Adam and Fallen Man - 5/13/17

​ADAM AND FALLEN MAN
May 13, 1917

Golden Text
Rom 5:19 as
as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. 


Responsive Reading
Gen 3:9-19
And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 

And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 

And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked?  Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 

And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 

And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done?  And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 

And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 

Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. 

And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 

Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 


Section I
( 1)   Gen 3:1-5 
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.  And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 

( 2)   Prov 16:17,25 
The highway of the upright is to depart from evil: he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul. 

There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. 

( 3)   Is 5:20 
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! 


( 1)   269:3 
    From first to last the supposed coexistence of Mind and matter and the mingling of good and evil have resulted from the philosophy of the serpent. Jesus' demonstrations sift the chaff from the wheat, and unfold the unity and the reality of good, the unreality, the nothingness, of evil. 

( 2)   91:22-6 
    Certain erroneous postulates should be here considered in order that the spiritual facts may be better apprehended. 
    The first erroneous postulate of belief is, that substance, life, and intelligence are something apart from God. 
    The second erroneous postulate is, that man is both mental and material. 
    The third erroneous postulate is, that mind is both evil and good; whereas the real Mind cannot be evil nor the medium of evil, for Mind is God. 
    The fourth erroneous postulate is, that matter is intelligent, and that man has a material body which is part of himself. 
    The fifth erroneous postulate is, that matter holds in itself the issues of life and death, - that matter is not only capable of experiencing pleasure and pain, but also capable of imparting these sensations. 

( 3)   356:24-5 
    Does God create a material man out of Himself, Spirit?  Does evil proceed from good? Does divine Love commit a fraud on humanity by making man inclined to sin, and then punishing him for it? Would any one call it wise and good to create the primitive, and then punish its derivative? 
    Does subsequent follow its antecedent? It does.  Was there original self-creative sin? Then there must have been more than one creator, more than one God.  In common justice, we must admit that God will not punish man for doing what He created man capable of doing, and knew from the outset that man would do. God is "of purer eyes than to behold evil." 


Section II
( 4)   Gen 2:7,21,22 
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 

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 a woman, and brought her unto the man. 

( 5)   Eccl 1:14 
I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. 

( 6)   Eccl 3:19,20 
For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. 

( 7)   Ps 103:15-18 
As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them. 


( 4)   529:30 
    Adam, the synonym for error, stands for a belief of material mind. He begins his reign over man somewhat mildly, but he increases in falsehood and his days become shorter. In this development, the immortal, spiritual law of Truth is made manifest as forever opposed to mortal, material sense. 

( 5)   530:26-4 
    The history of error is a dream-narrative. The dream has no reality, no intelligence, no mind; therefore the dreamer and dream are one, for neither is true nor real. First, this narrative supposes that something springs from nothing, that matter precedes mind. Second, it supposes that mind enters matter, and matter becomes living, substantial, and intelligent.  The order of this allegory - the belief that everything springs from dust instead of from Deity - has been maintained in all the subsequent forms of belief. 

( 6)   554:8-12 
    Error is always error. It is no thing. Any statement of life, following from a misconception of life, is erroneous, because it is destitute of any knowledge of the so-called selfhood of life, destitute of any knowledge of its origin or existence. 

( 7)   214:9-14 
    Adam, represented in the Scriptures as formed from dust, is an object-lesson for the human mind. The material senses, like Adam, originate in matter and return to dust, - are proved non-intelligent.  They go out as they came in, for they are still the error, not the truth of being. 

( 8)   282:28-31 
    Whatever indicates the fall of man or the opposite of God or God's absence, is the Adam-dream, which is neither Mind nor man, for it is not begotten of the Father. 


Section III
( 8)   Ps 140:1-3 
Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man; Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders' poison is under their lips.  Selah. 

( 9)   Luke 10:19 
Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. 

(10)   II Cor 10:4,5 
(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 

(11)   II Cor 11:3 
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 

(12)   Rev 12:9 
And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 


( 9)   564:24-1 
    From Genesis to the Apocalypse, sin, sickness, and death, envy, hatred, and revenge, - all evil, - are typified by a serpent, or animal subtlety. Jesus said, quoting a line from the Psalms, "They hated me without a cause." The serpent is perpetually close upon the heel of harmony. From the beginning to the end, the serpent pursues with hatred the spiritual idea. In Genesis, this allegorical, talking serpent typifies mortal mind, "more subtle than any beast of the field." 

