Science and Health
with Key to The Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
Chapter XV - Genesis

 

Scientific offspring
540:1
marvellous demonstrations. Christ is the offspring of
Spirit, and spiritual existence shows that Spirit creates
neither a wicked nor a mortal man, lapsing into sin, sick-
ness, and death.
Cleansing upheaval
540:5
In Isaiah we read: "I make peace, and create evil. I
the Lord do all these things;" but the prophet referred to
divine law as stirring up the belief in evil to its
utmost, when bringing it to the surface and re-
ducing it to its common denominator, nothingness. The
muddy river-bed must be stirred in order to purify the
stream. In moral chemicalization, when the symptoms
of evil, illusion, are aggravated, we may think in our igno-
rance that the Lord hath wrought an evil; but we ought
to know that God's law uncovers so-called sin and its
effects, only that Truth may annihilate all sense of evil
and all power to sin.
Allegiance to Spirit
540:17
Science renders "unto Caesar the things which are
Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's." It
saith to the human sense of sin, sickness, and
death, "God never made you, and you are a
false sense which hath no knowledge of God." The pur-
pose of the Hebrew allegory, representing error as assum-
ing a divine character, is to teach mortals never to believe
a lie.
540:25
Genesis iv. 3, 4. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground
an offering unto the Lord [Jehovah]. And Abel, he also
brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof.
Spiritual and material
540:28
Cain is the type of mortal and material man, conceived
in sin and "shapen in iniquity;" he is not the
type of Truth and Love. Material in origin
and sense, he brings a material offering to God. Abel
541:1
takes his offering from the firstlings of the flock. A lamb
is a more animate form of existence, and more nearly re-
sembles a mind-offering than does Cain's fruit. Jealous
of his brother's gift, Cain seeks Abel's life, instead of mak-
ing his own gift a higher tribute to the Most High.
541:6
Genesis iv. 4, 5. And the Lord [Jehovah] had respect
unto Abel, and to his offering: but unto Cain, and to his
offering, He had not respect.
541:9
Had God more respect for the homage bestowed through
a gentle animal than for the worship expressed by Cain's
fruit? No; but the lamb was a more spiritual type of
even the human concept of Love than the herbs of the
ground could be.
541:14
Genesis iv. 8. Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and
slew him.
541:16
The erroneous belief that life, substance, and intelli-
gence can be material ruptures the life and brotherhood
of man at the very outset.
541:19
Genesis iv. 9. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto Cain,
Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am
I my brother's keeper?
Brotherhood repudiated
541:22
Here the serpentine lie invents new forms. At first it
usurps divine power. It is supposed to say
in the first instance, "Ye shall be as gods."
Now it repudiates even the human duty of man towards
his brother.
541:27
Genesis iv. 10, 11. And He [Jehovah] said, . . . The
voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the ground.
And now art thou cursed from the earth.
Murder brings its curse
542:1
The belief of life in matter sins at every step. It in-
curs divine displeasure, and it would kill Jesus that it
might be rid of troublesome Truth. Material
beliefs would slay the spiritual idea when-
ever and wherever it appears. Though error hides
behind a lie and excuses guilt, error cannot forever be
concealed. Truth, through her eternal laws, unveils
error. Truth causes sin to betray itself, and sets upon
error the mark of the beast. Even the disposition to
excuse guilt or to conceal it is punished. The avoidance
of justice and the denial of truth tend to perpetuate sin,
invoke crime, jeopardize self-control, and mock divine
mercy.
542:14
Genesis iv. 15. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto him
Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken
on him sevenfold. And the Lord [Jehovah] set a mark
upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
Retribution and remorse
542:18
"They that take the sword shall perish with the
sword." Let Truth uncover and destroy error in God's
own way, and let human justice pattern the
divine. Sin will receive its full penalty, both
for what it is and for what it does. Justice marks
the sinner, and teaches mortals not to remove the
waymarks of God. To envy's own hell, justice con-
signs the lie which, to advance itself, breaks God's
commandments.
542:27
Genesis iv. 16. And Cain went out from the presence of
the Lord [Jehovah], and dwelt in the land of Nod.
