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other system can. Christian Science, rightly understood,
leads to eternal harmony. It brings to light the
only living and true God and man as made in His likeness;
whereas the opposite belief - that man originates
in matter and has beginning and end, that he is both
soul and body, both good and evil, both spiritual and
material - terminates in discord and mortality, in the
error which must be destroyed by Truth. The mortality
of material man proves that error has been ingrafted
into the premises and conclusions of material and mortal
humanity.
(-29- Adam not ideal man)
XXIX. The word Adam is from the Hebrew adamah,
signifying the red color of the ground, dust, nothingness.
Divide the name Adam into two syllables,
and it reads, a dam, or obstruction. This
suggests the thought of something fluid, of mortal mind
in solution. It further suggests the thought of that
"darkness . . . upon the face of the deep," when matter
or dust was deemed the agent of Deity in creating
man, - when matter, as that which is accursed, stood
opposed to Spirit. Here a dam is not a mere play upon
words; it stands for obstruction, error, even the supposed
separation of man from God, and the obstacle
which the serpent, sin, would impose between man and
his creator. The dissection and definition of words,
aside from their metaphysical derivation, is not
scientific. Jehovah declared the ground was accursed; and
from this ground, or matter, sprang Adam, notwithstanding
God had blessed the earth "for man's sake."
From this it follows that Adam was not the ideal man
for whom the earth was blessed. The ideal man was
revealed in due time, and was known as Christ Jesus.
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