SCIENCE AND HEALTH
First Edition
BY
MARY BAKER GLOVER.
BOSTON:
CHRISTIAN SCIENTIST PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1875.
Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1875, by
MARY BAKER GLOVER,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington
CHAPTER I -
NATURAL SCIENCE.
CHAPTER II - IMPOSITION AND DEMONSTRATION.
CHAPTER III
- SPIRIT AND MATTER.
CHAPTER V -
PRAYER AND ATONEMENT.
CHAPTER VI - MARRIAGE.
CHAPTER VII - PHYSIOLOGY.
CHAPTER VIII - HEALING THE SICK.
PREFACE.
Leaning on the sustaining Infinite with loving trust, the trials of to-day are
brief, and to-morrow is big with blessings. The wakeful shepherd tending his
flocks, beholds from the mountain's top the first faint morning beam ere cometh
the risen day. So from Soul's loftier summits shines the pale star to the
prophet shepherd, and it traverses night, over to where the young child lies in
cradled obscurity that shall waken a world. Over the night of error dawn the
morning beams and guiding star of Truth, and the wise men are led by it to
Science, to that which repeats the eternal harmony reproduced in proof of
immortality and God. The time for thinkers has come; and the time for
revolutions, ecclesiastic and social, must come. Truth, independent of
doctrines or time-honored systems, stands at the threshold of history.
Contentment with the past, or the cold conventionality of custom, may no longer
shut the door on science; though empires fall, "He whose right it is shall
reign." Ignorance of God should no longer be the stepping-stone to faith;
understanding Him "whom to know aright is Life" is the only guaranty
of obedience.
Since the hoary centuries but faintly shadow forth the tireless Intelligence at
work for man, this volume
4
may not open at once a new thought, and make it familiar it has the task of a
pioneer to hack away at the tall oak and cut the rough granite, leaving future
ages to declare what has been done. We made our first discovery that science
mentally applied would heal the sick, in 1864, and since then have tested it on
ourselves and hundreds of others, and never found it fail to prove the
statement herein made of it. The science of man alone can make him harmonious,
unfold his utmost possibilities, and establish the perfection of man. To admit
God the Principle of all being, and live in accordance with this Principle, is
the Science of Life, but to reproduce the harmony of being, errors of personal
sense must be destroyed, even as the science of music, must correct tones
caught from the ear, to give the sweet concord of sound. There are many
theories of physic, and theology; and many calls in each of their directions
for the right way; but we propose to settle the question of "What is
Truth?" on the ground of proof. Let that method of healing the sick and
establishing Christianity, be adopted, that is found to give the most health,
and make the best Christians, and you will then give science a fair field; in
which case we are assured of its triumph over all opinions and beliefs.
Sickness and sin have ever had their doctors, but the question is, have they
become less because of them? The longevity of our antediluvians, would say, no!
and the criminal records of to-day utter their voices little in favor of such a
conclusion. Not that we would deny to Caesar the things that are his, but that
we ask for the things that are Truth's, and safely affirm, from the
demonstrations we have been able to make, that science would
5
have eradicated sin, sickness, and death, in a less period than six thousand
years. We find great difficulties in starting this work right: some shockingly
false claims are already made to its practice; mesmerism (its very antipode),
is one. Hitherto we have never in a single instance of our discovery or
practice found the slightest resemblance between mesmerism and the science of
Life. No especial idiosyncrasy is requisite for a learner; although spiritual
sense is more adapted to it than even the intellect; and those who would learn
this science without a high moral standard will fail to understand it until they
go up higher. Owing to our explanations constantly vibrating between the same
points an irksome repetition of words must occur; also, the use of capital
letters, genders and technicalities peculiar to the science, variety of
language, or beauty of diction, must give place to close analysis, and
unembellished thought. "Hoping all things, enduring all things:" to
do good to the upright in heart, and to bless them that curse us, and bear to
the sorrowing and the sick consolation and healing, we commit these pages to
posterity.
MARY BAKER GLOVER.
A few
years since we clipped the following from the reports on Science:
"At
the University at Oxford, a prize of one hundred pounds was offered for the
best Essay on Natural Science, to refute the materialism of the present age, or
the tendency to attribute physical effects to physical causes, rather than to a
final spiritual cause." This demand for metaphysics coming from the very
fount of erudition meets the wants of the age, and is the one question towering
above all others, insomuch as it relates more intimately to the happiness and
perfection of man. The control mind holds over matter becomes no longer a
question when with mathematical certainty we gain its proof, and can
demonstrate the facts assumed. This proof we claim to have gained, and reduced
to its statement in science that furnishes a key to the harmony of man, and
reveals what destroys sickness, sin, and death.
Metaphysical
science explains cause and effect; removing the veil of mystery and doubt, from
Soul and body, and from man and God; it unwinds the interlaced ambiguities of
Spirit and matter, and sets free the imprisoned Intelligence; explains the
phenomenon man,
10
on the
basis of his Principle, and how to gain his harmony in science, which seems to
us more important morally and physically than the discovery of the powers of
steam, the electric telegraph, or any other advanced idea that science has
revealed. Views taken on trust cause conflicting opinions and beliefs that emit
a poisonous atmosphere of mind more destructive to the harmony of body than the
miasma of matter. Understanding cools and purifies this atmosphere, and thus
invigorates the body; but before this result is obtained, understanding and
belief, or Truth and error must meet in a war of ideas, and the thunderbolt of
public opinion burst overhead; but when this outburst of opinion is spent of
its fury, like the rain-drops on the earth it will have moistened the parched
thought, whereby the rich buds and blossoms that come from the tree of Life may
put forth new beauty.
Because
Christendom may resist the word science, we shall lose no faith in
Christianity, and because we shall apply this word to Truth, Christianity will
lose no hold on us. We shall let the Principle of things alone interpret them,
and never take an opinion or belief to steady the altar of science. The
Principle of the universe and man embraces the understanding, and explanation
of Soul and body, and is the basis of all science; but opinions and beliefs
regarding God and man, or Soul and body, are the foundations of all error.
There is no physical science, the Principle of science is God, Intelligence,
and not matter; therefore, science is spiritual, for God is Spirit and the
Principle of the universe and man.
We learn
from science mind is universal, the first
11
and only
cause of all that really is; also, that the real and unreal constitute what is,
and what is not; that the real is Spirit, which is immortality, and the unreal
matter, or mortality. The real is Truth, Life, Love and Intelligence, all of
which are Spirit, and Spirit is God, and God, Soul, the Principle of the
universe and man. Spirit is the only immortal basis. Matter is mortality; it
has no Principle, but is change and decay, embracing what we term sickness,
sin, and death. God is not the author of these, hence Spirit is not the author
of matter; discords are the unreal that make up the opposite to harmony, or the
real that emanates Truth and not error. Spirit never requires matter to aid it,
or through which to act; no partnership or fellowship exists between them;
matter cannot co-operate with Spirit, the mortal and unreal with the real and
eternal, the mutable and imperfect with the immutable and perfect, the
inharmonious and self-destroying with the harmonious and undying. Spirit is
Truth, matter its opposite; viz., error; and these two forces control man and
the universe, and are the tares and wheat that never mingle, but grow side by
side until the harvest, until matter is self-destroyed; for not until then do
we learn ourselves Spirit, and yield up the ghost of error, that would make
substance. Life and Intelligence, matter. God and His idea are all that is real
primitively; all is mind, and mind produces mind only, nature, reason and
revelation decide, that like produces like; matter does not produce mind, nor, vice versa.
We name matter, error, it being a false claim to Life and Intelligence, that
returns to dust ignored by Spirit, that is supreme over all, and knows nothing
of matter.
12
Natural
history presents the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms preserving their
original species in reproduction; a mineral is not produced by a vegetable, and
vice versa; throughout the entire round of universal nature, this rule relating
to genus and species holds good; this therefore is science. But error claims
the very opposite, viz., that Spirit produces matter; making Spirit, or God,
the author of evil as well as good, and harmony the author of discord, evil
presenting as much of God as good, which contradicts self-evident Truth. In the
science of being we learn all discord, such as sickness, sin or death, is
distinct from Spirit, and not produced by God; also, that God is the Soul, or
Principle of man, the Truth, unerring and eternal; again, that matter claiming
mind, or making itself the basis of mind, is error, and this error, the
so-called intelligent body named man, with intelligent nerves, brain, stomach,
and so forth. The only reality of being is the Truth of it, and that Life and
Intelligence are in matter, is not Truth but its opposite, error; therefore,
illusion. Mind and matter are opposites; that mind is in matter, or that matter
is the medium through which mind is made manifest is not more real than that a
tree embraces a rock in the heart of it, and is the natural medium through
which the rock grows, and is identified. Nature and revelation afford no
grounds for the belief that Spirit, God, created, or is in a body of sickness,
sin, and death, and the only excuse for such a belief is, that the falsity of
this opinion of Life is not seen until we begin to learn the science of Life,
and enter into our God-being, wherein we learn that Spirit and matter no more
commingle, than light and darkness,
13
than God
and His opposite, called devil, which reduced to their statement in science,
are Truth and error; in other words, Spirit and matter, forever distinct, one
possessing immortality, the other mortality. Said the Apostle, "The flesh
warreth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh."
Mind, the
basis of all things, cannot cross its species, and produce matter. But in order
to classify mind that is real, from belief or the unreal, we name one mind, and
the other matter; but recollect matter is but a belief, and mind the only
reality. Error can only be defined as belief, which is not mind but illusion.
The belief, that Life, Substance, and Intelligence are where and what they are
not, is error. Spirit is the understanding and possession of Truth, Life and
Intelligence. Belief and understanding never mingle, more than matter and
Spirit; one is error, the other Truth. All discord is what we term matter, and
discord is mortal, nothingness; harmony is real and immortal, for it belongs to
Spirit, is produced by it and proceeds from it. Immortal mind is Spirit, an
utterance of Soul proceeding from harmony and immortality. The mind, that we
name matter, is the so-called mind of the body, and what is termed sinful and
mortal man; but this man is a myth, neither mind nor matter, but a belief that
embraces all error. God, Truth, never produced error; Soul and Intelligence
never originated inharmony; and at some future data we shall learn all that is
mortal or discordant bath no origin, existence or reality, but is the absence
of the real; yea, native nothingness, the chaos and night out of which error
would simulate the creations of Truth, from dust instead of Deity. Error
14
pre-supposes
man both mind and matter, but this is not the science of being, but science
disputing personal sense beards so relentlessly our belief, we naturally ask
what are we, and what is man? We are Spirit, Soul, and not body, and all is
good that is Spirit; God and the idea of God are real, and nothing else is
real. Harmony and its results are real, but discord and what comes of it are
the unreal. It were well to begin from this hour, as you read these pages, to
reckon Life only in what is good and true; putting aside evil as unreal, not
the offspring of God, and unworthy to be named man, him whom Spirit produces "the
image and likeness of God," but whom matter claims to create in sin.
Admitting
error, produces it; but who or what is it that admits error? Not God, Spirit,
for error is not the result of Intelligence; error is a self-admission, and
admission of self-hood where man is not, and this is all there is to it;
admitting a temptation is the only danger in it. To believe in the possibility
of pleasurable sin, makes all that is sin; say then to the whole liturgy of
intelligent matter, as Jesus said, "You were a liar from the
beginning."
Mind is
Spirit, outside of matter, and this is the only mind or understanding; the mind
called brains, or matter, is belief only; hence, the more material man is the
stronger belief, and the weaker manifestation of Soul, or understanding. Belief
is what we term personal sense, and personal sense is a belief. That matter is
intelligent, that nerves feel, brains think, and sin, that a stomach makes man
cross, limbs cripple him, and matter kills him, is a belief, and this belief, error,
opposed to the Truth of being. Sin, sickness and death proceed
15
from the
so-called five personal senses that we are taught to revere and cultivate, but
which Truth at length destroys, through age, experience or spiritual growth,
and in place of sentient bodies, we find sensationless bodies, and immortal
Soul, as the recognition of being harmonious and eternal. The body mortal is
not man, for man is immortal; but with sensation in the body he is not
immortal, and cannot be Spirit, which is Soul,
To admit
physical effects is to conclude matter cause and effect, whence it follows
there are two causes, viz., mind and matter, else that mind produces matter, or
matter produces mind, which contradicts the science of Life in its
demonstration, and is like saying dust originated man, and a serpent a dove.
Soul is Intelligence, but the so-called mind of body is belief only, the
limited and mortal that embraces not the boundless and eternal, for such is
Intelligence. Hence we learn that Soul, therefore Spirit, which is God, is not
in man, and that man is idea, and Soul the Principle, Life, substance and
Intelligence of man.
Having
drawn the line between immortal man, or the reality of being, and the unreal or
mortal, that is but a personal recognizance of Life, God, which is impossible,
we also learn that pain or pleasure in matter is equally impossible. Things, as
they appear from the stand-point of personal sense, are diametrically opposite
to science, or immortal man seen from the standpoint of Soul; hence the difficulty
sensuous man has to understand this science, and his opposition to it, for
"the carnal man is at enmity with God." Mortal man and personal sense
are not mind but belief; mind is
16
understanding,
belief is ignorance, even the error that Truth consigns to oblivion.
What is
deemed Life in vegetable and animal becomes a self-evident falsehood, when all
that is left of it is death. The science of being alone reveals Life or
Principle, that reverses every position of personal sense; showing, also that sickness,
sin and death disappear with the understanding of being and our real existence,
for in this alone are we harmonious, sinless, and eternal.
Will man
lose his identity in conscious infinitude of being? It is impossible that he
should lose aught that tends to his completeness, in a state through which he
gains all; matter, embracing sickness, sin and death, is all that will ever be
lost. Life is not structural and organic, for Life is Spirit, Soul, and not
sense, and without beginning and without end. Life is Principle, and not
person; joy and not sorrow; holiness, not sin, and harmony, without a tone of
discord. In science we learn there is but one God, also that God is Spirit;
hence there is but one Spirit, for there is not an evil God. To gain the harmony
of being, and be perfect even as the Father, God must be understood, which
means, the Principle of man must be understood; believing in God never made a
Christian.
The only
immortal basis of man is Soul; hence the importance to plant one's self on the
basis of being, and work from this to gain our ultimate harmony. Soul and not
sense reveals the glorious possibilities of man, even the circumference of his
being unlimited by a belief of Life in matter; getting out of material
nutshells we get out of error, whereby we learn the last shall be
17
first, and
the first last; that which was first in matter will be last, alias, nothing in
Spirit. Science puts not new wine into old bottles; we cannot adhere to a
belief regarding a subject, and at the same time grasp the Truth of it; we must
yield the old, or the new is spilled.
Doctrines
and opinions based on a personal God are nothing more or less than beliefs of
intelligent matter, that we must yield, or spill the inspiration and wine of
Truth that enables man to demonstrate Life higher, and to reach practical
Christianity that casts out devils and heals the sick.
We will
now consider more minutely the Principle, or Soul of man, named God; learn what
it is, and how man is harmonious and immortal. The Scriptures inform us,
"God is Love," "Truth and Life," and these certainly imply
He is Principle, not person. Again, Principle explains person, but person
cannot explain Principle. God interprets man, but man cannot explain God,
Spirit explains matter, but matter cannot define Spirit, Soul explains body,
but body cannot interpret Soul. We must commence with God to explain immortal
man, remembering God is Spirit, and Spirit the only substance, because it is
Intelligence; holding the earth in equipoise, marking out the pathway of the
stars, forming the minutia of identity, and comprehending the universe and man
in the harmony of being. Spirit believes nothing, because it understands all,
and is Life, not subject to death because it is exempt from matter.
It is mind
alone that embraces sensation, therefore, the senses are Spirit and not matter,
and belong to Soul
18
instead of
body; they are not personal but Spiritual; Intelligence passes from mind to
body, that is, from Principle to its idea, but cannot pass from body to mind,
for matter is neither cognizant of evil or good; of pain or pleasure. Soul is
not in body, it is the unlimited Intelligence, impossible to limit, and the
immortality that mingles not with mortality; as light and darkness are
opposites, so are Spirit and matter, without the least affinity; light dwelling
in darkness would destroy the darkness; thus would the sinless and immortal
destroy the sinning and mortal; but darkness extinguishes not light, and matter
cannot destroy Spirit, body cannot destroy Soul, but Soul can and does destroy
matter. Man is not matter, brains are not Intelligence, they are not the organ
of the infinite. Life and Intelligence are not in matter, nor do they act by
means of organization; matter is a creation of belief, a chimera of personal
sense that reverses science, as we shall hereafter show.
Idea is
inseparable from its Principle; man is idea, and Soul the Principle that
produces it, therefore man and his maker are inseparable. Opinions and beliefs
have no Principle, they are erring and mortal, neither expressing God nor
immortal man; but the offspring of personal sense, embracing sin, sickness and
death, yes, the dream of Life in matter. Materia medica, physiology, mesmerism,
etc., are opinions and beliefs, predicated on intelligent matter, which is
error; and the discord and doubt attending them are owing to the false position
they occupy. Ideas, like numbers and notes, admit no opinions or beliefs
regarding them, when once their Principle is understood; beliefs are theories
that change, and are falsely stated, because they are not un-
19
derstood.
The identity of every idea is in its Principle where it is learned; immortal
man is harmonious and eternal; matter is the offspring of mortal belief; Soul
or understanding, has no part in it.
Philosophy
in general, finds cause in effect, Soul in body, Principle in idea, and Life
and Intelligence in matter. Materia medica seeking cause in effect, would learn
of matter what are the conditions of man, examining the liver, heart, lungs,
etc., to ascertain how much harmony they are permitting man; thus admitting
matter instead of mind, causation, and producing Life or death, pain or
pleasure, action or stagnation, without the mind's consent; this would place
man and God, or body and Soul, at the disposal and control of matter.
Physiology finds mind unequal to matter, cause not master of effect, the
so-called laws of nature failing in their fulfillment to give health to man;
making the Infinite insufficient to govern the finite, Principle not
controlling its idea, and the Intelligence, or Soul of man, unable to govern
the body. To prevent disease, or the effects of damp atmospheres, violent
exertions, a heavy meal, etc., destroying man; we say, laws of matter are our
only hope, leaving Spirit powerless.
Mesmerism,
placing Life and Intelligence in electricity, finds matter superior to God, and
the governing Principle of man, an aura of brains, the lack or excess, quality
or quantity of which, determines his discord or harmony.
Theology
would make the supreme Being a person, in other words, matter embracing Spirit;
God dwelling in man, Life in the things it creates, cause in effect, Soul in
body, the infinite and limitless, within limits.
20
With this
theory, to be omnipresent, God must paw in personal identity over earth; or
possess a body that encompasseth universal space; in which ewe, what would be
the personality of God? Spirit is not matter; nor is it both within and without
matter; if such were the case, they would be one in substance and Intelligence,
else limited to the range of personal sense, or personal sense raised to the
capacity of omnipresence, which is again impossible. Our beliefs of a personal
Deity place infinite Life and Love within the stature of a man; make man God,
or put God into matter, which is atheism. Error is the basis of all belief; we
need, instead, the true idea, based on the understanding of God the impersonal
Principle, Truth, and Life of man, which is not body, but Soul.
The artist
is not in his painting; the picture is a thought of his, an emanation of
Spirit, not matter; the Creator is not what he creates. The potter is not in
the clay, but has power over the clay; God produces his own personality, and
cannot get into it, because it is in Him the circumference and infinite Soul
outside of matter and man. The five personal senses are beliefs of Life,
substance, and Intelligence in matter, even the fount of error; all discord
proceeds from this false source; in reality, there is no personal sense, for
matter is not intelligent. The line of demarkation between the Principle that
is Intelligence and Life, and the belief of Life and Intelligence in person, is
the boundary between belief and science, otherwise, between error and truth.
Science contradicts personal sense in every instance, as we shall hereafter
show. Understanding is the only admissible evidence of Truth; con-
21
clusions
drawn from personal sense are foundationless; understanding is a portion of the
infinite Principle embracing every idea of Truth. Belief has no Principle; it
is a mortal and finite sense of things called knowledge, a lie of limits that
would place Soul in body, Life and Intelligence in matter to evolve matter, and
call this germination, or nature, seed reproducing itself; not only denying to
God the things that are His, but limiting the Infinite, and thinking to fasten
Wisdom to discord and decay.
To learn
the Truth of things, they must be explained from the basis of Soul, and not
sense; personal sense is knowledge, obtained from opinions and beliefs. When
our interpretations proceed from the Principle of things, we have them right;
but if from observation, or the deductions of personal sense, they are wrong,
and beliefs based on the supposition of Life and Intelligence in matter, that
are error.
Impressions
supposed to proceed from the hearing of the ear, the observations of the eye,
from touch, taste, or smell, are these beliefs, but not the ideas of God. Every
idea proceeds from Principle, gained through understanding, whereby we arrive at
demonstrable Truth. Belief constitutes mistakes, understanding never errs,
hence it is necessary to the harmony of mind and body. Inasmuch as belief
starts from person, instead of Principle, it is not the Truth of being, but the
error called mortal man.
Knowledge
is power, even the force that depends on organizations for strength, it is
neither moral suasion, moral might, idea, nor Principle; but a faith,
supposition, or belief. Repulsion, attraction, cohesion, and
22
power
supposed to belong to matter, are constituents of mind; knowledge gives these
properties to matter, but science gives them to Intelligence, the Principle of
all; to find inherent properties in matter that act independent of mind is
impossible. There is no inertia in Intelligence; but science alone determines
whence cometh action, from its harmonious Principle, i. e., from Soul to body,
or from belief prolific of error.
Science
reveals all action proceeding from God, the universal cause that produces
harmony only; and that discord, sickness, sin, and death, are neither action,
nor being, but beliefs, or error. The absence of Truth, we name error, but
whence cometh error, from God? No; "the same fountain sendeth not forth
sweet and bitter water." Error is not an idea, it has neither Principle,
nor identity; it is not definable as a person, place, or thing; as an agent, or
actor; and being without substance, Life, or Intelligence, and neither
Principle nor identity, we learn it came not! but is illusion. Again, what is
belief? Nothing real or true, and to understand this is the only fact
concerning it. Sickness, sin, and death, all that is the opposite and absence
of God, is belief and error presupposing good and evil in matter and man. But
is the question answered, whence cometh belief? It has no origin, it is neither
Principle nor idea; but illusion, without any real cause or creation.
We say
disease is a reality, and identity, but science finds it a belief only;
disappearing with mortality, and cognizant only to personal sense; not to Soul.
"God made all that was made;" there is but one Principle and its
infinite idea; harmony and immortality that belong to man, are perceived
through spiritual sense, but
23
not
personal. Belief has no Intelligence, having neither Principle nor
understanding, therefore it is error, and error is the so-called mind of mortal
man! totally depraved, sinning, suffering, and dying; this is the absence of
God. Man has no mind in matter; the belief that he has, is error. There is but
one Intelligence, even God, the infinite Love, Truth, and Life; and God is not
man. Matter is not intelligent; brains are not mind; and man is not Soul, a
separate God or Intelligence. Jesus laid much stress on this point: "Thou
shall have no other gods before Me;" while we daily behold in belief the
zeal of error to gain the opposite point, viz.: "I will make ye as
gods."
Science
informs us immortal mind is Spirit; but personal sense would have mind both
Spirit and matter; a moral impossibility. Spirit cannot act through matter,
they are diametrically opposed to each other, and never mingle; personal sense
is the only foundation for the theory that Spirit and matter mingle, and time
and eternity are wearing away this support. Mind is not confined to
organization, nor limited by materiality.
Immortal
mind is the atmosphere of Soul pervading all space; and regarding even
"the sparrow's fall;" no power can compress it within a skull-bone!
matter confines it not, the strongest barrier opposed to Intelligence is as
nothing; the only clog, or limit given mind, is mortal belief, error's synonym;
understanding constructs not, and has no cognizance of limits; it is finite
belief that would limit mind; and there is no finite Intelligence. There is
finite error, that pre-supposes mind in matter; but this is the evil and not
the good, the belief and not the reality; yea, the error, and not the Truth of
man.
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Spiritual
sense belongs to Soul, and is the only real sense; it takes no cognizance of
substance in matter, of suffering, sin, or death; Spiritual sense recognizes
all that is Truth, Life, and Love; hence there is nothing left personal sense
to enjoy or suffer. Personal sense is the dream of Life in matter, a
supposition only of reality and substance, of Life and Intelligence, of good
and evil, that would limit Soul, and doom all things to decay. Sensation in
matter is one of its beliefs, and belief is the opinion, personal, that
supports only what is untrue, selfish, or debased; all these mistakes are but
the error we name mortal man. God and man will never be understood, until we
listen alone to the senses attached to Principle instead of person, to Soul
instead of body.
Personal
sense being error, all evidence obtained therefrom is belief without Principle,
or immortal proof. Spiritual, in contradistinction to personal sense, reveals
man idea; not substance; his Life and Intelligence, God, in other words, Soul,
and not body; and thus secure from chance and change be is harmonious and
eternal. The demonstration of this statement will destroy sickness, sin and
death, and because of this, it is important to understand at present as well as
hereafter, the great Truth which must displace the opposite error that brought
sin and death into the world, shutting out the pure sense of immortality; and
which ought to be learned to-day.
God is,
and was, and ever will be; and if this Intelligence exists, there is also the
idea of it, named man, that cannot be separated for a single moment from this,
its principle and Soul. We look on a corpse, or the
25
body
called man, but is it man? No! Is Soul in it? certainly not; has Soul escaped?
No! where was the outside, infinite Spirit, if Spirit was in man? Can Soul be
lost? impossible, for the immortal is without end; and Soul is Spirit, and
Spirit, God. Is man lost? not if Soul be left! for Soul is Principle, and man
its idea, and these forever inseparable; God would be lost, if man was blotted
out, for entity signifies the particular nature of being; and God, without the
idea, image, and likeness of Himself, would be a nonentity! Man is the complex
idea of God, hence, they cannot be separated.
Contemplating
a corpse, we behold the going out of a belief; we have been accustomed to this
belief of mind in matter, but not the Truth of man, whose Soul is God and his
body the harmonious idea of Him. The belief of Life in matter is all that dies.
The Principle, Soul, and Life of man, is not in the body, and cannot die. When
Paul's optical sense yielded to science, the vision of Soul, he realized
nothing could separate him from God; understanding as he did that the real man
is never separated from the sweet sense and presence of Life and Love.
A sick man
is not a sinner above all others; and yet he is not the idea of God; weary of
matter that claims so much suffering, the sick become more spiritually
inclined, inasmuch as the belief of Life in matter begins to give up its
ghosts; all error must finally yield to the Truth of man.
A wicked
man is not an idea of God; he is nothing more than the belief that hatred,
malice, pride, envy, hypocrisy, etc., are coupled with Life, God! but Life,
26
Love, and
Truth, never made a sick man, nor a sinner! the same fountain sendeth not forth
sweet and bitter water. Life and its idea, are neither sick, nor sinning, but
eternal and harmonious; never mingling with mortal man. The Scripture saith
mortal man "is conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity;" his
origin is error, then, is it not? and this error the belief that man is an
Intelligence, and creator, after "all was made that was made!" If all
that worketh a lie is ultimately destroyed, this man must perish.
The understanding of Truth, and its demonstration, is eternal Life; a belief
can never attain this. Contradicting all accepted theories on this subject, and
diametrically opposing the evidences of personal sense, science comes
"laying the axe at the root of the tree," and cutting down all that
brings not forth good fruit; thence healing the sick, and casting out error.
There is no escape from sin, sickness, and death, except on the Principle that
God is the only Life and Intelligence of man. So long as we admit Life,
sensation, and Intelligence in matter, man will be governed by his body, and at
the mercy of death, sickness, and sin.
