not eat of it, for in the clay that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.”
Here the metaphor represents God as tempting man; but the Apostle James says, “God cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth He any man.” It is true that a knowledge of evil would make man mortal. It is plain also that material perception, gathered from the senses, constitutes evil and mortal knowledge. But is it true that God, good, made the Tree of Life to be the Tree of Death to His own creation? Has evil the reality of good? Evil is false, in every statement.
Genesis ii. 19. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam, to see what he would call them; and whatever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
Here the falsity represents Spirit as repeating creation, but doing so materially, not spiritually, and asking man to help God. Progress is retrograding, and man is giving up his dignity. Was it requisite that dust should become sentient for the formation of man, when the Eternal Mind had already created all male and female beings? Was Adam first appointed to the solemn task of naming all the animals, and afterwards to create anew mankind, as if he were in partnership with God?
Genesis ii. 21. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and with the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Here falsity charges Truth, God, with inducing a hypnotic state in Adam, in order to perform a surgical
