Part 76 (1/2)

The way of error is awful to contemplate. The illu- sion of sin is without hope or G.o.d. If man's spiritual 536:12 gravitation and attraction to one Father, in whom we ”live, and move, and have our be- ing,” should be lost, and if man should be governed by 536:15 corporeality instead of divine Principle, by body instead of by Soul, man would be annihilated. Created by flesh instead of by Spirit, starting from matter instead of from 536:18 G.o.d, mortal man would be governed by himself. The blind leading the blind, both would fall.

True attainment

Pa.s.sions and appet.i.tes must end in pain. They are 536:21 ”of few days, and full of trouble.” Their supposed joys are cheats. Their narrow limits belittle their gratifica- tions, and hedge about their achievements with thorns.

536:24 Mortal mind accepts the erroneous, material concep- tion of life and joy, but the true idea is gained from the immortal side. Through toil, struggle, and sor- 536:27 row, what do mortals attain? They give up their belief in perishable life and happiness; the mortal and material return to dust, and the immortal is reached.

536:30 _Genesis_ iii. 22-24. And the Lord G.o.d [Jehovah] said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good 537:1 and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever; therefore 537:3 the Lord G.o.d [Jehovah] sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

So He drove out the man: and He placed at the east 537:6 of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Justice and recompense

537:9 A knowledge of evil was never the essence of divin- ity or manhood. In the first chapter of Genesis, evil has no local habitation nor name. Crea- 537:12 tion is there represented as spiritual, entire, and good. ”Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Error excludes itself from harmony. Sin 537:15 is its own punishment. Truth guards the gateway to harmony. Error tills its own barren soil and buries itself in the ground, since ground and dust stand for 537:18 nothingness.

Inspired interpretation

No one can reasonably doubt that the purpose of this allegory - this second account in Genesis - is to depict 537:21 the falsity of error and the effects of error.

Subsequent Bible revelation is coordinate with the Science of creation recorded in the 537:24 first chapter of Genesis. Inspired writers interpret the Word spiritually, while the ordinary historian interprets it literally. Literally taken, the text is made to appear 537:27 contradictory in some places, and divine Love, which blessed the earth and gave it to man for a possession, is represented as changeable. The literal meaning would 537:30 imply that G.o.d withheld from man the opportunity to reform, lest man should improve it and become better; but this is not the nature of G.o.d, who is Love always, - 538:1 Love infinitely wise and altogether lovely, who ”seeketh not her own.”

Spiritual gateway

538:3 Truth should, and does, drive error out of all selfhood.

Truth is a two-edged sword, guarding and guiding.

Truth places the cherub wisdom at the gate 538:6 of understanding to note the proper guests.

Radiant with mercy and justice, the sword of Truth gleams afar and indicates the infinite distance between 538:9 Truth and error, between the material and spiritual, - the unreal and the real.

Contrasted testimony

The sun, giving light and heat to the earth, is a figure 538:12 of divine Life and Love, enlightening and sustaining the universe. The ”tree of life” is significant of eternal reality or being. The ”tree of knowl- 538:15 edge” typifies unreality. The testimony of the serpent is significant of the illusion of error, of the false claims that misrepresent G.o.d, good. Sin, sickness, and death have 538:18 no record in the Elohistic introduction of Genesis, in which G.o.d creates the heavens, earth, and man. Until that which contradicts the truth of being enters into the arena, 538:21 evil has no history, and evil is brought into view only as the unreal in contradistinction to the real and eternal.

_Genesis_ iv. 1. And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she 538:24 conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord [Jehovah].

Erroneous conception

This account is given, not of immortal man, but of mor- 538:27 tal man, and of sin which is temporal. As both mortal man and sin have a beginning, they must consequently have an end, while the sinless, 538:30 real man is eternal. Eve's declaration, ”I have gotten a man from the Lord,” supposes G.o.d to be the author 539:1 of sin and sin's progeny. This false sense of existence is fratricidal. In the words of Jesus, it (evil, devil) is 539:3 ”a murderer from the beginning.” Error begins by reckoning life as separate from Spirit, thus sapping the foundations of immortality, as if life and immortality 539:6 were something which matter can both give and take away.

Only one standard

What can be the standard of good, of Spirit, of Life, 539:9 or of Truth, if they produce their opposites, such as evil, matter, error, and death? G.o.d could never impart an element of evil, and man possesses 539:12 nothing which he has not derived from G.o.d. How then has man a basis for wrong-doing? Whence does he obtain the propensity or power to do evil? Has Spirit 539:15 resigned to matter the government of the universe?

A type of falsehood

The Scriptures declare that G.o.d condemned this lie as to man's origin and character by condemning its symbol, 539:18 the serpent, to grovel beneath all the beasts of the field. It is false to say that Truth and error commingle in creation. In parable and argument, 539:21 this falsity is exposed by our Master as self-evidently wrong. Disputing these points with the Pharisees and arguing for the Science of creation, Jesus said: ”Do men 539:24 gather grapes of thorns?” Paul asked: ”What com- munion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial?”

Scientific offspring

539:27 The divine origin of Jesus gave him more than human power to expound the facts of creation, and demonstrate the one Mind which makes and governs man 539:30 and the universe. The Science of creation, so conspicuous in the birth of Jesus inspired his wisest and least-understood sayings, and was the basis of his 540:1 marvellous demonstrations. Christ is the offspring of Spirit, and spiritual existence shows that Spirit creates 540:3 neither a wicked nor a mortal man, lapsing into sin, sick- ness, and death.

Cleansing upheaval