Wiser than Serpents
This week's Lesson Sermon Subject: Adam And Fallen Man
Click here to play the audio as you read:
Morning Prayer
Mortal mind is to be denied; Spirit overcomes it. We must cease to admit in our thinking the reality and power in themselves of sin, sickness and death, of misery, pain, evil in all forms; and we must steadfastly and persistently think the Truth which stands opposite to them. We do in this way overcome discordant conditions of consciousness now. Everyone who persists in this course many times each day will have signs of the lessening of all evil. ...
God is All; there is no evil.
All is harmony; there is no discord.
All is health; there is no sickness.
All is Spirit; there is no matter.
All is joy; there is no sorrow.
All is Truth; there is no falsehood.
All is faith; there is no fear.
All is Life; there is no death.
All is Love; there is no hate.
from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the "Blue Book"), by Mary Baker Eddy, pages 267 and 282
Daily Watch
124 — WATCH lest your sense of good be comparative instead of uniform, human rather than divine. Human good seems good only by contrast, thus supporting a sense of evil through the belief in opposites. When one says, "I feel fine," you can hear the unvoiced reason "because I am not sick."
The belief in comparative good, where a statement of health includes a belief in the reality of sickness, is only a step toward the understanding of that good that is all. The error of human or material good so-called is that it sustains a sense of the reality of evil. For this reason it is necessary to watch one’s sense of good, in order to remove as fast as possible the tinge of human sense, that carries with it the belief in the existence of an opposite possibility. The only sense of good that is uniform, all-encompassing, and that knows no opposite, is the divine.
When God saw everything that He had made and, behold, it was very good, — it was very good, not because it was not evil, but because it came forth from the source of all good. The acceptance of good by comparison was what brought the mist that rose up from the earth. From this mist resulted the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Unless your sense of good is uniform and not comparative, it perpetuates the belief in the reality of its opposite, which is the very thing you are seeking to eliminate….
As long as one’s sense of existence is based on comparison and opposites, he is clinging to the pendulum of mortal belief, which swings between human good and evil, harmony and discord, love and hate, life and death. Such a belief makes a reversal of harmony possible at any time. The scientific consciousness of the reality and everpresence of all good carries no contrast, since it is based on the recognition that God is All, and that everything He created is Godlike and hence perfect.
Discussion points
The Scriptures declare that God is too pure to behold iniquity (Habakkuk i. 13); but they also declare that God pitieth them who fear Him; that there is no place where His voice is not heard; that He is "a very present help in trouble."
from Unity of Good, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 2
It is necessary for everybody to work along this line to heal himself: I never committed any sins, never was a sinner; the whole thing is a dream; it never happened, even in belief. There never was a first sin, or a first sinner.
1937 College by Bicknell Young
382 — WATCH that you finish and clean up every demonstration by knowing that the error was never real, never present, never happened, never had a manifestation, nor was there ever such a claim. Only in this way can you guard against a relapse. Whatever the claim was, you may believe it to be real again, if you hold that you did believe in it formerly. The only scientific attitude is to know you never had it. Once when a patient asked Gilbert Carpenter if he should stop treatment, he said, "Give me one more day in which to know that you never had the claim."
500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter
Do not let the denial of error absorb all your thought in giving a treatment. There is a tendency to look at error too long, and continue denying it. It is the affirmation of Truth which heals disease. Denial alone does not do this. Affirmations, made with assurance and conviction, express more power than denials. In such affirmations, one is opening the way for the realization of the truth he affirms, but simply denying the error does not do this. If we perceive that man is the child of God, should we affirm error about that child? If we saw ourselves as spiritual and perfect, would we declare error about ourselves or would we believe it? We must take the same stand about man as we do about God — namely, that there is no other man at any time than His image and likeness. Therefore, do not affirm anything about yourself that you know is not true of man. Do not affirm error about anyone or anything, because if you do, you deny the one creator, and are laying the burden of your affirmation upon the person or condition you are talking about.
From "Cause and Effect" in Association Address of 1929 by Samuel Greenwood
God. The great I am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 587
A Rule for Motives and Acts
Neither animosity nor mere personal attachment should impel the motives or acts of the members of The Mother Church. In Science, divine Love alone governs man; and a Christian Scientist reflects the sweet amenities of Love, in rebuking sin, in true brotherliness, charitableness, and forgiveness. The members of this Church should daily watch and pray to be delivered from all evil, from prophesying, judging, condemning, counseling, influencing or being influenced erroneously.
Church Manual, Article VIII, Sect. 1
We are not Christian Scientists until we leave all for Christ.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 192
Are We Sure that Good Is Going to Triumph? by William P. McKenzie
There is only one thing to do, and that is to realize all of the time that the government of God can set aside the dangers that seem to confront the human race and civilization.
