Article October 14, 1950 Issue

"THE TREE OF LIFE"

KATHERINE S. WHITNEY

The Revelator tells us of a tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God. He records this promise (Rev. 2:7): "To him that over-cometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."

In what striking contrast to this tree of life described in Revelation is the tree of which we read in Genesis. Of this tree in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat, for its fruits were the knowledge of good and evil. God had warned them against eating—accepting and believing in—the fruits of evil.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy explains the difference between the tree of life and the tree whose fruit Adam and Eve were to abjure in these words (p. 526): "The 'tree of life' stands for the idea of Truth, and the sword which guards it is the type of divine Science. The 'tree of knowledge' stands for the erroneous doctrine that the knowledge of evil is as real, hence as God-bestowed, as the knowledge of good."

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