Harmony is
not at the mercy of matter; nor happiness at the disposal of sense; nor Life at
the command of death. Do you ask what proof have you there is no sensation in
matter, or in other words, no personal sense? We have tested this statement in
healing the sick sufficiently to find its Principle invariable. Our position is
taken from proofs obtained through our own demonstration; and allowing their
Principle to point higher, and acknowledging the relationship between the lower
and higher demonstrations with the same logic,
27
we say,
three and three trillions are six trillions; in that we prove with smaller
numbers that three added to three, make six. Because we believe sensation is
nerves, it by no means proves this to be the case; the inebriate believes he
finds pleasure in alcoholic drinks, and the sinner in sin. The thief believes
he has made a gain in stealing; and the hypocrite in hiding himself; but the
science of Life contradicts these false positions, and names them simply belief
and error; thence, inferring, belief is error, and to understand God and man
would destroy all belief, and give us the understanding of what constitutes
being.
That pain
and pleasure belong to the body is the error of earth, that never enters heaven
where nothing is found that worketh a lie. Soul is the only living
consciousness, and Soul neither sins, nor suffers; it is immortal, and error is
mortal; but sin, sorrow, and sickness, are mortal, destroying themselves,
because they are error. sickness and death are not the manifestations of Soul,
Truth, or Life, hence they are not of God, and there is no other causation. The
tares and wheat must be separated, the real and unreal blend not; happiness is
real, and Truth is real, but error is unreal; sin and holiness, sickness and
health, Life and death, proceed not from the same source. Life, health, and
holiness, together with all harmonies, are Truth; sin, sickness, and death, are
error, the opposite of Truth, harmony and Life, and these opposites never
blend.
Electricity
is not a vital fluid; but an element of mind, the higher link between the
grosser strata of mind, named matter, and the more rarified called mind. The
so-called destructive forces of matter, and the fe-
28
rocity of
man and beast are animal beliefs, that admit evil because they understand not
good. All that is good is Soul; and its opposite is personal sense; the
emanations of Soul are purity, harmony, and immortality; those of personal
sense, impurity, discord, and death. Science brings to light Truth, and its
supremacy, universal harmony, God's entirety, and matter's nothingness.
Doctrines,
theories, and knowledge, are but opinions and beliefs, the impressions and
observations of personal sense, based on no Principle or fundamental Truth by
which to work out harmony. When we reach immortality, we shall all learn Life
is God, that matter is mortal, and that Spirit alone survives the wreck of
time. Personal sense will make war on science, until Truth determines the
conquest on the side of immutable right. Science reveals Truth; whereas,
personal sense takes no cognizance of it; also, it reverses all the positions
of sense, and tears away its foundations; hence, the enmity of mankind towards
science, until it battles its way up by putting beliefs down. Deductions from a
matter-basis are necessarily error; but science taking its positions from
Intelligence, reaches man with harmony, and bears the reports only of Truth.
These different causes are appreciated better when witnessing the effects of
both, and taking science to heal the sick in contradistinction to drugs,
electricity, etc., we learn the opposite results of Truth and Error. Systems of
medicine, like narcotics, leave man worse, for the stupor they induce; while
science demanding demonstration for its proof invites progress, and uses the
understanding like a two-edged sword, to amputate error on all
29
sides.
After this surgery, mankind will find themselves better.
Doctrines,
opinions and belief are the "tree of knowledge" against which Wisdom
warned man; knowledge is obtained from false premises, from personal sense, that
affords only the mortal evidences of man, presupposing Soul's audience-chamber
the brain, falsely claiming the prerogatives of Intelligence, God. Reasoning
from such stand-points produces all the discords of mind and body, that must
eventually go down, obedient to the mandate, "Thou shalt surely die."
Researches after Truth ought to leave matter for Principle, and bring the
contemplation of Life outside of sense, thus gathering us nearer harmony and
immortality, and proportionately away from sickness, sin, and death.
Soul is
not in the body. The belief that Intelligence is in matter is error in the
premises and conclusions of man. Life, Intelligence, or substance, is not in or
of matter, neither can they be aught but Soul, and because we shall ultimately prove
this science to individual consciousness, we should begin its first lessons
to-clay. In order to gain the understanding of God and man, Soul and body,
harmony and immortality, we must base all our conclusions of man on Principle
instead of person, on Soul instead of body, or we shall never reach the science
of being.
Truth,
Life, and Love are God, the Soul of the universe and man, and the only
substance and Intelligence: these are not mixed with change, sin, or death, nor
with matter, the body mortal; the erring, changing and dying blend not with
that which is the same yesterday,
30
to-day,
and forever. Life is Intelligence, the Principle that is Soul or Spirit, and
there is but one Spirit or Soul of the universe and man. If Life was in man,
matter would govern itself, and Spirit would be a portion of matter; therefore,
God would be Spirit and matter. No portion of the Infinite can enter the
finite; Life and Intelligence that are infinite are not mortal man. But may
there not be a portion of God in man and matter? This is equally impossible,
for the least part of Spirit would destroy matter, for matter is
non-Intelligence, not a power matched against Spirit; it is mortality only, and
the immortal is Spirit.
God is
Principle, --the Truth, and Soul of man, and man is "the image and
likeness of God." Again, God is substance and Life, hence man is but the
image and likeness of these; man is not Truth, Life, or Love. God is Spirit,
and man the image and likeness of Him; therefore, man is not matter, but idea, and
idea no more contains its Principle than figures embrace the rule of
mathematics. We have no resort but to reduce God to a level with man, or look
away from man for his Substance, Life, and Intelligence, all of which must be
outside of matter, or at the mercy of sin, sickness, and death. Darkness may
hide the sun, but cannot put it out. Sickness, sin, and death are darkness, or
moral ignorance that hide Truth, Life, and Love, but cannot extinguish them, or
their idea cannot destroy God or man. The stand-point whence to reckon man is
not matter, but Spirit. The Soul of man is never lost, insomuch as it is God,
Principle, and man its idea, and both are eternal; hence the immortality of
Soul and body. Infinite Soul embraces perfect understanding,
31
the light
that neither diminishes nor increases, for "no night is there." Day
declines, and shadows hide the sun, but darkness flees when the earth has
turned on its axis; because the solar centre is the same. Thus the darkness of
belief hides, but cannot put out the light of science.
Soul is
self-existent and eternal; that immortal man is tributary to Soul instead of
body, is the science of being, but we shall never understand it, believing Soul
is in the body, or that matter embraces Intelligence and Life. If we understood
the Truth of being it would prove Principle and its idea, that is, Soul and
body immortal; and instead of requiring laws of health that never yet made man
immortal, to save Life, we should be a law of Life and Truth to our own bodies,
even that higher law of Soul that prevails over sense, and gives harmony and
immortality to all it controls. "Man hath sought out many
inventions," but none of them can solve a problem without its Principle;
numbers are harmonious only when governed by Intelligence, outside the figures;
but ignorance might deny this fact did not self-evident proof force the
conclusion. Understanding the science of Life, we gain unfailing evidence of
its correctness in healing, etc. Those who obtain even glimpses of it are
convinced of its Truth, and those who advance higher are more undoubting than
of other proofs.
How can a
belief of Life in matter find Life, God? This is not more possible than
"for a camel to go through the eye of a needle." To inquire of our
bodies what prospect we have for health or Life, is taking the thing out of the
hands of God altogether.
32
To suppose
we find pleasure or pain, happiness or misery, Life or death in the body, is
not finding God our Life, and "a present help in times of trouble;"
also, to admit the same fountain sendeth forth sweet and bitter water, is
contrary to our Master's teachings. Life supposed to originate in soil and
seed, in animality, or the earth, is a belief of Life only, and not the
Principle that is Life, without beginning or end of days. Belief is mortality's
self, nothing whatever but illusion; we have no doubt but belief could make its
mortal man an amphibious animal. Phenomena illustrative of our views will
appear as the ages waken from the dream of Life in matter: belief can adopt any
position, strange and new, but Life will be found less at the mercy of matter,
as belief gives up the ghost, and the science of Life is sufficiently
understood to be fairly demonstrated; then man will be found immortal.
Spirit
controls matter; when this is fairly understood, phenomena at present so
unaccountable to a belief holding Soul pent up in body, will be explained, and
mystery and miracle fast disappear. A belief of Life in matter leaves man at
the mercy of death, for if this belief should change to one of death he is
supposed to die, but the fact remains that man is immortal, and if death in
matter or the body, be proved false, Life in matter or the body is proved false
also.
The true
relation of Soul to body is that of God to man; in other words, of Principle to
its idea; these are forever inseparable; and when the true idea, which is the
immortal body, is perceptible, we shall have become acquainted with its
Principle; "therefore, acquaint now thyself with God."
33
A sweet
combination of sounds informs man this is not governed by chance; that harmony
is not accident; we have undeniable proof that the Intelligence producing
music, separating light from darkness, etc., guides and controls all. The
belief that man is the Intelligence that governs sound, would destroy harmony;
for music left to personal sense is at the mercy of misapprehension and
discord; controlled by belief instead of the understanding, it would be lost;
even thus man would be discord and death without a governing Principle, or left
to personal sense. God and man are Principle and idea, and God is the Truth,
Life and Love controlling this idea. Then what can separate man from harmony
and immortality? St. Paul says: "Neither height nor depth nor any other
creature can separate me from the love of God." Love cannot be debarred a
manifestation, and is joy and not sorrow, good and not evil, Life and not
death; hence the perfect idea God gave of Himself in immortal man, the object
of divine affections.
Soul and
body are Principle and idea, or God and man united indissolubly, but the man of
God is the good and perfect idea of Him governed by Soul instead of sense. This
idea expresses the sinless and infinite; not the finite and dying.
Anatomy
and theology never defined the man of God; the first, explains the man of man;
the second, bow to make this man a Christian, whose life held in matter is
separated from God. These are some of the beliefs that serve as mile-stones to
point out the rough places science must make smooth. The man of sin, sickness,
and death is not, "the image and likeness" of Love,
34
Truth and
Life; and all the vanity of the Gentiles, and doctrines preached under the sun,
can never make that man immortal, or the image of God. Science lays the axe at
the root of error and cutting down the belief of Life in matter, of Soul in
body, and God in man, exchanges fable for fact, turns thought into new channels
away from personality to Principle, through which alone man is able to reach
Life.
For Life
to be eternal, it must be self-existent, therefore independent of matter; even
the "I am" that was, and is, and that nothing can efface. Christ
said, "I am the resurrection and Life." Man is not saved in matter,
but out of it in God. Denying personal sense, having but one God, taking up the
cross and following Christ, Truth, is the only Christianity, but doctrines and
creeds have little to do with this.
Life,
substance, and Intelligence are Soul outside of personal sense; what appears to
be these in man, is simply a belief and dream of Life in matter; the unreal,
that is the opposite of the real. The figurative "Tree of Life" was
the Principle of man bringing forth fruits of immortality. Sin, sickness, and
death are the fruits of the "tree of knowledge;" and the Scripture
instructs us to judge of the tree by its fruits.
The
resistance to metaphysical science will yield slowly but surely; we had
sanguine hopes of its present prosperity until we learned its vastness, the
fixedness of folly, and man's hatred of Truth. Not through the footsteps of
personal sense do we gain Wisdom; the infinite is achieved only as we turn from
the finite, and from the personal error to the impersonal Truth of being. Until
the scientific relationship between God and man
35
is
perceived, and its radical points admitted, we cannot reach the demonstration
of which it is capable. Exchange our stand-point of Intelligence and Life, from
matter to Spirit, and we shall gain the perfect Life; and the control that Soul
holds over body, and receive Christ, Truth, in Principle and not person, and
through the understanding and not belief. This is the difficult point, but it
must be achieved before man is harmonious and immortal, and to gather our
thoughts in this direction to-day is highly important, in view of the vast amount
to be accomplished before the final recognition of Life outside of matter. If
we make no progress toward the science of Life here, the hereafter will strip
off our rags of error, leaving us naked, until we are clothed upon by Truth,
the immortality of man.
Not
understanding the Principle of being, we shall seek in another world happiness
in sense, and then, as now, receive sorrow instead of gladness; because of this
error; pain, sickness, sin, and death, will continue so long as the belief
remains of Life, happiness, and Intelligence in the body. If the change called
death dispossessed man of the belief of pleasure and pain in the body,
universal happiness were secure at the moment of dissolution; but this is not
so: "they that are filthy shall be filthy still"; every sin and error
we possess at the moment of death, remains after it the same as before, and our
only redemption is in God, the Principle of man that destroys the belief of
intelligent bodies. When we gain the freedom of the Sons of God, we shall
master sense with Soul. As progress compels this ripening process through which
man resigns the belief of
36
Life and
Intelligence in matter, there will be great tribulation such as has not been
since the beginning.
When
pleasures of sense perish, they are taken away through anguish, even the
amputation of right hands, and plucking out of right eyes. Man at ease in
error, when stricken suddenly down by death, cannot understand Life. Mortal man
knows nothing about Life that is learned by relinquishing pleasure and pain of
sense; and how long the pangs necessary for error’s amputation continue,
depends on the tenacity of the belief of happiness in personal sense. When
remembering God is our only Life, and contemplating our present adherence to
the belief of Life in matter, we may well tremble for the days in which we
shall say, "I have no pleasure in them." The false views entertained
of pardoned sin, or universal and immediate happiness in the midst of sin, or,
that we are changed in a moment from sin to holiness, are grave mistakes. To
suddenly drop our earthly character, and become partakers of eternal Life,
without the pangs of a new birth, is morally impossible. We know, "all
will be changed in the twinkling of an eye when the last trump shall sound,"
but the last call of Wisdom is not the first call in the growth of Christian
character; while man is selfish, unjust, hypocritical and sensual, to conclude
the last call of Wisdom has been heard that awakens him to glorified being, is
preposterous! Science forbids such feats of imagination, and looks us in the
face with reason and revelation.
"As
the tree falleth, so shall it lie;" as man goeth to sleep so shall he
waken; when the belief of death closes our eyes on this phase of the dream of
Life in
37
matter, we
shall waken, not to a final judgment or resurrection, not with a single change
in character, but for the same judgment of Wisdom to go on in process of
purification as before, until Truth finally destroys error. When the final
triumph of Soul over sense is achieved, the last trump has sounded, and not
until then; this hour "no man knoweth, not the son but the Father;"
here prophecy steps and proof is wanting; but science sees beyond the grave the
certainty of immortality. The science of Life is the only certainty of
existence. Truth is harmony and immortality. Universal salvation holds its
grounds on the basis of progression, in which case man cannot commence too soon
the severest lessons of science, whereby to gain happiness and immortality.
Heaven is not a local habitation, but the harmony of mind and body; and we
obtain this not of belief, but understanding, not of sense, but science. From
the sudden surprise of finding all that is mortal, unreal, a belief only,
without creation or Truth, the question arises, who or what is it that
believes. We have before said God is the only Intelligence and cannot believe
because He understands. There is neither substance nor Intelligence, in the
mountain mirage that seemeth what it is not, and such is mortal man; nor in a
face reflected from the mirror; but such is not immortal man the image of God.
Intelligence is Soul and not sense, Spirit and not matter, and God is the only
Intelligence, and there is but one God, hence there are no believers! So far as
this statement is understood will it be admitted, and the true idea of God,
which is the only real man, will appear to the understanding, and the old
belief of Intelligence and Life in matter, named
38
by Paul
"the old man," will disappear or "be put off," for
"dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return;" man never dies, it
is only a belief of man.
Apprehending
God the only Life and Intelligence of man, is the foundation of harmony, but to
gain this understanding of Soul, the Principle that gave man dominion over earth,
'tis necessary to understand one's-self Spirit, and not matter. Jesus
established his demonstration in healing the sick, etc., on this very basis,
thereby holding all being and prerogative Soul, and not personal sense. Reason
is right only when starting from cause instead of effect, from Soul instead of
sense; conclusions based on the evidences of personal sense are drawn from
mortality.
'Ology and
'ism tend to the conviction that God who is universal cause, is effect also,
insomuch as they all make Intelligence moral and physical, or mind and matter.
The time has come to separate the belief of personal sense on the one hand,
from science on the other; hitherto man has called on man to interpret God, and
on matter and its supposed laws, to heal the sick; but as progress compels the
change, we shall seek outside of personal sense in the Principle of things,
their true interpretation and remedy. To seek Truth through belief is to ask
the changing and erring for the immutable and immortal; or to call belief
Truth, is ignorance of God. We learn from the Scripture "God is
Love," and this certainly is Principle instead of a person; hence God
should be understood and demonstrated: belief can neither explain Principle nor
demonstrate God. To understand, instead of believe, what most concerns our
happiness, is essential, and to know we are right cannot be construed
irreverence to Truth.
39
Our Master
ventured to say he was "Truth and Life, and no man cometh unto the
Father" (the Principle of his being) "except through me," Truth.
Principle is the Father of man, and science alone reveals Principle, hence it
is the "Comforter" that leads into all Truth. Jesus regarded himself
Principle instead of person: hear his words: "I am the way, the Truth, and Life."
God is the
Soul of man and the only Intelligence, Life or Substance: and man is the reflex
shadow of God. Belief is error, and mortal man is a belief: understanding is
Intelligence; belief is personal sense, the so-called mind of matter;
understanding is Soul, which is Spirit, belief is knowledge and that which
said, "I will make ye as gods," is mortal error, alias mortal man.
Wisdom said of knowledge, "In the clay thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die." Christianity is God understood and demonstrated. There is no
death in Truth, and vice versa. Error
is mortal; the very opposite of Truth and its idea which is the perfect and
immortal man and universe. Doctrines and theories placing God in man, Soul in
body, are founded on belief, and are the offspring of personal sense. We
entertain no belief with regard to what we understand, and cannot demonstrate
what is not understood. When Soul is accepted as the only Intelligence, we
shall depend on this ever-present Truth to control its own body; and to
understand this Principle of man, is indispensable to his harmony; to know we
are Soul and not body is starting right.
Matter is
not substance, if God is substance; for matter and Spirit are not one. Which
shall be substance, the erring, mutable and mortal, or the change-
40
less,
unerring and immortal. Soul is Spirit and Spirit the only substance, insomuch
as it is the Principle of man, and the universe. To regard matter a law of
itself, or produced by Intelligence is error. Matter is change, decay, and
death, and Principle is not in decay, Life is not in death, Soul is not in
body. God is not in the things He hath made, and all that he hath made is
"good." If Soul was in body, Spirit and matter were one; but Soul is
not personal sense, and vice versa. God
is the Principle, or Soul of all that is real, and nothing is real that does
not express Him and is controlled by Him, and immortal. Soul is lost sight of
by personal sense, but cannot be lost in science. There is neither growth,
maturity, nor decay to Soul: these are the mutations of sense, the clouds
before Soul that we call substance, but they are only vapor. Metaphysically
speaking, a belief of Life in matter is what might be termed a loss of Soul;
for seeking Life and happiness in error, we lose right of Truth. The idea of
God, is the heaven, earth, and immortal man that is unerring, and eternal,
because they are controlled by Principle, that is, by Soul, and not sense, by
understanding and not belief. That which is mortal, is a dream of Life,
Intelligence and substance in matter; a belief that idea creates Principle, and
shadow substance! In this error Truth is lost; in other words, error loses
sight of Soul or the Principle of man, and a belief of intelligent matter takes
the place of the science of man. Soul is self-existent, the forever "I
am," that enters not into sin and mortality. The parent of all discord is
this strange hypothesis, that Soul is in body, and Life in matter; this error
spreads its table with sickness, sin and death,
41
and
partakes of its own bounty. In the resurrection of understanding, Life, Soul,
and substance will be recognized one and outside of matter, and the
Intelligence of all that is immortal. The idea of Life is embraced in Soul and
not sense, in the immortal and not the mortal.
The most
scientific man of whom we have any record, Jesus of Nazareth, called the mortal
body that we suppose substance, "ghost"; and his body that others
called spirit, "flesh and bones"; showing that substance to his
understanding was the deathless Principle that embraces man and is forever
inseparable from Soul. But the Jews, strongly material, called the real idea of
God, even the body that was not matter, a spirit or ghost; and the body they
laid in a sepulchre, substance. By this error they lost logic and Truth,
therefore lost sight of Jesus at the very moment when he presented more then
ever the real idea of God, and because of this belief, the idea was taken from
them. The higher he wrought the problem of being through spiritual science, the
more odious he became to the materialistic world that understood him not. Life,
Intelligence and substance to them were matter, but to him they were God, the
Truth of man; therefore he reckoned himself not matter but Spirit; not sense,
but Soul. Said he, "Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me
have," but this be said three days after his burial, before relinquishing
the belief of substance-matter; after that, his disciples even could not see
him. Jesus said, "I and the Father are one," and this separated him
from theology and the Rabbis: understanding himself Soul instead of body, and
that Soul was God, brought down upon him the anathemas of a world. This
statement of himself un-
42
derstood
in science, was, that Life, substance, and Intelligence, are not man, but God,
not body, but Soul; reversing this, belief could not see the idea of Truth or
harmonious man; and the sinning, sick and mortal error that crucified Jesus,
occupied the place of God's idea. Mortal and sinful man is not the product of
God; sin and death never proceeded from Life, Love and Truth.
Matter
being unintelligent, there is no material law governing man and the universe,
and Spirit is free by divine right. Soul is the master of man and matter. Truth
is not learned through laws of matter; for there are no such laws: matter is
not a law-giver. Wisdom demanded man "to hold dominion over earth,"
and all things therein, making him obedient only to higher law. The Truth of
man saith be is superior to matter; but the opposite error says, he is inferior
to it. Truth says: "I give you power over all things, that nothing shall
by any means harm you;" "power to handle serpents, to take deadly
drugs," etc. But while our missionaries are carrying the Bible to
Hindustan, and explaining it according to a belief, hundreds are dying annually
of the bite of serpents. Creeds and ritualism never enable us to follow Jesus'
example, and give the demonstration he gave of God. Life cannot be separated
from its idea; therefore Soul and body, God and man, are inseparable. All good
proceeds from God in the order and harmony of science; evil is its opposite, or
knowledge, that proceeds from personal sense, and usurps the place of Wisdom.
The thirty
thousand different readings given the Old, and the three hundred thousand the
New Testament, account for the discrepancies that sometimes appear in
43
the
Scriptures. The science of the Bible is manifest from Genesis to Revelations,
and the demonstration that Jesus gave, conclusive evidence of its entire Truth.
The opposite of sickness, sin, and death, Jesus knew was alone able to destroy
them, and bring to light immortality. This was the platform on which he
labored, and cast out devils, viz.; destroy the belief of Intelligence and Life
in matter, and it caste out all error, and heals the sick. This was Truth, and
"the stone the builders rejected," while yet it must become the head
of the comer, this the rock on which Christ, Truth, built its church, that the
gates of bell (the beliefs of man) cannot prevail against.
"The
image and likeness of God" was lost sight of through belief, and is
regained only through understanding. To suppose laws of matter control man, is
the error it would be to say that figures govern numbers, when we should find
examples wrought on this plan would cause the figures to be erased that the
Principle might be allowed to reproduce its own idea. Harmonious man is the
immortal idea of God; but the inharmonious is mortal belief. The voice of
Truth, calls: "Man, where art thou?" and who will meet this inquiry today,
with the answer of science? Man is safe in Soul, the Principle of being, but
out of this he is "a reed shaken with the wind," the ignis fatuus of
belief, tossed about with every wind of doctrine; until the body is
sensationless through science, man is not safe; every feeling there betrays
where he holds himself; every pain and pleasure of sense, every hope, ambition,
and joy that has its foundation in matter, reckons against the science of our
course, and must be destroyed. Man,
44
where art
thou? is met with reply from the head, the heart, stomach, blood, nerves, etc.;
"Lo! here thou art;" looking for happiness and Life in matter, but
finding pain and death.
To
conclude Life, Love, and Truth are attributes of a personal Deity, implies
there is something in person superior to Principle. But nothing is wiser than
Wisdom, or truer than Truth; and Life, and Love, have no superlatives, they are
primitives and not derivatives. Person is not the Principle of goodness, and
the reality, or Spirit, is ours only as we are good. Jesus sought Wisdom of no
man, and said: "Call no man Father, for one is your Father, even
God," thus regarding man begotten of Soul, and not sense; and controlling
matter and triumphing over disease and death, he brought to light his Principle
and the immortality of man.
To test
our understanding is to put it in practice; if we possess Truth, we shall live
truly, but personal sense never aids man in this direction, but wars against
spirituality. 'Tis not in all the vanity of the Gentiles to send a drop of
rain, or to make a mortal body the idea of God. The example Jesus presented for
us to follow, and the Principle he demonstrated in healing, etc. was beyond
question, science; but the error of past and present ages is our wrong
interpretation, of Jesus and Christ, or man and God. Taught by some doctrine,
or belief, that Principle is in person, and Soul in body, we have "gods
many," and our standard of Truth changes hands. Our Master taught his
students the demonstration of Christianity was not alone in the beatitudes of
the Mount, but in healing the sick, also.
When
Moses, the ancient law giver of Wisdom,
45
despaired
of making the people understand what God, through science, said to him, the
supreme Soul bade him cast down his rod, and it became a serpent, and be fled
at first before the serpent, but afterwards took it up, proving his power over
it. And "the hand that was made leprous as snow," lie put into his
bosom again and plucked it out, and behold it was as his other flesh, and
Wisdom said: "It shall come to pass if they will not hear thee, neither
harken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the
latter;" that is, they will listen to its interpretation, when they see
its demonstration in healing. Jesus also said in his answer to John's inquiry,
"Art then be that should come?" "Go and show John again these
things ye see and hear; the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, etc., and
blessed is he who shall not be offended in me; " in other words, who shall
not deny that this is the demonstration of Truth. Jesus said to his followers:
"Go ye into all the world, heal the sick," etc., and this was
enjoined not on his disciples alone, but on all Christendom; wherefore, said
he: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them, who shall understand
through the word." "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
God," the Principle of all being; hence it was not a person, to be
understood, or that healed the sick, neither mediumship, mesmerism, nor drugs,
but the Principle, that is, Life and Truth.
In the
original Scriptures, metaphor abounded, and proper names were significant of
spiritual ideas, The authors of Smith's Bible Dictionary say, "The
spiritual interpretation of the Scripture must rest upon both the literal and
moral." In the original it was written: "Je-
46
hovah
said, my spirit shall not forever be humbled in man, seeing that they are, or
in error they are but flesh." The science of man was not forever to be
cast aside in explaining him, seeing that man in error was mortal. But how are
we to escape from flesh, or mortality, except through the change called death?
By understanding we never were flesh, that we are Spirit and not matter.
When the
belief that we inhabit a body is destroyed, we shall live, but our body will
have no sensation. We shall find God in God, that is, Spirit in Spirit, and
Intelligence in itself, there will be no loss of science as in mixing different
species; and not until the belief that Soul is in body, and Intelligence in
matter, is destroyed, will man be found immortal. The so-called man that is
mortal, is a compound error made up of many beliefs, and while the science of
being is mastering one, another presents itself. In these chemical changes we
find it not so easy to overcome sin as sickness, for the dream continues of
pleasure in personal sense, when the belief of pain is willingly relinquished,
and vice versa. Thus the way is straight and narrow that leads to Life,
inasmuch as it is a warfare with the flesh.
The
science of the original word not being apprehended by the age in which the
Scriptures were written, was not explained; a single misplaced preposition
would change its scientific meaning from Principle to person; e. g., wisdom the
principle of God; instead of Wisdom, the Principle, God. From the original
quotations, it appears the Scriptures were not understood by those who re-read
and re-wrote them. The true rendering was their spiritual sense. Before
knowledge increased
47
some of
the Soul-inspired patriarchs gave good proofs of understanding God. Jacob
wrestled with a man, that is, strove against the belief of Life and
Intelligence in matter, "until day-break;" until the light of science
shone upon his understanding, enabling him to restore the shrank sinew; this
was the spiritual sense; the literal-- the hour of dawn. The shrank sinew he
restored, understanding simply that he possessed control over matter, and that
man is immortal, the image and likeness of God, that cannot lose one jot of its
completeness. When Jacob became the demonstrator, even in a limited capacity of
this Truth, he was named Israel, the chosen of Wisdom, and thereafter those
building on this foundation, were of the house of Israel.
