to be made real, it is for the
purpose of uncovering and destroying it by the vigorous statements of
truth which you will almost invariably find standing near the
exposition of error. So evil seemed very real in the first century of
our era; but it was uncovered by the coming of Jesus. The exposure of
evil revealed the Christ, right at hand."

"But," protested Haynerd, "let's get back to the question of the
virgin birth."

"Very well," replied Father Waite. "But let us first consider what
human birth is."

"Now there!" exclaimed Haynerd. "Now you are touching my lifelong
question. If I am immortal, where was I before I was born?"

"Of which 'I' are you speaking, Ned?" asked Father Waite. "The real
'I' is God's image and likeness, His reflection. It was never born,
and never dies. The human 'I' had a beginning. And therefore it will
cease to be. The human mind makes its own laws, and calls them laws of
nature, or even God's laws. And it obeys them like a slave. Because
God is both Father and Mother to His children, His ideas, the human
mind has decreed in its counterfeiting process that it is itself both
male and female, and that the union of these two is necessary in order
to give rise to another human mind. Do you see how it imitates the
divine in an apish sort of way? And so elements of each sex-type of
the human mind are employed in the formation of another, their
offspring. The process is wholly mental, and is one of human belief,
quite apart from the usage of the divine Mind, who 'spake and it was
done,' mentally unfolding a spiritual creation. The real 'you,' Ned,
has always existed as God's idea of Himself. It is spiritual, not
material. It will come to light as the material 'you' is put off. The
material 'you' did not exist before it was humanly born. It was
produced in supposition by the union of the parent human minds, which
themselves were reflections of the male and female characteristics of
the communal mortal mind. It thus had a definite, supposititious
beginning. It will therefore have a definite end."

"And so I'm doomed to annihilation, eh? That's a comforting thought!"

"Your mortal sense of existence, Ned, certainly is doomed to
extinction. That which is supposition must go out. Oh, it doubtless
will not all be destroyed when you pass through that change which we
call death. It may linger until you have passed through many such
experiences. And so it behooves you to set about getting rid of it