a product of matter is absurd. Common medical theories would have two intelligences, one mental, the other material. They would put Mind into matter. They would enclose the larger within the smaller, and call that error a man.
In old Scriptural pictures we see the Tree of Knowledge with a Serpent coiled around it, with uplifted crest, speaking to Adam and Eve. This represents the Serpent in the act of commending to our first parents the knowledge of good and evil, a knowledge gained from matter instead of Spirit. The portrayal is still graphically accurate, for the common conception of manhood is an outgrowth of human knowledge on a low plane, the offshoot of the material senses.
A lie is the only Satan there is, as results prove. All the discords of earth are lies, and falsehood cannot proceed from Truth. In and of itself discord is a falsity. It does not represent the fact relative to God or man. Uncover error, and it turns the lie on you, if possible.
Until the fact concerning error — namely, its nothingness — appears, the moral demand will not be met, and the ability to make nothing of error will be wanting. The discovery that error is nothing will introduce new light. It will diminish sickness and death, and finally extinguish them. Philosophers should blush to call that real which is but a mistake.
The broadest fact arrays the most falsities against itself, for it brings error out from under cover. It requires courage to utter Truth; for the higher Truth lifts her voice, the louder will error scream, until its inarticulate sound is forever silenced, smothered in oblivion.