Climax of suffering
542:29
The sinful misconception of Life as something less
543:1
than God, having no truth to support it, falls back upon
itself. This error, after reaching the climax of suffering,
yields to Truth and returns to dust; but it
is only mortal man and not the real man,
who dies. The image of Spirit cannot be effaced, since it
is the idea of Truth and changes not, but becomes more
beautifully apparent at error's demise.
Dwelling in dreamland
543:8
In divine Science, the material man is shut out from
the presence of God. The five corporeal senses cannot
take cognizance of Spirit. They cannot come
into His presence, and must dwell in dream‑
land, until mortals arrive at the understanding that ma-
terial life, with all its sin, sickness, and death, is an illu-
sion, against which divine Science is engaged in a warfare
of extermination. The great verities of existence are
never excluded by falsity.
Man springs from Mind
543:17
All error proceeds from the evidence before the mate-
rial senses. If man is material and originates in an
egg, who shall say that he is not primarily
dust? May not Darwin be right in think-
ing that apehood preceded mortal manhood? Minerals
and vegetables are found, according to divine Science,
to be the creations of erroneous thought, not of matter.
Did man, whom God created with a word, originate
in an egg? When Spirit made all, did it leave aught
for matter to create? Ideas of Truth alone are reflected
in the myriad manifestations of Life, and thus it is
seen that man springs solely from Mind. The belief
that matter supports life would make Life, or God,
mortal.
Material inception
543:31
The text, "In the day that the Lord God [Jehovah
God] made the earth and the heavens," introduces the
544:1
record of a material creation which followed the spiritual,
– a creation so wholly apart from God's, that Spirit
had no participation in it. In God's creation
ideas became productive, obedient to Mind.
There was no rain and "not a man to till the ground."
Mind, instead of matter, being the producer, Life was
self-sustained. Birth, decay, and death arise from the
material sense of things, not from the spiritual, for in
the latter Life consisteth not of the things which a man
eateth. Matter cannot change the eternal fact that
man exists because God exists. Nothing is new to the
infinite Mind.
First evil suggestion
544:13
In Science, Mind neither produces matter nor does
matter produce mind. No mortal mind has the might
or right or wisdom to create or to destroy.
All is under the control of the one Mind,
even God. The first statement about evil, – the first
suggestion of more than the one Mind, – is in the fable
of the serpent. The facts of creation, as previously re-
corded, include nothing of the kind.
Material personality
544:21
The serpent is supposed to say, "Ye shall be as gods,"
but these gods must be evolved from materiality and be
the very antipodes of immortal and spiritual
being. Man is the likeness of Spirit, but a
material personality is not this likeness. Therefore man,
in this allegory, is neither a lesser god nor the image and
likeness of the one God.
544:28
Material, erroneous belief reverses understanding and
truth. It declares mind to be in and of matter, so-called
mortal life to be Life, infinity to enter man's nostrils
so that matter becomes spiritual. Error begins with
corporeality as the producer instead of divine Prin-
545:1
ciple, and explains Deity through mortal and finite con-
ceptions.
545:3
"Behold, the man is become as one of us." This could
not be the utterance of Truth or Science, for according
to the record, material man was fast degenerating and
never had been divinely conceived.
Mental tillage
545:7
The condemnation of mortals to till the ground means
this, – that mortals should so improve material belief
by thought tending spiritually upward as to
destroy materiality. Man, created by God,
was given dominion over the whole earth. The notion
of a material universe is utterly opposed to the theory
of man as evolved from Mind. Such fundamental errors
send falsity into all human doctrines and conclusions,
and do not accord infinity to Deity. Error tills the
whole ground in this material theory, which is entirely a
false view, destructive to existence and happiness. Out-
side of Christian Science all is vague and hypothetical, the
opposite of Truth; yet this opposite, in its false view of
God and man, impudently demands a blessing.
Erroneous standpoint
545:21
The translators of this record of scientific creation
entertained a false sense of being. They believed in
the existence of matter, its propagation and
power. From that standpoint of error, they
could not apprehend the nature and operation of Spirit.
