ulted
skies to which it refers.

All this is a commonplace not worth repeating at the cost of the white
paper upon which it is printed, save as the ignoring of it leads to such
an interpretation of the passage as that which Mrs. Eddy offers:
"spiritual understanding by which human conception material mind is
separated from Truth is the firmament. The Divine Mind, not matter,
creates all identities and they are forms of Mind, the ideas of Spirit
apparent only as Mind, never as mindless matter nor the so-called
material senses" (page 505). Comment is not only difficult but
impossible in the face of a method like this. If such an interpretation
were an exception it might seem the unfair use of a hypercritical temper
to quote this particular expression of Mrs. Eddy's mind. But her whole
treatment of Scripture suffers from the same method.

Everything means something else. The Ark is "the idea, or reflection of
truth, proved to be as immortal as its Principle." Babel is
"self-destroying error"; baptism is "submergence in Spirit"; Canaan is
"a sensuous belief"; Dan (Jacob's son) is "animal magnetism"; the dove
is "a symbol of divine Science"; the earth is "a type of eternity and
immortality"; the river Euphrates is "divine Science encompassing the
universe and man"; evening "the mistiness of mortal thought"; flesh "an
error, a physical belief"; Ham (Noah's son) is "corporeal belief";
Jerusalem "mortal belief and knowledge obtained from the five corporeal
senses"; night, "darkness; doubt; fear"; a Pharisee, "corporeal and
sensuous belief"; river is "a channel of thought"; a rock is "a
spiritual foundation"; sheep are "innocence"; a sword "the idea of
Truth."[43]

[Footnote 43: Glossary, p. 579--passim.]

Mrs. Eddy does not hesitate to make such textual modifications of
passages as suit her purpose and even when she is not dealing with her
texts in such ways as these, she is constantly citing for her proofs
passages which cannot by any recognized canon of interpretation possibly
be made to mean what she says they mean. Beneath her touch simple things
become vague, the Psalms lose their haunting beauty, even the Lord's
Prayer takes a form which we may reverently believe the author of it
would not recognize.

"Our Father: Mother God, all harmonious, Adorable One, Thy kingdom
is come; Thou art ever present. Enable us to know--as in heaven, so
on earth--God is omnipotent, supreme. Give us grace for to-day;