NOTHING is of greater importance to mankind than the knowledge of God as the only creator, and of His creation, man. For this knowledge exposes the false nature of the material sense of creation which is binding men, and thus opens up the way for their liberation from the consequences of materiality.
What do those uninstructed in divine Science think about man? They believe him to be partly spiritual and partly material, a being who lives in matter and whose life is dependent upon matter, a being who comes into existence at human birth and passes beyond human ken at what is termed death. And this human being, so called, during his sojourn on earth, is subject to all manner of suffering and sorrow, arising from sin, disease, and lack, all playing their miserable parts to destroy his vitality, his happiness, his peace Of mortal man it is written in the book of Job: "Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward."
The story of mortal man is set forth in allegorical form in Genesis, beginning at the sixth verse of the second chapter. This story relates that Adam was created materially, that God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;" and that he afterwards became the progenitor of the human race. It recounts how evil came to be regarded as if it were as real as good, and that this erroneous belief brought affliction and death upon Adam and the Adamic race. The allegory shows, also, that false beliefs must inevitably perish; that dust must return to dust.