Hence the seeming contradiction in that Scripture, which
is so glorious in its spiritual signification. Truth has
but one reply to all error, – to sin, sickness, and death:
"Dust [nothingness] thou art, and unto dust [nothingness]
shalt thou return."
Mortality mythical
545:31
"As in Adam [error] all die, even so in Christ [Truth]
shall all be made alive." The mortality of man is a
546:1
myth, for man is immortal. The false belief that spirit is
now submerged in matter, at some future time to be eman-
cipated from it, – this belief alone is mortal.
Spirit, God, never germinates, but is "the same
yesterday, and to-day, and forever." If Mind, God, cre-
ates error, that error must exist in the divine Mind, and
this assumption of error would dethrone the perfection
of Deity.
No truth from a material basis
546:9
Is Christian Science contradictory? Is the divine
Principle of creation misstated? Has God no Science to
declare Mind, while matter is governed by un-
erring intelligence? "There went up a mist
from the earth." This represents error as
starting from an idea of good on a material basis. It
supposes God and man to be manifested only through
the corporeal senses, although the material senses can
take no cognizance of Spirit or the spiritual idea.
Genesis and the Apocalypse seem more obscure than
other portions of the Scripture, because they cannot
possibly be interpreted from a material standpoint. To
the author, they are transparent, for they contain the deep
divinity of the Bible.
Dawning of spiritual facts
546:23
Christian Science is dawning upon a material age.
The great spiritual facts of being, like rays of light, shine
in the darkness, though the darkness, com-
prehending them not, may deny their reality.
The proof that the system stated in this book is Chris-
tianly scientific resides in the good this system accom-
plishes, for it cures on a divine demonstrable Principle
which all may understand.
Proof given in healing
546:31
If mathematics should present a thousand different
examples of one rule, the proving of one example would
547:1
authenticate all the others. A simple statement of Chris-
tian Science, if demonstrated by healing, contains the
proof of all here said of Christian Science. If
one of the statements in this book is true, every
one must be true, for not one departs from the stated sys-
tem and rule. You can prove for yourself, dear reader,
the Science of healing, and so ascertain if the author has
given you the correct interpretation of Scripture.
Embryonic evolution
547:9
The late Louis Agassiz, by his microscopic examination
of a vulture's ovum, strengthens the thinker's conclusions
as to the scientific theory of creation. Agassiz
was able to see in the egg the earth's atmos-
phere, the gathering clouds, the moon and stars, while the
germinating speck of so-called embryonic life seemed a
small sun. In its history of mortality, Darwin's theory
of evolution from a material basis is more consistent than
most theories. Briefly, this is Darwin's theory, – that
Mind produces its opposite, matter, and endues matter
with power to recreate the universe, including man. Ma-
terial evolution implies that the great First Cause must
become material, and afterwards must either return to
Mind or go down into dust and nothingness.
True theory of the universe
547:23
The Scriptures are very sacred. Our aim must be to
have them understood spiritually, for only by this under-
standing can truth be gained. The true the-
ory of the universe, including man, is not in
material history but in spiritual development.
Inspired thought relinquishes a material, sensual, and
mortal theory of the universe, and adopts the spiritual and
immortal.
Scriptural perception
547:31
It is this spiritual perception of Scripture, which lifts
humanity out of disease and death and inspires faith.
548:1
"The Spirit and the bride say, Come! . . . and whoso-
ever will, let him take the water of life freely." Christian
Science separates error from truth, and breathes
through the sacred pages the spiritual sense of
life, substance, and intelligence. In this Science, we dis-
cover man in the image and likeness of God. We see that
man has never lost his spiritual estate and his eternal
harmony.
The clouds dissolving
548:9
How little light or heat reach our earth when clouds
cover the sun's face! So Christian Science can be seen
only as the clouds of corporeal sense roll away.
Earth has little light or joy for mortals before
Life is spiritually learned. Every agony of mortal error
helps error to destroy error, and so aids the apprehension
of immortal Truth. This is the new birth going on
hourly, by which men may entertain angels, the true
ideas of God, the spiritual sense of being.