Why Jesus
of Nazareth stood higher in the scale of being, and rose proportionately beyond
other men in demonstrating God, we impute to his spiritual origin. He was the
offspring of Soul, and not sense; yea, the Son of God. The science of being was
revealed to the virgin mother, who, in part proved the great Truth, that God is
the only origin of man. The conception of Jesus illustrated this Truth, and
finished the example of creation. Jesus was the idea of this Principle, but
born of woman, that is, having in part a personal origin, he blended the idea
of Life, that is God, with the belief of Life in matter, and became the
connecting link between science and personal sense; "and took upon himself
flesh," became apparent as the half-way position of positive science; thus
to mediate between God and man; in other words, to present the idea of God that
revealed Life outside of matter, in contradistinc-
48
tion to
the belief of Life in matter, and demonstrated the Truth that man is idea and
not substance, that God is all and in all, and the Principle of man that
controls matter. Jesus walked the wave, stilled the tempest, and yet, this idea
of God was not comprehended by those who deemed God a person, and Life in
matter, and man substance and Intelligence.
Paul said:
--"And if Christ (Truth) be not risen, then is my preaching vain;"
that is, if it be not understood that God is the only Life, then are the
explanations of Jesus vain. Again, the Scriptures saith, "I am the
resurrection and Life, he that believeth in me shall not see death;" in
other words, he that understands Soul is God, the only Life and Intelligence of
man, that the body has not a separate being, but hath Life abiding only in
Spirit, shall never die. This idea of Truth was literally scourged by the
Rabbis, over eighteen centuries ago; "despised and rejected of men," while
yet it bore their infirmities, healed their sicknesses, raised the dead, and
sat down at the right hand of the Father, was embraced in the Principle of man,
that wrought out the harmony of the universe. As of old, the Pharisees thrust
this idea from their synagogues, and the learned Jews sought to kill Jesus; so
to-day, church and state unconscious of the re-appearing of this idea of Truth,
would silence what cometh, as of old, doing good to its enemies, casting out
error, healing the sick and bringing freedom and salvation to man. Prophesying
its rejection, Christ said, "when I come again, shall I find faith on
earth? "
To control
our bodies, Paul said, was our only reasonable service, but who can presume to
reach the
49
sublime
bights of our Master, who is begotten of sense, or a servant to it? The time
cometh when the true origin of man will be regained, being understood. Truth,
like the light, shineth on darkness, that is, first on belief and opinions, and
the darkness (or belief) comprehendeth it not, then on the advanced thought,
etc., until it is understood. Truth is ruled out by belief, inasmuch as it
rules out a personal God, and Life, and Intelligence in matter, and restores
the scientific origin of man, and the only true demonstration of God; it is
ruled out by materia medica, insomuch as it rules out drugs, one of the errors
that saith, Intelligence and Life are in matter. The science of man and the
universe understood, would divest drugs of all efficacy, control matter, and
bear man over the wave despite the fable of solids and fluids; but alas! who
can test the Principle of this saying today; this Truth is the stranger within
our gates that is not remembered, while its elevating proof is ready to show
practically its honest merit.
Jesus
never spake of disease as difficult or dangerous, but of having authority over
it. He recommended not obedience to the so-called laws of matter, and in his
opposite teachings the Scripture saith: --"He uttered things that had been
secret from the foundation of the world," unperceived since knowledge had
usurped man's government; hence, Truth cometh to-day bringing not peace, but a
sword. Our master forbore not to declare the whole Truth; even the impersonal
God, though it severely amputated error, set households at variance, etc.
Whosoever, therefore, shall declare what he taught, must accept the hatred of
error, and find peace and confidence in the realization that Wisdom is
50
acknowledged
only by her children. Realizing all this, the Master said, "If the world
hate you, ye may know that it hated me before it hated you." This was the
blessed test, benediction and consolation he offered his followers.
Doctrines,
opinions and beliefs, the so-called laws of matter, remedies for Soul and body,
physiology, theology, materia medica, etc. are error, the very opposites of
what Jesus taught and demonstrated, regarding Soul and body, or God and man.
This may seem severe, but is said with honest convictions of its Truth, with
reverence for God and love for man. The door to the sheep-fold through which we
gain God shuts them all out. Those who would follow Christ, Truth, heal the
sick, etc., through doctrines and beliefs, or matter remedies, are climbing up
another way, and unconsciously, though it be, robbing God. Life, Love, and Truth,
our Father which art in heaven, teaches man health, happiness, and immortality.
Our only rightful law-giver is God, fulfilling all law in righteousness, and
visiting not on man the penalty of sin, except for moral transgression; but
destroying sin, and death, and triumphing over the grave.
Materia
medica, anatomy, and physiology, together with every belief that spake from
"the tree of knowledge," would give death and the grave victory over
man. But Jesus said to his followers: --"I give you power over all things,
that nothing shall by any means harm you;" the true idea of God took away
the sting of death, mastered sickness and sin, and caused the lion to lie down
with the lamb, even the beliefs that would rob God, to fall at the feet of
Love.
51
If man
tarries in the storm until the body be frozen; or rushes into the flames and it
be devoured; this is Dot obedience to the Wisdom that gave him "dominion
over earth;" unless we understand how to avoid such results, we should
keep from their occasion; to do otherwise is the blunder a pupil in addition
would make to attempt to solve a problem of Euclid, and because he has not
reached this point in mathematics, to fail in his demonstration, and others
perceiving this, to deny the Principle of the problem. Jesus taught Truth, and
demonstrated it, and the result of this was, it healed the sick, and cast out
error.
Christ is
God, the Principle and Soul of the man Jesus; constituting Christ-Jesus, that
is, Principle and idea. But the person of our Master was not less tangible or
real, because "his Life was hid with Christ in God," that is, because
he held Life, Soul, and not sense; this put all things under his feet, giving
him triumph over matter, and the body, over sin, sickness, and death. Holding
himself in science, death was lost to Him in infinite Life, and Jesus the idea
of Christ, Truth, was as deathless as this its Principle. This scientific
understanding of being gave him control over matter, enabling him to heal the
sick and cast out the opposite belief that makes matter, or the body, the
master of man turned the water into wine; fed the multitude, etc. and finally
triumphed over death, and presented to his students the body they thought
buried in a sepulchre; that body, however, had not risen, which was their dead
belief of him. The print of the nails and spear alone convinced Thomas, who
would lean on personal sense instead of Soul, for proofs of immortality;
52
but when
partially aroused from the error, or dream of Life in matter, to the scientific
understanding of Soul and body, or God and man, exclaimed, in awe, "My
Lord, and my God!"
Man is the
idea of his Principle, and only as the image and likeness of Intelligence and
Life, substance and Spirit, is he beyond the reach of death, in the science of
being, where nothing can harm or destroy him; of that which is materialized it
can only be said, "dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return."
When the
sharp experiences of supposed Life in matter, its disappointments, and
ceaseless woes, turn us from it as a tired child to a home in the bosom of
Love, then are we fit to understand Life apart from vanity and lies; but
without this weaning process, "who by searching can find out God?" If
through the wholesome discipline of chastisement we become His children, understanding
in part, righteousness and purity, we behold the Truth of spiritual science,
where enraptured thought walks boundless, and conception unconfined has wings
to reach its glory. But to gain Truth and Life, we must not only seek, but
"strive to enter in;" and the strife consists in destroying the error
of personal sense; but here we learn 'tis easier to desire Truth than to get
rid of error.
Theories
of a personal God, based on the false premises of Life and Intelligence in
matter, must yield to science; and the dream of sense, to the Life that is
Soul. We must leave the foundations of time-honored systems, to gain Christ,
Truth; come out from the world and be separate, or we have no part and lot in
this matter. The so-called laws material, presuppose body and
53
Soul one
for a period, until separated by a temporary law of divorcement to come
together again at some uncertain future, and in a manner wholly unknown; which
is even less logical than annihilation.
To be
sure, the Sadducees reasoned falsely on the resurrection, but not more so than
the Pharisees! When we admit the immortality of Soul, we have admitted the
immortal body, also, for if Soul can be separated from man, Principle can be
severed from its idea, which is fatal to a self-existent Intelligence, and
equal to saying there may be a time when God is without a single expression of
Himself. We ask instinctively for something beyond the things of personal
sense, and whence cometh these unsatisfied cravings for immortality?
Pleasures
of sense are broken reeds, that pierce us to the heart; but the joys of Soul
are imperishable, and attainable even here, for the hereafter commences here;
to-morrow grows out of to-day. We cannot realize the Truth of being in a
moment; but we can let go somewhat the belief that would fasten immortal Soul
within a mortal body. The motive to realize Life and happiness apart from
sense, may be gained to-day, and this point won, we have started light to admit
a greater influx of light. The realization of Truth is sometimes sudden and
severe, as it came of old to Saul of Tarsus, when personal sense was blind he
beheld the vision of Soul, "what eye hath not seen or car heard."
We will
specify three of the footsteps that enter in by the door, or enable us to
become receptive of Truth. First. To become as a little child in that we are
willing to leave the old for the new, and look beyond land-
54
marks,
theories, doctrines, and beliefs, pleasures or pains of sense; but here we must
watch that we receive not Truth from person, but Principle; the test being,
that whatever cometh from Truth is demonstrable, and brings forth good fruits;
our lives must testify to this. Secondly. Purity is the foundation of the
science of Life; "None but the pure in heart shall see God." Inspiration
is the highest means to convey messages from Principle to idea, i. e., from God
to man; but these messages are never borne into matter, therefore to be
recipient of Truth, we must begin to recognize ourselves Soul, and not body,
and receive and impart the teachings of Spirit. Such messages are angels, but
not winged messengers; they are the aroma of Soul passing to man, the
impressions that guide him aright, and are demonstrable when understood, and
not understood unless demonstrated. Thirdly. To rightly apprehend and receive
more Truth, we must put into practice what we already possess. This higher
understanding of the relationship between God and man will not be recognized by
the opposite belief of Life and Intelligence in matter. And the explanations or
the wholesome rebukes of our Father, even Wisdom and Love, will often be deemed
severity; but we must avoid the yielding to error demanded by error;
remembering Love often moves the sinner to hate, in that it stirs this opposite
element before destroying it; and not until the sinner and the sick feel their
need of Truth to save them from sickness or sin, will they become receptive of
it.
It will be
seen in scientific statement that gender belongs to Principle, and not person;
that all formation is
55
through Intelligence,
because Life is Soul outside of sense. This is the stepping-stone to the
understanding of Soul which, to know aright is eternal Life; man is immortal
only as the idea of God, and not as a belief of Life or Soul in the body. Love
is God; but error would couple Love and hate together; vainly thinking to
mingle good and evil. Soul's attraction is Truth; but the attraction of sense
is error. The former elevates and immortalizes man, the latter debases and
makes mortal. The two cannot blend; one rules out the other as light shuts out
darkness and darkness light. God is not in matter, and there is neither Life,
Intelligence nor Truth where He is not; the body we call man is matter. Love is
safe in Truth, but not in man, safe in Principle, but not person.
Does
Wisdom find pleasure in drunkenness? But personal sense does! and you cannot
make the inebriate we call man averse to foul besottedness until this belief is
destroyed; when he will turn as naturally from his cup, as the dreamer from
incubus. Tell a man intoxication will kill him, cause him to believe this, and
possibly it will deter him from listening to this lie of personal sense, viz.,
that there is pleasure in intoxication; but is he reformed? Abstinence, if it
cherishes the desire for intemperance, is not reformation; and this so-called
man will fall again whenever the fear is removed. The fear of punishment in
time or eternity never made an honest man; it is not a scientific position;
moral courage instead of fear is requisite to overcome sin and sickness. But
how reform the sensualist through conscience? He traffics little in this
commodity; has even less Soul because he has more personal
56
sense than
some of the lower animals. They could teach him affection! but convince his
reason that is above the brutes, of the nothingness of personal sense, and you
have saved him.
Reasoning
incorrectly on Soul and body, leads to error of action; understanding the
science of being explains personal sense and also destroys it; in science you
cannot be a hypocrite in secret even; you will become spiritual, find happiness
in the moral resources of being and in Love that is Truth; even as the babe
finds peace and nutriment from the mother's bosom. To waken from the dream of
personal sense, or pleasure and pain in matter, is the work of time and
eternity. The greater your error the harder its struggle will be with Truth
when it touches it. The aged are not old when the vail lifts, and sense gives
place to Soul. But the hoary error must be met and mastered in time or
eternity, and would have been easier controlled in its youth. Man never obtains
immortality until the standpoint whence he reckons himself in all the summing
up of Life and Intelligence, is Soul and not sense. What a pitiful sight is
malice finding pleasure in revenge! 'tis sad to think evil is man's highest
belief of good until his grasp on goodness grows stronger. We should naturally
shrink from madness that rushes forth to clamor with midnight and the tempest.
All error is the image of the beast that must be effaced by the sweat of agony,
before the crown is laid upon the brow.
A picture
on the camera, or a face reflected from the mirror is not substance; then why
do we name man substance, and contradict the Scripture that saith man is the
image and likeness of God? We know the face
57
and form
of a man reflected from the mirror is not man, that he is not in the shadow of
himself; hence the error to suppose the Intelligence, substance and Life of
man, are man, or in him. Again, who believes that gender belongs to the man in
the mirror? Gender is Principle and not person, and man is shadow and not
substance; why he is mortal to personal sense, is because it supposes him
substance, Life and Intelligence. Mortal man is but a dream of Intelligence,
substance and Life in matter, not the man of God, but the man of man, and
shadow of shadows, therefore he reflects no Principle, and is without any real
basis. To personal sense science is presumptive logic; nevertheless it reveals
Truth: the ultimatum of being corroborates the statement that man is shadow and
not substance; we are daily hastening to this proof, and must reach its
recognition to gain immortality, for the Truth of man alone makes him immortal.
The belief, that Soul is in body, turns to matter instead of Spirit for help in
times of trouble, and with reluctant consent acknowledges a supreme being.
Theology
embraces no creed or faith sufficient to heal the sick, while our master made
this the first article of his faith, and proved that faith by works.
It seems
ancient Christianity adhered more to Jesus' teachings than modern systems of
religion do. Diplomas have rendered it fashionable to appeal to drugs before
God; and the result is stereotyped beliefs originating in knowledge, "that
forbidden tree," and wanting in the vital point whereby Jesus demonstrated
Christianity in the control Soul holds over sense.
The
so-called man, born to-day and dying to-morrow,
58
as if
something was newly created, and lost, is a dream and illusion! and this
definition of him is not more contradictory to personal sense than science
demands. The Scriptures inform us clearly on this point. John
declares--"All things were made by God, and without Him there was nothing
made that was made." This plainly denies any new existence in the past or
present, or any creation except what sprang directly from God, the Intelligence
that made man; hence we have the authority of Scripture for saying, mortal man
and woman since appearing are unreal, a belief only, and illusion.
The
question is, did John understand the science that was the basis of his
statement? He certainly foresaw its Principle and partly demonstrated it, thus
proving his claim to make that statement. The master instructs us, our proof of
Truth is the fruit it bears; and the science of being destroying sin, sickness,
and death, demonstrates itself Truth.
It is
presumptuous to conclude Love, Wisdom and Truth created what is unfit to be
eternal. And when did Truth ever destroy its own idea. God cannot destroy man
because he is the reflection of God, therefore Christ, Truth, casting out sin,
healing the sick, and destroying death, prove these are not of God. The only
certainty of immortality is found in the relationship between Principle and
idea, i. e., God and man, Soul and body; Life, Love and Truth, the triune
Principle, created nothing to be blotted out; because God made man he is
immortal. That the sick, sinning, and dying are not "made by Him," we
learn of the science of being, and through the demonstrations of Jesus.
59
There are
but two realities, viz., God, and the idea of God; in other words, Spirit, and
what it shadows forth. Theology teaches supreme love to God, and this is a
glorious privilege, but we cannot love God supremely and personal sense or
matter more. God is Love, and affections are the offspring of Soul. The
understanding of Life outside of matter is the basis of Christianity by which
the flesh is denied, the cross taken up, and the guidance of personal sense
exchanged for Principle that makes perfect. Doctrines and theories of Life in
matter, Soul in body, and God in man, are virtually atheism that must fall to
the ground, and those are the days wherein there will be tribulations, such as
has not been since the beginning of this belief. Earth will echo back the shock
when the cry goes forth, "Why art thou (Truth) come hither to torment me
before the time?" The belief of Life in matter results in the belief of
death. Life demonstrates Life, and not death, but Life is God, and none but the
pure in heart shall see God. Personal sense affords no evidence, not the
smallest idea of Truth, Life or Love. Messages of Soul are man's teachers, and
these are inspirations not borne into matter, but the outside Intelligence,
where Spirit is, and speaks to man. We must recognize ourself Soul, and not
body, and outside the body, else Soul is deemed subject to matter, mortality,
sin, and death. But in order to do this we must grow away from all that is
error and become pure in Spirit to receive or impart the lessons of Spirit.
The
messages from God to man, in other words, from Principle to idea, are purity,
the atmosphere of Soul, not winged messengers, but that whereby we gain the
60
idea of
spiritual man, in the science of his being; the inspirations of truth that are
demonstrable when understood, and never understood until demonstrated. Truth is
practical, not theoretical, and we shall never have more until we practice what
we already have. Not until the sick and the sinner feel their need of Truth
that saves from sickness, sin and death, will they apprehend it. Understanding
the Truth of Man's being is all that can make him harmonious or immortal, and
is the stepping-stone to the understanding of God, the giver of every good,
"whom to know aright is life eternal." Man is immortal only as the
idea of God, the representative of Spirit and not matter, of Soul and not body.
As a belief of Soul in body, or Intelligence and Life in matter, he is only
mortal. The science of being never mistakes the real for the unreal, or charges
Soul with a single belief of personal sense.
Soul is
God, for it is Spirit and Intelligence, and there is but one Spirit or
Intelligence. To call matter substance does not require Intelligence, but a
belief, insomuch as Intelligence understands there is no substance or solidity
in matter that can rule out mind from piercing it and reducing it to shadow
wherein Soul is found its only substance, and that which holds man, idea, that
cannot be lost. It does not require Intelligence to lie, but demands Soul to
utter the Truth of man. Intelligence or soul is never in error. Personal sense
is the error that embraces all mistakes, wherein falsehood is considered fact
until it be understood otherwise and the belief is destroyed. One of the
beliefs of personal sense, named sickness, we destroy mentally with the Truth
of being, and the sickness is gone; this
61
we have
proved by demonstration in hundreds of cases. Belief makes up the sum total of
mortal man, but this statement is confounded by those not understanding
science, blending the mortal and immortal, and making man God, Intelligence,
instead of its idea. Belief is all there is to mortal man, and if this belief
is wretchedness only, no circumstance can make it happiness, and if happiness,
no circumstance can change it, or make it wretchedness, until the belief of the
different conditions are changed; "for as error thinketh so is it."
The science of being is as necessary to those in the belief of health as
sickness, for a single change of belief would make the well sick, when, if they
understood these conditions depended on mind, instead of matter, they might
continue to be well by grounding their belief in the case and letting
Intelligence be master of the situation. Ignorance, pride and prejudice close
the door on all that contradicts the past or opens it on things not
stereotyped. When the science of Life is understood every man will be his own
physician, and the doctor's occupation gone, hence materia medica will fight it
to the end. But why should the new be scorned when the old has proved incapable
of making man healthy or harmonious in mind or body, and the new commences at
once to do this; the command remains, "Be ye perfect even as your Father
is perfect," and yet we must be smitten for insisting on this demonstration.
The science of being, that alone can stay the progress of disease and sin, and
the atheism that unites matter and God, will be called, in this century,
anti-christian.
The belief
that man is intelligent matter, subject to birth and death would make Soul
mortal, and governed
62
by
material laws, God in the things He has made, sin, sickness, and death blending
with Truth and Life, and the former having the mastery over the latter. There
is but one Spirit, even God, therefore no evil can be in Spirit, there being
nothing to make evil of. Jesus cast out spirits, that is, beliefs in other
Intelligences and healed the sick with the Truth of being, --he admitted no
Intelligence in evil, hence his authority over it. If Spirit sins it must die,
for all error is mortal; Spirit is God, and there is but one God; hence to talk
of spirits is to believe in gods and demons. We reason wrong on all points
relating to God and man, Soul and body, when we start from matter to draw
conclusions of Spirit; this renders it impossible for such conclusions to be
correct. Our present stand-point is body not Soul, personality instead of
Principle, hence our mistaken views and their consequences in sin, sickness and
death. We go into ecstasies over a personal God with scarcely a spark of Love
in the heart, when God is Love; and with scarcely a ray from Truth, when God is
Truth; and without the understanding of Life, when God is Life, and what is the
result? That we have no practical God to heal us; and get out of sin and death
only in belief, while they still cling to mortal man; this is not science or
the Christianity that heals the sick and demonstrates the harmony of Life. Evil
and good never constituted man, for man is the image of God, and all there is
to him is the good; evil is not the image and likeness of God, or matter of
Spirit; even reason would rescue man from these errors of personal sense were
it not silenced by some fatal theory. Action produced by Intelligence manifests
harmony only, while action proceeding from
63 mortal
minds discords until it is finally destroyed. The heavenly bodies controlled by
the mind of God, Soul, contradict the supposed laws of sense, and are
harmonious. The supposition of Life in matter leaves man at the mercy of sin,
sickness, and death, and then would resurrect Spirit from dust! Beginning with
dust and returning to dust He who formed the universe! Science undisturbed amid
this jargon reveals Soul, the Life, Intelligence and substance that constitutes
Spirit, the great forever not in matter nor man. Soul being inside of man would
reduce God to man, or make man God; the belief of Soul in body supposes Spirit
helpless, sinning, sick and dying. Omnipotence is lost if God is in man, for
mortal man is an error through which Truth cannot appear. The mighty arm is
crippled when Spirit is made subject to matter. Surely the "tree of
knowledge" produced a pigmy race of "gods."
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PHENOMENA
not understood belong to the things that are, but which we venture not to explain,
not having gained their origin and specific character from science. That which
is real is not characterized by 'ism or belief; and the understanding grasping
a subject is satisfied to name it only as it names itself. Phenomena based on
science produce good results only, and never the opposite; this rule is
invariable, and should measure every calculation. Whatever can work discord,
accomplish a sinister purpose, or harm our neighbor, is not science or the
phenomenon of Truth, but the manifestation of some belief and error. What are
termed spiritual manifestations, as progress compels the change, will be found
not mediumship, but openly defined, and when confined within the limits of
harmony and it be found impossible to do evil by means of them, it will be time
to consider them demonstrations of science, but not until then. These
manifestations at present are the result of tricks or belief, proceeding from
the so-called mind of man, and not the mind of God, from the mind of body and
not the mind of Soul, from person and not Principle, from belief and not
understanding; yea, from matter and not Spirit.
Mind is
divided into idea and belief; idea is based on and represents Principle; belief
has no foundation in
65
science,
and is illusion. What we term the mind of man is belief, forming the visionary
basis of matter, therefore matter embraces not the reality of man. Belief is
not a manifestation of Intelligence, but of non-intelligence. To distinguish
between the mind of Soul and the so-called mind of body, we must remember one
is idea, and the other belief, alias the counterfeit and claimant of mind, even
as error claims Truth. Mind is immortal, but belief is mortal, it being the
so-called mind of mortal body, whereas the mind of immortal Soul is idea, even
science revealing Truth. Mediumship overlooks the impossibility for a sensual
mind to become Spirit, or to possess a spiritual body after what we term death,
while science reveals this more inconsistent than for stygian darkness to emit
a sun-beam. When we are Spirit we shall have gained the high import of this
Scripture, "I and the Father are one," and shall find, too, this
oneness occasions no loss of identity, but that "I" signifies Spirit
and not matter, Principle and not person, Soul and not body, even the
Intelligence represented by all ideas, symbolizing harmony from the blade of
grass to a star. The question at present is, whether this "I" is
Principle or person, Soul or body, yea, God or man? Principle is Soul,
Intelligence, the "I am," but where do we place the "I"; is
it Spirit in matter, Soul in body, Life in the flower, or the outside
Intelligence and Life, that form these; is it man or the Soul of man, outside
of matter? The science of being reveals God not in matter, therefore this
"I" not body, nor in body, but Soul outside of matter, the infinite,
and not finite, yea, Spirit and not person, and through this reckoning, man
gains eternal identity.
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A
suffering, sinning, and dying condition such as must ever remain while the
belief of Soul in body and Intelligence in man or matter remains, cannot be
preferable to the sinless joy and perfect harmony that a recognition of Life,
as Spirit, possessing all beauty and good, without a single demand pleasure, or
pain of body confers; why so many called "spiritualists" are very
gross materialists is because they make personality Spirit and the only
conscious existence, and rejecting a personal God, make a God of persons, which
is equally fatal to the science of being; persons called "spirits,"
instead of Principle that is Spirit and Truth, are their trust, while a belief
in "spirits" belongs to the darker ages, and is demonology. There is
but one Spirit, viz., God, Truth; in other words, Wisdom, Life, and Love, and
nothing is real but what is good or the idea of goodness; evil has neither
identity nor individuality, having no Principle.
Charles
Sumner was a great man, because of his unswerving adherence to right; he had,
more than others, the true idea, and less than others, the beliefs of man. His
professions were few, his acts colossal, his might was mind; not person but
Principle, not man but God.
Science
never caused a retrograde step in being, or a return to positions outgrown, or
that Truth has destroyed. To admit the so-called dead and living commune
together, is to decide the unfitness of both for their separate positions, and
that a mistake occurs when a man dies to sense or lives to Soul. Any supposed
midway between Life outside of matter, or in it, is a myth. We should either
see the so-called dead, materially, or they should be advanced beyond our
sight.
67
Conservatism
never was right, absolute Truth is all that is right, and absolute error is
easier made right than a half-way position. Mediumship assigns to their dead a
condition worse than blighted buds or mortal mildew, even a poor purgatory
where one's chances for something narrow into nothing, or they mast return to
the old stand-points of matter.
"He
is not dead but sleepeth." Jesus knew Lazarus was in the dream of a midway
condition when Truth wakened him; if we could do this, we might claim his
spirituality. Until the imaginary connection between the so-called dead, named
"spirits," and those supposed to be living in matter is destroyed,
mortal man is not dead, only changed, for the immortal is not gained, and
belief can gather itself on the wrong side of the question, and continue the
old conclusion of Life in matter; this, however, is far from the science of
being. When Life is really gained outside of matter, it is understood, in which
case the belief that Life was ever in the body is gone and cannot be
resurrected; our friends thus advanced are Spirit, that never rose from dust
and can no more return to, or commune with matter than a blossom can return to
its bud.
The period
required for the dream of Life in matter embracing pleasures and pains of
personal sense to vanish, "no man knoweth, not the son but the
Father." It will be of longer or shorter duration according to the period
of error, before the reality of being is understood and eternal Life won. What
advantage then would it be to us, or the departed, to prolong this state, by
prolonging the belief of Life in matter.
There is
not as much evidence of intercommunion
68
between
the so-called dead and living, as the sick have of their positions relative to
disease, which science decides an error, for it denies all identity or reality
to discord. The entire phenomena of mediumship are deceptions or delusions;
what is capable of error is not science, but destitute of Principle. When the so-called
medium understands even in part the science of being, his belief of mediumship
is gone, and the result is, be no longer produces the manifestations said to
originate with departed "spirits," but which are really contingent on
the beliefs of the living, instead of the dead.
