Article July 21, 1917 Issue

In the chapter on Genesis in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures"...

Rollin E. Smith

Montevideo (Minn.) Commercial

In the chapter on Genesis in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy distinguishes between the spiritual thought and the material. On page 520, writing of the second chapter of Genesis, she says of verses 4 and 5, "Here is the emphatic declaration that God creates all through Mind, not through matter." On the next page she says of verse 6, "The Science and truth of the divine creation have been presented in the verses already considered, and now the opposite error, a material view of creation, is to be set forth." It is in the material view of creation that "the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground." Mrs. Eddy continues: "The second chapter of Genesis contains a statement of this material view of God and the universe, a statement which is the exact opposite of scientific truth as before recorded. The history of error or matter, if veritable, would set aside the omnipotence of Spirit; but it is the false history in contradistinction to the true."

The book of Genesis, when accepted literally, prevents spiritual development, for one's idea of God is of a Supreme Being who deals with matter, and one's idea of man is that he is wholly material. "I cannot believe in a science that teaches that 'man is incapable of sin' [Science and Health, p. 475]," writes our critic. The distinction between mortal man and the real man, who cannot sin, is plainly made throughout the authorized literature of Christian Science, and it is easily understood as well as easily followed. Moreover, this distinction is to be found in the Bible, particularly in the teachings of Christ Jesus, Paul, and John. Here is where Mrs. Eddy found it; and other writers, either with or without her aid, have also noticed it.

In reality man does not sin, sicken, or die, but is coexistent with God as His image or reflection; but in mortal belief men need to be saved from these evils and from all evil. Thus Jesus declared, speaking of God, "He is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him." Yet the Master also said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Although Paul said, speaking of God, "In him we live, and move, and have our being," yet he also spoke of an "old man" to be "put off."

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