Prediction of a naturalist
548:18
Speaking of the origin of mortals, a famous naturalist
says: "It is very possible that many general statements
now current, about birth and generation, will
be changed with the progress of information."
Had the naturalist, through his tireless researches, gained
the diviner side in Christian Science, – so far apart from
his material sense of animal growth and organization, –
he would have blessed the human race more abundantly.
Methods of reproduction
548:26
Natural history is richly endowed by the labors and
genius of great men. Modern discoveries have brought
to light important facts in regard to so-called
embryonic life. Agassiz declares ("Methods
of Study in Natural History,") "Certain ani-
mals, besides the ordinary process of generation, also
increase their numbers naturally and constantly by self‑
549:1
division." This discovery is corroborative of the Science
of Mind, for this discovery shows that the multiplication
of certain animals takes place apart from sexual condi-
tions. The supposition that life germinates in eggs and
must decay after it has grown to maturity, if not before,
is shown by divine metaphysics to be a mistake, – a
blunder which will finally give place to higher theories
and demonstrations.
The three processes
549:9
Creatures of lower forms of organism are supposed
to have, as classes, three different methods of reproduc-
tion and to multiply their species sometimes
through eggs, sometimes through buds, and
sometimes through self-division. According to recent
lore, successive generations do not begin with the birth of
new individuals, or personalities, but with the formation
of the nucleus, or egg, from which one or more individu-
alities subsequently emerge; and we must therefore look
upon the simple ovum as the germ, the starting-point, of
the most complicated corporeal structures, including those
which we call human. Here these material researches
culminate in such vague hypotheses as must necessarily
attend false systems, which rely upon physics and are de-
void of metaphysics.
Deference to material law
549:24
In one instance a celebrated naturalist, Agassiz, dis-
covers the pathway leading to divine Science, and beards
the lion of materialism in its den. At that
point, however, even this great observer mis-
takes nature, forsakes Spirit as the divine origin of
creative Truth, and allows matter and material law to
usurp the prerogatives of omnipotence. He absolutely
drops from his summit, coming down to a belief in the
material origin of man, for he virtually affirms that
550:1
the germ of humanity is in a circumscribed and non‑
intelligent egg.
Deep-reaching interrogations
550:3
If this be so, whence cometh Life, or Mind, to the
human race? Matter surely does not possess Mind.
God is the Life, or intelligence, which forms
and preserves the individuality and identity
of animals as well as of men. God cannot
become finite, and be limited within material bounds.
Spirit cannot become matter, nor can Spirit be developed
through its opposite. Of what avail is it to investigate
what is miscalled material life, which ends, even as it be-
gins, in nameless nothingness? The true sense of being
and its eternal perfection should appear now, even as it
will hereafter.
Stages of existence
550:15
Error of thought is reflected in error of action. The
continual contemplation of existence as material and cor-
poreal – as beginning and ending, and with
birth, decay, and dissolution as its component
stages – hides the true and spiritual Life, and causes
our standard to trail in the dust. If Life has any starting‑
point whatsoever, then the great I AM is a myth. If Life
is God, as the Scriptures imply, then Life is not embry-
onic, it is infinite. An egg is an impossible enclosure for
Deity.
550:25
Embryology supplies no instance of one species pro-
ducing its opposite. A serpent never begets a bird, nor
does a lion bring forth a lamb. Amalgamation is deemed
monstrous and is seldom fruitful, but it is not so hideous
and absurd as the supposition that Spirit – the pure and
holy, the immutable and immortal – can originate the
impure and mortal and dwell in it. As Christian Science
repudiates self-evident impossibilities, the material senses
551:1
must father these absurdities, for both the material senses
and their reports are unnatural, impossible, and unreal.
The real producer
551:3
Either Mind produces, or it is produced. If Mind is
first, it cannot produce its opposite in quality and quantity,
called matter. If matter is first, it cannot pro-
duce Mind. Like produces like. In natural
history, the bird is not the product of a beast. In spiritual
history, matter is not the progenitor of Mind.
