Genesis iv. 1. And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, “I have gotten a man from the Lord.”
This account implies that man originated in sin, and that sin is temporal. It has a beginning, and consequently must have an end; while man is eternal. Eve's claim, “I have gotten a man from the Lord,” supposes God to be the author of sin and sin's progeny. This false sense of being is fratricidal. In the words of Jesus, it is “a murderer from the beginning.” Error begins by sapping the foundations of Immortality, by reckoning Life as separate from Spirit; as if Life were something that matter can give and take, — a self-destructive principle, that goes to decay by virtue of its own laws.
What can be the standard character of Good, of Spirit, of Life, or of Truth, if they produce their opposites, such as evil, matter, error, and death! God could never impart an element of evil, and man possesses nothing which he has not derived from God. How then has man a basis for wrong-doing? Whence does he obtain the propensity or power to do evil? Did Spirit resign to matter the government of the universe and of man?
The Scriptures declare that God condemns this lie as to man's origin and character, by condemning its symbol, the Serpent, as beneath all the beasts of the field. It is false to say that Truth and error commingle in creation. This falsity is exposed by our Master, in parable and argument, as self-evident error. Disputing these points with the Pharisees, and arguing for the Science of Creation, he says, “The same fountain sendeth not forth sweet and bitter waters.” Paul asks, “What communion hath light with darkness, or what concord hath Christ with Belial?”
