 condi-
  	tions. 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. 
 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	The three
12	through eggs, sometimes through buds, and	processes 
  	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 individu-
  	alities 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 de-
  	void of metaphysics. 
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	Deference to
27	point, however, even this great observer mis-	material law 
  	takes 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
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       550


 1	the germ of humanity is in a circumscribed and non-
  	intelligent egg. 
 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	Deep-reaching
 6	and preserves the individuality and identity	interrogations 
  	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. 
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	Stages of
18	birth, decay, and dissolution as its component	existence 
  	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 embry-
  	onic, it is infinite. An egg is an impossible enclosure for
24	Deity. 
  	    Embryology supplies no instance of one species pro-
  	ducing 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
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       551


 1	must father these absurdities, for both the material senses
  	and their reports are unnatural, impossible, and unreal. 
 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-	The real
 6	duce Mind. Like produces like. In natural	producer 
  	history, the bird is not the product of a beast. In spiritual
  	history, matter is not the progenitor of Mind. 
 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	The ascent
12	the lower grades of existence. Evolution de-	of species 
  	scribes 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. 
  	    Naturalists ask: "What can there be, of a material
18	nature, transmitted through these bodies called eggs, — 
  	themselves composed of the simplest material	Transmitted
  	elements, — by which all peculiarities of an-	peculiarities 
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-
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. 
  	    The ancient and hypothetical question, Which is first,
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       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	Causation not
  	the egg? That the earth was hatched from the	in matter 
  	"egg of night" was once an accepted theory. Heathen
 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
 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-
12	ence include no member of this dolorous and fatal triad. 
  	    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	Emergence
  	full of trouble." Mortals must emerge from	of mortals 
  	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. 
  	    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	Persistence
  	blending tints of leaf and flower show the	of species 
  	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. 
  	    Naturalists describe the origin of mortal and material
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       553


 1	existence in the various forms of embryology, and ac-
  	company their descriptions with important observations,
 3	which should awaken thought to a higher and	Better basis
  	purer contemplation of man's origin. This	than
  	clearer consciousness must precede an under-	embryology 
 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 con-
  	ditions 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? 
  	    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	All nativity
  	foetal ovum. Whatever theory may be adopted	in thought 
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-
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. 
  	    You may say that mortals are formed before they
30	think or know aught of their origin, and you	Being is
  	may also ask how belief can affect a result	immortal 
  	which precedes the development of that belief. It can
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       554


 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. 
  	    Error is always error. It is no thing. Any statement
 9	of life, following from a misconception of life, is errone-
  	ous, because it is destitute of any knowledge	Our conscious
  	of the so-called selfhood of life, destitute of	development 
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. 
  	    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	Mendacity
  	chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" 	of error 
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. 
  	    It is the general belief that the lower animals are less
30	sickly than those possessing higher organiza-	Ailments
  	tions, especially those of the human form. 	of animals 
  	This would indicate that there is less disease in propor-
 

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       555


 1	tion as the force of mortal mind is less pungent or sensi-
  	tive, 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. 
 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." 	Ignorance the
 9	This is the nature of error. The mark of igno-	sign of error 
  	rance 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. 
  	    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	The origin
  	would seek to unite Spirit with matter, good	of divinity 
  	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. Crea-
  	tion 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 cruci-
  	fixion. Truth fosters the idea of Truth, and not the be-

      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       556

 1	lief in illusion or error. That which is real, is sustained
  	by Spirit. 
 3	    Vertebrata, articulata, mollusca, and radiata are mor-
  	tal and material concepts classified, and are supposed to
  	possess life and mind. These false beliefs	Genera
 6	will disappear, when the radiation of Spirit	classified 
  	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. 
  	    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	The
  	gained by dying. Christian Science may ab-	Christian's
  	sorb the attention of sage and philosopher, but	privilege 
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 receives less attention than physiology. Why? 
  	Because mortal mind must waken to spiritual	Ontology
27	life before it cares to solve the problem of	versus
  	being, hence the author's experience; but when	physiology 
  	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
 
      Science and Health – Genesis                                                       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. 
 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	The curse
 9	pain in multiplying; but human propagation	removed 
  	has its suffering because it is a false belief. Christian Sci-
  	ence 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 evap-
  	orates, 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,
27      spake and it was done.SHOW ALL