The ascent of species
551:9
One distinguished naturalist argues that mortals spring
from eggs and in races. Mr. Darwin admits this, but he
adds that mankind has ascended through all
the lower grades of existence. Evolution de-
scribes the gradations of human belief, but it does not
acknowledge the method of divine Mind, nor see that ma-
terial methods are impossible in divine Science and that
all Science is of God, not of man.
Transmitted peculiarities
551:17
Naturalists ask: "What can there be, of a material
nature, transmitted through these bodies called eggs, –
themselves composed of the simplest material
elements, – by which all peculiarities of an-
cestry, belonging to either sex, are brought down from
generation to generation?" The question of the natu-
ralist amounts to this: How can matter originate or trans-
mit mind? We answer that it cannot. Darkness and
doubt encompass thought, so long as it bases creation on
materiality. From a material standpoint, "Canst thou
by searching find out God?" All must be Mind, or
else all must be matter. Neither can produce the other.
Mind is immortal; but error declares that the material
seed must decay in order to propagate its species, and
the resulting germ is doomed to the same routine.
Causation not in matter
551:32
The ancient and hypothetical question, Which is first,
552:1
the egg or the bird? is answered, if the egg produces the
parent. But we cannot stop here. Another question
follows: Who or what produces the parent of
the egg? That the earth was hatched from the
"egg of night" was once an accepted theory. Heathen
philosophy, modern geology, and all other material hy-
potheses deal with causation as contingent on matter
and as necessarily apparent to the corporeal senses, even
where the proof requisite to sustain this assumption is un-
discovered. Mortal theories make friends of sin, sickness,
and death; whereas the spiritual scientific facts of exist-
ence include no member of this dolorous and fatal triad.
Emergence of mortals
552:13
Human experience in mortal life, which starts from an
egg, corresponds with that of Job, when he says, "Man
that is born of a woman is of few days, and
full of trouble." Mortals must emerge from
this notion of material life as all-in-all. They must peck
open their shells with Christian Science, and look outward
and upward. But thought, loosened from a material
basis but not yet instructed by Science, may become wild
with freedom and so be self-contradictory.
Persistence of species
552:22
From a material source flows no remedy for sorrow,
sin, and death, for the redeeming power, from the ills
they occasion, is not in egg nor in dust. The
blending tints of leaf and flower show the
order of matter to be the order of mortal mind. The
intermixture of different species, urged to its utmost
limits, results in a return to the original species. Thus
it is learned that matter is a manifestation of mortal
mind, and that matter always surrenders its claims when
the perfect and eternal Mind is understood.
Better basis than embryology
552:32
Naturalists describe the origin of mortal and material
553:1
existence in the various forms of embryology, and ac-
company their descriptions with important observations,
which should awaken thought to a higher and
purer contemplation of man's origin. This
clearer consciousness must precede an under-
standing of the harmony of being. Mortal thought must
obtain a better basis, get nearer the truth of being, or
health will never be universal, and harmony will never
become the standard of man.
553:10
One of our ablest naturalists has said: "We have no
right to assume that individuals have grown or been
formed under circumstances which made material con-
ditions essential to their maintenance and reproduction,
or important to their origin and first introduction."
Why, then, is the naturalist's basis so materialistic,
and why are his deductions generally material?
All nativity in thought
553:17
Adam was created before Eve. In this instance, it is
seen that the maternal egg never brought forth Adam.
Eve was formed from Adam's rib, not from a
foetal ovum. Whatever theory may be adopted
by general mortal thought to account for human origin,
that theory is sure to become the signal for the appear-
ance of its method in finite forms and operations. If con-
sentaneous human belief agrees upon an ovum as the
point of emergence for the human race, this potent belief
will immediately supersede the more ancient supersti-
tion about the creation from dust or from the rib of our
primeval father.
Being is immortal
553:29
You may say that mortals are formed before they
think or know aught of their origin, and you
may also ask how belief can affect a result
which precedes the development of that belief. It can
554:1
only be replied, that Christian Science reveals what "eye
hath not seen," – even the cause of all that exists, – for
the universe, inclusive of man, is as eternal as God, who
is its divine immortal Principle. There is no such thing
as mortality, nor are there properly any mortal beings,
because being is immortal, like Deity, – or, rather, being
and Deity are inseparable.