The 1930 Class Notes from Bicknell Young
3. 92
Uncover error, and it turns the lie upon you.
Undisturbed amid the jarring testimony of the material senses, Science, still enthroned, is unfolding to mortals the immutable, harmonious, divine Principle, — is unfolding Life and the universe, ever present and eternal.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 306
“MY NAME IS LEGION: FOR WE ARE MANY”
J. M. TUTT, M.D.
IT is recorded in the fifth chapter of Mark’s Gospel that Jesus on one occasion approached a man possessed of “an unclean spirit.” And the man, perceiving Jesus afar off, ran and worshiped him. Mrs. Eddy tells us that Jesus saw clearly “the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals” (Science and Health, p. 476), and he said: “Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.” Then he asked him, “What is thy name?” And the reply was: “My name is Legion: for we are many.”
The writer was reared in a theological atmosphere and was taught the approved statements respecting a perfect creator of an imperfect creation—of God and fallen man. He was taught that the offspring of this man possessed a three-in-one identity: a mind, a material body, and a soul. This creature was conceived materially by man, mentally by man, and spiritually by God. He was then born, grew materially to maturity, thence to decay and death. From birth this man also grew mentally to maturity and thence to decay; but the soul of this remarkable orthodox creation supposedly did not increase in size or importance, and while at all times the soul was responsible for its future state, after death should overtake the material body, no way was provided whereby the soul could assume the responsibility and become active in its behalf, for God the All-wise, knowing aforetime the outcome of the struggle of the soul to save itself from the paradoxical end of “everlasting destruction,” had also foreordained the fate that should overtake the spiritual part of man at the death of the body. The sentence of death upon the body, the prejudging of the soul, and the unaccountable disappearance of the mind at death—such was the foreordination of this copartnership creation of God and man.
Asked to accept this theory, the writer invariably put the question: “But what of the mind? You account for the soul and the body of man, by saving or damning the one and utterly destroying the other; but whence goes the mind of man?” After leaving college, where these questions were never answered, the writer entered upon the study of medicine. What little reverence for God this creedal teaching had left to him, was surely destroyed when the study of medicine had progressed a few months. Soon he learned that, no matter how deeply he searched for this elusive mind, supposedly resident in the body, no reliable trace of it could be found. He did find that the new-born infant was possessed of little if any mind, and little by little was brought out the fact that this creation became possessed of mind only by means of education. Thus an answer was partially arrived at to the question that theology had so signally failed to answer. This vaunted mind of man was but an accretion of education after all. While this could not be said to be satisfactory, still it at least accounted for the disappearance of the mind when dust returned to its own.
The writer thus entered upon the work of healing the sick with a skepticism resulting largely from the inability to locate or in any logical way account for the soul of man, but he did accept the belief, blind and unreasoning, of God, of heaven, and of hell. Entering thus upon his profession, he treated the sick in the usual accepted manner, approaching all patients from the view-point of a separate identity, consisting of a body, a mind, and probably a soul, which latter was of no interest to him as a physician. The sick mortal he attempted to treat upon the basis of a sick body or sick mind, separately diseased or correlatively. Both the body and the mind were subject to any one or any number of ills, which, although classified in a sort of way, were often so obscured by symptoms as to be indeterminate. For each disease and class of diseases there was a remedy or class of remedies. These many remedies for many diseases affecting the bodies and the minds of many men, were administered in many combinations to meet many symptoms, or to remove specifically the many ills to which the mortal flesh and mind were liable; and above all this multiplicity of details in the attempt to restore the unfortunate, stood the discouraging chance of error in diagnosticating the case and in selecting the remedy, as well as the frequent refusal of the body or the mind to respond to treatment.
Striving thus to heal the sick, struggling with the multitude of problems involved in this theory of the multiplication of minds and medicine (whether drugs, diet, or hygiene), and the subdivision of intelligence, the writer was gradually forced to a recognition of the futility of the effort to restore health by material means, and to the acknowledgment of his utter inability to heal the sick. In his work one thing was forcefully impressed upon him; namely, that, in spite of his best endeavors, certain of his patients he lost, while others recovered. Thus he came to know in his own heart his helplessness in the face of disease.
