Evening Star Newspaper, May 22, 1921, Page 46

£ THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. U, MAY 23 19521 PART 2 RELIGIOUS NOTICE. RELIGIOUVS NOTICE. REIJIGIOFS KNOTICE. I RELIGIO®S NOTICE. | RELIGIOTS NOTICE. l RELIGIOUS NOTICE. I RELIGIOUS NOTICA. l RELIGIOUS NOTICE. “Behb_ld; I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give according as his work shall be.”— CHRIST JESUS every man N (Letter Froma Prominem‘.L C lergyman.) Dear Mrs. Stetson: May the 2d, 1921. Among the multitude who today want to know the truths and realities of being are many who are perplexed at the discrepancies between their inherited beliefs and the new statements about these beliefs. I do not know any one who has so spiritually and scientifically gone into the investigation of Truth as you. Therefore I am writing to ask you to iterpret, for many earnest students of the Bible, the first and second chapters of Genesis. They want to know how man could “fall” if made in the “image” and “likeness” of God. If he, God’s “image” and “likeness,” could not sin, who was it who did sin and was put out of the Eden? Were there two men—one spirital, the other carnal? Or one man only with a consciousness shifting from the carnal to the spiritual, and vice versa? Was Adam the anthropoid ape at the height of material evolution; and then, at the next step, did the breathing in him, or it, of the “breath of life” produce the man in God’s likeness? ‘Which narrative is to be accepted as the document containing the truth about man’s origin and nature? Such questions are often asked, and if you can spare the time to give your interpretation I am sure many would be enlightened. I am anticipating a favorable response in the name of thousands who are groping out of darkness. Believe me, with sincere regard, W— H—— ] —. — o In reply to this request, and the many other inquiries I have re- ceived, in regard to my scientific interpretation of the first and second chapters of Genesis, I have written the sermon which follows, and which will explain my position. As this clergyman says, there are thousands who are seeking light upon man’s origin and nature, and I know of no better way to give inquirers my interpretation, and which I have found to be demonstrable truth, than by publishing this sermon through the columns of the press. Freely I have received of this wonderful revelation of the science of being, through the teachings of Christ Jesus, and in this age, through Mary Baker Eddy; therefore, freely do I give it to all who desire to know my interpretation of the origin and nature of the man created by God. AUGUSTA E. STETSON. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. HAT a revelation of the universe and man of God’s creating, and of the end of the Adam-Eve time world, with its phenomena of sin, suffering, sor- row and death! The glorious il- lumination-of spiritual sense reveal- ed to John, God’s universe, peopled with the children of His creating, sustained throughout eternity by a Principal, or cause, eternal Life’and Love, whom we. call God and who supplies every idea in the cosmos of infinite Spirit or Mind! The words of St. John, the be- loved disciple of the great master Metaphysician, Christ Jesus, have reverberated through the ages, ing to suffering humanity the truth of scientific bein and man in His “image” and “like- ness,” to whom He gave “dominion” over all things. St. Jobn had learned the divine Science of Mind, from walking and talking with Christ and beholding his demonstra- tions of spiritual power over a seem- ing material mental influence, which held humanity in bondage to a tyrannous master—the so-called carnal mind, which opposes God and results in the phenomena called sin, want, woe, and death. The proof of the potency and eter- aglity of Truth lies in the fact that iSt. John’s words, written while on Patmos, and during the absence of the physical personality of his great Teacher, Christ Jesus—the fact, I repeat, remains, that John’s faith and understanding of the Principle of spiritual Science, which he had learned from the Son, or idea of God—the Christ man—could not be lost to the world. Nor could the carnal so-called mind, which inflict- ed tortures mpon his Master and over which he saw his at Teacher triumph—all this could not turn John, the beloved disciple, from trusting the Principle of be- ing, eternal Life and Love, to de- liver him from the agony of the il- lusion of suffering and death, as the Christ-mind had delivered the He- brew children and Daniel from the fiery furnace and the lions’ den. Christ Jesus understood cause and effect—a creative Principle, and its phenomena. He admitted but one God, as real, one eternal causa- tion, Life and Love, one Supreme Being, or