The origin of sin ...

Preface

" In thy Light shall ive see light."

" Come my soul, thou must be waking,

Nozv is breaking O'er the earth another day.

Come to him who made this splendor ;

See thou render All thy feeble strength can pay"

This hymn was sung in church to-day, and I thought, the day now breaking is a day such as we read of in the Bible ; not a day of twenty-four hours, but a day which means the commencement of a certain time, the commencement of a time of new thoughts and advancement of thought, granted to waking souls, or waking minds. And I thought, now is breaking this day for me ; and it is breaking o'er all the earth, therefore to Him w^ho made this inward light, and grants this light to every soul. I will render all my feeble strength can pay. I will search for new thoughts on the old truths, and what I think \ find I will try to give to others.

I looked round this church and saw how many many women were there, ho-^few men — it was women, then, who were there to pray and to them came the

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IV PREFACE.

answers of the prayers. And with these women I prayed this prayer : *' Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspirations of Thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love Thee, and worthily magnify Thy Holy Name, through Christ our Lord."

And this prayer I hope will be answered in this work of mine. In the light which Christ brought to this world, may I find light, and into my open heart may He send by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit new thoughts by which I may magnify His Name, and understanding the deep thoughts of the Bible, so that I may give them rightly to this world.

DIAMONDS IN METEORIC IRON.

This journal, as well as nearly every daily and weekly paper m the United States, has had notices of the discovery of diamonds in meteoric iron. Prof. A. E Foote, of Philadelphia, recently read a paper announcing this discovery at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. From this we learn that the diamonds are small but plainly visible. They are the hardest variety known — the black diamonds used for pointing diamond drills. A small white diamond was also found. Why has so much interest been shown in this discovery which has been anticipated for many years ? Because, Professor Foote claims, it confirms the theory advanced by Sir William Thompson, preface!. V

twenty years ago, that the first germs of life were brought to this globe by meteors. Diamonds, like coal, are supposed to result from changes occurring in vegetable matter ; and if plants existed, then there may have been animal life ; — and so we may have approached one step nearer the solution of the question to which the wisest brains have given so much thought for ages. The geological source of diamonds themselves has never been satisfactorily explained. They are scattered all over the world in unexpected places without any apparent reason. It was suggested by the Washington geologists that they came from decomposed meteors that had been falling on the surface of the earth for unknown centuries, and that even the great deposits at Kimberley were due to enormous masses that had fallen there producing curious sink-holes similar to the ** crater" on the side of which Professor Foote found the most of the pieces at Canon Diablo. Professor Foote's complete paper may be found in the American Journal of Science and Arts for November. — Popular Science News for December.

I think that the garden of Eden was not on this earth ; the fall of man means that evil was banished from Heaven. Christ said to his f oUow^ers : " I beheld Satan, as lightning, fall from heaven.*' Satan, then, was once in heaven. In the above we read : Sir W. Thompson says " that the first germs of life were brought to this globe by meteors.'* Eden is heaven and those who wrote Genesis could form no better idea of heaven than a garden ; theyj^new by inspiration that evil was in the world, and that the soul within their sinful human body had been banished from happiness, and was a spark from goodness, from light and happiness, and that their souls or spirits were like diamonds in the meteoric iron spoken of by Sir William Thompson. The soul of man, which was only restored to consciousness and life when after years his body had evolved from the lowest animal life then understood when this was so that God existed and that mankind had at some distant time fallen from heaven, which he called Eden. Christ has told us that God is a Spirit ; therefore, when we say man was made in the image of God, we should understand man's spirit and not his human body — those who wrote Genesis understood this, as they say God breathed upon man and man became (then) a living soul.

Satan means Sin. If Adam and Eve were banished from Heaven (Eden), Satan, or Sin, is within us — that is, in our flesh, which we get from Adam. The image of God can not be our bodies of clay, which die, for nothing of God can die. Jesus took upon him our body of clay, and as He had a double nature, spiritual and material, the temptation was the struggle between these two ; the race of Adam banished to this planet, and reduced to mere atoms of life, rose frem one stage to another, until they became capable of seeking to return to God. Then Christ came to help them and to show them the

Way, and to show that the spiritual, God's image within us, or Souls, can by suffering overcome the material of which our bodies are made. Satan, sin, is within us — the same as Christ said the kingdom of Heaven is within us. The seeking of self caused the fall of Adam from Eden — the seeking of self runs all through his race on this earth ; be they civilized, or be they barbarians, the seeking of self was the Sin of Satan — other words only for Adam and Eve. Jesus did not '* humiliate the Divinity to the devil " by the temptation in the wilderness, for it was in the glorious strength of his Divine nature, in the knowledge of the power to overcome evil, that He met for us the temptation.