Then came Christian Science, and after he experienced its healing,—felt the truth applied to error, and knew the Christ-cure in his own case,—he applied himself to the study of this Science. Earnest search led directly to the solution of all these problems, theological and medical. In place of the false statement: “My name is Legion: for we are many,” came the scientific statement: “Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord.” Not a legion of minds, but one Mind,—intelligence indivisible. Not a legion of diseases, but one disease,—the fiction, the illusion, the lie that man, God’s own image and likeness, could be less than perfect; the lie about health, man’s natural state. Not a legion of remedies and systems of treatment, but one curative agent, the truth about “perfect God and perfect man” (Science and Health, p. 2 5 9 ) ; the truth which, applied to any phase of error, casts out, annuls, repudiates the lie.
Applying this truth to the erroneous medical theories and to the equally erroneous theological dogmas, the writer experienced the joy of demonstration, as singly and by groups the “legion” of errors answered to the Christ command, “Come out of the man.” In the incident referred to, when the legion had come out of the man they entered into swine, which all ran violently down a steep place into the sea and were choked. Thus the false beliefs of many men of many minds, of many bodies, of many souls, and all the host of errors, leave the consciousness, going out as only lies can be destroyed. Being wholly false, they have no identity, no author, no origin, no one and no thing to father them; and they are choked in the sea of non-existence.
We read further that when the man had been healed, he was found “sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind.” When the Christ came, the unclean spirit was cast out; the man was no longer naked, but found himself clothed and mentally sound. The taking away of the false did not deprive him of anything, nor did he suffer loss of mind, body, or soul; but to him came the realization of man as the image and likeness of God, the only Mind,—hence “his right mind,”—the Mind of man. But when in his gratitude he who had been delivered of the “legion” besought Jesus that he might go with him, Jesus said to him: “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee and hath had compassion on thee.”
The writer trusts that he has conveyed to his readers somewhat of the great things the Lord has done for him. Christ, through Christian Science, has cast out of him a “legion” of falsities. There remains much to be done, for, like Paul, he is led to say: “I count not myself to have apprehended;” but from the depths of a grateful heart arise thanks to God for the cleansing of one who was “possessed of an unclean spirit,” whose ways were not God’s ways, but who is now trying to follow Him in the Christ way.
Wiser Than Serpents
Now the question arises, How can a talking serpent hide itself? Will not its speech inevitably betray it even if behind a camouflage of words? According to Paul, "the god of this world"—the devil, evil, animal magnetism, the original talking serpent—is "dishonesty, ...craftiness,...handling the word of God deceitfully." Beware the smooth talker, who hides behind the words of truth, the lying maker of the venom of malice and mischief. There is little to choose between the venom producer and the venom vender, carrying and spreading the poison of gossip, scandal mongering, idle talk, malicious criticism.
"The wisdom of a serpent is to hide itself;" and because the serpents of error come to us in the guise of thought, and can come in no other way, therefore the serpent hides itself in our own thinking. We must seek for it there. The animal magnetism outside our own consciousness can never harm us. The wisdom of the serpent is to hide itself by masquerading as good, created reality. For this reason, the serpent is a type of hypocrisy "with all deceivableness of unrighteousness."
This animal element, which claims to be inherent in mortals, impels them to all evil in the name of good. Animal subtleties are deceived and deceiving, but to themselves alone. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." This simplicity in Christ, Truth, enables one to break the mesmeric charm of matter's seemingly pleasant aspects, and to antidote the hypnotic virus of matter's ugly phases.
In displaying its so-called wisdom, the serpent hides itself in the most effective place for hiding, namely, a hole. The superficial student hesitates or stops short at the hole of the serpent. He loves to think of God as Love, but he dislikes to stir up a nest of serpents. He will not handle animal magnetism. He either does not see the error or, seeing it, does not want to or will not deny it, reverse it, and reject it.
The true Scientist boldly turns the serpent out of its hole. He does this with the wisdom of God and not with his own human mentality, however. Thus he emulates our Leader's counsel and example to be "wiser than serpents." To be "wiser than serpents" is to employ the wisdom of God, the one divine Mind, in bringing the serpent out of its hiding place or hole, handling it, and taking away its sting. Thus handled, that is, reversed with Truth, the lie or serpent becomes a staff on which to lean. Note that to be wiser than a serpent is to employ the wisdom of God, not of one's self. No one can, of his own belief in mortal mind or will, uncover error. The true Scientist lets Truth uncover error.
The lie uncovered, the student should destroy it, but only by replacing it with the truth. All animal magnetism is a supposititious reversal of the divine activity of Christ, or Truth. As has been previously implied, the serpent, when reversed in Science, becomes a staff on which to lean. If we allow Truth to uncover error, we shall find the serpent replaced by a staff. We must be active in allowing Truth to uncover the lie; we must be insistent and persistent. God must do this; but we must see to it that we are witnesses to Truth's activity.
