IN the 3rd chapter of Genesis we read, "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made." In Science and Health (p. 52) we find the following comment on this Scriptural passage: "Whence comes a talking, lying serpent to tempt the children of divine Love? The serpent enters into the metaphor only as evil." In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 34), evil is defined as "but a belief that there is an opposite intelligence to God." From this belief has sprung the complicated materiality of erroneous thought, which Christian Scientists individually and the world collectively are learning to discard as unreal, with no foundation in Truth, nor any lasting value; while, on the other hand, it is found to ensure for mankind a terrible accompaniment in the shape of discord, disease, suffering, and death.
The extreme subtlety of this talking serpent, material consciousness, and its amazing hold on mankind, are quickly recognized by every student of Christian Science: so soon in fact as he begins to grasp the elementary facts of the Science of Mind, to recognize its simple logic, and to discern the way which leads to perfection of being, for he finds his efforts to "eschew evil, and do good," constantly hindered by insidious and hitherto unsuspected errors of thought all tending to confuse effort and hinder progress, even to lead thought temporarily away from the straight and narrow path. The student becomes at the same time wide awake to the fact that the way of salvation is a process of mental regeneration wherein errors of belief disappear as Truth dawns in thought. Jesus said, "I am the way," but only in recent times has the full import of that statement been discovered, and given to us in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." In this book Mrs. Eddy presents a clear concise explanation of Principle and rule which supplants man-made theories with the facts of spiritual being, and enables all who will to demonstrate for themselves the practical adaptability of Jesus' teachings to the solution of every problem of human existence.
The starting-point of this "way" is found as one turns from the maze of sinful mortal beliefs which constitute mankind's sense of material existence. This is the accumulation of thousands of years of erroneous statement and restatement of human misconceptions of being, having no origin but their father the devil,—"a liar, and the father of it." The goal to be reached is the kingdom of heaven "the reign of harmony in divine Science; the realm of unerring eternal, and omnipotent Mind; the atmosphere of Spirit where Soul is supreme" (Science and Health, p. 59). Between these two points lies every conceivable variation of human thought.