Sin was driven from Heaven, banished to this earth ; hence sin has been always on tliis earth, and will be on this earth as long as this earth is alive.

We who are born on this earth, are born on an earth, or star, or planet, of sin. The prince of this earth is sin or Self.

Jesus said : " I beheld Satan, as lightning, fall from heaven." This He said when the seventy said to Him, " Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through Thy name." ** Devils " means evils of all sorts. These seventy had healed the sick ; the illness, and the evil which caused the illness, they could banish through the name of Jesus, viii PREFACE.

Sin, then, came to this earth when repulsed froni Heaven, and will always be here, and will always fight the good that is in the world. We think it is best for mankind to be ignorant of some things. Sin will, through ignorance, cause mankind to sin. If we think it best to grow in knowledge. Sin will cause us to sin through knowledge. What then must we do ? We must watch, and by knowledge by intelligence, rise above sin.

When I say that our human nature we get from Satan — that is, our flesh and blood nature, — do not misunderstand me to say that God did not make this world. God made all things, and He made this planet with all other planets, the sun, and moon, and stars. Do you know the history of the moon ? We are told that it is dead, yet it follows on God's law — and those who may have lived on it are alive no more — yet the moon revolves, and reflects light.

That the race of mankind are on this earth does not affect this earth, the laws of this planet go on the same, we have nothing to do with these laws, we cannot change them in the least. Sin, or Satan, as you wish to call it, was driven to this earth from Heaven, and that life which must die came here in that way. Pray do not misunderstand me ! In our flesh and blood body we are not, we can not be of the Image of God — for God is a Spirit

Book I. Origin Of Sin

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ORIGIN OF SIN.

THE FALL OF ADAM AND EVE.

In these days of growing unbelief in the Bible, and even in God's word, it is the duty of those who are loyal and true to God to give their thoughts to the world in which we live ; so I am here giving mine in great humility, for I shall speak of the things which are hard to understand, but which all who have any mind whatever should think out for themselves always with prayer to God for right direction. Trusting, then, that He is helping me by the whispers of the Spirit to my listening mind, I take courage to write the following.

The Origin of Sin.

Christ, when teaching his disciples, told them that He *' had many things to tell them, but that they could not bear them then." They had so much diflEiculty in comprehending the Spiritual teachings of Christ, that He had to teach them by parables, and by earthly things as examples to make their earthly minds understand. But Christ did not mean that we should remain so dull of understanding, so ignorant of His spiritual teachings, ** that he may run that readeth it." We are to search the Scriptures, for Christ told us to do so, because, as He said, they testify of Him. Therefore, whosoever doubts about Christ, let her first search the Scriptures, with her mind totally /r^^ from all views and dogmas and prejudices of other people.

This is what I am trying to do in telling you my idea of the origin of sin, and the reason that it is, and always has been, on this earth.

