Article February 3, 1917 Issue

Tilling the Ground

CALVIN A. FRYE

In the first chapter of Genesis we read, "And God said, Let us make man in our 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." Who has ever beheld the man thus described, even the divine ideal? This man is not formed of the dust of the ground, a lump of clay, for that is far from being the image and likeness of God, Spirit. The likeness of Spirit must be spiritual, not material. Isaiah represents God as saying to mortals: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways ... For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

In the second chapter of Genesis we are told of a suppositional creation of man and woman made from a material basis, who soon developed propensities antagonistic to the divine Mind, the only creator. Having listened to another voice than that of God, they wanted to know more than He; they wanted to know both good and evil; so, as we are told, they yielded to the persuasions of the tempter, tasted of the forbidden fruit, and were led to believe that mind was matter, that is, not Spirit. Thus they were ensnared by the testimony of the material senses, the belief of intelligence in brain and nerves. Then God's voice was heard in the garden of Eden calling to Adam, "Where art thou?" But as his newly acquired intelligence informed him that he was naked, he ran away and hid himself, instead of welcoming the loving call of divine Truth, acknowledging his sin, and correcting it. This story may be a myth, but the writer has yet to read a better explanation of that which claims to be man and woman, and at the same time which seems so demoralized and so constantly in need of help to fight against sickness, sin, and death. Surely the man whom God made in His image, after His likeness, and whom He pronounced "very good," is not this kind of man.

Jesus, whom our Leader has called "the highest earthly representative of God" (Science and Health, p. 52), said, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." This explains why mortals do not see God,—their impure thoughts so obscure their vision that they do not discern spiritual thoughts and things. They believe themselves to be free moral agents, having minds independent of God, free to indulge their own inclinations, be they either good or evil. When, however, they awaken to the true sense of being, the true sense of man as spiritual and at-one with the divine Mind, they begin to "till the ground" in order to win their way back into Eden. They set to work pulling out the noxious weeds and throwing away the stones which obstruct the path into the garden; they cultivate the seeds of health, purity, and spirituality. On page 545 of our text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy says: "The condemnation of mortals to till the ground means this,—that mortals should so improve material belief by thought tending spiritually upward as to destroy materiality. Man, created by God, was given dominion over the whole earth."

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