Page:Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1898).djvu/236

216 always strive with man, for that he also is flesh,” is quoted as follows, from the original Hebrew: “And Jehovah said, My Spirit shall not forever rule [or be humbled] in men, seeing that they are [or, in their error they are] but flesh.” Here the original text declares plainly the spiritual fact of Being, even man's eternal and harmonious existence as idea, instead of matter (however transcendental appears such a thought), and avers that this fact was not forever to be humbled by the belief that man is flesh and matter, for according to that error he is mortal.

The one important interpretation of Scripture is the spiritual. For instance, the text, “In my flesh shall I

see God,” gives a profound idea of the divine power to heal the ills of the flesh, and encourages mortals to hope in Him who healeth all our diseases; whereas this passage is continually quoted as if Job intended to declare that if disease and worms destroyed his body, yet in the latter days he should stand in celestial perfection before Elohim, though still clad in material flesh, — an interpretation which is just the opposite of the true, as may be seen by studying the Book of Job. As Paul says, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.”

The Hebrew Lawgiver, slow of speech, despaired of making the people understand what should be revealed

to him. When he was led by Wisdom to cast down his rod, and he saw it become a serpent, Moses fled before it; but Wisdom bade him come back and handle the serpent, and then his fear departed. In this incident was seen the actuality of Science. Matter was shown to be a belief only. The