creator, Spirit, eternal Mind, which is reflected in infinite ideas, as Father-Mother and chil- dren—a universe whose cause is in- telligence, wisdom, Supreme Be- ing, Spirit, expressed in countless ideas, all under the control of and in ble from the great and only Arbiter, creative Mind. Holding steadfastly to a demonstrated prin- or cause, enable Christ Jesus to defy and aanul the false claim toa <& (Revelation xxi,, 3, 4.) power called the carnal mind, or the Adam-Eve generation, which be- ts and conceives a dream-man. is Adam-Eve generation, or the carnal mind, claims birth, which is followed by growth, maturity, de- cay, and death The history of the Adam-Eve progeny, which is found in the second chgpter of Genesis, and which chronicles the man whose origin was from dust, has been ac- cepted and taught for ages, regard- less of the record of the true crea- tion, which is found in the first chapter of Genesis, where God made man and gave him “dominion” over all the earth. St. John had seen his Teacher demonstrate the Principle of being, Life and Love, the source of his divine selfhood, until the master thought, which is man’s real selfhood, and which emanates from God—this unity with Principle, Life and Love, the one eternal cause, sustained John, as it had supported Jesus, during the dissolving of the human, or fleshly Jesus, and the Christ-man of Spirit’s creating won an ever- lasting victory over “the last enemy”—death. Humanity today is being forced to admit, that as in the Adam-Eve generation, “all die, even so in Christ [or the spiritual genera- tion] shall all be made alive.” (I Corinthians, 1522) In this age mankind is beginning to agree with Job, that the material so-called man, or breed of Adam-Eve, “is of .few days, and full of trouble.” Throughont the ages, the Christ- ly element in man has protested against the tyranny of a seeming .mental influence, which incapaci- tated him. Mrs. Eddy says: Christian _Science raises the standard of liberty and cries: Follow me! Escape from the bomhF'e of sickness, sin, and death!” Jesus marked out the way. Citizens of the world, accept the “glorions liberty of the chil- dren of God.’ and free! This is_your divine right. The illusion of material sense, not divine law, has bound you, entangled your free limbs, crippled your capacities, en- feebled your body, and defaced the tablet of your being. (Science and Health, p. 227) Prophets and seers, for cen- turies, have shouted, “Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord,” and “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” (Mark, 1229; Exodus, 20.3.) They have condemned the shepherds of Israel, ‘who did not feed their flocks with the truth of being, which sustains man. The prophet Ezekiel de- clares: = 2 The diseased have ye not strengthened, - neither have ve healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, ncither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost . . . My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill; yea, my flock was scat- tered ‘upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them. For thus saith the Lord God: Behold, 1, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. And they shall no more be a prey to the heaten, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwéll safely, and none shall make them afraid. Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord God. And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God. (Ezekiel xxxiv., 4, 6, 11, 28, 30, 31.) - Paul, with spiritual illumination of the allness of Spirit, God, cried to the world of dreamers, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” Awaking to the real- ity of his spiritual identity and relation to God, he rebelled against the tyranny and torture of the carnal, material senses, or the belief of life in matter, and left this denunciation of the false product of Adam-Eve: man that T am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” —who shall deliver me from this material body of sensuous material generation? (Romans vii., 24.) The development of Paul’s spiritual sense revealed to him the cause of suffering, sorrow and death, and he chronicled his condemnation of the claim of a power opposed to God in the following words: As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (1. Corinthians xv., 22.) To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (Romans viii., 6.) Thus he denounced Adam-Eve’s race. John, the Revelator, under- stood the secret of his Master’s teaching, viz, that Mind, Spirit, God, is omnipotent Life and Love, the only real, eternal cause, the only, creator, the Father and Mother of the universe, including every idea, or child, from the infinitesimal to the infinite. There is but one crea- tor—infinite Spirit, and one uni- verse, composed of infinite ideas, namely, God and His Christ. Each individual idea, or embodied life and love, is forever unfolding under the operation of Spirit, developing from glory to glory, revealing the infinite possibilities of the man of God’s creating, who is forever governed by the law of Spirit, the Principle of being, the eternal I AM. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science and author of its textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, tells us, “all causation ‘was Mind, and every effect a mental phenome- non.” (Retrospection and Intro- spection, p. 24.) Then we logically infer that man, created by Spirit, God, is immortal, and is held. for- ever in the eternal arms of Life and L.ove, who feeds, clothes, and en- virons every child, or idea, which composes His body, manifestation, or universe. The first-born of God, the Christ- man, is the Head of the body. Christ Jesus understood his nativity. He taught and proved the power of his spiritual individuality, by healing the sick or destroying false mental hallucinations—by feeding the hun- -gry multitude, by walking the waves and calming the fears of his terrified disciples; by raising Lazarus and commanding him to come forth from the grave, and finally by over- coming, for himself, “the 1last enemy”—so-called death. Trium- phantly he emerged from the tomb, having attained a glorious victory over “the king of terrors”—death. Today, mankind is_yielding to the pressure of God’s irresistible law of pro- gression, or unfoldment. Humanity is fast awaking from the mesmeric sleep of the Adam-Eve generation. The God- impelled, or the seekers for the de- monstrable Principle which Christ Jesus proved, are apprehending their divine possibilities and are beginning to under- stand the import of John’s words, “This is life eternal, that they :might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ [the Christ man], whom Thou hast sent John, 17.3) In this era, at his second coming, Christ is calling loudly to humanity to awake from its self-inflicted discord, fear, limitations, “chaos and old night.” Many are shaking off the lethargy of mesmerism and are resisting bondage to false teaching, which has misled them into the belief of a material generation, as real. The history of this false creation, which is found in the seécond chapter of Genesis, and records man as made of the dust of the ground, is dia- metrically opposed to thé account of the true spiritual generation, which isgiven in the first chapter of Genesis, where God said: Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, “O wretched- By AUGUSTA E. STETSON, C. S. D. and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon t}:e earth. And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. (Uenesis i., 26, 31.) God finished His creation and called it good, or God. As there is but one God, one creator, man is inseparable from his Maker, the origin of his ex- istence. “God saw everything that He had made,” and pronounced it “very good.” Thus He, God, acknowledged His body, or Christ, His manifestation of infinite ideas, the embodiment -of His infinite selfhood. Christ Jesus under- stood his spiritual origin, his_insepara- bility from eternal Life and Love, and he reflected the Principle of scientific being and proved the dominion with which God'endowed man, as the execu- tor of His (God’s) law. Mrs. Eddy says: He plunged beneath the material surface of things, and found the spiritual cause. (Science and Health, p. 313.) Down through the ages, since Christ Jesus taught and demonstrated the do- minion with which God endowed man, the watchmen on the hills of Zion have not taught the people from the first chapter of Genesis, the true creation. They have chosen as their theorem the second chapter of Genesis, the Adam- Eve dream generation, which has be- ginning and end. This error in premise has resulted in a fatal conclusion—birth, growth, maturity, decay and death—and . is the antithesis of Christ’s teaching and demonstration of man’s oneness with his creator, eternal Life and Love. Had they accepted the teachings, emulated the life and demonstrated the power with which God equipped man, the vision of St. John, the beloved disciple, would long ago have been realized. There would be “no more death, neither sor- row nor crying™—no poverty, no limita- tion, no want and woe—no famine nor pestilence, no suffering, no sorrow, no death, for the former thoughts—fear, hatred, malice, envy, jealousy, greed avarice, lust for place and power—which have been the cause of the disturbed condition that today convulses humanity —this Adamic curse would long ago have disappeared. The enlightening of spiritual sense ex- poses the mythological