Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 75

Hypnotic surgery

528:15 Here falsity, error, credits Truth, G.o.d, with inducing a sleep or hypnotic state in Adam in order to perform a surgical operation on him and thereby create 528:18 woman. This is the first record of magnet- ism. Beginning creation with darkness instead of light, - materially rather than spiritually, - error now simu- 528:21 lates the work of Truth, mocking Love and declar- ing what great things error has done. Beholding the creations of his own dream and calling them real and 528:24 G.o.d-given, Adam - _alias_ error - gives them names.

Afterwards he is supposed to become the basis of the creation of woman and of his own kind, calling them 528:27 _mankind_, - that is, a kind of man.

Mental midwifery

But according to this narrative, surgery was first per- formed mentally and without instruments; 528:30 and this may be a useful hint to the medical faculty. Later in human history, when the forbidden 529:1 fruit was bringing forth fruit of its own kind, there came a suggestion of change in the _modus operandi_, - 529:3 that man should be born of woman, not woman again taken from man. It came about, also, that instruments were needed to a.s.sist the birth of mortals. The first 529:6 system of suggestive obstetrics has changed. Another change will come as to the nature and origin of man, and this revelation will destroy the _dream_ of existence, 529:9 reinstate reality, usher in Science and the glorious fact of creation, that both man and woman proceed from G.o.d and are His eternal children, belonging to no lesser 529:12 parent.

_Genesis_ iii. 1-3. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord G.o.d [Jehovah] had 529:15 made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath G.o.d said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of 529:18 the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, G.o.d hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

Mythical serpent

529:21 Whence comes a talking, lying serpent to tempt the children of divine Love? The serpent enters into the metaphor only as evil. We have nothing in the 529:24 animal kingdom which represents the species described, - a talking serpent, - and should rejoice that evil, by whatever figure presented, contradicts itself and 529:27 has neither origin nor support in Truth and good. Seeing this, we should have faith to fight all claims of evil, be- cause we know that they are worthless and unreal.

Error or Adam

529:30 Adam, the synonym for error, stands for a belief of material mind. He begins his reign over man some- 530:1 what mildly, but he increases in falsehood and his days become shorter. In this development, the im- 530:3 mortal, spiritual law of Truth is made manifest as forever opposed to mortal, material sense.

Divine providence

In divine Science, man is sustained by G.o.d, the divine 530:6 Principle of being. The earth, at G.o.d's command, brings forth food for man's use. Knowing this, Jesus once said, "Take no thought for your life, 530:9 what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink," - presuming not on the prerogative of his creator, but recognizing G.o.d, the Father and Mother of all, as able to feed and clothe 530:12 man as He doth the lilies.

_Genesis_ iii. 4, 5. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for G.o.d doth know that in the day 530:15 ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall be as G.o.ds, knowing good and evil.

Error's a.s.sumption

This myth represents error as always a.s.serting its su- 530:18 periority over truth, giving the lie to divine Science and saying, through the material senses: "I can open your eyes. I can do what G.o.d has not 530:21 done for you. Bow down to me and have another G.o.d.

Only admit that I am real, that sin and sense are more pleasant to the eyes than spiritual Life, more to be de- 530:24 sired than Truth, and I shall know you, and you will be mine." Thus Spirit and flesh war.

Scriptural allegory

The history of error is a dream-narrative. The dream 530:27 has no reality, no intelligence, no mind; therefore the dreamer and dream are one, for neither is true nor real. _First_, this narrative supposes 530:30 that something springs from nothing, that matter pre- cedes mind. _Second_, it supposes that mind enters matter, 531:1 and matter becomes living, substantial, and intelligent.

The order of this allegory - the belief that everything 531:3 springs from dust instead of from Deity - has been main- tained in all the subsequent forms of belief. This is the error, - that mortal man starts materially, that non- 531:6 intelligence becomes intelligence, that mind and soul are both right and wrong.

Higher hope

It is well that the upper portions of the brain represent 531:9 the higher moral sentiments, as if hope were ever prophe- sying thus: The human mind will sometime rise above all material and physical sense, ex- 531:12 changing it for spiritual perception, and exchanging hu- man concepts for the divine consciousness. Then man will recognize his G.o.d-given dominion and being.

Biological inventions

531:15 If, in the beginning, man's body originated in non- intelligent dust, and mind was afterwards put into body by the creator, why is not this divine order 531:18 still maintained by G.o.d in perpetuating the species? Who will say that minerals, vegetables, and animals have a propagating property of their own?

531:21 Who dares to say either that G.o.d is in matter or that matter exists without G.o.d? Has man sought out other creative inventions, and so changed the method of his 531:24 Maker?

Which inst.i.tutes Life, - matter or Mind? Does Life begin with Mind or with matter? Is Life sustained by 531:27 matter or by Spirit? Certainly not by both, since flesh wars against Spirit and the corporeal senses can take no cognizance of Spirit. The mythologic theory of mate- 531:30 rial life at no point resembles the scientifically Christian record of man as created by Mind in the image and like- ness of G.o.d and having dominion over all the earth. Did 532:1 G.o.d at first create one man unaided, - that is, Adam, - but afterwards require the union of the two s.e.xes in order 532:3 to create the rest of the human family? No! G.o.d makes and governs all.

Progeny cursed

All human knowledge and material sense must be 532:6 gained from the five corporeal senses. Is this knowledge safe, when eating its first fruits brought death?