(10)   307:3 
This pantheistic error, or so-called serpent, insists still upon the opposite of Truth, saying, "Ye shall be as gods;" that is, I will make error as real and eternal as Truth. 

(11)   538:15-19 
The testimony of the serpent is significant of the illusion of error, of the false claims that misrepresent God, good. Sin, sickness, and death have no record in the Elohistic introduction of Genesis, in which God creates the heavens, earth, and man. 

(12)   529:21 
    Whence comes a talking, lying serpent to tempt the children of divine Love? The serpent enters into the metaphor only as evil. We have nothing in the animal kingdom which represents the species described, - a talking serpent, - and should rejoice that evil, by whatever figure presented, contradicts itself and has neither origin nor support in Truth and good. Seeing this, we should have faith to fight all claims of evil, because we know that they are worthless and unreal. 


Section IV
(13)   Ps 10:4 
The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. 

(14)   Ps 7:15,16 
He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate. 

(15)   Ps 37:14,15 
The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation. Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. 

(16)   James 1:13,14 
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 


(13)   533:26-31 
    Truth, cross-questioning man as to his knowledge of error, finds woman the first to confess her fault. She says, "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat;" as much as to say in meek penitence, "Neither man nor God shall father my fault." She has already learned that corporeal sense is the serpent. 

(14)   393:30-32 
A false belief is both the tempter and the tempted, the sin and the sinner, the disease and its cause. 

(15)   37:1 
Does not Science show that sin brings suffering as much to-day as yesterday? They who sin must suffer. "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." 

(16)   223:28-31 
Marvels, calamities, and sin will much more abound as truth urges upon mortals its resisted claims; but the awful daring of sin destroys sin, and foreshadows the triumph of truth. 

(17)   495:14 
    When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought. Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious - as Life eternally is - can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not. Let Christian Science, instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of being, and this understanding will supplant error with Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence discord with harmony. 


Section V
(17)   Prov 6:9-11 
How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man. 

(18)   Ps 13:3,5 
Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; 

But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. 

(19)   I Cor 15:22,34 
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 

Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame. 

(20)   Eph 5:14 
Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. 


(18)   249:21 God 
God never slumbers, and His likeness never dreams. Mortals are the Adam dreamers. 

(19)   420:28-1 
    If it becomes necessary to startle mortal mind to break its dream of suffering, vehemently tell your patient that he must awake. Turn his gaze from the false evidence of the senses to the harmonious facts of Soul and immortal being. Tell him that he suffers only as the insane suffer, from false beliefs. 

(20)   230:1-8 
    If sickness is real, it belongs to immortality; if true, it is a part of Truth. Would you attempt with drugs, or without, to destroy a quality or condition of Truth?  But if sickness and sin are illusions, the awakening from this mortal dream, or illusion, will bring us into health, holiness, and immortality. This awakening is the forever coming of Christ, the advanced appearing of Truth, which casts out error and heals the sick. 

(21)   323:19 
When the sick or the sinning awake to realize their need of what they have not, they will be receptive of divine Science, which gravitates towards Soul and away from material sense, removes thought from the body, and elevates even mortal mind to the contemplation of something better than disease or sin. The true idea of God gives the true understanding of Life and Love, robs the grave of victory, takes away all sin and the delusion that there are other minds, and destroys mortality. 


Section VI
(21)   Rom 5:17 
For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. ) 

(22)   Rom 8:1-4,13-15 
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 

(23)   II Cor 5:16,17 
Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 


(22)   171:4-13 
    Through discernment of the spiritual opposite of materiality, even the way through Christ, Truth, man will reopen with the key of divine Science the gates of Paradise which human beliefs have closed, and will find himself unfallen, upright, pure, and free, not needing to consult almanacs for the probabilities either of his life or of the weather, not needing to study brainology to learn how much of a man he is. 
    Mind's control over the universe, including man, is no longer an open question, but is demonstrable Science. 

(23)   476:28-32 
    When speaking of God's children, not the children of men, Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you;" that is, Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God's image is unfallen and eternal. 

(24)   561:16 
    John saw the human and divine coincidence, shown in the man Jesus, as divinity embracing humanity in Life and its demonstration, - reducing to human perception and understanding the Life which is God. In divine revelation, material and corporeal selfhood disappear, and the spiritual idea is understood.