Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. GENESIS iii. 3.
This is the command. What is this tree? According to the teachings of Christian Science, the tree is the belief that the origin of good and evil is the same; that they are connected, growing on the same tree; that they are equal in power; that evil can come from a tree producing good, or good from a tree producing evil; that Spirit has produced matter, or evil, and that matter, or evil, may produce Spirit, or Life. "For eating (believing) it, or even touching (thinking) it, ye shall die."
It makes one material to thus believe; and, as Paul says, they who so believe are dead already; "for to be carnally-minded is death, but to be spiritually-minded is Life and peace." Material beliefs are deathly. Christ said, "Follow thou me, let the dead bury their dead;" thus showing, that there is no real distinction to be made between the dead and those living in material beliefs, for one is to be considered as much dead as the other.
