Scientific self-knowledge consists of an understanding of the divine Ego, Spirit, and its reflection, man. The acquirement of this knowledge unfolds to human comprehension the permanency of spiritual identity, as it separates from mortal consciousness the tangled theories relative to man's soul and body, and replaces them with the metaphysical facts by which we may demonstrate the substance of Mind. This understanding of the spiritual selfhood drives an entering wedge into the belief that good and evil coalesce, even as in the beginning God divided the light from the darkness. Indeed, so strong a line of demarcation does it draw between the reality of good and the delusion of evil, that the perfect man, the likeness of God, and his antipode, the dust-man of mortality, are clearly distinguished as true and untrue concepts which never unite in body or in mind. This knowledge places in bas-relief before the eyes of humanity "the quickening spirit" of the last Adam and erases the disfigured outlines of "the living soul" creature which is but a blurred imitation of God's masterpiece.
The effect of this knowledge is to lay bare latent as well as visible errors, and clearly define their suppositional nature and essence, even as the anatomist defines his subject by dissection. Leaving Truth to destroy the untrue in its own inevitable way, this spiritual self-knowing turns back the individual from his analytical study of error to behold again the majesty and power of that divine Life which illumines thought, begets humility, endows with wisdom, and reveals man's immortality. Surely, joy and peace could not find a firmer foundation or a more unlimited support than in the good which accrues from this understanding of the true selfhood. In Job we read, "Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee." This self-knowledge is a present desirability, nay necessity, and it is possible to all who appreciate it enough to put forth effort for its attainment.
As we awaken to Truth, our innate spiritual capabilities spring into action, traditional belief is overthrown, and the reign of Spirit is established, wherein human thought becomes responsive to the touch of Spirit, even as the sensitive paper records the messages of light. Freed from the entanglements of belief in a combined spiritual and material selfhood, human reason arrives at clear deductions; starting from a wholly good cause, it reaches a wholly good effect. Thus it banishes the belief in more than one creator and rebukes the fallacy of "original sin."