Christ tells his disciples that He saw Satan fall from Heaven like lightning. His words were : " I beheld Satan, as lightning, fall from heaven." Satan fneans Sin, To this earth Satan fell, broken to pieces. Having once been in Heaven there was within Satan the germ of the life which lives in Heaven — the spark that never dies. Satan, then, was reduced to nothing but the pulsating heart, which science tells us is the point to which they can trace back life on this earth — a pulsating heart on a muddy beach. This pulse of life, then, may have come to this earth in this way This pulse science traces back from man, through animals, plants, and other things. We can understand very well that this pulse can be traced up to mankind. We are, then, in the body direct descendants of Satan, and from him we get all sin and evil, and, besides, we get the spark of life which can not die, but which can, and which did grow stronger in mankind, until ** men began to call upon the name of God," and as the spark of life grew stronger, God breathed upon mankind and gave them their Souls — the Image of God — ** for God is a Spirit," said Christ (whose words I shall take for the authority of what I am writing) and no flesh and blood can be the Image of God. Nothing in which evil dwells can be the Image of God — nor did God ever create anything in which were sin and evil and call it good. The story of Adam and Eve is an allegory or symbol, and we are to hunt for its meaning. Adam and Eve were the race of mankind when life evolved to the state we now have, called mankind, and to whom God gave " living souls " — " and man became a living soul." The words " God breathed upon man," when man became a living soul, were used by the writer to make us understand the invisible nature of the soul, — the same as Christ said, " the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof but cannot tell from whence it cometh or whither it goes ; so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Also, when the apostles received the Spirit — or Holy Ghost — a aound like a mighty rushing wind filled the place. So we understand that the breath of God means the Spirit of God, — the Soul given to mankind.

Now, what was the sin of Satan ?

Eden means, in my mind, Heaven j ^^ Adam and Eve," the race of men and women banished from Heaven to this earth. The story says : " Banished from Eden " — Heaven. The tree of knowledge of good and evil, which they ate of, was the sin of creating : that is, they had a child after their own image. I do not believe that GodsdiiAy ^Mncrease and multiply and fill the earth," for this reason : God never commanded evil and sin to increase. All animal nature, in which there is power to increase and multiply, have in them, evil and sin. Search and see ! Can you find any living thing or being in which there is not sin and evil ? Do you think that God has told us to increase and multiply that sin and evil ? Eve y^di.^ punished in the story of the creation ; in this way : " In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children." And her first child was not born in Eden^ also he was a murderer and a liar. Christ said, *' Satan was from the beginning a murderer and a liar." Cain lied in his offering to God, and murdered his brother.

The punishment to Satan's descendants in the flesh is the necessity to increase and multiply in the

ORIGIN OF SIN.

flesh, as all flesh does, and will do to the end of the world (Only those who have strong souls can overcome the flesh). Christ has told ns that at the end of the world there will be marrying and giving in marriage. The curse of increasing sin remains to the end of the world and is only excused by Christ's blessing marriage at the marriage at Cana. He sanctified it by His presence and afterwards gave the limits which alone would receive His blessing. The limits you will find in what He says about divorce and marriage.

At the marriage in Cana, which Christ honored with His presence, He also showed the first sign of His power. The turning of water into wine has a deeper meaning than the mere fact of the water being made wine. All of Christ's miracles and words had a spiritual meaning, and those spiritual meanings it is our duty to search out. We may not be able fully to search out all the meaning, but as we have advanced in knowledge in other things so far beyond those who lived years ago, so should we advance in knowledge of spiritual things, and not remain exactly where they were in such knowledge.

The word of God is the word spoken by Christ, and also by the Prophets — such as the ten Commandments, which Christ confirmed. But, as I said before, it is Christ'$ \yords which I tak^ as my guide in these thoughts. Therefore, I think this water means baptism, the wine a new and stronger life. This marriage, then, was different from all marriages before it, for they were only carnal, the same as all animal life. As the weak water was turned to strong wine, so the weak human nature was turned to strong nature, and the marriage was raised on to a higher plane. Now I go back to the origin of sin. We have a way of calling this earth ^* God's world," yet ChrivSt said that the Prince of this world h^6. nothing in Him, that is, in Christ. This world is Satan's. When Christ was tempted by Satan, Satan showed him all the glories of this world, and said, " all these things will I give thee, for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will I give it.'' Therefore, this world is Satan's, the kingdoms and the glory of this world, and the power, all are Satan's, and the lie of Satan was in that he said he could create good the same as God. (Read the story of Adam and Eve.) Satan hid from God, for he had created evil — for look at the race he created, are we good or evil ? Satan was a murderer, for he created death — nothing on this earth lives, all things die. Satan could not create a Soul, he created nothing but sinful flesh. God gave us the Soul, This is the reason of the never ending battle between animal life in us and the >soli1 in us. The animal life we get from Satan, and it must die, God never made evil and sin. The soul is from God and can never die, it must conquer in the fight and overcome the animal in us, that is, overcome Satan,