The
phenomena of science based on a demonstrable Principle, are explainable, but
personal interpreters may create an 'ism in which phenomena are not understood,
and subject to gross misjudgings. Thus error is engrafted into their net-work,
and error is not linked to Truth, hence the gulf impassable that separates the
so-called Life in matter, from Life not subject to death, and the mischance and
mischief that characterize the so-called spirit-returns; the natural result of
the attempt to unite such opposites as Spirit and matter is discord; as soon
might fire and frost mingle, for in either case one would destroy the other.
That matter communes with Spirit, or that Spirit communes by means of
electricity or personality with Spirit or matter, is impossible, and would
destroy the order and harmony of progress. If communion is possible between the
so-called dead and living, the departed go backward in the scale of being, even
as the oak holding on to its primitive acorn, or the so-called medium advances
to Life independent of matter, like an acorn, becoming instantaneously an oak.
Again, if the medium is
69
on
communicable terms with Life, Spirit, independent of matter, there can be no
appearance of Life in the body, no action, animal or organic, and to restore
this former condition of so-called Life, would be as impossible as to restore
an acorn absorbed into a germ risen above soil, and seed. The seed that has
propagated is gone, a new germination having taken place, and until the belief
of Life in matter is destroyed, the real Life that is Spirit, is not won; no
correspondence or communion exists between these two opposites.
There is
but one possible moment when the so-called dead and living commune; the moment
called death when the link between them is clasped. In this vestibule more
awake to the welcome of those gone before, than to present pains of personal
sense; the departing sometimes breathe aloud their vision, naming the face that
smiles upon them, and the hand beckoning them; even as a man standing at the
falls of Niagara with eyes only for that wonder, whispers aloud his rapture,
forgetful of other scenes. The recognition of spiritual Life -- and all Life is
Spirit -- comes not at once; even beyond the grave existence is but a belief of
personal sense until the science of being is reached, for error brings its own
outer darkness and self-destruction, both now and then.
There is
but one spiritual communication, and this proceeds from Soul; personal sense
takes no cognizance of it; what are termed "spirits," are mere
personalities. A shook would not be felt, or sensation held for a moment in the
body, if in reality we communed with Intelligence, Spirit, outside of matter.
The only living Principle of man speaks through immortal sense, and if
70
mortal
sense was touched by this Principle, it would present no appearance of Life,
possess no sensation, and the immortal would appear in its stead, and the
spiritual take the place of the material; even as light destroys darkness and
in its place all is light. Soul is the only truthful communicator with man.
Mortal belief and immortal Truth, like tares and wheat, grow side by side until
the harvest, but to divide instead of unite these, is the design of Wisdom that
separates the wheat, and gathers it away from the tares.
That all
things are possible to Truth, is a scientific position; and that all error is
possible to belief, is equally apparent. Secretiveness, jugglery, credulity,
superstition and belief, are the foundations of what is termed mediumship. But
the so-called mediums have a strong hold on the sympathies of those who mourn
the loss of friends; in the sorrows of bereavement, when thought like a
fermenting fluid is ready for a chemical change, they turn the gushing emotions
into the belief they are not separated, and this consolation comes to the
mourner like heaven's benediction, gaining a strong foothold in the minds of
millions. Hence the hold mediumship has on community, a belief coming at the
hour of individual acceptance, clad with the drapery of heaven, a mystery and
marvel, its phenomena not understood, what needeth it more, as the foundation
of a new 'ism? Perfection is not expressed through imperfection, therefore
Spirit cannot pass through matter; there are no temporary sieves, even, that
strain Truth through error.
Matter
controlled by Soul, God, is harmonious, and governed by a demonstrable
Principle; but when one
71
belief
controls another--and this is mediumship--every possible imitation of the real
is made by the unreal. The possible to Soul is the impossible to body, so also
the impossible to science is the possible to belief. The ideas of God never
amalgamate, but retain their distinct identities and are controlled only by the
Principle that evoked them. The mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms have
their distinct identities, wherein one creates not or controls the other, all
are created and controlled by God. Admitting Life and intelligence in matter,
admits mediumship, making man create and control man; beast, bird, and plant
create and control each other. But this reverses the order of creation,
introducing confusion and discord.
Darkness
and light, infancy and manhood, sickness, health, etc., are distinct beliefs
that cannot blend. To suppose infancy is uttering the idea of manhood, or
thinking its thoughts, would be rejected by reason and revelation; and vice versa, that darkness represents
light, and sickness health, or that we are residing in Europe when we are on
the opposite hemisphere, is simply absurd! Logic would not attempt to bridge
over these distinct conditions, and they are not more markedly distinct than
the so-called dead and living, that you think to unite again on planes so
different! the one called substance, and the other shadow, matter and Spirit communing
together; one would inevitably blot out the other. That Spirit and matter
amalgamate is the error progress and science will destroy.
Mediumship
pre-supposes one man is Spirit, and controls another man that is matter, while
both remain the Same opposites; that bodies which return to dust or new
72
bodies
called "spirits " are experiencing the old sensations, and desires
material, and mesmerizing earthly mortals; that shadow is tangible to touch,
and imparts electricity, etc. Every one of these conclusions are ridiculous;
God is not named in them all, and for the best of reasons, viz., that matter is
supposed to take care of itself, and mesmerism, and person take the place of
idea and Principle, or man and God. Who that has witnessed mesmerism would say
it was science, the Truth of being, or that this was electricity? God controls
man, and is the only Intelligence, attraction, or Spirit. Any other control,
attraction or Spirit supposed to be exercised over mail is a belief and error
that ought to be known by its fruits. The caterpillar, transformed into an
insect of beauty, is no longer a worm; and to push the conclusion that a
butterfly returns again to affinitize with, or to control the worm, is to take
mesmerism to befool reason! Change controlled by Principle is science, but some
belief may hide its science; progress is the evermore of Wisdom, but nothing
save science reveals progress.
Whatsoever
utters falsehood is error, therefore, the impossibility for mediumship to be
science, and governed by Truth. Our only resignation to a new 'ism or some new
disease, is the hope that another stir made in the waters of belief will help
to show their muddy foundation.
The
electric telegraph is a symbol of mind speaking to mind, that in progress of
time will not require wires, for Spirit destroys matter, electricity, etc.; but
spiritualism would preserve these to destroy harmony. Truth pervades all space,
needing no material method of transmitting its messages; we only know it
blesses man, but
73
"cannot
tell whence it cometh"; the sick are healed by it, the sorrowing
comforted, and the sinner reformed; these are the manifestations of Soul, not
sense, of science, and not mesmerism. Soul sends no despatches on matter; but
to-day the electric wire carries to Europe a submarine whisper foreshadowing
the science that is to come; little by little the action of thought is losing
its matter element, becoming spiritualized, expanding outside of fetters, and
science is pushing onward the centuries. The operations of Intelligence teach
us God made man upright, but belief has sought out many inventions; Life,
Truth, and Love act through no erring medium.
Immortal
man communes not with the mortal, and cannot be made manifest through matter;
these are distinct and opposite conditions; one is the idea of God, of Spirit
outside of matter, and the other a belief of "spirits" and substance
in matter; before we commune with Spirit that is immortal, the belief of death
must be destroyed. What would be said of an English scholar unacquainted with
the classics, before he had entered this department of learning, to claim he
understood Greek? You would say he was either an imposter or laboring under
some hallucination. What then of believing we are wearing out Life and
hastening towards death, communing with immortality! If indeed this
communication was possible between the mortal and immortal, the media would
never die, or pass the change called death. And if the departed communicate
still with mortality, then are they sinning, suffering, and dying still, in
which case, wherefore look to them for proofs of immortality and accept them as
cracks ? Commu-
74
nications
gathered from ignorance are pernicious in their tendencies; mediums describe
disease, its symptoms, locality, fatality, etc., who know nothing about it,
warn people of death, and frighten them into it! This obnoxious practice makes
sickness. The case has been proved that a man died from the belief he was being
bled to death, showing the cause of his death purely mental; hence the danger
of ignorant charlatans dealing with disease. What science finds requisite to
destroy in order to heal the sick, mediumship strengthens and perpetuates.
Jesus cast
out " spirits," error did his work, confessed the oneness of God,
Spirit, and never described disease, but healed it. If the sick are made more
comfortable through some error of process they are ten-fold more the victims of
disease in the end. The mysticism of mediumship gives force to its words of
doom, enabling it to do more harm than drugs, for the sick are more frightened
by what a medium pronounces fatal, than when an M.D. so decides; and this fear
is the mental condition that develops disease. Science would have to go over
the whole ground and uproot every seed of their sowing to destroy disease. The
evidence of belief is all the medium has to rely on, while science repudiates
belief with the evidence of understanding, and demands the Principle of being
to bring out the harmony of Life.
At one
time a medium informed us we were ill, said our brain was overtasked, and we
must have rest. To this we filed a vigorous objection, contending for the
rights of Intelligence, that mind controlled body and brain, and the views she
insisted on were the ones to be rid of, in order to be well. Whereupon she
stopped
75
the
conversation, exclaiming, Dr. Rush is present, and says you must use valganism;
(meaning undoubtedly galvanism,) "and rest or be sick." But even this
pretended oracular warning failed to convince us, and the consequence was we
went on in a good state of health; having strong doubts that fifty years of
post-mortem experience had so demoralized the orthography of that learned man,
or perpetuated his old beliefs of matter. Thousands of oar church members who
are rational on other topics, are sustaining and believing just this mummery,
while yet they send forth the cry against science as dangerous to Christianity.
In the
slimmer of 1869, it was stated in the Banner
of Liqht, published in Boston, that the late Theodore Parker said, through
a medium, "there never was and there never would be, an immortal
spirit"! At the same time this paper was repeating weekly that spirit
communications were our only proofs of immortality! While we entertain no doubt
of the humanitarianism of many spiritualists, we have strong proofs of the
incorrect views of spiritualism. A man's assertion that he is immortal, is no
more proof of this than we would gain of an opposite condition, were he to say,
"I am mortal "; Theodore Parker was beyond such vague hypothesis. Life,
Love, and Truth are immortal, and only when these are realized will Life be
understood. Truth is eternal Life, and science the only medium of Truth, or
Life, hence the saying of Christ, "I am the Way, the Truth, and Life, and
no man cometh unto the Father " (the Principle of being) "but through
Me."
Though the
grass seemeth to wither, and the flower to fade, they reappear; erase the
figures that express num-
76
hers; shut
out the tones of music; give to the worm the body called man, the Principle of
these survives despite the so-called laws of matter, and holds its ideas
immortal. If the inharmony of belief hides the harmony of Truth, it cannot
destroy this Principle, for it is God, supreme over all; "who doeth
according to His own will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto Him, what doest thou."
Matter
cannot reply to Spirit, but have you ever ruminated on this heaven and earth
expressly declared to be inhabited by man, controlled alone by supreme Wisdom?
Did you understand there is no other world, you would be reaching sooner that
which is real of Life, where substance is Soul and not matter, and realizing it
thus all would be harmonious and eternal. It should never be said, nothing but
God; for all that is real comes with God, the substance, Life, and Intelligence
of all. Principle and its idea are God and man, co-existent and eternal; there
is no substance-matter. The imaginary line called the equator, is not
substance, the earth's action and position are sustained alone by Intelligence,
that launched the earth into orbit and said to the proud wave, "here shalt
thou be staid," that holds the, winds in its fist," "numbers the
hairs of the head," and furnishes sublime proof of the control Spirit
holds over matter. Even the simple planchette is made to testify to mind's
power over matter, and no longer a mystery and marvel.
The point
to be determined is, shall we allow science to explain all action and
phenomena, or leave these to speculative belief; to admit one's self Soul
instead of
77
body, sets
us free to master the infinite idea; it shuts the door on death, and opens it
wide on immortality. The belief that God has a separate being leads to
multitudinous errors, in which phenomena are ascribed to supernatural and
personal causes. Man is the phenomenon of Soul, of Intelligence and not matter,
and created by God and not man.
Divest
belief of substance in matter, and the movements and transitions possible to
mind would be found just as possible to the body; and then would Spirit
identify being without the loss of body, that we suppose must occur before this
science of being is acknowledged. The final understanding that we are Spirit
must come, and we might as well improve our time in solving the so-called
mysteries ofon this Principle. At present we know not what we are, but
hereafter we shall be found Love, Life, and Truth, became we understand them.
Do you say the time has not yet come, in which to recognize Soul the only
substance, and gain our entire control over the universe and man? Then we refer
you to Jesus, who demonstrated this over eighteen centuries ago, and said,
"The works I do, ye shall do," and "Behold the time cometh and
now is, when they who worship the Father shall worship Him in Spirit and in
Truth"; but this method of understanding God and doing good was Dot
electricity, materia medica, mesmerism, or mediumship.
Matter is
neither Intelligence, nor a creator; the tree is not the author of itself;
sound is not the originator of music, or man the father of man. If seed
produces wheat, the latter flour, and one animal another animal, etc., who made
Intelligence, and how were the loaves
78
and fishes
multiplied without meal or monad? Miracles are impossible; they are phenomena
not understood, but which their Principle explains, and we should reach this
explanation and understand it as did our Master, who demonstrated it
controlling man and matter. The decaying flower, withering grass, blighted bud,
gnarled oak, or ferocious beast, together with all discords including sick,
sinning and mortal man, were not created by supreme Wisdom; these are the
falsities of matter, things of sense instead of Soul, the changing images of
mortal mind, not in reality substance, or Life, but only a belief of these. The
mind of Soul embraces immortal ideas only, but the so-called mind of body
illusion, and not the Truth of being. Personal sense declares matter substance,
but what is this sense but a belief of Life and Intelligence in matter.
Eloquence
is inspiration, not contingent on erudition, but a scientific phenomenon,
showing that all things are possible to Intelligence; sometimes it is supposed
to arise from knowledge obtained from books, and again from mediumship. When
eloquence proceeds from the belief a departed "spirit" is speaking,
and can say what the so-called medium is incapable of uttering, or even knowing
alone, the fetters of mind are unclasped, and forgetting her ignorance, by
believing others are speaking for her, she becomes eloquent beyond her usual
self, and because she thinks some individual, and not the one Spirit, is
helping her. Now destroy this belief of aid, and the eloquence disappears, and
the old limits personal sense assigns are resumed, and she says I am incapable
of "words that glow," being uneducated, proving the fact, "as a
man thinketh, so is he." Be-
79
lieving
she cannot be eloquent without book-learning, her body responds to this
thought, and the tongue grows mute that before was eloquent, loosened on the
scientific basis that mind is not confined to the development of educational
processes, but possesses primarily all beauty and poetry, together with the
power to express them; harmony is caught and not understood by the medium;
caught through a belief, and dependent on it; but Soul gives utterance to
itself when sense is silent, hence the improvement; she was always capable of
this, and a "spirit," or person, had nothing to do with it.
The
beliefs of personal sense, of Soul in body, etc., limit mind; Soul sets man
free, which explains the phenomena of impromptu poets and uneducated orators;
witnessing this in moments falsely called mediumship, 'tis construed
supernaturally, which circumscribes the phenomenon by an 'ism. Matter is moved
because of mind, through the volition of belief, or the understanding; all
harmonious phenomena are produced by the latter, and the inharmonious by the
former. Science removes phenomena from mysticism into the hands of
interpretation; in which it is no greater mystery that mind moves a table without
a hand than that it primarily moves the hand, and secondarily the table, in
obedience to the belief that the only method of doing this is by seizing hold
of it with the hand. Mind causes all action in the case, through a belief that
"spirits" did it, or that electricity caused it, or the more common
belief of voluntary muscular power; in other words, matter moving matter.
Likenesses of individuals, landscape views, fac-similes of penmanship, certain
forms of
80
expression
that belonged to the departed, and even sentences of their saying, may be taken
as directly from minds as from objects cognizant to personal sense; mind sees
what mind embraces, the same as personal sense feels what personal sense
touches. Nor is it necessary that the mind embracing the picture, or paragraph,
be individually present with the clairvoyant. Any mental link touching mind,
though bodies are leagues apart, is sufficient to reproduce these to the
clairvoyant; if the individuals have passed away, their aroma of thought is left,
which is mentally scented and described. Mind has Senses sharper than the body;
this we know from experience, yet we never believed ourself a medium, and
always openly avowed this.
Matter is
moved solely by mind in accordance with science or belief. But mediumship
removes phenomena from rationalism into mysticism, and gives Intelligence to
matter, instead of mind. Pictures are formed mentally before the artist gives
them to canvas; thus clairvoyants perceiving pictures of thought can copy or
reproduce them, even though lost to the recognition of the mind whence they are
taken. The strong impressions friendship, or any intense feeling leaves on mind
is ineffacable, except to personal sense, hence another mind can perceive and
reproduce the emotion. Clairvoyance is mind-reading alone, whereas science in
contradistinction to clairvoyance reveals Truth through the understanding, by
which we gain the Principle and explanation of phenomena; these are distinctly
opposite stand-points whence to obtain information; and the right
interpretation of cause and effect, belongs alone to science. Clairvoyance
reaches only the fancied
81
realities
of mortal mind, whereas science admits none of these things, but reveals Truth,
outside of mortality and error. We can do good to our neighbor through the
science of being, but through it we cannot do evil also. Clairvoyance can do
evil, accuse wrongfully, and explain unscientifically. If we act from the
stand-point of spiritual sense we are right, but if from personal sense, we do
evil continually. The sensuous may be clairvoyant, but cannot be scientific,
and the scientific cannot be sensual. Foretelling events is to discern them
spiritually outside of personal sense, which is prophecy, and accords with the
ancient worthies; or through a belief which is clairvoyance, or mind-reading.
If
advanced in the science of being sufficiently to blend with the Truth of being,
we are seers and prophets involuntarily, not because we are controlled by
"spirits," persons, but by Spirit, which is purity, righteousness,
and omnipotence. To know the past, present and future, is the office of
Intelligence, yea, it is everpresent Truth; and to understand we are not pent
up within the boundaries of personal sense, confined to the ear, and eye, for
sound and sight, or to muscles, bones, etc., for locomotion, is science,
whereby we discern somewhat of being that is real. "Though we take the
wings of morning and flee to the uttermost parts of the earth, behold Thou art
there." Soul is ever present, embracing its likeness, man, and supporting
the idea of Truth to carry out proofs of omnipotence. The science of being
enables us to read mind, foretell events that
concern the universal good, to trace records of Soul, and receive inspirations
from God; but not from idle curiosity, or to work evil, or dip into the
experiences
82
of the
dead, or connect erring and mortal belief with Principle and its phenomena.
In
science, we read mind from the stand-point of Soul, and with all the accuracy
of the astronomer calculating the path of the planets. This mind-reading is
distinguishable from clairvoyance, in that it is the understanding of being
back of personal sense, and possessed by individuals highly spiritual. Its
intuitions are from Soul, revealing what disturbs the harmony of man, and what
promotes it, and enabling us to heal the sick. We can never learn Christ, as
the Principle of healing, except we are able to read mind after this manner,
and discern the error we would destroy. The Samaritan woman said, "He told
me all things that ever I did, is not this the Christ?" Again, as be
journeyed with his students, understanding their thoughts, he rebuked them,
etc.
Through
this spiritual sense Jesus healed the sick and events of great moment
concerning the Christian era and the history of the world were foretold by the
glorious old prophets, through spiritual vision. Our Master referred to a lack
of spiritual discernment in this direction, when he said, "Ye hypocrites
that can discern the face of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of these
times"; in other words, whose personal sense was acute, but whose
spiritual sense was wanting; he knew it was a wicked and adulterous generation,
who seeking material signs, lost the prerogatives of Soul; his cut at the
materialism of the age was pungent, but requisite, and he never spared
hypocrisy the sternest condemnation. Again, he said to this class of believers,
"Ye do the things ye ought not to do, and leave undone
83
those ye
should have done." The great Teacher of Christian science knew a good tree
sendeth not forth evil fruit; that Soul emits only unerring Truth, while that
which proceedeth from personal sense is error; also, that Truth and error
cannot mingle; they are the tares and wheat side by side that never blend, but
await the harvest, when belief shall yield to understanding, and error be
self-destroyed.
At present
Truth is trampled upon, while error holds the reins, with virtue at a discount!
"Well done, good and faithful villain," is the merit mark for to-day,
and youth seems eager for the prize. Such surprising aristocracy of evil is
owing to the gilded falsehood of individual character, those whited sepulchres
that hold the dead carcasses of conscience ; students of the Science of Life
are responsible above all others if false to the teachings of conscience and
reason. Said the wicked king, "I hate him because he prophesieth evil
continually of me." Reformists are mostly traduced by the class that feel
them most: let the good tell the Truth and live it, and the evil publish a lie
and live it, and the former will be doubted and the latter believed, until the
world advances nearer to what is Truth, when their relative positions will be
seen and appreciated.
Those who
understand the science of being, bear testimony to Truth, insomuch as they must
understand what is indispensable to gain it. Never refute calumny except for
Truth's sake; leaving the future years to expose the slanderer and bar, and
reward those who wait on God; fear not the individual falsehood, and promulgate
Truth sufficiently to gain some balance for the world. Earth holds not a
majority of righteous men,
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and in
proportion as we rise in the scale of being, do we learn this, but because evil
boasts of greater numbers, this hath no advantage for the sinner. To-day sin
offers a premium; let down the bars of morality, and you are society's
favorite; put them up higher than society can leap, and you bring opprobrium on
the bartender.
Woman
especially should hold the standard that rebukes vice, and saith virtue, join
us, and though we battle beneath stripes, we will fall in our armor, or lay it
down on the field of victory. To ask in prosperity, "am I right?" is
wiser than to ask this in adversity. One in a million does this, but can we
lessen the number against that one?
Right
advances slowly and with bleeding footsteps, but Truth can afford to wait, for
"the eternal years of God are hers."
We have
investigated the phenomenon called mediumship both to convince ourself of its
nature and cause, and to be able to explain it; and have succeeded in the first
instance, but may have failed in the second. It is more frequently in company
with those who believe in mediumship that mediums narrate something of the
departed, describe them personally, etc., showing it to be the effect of mind
on this plane acting on theirs. Again, all the information imparted comes from
the minds of the living instead of the dead. That some one knew the individual
deceased is evident, and it is not more difficult to read mind far away than near.
We think of an absent individual as easily as one present; hence the equal ease
to discern the absent mind that we visit mentally. The demand to talk of the
dead proceeds
85
from the
mind of the living, who, believing in this process or yearning for this
communion mentally call for it, and this reaches the mind touched to response,
and brings on the mood called mediumship. All theories and manifestations
growing out of belief are error: and the important era for this age is the
awakening or resurrection of understanding through which the unreal yields to
the real, and 'isms are given up; the corruptible yields to the incorruptible,
and the belief of Life in matter or Soul in sense gives place to the
understanding of Life, that Wisdom, Love, and Truth, in which there is no
conscious matter.
It follows
not that in sleep we communicate with the dreamer at our side, because of his
proximity, or that we both are dreamers wandering through the mazes of thought.
If Life has become real to the departed, they cannot return to the unreal; or
if they are at our side, and Life goes on to them the same as before, we are
not in their conscious existence, nor they in ours, hence, we are debarred
intercommunion; our dreams being distinct they cannot blend, though we are side
by side. If those we call departed have gained a better understanding of Life
than ours, they have advanced beyond us; in which case, we would not if we
could draw them back to our ignorance in order to meet us, and we could not if
we would; neither can we advance to their plane of understanding except through
their footsteps, and these have not yet been taken. If one man dreams he is
crossing the Atlantic, and another the Andes, they are not in communion, though
they are side by side, and dreamers both. This therefore represents the
so-called dead and living who are on earthly planes of
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error, and
have not become Spirit, but cannot communicate, because their beliefs of death
have separated them. Again, supposing one man is dreaming and another awake, conscious
of his friend's illusion, they certainly do not meet mentally and mingle; even
thus the dead and living are parted, either through a belief that they died, or
the understanding of Life outside of matter. Memory may repeat the alphabet,
and mind here hold the history of the dead, but if we can read, we never in
reality go back to the alphabet, or find pleasure in it; thus the advanced mind
cannot return to matter.
Soul's
vision is independent of optics; but the belief that sight depends on the eye,
and thought mast have sound to reach our apprehension, shuts out the
understanding of mind, and reverses the order of science. Destroy the belief
that we owe to organization, our hearing, seeing, feeling, etc., and we hear
without an auditory nerve or typanum, and see without optics, We shall all ere
long prove this, and that spiritual senses are true, arid the personal, false.
An organ is but the symbol of sight, hearing, etc., the expression only of
these; and to hold it thus, would be to retain our faculties by right of Soul's
ownership arid government; and to hear, see, etc., with mind instead of matter;
which is the only scientific statement of sense and the Principle of immortal
man. The real relation between Soul and body reveals the latter without sensation
or Intelligence, and the idea of Soul; to understand this opens to view the
capabilities of being, untrammeled by personal sense, explains the so-called
miracles, and brings out the infinite possibilities of Soul, controlling
matter, discerning mind, and restoring man's
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inalienable
birth-right of dominion. Silence the belief we are in the body, and we discern
the past and future as readily as the events of to-day; but this is the science
of Life, and not mediumship. The order and naturalness of phenomena that we
deem a mystery and marvel, are perceived when we remember mind controls mind,
and that matter is only another name for mind; a table or piano is moved by
mind instead of muscle, and we should prove our power in this and other
directions if we admitted it, but not admitting it, we virtually have it not,
like the horse feebly submitting to the rein, unconscious of his power;
phenomena that proceed from belief lose their power when we lose the belief
that occasioned them; matter is manifest mind.
Misinterpretation
hinders the harmony of phenomenon, and leaves it to ignorance and abuse.
Clairvoyance foresees the future and repeats the past that is daguerreotyped on
mortal mind only, and based on no Principle or Truth; it is mortal opinions
unworthy obtaining. A past event is memory, a faculty of mind, and a future one
is perception, another mental faculty; all events are mind before matter.
Mediumship is a belief of individualized "spirits," also that they do
much for you, the result of which is you are capable of doing less for
yourself. Why some event, conversation, or even simple circumstance is more
readily traced by the clairvoyant than others, is owing to the fact the mental
emotions they produced were more vivid, therefore they are more distinctly
defined in mind. When told by a clairvoyant something you have long since
forgotten, 'tis useless to say they never read it in my mind because I
recollected it not. It is by no means necessary the
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memory of
those present retains what the clairvoyant sees. Beliefs, and images of thought
are not limited to space or personal sense, that grosser strata of mortal mind.
The clairvoyant sees not by means of solar rays, or an object striking the
retina; and our proof that mortal mind is the element of all sublunary things
is, that they exist to this mind the same as to personal sense. The reader must
make due distinction between mediumship and the individual; there are
undoubtedly noble purposes in the hearts of noble women and men who believe
themselves mediums.
The
science of Life, gained by slow and solemn foot-steps, at the expense of all
'isms and 'ologies, will unite being into one silken chord of good-will to man;
and there is but one right way under the sun, even the pathway of holiness. We
should not hang on the skirts of others, but in our own identity possess, some
merit of our own not borrowed from others; and is there any so blind as not to
admit individual faults? But mediumship well-nigh disavows all individual
responsibility, and literally lays the charge of all good or evil on the
shoulders of the dead. While we cherish all charity for our fellow-beings, we
have none for a belief that inevitably shuts the door on reason and revelation,
and robes the mind in darkness akin to barbarism. But for the misinterpretation
of mental phenomena, through a belief of mediumship, the signs of science would
have been discerned ere this, in the phenomena of to-day, and what is ascribed
to personal agencies, have rested on the basis of Principle. Phenomena not
understood had better be let alone, until the explanation is given that
deprives humbug and avarice of advantage, and
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contributes
to the general welfare. Principle demands to be understood; but phenomena not
based on Principle, you can explain falsely, insomuch as they are creations of
sense instead of Soul.
