Chapter X - Science Of Being
The serpent's whisper
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the deep sleep, in which originated the delusion that life
the deep sleep, in which originated the delusion that life
and intelligence proceeded from and passed into matter.
This pantheistic error, or so-called serpent, in-
sists still upon the opposite of Truth, saying,
"Ye shall be as gods;" that is, I will make error as real
and eternal as Truth.
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Evil still affirms itself to be mind, and declares that
Evil still affirms itself to be mind, and declares that
there is more than one intelligence or God. It says:
"There shall be lords and gods many. I declare that God
makes evil minds and evil spirits, and that I aid Him.
Truth shall change sides and be unlike Spirit. I will
put spirit into what I call matter, and matter shall seem
to have life as much as God, Spirit, who is the only life."
Bad results from error
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This error has proved itself to be error. Its life is found
This error has proved itself to be error. Its life is found
to be not Life, but only a transient, false sense of an ex-
istence which ends in death. Error charges
its lie to Truth and says: "The Lord knows
it. He has made man mortal and material, out of mat-
ter instead of Spirit." Thus error partakes of its own
nature and utters its own falsities. If we regard matter
as intelligent, and Mind as both good and evil, every sin
or supposed material pain and pleasure seems normal,
a part of God's creation, and so weighs against our course
Spiritward.
Higher statutes
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Truth has no beginning. The divine Mind is the Soul
Truth has no beginning. The divine Mind is the Soul
of man, and gives man dominion over all things. Man
was not created from a material basis, nor
bidden to obey material laws which Spirit never
made; his province is in spiritual statutes, in the higher
law of Mind.
The great question
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Above error's awful din, blackness, and chaos, the voice
Above error's awful din, blackness, and chaos, the voice
of Truth still calls: "Adam, where art thou? Conscious-
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ness, where art thou? Art thou dwelling in the belief
ness, where art thou? Art thou dwelling in the belief
that mind is in matter, and that evil is mind, or art thou
in the living faith that there is and can be but
one God, and keeping His commandment?"
Until the lesson is learned that God is the only Mind gov-
erning man, mortal belief will be afraid as it was in the
beginning, and will hide from the demand, "Where art
thou?" This awful demand, "Adam, where art thou?"
is met by the admission from the head, heart, stomach,
blood, nerves, etc.: "Lo, here I am, looking for happiness
and life in the body, but finding only an illusion, a blend-
ing of false claims, false pleasure, pain, sin, sickness, and
death."
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The Soul-inspired patriarchs heard the voice of Truth,
The Soul-inspired patriarchs heard the voice of Truth,
and talked with God as consciously as man talks with man.
Wrestling of Jacob
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Jacob was alone, wrestling with error, – struggling
Jacob was alone, wrestling with error, – struggling
with a mortal sense of life, substance, and intelligence
as existent in matter with its false pleasures
and pains, – when an angel, a message from
Truth and Love, appeared to him and smote the sinew,
or strength, of his error, till he saw its unreality; and
Truth, being thereby understood, gave him spiritual
strength in this Peniel of divine Science. Then said
the spiritual evangel: "Let me go, for the day breaketh;"
that is, the light of Truth and Love dawns upon thee.
But the patriarch, perceiving his error and his need
of help, did not loosen his hold upon this glorious light
until his nature was transformed. When Jacob was
asked, "What is thy name?" he straightway answered;
and then his name was changed to Israel, for "as a prince"
had he prevailed and had "power with God and with
men." Then Jacob questioned his deliverer, "Tell me,