o be the first man, solely because their
transcribing thoughts were not lifted to the inspired sense [15]
of the spiritual man, as set forth in original Holy Writ.
Had both writers and translators in that age fully com-
prehended the later teachings and demonstrations of
our human and divine Master, the Old Testament might
have been as spiritual as the New. [20]

The origin, substance, and life of man are one, and
that one is God,--Life, Truth, Love. The self-existent,
perfect, and eternal are God; and man is their reflection
and glory. Did the substance of God, Spirit, become a
clod, in order to create a sick, sinning, dying man? The [25]
primal facts of being are eternal; they are never extin-
guished in a night of discord.

That man must be evil before he can be good; dying,
before deathless; material, before spiritual; sick and a
sinner in order to be healed and saved, is but the declara- [30]
tion of the material senses transcribed by pagan religion-
ists, by wicked mortals such as crucified our Master,--

[Page 188.]

whose teachings opposed the doctrines of Christ that [1]
demonstrated the opposite, Truth.

Man is as perfect now, and henceforth, and forever,
as when the stars first sang together, and creation joined
in the grand chorus of harmonious being. It is the trans-
lator, not the original Word, who presents as being first [5]
that which appears second, material, and mortal; and
as last, that which is primal, spiritual, and eternal. Be-
cause of human misstatement and misconception of God
and man, of the divine Principle and idea of being, there [10]
seems to be a war between the flesh and Spirit, a contest
between Truth and error; but the apostle says, "There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in
Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit." [15]

On our subject, St. Paul first reasons upon the basis
of what is seen, the effects of Truth on the material senses;
thence, up to the unseen, the testimony of spiritual sense;
and right there he leaves the subject.

Just there, in the intermediate line of thought, is where [20]
the present writer found it, when she discovered Christian
Science. And she has _not_ left it, but continues the ex-
planation of the power of Spirit up to its infinite meaning,
its allness. The recognition of this power came to her
through a spiritual sense of the real, and of the unreal [25]
or mortal sense of things; not that there is