narrative of the material generation, and which is found in the second chapter of Genesis, as the lie, “which deceiveth the whole world.” (Revelation xii, 9.) Jesus anathema- tized this false so-called man, found in the second chapter of Genesis, when he called him “a liar, and the father of it,” and said, “He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” (Jobn viii, 44.) a The first product of the Adam-Eve generation resulted im a marderer— Cain—who destroyed his brother Abel. During ages, the Adam-Eve animal im- pulse has generated the belief, or so- called man, and Cains have continued to ~masquerade as God’s man. This dream- man, or self-division of Adam and Eve, has “conceived in sin and brought forth in inquity” legions of Cains, who pos- sess a murderous inheritance—the car- nal mind—which has continued its pur- suit and destruction of Abel, until the entire material, world today is reeling with horrors, which are the result of the so-called carnal mind, in which “all die.” THe voice of Christ, at this, His second appearing, is arousing humanity from the hallucination of the belief of life in matter. Mrs. Eddy declares, “man is not material; he is spiritual® “Man is not made to till the soil. His birthright is dominion, not subjection.” (Science and Health, &p. 468, 517) Since Christ taught the Science of Life and man’s eternal oneness with his creator, his true disciples have declared for their inheri- tance. They have met and wit! bitter opposition of the carnally minded.. Their Word can never be silenced, for their Christ consciousness is the Word, and God voices Himself through man, His idea. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. anhm i, 1) This is the unity of God, the Principle of eternal being, and man, through whom He utters and executes His 'aw. God has voiced Himself through prophet and seer, through Christ Jesus and lis dis- ciples, and through Mary Baker Eddy. In these latter days, at the second ap- pearing of the ideal man—Christ—in fulfilment of flis promise, “I go and . . . I will come nf'ain" (John, xvi., 3)—1 repeat, at this, his second appear- ing, behold through human sense as a woman, he will complete his demonstfh- - tion and fulfil the law of God, in the annihilation of all that opposes eternal Life and Love—in the destruction of all that would separate man from his loving Father-Mother, eternal Spirit. A recog- nition of the fatherhood and mother- hood, the compound Principle, or Life and Love, who sustains, feeds and clothes every idea, or child of His creating, is today bringing peace and joy to suffering humanity—a sweet as- surance of a loving Father-Mother, whose tender care reveals home and heaven here on God’s earth, “For :he earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.” (I. Corinthians x., 26.) It be- stows an understanding of the Lord’s prayer: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven” Mrs. Eddy adds, “Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present.” (Science and Health, p. 16). And from her Poems, page 7, we quote: Fed by Thy love divine we live, For Love alone is Life. The Quaker poet felt the inspiration of Christ’s presence, and wrote: I know not where His islands lift Their fronded palms in air; 1 only know I cannot drift Beyond His love and care. And another glimpsed the oneness of od and man, as Father and child, and penned these lines: % He who clothes the lilies, And notes the sparrow’s fall, Will tenderly care for His little one, For He loves and leads us all. And so when weary and burdened And I know not which way to go, 1 know He lovingly lcads me And ’tis all that I need to know. And yet another was moved by spiritu- al impulsion to utter the following: Sweeter than lullabies, sung by the mother; Clearer than ocean’s roar, heard in the shell; Softer than zephyrs, the voice of the Father— “Child, I am with thee, fear not, all is well.” Genuine Christian Scientists are ris- ing, in this hour, to a demonstration of their spiritual individuality, their reflec- tion of omnipotent Life and Love. The radium of Love is dissolving and dis- persing the seeming mental darkness, which hides from mankind its birthright, “dominion” over all things. Mrs. Eddy says: Creation is ever appearing, and must ever continue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source. (Science and Health, p. 507) Christ’s offspring, they who have grasped the Science of spiritnal exist- ence, are attaining unto the “perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ,” Truth. (Ephe- sians iv., 15). Divine illumination has enabled them to apprehend 1he spiritual fact of their relation to the source and supply of being—eternal Life and Tove. At times, through the flesh-veil, they faintly glimpse