In the sequel to his epic poem "Paradise Lost" John Milton ascribes the recovery of man's primal state of bliss to "one man's firm obedience fully tried." Basing his imagery on the Bible account of Christ Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, the poet declares that Paradise was regained when one man proved evil to be powerless. Since this temptation and triumph of Jesus came at the outset of his career, before he started to teach and heal the multitudes, Milton, by treating of this event rather than of one at a later period, emphasizes the fact that through the handling and destroying of the serpent of error one gains entrance to eternal harmony. In the closing lines of his "Paradise Regained" we read of "the Son of God,"
. . .now thou hast avenged
Supplanted Adam, and, by vanquishing
Temptation, hast regained lost Paradise,
And frustrated the conquest fraudulent.
Christian Science, rightly presenting the Master as the Way-shower for all men instead of the vicarious Saviour of popular theology, enables everyone to conquer evil and recover harmony and health in the way Jesus did. It accepts, as did he, the spiritual fact that the real man, made in the image of God, divine Mind, and therefore the expression of Truth, Life, and Love, has never fallen from his perfect estate. Obviously, an image can never reflect anything other than its original. The impossibility of a lost image shows the falsity of a lost Eden. When mortal belief is replaced in consciousness by understanding of the spiritual facts of existence, we see that paradise was never really lost.