Jesus said, "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." May not this be taken to mean, I am not come to destroy reality, but to restore it to consciousness? If we handle the serpent of materialism with the wisdom of God, we shall realize, proportionately to our right activity, the allness of Spirit and spiritual things. Christian Science is not destructive, but restorative. Not even the serpent itself is lost in reversion, but it thus becomes a type of true wisdom.
All too often the hole of the asp is to be found in one's own bosom. Such a hiding place seems most immune from attack. People are usually more willing to invade the nest of error in another's thought and heart, and sometimes without the wisdom of God, than to dig out the nests of evil within their own thinking, a process which requires greatest courage. It is natural for a Christian Scientist to handle serpents. Jesus said of his disciples that they should do so unharmed; and a Christian Scientist who does not handle animal magnetism, and handle it with divine omnipotence, is not a genuine disciple of Christ or a worthy follower of his Leader. It is unnatural for a Christian Scientist to ignore the serpents or their hiding places. One should use discretion, and be sure of his ability to accomplish what he would do for Christ. How can one be sure of his ability, capacity, and competency? By preparedness. If the student does his daily work effectively against animal magnetism, he will find that the work on any specific case will become more and more incidental. He should remember that while the rattlesnake heralds his offensive, most serpents are quiet, striking without warning; hence the necessity to be impervious and immune to their poison. The antidote for all serpent bites is spiritual thinking and living; for spiritual sense alone can immunize against the mesmerism of the beliefs of matter.
To be "wiser than serpents" is also to be undeceived by hidden sin. Conversely, we should be wise as serpents in hiding our aims and plans from mortal mind. The serpent is wise enough to attempt to hide its venom, its presence and purpose. We should be wise to detect, attack, and destroy the serpent with its supposititious virus. We should cultivate perception, initiative, and spontaneity in handling evil. Our Leader tells us that the illusion of Moses regarding the serpent lost its power to alarm him when he reached out and conquered his fear.
In one of the pictures in "Christ and Christmas" Mrs. Eddy places the serpent behind the woman. Jesus said, "Get thee behind me, Satan." King Hezekiah sang, "Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back." Paul declared that he was intent upon "forgetting those things which are behind." A lie is never true; the unreal does not exist. Jesus knew this, and feared not animal magnetism; otherwise, he could not have put the serpent behind him. But note! Jesus commanded Satan, the lie, to get behind him. He handled the serpent of animal magnetism,— but as nothing, and with the power of Truth.
Nothing can substitute the Christ and spiritual consciousness. Beware the serpent of materialism hiding its purpose to destroy both individual lives and usefulness and the existence and usefulness of the movement of Christian Science by magnifying the supposititious material in the place of or in the guise of the spiritual. There is no kinship between the material and the spiritual. If we protect evil beliefs by our approval and indulgence, tacitly or openly, the consequent multiplication of the serpent's progeny will increase our pains and regrets. If we concede room to one devil, we may find seven others come to share its abode in our consciousness.
These serpents, or animal magnetism, are not people or things, even though mortal mind does claim to operate as mortal men and things. These serpents are, one and all, just false concepts, —material beliefs. The serpent we handle for ourselves we at the same time handle impersonally for others,—indeed for all mankind, —because Christ, Truth, which heals and saves anybody, truly heals and saves everybody. Can we not visualize that happy day when "the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; ... and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den;" when "they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them"? And why? Because they shall be "wise as serpents," yea, they shall be "wiser than serpents." Then "they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."
* A change was made to this article in the 2007 printing of Anthology of Classic Articles: "much of the trouble in the world" was changed to "all of the trouble in the world".↑ ** A change was made to this article in the 2007 printing of Anthology of Classic Articles: the word “thought” was changed to "thoughts".↑ *** A change was made to this article in the 2007 printing of Anthology of Classic Articles: the word “most” was omitted.↑ † A change was made to this article in the 2007 printing of Anthology of Classic Articles: the corresponding citation (II Thess. 2:10) was added.↑ †† A change was made to this article in the 2007 printing of Anthology of Classic Articles: the corresponding citation, Genesis 3:1, was noted.↑
Trust to His care; make faith in Him your staff — it will not bend.
from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the "Blue Book"), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 142
Rules for overcoming animal magnetism:
1. See what it is trying to do.
2. Know that it cannot do it.
3. See that it is not done.
To accomplish this:
1. Be patient.
2. Be meek.
3. Be vigilant.
4. Be sober.
5. Be loving.
from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the "Blue Book"), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 170
Psalm 91:13
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
The Ninety-First Psalm by Bliss Knapp
Ways That Are Vain, from Miscellaneous Writings, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 2
Final Readings
Rightful Classification
by Irving C. Tomlinson, M.A
In Science and Health (p. 495) Mrs. Eddy makes a most comprehensive, far-reaching, and important statement, when she recommends her followers to "classify sickness and error as our Master did." Elsewhere, in referring to the forces of Mind, which human knowledge calls forces of matter, she speaks of the corrective office of Christian Science, which "restores them to their rightful home and classification" (p. 124). In the above words she prescribes a course of procedure which, if followed, would go far toward establishing the kingdom of heaven among men.