the face of their Father-Mother God, in their brother and sister, whose real “image” and “like- ness,” when seen through ‘he lens of periect love, will be revealed. Obedience to the law of God was de- manded by Mo‘:el : and hby ;ll the het tc the time when the wise fnr:: we:’e‘l’;i to behold the Bethlehem babe, the Christ idea, and Mary, his mother, was obliged to hide her child from Herod, who sought to destroy him. Christ’s mission was to deprive Herod, the carnal so-calied man, of his crown, fers, and dies,—the Adam-Eve genera- tion. The ideal man, Christ, the off- spring of Spirit, triumphed over the Adam-Eve penerators and established forever his unity with the Principle of cternal being, his Father, God, thus ver- i{ying his statements, “I and my Father are one” My father is greater than 1” (John, 39; xvi, 28). He declared: “Heaven and earth shall pass away; but my words shall not pass away.” (M_-rk xiii, 31). Nor has the voice, the spiritu- al mental message, been silenced. Mary Baker Eddy, who looked and longed for God to manifest His presence and fulfil His promise to His children—this seeker for the fulfilment of the law. of God, caught the chord of Christ, Truth, and became the scribe of Spirit, emitting the light of spiritual life into the “chaos and old night” of materialism. Thousands upon thousands today are realizing the import of her words: The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the portal of humanity. Contentment with the past and the cold conven- tionality of materialism are crum- bling away. Ignorance of God is no longer the stepping-stone to faith. The only guarantee of obedience is a of Him whom to know a: is Life eternal Though empires I, “the Lord shall reign forever.” (Science and Health, p. vii). The hour for decision has arrived. Which chapter of Genesis, the first, or the second, will humanity accept as the true creation of an eternal Principle, God? Both cannot be true, for they are antagonistic, the one to the other. In the first chapter God made man in His— God’s own “image” and “likeness” and gave him “dominion” over all things. He made, or expressed, His fatherhood and motherhood, the life and love, of His begetting and conceiving selfhood, in all that He created; “male and female cre- ated He them. to “multiply and replen- ish the earth,” under the on of His creative law of eternal Life and Love. Paul discerned this spiritual wholeness of God’s man and declared, “There is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gala= tlans iii, 28). Each individual idea of God reflects both the life and love of omnipotent Spirit. This compound ideal man reflects a compound Principle, or cause, eternal Life and Love, our Father- Mother God. The first chapter of Genesis concludes with God’s approval of His creadon, or His infinite manifestation. He finished His work, and called it “very good,” or God. God and His Christ, with the infinite ideas, or children, which consti- tute the body of God, are appearing, as the Head of the body, Christ, is ap- prehended and his imminence discerned. Christ is faithful. He will verify his word. He left this rich legacy to hjg followers: Heaven and earth shall pass away; but my words shall not pass away. i, 31). I have yet many thinfi to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. (John xvi, 12). I go . . . I will come again. (Jobn xiv., 3). At this, his second and final 1ppearing, he is turning the lighl of revelation on the first chaptet ot Genesis, and this light erposes, as a lie, the legendary story of an imaginary creator and crea- tion, opposed to Truth. This mytholog- ical Adam is said to have derived his | from the “Lord God.” and to have origi- nated from the und, later becoming *a living soul.” the “Lord God” is recorded as the crea- tor of Adam-Eve. God, who had creat- v n this second chapter . ed all things, finished His work and called it good, does not once appear after the third verse cf the second chapter of Genesis. We read in the sixth and sev- enth verses. Thers went up a mist from the earth . , . And the Lord God [not God] formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nos- trils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Who was this “Lord God?” Where was the necessity of recreating man, when God _had finished His work and pronounced it the manifestation of His eternal being,—good, or God? The story narrated in the sécond chapter of Genesis continues its delusions and hyp- notic suggestions, in the twenty-first and twenty-second verses: And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof ; And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made He & woman, and brought her unto the man. This implies that the “Lord God” had suggested a helpmeet for