A Gentle lady, giving her reasons for a repugnance to the grand stories of the Old Testament, said that her sense of God was shocked at the cruelties recorded in those narratives being imputed to God, as. for instance, where it is declared that "all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, . . . But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man fir beast." The statement is confirmed by the psalmist, who says, "lie smote also all the firstborn in their land, the chief of all their strength."
This lady is not the only one to whom the sacred pages remain barren and fail to yield the great lessons which Science and Health unlocks to its students, illuminating the Scriptures with a more satisfying and spiritual sense. On page 583 the children of Israel are defined as "representatives of Soul, not corporeal sense: the offspring of Spirit." Even at the time of Christ Jesus and the apostles, the children of Abraham, or of Israel, were considered to be those who had gained the understanding of God which Abraham possessed, and many Scriptural passages prove this; for instance: "Think not to say within yourselves. We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham;" also in Galatians: "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed." Mrs. Eddy also speaks of the "systems of the Pharaohs, who today, as of yore, hold the children of Israel in bondage" (Ibid., p. 226).
Here it may be asked, What holds the children of Israel in bondage today? Is it not false belief, corporeal sense? Are not these the rulers of material existence? What material sense conceives, is the offspring of corporeal sense, and is the first impression generally accepted about anything; but these "firstborn" impressions of matter are erroneous; they do not accept the testimony of Spirit; they seek to hold the offspring of Spirit, the spiritual concept, in bondage, keep it from coming into its rightful heritage of dominion. When, however, the truth of being comes to this night of error and passes through the domains of material seining and belief.—"the laud of Egypt." — then the false concept of material sense, the "firstborn of Egypt," is destroyed by the revelation of the truth that man is spiritual.
