Inherent in the human consciousness is the deep and abiding conviction that the Scriptural assurance of man's dominion over the earth must at some time and in some way reach fulfillment. The fact that men and women have instinctively resisted evil and have felt that the adverse conditions in human experience should be subject to correction bears witness to the wholly illegitimate nature of all evil. The struggle to attain this promised dominion continues; yet sin, sorrow, disease, and disaster are constantly recurrent in human experience. Is it to be concluded, then, that there is no remedy for these distressing conditions? No, for today the understanding of the Bible, imparted by Christian Science, is bringing to a troubled world the conviction that man's God-given dominion over the earth is an eternal fact to be scientifically understood and demonstrated.
The word "earth" is defined by Mary Baker Eddy on page 585 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" as "a sphere; a type of eternity and immortality, which are likewise without beginning or end;" and she adds this statement: "To material sense, earth is matter; to spiritual sense, it is a compound idea." It is true that a mighty revolution of thought must take place in human consciousness in order that the concept of a material universe subject to material law may yield to an intelligent comprehension of the fact that the real universe consists of spiritual ideas harmoniously governed by spiritual law; but when the displacement of false concepts by true ideas is accepted as an individual obligation to be devotedly fulfilled, the agelong search for dominion over the earth will be successful. There is certainly no need more urgent than the one of renouncing the false sense of creation and claiming man's spiritual birthright of freedom and dominion.
Satisfactory progress in the understanding of spiritual realities involves distinguishing clearly between man in the divine likeness, according to the account of creation in the first chapter of Genesis, and the false and untrue concept of man as material, which is allegorically presented in the second chapter. In the first record, man is created in the divine likeness and given dominion over all the earth; in the second chapter the counterfeit, false sense of man is represented as being formed from the dust of the earth. This man, subject to evil, exhibits a state of ignorance and sin, and has no resemblance to perfect, spiritual man, created in the image of divine, creative Mind. Students of Christian Science recognize the fact that the ability to distinguish between the true concept and the false sense of man is essential to spiritual progress and to the gaining of dominion over evil, and that the initial steps in this direction must be taken here and now.