Our conscious development
554:8
Error is always error. It is no thing. Any statement
of life, following from a misconception of life, is errone-
ous, because it is destitute of any knowledge
of the so-called selfhood of life, destitute of
any knowledge of its origin or existence. The mortal
is unconscious of his foetal and infantile existence; but
as he grows up into another false claim, that of self-con-
scious matter, he learns to say, "I am somebody; but
who made me?" Error replies, "God made you." The
first effort of error has been and is to impute to God the
creation of whatever is sinful and mortal; but infinite
Mind sets at naught such a mistaken belief.
Mendacity of error
554:20
Jesus defined this opposite of God and His creation
better than we can, when he said, "He is a liar, and the
father of it." Jesus also said, "Have not I
chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?"
This he said of Judas, one of Adam's race. Jesus never
intimated that God made a devil, but he did say, "Ye
are of your father, the devil." All these sayings were to
show that mind in matter is the author of itself, and is
simply a falsity and illusion.
Ailments of animals
554:29
It is the general belief that the lower animals are less
sickly than those possessing higher organiza-
tions, especially those of the human form.
This would indicate that there is less disease in propor-
555:1
tion as the force of mortal mind is less pungent or sensi-
tive, and that health attends the absence of mortal mind.
A fair conclusion from this might be, that it is the human
belief, and not the divine arbitrament, which brings the
physical organism under the yoke of disease.
Ignorance the sign of error
555:6
An inquirer once said to the discoverer of Christian
Science: "I like your explanations of truth, but I do
not comprehend what you say about error."
This is the nature of error. The mark of igno-
rance is on its forehead, for it neither understands nor
can be understood. Error would have itself received as
mind, as if it were as real and God-created as truth; but
Christian Science attributes to error neither entity nor
power, because error is neither mind nor the outcome of
Mind.
The origin of divinity
555:16
Searching for the origin of man, who is the reflection
of God, is like inquiring into the origin of God, the self‑
existent and eternal. Only impotent error
would seek to unite Spirit with matter, good
with evil, immortality with mortality, and call this
sham unity man, as if man were the offspring of both
Mind and matter, of both Deity and humanity. Crea-
tion rests on a spiritual basis. We lose our standard of
perfection and set aside the proper conception of Deity,
when we admit that the perfect is the author of aught
that can become imperfect, that God bestows the power
to sin, or that Truth confers the ability to err. Our
great example, Jesus, could restore the individualized
manifestation of existence, which seemed to vanish in
death. Knowing that God was the Life of man, Jesus
was able to present himself unchanged after the cruci-
fixion. Truth fosters the idea of Truth, and not the be-
556:1
lief in illusion or error. That which is real, is sustained
by Spirit.
Genera classified
556:3
Vertebrata, articulata, mollusca, and radiata are mor-
tal and material concepts classified, and are supposed to
possess life and mind. These false beliefs
will disappear, when the radiation of Spirit
destroys forever all belief in intelligent matter. Then
will the new heaven and new earth appear, for the for-
mer things will have passed away.
The Christian's privilege
556:10
Mortal belief infolds the conditions of sin. Mortal
belief dies to live again in renewed forms, only to go out
at last forever; for life everlasting is not to be
gained by dying. Christian Science may ab-
sorb the attention of sage and philosopher, but
the Christian alone can fathom it. It is made known
most fully to him who understands best the divine Life.
Did the origin and the enlightenment of the race come
from the deep sleep which fell upon Adam? Sleep is
darkness, but God's creative mandate was, "Let there be
light." In sleep, cause and effect are mere illusions.
They seem to be something, but are not. Oblivion and
dreams, not realities, come with sleep. Even so goes on
the Adam-belief, of which mortal and material life is the
dream.
Ontology versus physiology
556:25
Ontology receives less attention than physiology. Why?
Because mortal mind must waken to spiritual
life before it cares to solve the problem of
being, hence the author's experience; but when
that awakening comes, existence will be on a new stand-
point.
556:31
It is related that a father plunged his infant babe, only
a few hours old, into the water for several minutes, and
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