"In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt 532:9 surely die," was the prediction in the story under consid- eration. Adam and his progeny were cursed, not blessed; and this indicates that the divine Spirit, or Father, con- 532:12 demns material man and remands him to dust.

_Genesis_ iii. 9, 10. And the Lord G.o.d [Jehovah] called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he 532:15 said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

Shame the effect of sin

Knowledge and pleasure, evolved through material 532:18 sense, produced the immediate fruits of fear and shame.

Ashamed before Truth, error shrank abashed from the divine voice calling out to the cor- 532:21 poreal senses. Its summons may be thus paraphrased: "Where art thou, man? Is Mind in matter? Is Mind capable of error as well as of truth, of evil as well as of 532:24 good, when G.o.d is All and He is Mind and there is but one G.o.d, hence one Mind?"

Fear comes of error

Fear was the first manifestation of the error of mate- 532:27 rial sense. Thus error began and will end the dream of matter, In the allegory the body had been naked, and Adam knew it not; but now error 532:30 demands that _mind_ shall see and feel through matter, the five senses. The first impression material man had of 533:1 himself was one of nakedness and shame. Had he lost man's rich inheritance and G.o.d's behest, dominion over 533:3 all the earth? No! This had never been bestowed on Adam.

_Genesis_ iii. 11, 12. And He said, Who told thee that 533:6 thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man said, The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave 533:9 me of the tree, and I did eat.

The beguiling first lie

Here there is an attempt to trace all human errors directly or indirectly to G.o.d, or good, as if He were the 533:12 creator of evil. The allegory shows that the snake-talker utters the first voluble lie, which beguiles the woman and demoralizes the man. Adam, 533:15 _alias mortal error_, charges G.o.d and woman with his own dereliction, saying, "The woman, whom Thou gavest me, is responsible." According to this belief, the rib taken 533:18 from Adam's side has grown into an evil mind, named _woman_, who aids man to make sinners more rapidly than he can alone. Is this an help meet for man?

533:21 Materiality, so obnoxious to G.o.d, is already found in the rapid deterioration of the bone and flesh which came from Adam to form Eve. The belief in material life and in- 533:24 telligence is growing worse at every step, but error has its suppositional day and multiplies until the end thereof.

False womanhood

Truth, cross-questioning man as to His knowledge of 533:27 error, finds woman the first to confess her fault. She says, "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat;" as much as to say in meek penitence, 533:30 "Neither man nor G.o.d shall father my fault." She has already learned that corporeal sense is the serpent. Hence 534:1 she is first to abandon the belief in the material origin of man and to discern spiritual creation. This hereafter 534:3 enabled woman to be the mother of Jesus and to behold at the sepulchre the risen Saviour, who was soon to mani- fest the deathless man of G.o.d's creating. This enabled 534:6 woman to be first to interpret the Scriptures in their true sense, which reveals the spiritual origin of man.

_Genesis_ iii. 14, 15. And the Lord G.o.d [Jehovah] said 534:9 unto the serpent, ... I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Spirit and flesh

534:12 This prophecy has been fulfilled. The Son of the Virgin- mother unfolded the remedy for Adam, or error; and the Apostle Paul explains this warfare between the 534:15 idea of divine power, which Jesus presented, and mythological material intelligence called _energy_ and opposed to Spirit.

534:18 Paul says in his epistle to the Romans: "The carnal mind is enmity against G.o.d; for it is not subject to the law of G.o.d, neither indeed can be. So then they that 534:21 are in the flesh cannot please G.o.d. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the spirit of G.o.d dwell in you."

Bruising sin's head

534:24 There will be greater mental opposition to the spirit- ual, scientific meaning of the Scriptures than there has ever been since the Christian era began. The 534:27 serpent, material sense, will bite the heel of the woman, - will struggle to destroy the spiritual idea of Love; and the woman, this idea, will bruise the head 534:30 of l.u.s.t. The spiritual idea has given the understanding 535:1 a foothold in Christian Science. The seed of Truth and the seed of error, of belief and of understanding, - yea, 535:3 the seed of Spirit and the seed of matter, - are the wheat and tares which time will separate, the one to be burned, the other to be garnered into heavenly places.

535:6 _Genesis_ iii. 16. Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception: in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy 535:9 husband, and he shall rule over thee.

Judgment on error

Divine Science deals its chief blow at the supposed ma- terial foundations of life and intelligence. It dooms idol- 535:12 atry. A belief in other G.o.ds, other creators, and other creations must go down before Chris- tian Science. It unveils the results of sin as shown in 535:15 sickness and death. When will man pa.s.s through the open gate of Christian Science into the heaven of Soul, into the heritage of the first born among men? Truth is 535:18 indeed "the way."

_Genesis_ iii. 17-19. And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast 535:21 eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: thorns 535:24 also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field: in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it 535:27 wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

New earth and no more sea

In the first chapter of Genesis we read: "And G.o.d 535:30 called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together 536:1 of the waters called He Seas." In the Apocalypse it is written: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for 536:3 the first heaven and the first earth were pa.s.sed away; and there was no more sea." In St.

John's vision, heaven and earth stand for spir- 536:6 itual ideas, and the sea, as a symbol of tempest-tossed human concepts advancing and receding, is represented as having pa.s.sed away. The divine understanding reigns, 536:9 is _all_ and there is no other consciousness.

The fall of error