Adam. Ac- cording to this legend, the first anes- thetic was sleep. Has mankind improved upon the primitive mesmerism, which incapaciated Adam and removed, with- out his knowledge, a valuable member of his anatomy. Adam is represented in this mythological story, as the first upon whom a surgical operation was per- formed. The “Lord God” brought the rib, which he had taken from Adam, “And Adam said . she shall be called Woman.” Has Adam ever re- named his rib, Woe man? Did Adam’s subdivided self prove a helpmeet to him? May we not infer that this mythical Adam continued to claim his prerogative—human will—as the lord of this dust creation? For the “Lord God” said of his creation, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou re- turn.” (Genesis, 3.19.) The will of the human Adam was exemplified by his Eve qualities; and this carnal will, has always been opposed to the will of God. Some one says of the so-called mortal man. A man convinced against his will Is of the same opinion still. And of Adam’s rib, called Eve, it has been said: When she will, she will, ‘You may depend on’t; ‘When she won’t, she won’t, And there’s an end on’t. This Adam-Eve human will always opposed the will of God. Therefore we conclude that the myth- ical Adam-Eve, the belief-man, whom Jesus denounced as a lie and the father of lies,—as a murderer from the begin- ning, and whose progeny has continued to sin, suffer, and die—is not the man of God’s creating. Throughout the history of the ma- terial generation, found in the second chapter of Genesis, the opposite of the spiritnal generation, recorded in the first chapter of Genesis, God is not men- tioned. “Lord God” is reported as the origin of Adam and Eve. When Eve conceived, and bare Cain, she said, “I have gotten a man from the Lord.” (Genesis, 6.1.) She did not charge God with being the father of Cain. Christ came to “destroy the works of the devil"—the material on. Mrs. Eddy denounces the Adamic race. She says: Evil is neither quality nor quan- tity; it is not intelligence, a person or a principle, a man or a woman, a place or a thing, and God never made it. (Message for 1991, p. 12) Christ, the light of the world, is re- vealing the man and universe of God's creating, and as the radiance and im- minence of his presence, lessens the shadow of the mythical Adam-Eve, his (Christ’s) voice is heard above the and fury of illegitimate livin§ and of fearful and doleful dying.’ (Mary Baker Eddy)— BehoM, I come quickly; and my reward is with me.” G (Revelation, 22.12) Our Father-Mother, Life and Love, is opening the windows of heaven, dis- closing a world of beauty, health, har- mony and holiness,—a universe peopled with perfect ideas, all governed and sup- ported by the law of a perfect Prin- ciple—God, Spirit, Mind. The follow- ers of Christ are looking for “a new heaven and a new earth,” and a fulfill- men of the promise, that The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more deatk, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there behzny more paind; for the former things are passed away. ( Revelation, 2!5—4.) Christ Jesus declared: I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John xiv., 6.) Mrs. Eddy tells us: There is but one way to heaven, harmony, and Christ in divine Science shows us this way. It is to know no other reality—to have no other consciousness of life— than good, God and His reflec- tion, and to rise superior to the so-called pain and pleasure of the senses. (Science and Health, p. 242) She also says: The Revelator was on our plane of existence, while yet beholding what the eye cannot see—that which is invisible to the unin- spired thought. This testimony of Holy Writ sustains the fact in Science, that the heavens and earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness which God be- stows are spiritual, while to an- other, the wunillumined human mind, the vision is material. This ,» shows unmistakably that what the human mind terms matter and spirit indicates states and stages of consciousness. Accompanying this scientific con- sciousness was another revelation, even the declaration from heaven, supreme harmony, that God, the divine Principle of harmony, is ever has with men, and they are His people. Thus man was no longer regarded as a miserable sinner, but as the blessed child of God. Why? Be- cause St. John's corporeal sense of the heavens and earth had van- ished, and in place of this false sense was the spiritual sense, the subjective state by which he could see the new heaven and new earth, which involve the spiritnal idea and consciousness of reality. This is Scriptural authority for con- cluding that such a recognition of being is, and has been, possible to man- in this present state of ex- istence,—that