Tilling The Ground

Written by Calvin Fry, February 3, 1917.

In the first chapter of Genesis we read, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth." Who has ever beheld the man thus described, even the divine ideal? This man is not formed of the dust of the ground, a lump of clay, for that is far from being the image and likeness of God, Spirit. The likeness of Spirit must be spiritual, not material. Isaiah represents God as saying to mortals: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways ... For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

In the second chapter of Genesis we are told of a suppositional creation of man and woman made from a material basis, who soon developed propensities antagonistic to the divine Mind, the only creator. Having listened to another voice than that of God, they wanted to know more than He; they wanted to know both good and evil; so, as we are told, they yielded to the persuasions of the tempter, tasted of the forbidden fruit, and were led to believe that mind was matter, that is, not Spirit. Thus they were ensnared by the testimony of the material senses, the belief of intelligence in brain and nerves. Then God's voice was heard in the garden of Eden calling to Adam, "Where art thou?" But as his newly acquired intelligence informed him that he was naked, he ran away and hid himself, instead of welcoming the loving call of divine Truth, acknowledging his sin, and correcting it. This story may be a myth, but the writer has yet to read a better explanation of that which claims to be man and woman, and at the same time which seems so demoralized and so constantly in need of help to fight against sickness, sin, and death. Surely the man whom God made in His image, after His likeness, and whom He pronounced "very good," is not this kind of man.

Jesus, whom our Leader has called "the highest earthly representative of God" (Science and Health, p. 52), said, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." This explains why mortals do not see God,—their impure thoughts so obscure their vision that they do not discern spiritual thoughts and things. They believe themselves to be free moral agents, having minds independent of God, free to indulge their own inclinations, be they either good or evil. When, however, they awaken to the true sense of being, the true sense of man as spiritual and at-one with the divine Mind, they begin to "till the ground" in order to win their way back into Eden. They set to work pulling out the noxious weeds and throwing away the stones which obstruct the path into the garden; they cultivate the seeds of health, purity, and spirituality. On page 545 of our text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy says: "The condemnation of mortals to till the ground means this,—that mortals should so improve material belief by thought tending spiritually upward as to destroy materiality. Man, created by God, was given dominion over the whole earth."

Luke, telling us of the time when Jesus was born, said that an angel, a message from divine Love, appeared to the shepherds and announced "good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." He further states, "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." This message was received by the shepherds who were awake through the night hours, but we are not told that any less watchful people than they either heard or saw this remarkable manifestation of divine Love in their midst.

The advent of Christ Jesus started from a higher and more spiritual concept than that of mortals,—from Mary's recognition of divine Love with us, even of God as the Principle of man. This clearer concept of the God-created man also enabled Jesus to dominate fleshly and sinful temptations and to overcome the sense of the material world, the flesh, and evil. This natural inclination to heavenly desires and pure thoughts furnished his replies to Satan in the wilderness as given by Matthew and Luke. He said of himself, according to John, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." In other words, there was nothing in the consciousness of Jesus through which the adversary could tempt him to think or to do wrong. So, as it is written in the epistle to the Hebrews, he "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."

Those who accept the Adam-dream are cheating themselves out of the privilege of sonship with divine Love, the great joy and blessing which is within their reach. The apostle says, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead," the stupefied sense of life in matter, "and Christ shall give thee light,"—Truth gives us life; gives an abiding sense of heaven here and now. Paul exhorts us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, but at the same time he assures us that God worketh in us "both to will and to do of his good pleasure." This is an assurance that if we strive to gain the goal of dominion over the temptations of evil,—over sick and sinful thoughts,—then will divine Love furnish us with thoughts of health and purity, whereby we shall be enabled to gain a realization of the divine presence with us. We shall then have that Mind which was in Christ Jesus, the divine consciousness which heals the sick and comforts the sorrowing.

The apostle Paul asks, "Who is sufficient for these things?" Who has the wisdom and strength of purpose to cleanse and purify himself from evil habits? When the prodigal spoken of by Jesus in the parable awoke to a sense of his great mistake in demanding his share of the inheritance and leaving his father's house to enjoy himself with "riotous living," which he foolishly counted as freedom,—when he was ready to confess his sin and ingratitude and was willing to return even as a hired servant,—then he found the father-love yearning toward him and ready to receive him. Our revered Leader has given us as one name for God, divine Principle. Although we have yet to learn the full import of this term, we know it was Principle who caused the prodigal to come to himself, and it was Principle who welcomed him while "he was yet a great way off."

Divine Principle is but another name for our Father-Mother God, and this Principle is just as applicable to human need as is the principle of mathematics or of music. As in music we seek to understand and comply with the principle and rules which govern the production of harmony, so must we conform our thoughts and actions to the divine Principle and rules of Christian Science in order to correct the discords of mortal sense, that we may enter into the joy of heaven, harmony. In our text-book we read (p. 312), "How true it is that whatever is learned through material sense must be lost because such so-called knowledge is reversed by the spiritual facts of being in Science."

Christian Science teaches that all things are mental. Let us then turn our steps back to Eden by overcoming the allurements of mortal pleasures and pains, which are the fruit of trying to know more than God knows, by believing both good and evil,—and let us strive to know only good. We shall then be attuned to the divine voice and heaven will be within our consciousness; and when we hear this voice call to us, we shall not hide in shame and fear, as did Adam, but conscious of work well done we shall welcome the voice of divine Love and enter into "the joy of our Lord."