Rejecting snake-talk
We are told in the third chapter of Genesis that in the Garden of Eden a serpent spoke to Eve suggesting that if she ate the forbidden fruit her eyes would be opened, “and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (verse 5 ). But we have just learned in the first chapter of Genesis about one supreme God whose creation was “very good” (verse 31 ).
In her discussion in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures of Eve’s encounter, Mary Baker Eddy asked: “Whence comes a talking, lying serpent to tempt the children of divine Love? The serpent enters into the metaphor only as evil” (p. 529 ).
Elsewhere she wrote: “In the days of Eden, humanity was misled by a false personality,—a talking snake—according to biblical history. This pretender taught the opposite of Truth. This abortive ego, this fable of error, is laid bare in Christian Science” (Unity of Good, p. 44 ).
Such passages affirm that we have divine authority for rejecting any insinuations of evil in the form of “snake-talk,” whether they appear to come from our own thought or someone else’s. They tempt us into believing that there is a power apart from God—some other force trying to undermine our naturally good thinking and well-being.
Christian Science identifies such pseudo-forces as mortal mind or animal magnetism (snake magnetism included!), and makes it clear that such intruders have no valid foundation or authority in the face of the might of God, or immortal Mind. They cannot stand up to the force of good, and must disappear when challenged.
This was borne out in my own life at a time when I visited my wife Isabel in the hospital. She appeared to be hallucinating, and didn’t at first recognize me. I was distressed by her troubled and confused thinking, and when I got home I rang a Christian Science practitioner for support and comfort.
As Isabel was not a Christian Scientist and had chosen medical care, I knew the practitioner would not pray for her directly. The practitioner said she would pray for me, and assured me that because there was only one Mind, Isabel would feel the benefit of our prayers. The practitioner said quite firmly: “There is only one consciousness, and that is the consciousness of good!” Nothing else. Just those few words.
I realized that this was in accord with a statement in Mrs. Eddy’s book The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany: “Good thoughts are an impervious armour; clad therewith you are completely shielded from the attacks of error of every sort. And not only yourselves are safe, but all whom your thoughts rest upon are thereby benefited” (p. 210 ).
Imagine my joy when I visited Isabel the next evening and found that there had been a change in her consciousness. She greeted me cheerily and told me in a state of wonder: “A funny thing happened yesterday. At six o’clock the snakes disappeared!”
We have divine authority for rejecting any insinuations of evil.
It had been at six o’clock precisely that I’d phoned the practitioner who had spoken so convincingly about the consciousness of good. Yet Isabel hadn’t known I’d spoken to the practitioner, and certainly hadn’t known when I’d made a call. The fact that she had chosen to mention the time was remarkable. She must have known intuitively that there was something significant about it without knowing why.
So divine Love had worked its natural wonders in a very practical and efficacious way to meet this particular human need, and in a later discussion with Isabel, we both marveled at the precision and immediacy of God’s loving care. I recalled Jesus’ healing of a nobleman’s son. When a servant reported the son well, the father asked when the fever had left him, and was informed that it was “at the same hour” that Jesus had told him, “Go thy way; thy son liveth” (John 4:53, 50 ).
Isabel was indeed back to normal thinking, without any trace of the sinuous thoughts that had been troubling her the previous day. And her use of the word snakes was interesting, because we had never discussed the word together, least of all its metaphysical application. So we both rejoiced in this development and in the spiritual progress it represented.
There was a lot to ponder in that remarkable experience, which we discussed at length afterwards and from which we learned a great deal, including the fact that snakes in the context in which Isabel used the word, represent any evil or troublesome thoughts that undermine our well-being. There are lessons to be learned from the Apostle Paul’s encounter with a viper in which he “shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm” (Acts 28:5 ). We should instantly do the same when facing any conveyor of evil thoughts or suggestions. That’s what the practitioner and I were able to do concerning my wife. The snakes disappeared—and didn’t return!
