The Scriptural allegory in the book of Genesis explains how the concept of evil first appeared to the human mind in the form of a serpent. So subtle is the serpent that it has deluded mankind ever since the beginning of history, and so plausible is its argument that it has deceived even the wise. Christian Science shows not only that this deception is unnecessary in our lives but that we fail to exercise a divine right when not resisting it. Moses fled from the serpent, showing fear of it and ignorance of what it meant, until God commanded him to handle it; and when he obeyed the Lord the nothingness of evil was revealed, for the serpent became a rod. Immediately following this experience he proved the nothingness of leprosy.
Jesus said that we are given power to tread on serpents. On page 594 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy shows humanity the meaning of this word: "Serpent (ophis, in Greek; nacash, in Hebrew). Subtlety; a lie; the opposite of Truth, named error;... The first audible claim that God was not omnipotent and that there was another power, named evil, which was as real and eternal as God, good." It is interesting to note that all evil may be typified by a serpent, and in the last book of the Bible we find it named the "great red dragon" hastening toward its doom, its own destruction. And so, as we awaken to the understanding of the subtlety and powerlessness of evil as exposed in Christian Science, mankind will neither fear it, submit to it, nor ignore it, but will courageously handle and destroy it in thought, the only place it can claim an existence.
Our beloved Leader always writes with a conviction that allows no equivocation. She exposes "evil's hidden mental ways of accomplishing iniquity" (Science and Health, p. 571), and reveals the way of escape and the manner of averting the evil at the outset by metaphysical protection. This metaphysical protection is the realization of the infinitude of God. When thinking in the realm of the real, all is Mind, Spirit, Truth, perfect and harmonious; but in the realm of belief, evil exists as a false claim in the human mind, and we as a large family of Christian Scientists desire to help our brethren and ourselves out of this false sense of existence into the fullness of the Christ.