When
sensation proceeds from Soul instead of body, the impressions are lucid and
pure, and the intuitions correct and harmonious. But when mortal mind, or
belief produces them, discord, disease, sin and death are the result. Mesmerism
is error that leaves man at the mercy of matter, will, caprice, and mortal
mind; God, Spirit, never mesmerized man or matter. The simplest object in the
hand of a mesmerized subject may- shock him with a belief of danger; a napkin
becomes to him a serpent that stings him; and this is the sensation that is
belief, Place in his hand a cold apple; create the belief it is hot, and it
produces at once the sensation of pain, the same as fire; destroy this belief
of a burn, and the pain disappears. Is not this proof that pain is a belief?
Again, whatever object the mesmerizer presents mentally to his subject, he
sees; do not these facts prove the so-called senses of the body, mind, instead
of organs and nerves? But mesmerism should be put under bonds not to do evil;
at any estimate it is a shameful waste of reason and honesty. That pain and
pleasure are produced by belief, in the absence of all conditions to occasion
them, is another proof that sensation is mind and not matter. To admit Mind
sees, bears, feels, etc., without the agency of matter, is a step toward
science.
In genuine
clairvoyance there is no sensation in the body during its continuance. But to
see in belief is not to see in reality; the basis of the science of being
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repudiates
mesmerism, producing precisely opposite results; it destroys belief, and
insists on understanding. Personal opinions or belief cannot be dismissed too
soon. To admit that error requires a certain period in which to prepare us for
the higher school of immortality, is a grave mistake; there is no necessity
"to do evil that good might come"; science begins right, in order to
end right, and it cannot begin right too soon. Reasoning from false premises
never presented correct conclusions. God never made evil; error produces error,
and belief disappears when Truth is understood, even as a cloud passes from
before the sun. Science contradicts mortal sense, and reveals in its stead the
immortal understanding that gives harmony to man. Wisdom is not gained of
knowledge that brought sin and death into the world; neither is it found in
pulp, or the brains of man; this so-called mind is but a belief that matter
embraces mind.
Magnetism
is without a scientific basis; it is one belief or error controlling another
one. That Spirit mesmerizes, or vitalizes matter, giving it Life and
Intelligence, is the fundamental error of mortal man. Spirit cannot impart
Intelligence to non-intelligence, it has no electricity, etc. ; emanations of
materiality are electricity, and mesmerism is an unmitigated humbug. The
immortal basis of man is not matter, electricity, brains, bones, etc., but
Spirit that hath understanding; not sense but Soul; and phenomena that proceed
from this fundamental Principle of being, are real and harmonious. A desire to
do right may mistake the method of doing it, for belief is changing and unreal;
intention may be right, but if the Principle of phenomena is misconstrued
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and
assigned to a person, electricity, etc., its foundation is a belief only, in
which case science is not discerned, and phenomena left to misinterpretation
and discord. It is not very uncommon to find one's self mistaken in belief. The
miser thinks himself rich, but the fact remains he is poor; one individual
thinks money makes a man, another, that man is more than money; still another
believes man controls man in partnership with God, but these are grave errors;
the M. D. thinks his method right, being learned in the school of Hippocrates;
but Truth reveals knowledge the cause, instead of the cure of disease, and that
there is but one physician that destroys sickness, and never loses a case if
the patient observes directions, and yet this doctor is unpopular at present.
Would you learn His name? it is the Science of being.
Our false
reasoning does all the harm that can be done; it admits power in matter, and
divides Wisdom between matter and God, giving them both separate Intelligence
and distinct action and power, when there is in reality but one mind, there
being but one God; man is not a separate Wisdom or Intelligence. God embraces
all Intelligence, and enters not into partnership with man or matter, for this
would involve the whole firm in disgrace, and imply at times that Truth is
beaten by error. The reign of man is not the kingdom of heaven, or reign of
harmony; for the government of God requires loyalty to Soul, and not sense; but
manmade views endorse loyalty to sense, and a traitor to Soul; in fine, they
have, other gods before me."
Civilization
is not without its idolatry; a drug is its Dragon, Principle is prayed to, not
worked for, and
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matter
controls mortal man; all inharmonies come from this source. Nerves, brain,
lungs, heart, liver, etc., master man ; tea, coffee, tobacco, liquor, etc., are
idols to which he bows down. There is no other volition, action, or government,
but God, and yet the dream of Life in matter denies this, and gives all to
personal sense, which would make evil stronger than good. The belief that
matter is a power holding the reins of government over man, predominates, and
the result is, broken bones, paralyzed limbs, softened brains, disease and
death. The Master healed the sick on the opposite basis of man, and controlled
matter to issues worthy Intelligence ; primitive Christianity heard the
utterances of Wisdom, and cast out "spirits."
The
Rochester rappings inaugurated a mockery destructive to order and good morals.
Physical signs; that manifest the infinite Wisdom contradict not Truth;
manifestations of personal sense in time or eternity are the results of error.
Healing the sick is not the entire demonstration of the science of being, but
it embraces a better understanding of God, of Soul governing sense than materia
medica, or mesmerism. Healing the sick in science, is Truth casting out error;
yea, it is taking God the Principle of man to govern the body; but healing the
sick with mediumship, mesmerism, drugs, etc., is the greater error overcoming
the lesser, and holding forbidden ground stronger because of this. Is it well
to expect from drugs a blessing that Wisdom has not? is not God sufficient for
the wants of man?
Mystery is
the offspring of ignorance, and oppression grows out of governments not
understood. Let us choose to-day whom we will serve, and abide the deci-
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sion;
frankly naming our master whether it be God or matter. No sequel is left to
disease destroyed by Truth, never a consumption in consequence of measles; for
this would take the demonstration out of the hands of Wisdom and give the
balance of power to disease. I am, is the Intelligence that touches the chords
of man to every harmonious issue, but the dream that Life and Intelligence are
in matter would make this "I" both matter, and Spirit; a thing
impossible.
Healing
the sick through Intelligence, is science in obedience to Wisdom, that gave man
dominion over serpents, deadly drugs, etc., and is the natural and normal
control that Soul holds over sense. One of the greatest absurdities of human
reasoning, is to admit person, or matter, better doctors than the Principle of
man and the universe, learned of science. Would we not blush to say, man is a
better musician than the Principle of music? Physiology, hygiene, or materia
medica has no claims in common with Intelligence, the Principle of being; and
mediumship, galvanism, mesmerism, etc., are the right bands of humbug. The
remark was once made in our bearing, "My guardian spirit is nearer to me
than God." This was undoubtedly true, understanding literally nothing of
the science of being, personality was more to him than Principle; and any
change of belief would erect a new standard of conscience.
The theory
called spiritualism objects to a personal God, but no 'ism So directly depends
on personality. The individual exceptions to this error will reach a higher
standard, sooner or later; and leave their material basis, such as electricity,
matter conditions, medium
94
ship, dark
seances, etc., for the science of Life. The word spiritualism, is comically
misapplied when made to designate a sect supposed to hold commerce with "spirits,"
not Spirit, but personality, in some instances, "sensual and
devilish." The true significance of spiritualism, is a reign of Spirit
over matter, of Principle over person, in which Soul, instead of sense governs
man. Any error is a belief of matter, and cannot proceed from Spirit, God; when
the departed become Spirit, those of earth who believe in substance-matter can
no more communicate with them than darkness can enter light, that would destroy
it. When you reach communion with Spirit, you will gain the utterances of Truth
only.
What is
called mediumship, tends to destroy all reliance on understanding and science.
Admitting intercommunion between evil, here and there, both in time and
eternity, we are afloat on the breakers of error, where nothing can stop its
flood-tides breaking perpetually on the shores of time.
We learn
Truth from divine revelation and our own demonstration; what we cannot
understand and demonstrate with scientific certainty and harmony we had better
let alone, for it leaves us at the mercy of a belief. The illustration of
mediumship is a circle inside of which waits a material body to be mesmerized
by a spiritual one, under the table, or perhaps in it, who informs you he
rotates eternally back to things of time, and this is progress, through which
he becomes Spirit, God (?) while in glorious rapport with matter, sensuality
and sin!
In
contradistinction to the 'ism of Spiritualism, let it
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be
remembered other doctrines name the name of God with reverence; hold the Bible
the book of books; teach our infant lips the Lord's prayer; and bid man obey
the ten commandments, that are perfect in Wisdom. Its military drills on
Sabbath, the aboriginal vernacular of its oracles, its rites and ceremonies
that choose darkness rather than light, and above all its loose morals, do not
entitle spiritualism to the standing it has gained in society; hence aside from
these its worst features, it has a humanitarianism and liberality that should
redeem it from under the infatuation of mediumship. Spirit has neither Life,
nor Intelligence in matter; and if our departed friends are Spirit, and we
believe ourselves in matter, we cannot commune together; or if they are yet in
matter-beliefs, we have shut them out of our consciousness by a belief of the change
death has wrought, making them no longer tangible to personal sense.
Again, if
we would commune through the affections, we must be on the same plane of
belief, or understanding with them, to make this possible; and if their body is
changed to us (as is manifest by its burial), so are their affections changed;
and we cannot commune on former terms of personal sense and sympathy. We are
separated mentally according to our own views, and on our own grounds, as
effectually as distance here separates our bodies. Mediumship is mind-reading
on this plane, and nothing more. Some one here knows all the mediums tell; the
imagery with which they clothe expression is but futile conjecture and
imagination, else thoughts let loose from the limits of personal sense, and the
regret is that in this step they should not understand it.
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Mediums
describe sickness, sin, and death; and this description is supposed to come
from Spirit that is wholly unconscious of matter or error, thus perpetuating
the error that needs to be dissected and destroyed. Mediums have a certain
circumference, and never go outside of these limits; at the same time
protesting mediumship is progress that takes hold of immortality. But the
majority of what is termed mediumship, is simply imposition, not even
clairvoyance, or mind-reading, but a catch-penny fraud. Until the so-called
communications between the dead and living are stopped, sickness, sin, and
death will continue; talking error and believing it, make all the reality there
is to it. What is termed mediumship rises no higher than personal opinions and
mortal views. A ball propelled upward or onward and subject to gravitation,
will never pierce immensity. The gravitation earthward must be withdrawn, or
the ball stops. So with mind that would leave matter; and would you fetter the
unbound with ties of earth to matter conditions? But you cannot if you would;
we commune together only as Spirit with Spirit, the immortal with the undying;
or matter with matter, the mortal with mortality; and do you hold yourself free
from mortal fetters, or your dear departed bound with you? The dream of Life
and Intelligence in matter is destroyed when heaven, man's harmony, is reached.
The dead to personal sense are alive to Soul, and preserve all the prerogatives
of being, but because personal sense buries their bodies it loses sight of this
fact, showing virtually we are separated, and they no longer in sympathy with
us, for there is no conscious change to themselves; hence we lose sight of each
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other. We
are holding a belief of them as dead, in one sense, and pursuing it, and they
the opposite, understanding, and pursuing that, therefore our directions
commence from that hour apart, if they commence in science, for ours is error,
else we would not bury the body, and the old and familiar faces would not
disappear; a new field of action should be taken by the so-called dead, and the
old left to us. Any departure from this natural result in progress is but a
belief and. error.
Some mind
here retains the image of the departed, or they have left this image in the
atmosphere of mind in general; the words and acts of great men other minds may
repeat, at least in part. Belief says the departed produce the phenomenon of
Spirit communing with matter, but all there is to mediumship, is belief To say
the dead assert the reality of sickness and death after the falsity of these
are proved by those who have learned disease did not kill them, while we say it
did, is a very erroneous effort through post-mortem evidence to confirm an
error of personal sense, that ought to be fading away to the departed and to
us. The science of Soul destroys the dream of Life in matter, consequently of
sickness, sin, and death, saying, "let the dead bury their dead,"
that is, let the error of personal sense be destroyed and not resurrected
through mediumship and "follow thou Truth," the Life of man.
Intercommunion
between the so-called dead and living is a belief only and not a reality; it is
another 'ism that makes war on science and opens wide a Pandora box on mankind.
Just as the age is getting ready to emerge from dogmatical error, to have the
fountains
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of thought
poisoned and dammed up with such mystery and madness is a miserable catch-penny
plot, or an ignorance worthy the dark ages. As mind throws off its cruder
beliefs of matter and becomes more spiritualized, phenomena resulting therefrom
will become more wonderful, and should be understood on the basis of Soul,
throwing off its own idea of Intelligence and Life, and opinions of mountebank
and charlatan, that perpetuate sickness and sin, discord and mortality, be held
back. But here the advanced thinker must wait before some 'ism, and the vain
pause before caste, so the vultures that prey on the hour have it much in their
own hands. Supineness and hypocrisy on the one hand and persecution on the
other, are porters at the door of error to shut out glimpses of Truth. Although
the science of being is greatly in advance of to-day as our iniquities declare,
it is demanded even more for this, and he that layeth not down all for Truth,
is not worthy of it. Every step of spirituality is linked to Wisdom, but it
carries us thither through much tribulation; greater violence will be done
Truth as the capacities of mind develop, until mind is better understood, and
can be met and restrained with science.
Penal law
may restrain the manifestations of error, and punish them, but cannot reach the
subtle thought before it is manifested; but the higher law of science destroys
the mental error before it results in deeds; thus avoiding the penalty, and
affording a remedy for dismay and wickedness between the periods of materiality
and spirituality. The contest between error and Truth whereby all 'isms will
finally disappear, and the age pass into science, has been going on with pen
and
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tongue for
centuries, and yet, sin, sickness and death abound, because science that called
the battle has been suffocated with opinions and theories. We boast of material
law, but find it fails to save from sickness, sin and death; what we need is
spiritual law, the Soul's jurisdiction over sense, more potent than man to work
out salvation in obedience to the command, "Work out your own
salvation," for God worketh with you. Mankind have wrought centuries on
material platforms, now let us labor on a spiritual one for succeeding
generations, and the body will become harmonious and immortal.
Any mode
of treating the sick through manipulation, will-power, or mesmerism is a very
poor substitute for science; in the first place it is morally wrong. because it
does wrong by inoculating error, and it is better to take the inanimate poison,
than the evil of some people's nature. The less limited the power of an evil
mind, the more sin it commits; it is the escaped felon that ventures on more daring
crimes according to opportunity. Unless the moral growth equals the knowledge
you obtain of the powers of mind, to meet and restrain them, confining them to
doing good only, this developed power is to be dreaded. Stealing is not worse
physically than metaphysically, and you have no more business to control your
neighbor's mind except to do him good, than to control his body, or his
household; any attempts to do this should be exposed and punished; mind should
be protected as well as body, and any interference therewith outside the moral
law of science, is a flagrant wrong. The higher law of justice forbids this
evil action, and in spiritual science your quickened sense of
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right
makes it impossible. We may know how a felon steals on the sleeper, and for his
purse plunges a dagger in his breast, but a common moralist even could not do
this. To bring the Truth of being to the consciousness and understanding of the
sick, is the science that heals them, and lifts its possessor above such a
crime; but to control minds for purposes of avarice or revenge, sinks a
practice to the committal of any error. The law of Truth written on the Soul is
the governing motive in science, and he who pours into the minds of patients
falsehoods for his own sinister purposes, has made a fatal mistake that will be
seen in his patients; it will not only hinder their recovery, but render the
practitioner unfit to name the name of Christ, and thus make Truth powerless in
his bands; all he accomplishes after this, is through mesmerism. Any
interference in practice with the mind's free and unbiased action, farther than
what relates to disease, and bearing one another's burdens, "and so
fulfilling the law of Christ," is averse to science, and leaves the
wrong-doer only the alternative of talking science and practicing mesmerism; if
sentence against an evil work be not executed speedily, this sin is not without
a witness. The mischievous link between mind and matter, called planchette,
uttering its many falsehoods, is a prototype of the poor work some people make
of the passage from their old natures up to a better man.
We are
accustomed to think seeing without optic is second sight, but this is first
sight; even our normal condition of being. He that formed the eye, did He not
see? hath not Spirit every faculty of Intelligence? That sight is not in the
eye is apparent when the mes-
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merized
subject sees through different portions of the head, leaving this optional with
belief. The question is at issue with mankind, whether we begin to demonstrate
being in science, or leave it longer in the bands of belief, and at the mercy
of theories, -- to heal the sick with Intelligence, or hold on to lifeless
drugs to do the work of Wisdom, and call on departed personalities to direct
our lives. What we need is understanding the Spirit that is Truth, and not
"spirits," for there is but one Spirit, even universal Soul, that
knoweth all things. Moving matter, mentally seeing, feeling, etc., has its
scientific explanation thus; but phenomena not understood are at the mercy of
belief, and their true interpretation will not be gained until the belief be
destroyed. Again, the understanding of Truth is not gained by what we see,
hear, or feel, for a personal sense of things depends on belief alone; therefore
the starting-point for the evidence of mediumship is unscientific. If the
belief was as positive that we converse with the dead, see, bear, and feel
them, as our belief of Life in matter is, they would be as apparent to us, and
yet this would not present the Truth of being, a body without sensation. Soul
and its manifestations are all that is real; whatsoever can make discord, or
utter a lie is proved without Principle, and not the idea of Truth; when the
science of our being is gained, tricksters will lose their occupation. In the
onward march of Truth, error will bury its dead and never resurrect error; but
before this hour, it may take to itself seven beliefs more erroneous than at
first, and launch deeper into the dark. This Babel has already begun; mediumship
helps becloud the way of Truth; greater discord is inaugurated
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because of
it; a link formed between the error of another plane of existence and this,
would be another error for Truth finally to destroy.
We say of
matter, it is opaque or luminous, but this should be said of mind that is
transparent, its images readily perceived, or that absorbs, and reflects but
little. A mind transparent, reflects the thoughts of other minds, and
reproduces them, and this is supposed to be the work of the departed.
Legerdemain, or slight of hand, has produced more remarkable manifestations
than mediumship, and what is done understandingly is better than mysteriously;
skill is more rational at this age than superstition. Matter is moved, history
repeated, and pictures drawn by mind on this plane; and that which we
understand not, we know nothing of; we say matter moves matter here, but that
Spirit moves it there; let us have the interpretations of science on these
points, and link not error to error throughout time and eternity. Lacking the
basis of science, we say, Intelligence is in matter, that mind alone cannot
produce phenomena; also, that body is diseased independent of mind; that matter
is self-acting, etc.
A
circumstance was related to us by an old gentleman, a distinguished mesmerist.
He said to a mesmerized subject under control of his will, "You have a bum
on your hand," and he immediately appeared to suffer; the flesh rose up in
a blister that was opened and discharged a watery fluid. Then, continued the narrator,
I destroyed the belief that he was burned, and the cuticle became smooth and
natural as before. We did not witness this test of belief, but having seen the
mesmerizer's performances on other occasions, and knowing
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the man's
veracity, and the power of belief, we could not doubt it.
The
evidence of one of the personal senses is not more improbable than that of
another; mentally to see another's mind is not more impossible than to feel it;
then wherefore doubt that we see what mind contains, as well as feel it? We can
feel the pain of the sick, and the sorrow that is not ours causes us to weep;
the fact is we both see and feel, hear, taste and smell, because of mind and
not matter, and from sympathy with mind; all is mind, and matter one of its beliefs.
But for the interpretations of ignorance, the basis of all physical
manifestations would have been discovered long ago, and given a scientific
explanation; thought awake to this subject would have discerned the signs of
science in phenomenon, had not a belief, as usual, misinterpreted it.
An absence
of eloquence is caused by the belief that schools and colleges possess alone
the key to it, or that some especial endowment is wanting; destroy this belief,
and you break the shackles of mind that imprison its faculties, and set the
captive free to utter the beauties of being. Flowers, birds, waves, mountains
and storms are eloquent, and so is man; even the sons of the forest are
sometimes orators beyond their learned neighbors, for the reason the nearer we
approach our native being, the more we give utterance to Soul; and it is this
universal Intelligence outside of language, that supplies all that is sublime,
or beautiful in words. It was inquired concerning Jesus, "bow this man
knew letters, having never learned?" Eloquence is the voice of Soul, the
God-utterance untrammelled by
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books,
conventionality, or the fear of man; even the self-accusing reminder he is
unlearned, cannot disturb the inspired man. I have seen learned men at the
mercy of books, and the unlearned eloquent beyond them; the so-called mediums
let go their beliefs by supposing somebody else is talking for them, and thus
speak beyond the admitted limits of their own capacities. Soul is infinite in
eloquence, as in all else, but sense is finite in this as in all else; the
Soul-inspired are not comprehended by the man of sense, and the sense-inspired
are mediums deceived in the origin of what they say. The victim of delirium
sees objects through the shadowy evidence of delusion, and so does the sleeper,
the medium, or clairvoyant, and mortal man. Where neither certainty of
phenomena nor evidence of Principle exists there is no real foundation. All
theories founded on the belief that Soul is in body, God in man, and
Intelligence in matter, therefore, that we must develop from within outwardly,
are false, and fatal to science. Wisdom is from without, development is to
learn this, to leave the belief of Wisdom within a skull-bone, and take hold of
our God-being outside of matter. There is no "inner life;" for Life
is God, and God never migrated from man! cause was never in its effect. In
common practice we make no attempt to put the greater into the less; and if
Soul is superior to body, it is outside of it; and if God is superior to man, he
is not in man; and furthermore, man must get out of six feet of Intelligence
before he is immortal in Soul. Wisdom cometh from without; Principle is
circumference, and idea centre; Soul is Principle, and man the central idea of
Soul.
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Science
reverses the conclusions of personal sense in every instance, and abides by a
given statement of man to bring out the harmony and immortality, that theories
have failed to do. No condition of matter can change the fact in numbers that
four times three is twelve; science should govern thought, and nothing can mar
or destroy man controlled by science. Mediumship is without a scientific
statement or proof, and claims to gather Wisdom from "spirits,"
personalities, outside of matter, while the basis of its evidence is admitted
to be matter conditions. The theory called spiritualism admits that God is
Principle, but leaves this admission without practical proof. If God is
Principle, science alone reveals God; then wherefore ask personalities of
another plane to explain Life, Truth and Love? why not strive to reach these
beatitudes through science, and hold them your own instead of another's to
bestow on you. Person cannot interpret Love, for Love alone explains itself;
science reveals and explains Principle, but man cannot explain God; six feet,
nor the stature of ancient giants can represent "the fullness of the
stature of man in Christ," in other words, the idea of Truth. Measurement
may represent the man of personal sense, but this is not the man of Soul.
Mediumship
communes with person instead of Principle, the only Intelligence, Life and
Love; and accepts a personal version of Principle, praying God to be God, as if
Love was idle, and omnipotence uninformed. To call on light for light, is
absurd. "Let there be light," is the will of Wisdom; and this full
effulgence has nothing to do with mortal stint, but shines for 0. Universal
Love bestows all good without respect to per-
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sons; and
man receives, or rejects it; but a prayer or tear changes not divine economy,
or eternal order. Sin shuts out light and blessings, and is the author of all
tears and prayers. Wisdom helps those only who help themselves, and cannot
bless evil; it destroys sin only as man gives up sin, acting in this direction
only as we act. We have seen patients who could not be healed through science,
until they gave up the belief of mediumship, and controlled their own bodies;
for man is not governed in science except by his own Spirit.
Harmonious
man is governed by the Principle of being; the inharmonious by a belief of
personality; therefore, the folly to desire personal control that leads into
all error; there is no Truth except Principle, the one God, and thou shouldst
have no other."
We learn
in science that God and His idea are all that is immortal; but mediumship would
establish the immortality of error. Science reveals progression only, but
mediumship retrogression. Should a pupil continue in the primary school, when
fitted for a higher school? If the departed are unfit for the advanced
understanding of Life through which they take a spiritual place in the scale of
being beyond us, why impose their ignorance on us as oracular; and think
mediumship privileged to be a strainer for error. That the so-called dead
return to torment us, or to comfort us, or to seek aid from us, is but a belief
and error. When wandering in Australia, are you seeking comfort, or giving
support to another, dwelling in the snow-caverns of the Esquimaux? Two
different dreams, or different awakenings, separate consciousness. What is named
mediumship is a phenomenon of belief, without reality, or science; and
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we ought
to know the consequences of launching into new and stronger fellowship with
error, when we are already in it up to our necks.
In an age
of sin and sensuality hastening to greater development of power, 'tis fearful
to consider the influence of belief without more honesty and understanding to
steer clear of the fearful shoals on this dangerous and unexplored coast. The
peril of Salem witchcraft even is not past, until that error be met by the
understanding and destroyed; not the gallows, but explanation, destroys error.
Science must be allowed to explain this phenomenon of belief, in
contradistinction to that of Truth and Intelligence controlling man. An evil
and artful mind is all the satan there is; and this is the fallen angel, or
abused capacity; such a mind learning its control over other minds, will take
the reins into its teeth, and Truth alone must take them out and guide it; as
of old this mind works its spell in some manner on all it would harm, because
the barriers against evil influences from such a source are not understood by
the world in general, and the door is not readily closed against them. To this
end metaphysics are important; study mind more and matter less, for we must
find refuge in Soul, to escape the error of the latter days; and mediumship and
mesmerism more than all else contribute to a terrible future development of
discord. We should strongly insist on the majesty of Truth, and its control
over error; and begin to-day denying right or reality to aught but God, and the
true idea; saying, "depart from me all ye that work iniquity;" and
thus break up the reign of error, and let the world of harmony and Truth
re-appear. If spirit-returns were pos-
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sible,
they would grow beautifully less at every advanced stage of existence; for the
departed would pass away from our ignorance, and we away from the belief of
mediumship, until the beliefs of matter were gone, and we united through
science; and the will of God "done on earth as it is done in heaven."
The mind
of Soul has no fellowship, or communion, with the so-called mind of the body;
the changing, sinful and erring thought is not immortal Spirit; matter and
brains are not mind, notwithstanding opinions and beliefs to the contrary! But
we welcome the increase of knowledge even though it never has borne the fruits
of harmony and immortality, and never will approach the demonstration that
Jesus gave, because knowledge must have its day, and we want that day over. The
so-called mind of body, is belief and error, but the mind of Soul is
understanding, even the science of being. Paul learned that to be present with
Truth, we must be absent to the body; but Cain concluded very naturally if man
gave life he bad the right to take it away, and attempted to kill his brother,
showing this belief of Life in matter, or man, was error from the beginning. We
name a mistaken thought, mind, while it is error only, without intelligence,
but imitating it; without Principle, but claiming to be Truth. Mistakes are
impossible to understanding, and understanding is all the mind there is;
ignorance and evil are not Intelligence. Soul is the only Intelligence, and a
creator not at the mercy of its creation; we see, hear, feel, etc., not because
of eyes or ears, these faculties are symbols or expressions of understanding,
which is the mind of Soul; the mind of body loses them if an organ be
destroyed; but
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they
cannot perish, or be marred in Spirit. The senses of Soul are not matter, but
Spirit, that apprehend and reflect Intelligence, and Life; hence, their
immortality. Inspiration is the utterance of Soul, giving forth its own idea,
or spiritual sense. It is safe to trust this communication; but it would no
longer be so if matter, or personal sense interpreted it. The garment in which
belief, error, hides itself is, that Soul is in matter, holiness in unholiness,
and literally God in man.
