Editorial May 20, 1916 Issue

Forbidden Fruit

John B. Willis

The history which in general belief has followed one of the episodes of the story related in the the third chapter of Genesis is a gigantic illustration of the truth of the proverb which saith, "Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!" So simple an incident as the fall of an apple within the visual angle of a great thinker is said to have resulted in the discovery of a law with which every earthly creature and thing has to do, and that every instant. Physicists would very likely name the perception of the truth that all bodies attract each other directly as the mass and inversely as the square of their distances, a truly monumental milestone in the history of thought. Nevertheless how relatively trivial the significance of Newton's observation, and his deductions therefrom, when compared with what Christian belief has ever attributed to Eve's disobedience in eating an apple.

The sixth verse of this chapter is the heart of the story, and as understood in Christian Science the following verses simply describe the systole and diastole of error, the order and sequence of the mesmerism of that false belief which is common to all mortals. Here the alluring subtleties of untruth assumed their fairest guise. The fruit seemed good, its eating pleasant, its assimilation conducive to the gain of wisdom. Hence its use seemed a worthy life-end, and this thought is still entertained by the many. How vast the number of those who link their concept of happiness, of ideal conditions, to certain material possessions! They might hesitate to say that this was their life-end, in view of the disappointment and wretchedness historically associated with worldly abundance, but their daily doings make this, their sense of values, clearly manifest. The contention of every temptation of material sense places us all and always at this point of determination, the parting of the ways. The moral quality of every act is fixed at the moment we choose between a higher and a lower motive, so that the story of the garden is not a far-away affair. It enters into every human life every hour of the day.

There is no man who has not heard the voice of the serpent, and the practical redemptive value of Christian Science is found in the fact that it enables one to foresee the outcome of consent to the appeal of material sense, and effectually deny the asserted necessity or mortal law which impels us to dishonor our noblest concept of life. No teaching of this Science is more fundamental and far reaching than its declaration that the false sense-testimony, which is well-nigh universally believed, is the forbidden fruit, the eating and acceptance of which has entailed all the sorrows and sufferings of human experience. "Human hypotheses," writes Mrs. Eddy, "first assume the reality of sickness, sin, and death, and then assume the necessity of these evils because of their admitted actuality. These human verdicts are the procurers of all discord" (Science and Health, p. 481). Upon the testimony of material sense physical scientists have for the most part based their every conclusion respecting the nature of being and the constitution of man. Here they have found what is named the data for sane and legitimate deductions; hence the teaching of Christian Science that this basis is altogether deceptive, and that to honor it is to interdict the gain of a demonstrable knowledge of Truth, becomes revolutionary.

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