we can become con- scious, here and now, of a cessa- tion of death, sorrow and pain. This is indeed a foretaste of ab- solute Christian Science. (Science and Health, p. 573) Only through spiritual sense can the things of Spirit, God, be seen. At this, the second appearing of the Son of God, the ideal man, Christ, his followers -are revealing the tabernacle of God on earth, and the end of “sorrow” and “crying,” “pain” and “death,” for the former thoughts—the Adam-Eve beliefs, or the carnal mind, which produced this time- world—will have “passed away.” (Reve- lation xxi, 4) Spiritual understand- ing—man in the image and likeness of God, reflecting his creator, infinite Life and Love, will be found the eternal verity of being. o At Christ’s first appearing, they who were looking through material sense saw this ideal man as human and masculine. They asked, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we. know? how is it then that he saith, I come down from heaven?” (John, vi., 42) Mrs. Eddy says, “Christ, or the spiritual idea, appeared to human con- sciousness as the man Jesus.” (Retro- spection and Introspection, p 93) At his first appearing, he represented the fatherhood of God. When about to leave his disciples, he comforted them with this. assurance, “I go and . . . . will come again. ey et L RO leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” (Johm, xiv, 3, 18) Paul believed Christ Jesus’ promise and looked for the reappearance of the Christ-man, who had given to the world in his victory over the dream of death,.a proof of his divine nature as the Sowr ofs God, and he left s assurance to all who discern the divinity of Christ Jesus: Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin [flesh] unto salvation. (Hebrews, ix., 28.) At Christ’s second coming, the Herods, of the twentieth cetnury are continuing their efforts to destroy this ideal man of God’s creating. Divine Science r veals the eternal fact, that Christ, i this age, represents the motherhood of God, to human sense seen as woman. As Elias presented the idea of the fatherhood of God, which Jesus afterward manifested, so the Revelator completed this figure with woman, typifying the spirit- , ual idea of God’s motherhood. Science and Health, p. 562.) Only those who through spiritual sense apprehend this man og God’s creat- ing, and believe his promise, are looking for his reappearance. In fulfillment of his mission,—his final triumph over the claim of a so-called material generation, with its beginning in suppositional life and _intelligence, and its end in death, Christ is again meeting Judas, or the carnal man, who sold.him, at his first demonstration, and is again, at his second coming, receiving the thirty pieces of silver and the smiles of the hypocritical Pharisees. For ages, John the Revelator has tes- tified of the warfare between the spiritual real man and the Adamic-race, with its claim to [life, truth, intelligence, and substance. Through his struggles and overcoming of material sense; John attained to spiritnal understanding, and l&ar;st the voice of the ever-preseat !heAnd'he of the fll‘f’ ' s sayings prophesy of this book; for the time is at hand ... And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the be- ginning and the end, the first and the last S = I am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star S Surely I come quickly . . . (Revelation xxii, 10, 12, 13, 16, 20) John replied, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation xxii., 20.) Today, all who are looking through the lens of spiritual sense, know this prophecy is near fulfilment. True Christian Scien~ tists are heralding the coming of the “King of kings, and Lord of lords;” . . . and the government ! shall be upon his shoulders; and ° his name shall be called Wonder- ful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting , The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah, ix, 6) Throughout the centuries, unheeded} by the Adam-Eve race, these words of God have reverberated through his mouthpiece, the prophet Moses: I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that thou and thy seed may live. (Deuteronomy, XXX., Qnd the voice of Truth continues as! « .« o whystand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken from you into heaven, shall so come in like man- ner as ye have seen him go into heaven. (Acts i, 11.) Jesus said to the materiallists, “Ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times? (Matthew xvi., 3) To those who read the signs of these times, the final battle between Christ and the dragon is in- evitable and imminent. The words of Mary Baker Eddy are near fulfillment g “The dragon is at last stung to de‘aj his own malice” (Sciemce ealth, p. 569.) . E