Midnight
foretells the dawn; and beholding a solitary star the wise men of old were led
by spiritual vision to foretell the hour of Truth. But what shepherd-sage
today, seeing the light is allowed to explain the darkness. The world is
asleep! lulled by stupefying beliefs; in the cradle of infancy dreaming away
the hours under its spell. Entering upon an unknown eternity, personal sense
will be found as an outlaw escaping to a foreign land, where he is doomed to an
unlooked-for death. The footsteps of belief have not advanced man a single
league toward immortality; and the unwillingness to learn man and God of
science, holds christendom in chains. So much hypocrisy swells the catalogue of
society, the honesty that demands demonstration is not desired, and incurs the
enmity of mankind. Science never plays the hypocrite. To claim you understand a
problem of Euclid, and fail to demonstrate it, would exhibit folly or
dishonesty; but to solve the simple problem according to its rule proves you
perceive the Principle. Science is the rule of harmonious and immortal man;
Jesus the example, and Christ the Principle. This rule of man is embraced in
Life, Love and Truth; and the spiritual sense of the Scripture reveals the
science of being.
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The
prophets did anciently what the worshippers of Baal failed to do, yet in some
instances, artifice and the faith of belief feigned the work of Wisdom.
Necromancy and legerdemain are the inventions of man that originate in brains,
or the so-called mind of matter, while science is the mind of God; one proceeds
from Soul and the other from sense. The beliefs of man manifest error only; but
this is sometimes called a phenomenon of Truth, that proceeds from
"spirits"; the phenomena of Principle are outside of matter, and not
in the least dependent on person. Mesmerism hod mediumship are dependent wholly
on belief or the so-called person of man. Mind evolves images of thought, and
these are the apparitions seen by the so-called medium; it is not more
mysterious, only because it is less common, for us to see, than to feel a
thought. To feel the grief of another's mind is not unusual, but we think, to
see the mind's images of departed friends, is to see them in reality; here are
two equal senses, seeing and feeling, that we separate in power. There are
those that feel another's pain as quickly as their own; the sick may not have touched
them, or spoken on the subject, and yet they feel their pains and can tell
their locality, and this because of sympathy the same as yawning is produced.
Seeing belongs no less to personal sense, or belief, than feeling; then why
more difficult to see a thought than to feel it? Education alone determines the
difference, and in reality it is not more marvellous. Haunted houses, unusual
noises, voices, apparitions, dark-seances, etc., are tricks produced by
tricksters; else they are images and sounds evolved by mind on this plane. The
mind of Soul embraces all that is real and
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immortal,
and the so-called mind of body which we name the mind of man, embraces all that
is unreal and mortal.
Truth
proceeds from Spirit; error from the material body. The mind of Soul, Spirit,
is science giving only the idea of Truth; but the so-called mind of body, or
man, is belief giving false appearances. Because there is no mind of man, that
is, no material mind, thoughts said to emanate from body or brain are delusions.
How may we determine the ideas of Truth from belief? By learning their origin;
thoughts from the Soul are ideas, and from the brain beliefs; the former
proceed from spiritual sense, are not substance, and are harmonious; the latter
are the product of personal sense, and are supposed substance at one time, and
spirit at another, and are inharmonious; the former are understanding, the
latter, beliefs begotten of error. To love our neighbor as ourself is an idea
from Soul, yea, from Wisdom, Love and Truth; and this idea personal sense
cannot see, feel, or understand, but the spiritual sense can ; "the carnal
mind cannot discern spiritual things."
Matter is
but a grosser strata of mortal mind, wherein one belief introduces and destroys
another in Darwinian process. As before stated, Spirit is Intelligence, whereas
the basis of matter is belief; the former is science, the latter mesmerism. The
body that is mortal is an individualized belief that germinates, grows and
decays, "dust unto dust," and mortal man is just this belief; even a
phenomenon of mesmerism, an error construing man matter. Excite the organ of
veneration or the religious tone of this belief, and it manifests the most
profound adoration; but change the action to an oppo-
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site
development, and it blasphemes. Mesmerism is a belief, constituting mortal
mind, error is all there is to it, which is the very antipode of science, the
immortal mind. The former is hallucination, the latter reality; one a wholesale
mistake, the other the Truth of being. Mesmerism assures the sick they are
recovering, when there is no evidence or basis for this conclusion, turns
belief whithersoever it wills, and is the blind leading the blind. Nothing can
be more antagonistic to science; it bides the Truth that man is the image and
likeness of God, and as such cannot be sick, sinning, or dying, and claims that
mortal mind and substance-matter constitute man, thus admitting through
personal sense what Soul denies in science. Mesmerism is a direct appeal to
personal sense, proceeds from it, and derives its only prestige from belief; it
is predicated on the supposition that Life is in matter, and a nervovital fluid
at that; whereas science reveals man's Life, God, and therefore dwelling not in
matter. Mesmerism is error and belief in conflict; but science masters error
and belief with the understanding of Truth, and reveals man immortal, sinless
and undying. Mesmerism is one error at war with another, "a kingdom
divided against itself that cannot stand;" but science is harmonious and
eternal. Mesmerism is personal sense giving the lie to its own statements,
denying the pains but admitting the pleasures of sense; whereas science denies
all sensation to matter, and holds the reins in the hands of Spirit. The gulf
fixed between science and mesmerism is impassible. Vitalized matter is a grave
mistake. Electricity is the last boundary between personal sense and Soul, and
although it stands at the threshold of
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Spirit it
cannot enter into it, but the nearer matter approaches mind the more potent it
becomes, to produce supposed good or evil; the lightning is fierce, and the
electric telegram swift. The more ethereal matter becomes according to accepted
theories, the more powerful it is; e.g., the homeopathic drugs, steam, arid
electricity, until possessing less and less materiality, it passes into
essence, and is admitted mortal mind; not Intelligence, but belief, not Truth,
but error. But the nearer belief approaches Truth without passing the boundary,
where it is no longer belief, but understanding, the more plausible and
dangerous is the error. Mesmerism attracts man to matter, science attracts to
Principle, therefore to Spirit, or God. The more material man is, the more
mesmerism he possesses; but the more spiritual, the less mesmerism and the more
science, and the higher his demonstration of Truth. In reality brains and
matter are one; but we call them mind and matter; but if the brain be the organ
of mind, and to destroy this organ, destroys mortal mind, how can you
distinguish between them? What we call mind and matter-man is mind only, but
this mortal mind grows finer towards the core, and we name its exterior matter,
and the interior mind, in contradistinction to the Truth of being that reveals
all Intelligence outside of matter.
The
generic name of matter is mind; its different species are the beliefs that say
Intelligence, Life, sensation, Substance, good and evil are matter, and the
body called man; also, that Spirit and matter commingle, and form mortal man,
on the foundation of sickness, sin, and death; this theory is not the Truth of
being,
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but its
opposite, viz., error. Life is not organization, and Intelligence takes no
cognizance of matter, these are God, Spirit, and to Spirit there is only
Principle and idea. The so-called man of matter together with every material
belief of a material world, must pass away before sorrow, sickness, sin, and
death can disappear. The millennial glory cometh only as science reveals
Intelligence and Life outside of matter. Alas! that man should take a material
sword to slay error when the two-edged sword of Truth destroys it so much more
effectually.
The
history of the Chinese Empire derives its antiquity and renown from the truer
idea the Buddhist entertains of God, contrasted with the tyranny, intolerance
and bloodshed based on the belief that Truth, Life, and Love are in matter, and
the great Jehovah formed after error's pattern of mortal man, or intelligent
matter. To suppose matter and Spirit mingle, is the error that hides science on
which to base our conclusions of God and man, of Soul and body, and our proof
of immortality. At one time, we define law, Intelligence, and again, matter,
over which Intelligence holds no control, as in sickness, sin, and death. The
law of Spirit is the only law, and this is Truth, destroying the so-called laws
of nature, and its idea is walking the wave, destroying error, healing the
sick, and raising the dead. This is Soul triumphing over personal sense,
putting to fight belief, walking over sin and matter conditions.
Jesus
taught and proved this Truth the prerogative of Spirit, and left his example
for us, saying, "The works that I do ye shall do." Paul was not one
of his
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disciples,
or cotemporaries, and yet he tested these teachings, and demonstrated their
Principle. To conclude man and the universe are governed in general by material
law, but occasionally that Spirit walks over this law, and holds the control in
its own bands, is to divide the capacity of Omnipotence and Wisdom with matter,
and to give the latter the more general claim. These are the false conclusions
of belief; understanding rebels at such folly, mortal belief produces and
governs all that sins, suffers and dies. There is but one law and but one
law-giver, the former is science, the latter God, Soul, the only Life,
substance, and Intelligence of man and the universe; and not in the least
dependent on matter conditions, or acting by reason of them, but destroying
them all. This Truth knocks at the door of history; it is for us to say whether
we will open and receive it.
Materia
medica, hygiene, physiology, creeds and ritualism will lose their power for
good or evil, when man loses his belief in them, and makes Life its own proof
of harmony and God. That which is right is immortal, and the opposite of right
is mortal. When Truth lays its hand on error to wipe it out, all will be
growing immortal; but before the final doom of error there will be
interruptions in what we call the order of nature, and earth will become dreary
and desolate. Not that summer and winter, seed-time and harvest shall utterly
cease, before the final spiritualization of all things, but that their order
will be interrupted, owing to the change in belief.
The next
step in progress is to learn how mind controls matter, and how to destroy
error. The science of being emancipates man from belief, giving him under-
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standing,
through which his harmony and immortality are obtained. There is neither mortal
mind, nor substance-matter; mind is the emanation and atmosphere of Principle,
and not person; it proceeds from God, and not man, from Spirit, and not matter,
from Soul, and not sense; therefore mind is not in mortality, and man has not a
separate mind from Deity, for that would make other Intelligences, and there
would be more than one God. When Truth is admitted, and thinking brains and
intelligent bodies are found a myth, then will the harmony and immortality of
man and the universe appear. When we learn matter has neither Intelligence,
substance, nor Life; and neither suffers nor enjoys; disease will be found a
belief only, and healed by destroying this belief, and giving man the
understanding of himself. Personal sense contradicts the science of being, and
so do dreams contradict the daily experiences of sense; personal sense and
science are opposites, that dispute each other. In dreams you fly, or meet a
far-off friend, and hold your body with your mind, carrying it through the air,
or over the ocean, and this dream of sleep is nearer man's being in science,
than the waking dream of Life in matter; because personal sense governs it
less.
The era of
science comes in on this statement and its proof; viz., that all is mind, and
there is no matter. Sickness, sin, and death are creations of mortal mind, that
Life, and Truth destroy. Order and beauty emanate from the mind of Soul, that
is immortal; and the scientific statement that all is mind, will gain its first
proofs in healing the sick on this Principle. A single demonstration of this is
important evidence.
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A lady
having an internal tumor, and greatly fearing a surgical operation, called on
us. We conducted her case according to the science here stated, never touched
her person, or used a drug, or an instrument; and the tumor was wholly removed
within one or two days. We refer to this case to prove the Principle. We have
stated all is mind, but the distinction between what we call substance and
essence, is made by naming one matter, and the other mind.
Christ
understanding that Soul and body are Intelligence and its idea, destroyed the
belief that matter is something to be feared, and that sickness and death are
superior to harmony and Life. His kingdom was not of this world, he understood
himself, Soul, and not body, therefore he triumphed over the flesh, over sin
and death. He came to teach and fulfill this Truth, that established the
kingdom of heaven, or reign of harmony on earth. The demonstration he made of
this Principle and Truth of being, is the strongest proof that God is the only
Intelligence that produces a perfect man, and is the Life that is without
death, and holiness without sin. Only the science of being reveals the
possibility of meeting the command, "Be ye perfect even as your Father in
heaven," (the Principle of man) "is perfect." Let us then yield
the belief that man is a separate Intelligence from God, and reach his unerring
Principle of being, and be governed by Life and Love, outside of matter.
As music
is harmonious controlled by its Principle, so man governed by his Principle of
being, by Soul and not sense, is harmonious, sinless and immortal. The error of
belief regarding Soul and body, and God and
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man,
introduces discord into the demonstration of man, even the sickness, sin and
death of which we complain. The idea of Life is obtained only from its perfect
Principle, and gained through science in which man is sinless and immortal.
Sickness,
sin and death belong not more naturally to immortal man than to God, to body
than to Soul, for it is morally impossible that these should adhere to either,
and what gave Jesus authority over sickness, sin and death was the
understanding of his scientific being. He stood boldly up in the face of all
accredited evidences of personal sense, Pharisaical creeds, etc., and refuted
them all with his healing. We never read of his saying a creed or a prayer
makes a Christian, or searching into disease, to learn of discord, if it was
acute or chronic, recommending laws of health, giving drugs, etc., or even
asking the will of God regarding man's Life, for this he already understood. He
reckoned sickness, sin and death, "liars from the beginning, "and
destroyed them with the truth of being that was self-evident to him and his
only physician. He kept the commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods
before Me," and we must do likewise and adopt this Truth of being before
we obtain its harmony or immortality.
While
Jesus rendered to Caesar the things that were Caesar's, he also rendered to God
the things that were His, viz., Truth, Life and Love, and we, too, should
acknowledge these God, and sufficient to destroy every discord of man. Jesus
paid no homage to diplomas, to forms of church worship, or the theories of man,
but acted and spake as he was moved by Spirit, the Princi-
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ple of
being. To the believing Rabbi and Pharisee he said, "Even the publicans
and harlots go into the kingdom of heaven before you," not that he scoffed
at Christianity, but he knew there is neither Spirit, Life, nor Truth in mere
forms of religion, and that a man can be baptized, partake of the sacrament,
support the clergy, observe the Sabbath day, and make long prayers while yet a
sensualist and hypocrite. Forms of personal worship may not be voluntarily
wrong, but involuntarily so, inasmuch as they hinder the Spirit. To be a
hypocrite in the science of Christianity is morally impossible, for here
Christianity is based on demonstration, or proof, and yet many will come
falsely in its name as predicted. When God is understood, man will need nothing
besides God to make him healthy and harmonious. Jesus established his church on
this very understanding, and taught his followers it cast out error and healed
the sick. Instead of believing Christ a person, he said, Christ is "Truth
and Life," and "I and the Father are one," thus claiming no
separate Intelligence, action or Life from God, and despite the persecution and
cross this earned from a Pharisee, he wrought out on its Principle harmonious
being.
The
question was then as now, at issue with mankind, how did Jesus, through Christ,
his God-being, heal the sick? Jesus answered this question in the explanation
that the world rejects, when he appealed to his students, thinking they would
better understand him; and asked "whom do men say that I am? "
referring to the "I" that healed and cast out error, and they replied,
"Some say Elias, others Jeremiah," etc.; but these men were dead,
therefore, their answer implied that some thought
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Jesus a
medium controlled by the so-called "spirits" of the departed. We
cannot doubt the belief of mediumship prevailed to some extent at that time,
for Herod had before given the same definitions of Christ's healing; saying,
"John the Baptist has come back, and therefore mighty works show forth
themselves in him." That this wicked king and debauched husband should gain
no higher interpretation of the science of being and the great work our Master
(lid, was not surprising; a sinner could not be supposed to comprehend this
science if the disciples understood it not fully. They comprehended his
spiritual explanations better than did others, but the connection they had with
man's physical harmony or their application to heal the sick, they did not yet
fully understand, so their Master patiently persisted in teaching and
demonstrating to them that the Truth of being healed the sick, cast out error,
and raised the dead. This science of Life was not comprehended by his students,
until his final demonstration, when their great teacher stood before them the
victor, not only over sickness and sin, but over death.
In secret
yearnings to be better understood, the Master turned in confidence to Peter,
saying, "But whom say ye that I am?" This inquiry meant simply, who
or what is it that casts out error and heals the sick? And because he turned
from the other disciples' answer and put anew the question to Peter, it plainly
indicated he disapproved the belief he was a medium as he bad before signified,
saying, "I and the Father are one." Peter's reply so unlike the
others admitting He was "Christ," Truth, that healed the sick and
cast out error, called forth the answer, "Our Father in heaven,"
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that is,
the Principle of man "hath shown thee this," in the science of being,
and also that Jesus is the "Son of God," the offspring of Soul and
not sense. On this Principle and with this Truth he wrought all his so-called
miracles. It was not man, or medicine that healed the sick, but God; not matter
that controlled man, but Spirit that controlled matter. This, his
interpretation of God and man was the rock or foundation on which Jesus built
his church, that is, established his demonstration of Truth, God, against which
the gates of error could not prevail, but there was neither a creed nor rite
named in it, and mediumship plainly denied.
To be
Christ-like is to triumph over Sickness, sin and death, to open the prison
doors to the captive; that is, to break the fetters of personal sense, and give
to being full scope and recompense. This is the ultimate of the command to love
our neighbor as ourself, and an idea from Soul, yea, from Wisdom, Love and
Truth; but this idea personal sense cannot see, feel, or understand, whereas
spiritual sense can; "the carnal mind cannot discern spiritual
things." This idea is vague to personal sense, but to spiritual sense it
is harmony. To favor his faults, conciliates the man of error; but it prolongs
discord; belief produces all the errors of personal sense, and Soul condemns
them. Those hated by personal sense are loved of Soul, and for the very things
sense hates them.
The
foundation error that makes a mortal man is, that personal sense is Truth; the
next that it is pleasure; the third that it is pain; but from this point dates
its destruction; hence the so-called pain of personal
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sense is
comparatively encouraging, it being productive of less sin than its pleasure;
but personal sense suffers only from imaginary self-hood ; its pleasures and
pains are all unreal. The belief that matter has Life and substance is the
error that produces all suffering, sin and death; the chemical action of Truth
on this error will destroy it. Truth gives the idea of Spirit-substance, and
destroys all supposed matter-substance, while error gives the belief of
matter-substance, and hides the idea of Spirit-substance.
Immortal
man is an idea of Spirit-substance, Life and Intelligence; but the mortal is a
belief that Intelligence, Life and substance are in matter. The idea of
substance guided by understanding, becomes the infinite idea, even as the Soul
of immortal man is the infinite Principle. Mortal man is a belief of
Intelligence, substance and Life in the body, therefore of a limited Infinite!
To let
oneself out of this nutshell, we must understand the scientific relationship
between God and man, or Principle and its idea; but before this is really
understood, the interval will be filled with approaches to it through belief;
and this will be attended with doubt, discord and sin.
The
material world, at a future date, will become a spectacle of disorder and
dismay on one hand, and of science on the other. There will be convulsions of
mind and consequently of matter, spasms of error, earthquakes, famine and
pestilence. Sickness will become more acute, and death more sudden: but to
those who understand this hour, as explained in the science of being, length of
days will increase, and harmony and immortality be near, even at the door.
Knowledge
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will then
diminish and lose estimate in the sight of man; and Spirit instead of matter be
made the basis of generation. At this period phenomena will be spiritually
discerned, but there will be strong conflicting opinions and results. Those
understanding Life scientifically will hold in check those, letting go of old
opinions, who would hang an M. D., a mesmerist, or a medium, -- thus curbing
the violence of old beliefs exercising retributive vengeance. The truly
scientific will be a law to themselves of Love, Wisdom and Truth, and "do
violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely." Sin will make deadly
thrusts at the science of Life, as penal code goes out to give place to. higher
law. But those controlled by Soul will spare the rod contrary to the religious
persecutions of past history, and save the erring from the gallows and gibbet.
The martyrs will be the adherents to Science, in the coming centuries, and
to-day their fate is foreshadowed. In coming years the person or mind that
hates his neighbor, will have no need to traverse his fields, to destroy his
flocks and herds, and spoil his vines; or to enter his house to demoralize his
household; for the evil mind will do this through mesmerism; and not in propria personae be seen committing the
deed. Unless this terrible hour be met and restrained by Science, mesmerism, that scourge of man, will leave nothing sacred
when mind begins to act under direction of conscious power. Sensuous man makes
war to the death on his enemies; but the spiritual pours blessings on them
unseen and unacknowledged; like the chamomile, that crushed, yields the
sweetest odor, spiritual minds emit an atmosphere of Truth that blesses their
enemies and destroys error while it is persecuting
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them; but
stir the evil sensual mind, and worse than the deadly Upas are the plagues it
emits. Those who gain the essential points of the science of Life will Buffer
from the sensual world more than even the primitive prophets and disciples did;
but the science of being supports its followers amid shoals and quicksands.
Spirituality
is the only Christianity; and its basis is, to be absent from the body and
present with the Lord; " sensuality is personality ever present with the
body. We have already sufficient professions of goodness without the Spirit:
too many religions and not enough Christianity is the genius of the age. Man
knows already too well how "to make long prayers, to be heard for his much
speaking," and to enlarge the pharisaical borders, to steal in private and
give in public, but this is political, not Christian economy. What we want is,
"Christ and Him crucified," in other words, Truth and the
cross-bearing that attends it, to make mankind better.
Because a
man has uttered the law and ten commandments to fashionable audiences some
quarter of a century, it does not follow that he can demonstrate the
Christianity of the prophets, and of Jesus who cast out error and healed the
sick. Sometimes people resort to a cup of tea or coffee to help them preach, as
if matter was superior to Truth in this direction. Is the Truth we utter
matter, or God? and if the latter, "giving does not impoverish nor
withholding enrich; " have we less of the Spirit that is God for having
given utterance to it, and is matter or Spirit our strength? Because a man has
obtained a high social and public position, are we to conclude he must be a
good man? The soft palm
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upturned
to a lordly Salary, and architectural power -- making dome and spire tremulous
with beauty, that turns the poor and stranger from the gate, shuts the door on
Christianity. It is a skeleton of religion that requires a doctor of physic to
save the body and a doctor of divinity to save what? immortal Soul that is
already saved. This is not having "Christ in you the hope of glory,"
nor does it cast out devils and heal the sick; the manger and cross tell in
vain their story to pride and prejudice. Taking wealth, popularity and
sensuality by the right band, takes God by the left, and palsies that hand,
making moral lepers instead of Christians. Hear our Master's words on this
subject, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Ministers should
make the pulpit the rostrum of Truth, whipping creeds and pride out of their
synagogues to let in humility and the science of God, using those strong
arguments, cords, that Jesus twisted together to scourge out of synagogues the
money changers and make them temples of Truth. The prophet of to-day beholds in
the spiritual horizon the bow of promise; the demonstration of Christianity
that our Master gave, is again required, and no other "sign shall be given
you." Christianity brings with it a phenomenon that will be misinterpreted
by the material age in which it appears, because it is the phenomenon of Soul,
and not matter, that personal sense cannot comprehend, but when spiritually
discerned will be found to destroy sickness, sin and death. Creeds, doctrines
and beliefs do not express it, much less can they demonstrate it; we must
understand God to demonstrate Truth. Jesus of Nazareth, the fittest teacher of
mankind, possessed this understanding; but the
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scorning
Rabbi, the rival Pharisee, Gethsemane and the cross were ready to devour him.
Over
eighteen centuries ago the mere religionist was willing to hail Christ, Truth,
with pomp and sceptre, but it came not thus, and though the modern scourge is a
scoff, instead of the lash, the doors of some churches are quite as effectually
closed against Christ to-day as then. Truth bids man watch, but is there guard
or control held over personal sense by mere religionists? The Christianity of
Jesus was the science of being; it destroyed sickness, sin, and death, denied
personal sense, bore the cross, and reached the right hand of God, even the
perfect Principle of man. Our Master, meekly, and yet as a victor bore the
mockery of his self-conscious God-being. "He maketh himself as God,"
was the foundation of all accusations against him; and the indignities he met,
his followers must now meet, until this Truth is understood. He overcame the
world, temptations and sins, proving their nothingness. He wrought through the
science of being, the example of salvation from sin, sickness, and death, and
established the proof that he was Christ, and that Christ is God, the Soul and
Life of man.
Every good
word and work of our Master evoked but denial, ingratitude, and persecution,
from sensualism and malice. Of the ten lepers be healed, but one returned to
give God thanks, that is, to acknowledge the Principle that healed him,
therefore, but one interpreted his healing aright; and yet he wrought on for
his enemies. He felt their sicknesses, but more he felt their sins. Despised
and rejected of men, yet returning blessing for cursing, his spirituality must
destroy their
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materiality,
and through his stripes must they be healed; because error had felt the blow
Truth gave it, the scourge and cross awaited Jesus. The man of sorrows was not
in danger from salaries or popularity; deserving the homage of a world, and
sharing pre-eminently the approval of Soul, brief was his triumphant entry into
Jerusalem, and followed by the desertion of all save a few mourners at the
cross. This is what it means to be spiritual in an age of materiality. The
impossibility for worldly favor to attend Christianity is seen in its great
moral distance from it. When personal sense approves, Soul condemns, and where
man praises, God receives no thanks. One of the evidences of materialism and
error is when the belief of Life in matter is full of worldly prosperity.
History
informs us that Jesus, feeling the gross materialism that surrounded him, at
times experienced a momentary weakness, and turning, asked "Who hath
touched me?" The more material, thought this inquiry was occasioned by
contact with his body, but he knew it was mind in the multitude that called on
him for aid to destroy its beliefs, and make it more spiritual, even as
himself. His quick apprehension of this arose from his spirituality, and their
misconception, from their materiality; not that he deserved less the advantages
of adroitness, because of his goodness; but possessing the insight and honor
that cometh from Soul, only, he had less personal sense; these two come from
opposite directions, and the treasures of our Master were laid up in Spirit,
not matter. Christianity turns from sense to Soul, as naturally as the flower
turns from darkness to light; those things eye hath not seen, or ear heard,
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neither
hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, belong to it.
Paul and
the loving John had a very clear sense of the science of being; they knew a man
achieves not worldly honors except he labors for them, and lays a sacrifice
upon the altar of mammon, by giving his affections to the world. And they also
knew to make this offering to wealth or fame, was not to leave all for Christ,
Truth, that comes from the opposite direction, and from opposite means and
aims; also, that a man walks in the direction he is looking; and that,
"where his treasure is there is his heart also." If our hopes are
spiritual, we are not looking, or yearning for the material, but will wear the
"image and likeness of God," at any worldly cost; in reality we are
coming out from the world of sense, and being separated from it. The favor of
sectarianism, the homage of wealth, and smiles of ambition flee before
Christianity; but Wisdom crowns its brow.
If my
friends are going to Europe and I am making my way to California, we are no
longer journeying together; but have separate time-boards to consult, and
different routes to pursue; in fine, our paths have parted, and we have no
interests in common, to help each other on in opposite directions; but if they
will pursue my course, I will give them my railroad guide, and interest myself
to make their passage pleasant; or if will take theirs, they will help me on,
and our companionship will continue. Thus the scientist must choose his course,
and be honest, acting consistent with that choice; his route lies not with the
world of sense, and if he gravitates thitherward, he is like a man who
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travels
one day east and another west, but thinking the passage west a more fashionable
route, the company more alluring and its pleasures more enticing, changes
tactics and journies six days westerly, and the seventh day toward the east,
vehemently protesting he is traveling in one direction only. You would say of
that man he is untrue and cannot be trusted; and don't let him cajole you into
the belief he is really going east because he produces from his pocket a ticket
earned by some toil-worn pilgrim, who had explored the way, and from whom he
begged it, and with this passport means to make his passage. Unless a man
advances spiritually, he is not scientific; and if he is scientific he must
start honestly, and journey some every day; and however long he is in reaching
the desired goal, if his honesty be preserved, he will finish his course. Many
starting with the letter of science, will omit the Spirit, and make shipwreck
of their course. We must not only seek, but strive, or we cannot enter the
narrow path of science; for broad is the opposite one of sense that leadeth to
destruction, and many go in thereat.
