Editorial July 25, 1953 Issue

INDISPENSABLE FOOTSTEPS

Richard J. Davis

In the second chapter of Genesis (2:15) we read, "The Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," points out that the Biblical commentator Cruden defines the word Eden as pleasure or delight, and in her interpretation of this verse she writes (pp. 526,527): "In this text Eden stands for the mortal, material body. God could not put Mind into matter nor infinite Spirit into finite form to dress it and keep it,—to make it beautiful or to cause it to live and grow. Man is God's reflection, needing no cultivation, but ever beautiful and complete."

Metaphorically speaking, then, it would seem that one dwells in the garden of Eden when he is bound by the mesmeric belief that pleasure, happiness, and satisfaction are to be found in the material body. This belief that mortal man lives in and derives happiness and sensation from matter is the source of his bondage. It is the basis of his belief in and fear of disease and finally death. The human or mortal man appears as a limited and finite creature. He is the expression of finity, of a finite mortal mind, and therefore is incomplete.

Appetite in its various phases is one of the manifestations of this incompleteness. Every material longing, wish, or desire is the expression of finity and incompleteness. Personal sense co-operates with material appetite to hold mankind in mortality. It is through passions and appetites that mortal mind perpetuates itself and reveals the fear of its own extinction.

Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.

Send a comment to the editors
NEXT IN THIS ISSUE
Editorial
MIND'S ALLNESS
July 25, 1953
Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit