In the Glossary of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 585) our revered Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, gives a definition of "Elias" which reads, "Prophecy; spiritual evidence opposed to material sense; Christian Science, with which can be discerned the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold; the basis of immortality." This is a clear and wonderful statement of the function of Christian Science and the fruitage of its utilization. It shows that the student of this Science must be constantly engaged in translating "whatever the material senses behold" into "the spiritual fact."
Now, the material senses behold a great deal, much that is termed good and much that is termed evil, but in both cases the spiritual fact must be discerned, for the material sense of good is no more real than its sense of evil, but often more difficult to detect and unmask.
The "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" has no place in the first account of creation, where all that God created was pronounced "very good," good because Godlike. In the second account of creation the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" appears. This the serpent recommended as "a tree to be desired to make one wise." It is well to remember, when we are tempted to accept as real that which appears to be the good fruit of the tree, that it grows on the same branch and is brought forth by the same roots as the fruit that is called evil. The Christian Scientist endeavors to avoid partaking of the fruit of any such mythological tree. He knows that the testimony of the material senses must be seen through, rather than classified either as that which may seem to be praiseworthy and good or as that which is indisputably evil. There is nothing that the Christian Scientist should be afraid wisely to evaluate. Everything that appears as sense testimony needs to have the light of Christian Science turned upon it until the spiritual fact is seen. The daily objective of every Christian Scientist is to translate material beliefs, which appear to be real, into that which is eternally true, until in place of a belief there is a clear discernment of the spiritual idea.