Jesus
experienced few of the so-called pleasures of personal sense; perhaps she knew
its pains, for "he bore our infirmities that through his stripes we might
be healed; " Truth in contact with error produced chemicalization. Hence
our Master's sufferings came through contact with sinners; but Christ the Soul
of man never suffered. Jesus mapped out the path of the science of being, and
through poverty of sense was enriched by Soul; but to those buried in the
belief of Life in matter, and insisting that we see alone with eyes, and hear
with ears, and feel through nerves, he said, " Having eyes ye
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see not,
and ears ye hear not, that ye might understand and be converted and I might
heal you." Their belief of personal sense shut out the communications of
Soul; hence the saying, "Ye cannot serve two masters." Jesus adhered
to one only, was guided by spiritual sense; therefore the sensualism of the age
separated from him, and hated him. His affections were pure; theirs carnal; his
senses were Truth; theirs but error, therefore Love with him was spiritual
science; with them it was material sense; their imperfection and impurity felt
his perfection and purity an ever-present rebuke; hence the worlds hatred of
the just and more spiritual Jesus; and the prophets' foresight of the reception
it would give him. The people knew not how to interpret their uncomfortableness
arising from his presence with them; and the chemical changes he instituted in
their being. When those opposites met, had they understood the meaning of the
stir it produced, they would, like Peter, have wept at the warning, and begun a
warfare with personal sense that opposed Truth. They in their ignorance of the
science of Life, never regarded the fact that the good are hated only by the
evil, while the former suffer for the latter in life-long sacrifice. He bore
their sins in his own person; that is, he felt the suffering their error
brought, and through this consciousness destroyed error. Had the Master utterly
conquered the belief of Life in matter, he would not have felt their
infirmities; he had not yet risen to this his final demonstration, or bad he
partaken equally of their sensuous being, he would not have so suffered from
them, nor they from him. By overcoming his own temptations he had measurably
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conquered
for them, even while they knew it not; he demonstrated purity and Truth, and
their power to heal the sick, and assured others they might give his
demonstration, but for their disbelief in its science. Though they saw not his
righteousness, they must all gain the harmony of being from the Truth he
taught, and plant their demonstration on the foundations he laid, on what he
had experienced for them, and poured liberally into their ears. This was the
cup drank by the pioneer of the science of Life, by him who came with those
higher proofs and practices of Truth and Love unperceived by the age in which
they appeared; they neither understood him, nor his works, and would not accept
his explanation who did understand them.
Anomalous
though it seems, I have no doubt that Jesus was shunned, and deemed a bad man
at the period of his public labors, by all, save the few unpretentious ones
whose Christianity enabled them to understand him. This was the cup drank to
the dregs, by our Master; he also spake of those who followed him, drinking
this very cup; which must indeed be the case if they are in advance of the
public sentiment. Referring to himself as doing nothing beyond the ability of
others to do, he said, "The works I do, ye shall do, and greater."
Before this he had established the platform that "a tree is known by its
fruits," indicating, if they healed the sick on the Principle that he
healed, they must be Christians. Though it is in vain we stretch our weary
wings to the full realization of that saying to-day, yet in centuries to come I
look for its fulfillment. Whosoever shall triumph over personal sense, and lay
down his earthly all on the altar of the
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science of
being, will drink his cup, and be able to give the demonstration of healing the
sick, casting out error, raising the dead, and triumphing over the grave, that
our blessed Master gave for our example. But earth hath no recompense for such
a life; personal sense can neither give nor receive this reward; the
understanding of God is its only recompense that lifts being above mortal
discord and gives it immortal harmony.
A person
may reward unjustly, but Principle cannot. That we receive all deserved
punishment on earth, is quite as false as that all our rewards are mundane; and
who that toils and sacrifices unceasingly bearing the cross only to see their
existence mocked, will say this is sufficient from the hand of Love? Or again,
that those have suffered all they have to experience, who still gloating in
sensuality and hypocrisy, or murder and rapine, succeeding in all villainies up
to the time they pass suddenly from sight in this loathsomeness, are pardoned,
and pushed straight into glory? Their punishment here was certainly
insufficient to reform them, which is the design of Wisdom, and the good man's
heaven would be to them a hell. How can they find bliss in purity and Truth, to
whom these are the very opposites of themselves. There is nothing in mercy or
Love, that can pardon the necessity in science for sinners to suffer after
death. To destroy the penalty due to sin, would be for Truth to pardon error;
in which case, the sinner is no wiser for what he has experienced; for if he escapes
the punishment he deserves, it is not according to God's government, in which
justice is the handmaid of mercy. For sin to produce suffering is the only way
to destroy it to him who believes in the pleasures of sin.
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When man
admits there is no pleasure in sin, he has begun to save himself.
Contemplating
history from every moral data, down to the present, we learn the faith in
Christ, Truth, that caused our martyrs to be burned, and the rights of man to
be christened on a gallows, repeats itself in the just suffering for the
unjust; then how has God pardoned sin? We all suffer because of sin, and must
until science destroys sin and its sufferings. Did the martyrdom of John Brown
make one of the crimes of Jefferson Davis less, or less deserving its reward?
What awaits the God-inspired martyr is the crown of thorns here, and the
victor’s palm hereafter; but what awaits the pampered hypocrite, is the laurel
here, and the thorns there.
The
demonstration Jesus gave of God, did for the world more than a problem wrought
and explained in mathematics does for the learner; it taught the human race how
to demonstrate aright the Principle, that is God; and if this demonstration had
been understood, man would have reached the example of Jesus, and solved his
being harmoniously ere this. The martyr-spirit is the stepping-stone from the
human to the divine; martyrs are the luminaries of Soul that go down to
personal sense, like the sun to appear again in the amplitude of their being,
when sensuality shall give place to spirituality, and the leaders' stand-point
is reached. Truth is self-conscious right that brings its own reward, but not
amid the smoke of battle is it seen, or appreciated.
The
personal belief of God that holds Spirit person instead of Principle, making
Soul intelligent matter,
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and
possessing all the tyranny and passion a belief of Life in matter manifests,
was the very error that crucified Jesus; and that to-day is shutting out the
reign of harmony. Jesus knew there was but one God, hence that man's
Intelligence was God, and not man; Principle, and not person; therefore, said
he, "I and the Father are one; " and because of this scientific
statement, and the demonstration it brought with it, the rulers cried out,
"Crucify him, he maketh himself as
God," " and what further witness need we against him."
To-day this very statement is met with the same opposition from sensualism it
ever was, and why? Because it cuts off right hands, and plucks out eyes by
denying personal sense; and lays the axe at the root of the tree, cutting off
the medium of all sin. God is perfect; and if there be no other intelligence,
we can have no imperfection; the only way to destroy error is to divest it of
supposed Intelligence, by which it can give pain or pleasure. Now to admit
there is a separate Intelligence from good, called evil, is the error that
admits two powers, namely, God, and devil, simultaneous, but gives superiority
and all worldly success to the latter; this error is waning somewhat, and
to-day his Satanic majesty is not deemed so much a distinct individual as a
universal power. The next step in progress is to learn there is no devil; that
error and sin have no Intelligence; the Scriptures deny aught but God, and his
creation; and assert there "was nothing made without Him," while
"out of the mouth of the most high proceedeth not good and evil;" in
other words, that God never made a demon, for a pure fountain sends not forth
corrupt streams, and nothing but God is self-
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existent;
Jesus stripped all disguise from this error, had he only been understood; he
explained it impossible to have another Intelligence than God, or for Him to
create evil, and demonstrated this by healing the sick, and casting out devils,
showing that God destroyed satan instead of making it; in other words, that
Truth destroys error by proving its nothingness. The personal belief that man
is a separate mind from God, and that this mind comprehends, feels, and exists,
an entity within the cranium, and sins, and suffers, ad libitum, is the only personal devil there is, and the one we
should begin to cast out.
This error
is not the result of brains, but is a belief that brains are Intelligence; in
other words, that God is in matter: it is not the result of Intelligence in
matter, but a belief that matter is intelligent; not the product of man's mind,
but a belief there is mind in man, and this belief is delusion, and delusion,
error. Do you ask who or what is it that believes? Insomuch as you admit God is
not the author of error, and that "all things were made by him and without
him nothing was made," we answer no one believes: it is only that error is
a belief, and a belief is error. The prerogative of Soul is understanding, but
personal sense has no claims whatever to this. We need not cite anatomy,
physiology, materia medica, etc., that place Intelligence in personal man, but
will cover the ground with the Scripture metaphor that named belief the
"tree of knowledge," whence sprang sickness, sin and death. A belief
is not Intelligence, nor its result, neither God, nor the result of this
Principle; it is not Soul, nor its manifestation. What then is it? The opposite
of Soul,
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called
brains, and personal sense. Error is the opposite of Intelligence and imitates
it only by falsehood, calling Principle, person, God, man; thus pre-supposing
man intelligent matter. Is it an error to believe Truth? It is impossible to do
this; all we receive of Truth comes through the understanding, The so-called
mind of man can be deranged or destroyed by a blow on the cranium; but
Intelligence, that governs man and the universe, is not lost. Intelligence is
Life, Love and Truth, and by no means personal sense, sin, sickness and death.
The mind of Intelligence understands and never believes, and the body of
Intelligence is spiritual not material; idea, and not substance; yea, it is the
reflex shadow of Soul, even man that is "the image and likeness of God;
" what besides this we name man, is but a belief and error, dust to dust.
Hereby we learn a lie is all the satan there is, and marking its footsteps we
gain this proof, all the discords of earth proceed from false conceptions of
God and man; besides, falsehood preys on harmony in society, and hides
individual character. Truth is generally unperceived, because a lie is a more
natural conclusion for the wicked. Expose sin, and it turns the lie on you; a
sinner for the time prospers in secret wrong-doing until the final hour that
"whatsoever is hidden shall be revealed." We must tell the Truth
concerning sin and sinners, because of the moral necessity not to cover
iniquity; they will deny what we say, of course, but at the same time it
produces the desired effect, and we receive our reward, for it introduces new
light and makes sinners afraid to repeat the offence when they are found out.
The higher you rise in the scale of Truth, the more intense and multiplied
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are the
lies concerning you; the louder God speaks, the higher the devil lifts its
voice to be heard above Him; the more Truth you bring, the more error is stirred
by it, until the final conquest on the side of right.
Jesus
taught his students the science he understood, but they never reached his
demonstration, and rose toward it only as they followed implicitly his
directions. It is of little importance whether self-abnegation and faithfulness
are rewarded in the present or future; their recompense is sure. There must be
a going out of personal sense, and coming in of the spiritual, to understand
the science of being, and to give a higher sense of Omnipotence whereby to
control man and matter. Jesus taught and practiced the science of being, tested
the reception it would meet before it was understood, and notwithstanding the
malice that error aimed at Truth, fulfilled his Soul-mission, triumphed over
sense, and sat down at the right hand of the Father, having solved being on its
Principle, which is Truth, Life and Love. He who was God, and not in man, was
"no respecter of persons; " therefore, claimed no personal worship.
Persecuted from city to city, he went about doing good, for which he was
maligned and stoned. Jesus taught us Principle is God, and God is Love, but
Pharisee and Priest affirmed God is person that can love and hate. Truth that
is felt is hated by the sinner; for it cuts off right hands, plucks out the
eyes, and calls on him to become wise. The belief of God in matter, or a
personal Deity, never yet made a Christian, and will go down in a moral
chemical that has already begun arid will continue until God is admitted Soul
outside of sense, and the only Intelligence.
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The basis
of all health, sinlessness and immortality is the one great Truth, that God is
the only Intelligence, and for this Truth, the great Teacher of the science of
Life was martyred. The reward of our Master was not on earth, and not in
matter, but Spirit, while all his sufferings came from the materiality of the
age, and were not because of his own sins, but the sins of others. Then was it
just for him to suffer? No, but it was inevitable in this wicked world where
the good suffer because of the evil, even as the evil derive blessings from the
good. Jesus taught us, that the way of Truth is the way of salvation, which is
spiritual; material religion consists of rites, ceremonies, a personal God,
etc., but this is not Christianity. Seventy students Jesus sent forth whom he
had faithfully taught; but of twelve only have we any especial record, and one
of those had a devil. His final crucifixion drew near, the hour of triumph over
personal sense, and all the pangs this world could occasion-the boar that gave
the highest proof of the science of being, proof so important 0 mankind. Judas
thought to take advantage of the world’s ingratitude to his teacher, and betray
him into the hands of his enemies for thirty pieces and the smile of a Pharisee.
Well did the pitiful traitor know his time, for the world was then in mystery
concerning him and his teachings. Perhaps Judas feared the period approached
that should reveal the great goodness which enabled his Master to demonstrate
above him, and to rebuke the sinner as none other could; the moral distance
between himself and his teacher had already created his enmity, wherein greed
for gold held empire over gratitude. He also knew the sensuous world loved
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a Judas
better than it did a Jesus, and this was another point through which to
victimize his Teacher, and raise himself with the people. Judas had all the
world's weapons, Jesus none of them; therefore he chose not to defend himself
before those who understood not that defence, so "he opened not his
mouth." The great exponent of Truth and Love silent before error and hate!
They to whom he had given the highest proofs of the science of being,
misinterpreted them, and said deridingly, "He maketh himself as God."
Those "who turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most
high," esteemed him "stricken and smitten of God," he was
"brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep dumb before her
shearers," and "who should declare his generation," who in future
should say whence cometh Truth, and answer the question, what is Truth?
The Rabbis
could not decide this momentous inquiry; they must wait on the centuries; but
the women at the cross clued say he was right who had inspired their devotions,
winged their faith with understanding, healed the sick, cast out error, and
caused those he sent forth to say, "Even devils are subject to us through
thy name." But where were the seventy whom he had taught, were all
conspirators, save eleven; had they forgotten his weary years of explanations
and patient waiting, all his labors of Love as clay by day he taught them the
science of Life, and spake to them the Truth of man; could they not give him
even a cup of cold water in its name, and satisfy for a moment his yearning for
one proof of their fidelity to what he had taught? >From early boyhood, he
had been about his
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master's
business; and they about theirs; but their masters were unlike; one was Spirit,
and the other matter; one God, the other man, one was Soul, the other personal
sense. He had suffered and experienced for them, to give liberally his
dear-bought bounty unto their famine; but what was his reward? Forsaken of all
save a loving few, who knelt in woe at the scene of his crucifixion. Peter
would have smitten the enemies of his master, but he bade him put up the sword,
and take not the world's weapons to defend Truth. Jesus disdaining artifice or
brute courage, when Truth could not protect him from the false accusation, was
able to submit to a felon's death. His mission was to vindicate a Principle,
and not a person, while their highest ambition was the applause of man.
Jesus
could no doubt have withdrawn from his enemies, but he permitted them the
opportunity to destroy his body mortal, that he might furnish the proof of his
immortal body in corroboration of what he had taught, that the Life of man was
God, and that body and Soul are inseparable. The opposite belief was the error
he came to destroy. Neither spear nor cross could harm him; let them think to
kill the body, and after this, he would convince those he had taught this
science, he was not dead, and possessed the same body as before. Why his
disciples saw him after the burial, when others saw him not, was because they
understood better his explanations of this phenomenon; he had given them the
Principle of it, in healing the sick; hence the unsatisfied malignity of his
foes, that he was not dead, but furnished a higher demonstration than ever of
the Principle he taught, and for which they had hoped to kill
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him.
Another important feature was, that he sought not the protection of law from
their unjust wrath, but chose in every instance to demonstrate the higher law
that governed being, that cast out error, healed the sick, and was about to
prove its triumph over death, over the beliefs of personal sense and Life and
substance in matter. Jesus knew the body is but a reflex shadow of immortal
Soul, also that it is impossible to lose this, for, as the Scripture saith, it
is the image of God.
Alone, the
meek demonstrator of God and fittest teacher of man, met his fate; no eye to
pity, no arm to save; he who had saved others, a solemn, faithful sentinel at
the threshold of the great Truth he would establish, unprotected by man, was
ready to be transformed by its renewing. He had taught what he was about to
prove, that Life was God, and superior to all conditions of matter, above the
wrath of man, and able to triumph over the cross and grave. In the garden
night-walk, that hour of gloom and glory, the utter error of supposed Life in
matter, its pain, ignorance, superstition, malice and hate, reached him in
their fullest sense. His students slept. "Can you not watch with me one
hour?" was the supplication of their great spiritual Teacher, but
receiving no response to this last human yearning, he turned forever away from
earth to heaven, from sense to Soul, and from man to God. The triumph of Soul
over sense demanded by the great Principle of being must be proved, and Jesus
availed himself of Life and glory outside of matter, in this supreme hour, and
final demonstration of the science of being; and yet viewing its utter
magnitude, and feeling the lack of all human sympathy, he momently exclaimed,
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"Hast
thou forsaken me?" Had this appeal been made to a person, we might have
doubted the justice or affection of that father, who for an instant could
withhold the clear recognition of his presence to sustain and bless so faithful
a son. But it was not made to a person, it was made to Truth, Life and Love,
the Principle he was to prove: and the momentary fear was, that his
understanding of these was not sufficient to meet that hour of the world's
hate. Jesus knew God is Love, that He, not man, was Love, insomuch as Love is
Soul, and not personal sense; but suppose this recognition should falter under stress
of circumstances, what would his accusers say? Even what they did, that Truth
should be confounded, and there should be no re-appearing of Jesus. The weight
of mind bearing on him at that hour from the throng of disbelievers in the
great Principle for which he was crucified, weighed heavily; not the spear, nor
the cross, but the ingratitude of the world drew forth the half suppressed
"ali sabacthani," that unpinioned for a moment the wings of faith.
The world's hatred of Truth caused that moment of agony, harder to bear than
the crow, up the hill of grief. A Life that was Love, all the good he did,
rewarded with a cup of gall! Behold the sweat of blood falling in holy
benediction on the grass of Gethsemane, and say, was Christianity then the
privileged of earth, and can the followers to-day of that Truth so persecuted
then, expect the world's approval? Principle bestows few palms until we reach
through demonstration, its fullness. Love must triumph over hate, and Truth and
Life over error and death, before the thorns are laid off for the crown of
glory, and "well done good
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and
faithful," bestows immortal honors. Our Master had realized and
demonstrated the science of Life when he was found talking with his disciples
after the burial; and whom the Rabbis had hoped to bury in a sepulchre, to-day
is acknowledged God! and this God, and this Truth that Jesus taught and proved
over eighteen centuries ago, in days to come will be understood.
Soul
triumphed over personal sense, and said to death, where is thy sting, and where
thy victory, grave? But many who saw this phenomenon misconstrued it; his
disciples even, called him a "spirit," but his reply was, Spirit hath
not flesh and bones as ye see me have; Jesus demonstrated man's unchanged
condition after what we call death, also that Spirit is not person or man; and
to convince Thomas of this, he caused him to examine the prints of the nails
and spear; he proved for time and eternity that death is but a belief of
personal sense, because Life is Spirit, alias God, and God the immortality and
Soul of man; but those consenting to the martyrdom of a righteous man were only
willing out of their wicked work to make a doctrinal platform for saving souls?
His students, not sufficiently advanced to understand the lesson of that hour,
performed not their wonderful healing until their Master reappeared, and talked
with them of its science, and at length rose out of their sight, that is, his
third demonstration was so beyond their understanding, we have no farther
record of him to explain. Then received they the holy ghost, in other words,
the fuller interpretation that science gives of God, and wrought after the
example of their Teacher, when they had no longer a person, but a Principle to
lean upon.
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In the
crucifixion of our Master, human error and divine Truth met, and Truth
conquered through "the man of sorrows," who best understands the
nothingness of Life in matter, and the substance of Life, Truth and Love.
Because Jesus was the fuller manifestation of Spirit therefore, the higher
representative of God among men; the world of sense hated him. Fully
comprehending this, he said to his disciples, "You hath it loved, but me
hath it bated;" proving that mortal man is not allied to Life, Truth, or
Love, that personal sense is the very opposite of Soul, in its attractions,
joys and sorrows. Herod and Pilate could lay aside old feuds, to unite in
putting to derision and death the best man on earth; they could take up common
cause against the exponent of Truth, because they both secretly hated it, and
were united in their malice against him that upheld it. To get rid of Jesus and
his accusing Wisdom, was the design of them both. Said the Rabbi, and Pharisee,
"He stirreth up seditions," "he maketh himself as God,"
"he is a glutton, and a winebibber," "he casteth out devils
through Beelzebub," "and is the friend of sinners." The last was
the only correct view taken of him. Because his life was nearer Truth, he was
more belied than all other men; and because he was the friend of sinners, he
failed not to rebuke them pointedly and unflinchingly; hence they regarded him
their strongest enemy; and so he was, the strongest foe to error, but the
friend of man. Through demonstration Jesus established the foundations of the
science of Life, controlled matter, and proved Intelligence, neither matter,
nor man, but the Principle of man, able to hold and govern the body, and to
destroy sin, sickness, and death.
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People's
opinions of Jesus were the very opposite of the man, and mark you wisely what
will be said to-day of the science he taught and its followers, and see if
there be no resemblance between the reception it received in the past, and that
accorded it at present. We have few demonstrators to-day in part even, of the
great Truth taught by Jesus; but we hesitate not to say it is the privilege and
possibility of all Christians to follow his example, and what they claim to do,
but they must keep his first command, "to heal the sick," as proof
they understand this example, and the Principle that healed. We see some
amelioration of the stake and gibbet in this age, but the vengeance with which
doctrines and beliefs pursue Truth, has not ceased in this century.
When the
science of being's purity, confronts the impurity of sense, and humanitarianism
lifts a voice above sectarianism, blows will fall liberally on science, its
true followers will be traduced and persecuted, and imposition and malice will
smite their destroyer. Doctors in general will trample on it, insomuch as it
heals the sick without drugs, and must ultimately destroy sickness, when their
"occupation will be gone." But shall we serve the old masters because
Truth has enemies, and disturbs the tranquillity of error? Wisdom has given us
more foresight than this; to the advanced thinkers perceiving the scope and
tendency of Truth we may look for support; while others will say to the science
of being, as did one of old, to please the Rabbis,
Go thy way
for this time."
The
highest stand-point of being, is its science, but opinions, doctrines and
beliefs afford no demonstrable
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Principle
to reach it, and enable man to work out his own salvation; 'tis Truth, the
Principle of man that does this. But is there not a smoother and broader path
to harmony or heaven; and cannot Christianity lie coupled with worldly peace
and prosperity? The very nature of it is peace and blessedness, but its joys
and triumphs are not earthly, they are passing away from matter to Spirit. By
this we do not mean death, nor a sudden ecstasy; but the gradual fading out of
material things, of earthly desires, possessions and pleasures, and the coming
in of purity, Truth and immortality. The demands of personal sense will grow
less, the appetite become simple, pride, malice and all sin yield to meekness,
mercy and Love, until finally the belief of Life in matter yields to the
consciousness that Life is Spirit, and Spirit, God. AM good thoughts and deeds
are science that proceeds not from a doctrinal basis, but is soul subduing sin,
personal belief, personal pleasure, or pain; and revealing all harmony,
righteousness and blessedness in our God-being.
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If
happiness and Life are of the body, personal sense is man, and man is matter,
an intelligent body, but sickness, sin and death do not constitute immortal
man, neither are these Spirit.
Nothing
false or impure is for a moment embraced in immortal Soul; these are mortal,
the destructive elements of matter-mind. The best sermon ever preached is Truth
demonstrated on the body, whereby sickness is healed and sin destroyed. Knowing
that one will be supreme in the affections, and take the lead of our actions,
the Master said, " Ye cannot serve two masters," well knowing that
which determines our place in Christianity proves also whether man is the
servant of Soul, or sense, of God, or man. If Spirit governs man, sin does not
tempt him, the so-called laws of matter make him sick, or limit his Life and
usefulness. Straight and narrow is the path of science, and few there be who go
in thereat.
The Truth
of man makes a new creature; "old things have passed away, and behold all
things have become new." When personal sense is exchanged for the science
of being, "all things become immortal and harmonious; every belief of
matter as substance, Life, or Intelligence, must be destroyed before man is
found the
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image and
likeness of God; Christian perfection is won on no other basis. In the
scientific unity between Soul and body, or God and man, Soul is not in body,
but man is embraced in Spirit, even as Principle contains its idea and is
controlled by it. Intelligence embraces and governs the harmonious heavens and
earth where His "will is done."
Man
controlled by Wisdom, Truth and Love has no physical suffering, his body is
harmonious; but the belief of Soul in body and Spirit in matter is governed
alone by personal sense, by beliefs of sickness, sin and death, doctrines,
theories, etc., hence it is ever getting wrong, and finally goes down, and this
man is proved mortal. The man of sense is instinct with lies, and is the
"old man to be put off " before God's idea the immortal man is
understood; as Paul has it, before the "new man is put on." What the
apostle called the "new man," is what the science of being, so new to
the world of sense, will bring out when not strangled by error and persecution.
Theories
and doctrines that presuppose Soul in body, and God in man, by grafting
holiness into unholiness, make sickness, sin and death Truth, or God error;
giving the lie to science, and constituting a barren stereotyped belief,
straining at gnats and swallowing camels.
Why man is
not realized perfect, "even as his Father," his harmonious Principle
"is perfect," is owing to the belief an Intelligence other than God
can direct him away from Truth, Life and Love, when it is but the error of
personal sense that does this, and not all intelligent evil; there is but one
Intelligence, anti this is God.
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Our
beliefs of a supreme Being commence, saying, He hath almighty power and is a
present help in times of trouble, and end with a drug or a rainy day superior
to Him; the understanding of God changes this position, giving omnipotence to
Spirit, and no power to matter. Intelligence in matter would negative the
omnipotence of Spirit. Mortal error is at war with immortal Truth, and is the
sick, sinning and dying belief named mortal man that saith, death is the master
of Life.
Error
abounds where Truth would much more abound, were God understood, and the
scientific relationship of Soul and body as Principle and Idea, and the
impossible union of Spirit and matter fully apprehended. Jesus said, "I
and the Father are one," that is, I am Soul and not body, Spirit and not
matter, hence there is but one Intelligence or Soul because there is but one
God; recollect "I" signifies God, and not man; Principle, and not
person; Spirit, and not matter; and this is the science of Soul and body that
enables us to heal the sick on the Principle or Truth of man; viz., that
"in God we live, move and have being"; Spirit and not matter hold the
issues of Life.
The
accusation most denunciatory to Jesus, the great demonstrator of the science of
being, was this: "He maketh himself as God"; but this, also was the
point that made him all he was more than other men. When this fundamental Truth
is understood, it will be found to induce not only more exalted worship, but
self-abnegation, a higher spiritual apprehension of the supreme Being, and the
ability to bring out all the possibilities of being; it destroys also the
belief in matter, and finds man in God; the mistaken opinion that Soul is in
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the body,
or any portion of God in man would rob the All-wise of some omnipotence and
Wisdom. Theories and beliefs either admit more than one God, or less than a
God; we must break the bars of personality and let go the belief of God in
matter, and get out of man into God, to reach the science of Life and be rid of
sickness, sin, and death; so long as Life and Intelligence are supposed to be
in matter, man will be mortal. The belief that is fatal to science, to man's
harmony, and to God's omnipotence supposes a portion of Jehovah is imprisoned
in a body of sensuality and death, to escape thence when this body has gone to
ruin in His keeping, mastered Omnipotence, and destroyed itself, or when God
the Life of man has killed the body, to get out of it, into the science and
circumference of being.
The
smallest portion of holiness was never inside of sin, or mixed in any manner
with it. The good we see, and say it is in man, is outside of him; mortal man,
or mind in matter, is morally and scientifically impossible, even to God. The
belief that good and evil, God and devil, Spirit and matter mingle in the
least, or take the same individuality, is the error called mortal man. There
are degrees of comparison, however, in error, the lesser one is the less
material man, hence the more transparent to Truth, outside this error the good
in connection with mortal man, is outside of him, instead of inside. The idea
of God outside the belief of Life in matter is immortal man; we catch glimpses
of him when the clouds of error are less dense, and at times melt into such
thinness we perceive the image and likeness of God in some word or deed that
reveals somewhat of the true being, even the immortal man, sinless
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and eternal.
