Consciousness, where art thou?

Wed., 9/28/16 readings, 2nd Church, Berkeley
KJV Gen. 1:1-3, 26, 31 (to 1st .)
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.
KJV Gen. 2:1, 7, 18, 19, 21, 22, 25
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. 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 whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 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; 22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Gen. 3:1-7 (to ;), 8-13, 17, 23

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which
the Lord God had made.
And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree
of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the
fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in
the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall
ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not
surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your
eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And
when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that
it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to
make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and
gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them
both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; … And
they heard the voice of the Lord God
walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid
themselves from the presence of the Lord God
amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him,
Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the
garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid
myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked?
Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not
eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with
me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman,
What is this that thou hast done? And the
woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. … And unto Adam
he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten
of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it:
cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou
eat of it all the days of thy life;

Therefore the Lord God
sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was
taken.


KJV 307:31
Above error’s awful din, blackness, and chaos, the voice
of Truth still calls: “Adam, where art thou? Conscious-
ness, where art thou? Art thou dwelling in the belief
that mind is in matter, and that evil is mind, or art thou
in the living faith that there is and can be but
one God, and keeping His commandment?”
Until the lesson is learned that God is the only Mind gov-
erning man, mortal belief will be afraid as it was in the
beginning, and will hide from the demand, “Where art
thou?” This awful demand, “Adam, where art thou?”
is met by the admission from the head, heart, stomach,
blood, nerves, etc.: “Lo, here I am, looking for happiness
and life in the body, but finding only an illusion, a blend-
ing of false claims, false pleasure, pain, sin, sickness, and
death.
KJV 306:32-13
The parent of all human discord was the Adam-dream,
the deep sleep, in which originated the delusion that life
and intelligence proceeded from and passed into matter.
This pantheistic error, or so-called serpent, in-
sists still upon the opposite of Truth, saying,
“Ye shall be as gods;” that is, I will make error as real
and eternal as Truth.
Evil still affirms itself to be mind, and declares that
there is more than one intelligence or God. It says:
“There shall be lords and gods many. I declare that God
makes evil minds and evil spirits, and that I aid Him.
Truth shall change sides and be unlike Spirit. I will
put spirit into what I call matter, and matter shall seem
to have life as much as God, Spirit, who is the only life.
KJV 537:19-21
No one can reasonably doubt that the purpose of this
allegory – this second account in Genesis – is to depict
the falsity of error and the effects of error.
KJV 537:10-13, 16
In the first chapter of Genesis, evil
has no local habitation nor name. Crea-
tion is there represented as spiritual, entire,
and good.
Error tills its own barren soil and buries
itself in the ground, since ground and dust stand for
nothingness.
KJV 532:13-4
9, 10. And the Lord God [Jehovah] called
unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he
said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid,
because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Knowledge and pleasure, evolved through material
sense, produced the immediate fruits of fear and shame.
Ashamed before Truth, error shrank abashed
from the divine voice calling out to the cor-
poreal senses. Its summons may be thus paraphrased:
“Where art thou, man? Is Mind in matter? Is Mind
capable of error as well as of truth, of evil as well as of
good, when God is All and He is Mind and there is but
one God, hence one Mind?”
Fear was the first manifestation of the error of mate-
rial sense. Thus error began and will end the dream of
matter, In the allegory the body had been
naked, and Adam knew it not; but now error
demands that mind shall see and feel through matter, the
five senses. The first impression material man had of
himself was one of nakedness and shame. Had he lost
man’s rich inheritance and God’s behest, dominion over
all the earth? No! This had never been bestowed on
Adam.
KJV 542:19-21
Let Truth uncover and destroy error in God’s
own way, and let human justice pattern the
divine.
KJV 520:26-30
Mor-
tal thought drops into the ground, but the immortal creat-
ing thought is from above, not from beneath. Because
Mind makes all, there is nothing left to be made by a
lower power.
KJV 591:5
MAN. The compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spirit-
ual image and likeness of God; the full representation of
Mind.
KJV 517:30-4 (to 1st .)
Divine Love blesses its own ideas, and causes them to
multiply, – to manifest His power. Man is not made
to till the soil. His birthright is dominion, not sub-
jection. He is lord of the belief in earth
and heaven, – himself subordinate alone to
his Maker.




Gen. 1:1-3, 26, 31 (to 1st .)
Gen. 2:1, 7, 18, 19, 21, 22, 25
Gen. 3:1-7 (to ;), 8-13, 17, 23
SH 307:31
SH 306:32-13
SH 537:19-21
SH 537:10-13, 16
SH 532:13-4
SH 542:19-21
SH 520:26-30
SH 591:5
SH 517:30-4 (to 1st .)

443 Home is the consciousness of good
215 O happy is the man who hears
457 Take my life, and let it be

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