Satan being once in heaven had within him the life \hdX cannot die J he was reduced on this earth after the fall to a living pulse of life. Science tells how slowly that pulse emerged through the lowest life up to mankind, and mankind slowly emerged from animal life only and animal inclinations, until it was fit for the growth or the life of the soul — that spark of life which lived in Satan and lives in his descendants, which we all are. When God breathed on mankind, the spark received life and became a living soul, and cannot die. Our bodies of flesh and blood we get from Satan ; hence the sin in us and in this world, hence the suffering in this world from which none are exempt, hence the power and triumph of evil and sin, the inclination to evil and sin, evil thoughts, which cease not to war against the soul so long as the soul is imprisoned in the flesh. And when mankind turned to God. for help in this struggle, in His great compassion for these struggling atoms of the life once in heaven, He sent to us His Son. Christ called Himself the Son of God in the same way that He used many earthly things to make plain His teachings to those who heard Him. HivS strong Spirit was the son of God. His body, like ours, being of mankind, was the son of mankind, yet without sin, being born only of a pure virgin. He was a pure, strong Spirit or Soul from God, sent, and willing to come and dwell in the body of flesh, to show to all mankind that the spirit within them was able to conquer the flesh if they took the way He showed them. He says, ^I am the way." Being in the flesh He was tempted by Satan the same as we are — for Wi^ flesh is Satan — but Christ conquered in the flesh all the temptations of the devil — for in that flesh dwelt the strong Spirit of God. He died as all flesh must and does die. I also believe that that flesh being so purified by the Strong Spirit of God, " saw not corruption," and so was not given to this earth and to the Prince of this earth, who is Satan. The sin of Satan, as I have said before, was the art of creating, expressed in the story of Adam and Eve, the serpent, and the fruit eaten. We are told no child was born in Eden, and sin and evil are always being created on this earth.

Christ often tells his disciples that He (Christ) is not of this earth. He tells them that they are from beneath (that is, of this earth), that He is from above, that is, from Heaven. Christ also tells some of His hearers that they are of their father the Devil He eveij says this to those who claim oRiaiN oi^ SIX. 21

Abraham as their father — that is, the chosen race of Jews. If these Jews, who were truly the chosen race, were descendants of the Devil, it was because they were only flesh and blood. Their souls had no power over their animal natures.

Now, a great many good people are shaken in their faith because, as they say, God permits sin to be on this earth. In a certain way they accuse God of the sin which has always been on this earth, and will be to the end of the world ; for this earth is Satan's — therefore the wicked prosper here, and the good suffer. God, in His great mercy and goodness, sent the willing Christ, the pure Spirit of God, to take the body of flesh and blood from a pure Virgin, and He was born in a stable^ which typifies the descent of mankind. And He lived the human life to show us the way back to Heaven, and to suffer for us in that flesh, and to tell us that it is only through what this world calls suffering, — that is, suffering to the flesh inherited from Satan, and which is the nature of flesh, — it is only in that way, that is the way Christ showed us, — only in that wa}^ can our souls, which are a spark from Heaven, ever return to Heaven.

COMMUNION OF CHRIST. THE PASSOVER.

Christ blessed the bread, broke it and gave it to His disciples, saying : '* Take, eat, this is my body."

22 ORIGIN O^ SIK.

And He took the cup, saying : ** Drink ye all of it, for this is my blood, shed for many, for the remission of sins. I will not drink of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." Christ kept the Passover, that feast which called to remembrance that God passed over the children of Israel when all the first-born died in Egypt— and at that feast He (Christ) changed the Passover to the Passover of our natural sins, that is, that all who believe in Christ and His death and ascension, who accept Christ as their leader, and by the help of the Spirit overcome or struggle to overcome their natural sins in the flesh, will be passed over for Christ's sake in the judgment to come. Those who obey and are faithful and true to the inward conscience, which is in all of us, will be judged with others, but will also he passed over, as the children of Israel were passed over by the angel of death in Egypt.