Careful reflection makes clear the fine discrimination employed in the author's use of the word classification. In the history of the Roman empire the term class was used to designate one of the six divisions of citizens, made according to their wealth, for the regulation of taxation. Among the definitions which the Century dictionary gives of the word class is this: "Any body of persons grouped together by particular circumstances or for particular reasons;" also, "A number of objects distinguished by common characters from all others, and regarded as a collective unit or group." Observation shows that primitive people give little heed to rightful classification, some tribes of Indians having but one name for tree; but as men progress in a right apprehension of the truth, they give to all things their rightful place.
It is well known that the orderly conduct of a great business enterprise hinges upon the proper classification of its varied interests. For example, the post-office would suffer great disorder, and the people much inconvenience, were it not for the fact that the order of classification which has been established is strictly obeyed by all concerned. Letters reach their destination promptly and quickly, because each employee is trained to classify every country, state, city, and name aright. We note, too, how exactly nature classifies all living things, and how obedient the members of each class are to the material conditions governing them.
Divine Science bids us classify ourselves as God, our Maker, has classified us. Said St. John, "Now are we the sons of God," and the only position which God's child can hold in the thought that expresses Mind, is that in which the Father has placed him. Mortals are wont to classify themselves as sick and sinning. They announce that they belong among the weak, the sorrowing, and the diseased, and thereby come under the false human laws supposed to govern these conditions. They thus place themselves where God has not placed them, namely, on a material basis, believing in a power apart from God, which must therefore be necessarily evil (the supposititious opposite of good). "To whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey," says St. Paul, "his servants ye are to whom ye obey." To be classified in this way tends to bring about a sense of separation from the creator, which only a knowledge of the truth, and consequent restoration to a rightful classification, can destroy. Every Christian Scientist is admonished to live so that he is entitled to classify himself as did Jesus when he announced, "I and my Father are one," and in proportion as this is done and we know man in his God given place, can we come under the law of God, the law of Life, and gain the health, peace, and joy which pertain to the kingdom of God.
When we learn to identify the true selfhood, as did the Master, when each is ready to obey the command to "let that mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus," it will be found that mankind are not divided into classes, —high and low, rich and poor, aristocrat and peasant. Then all, united, will constitute one brotherhood, in which God, the one infinite Mind, is the Father, and man His idea. Toward this universal brotherhood the seers and prophets of all ages have looked. It is to be established, not by legal enactment, but through the right understanding gained by the study of the Bible as interpreted in Christian Science, and this understanding uplifts each individual to the high level of the true man, the Christ idea.
Experience teaches that the practical realization of always abiding in our rightful place, is accomplished only through strenuous effort. We shall doubtless need to remind ourselves frequently, that "not failure but low aim is crime." It is easy to declare that man is God's spiritual child, but to preserve this sense of identity, through storm and stress, demands not only spiritual understanding, but constant endeavor. The secret of success lies in right thinking and true living. It means watchfulness, vigilance, and prayer, and it recalls the admonition of the Master which Mrs. Eddy chose as the watchword for the Christian Science Sentinel: "What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch."
On page 307 of our text-book we are reminded that God's voice is ever calling, "Adam, where art thou?" This call comes to each one. Are we classifying ourselves as mortals, as belonging among those who believe in the power of sin, sickness, and death? Then, in belief, we become subject to the mortal law of suffering, disaster, and dissolution. On the other hand, if we constantly identify ourselves with God and His laws, we shall have the benefit of that abundance of health and prosperity which comes to those who are striving to be at-one with Him, and rightly classifying themselves here and now as immortals.
The "rightful home and classification" of each one is in the kingdom of heaven, that abiding spiritual consciousness which enables one to companion with Christ, Truth. Would we have health and joy and peace? Then let us know ourselves as the offspring of Life eternal. Would we have abundance of substance and life and harmony? Then let us identify ourselves with those who are at-one with Christ, Truth. Would we be free from all limitations of false class distinction and bondage? Then let us remember that "God is no respecter of persons," and classify ourselves as did the apostle, when he declared that ours (the possession of each individual) is the "liberty of the children of God." It has been well said that he is blessed "who finds his place in God's great plan and fills it."