The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-09-17

dE FARGO tORUMs N
Christian Science shows that al
good comes TO man from God through
the operation of His laws, and tina
evil originates in the human carna
mind, which is ''enmity against God.
Evil is not an entity. IL has no king.
dom and no king. It has no mind, nc
presence, and no laws. The only
power it can ever exercise is what Il
derives from human belief in II, and
human acceptance of IL.
Since God is infinite good He has
knowledge of good and OF nothing
else. He could not possibly have
knowledge OF evil, for evil does not
exist in the spiritual universe, and II
is really the only universe. The seem
ing existence of evil is in the carnal
mind. It has been well said that II
every one would quit SHINING there
would be no more sin. AS human
consciousness Is evangelical by truth
and love, sin disappears.
There is no such thing as an angry
God waiting to smite you for sin, for
God has no knowledge of sin in any
form. His law is against sin; yet the
punishment for or OF sin is by sin,
and when the sin is destroyed and
put away out Of the human mind, the
punishment stops. but as long as the
sin remains 1t will whip and punish
the sinner.
Thus othe forgiveness Of sin con-
sists in the destruction Of sin, and
the sin exists nowhere but in the
carnal human mind. The belief that
God pardons sin merely because you
ask Him to do so, without turning
from the sin yourself and putting 1t
away from you, Is foolish self-decep-
ton.
People ask how God can destroy
sin when He knows nothihg of sin
and does not even know that 1t ex-
lists. The answer is plain. He de-
stroys it just as the sun destroys the
darkness which it never sees. When
the light appears the darkness dis
appears. Good and evil cannot min
gle any more than light and dark
ness can mingle. One vanishes be-
fore the other.
Sooner or later every one must
learn the truth about man. When one
asks himself, who is man? what is
he? where does he come from? is he
spiritual, or Is he material? many
channels for thought are opened.
Upon the correct answer to these
questions will depend the solution of
every. human problem.
Every one has read the two differ
ing accounts of creation in the Bible.
In the first chapter OF Genesis we
are told that God created man in
His own image. after His own like
hess, and that He made him good. In
the second chapter OF Genesis, how
ever, we find the allegorical account
Of how God came to this earth and
made man out of the dust of the
ground. Then follows the story of
Adam and Eve. and the garden Of
Eden. We also read that a deep
sleep fell upon Adam. and then that
sin appeared and brother murdered
brother, and so, from that time until
now, the man made of dust has been
q sinner and has been at enmity
against God.
In view OF all of this 1t becomes vi
tally important that we find out the
truth about man. Was man made in
the image and likeness Of God, and
hence created a spiritual being, or
was he made out Of the dust OF the
ground as q material being?
Christian Science accepts the first
account Of the creation as true, and
insists that man is spiritual, and not
material. This makes Ii necessary for
Christian Science to explain how II is
possible for man to be wholly spirit
ual when we seem to see him as flesh
aud blood with our actual physical
eyes. Christian Science does this,
and makes 1t perfectly clear by
showing that the material man Is
nothing more or less than the carnal
minds false concept of man.
The carnal mind is entirely, mate
rial, hence, 1t lis enmity against
God" because God is spirit and spirit
and matter are opposite. The carnal
mind is composed Of the aggregated
beliefs founded upon the testimony
of the five physical senses, which
senses are wholly material, hence the
carnal mind being material cannot
comprehend nor cognize the things
of spirit.
It is these material elements en-
tertng into the human mind that
cause IL to see everything as ma
terial and to think in terms of mat
ter. By an inevitable reversal it re-
duces everything to the dead level Of
matter in order to comprehend it.
1t is due to this materiality that the
human mind does not think of God
wholly as Spirit, and, therefore, in its
material belief, 1t reverses the nature
and character Of God, and converts
Him into a material man. Likewise,
because of this same material ele-
ment, the human mind does not think
Of the kingdom of God as a spiritual
state of consciousness, which Jesus
declared lis within you" and trans
In haIfnN %14N
place somewhere in the sky, with
of material splendor such
as one would expect to find in the
palaces of men
Since the human mind is prevented
by its own materiality from compre-
bending God as Spirit and the king
dom OF heaven as a spiritual state Of
1t is equally prevented
from thinking of man as spiritual. BY
reason of the same inevitable revers-
al 1t thinks of man as material, and
hence sees him as such.
The Adam Man.
But no matter how sincerely peo-
pie may believe that God is
magnified man, seated upon a ma
-erial throne. and having a material
in a material place called
heaven, such belief does not make it
rue. God is Spirit, and His universe
IS wholly spiritual There is not one
material element in Him nor in any
hing that He created. He did not
create matter in any form, nor did
He create a material man. God
created everything spiritually and
lot materially, and the only kind OF
nan created by Him is the perfect
spiritual man, made in His own
mage and likeness. precisely as des-
ribbed in the first chapter OF
Genesis.
The Adam-man Is not the image OF
Sod, and in the second account OF
he creation in the second chapter OF
Genesis il is nowhere stated that the
Adam man was made in Gods
mage and likeness, or that he was
made perfect. Those statements are