When Christ said the bread was His body and the wine His blood, I understand Him to mean, this human body, which could not live unless fed by bread and wine — or by food and w^ater — for it must eat and drink to live this earthly life. In this way He tells them that his earthly body will be broken and His blood shed, as a sacrifice for them. Christ means that He gives the life of the flesh-and-blood body, in which He then dwelt. That they must eat it, means that they must give the life of their body of flesh and blood for the life of the Spirit within them. They must rule the flesh by the Spirit, govern it as they would govern any thing outside of themselves. Christ said plainly to His disciples that it is the Spirit that quickeneth, meaning, gives life. The flesh profiteth nothing ; it is the Spirit within you that lives, your flesh like all flesh musf die. Therefore, what we call the Communion, is like the eating of the Passover ; we keep the feast, we eat the bread and wine by Christ's command, so as to remember the death of His earthly body, which was like our earthly body, and lived by food and drink. And He tells us He will drink the new wine in His Father's kingdom with us. The new wine means the new life, the life of the Spirit, which He sent to us by the Holy Spirit, which came to us after His death on this earth— and it means the True life in Heaven.

GENESIS. MY HUMBLE THOUGHTS THEREON.

Whoever wrote Genesis tells us that all things were made b}^ God. We are not to make a translation of Genesis into our language, " aux pied de la lettre^'* as it is said in French, which means we are not to understand a thing written, as understanding it at the foot of each letter. Who can find out

24 ^CKiaiK o^ sill.

God ? who then can understand all thing's which are made by God ?

The author of Genesis tells us of the suti and moon and stars^and he tells us they were made to rule the days and the nights oithts earth. This earth, in those days, Was thought to be larger than the sun, and the igun to move in truth as we see it move round the earth. The sun teaches us ^hsit faith is, or belief in a thing' contrary to what we see it to be. We do not see or feel the earth to revolve around the sun ; we see it to do just the reverse, but because we believe what others tell us, others in whom we trust, and trust without having ever seen them, or spoken to them, but whose books we have read. We believe that what we see is not so, but that the truth is the reverse. Why, then, do we not believe what Christ has told us in his book, the New Testament? Though we do not see the things w^hich He tells us and tells us that they are true, and we believe not because we see in our darkened minds the reverse of what is true. We trust to our earthly eyes and use not the eyes of our reasons or minds or souls.

Now Genesis says that God set these stars in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth. Were all these lights in the heavens only made for this earth ? I think not ; but you who read can think it out perhaps much better than I

ORIGIN ot sm* §5

Can. Do so and give the thoughts to the world. We need all the thoughts of those who are God's, if they fail in their efforts or no.

Genesis tells us that God gave to mankind — not yet called Ada?n—QYery herb, every fruit of trees yielding seed. '* To you it shall be for meat ; and to every beast of the earth, every fowl oi the air, and to every thing that creepeth wherein there is life^ I have given every green herb for meat."

Now here we read that man and beast, fowl and creeping things, have the same meat — that life is in them all. There seems to us no difference made between them and mankind until mankind received a soul by the breath of God, and became in soul the image of God. Then God said to mankind: '''Subdue the earth, and have dominion over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." These living things on this earth are the descendants of Satan j also our earthly living bodies ; and our Souls from God are to subdue and have dominion over our bodies and all earthly living things.

Genesis tells us of the seventh day being a day in which God rested. This- idea of God's resting, and the possibility that God needed rest, shows very clearly that there was no idea in the writer's mind of a Spiritual God — it was a God made in all respects as a human man needing rest. The setting of a time

26 omam of sm.

as the morning and evening, the first or seventh day, is the same mistake. We know that all created things work or grow by the set rules of God. How then did God need resf? Rest is of this earth ; there can be no need of rest in Heaven. We have in Revelations iv, that the four beasts before the throne ^^ resf not day and night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come."

He who wrote Genesis could not make others understand about the Sabbath but by so writing Christ tells us the Sabbath, was made for man ; not man for the Sabbath. Christ understood mankind. Unless we keep one day in seven to think of and pray to God, we will forget Him ; in our rush after earthly things we would neglect our Souls. " God is a Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth." Earthly things so needed for our earthly bodies are not Spiritual things. Genesis says : ** These are the generations of the earth, when they were created" — every plant, every herb. I think this is the generations of the earth, first a plant or herb, then animals. The plant grew from "the dust of the ground." We are told that '* God formed man of the dust of the ground," before He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life which caused man to become a living soul.