Page:Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.djvu/393

Rh Ego (or the I) must be in accord with the Father, according to Christ's word. In Science man is made perfect, even as the Mind that forms him. The Truth of Being is harmonious and immortal; but error is untrue and mortal.

XVI. Since God is omnipotent and omnipresent, there is no room for His opposite. Divine pardon destroys sin, Life destroys death, Truth destroys error, and Love destroys hate. Being destroyed, sin needs no forgiveness. God's spiritual pardon involves the final destruction of sin. The evil-doer can receive no encouragement from the fact that Science teaches that sin is the unreality of being; for the sinner is making a reality of sin, and thus heaping up “wrath against the day of wrath.” He is joining in the conspiracy against himself, — against his awakening to see the awful unreality by which he has been deceived. Only those who forsake sin can understand its unreality.

XVII. The name Adam is from the Hebrew adamah, signifying the red color of the ground, dust, nothingness. The word Adam should be regarded as identical with the Latin dæmon. Originally demons were not always considered as evil beings, but as partly good, though now the word is used exclusively of harmful and mischievous spirits. Somewhat in this way ought Adam to be thought of: as a dam, an obstruction, as error opposed to Truth, — as standing for that which is accursed, spoiled, or undone. Jehovah pronounced matter accursed, from whence error sprang, and blessed the earth “for man's sake.” From this it follows that Adam was not the ideal man. The ideal man was revealed in due time, as Jesus the Christ.