ALMOST everyone is familiar with the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, and has heard of "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" which was "in the midst of the garden," the fruit of which Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat lest they should die. But not until individual thought became sufficiently inspired, through consecration and self-abnegation, to receive the spiritual significance of this allegory did we have the true concept of its meaning. Through the loving and consecrated ministrations of a gentle New England woman, Mary Baker Eddy, we have received the "key" which so wonderfully unlocks the treasures of Truth contained in the Scriptures; and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" is, as its title indicates, the principal medium through which these treasures of the Bible are revealed to us, although our Leader's other writings also abound in revelations of Truth.
While studying a Lesson-Sermon on "Adam and Fallen Man" a fuller understanding of the meaning of the tree "in the midst of the garden" dawned upon the thought of a student of Christian Science. It became clear that this tree might be regarded not as a part of the garden, but as apart from it; for the record in Genesis makes a clear and definite distinction between the trees of the garden and this tree, in the command given Adam and Eve to eat of all the trees of the garden but to abstain from "the tree which is in the midst of the garden," lest they die.
The trees of the garden are types of reality, of true substance or spiritual consciousness, in which there is no least sense of evil or unreality; while "the tree which is in the midst of the garden" represents illusion, a false sense of existence—in short, a lie of material sense. Since an illusion is without reality, it cannot exist except in a false, supposititious consciousness, which supposes evil to be as real as good. Viewed in this light, it is easy to understand the fatal results of believing evil to be as real as good. It simply means that as soon as we begin to believe the illusions of material sense we begin to experience the results of such belief,—namely, sin, sickness, and death,—and are thus shut out from the garden of Eden, the consciousness of good.
Now we all know that so long as we believe in a lie it may have the same power over us as if it were true. To illustrate, let us suppose that someone should come to us and tell us a falsehood about a trusted friend, presenting the evidence so cunningly and so convincingly that we are induced to believe it. Would not our confidence in that friend be turned into suspicion, and our entire concept of him be reversed? To be sure, this false concept on our part could in no way change the real character of our friend. It would change only our concept of his character; and it would also change our future dealings with him. To our changed thought he would no longer be worthy of our confidence and trust. Just so, after believing the lie of the serpent, the thought of Adam and Eve was changed from innocence and purity to one of shame and guilt. They had become victims of a lie.
Until enlightened by Christian Science, Adam and Eve are generally regarded as the originators of all the trouble in the world. But Mrs. Eddy tells us on page 67 of "Retrospection and Introspection" that "sin existed as a false claim before the human concept of sin was formed"— that tree claimed to be in the midst of the garden before Adam and Eve perceived it; "hence one's concept of error is not the whole of error. The human thought does not constitute sin, but vice versa, sin constitutes the human or physical concept." And she adds farther on : "The sinner created neither himself nor sin, but sin created the sinner; that is, error made its man mortal, and this mortal was the image and likeness of evil, not of good. Therefore the lie was, and is, collective as well as individual. It was in no way contingent on Adam's thought, but was supposititiously self-created. In the words of our Master, it, the 'devil' (alias evil), 'was a liar, and the father of it.'"
Thus we see that evil's claim to reality—"the tree which is in the midst of the garden"—claims to be ever present with us, just as the illusion of the rising and setting of the sun is with us, and we are controlled either by our understanding that it is illusion or by our belief in it as a reality. Just so long as men believed in a stationary earth, just so long were all their deductions, based upon such a false belief, erroneous and unsatisfactory. And this illusion had become so fixed in mortal thought that when Galileo comprehended the truth regarding the problem, unenlightened thought was ready to put him to death because this truth which he had discovered contradicted the evidence before the material senses. Even so to-day many reject the truth of Christian Science because it contradicts the false beliefs of sin, sickness, and death—because it classes them as illusions of material sense.
The false claim of evil is so subtle that it would, if possible, deceive the "very elect." Therefore, it behooves us as Christian Scientists to be ever alert to the insidious forms of evil which frequently come to us in the guise of good, beguiling us, even as the serpent beguiled Eve, into believing that only good is being offered us. The most subtle, and yet the most common temptation that comes to mortals is the belief in a power apart from God—doubt of His omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. When this temptation is fully recognized and overcome, the rest will be easy; for who could believe in the reality of sin while conscious of the omnipresence of God, good? Or who could concede power to any material law or condition while conscious of the omnipotence of God? Or who could desire aught but the Mind of Christ if he realized the omniscience of God? Each individual will have to cast out of consciousness every belief which denies the absolute supremacy of God—His omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence.
The fruit of this "tree which is in the midst of the garden" is no less tempting to mortals to-day than it was to Eve in the garden of Eden. Material life often seems wondrously fair. Its fleeting joys and sensuous pleasures tend to hold us entranced, lulled to rest by a false and treacherous sense. Fair, indeed, seems this tree and delicious its fruit until, startled by some unforeseen circumstance, we are awakened from the lethargic dream of ease in matter to the stern realization that things are not what we have believed them to be. Perchance our dearest hope has vanished, or our most cherished treasure has slipped from our grasp, and the fruit of "the tree which is in the midst of the garden" has turned to dust and ashes upon our lips; the pleasures of sense no longer satisfy—all is blankness and despair. Then comes the longing to know the living God; and our heart and soul cry out for Truth.
Take courage, dear suffering heart. This startled cry is but the awakening of consciousness to the realities of being. We are still in the garden. The wonderful realities of Life are all about us—the trees of the garden, of which we may freely eat. We have but to slay the serpent of sin, to overcome our false belief in a power opposed to God, in order to find rest and peace. Our loving Father has nothing but good to give us, for He is omnipresent good. He has no condemnation for us, for He is infinite and universal Love. Let us turn, then, to our wonderful Father-Mother God, who is ever tender, compassionate, and loving, and rest in the sweetness of His presence, secure in His omnipotence.
"To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." Here is another tree which is "in the midst"—this one a symbol of the omnipresence of the consciousness of good, of the spiritual sense of Truth. This tree is perceptible to spiritual consciousness only, for it "is in the midst of the paradise of God," the joyous consciousness of good, and good alone. And the only condition upon which our right to this tree of life is contingent is the overcoming of false material sense, by refusing to eat of the fruit of "the tree which is in the midst of the garden," by refusing to believe the lie that aught of good can come to us from any other source than God, since He is infinite good. The consciousness thus purged is soon filled with love and gratitude, tenderness, compassion, mercy, justice, longsuffering, forgiveness, purity, and peace; for nothing unlike good can enter this paradise of God. Here material sense is silenced: the serpent has disappeared; the gates of glory have opened wide; and the darkness of unreality has given place to the sublime grandeur of the new heaven and the new earth, the consciousness of eternal bliss, the paradise of good.
