Article October 8, 1910 Issue

What constituted the gulf between Christianity and the...

Frederick Dixon

Occult Review

What constituted the gulf between Christianity and the other religions with which the early Christians were surrounded, was the fact that Jesus separated once and for all the claim of the power of the human mind to effect good or evil, from the scientific knowledge of absolute Truth as the only real existent power. The claim of the power of the human mind to do good is inseparable from its claim to do evil, and as nobody has ever dared to pretend that the human mind is not largely actuated by evil, it follows that such a theory maintains that evil is power. The author of the allegory of creation in the Jehovistic document of the book of Genesis, uses the imagery of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to typify this, and he draws from it the inevitable deduction that he who eats of this fruit will die. Now, as Paul maintains that by sin death came into the world, it is manifest that, according to the teaching of Christianity, a belief in the power of good and evil is itself sin. Centuries later Jesus referred to the same subject, making use of a similar image. "A good tree," he said, "cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." In this way he made it perfectly clear that a tree which produced good and evil fruit was of necessity corrupt, and so he put his teaching on this point in harmony with the allegory of Genesis. "But," he went on to say, "if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you." The kingdom of God, then, cannot possibly come to any man through suggestion from a human mind which of necessity believes in both good and evil and which, therefore, in Jesus' own words, is corrupt.

The scribes and Pharisees, desiring to destroy Jesus' influence over the Jewish people, chose this very point in his teaching for their attack. Confident that they could confuse the healing effected by the divine Mind with the so-called healing which it was claimed could be effected through the human mind, they declared that Jesus cast out devils through Beelzebub. To the Jew of the first century the implication was clear. From the time of Abraham downward, the leaders of the chosen people had waged incessant war with the magicians, astrologers, necromancers, and all other workers by means of the human mind, who had claimed through this instrumentality to perform wonders and to heal the sick. Ignorant themselves, perhaps, of the difference between the miracles performed by Jesus and the miracles wrought by the wonder-workers, they imagined that the people would confuse Jesus with the latter. Jesus' reply separated spiritual healing from healing through mental suggestion, and eliminated the latter forever as a factor in Christian practice. The kingdom of God, he showed in effect, never came and never could come to any man through suggestion from a mind believing in good and in evil. The kingdom of God could come only as men began to perceive the Christ, and so to gain the Mind of Christ. Evil, he said, using the imagery of the East, and personifying it as the devil, abode not in the truth, because there was no truth in it. Take away the metaphorical atmosphere of the East and translate the Greek into the more matter-of-fact language of the West, and what do these words come to but this? Evil does not abide in truth, because evil has in reality no existence. Evil, in plain English, is not power, and is not real. The only reality it has is its relative existence in the human consciousness as opposed to a relative sense of good. The only power it has is the temporary sense of power a lie seems to exert so long as it is unexposed.

It was while following the golden clue which she had obtained from the Bible, through the mist of the caverns of mortal mind, that Mrs. Eddy met Mr. Quimby. For a moment she thought that she had found what she was seeking, and, as was her way, she gave him generous acknowledgment and praise. Gradually, however, as she began to understand the spiritual teaching of the Bible better, she began to realize that Mr. Quimby's teaching was a broken reed, and so she turned forever from reliance on human aid in any way, and devoted herself, single-handed, to the effort to recover the Science of Christian healing. Little by little the light dawned upon her until, to adopt a phrase of her own, on page 224 of Science and Health, she saw "truth's full-orbed appearing." From that hour until today her one thought, her one work, has been to let her light so shine before men that they might see her good works and glorify her Father which is in heaven.

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