The first iniquitous manifestation of sin was a
finity. The finite was self-arrayed against the infinite, the mortal
against immortality, and a sinner was the antipode of God.
Silencing self, _alias_ rising above corporeal personality, is what reforms
the sinner and destroys sin. In the ratio that the testimony of material
personal sense ceases, sin diminishes, until the false claim called sin is
finally lost for lack of witness.
The sinner created neither himself nor sin, but sin created the sinner;
that is, error made its man mortal, and this mortal was the image and
likeness of evil, not of good. Therefore the lie was, and _is_, collective
as well as individual. It was in no way contingent on Adam's thought, but
supposititiously self-created. In the words of our Master, it, the "devil"
(_alias_ evil), "was a liar, and the father of it."
This mortal material concept was never a creator, although as a serpent it
claimed to originate in the name of "the Lord," or good,--original evil;
second, in the name of human concept, it claimed to beget the offspring of
evil, _alias_ an evil offspring. However, the human concept never was,
neither indeed can be, the father of man. Even the spiritual idea, or ideal
man, is not a parent, though he reflects the infinity of good. The great
difference between these opposites is, that the human material concept is
_unreal_, and the divine concept or idea is spiritually real.
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