Not, however, that a mortal man embraces one atom of goodness; all is sin and
sense there, but that the good outside of him at times shines through him like
the sunbeams that the vapory cloud cannot hide. The less we admit matter
intelligent, and cease to call the body "I," the more we gather
ourself in the good, outside of evil, and the sooner will God be understood,
and man will be found the image and likeness of God.
Admitting
Soul is in the body, and Life and Intelligence matter, as well as God; the infinite
gets into the finite, and even then cannot control the body in which He dwells;
contending bodily conditions are beyond the control of Intelligence; we employ
matter remedies to do what is not even expected of Omnipotence, and mortal man
limps with lameness, droops with dyspepsia, or consumes with pulmonary disease,
etc., until this so-called man yields up the ghost.
We should
hesitate to say God sins and suffers, although the logic of such reasoning
would be this; if God dwells in person or man we must confess to atheism and
Submerge Intelligence in matter. How far is the belief removed from infidelity,
that unites Spirit and matter, and employs the latter to heal the sick, thus
tacitly acknowledging matter superior to God. This error cannot be understood,
or it would not be tolerated.
There are
evil beliefs, and these falsely called evil "spirits." There is but
one Spirit, viz., Life, Love, and Truth; and this is sufficient for all things,
and a "very present help in time of trouble"; but when knowledge
takes the responsibility to say matter is
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more
potent than man's Maker, is it well to suppose Christianity can mix with this
belief, so opposite to Jesus' teachings, and demonstrate as he did the science
of being, casting out error, and healing the sick.
To
understand that "I" is Intelligence, and this the one God, enables
man to gain the immortality of Soul, and to destroy the errors of sense, and
make the body harmonious and eternal, because it is governed by Spirit; but to
believe ourself nerves, bones, brain, etc., is to accept the aid of matter to
control the body, virtually admitting God incapable of the entire government of
man. If brains, nerves, etc., are intelligent, then Spirit and matter
commingle, and sin and holiness, sickness and health, Life and death, good and
evil, are mixed, and who shall say which is one or the other, for this would be
a matter of opinion. Our Master destroyed this doctrine when He said,
"there is no fellowship between God and Belial." If man is Intelligence,
there are gods many; or if Intelligence is in man, the greater enters into the
lesser; and God becomes less than man, and there is no God; 'tis in vain we
insist on such self-evident error! Those self-conscious of any goodness are
also conscious of Love and Truth, outside of matter.
If man
would pay due allegiance to God, what stronger argument has he by which to
overcome sickness and sin, than to regard these not made by God, "who made
all that was made;" and because they were not, that they are without creation
or reality. To trample on sin by holding yourself superior to it, is wisdom;
but to fear it, bringeth a snare, because you acknowledge some power or
Intelligence superior to God.
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To trample
on the belief of sickness, and to regard yourself superior to it, is wise; but
to fear sickness, causes it, by acknowledging its supremacy over you. If you
possess Love, Wisdom, or Truth, you have Life, that is superior to death,
sickness, or sin, and you ought to prove this fact by demonstration.
If thought
is startled at the strong claims of the science of being, and doubts them, are
we not surprised also, by the claims of evil? but admit them, although discord
is unreal and Truth not as surprising or arbitrary as error.
When sound
is interpreted by personal sense, it is but a belief that may be lost with a
single change of opinion regarding it, but where it exists in its Principle, we
hold it in Soul, and a self-conscious capacity undying. The belief that the
so-called dead speak audibly to the living, gives a mental impression the same
as other beliefs, and has no more reality than those. Sound is produced by
mental impressions, and not by the action of air on the mechanism of the ear.
Hearing is not dependent on matter, but depends either on belief or the understanding.
Those believing in "spirits," may produce to personal sense the
impression of sound that has the same reality to them as the more common modus operandi has to others. It is mind
alone that hears, and mind that gives the impression of sound; and this is
proved by clairvoyance.
One
individual believes he must use his hands to bring a rose in contact with the
olfactories; and another, equally sincere, believes legerdemain can do this;
and a third, that the so-called dead handle the rose for him; but each one has
produced this phenomenon
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by his
belief, and only because the method is more common to let limbs, lips, and ears
express the mind's volition, and sound to sense, other methods we call
miracles. As a man thinketh, so is he in error; but as a man understandeth, so
is be in Truth. A belief of sickness, coming in contact with another belief of
health, is sometimes negatived, and the sick feel better, and this is the only
point of science that the mal-practitioner adheres to. The supposed sensations
of body are the impressions of one’s own mind, or that another mind produces,
in no case do they proceed from matter; at length they may become a belief of
inflammation, suppuration, paralysis, stiffness, etc.; but in no instance do
they originate in matter.
Again, one
mind coming in contact with the grief of another is depressed, and a tear
starts; now has not mind in this instance produced an effect on the body, upon
the lachrymal glands? and not more readily, or distinctly on the eyes, than an
internal organ. Mind produces diseased bones, and governs alone the entire
internal viscera, and this is the explanation of all disease. The excellent
author, John Young of Edinburgh, says, "God is the father of minds, and of
nothing else;" surely this is the voice of Truth, crying in the
wilderness, prepare ye the way of moral science, even the reign of Spirit over
matter. Scourging Truth out of synagogues will not hide it forever. The signs
of to-day point to the era when all that really is, will be understood Spirit
and its phenomena; and already the shadow of this right hand rests upon the
hour.
The
inquiry should no longer be, can mind produce sounds, faces and forms? but what
is the best method
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of
training mind here, to produce good instead of evil, that materialism, which
depends wholly on mechanical construction and matter conditions for cause and
effect, and the evil results from mediumship, may cease forever.
The Jews'
determination to recognize God only as person and a king, has not forsaken this
age; nor have our creeds and ritualism in other respects quite washed their
hands of Rabbinical error. To-day echoes back the cry of bygone centuries:
"Crucify him that maketh himself as God," Spirit, and let matter have
dominion over man.
Because
Jesus understood God better than did the Rabbis, he arrived at the conclusion
in advance of them he was Spirit and not matter, and that these never blend;
also, that there is but one Spirit, or Intelligence, therefore but one God, one
Life, Love and Truth. All forms of belief deny this in the main, and contend
that Intelligence is both God and man, that there are two separate entities or
beings exercising antagonistic powers; also, that matter controls Spirit, that
man is both matter and Spirit, and the supreme Being is God and man; also, that
a third person named devil, is another Intelligence and power, and that these
three different personages, viz., God, man, and devil blend in one person. When
we possess a true sense of our oneness with God, and learn we are Spirit alone,
and not matter, we shall have no such opinions as these, but will triumph over
all sickness, sin, and death, thus proving our God-being. That we are Spirit,
and Spirit is God, is undeniably true, and judging by its fruits, (the rule our
Master gave) we should say this is not
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only
science, but Christianity; but the shocking audacity that calls itself God, and
yet demonstrates only erring mortality, surprises us! Some one has said
Christianity must be science, and science Christianity, else one or the other
is false and useless; but neither of these is proved thus, hence they are
inseparable in demonstration. When looking to mortal man for evidences of Life
and Truth, we find sin and death stronger than either of these, hence we must
look away from body to soul; not in mortality is Spirit that is infinite and
blest. It is impossible to shut up the infinite in man; we cannot be both
Spirit and matter, for these are opposites. Again, if God is both within and
without all things, then all is God. When we say the body is matter, we say
with Paul, then you must certainly be "absent from the body, to be present
with the Lord," even Spirit. But to be absent from the body, materia
medica calls death, yet Jesus and Paul knew Life is not in the body. The belief
that Life and intelligence blend with matter is the foundation of all
misapprehensions of God and man; and we shall prove we are Spirit that mixes
not with matter, when this opposite error or belief goes down in death, until
it is finally destroyed; yet we shall see, hear, feel, &c., all the same,
and independent of matter organizations, which we now deem indispensable to
these faculties of Soul. Sooner or later we shall all learn the fetters of our
infinite capacities are forged by belief only, and that matter is not
substance, Life, or Intelligence. When we understand Spirit better than to
think it person or man, or to call it matter and place --life that is supreme
in mortality, we shall clothe our bodies with immortality, and not until then.
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In science
we find Spirit and idea harmonize, and man's existence in Soul, the substance
and Principle of the idea we name man. There are no personal senses in Spirit,
where thy neighbor is as thyself; thus the command to hold no Intelligence in
matter, but to love God, Spirit, with all thy heart, Soul and strength, and thy
neighbor as thyself, Jesus said, embraced all law and prophesy. In this
relationship of Soul and body otherwise of God and man, what is one man's meat
is not another's poison; but what feeds one feeds all, even as Jesus
illustrated with the loaves and fishes, when Spirit instead of matter supplied
food for the multitude.
How long
before we arrive at the full understanding of the science of being, no man
knoweth, not the idea but the Principle, not the son but the Father; yet one
thing is certain: we shall destroy sin, sickness and death only as we gain this
understanding of science, the Truth of man.
We talk of
evil spirits, but there is no evil in Spirit; all discord proceeds from the belief
of Spirit in matter; but our slow progress from material stand-points today,
portends a long night to the traveller. Whoso opens the way with science is a
stranger and pilgrim at present, that marks out the path for future
generations.
On the
Western Hemisphere, some immortal sentences broke the fetters, and demolished
whipping-posts and markets for man, but tyranny would go down in blood, and the
breath of freedom must come through the cannon's mouth. The abolition of negro
enslavement, however, did not destroy slavery. We have
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slaves to
personal sense, that are hopeless servants, knowing not how to obtain their
freedom. The lame, the deaf, the dumb, the blind, the sick and sensual are
wearing out years of servitude, dragging their slow length along, chained to
the belief the body is their master; and this belief must be abolished, or
mankind submit hopelessly to the worst form of slavery. This state of man,
however, is not legitimate, and cannot continue forever; even now, in prophetic
vision, we see man free as the sons of God, and matter no longer his master;
the abolitionists of negro slavery, in discerning the rights of man, foresaw
the doom of slavery. Sickness, sin and death belong not to the government of
God; neither are we their helpless slaves; they could not conquer man in a
single instance, did he understand his authority over them, and assert his
freedom in the name of Almighty God, adopting the scientific position that
InIelligence controls matter.
A few
sentences of the science of being, understood, would enable man to grasp the
standard of liberty. Citizens of the world, accept their glorious import and
gain your freedom! This is your divine right; a belief and not law has bound
you, and to a condition of mind and not matter; all the sickness, sin and death
on earth are caused by mind, even the belief of man; matter is not cause, and
when you destroy the belief that it is, its power over you will flee; you
possess your own body and make it harmonious and immortal, or discordant and mortal.
You, the Intelligence, embrace the body in comprehension and completeness; put
away, then, the error of belief that matter embraces you in
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mystery
and disease; "you," the
Soul and circumference of being, (for the body is but the idea of
"you,") are a law to your members, and the law-giver that makes your
body discordant or harmonious, according to the ignorance or understanding, the
error or Truth that governs it. Matter has no Intelligence to rule over you;
say then to the error whereby you submit to your body, "Depart, ye that
work iniquity."
Truth will
establish the kingdom of heaven on earth, even the reign of harmony wherein is
neither sickness, sin, nor death, and trample out this trio of error; bad God
constituted laws of matter with power to male man sick, Christ would not have
abrogated those laws by healing the sick, contrary to them. All evidence of
physical law and personal sense is destroyed in the science of being.
Personal
sense, takes no cognizance of the earth's motion, and beholds the sun making a
diurnal round. Science, contradicting personal sense, taught the olden
astronomer the sun is our solar centre, and the earth turning on its axis,
revolves around it. So at the focus of optical vision when sky and earth appear
to meet, and clouds and ocean join hands, science proves them remote as at the
nearest points of vision. Again, the barometer, that little prophet of storm
and sunshine, declares it fair when personal sense sees nothing but murky
clouds and drenching rain-drops. To personal sense, severing the jugular vein
takes Life, and destroys man; but to science, Life goes on the same as before,
it being indestructible and eternal; for man cannot be destroyed. Science takes
all proof out of the hands of personal sense, and makes void this error,
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interpreting
phenomena with reason and revelation based on their Principle. Science
destroyed Ptolemy's vague theory that earth is the centre of the solar system;
and revealed the harmony of the spheres, on a reversed plan.
Personal
sense declares Life is in man, and matter is intelligent; that brains, nerves,
etc., are seats of pain or pleasure, also, of disease and death; therefore Soul
is tributary to the body and in mortality. Theories of anatomy, physiology,
etc., make the same blunder with Soul and body that Ptolemy did with the sun
and earth; he made the sun tributary to the earth, they make Soul secondary and
tributary to the body; but science has destroyed one, and in time will master
the other error, overruling the evidence of personal sense altogether, and thus
reveal the harmony of man and the universe, on a reversed statement. The
Principle of man is Soul, and Soul is Spirit, and this is the only Life,
Intelligence, or substance of the universe; all is tributary to Soul. Earth
borrows light and heat from the sun, the body borrows Life and Intelligence
from Soul. As earth is opaque, having Do light of her own, so the body material
is a lifeless, unintelligent belief; but the Spiritual body reflects Life, Love
and Truth.
Copernicus
marked out the pathway of science in the heavens, and we at a later date would
point out the science of Life or Principle of harmonious being; but before
Copernicus spake, astrography was a mystery, and the geography of the heavens a
myth. The Chaldean shepherd saw in a comet the fate of empires, and read the
fortunes of man in a star; no higher revela-
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tions than
the horoscope hung out upon empyrean, yet earth and heavens were bright, and
bird and blossom glad in the sunshine. So to-day we have Truth, Life and Love
to gladden man, but leaving him to the interpretations of a belief or personal
sense makes him as the wandering comet and desolate star.
"Man
never is, but always to be blest."
The
Ptolemic system, or error regarding the heavenly bodies, could not effect the
vital interests of man, like the error of belief, relating to our body, that
reverses the order of science and assigns to matter the prerogative of Spirit;
making man the most inharmonious phenomenon of the universe. When we admit Spirit
governs man, and demonstrate this, in our control over the body, sickness, sin
and death will disappear; for nothing evil or mortal comes from Spirit; but if
we would divide Spirit into persons called "spirits," putting Soul in
body and Spirit in personality, we make an unaccountable blunder, and lose the
science of being. The senses of Soul are without pain, and forever at peace;
nothing can hide from them the beauties of Truth; but what a transient trust is
the eye, when the power of light and lens may all end with a prick of the
retina. To understand our being is to hold sight immortal. The science of Soul
preserves the sight, and there is no physical science; the Principle of all
phenomena is Intelligence and Life, unconfined to matter; where the altitude of
the eye need not be perpendicular to the geometrical plane; whatsoever is
governed by Soul instead of sense, is never deprived of the action or blessing
of Intelligence.
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We should
never ask after the condition, structure, or economy of the body, but take no
thought about it; -- Soul governs man better than sense, and for the body to be
sensationless is science. The compound minerals or aggregate substances that
compose the earth, the relations constituent masses bear to each other, or the
magnitudes, distances, revolutions, etc., of the celestial bodies, are of no
real importance, for all this must give place to the spiritualized
understanding, that matter is not substance, and when we admit this, man will
be found harmonious and eternal, even the idea of God, that expresses the
harmony of being.
Material
substance, geological calculations, etc., will be swallowed up in the infinite
Spirit that comprehends and evolves all idea, structure, form, coloring, etc.,
that we now suppose are produced by matter. The spiritual perception of man and
of the universe constitutes the true idea of both. While Columbus was putting
down one of the errors of personal sense, and giving freer breath to the globe,
the bands of ignorance and superstition were chaining the honest limbs of the
brave old navigator; starvation and disgrace looked him in the face, but
sterner still had been the fate of him whom history has since immortalized, had
his discovery embraced a Principle, undermining sensuality. Age nor accident interferes
with the senses of Soul; the body has no sensation; it cannot see, bear or
feel, notwithstanding the belief to the contrary. Understanding this truth, the
Master knew no loss of our faculties can occur except to belief; therefore he
knew how to handle personal sense, by putting it under his feet, which
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enabled
him to restore sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and speech to the dumb.
If it be
true that sensation is in nerves, hearing in the ear, sight in the eye, etc.;
when these organs are lost our faculties are gone, therefore they cannot be
immortal in Spirit, when the reality is they are immortal only thus; personal
sense returns to dust, and gives place to spiritual sense, wherein we find not
a faculty lost, and nothing gone except sin and suffering. Because the
so-called personal senses are mortal we must admit them error, a belief, and
not the Truth of man.
What we
call laws of nature are as able to destroy the immortality of Soul, as body, or
take from man one jot of what God hath given. "To the unknown God, whom
therefore ye ignorantly worship," be these laws inscribed. Idolatry keeps
pace with civilization, when instead of wood or stone we bow to drugs,
fleshbrush, flannel, etc., etc. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me, is the
command of Wisdom; no Intelligence in matter, no imaginary physical law, but
the one supreme spiritual law of being, namely, the Truth of Soul and body.
Discord
and suffering proceed not from God, from Soul, but sense; should man obey
Intelligence alone, happiness and harmony would be universal. In the days of
Jesus and his students, Truth healed the sick, and would to-day do this, and
make man perfect; admitting this Truth, there is but one Intelligence, and this
God, governing man, yea, Spirit triumphing over matter. Man worships material
forms of religion, cringes to popular favor, delves deeper into matter,
straining at gnats and swallowing camels; popular humbug
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is the
more merited name for modern knowledge, that like the ancient "tree,"
greatly multiplies our pains, sin and mortality.
An
absolute and perfect Principle, named God, governs man and the universe
harmoniously; belief, and personal sense never yet made a harmonious man, or
universe. Jesus taught and proved by demonstration, our dominion over matter;
also, that a sinless and immortal existence is obtained only through triumph
over the body. The Scripture saith, all things are possible to Spirit; but our
theories practically deny this, and make healing the sick possible only to
matter; but theories are false and the Scripture true. Beliefs rob God and slay
man, then spread their table with cannibal titbits and give thanks.
Christianity is not dishonest, but our religions axe; to rule mankind and
conciliate society at the expense of Truth, yea, to be popular is the weakness
of the world. He that leaves all for Truth, and is falsely accused and hated
because of Christianity, is wise; the world will believe error and be slow to
admit Truth. In this manner the man of sorrows gave to a mocking world the
demonstration of the science of being. The cross is the central emblem of
history, individually and collectively; all must take it up, and deny pleasure
or pain, of personal sense. The history of science over eighteen centuries ago,
will repeat itself; persecution for righteousness sake has begun, and those
very sects that bore the lash in the past, are the first to flog progress
to-day. Jewish rites and ceremonies, and the more modem creed, and ritual, as
types and shadows, point to the coming of the Truth of being when the substance
or Spirit of those emblems shall
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appear in
demonstration; hence when their Spirit or Truth is gained, all forms should be
laid aside; we cannot serve two masters, and keep the commandment, "Thou
shalt have no other gods before Me."
We worship
spiritually only as we cease to worship through material forms; the material
must and will give place to the spiritual; let it be so then, and not as in the
fable, because the wind blows that would take off the cloak, hug more closely
what the wind should remove. Displace the belief of God in matter, or Soul in
body, and happiness and immortality will be understood, and never can be until
this is done. We gather not grapes of thorns; nor fill vessels that are
unemptied.
To empty mankind
of error so that Truth may flow into the mind, is the work before us; and those
commissioned for this work will suffer tribulation such as has not been since
the beginning. When Truth advances, error must recede, but will cry out as it
goes: "Why art thou come hither to torment me before the time; "
persecution, however, advances the true idea, for it sets thought at work on
the subject at issue. Our individual sufferings for Truth, serve to
spiritualize us; hence the benediction on those persecuted for righteousness
sake, "For theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
Christianity
is not a creed, doctrine, or belief; but the demonstration of Life, Love, and
Truth; it is not a special gift from a personal Jehovah, but the understanding
of God, that is gained through much tribulation in the world, but great peace
in Truth; error must and will make war on Truth, because it is proof, and not
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profession.
The Principle of being that makes man harmonious we cannot reach through
material rites or the worship of a personal God. The one scientific statement
of being, is that neither man nor matter has substance, Life or Intelligence.
There is a wide difference between the interpretation belief and opinions give
of Christianity, and that which the science
of Life demonstrates. Jesus and his students healed the sick, because of their
spirituality: they healed with Christ, Truth, and not in the name of Christ,
but in the practice- thereof. We have no need of creeds and church
organizations to sustain or explain a demonstrable platform, that defines
itself in healing the sick, and casting out error. The uselessness of drugs,
the emptiness of knowledge that puffeth up, and the imaginary laws of matter
are very apparent to those who are rising to the more glorious demonstration of
their Godbeing.
The
mistake the disciples of Jesus made to found religious organizations and church
rites, if indeed they did this, was one the Master did not make; but the
mistake church members make to employ drugs to heal the sick, was not made by
the students of Jesus. Christ's church was Truth, "I am Truth and
Life," the temple for the worshippers of Truth is Spirit and not matter,
even the Principle of man and the universe that calls on those professing
godliness, to understand God, and to be absent from the body to be present with
Him, and to claim their right of membership by destroying sickness, sin, and
death. Is there any higher Christianity than this?
No time
was lost by our Master in organizations, rites,
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and
ceremonies, or in proselyting for certain forms of belief: members of his
church must answer to themselves, in the secret sanctuary of Soul, questions of
the most solemn import. First, am I surely gaining a victory over matter, and
present with Spirit, present with Love and Truth, supping with them and they
with me, gaining this oneness with God, of which Jesus spake, thus rising
superior to personal sense, and conquering sickness, sin and death; am I caring
less and less for earthly pleasures or pains, and getting out with the sinner
and in with the saint? The true answer to these inquiries will set us all
right; they are the only signs significant of the burial of the body with
Christ, and its resurrection with God, Truth, compared with which rites and
ceremonies sink into insignificance. We have no record that forms of church
worship were instituted by our great spiritual teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, and
we learn the improbability of this, in the science of God, that he taught and
demonstrated. Said he, "The time now is when they that worship the Father
should worship him in Spirit, and no longer in Jerusalem," (the wealth and
learning) "of our temples "; a magnificent edifice was not the sign
of Christ's Church.
Anciently
the followers of Christ, Truth, measured their Christianity by the control it
gave them over sickness, sin and death; whereas the more modem forms of
religion leave out the first proof, and substitute observances for a test of
the latter; but we are learning slowly, as the centuries paw, to leave forms
and doctrines, and require the primitive tests of Christianity. If we accept
the mere letter of moral and spir-
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itual
science and omit the Spirit, we shall not gain the great Truth that destroys
sin as well as sickness, but omit the important point that heals the sick. We
must watch and work more for the Christianity of the science of being than its
other points, and must make our first proof if we would succeed in healing, for
this more than all else gives success.
When its
science is made clear to the understanding, it presents a thorough explanation
of the Principle whereby Jesus and his disciples healed the sick, cast out
error, and raised the dead. We may not hope to explain in this limited volume
his great Truth and science of being to the full understanding of our readers,
insomuch as our own and their beliefs hide its quick perception, and to change
their views with Truth is the labor of teaching. It requires experience and
time for the spiritual advancement of some students, while others assimilate
Truth as the great want of their being. We can only sow the seed in this book,
and trust the Lord of harvest to give the fuller sense of harmonious being.
In
centuries past, Jesus founded Christianity on the spiritual basis, that neither
ritualism, doctrine nor belief, but Wisdom, Truth and Love make Christians, and
cast out error, and heal the sick; but to-day church forms are held responsible
for Christianity, and drugs and matter-laws to heal the sick.
To
ascertain what our progress is and what our state of Christianity, we have only
to learn what God we acknowledge and obey.
If we are progressing, God will become less personal and material to our
understanding, and more practical, matter will be yielding to Spirit, and the
Spirit we manifest will reveal us; personal
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sense,
that is the basis of all sin and error, cannot judge of Christianity. Admitting
matter capable of good and evil to man, robs God of supremacy, and would
despoil his dominion, making it a kingdom divided against itself that cannot
stand. When we get right in regard to Deity, motives and deeds, not
professions, will be the standard of Christianity, and we shall gain
continually in its proof and practice. Many a rank hypocrite at heart makes
clean the outside of the platter. Out theories of God and man admit incapacity
in Spirit which robs God, and is the impediment to man's harmony. Those that
peruse this book with prejudice, or who will not read it at all, must fail to
understand our purpose or Principle; but many, we trust, will read carefully,
and if the seed falls into good and honest hearts, those will eventually bear
fruit, and understand how the science of God heals the sick; sooner or later
all will feel the need of this Truth. When you attempt to demonstrate healing
according to the Principle herein stated, you will see every point in our
statement is needed to help you; but not until you prove this will you admit
it; and alas! little Truth is demonstrated healing the sick by our rules,
without the Spirit.
We are
Soul, Spirit, and not matter; and it is quite as impossible to be both as to
serve God and mammon. Let science interpret God, and man will become harmonious
and immortal. You can rest assured of the impossibility to enter into the
understanding of science by any other door than Truth that emanates from
Principle, and all the opinions and beliefs of man can never change this
unerring standard. When God revealed to
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us the
science of being, and it became necessary to test it, we healed in every
instance. When an individual highly spiritual comes in contact with us, we feel
refreshed and strengthened, and vice versa. But our experiences will reveal
fully the inevitable persecutions, false accusations, unworthy students, etc.,
that hinder the footsteps of science; "our heritage is unto us as a
speckled bird; and birds round about would devour us." When we became as
it were an involuntary detective, the good drawn to us and the evil repelled,
we took this loving hint from our Father to work out a rule for understanding
individual character, the evil of which was at first well-nigh hidden from us,
and now recognize the hand that has bestowed all these experiences.
Motive and
act are not appreciated until the general thought reaches their stand-points,
and sees the earthly sacrifice they demand, or until the individual we bless is
ready for the blessing.
The
science of being not more palpably reverses the evidences of personal sense
than unspiritual individuals put a false construction on its explanations; but
the time cometh when all, from the least unto the greatest, must understand the
Truth of being, and bring their bodies into harmony with its requirements.
Though error has both field and forum to-day, Truth is gradually changing the
material universe; understanding this we yield patient obedience to a patient
God, and labor on, for the redemption of man is precious. Those in former years
inspired of God, healed the sick and cast out devils, error, but the point is
unsettled in our own mind whether they really understood how they did this,
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having
left no explanation of it; perhaps like natural musicians they caught the tones
of moral and spiritual science without being able to explain them. The Bible
that contains it all has been our only text-book; we found, also, the
Scriptures have both a literal and spiritual import, but the latter was the
especial interpretation we received, and that taught us the science of Life
outside of personal sense. We learned the Principle of being must be understood
to make man right, and that this was a step infinitely beyond the power of
faith; it was "to know in whom we have believed," to comprehend
through Christian experience the way to health and holiness, to Truth and Life.
To reach this Horeb height where God is understood, even in part, we must be
growing purer; we cannot perceive the Principle of Science without this,
"for none but the pure in heart shall see God." Purity is the baptism
of Soul, -- "the answering of a good conscience," for a clean Spirit
washes the body of all foulness, and signifies such only as understand Truth.
As soon may a camel go through the eye of a needle, as man carry the filth of
the flesh into the kingdom of heaven, the reign of harmony; we cannot learn
harmony of discords; then wherefore seek in mortal bodies the glorious sense or
proof of Truth, Life and Love? These are riot in matter, not in the body, or
personal sense, and it is only a question of time when we shall all learn this;
eternity will reveal it to all.
"Cutting
off right hands and plucking out eyes" means to become spiritual. Denying
sense is the way to the joys of Soul, and until belief gives place to the
spiritual understanding that Intelligence is not in matter, we
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shall not
advance many steps towards harmony or heaven. The sensualist's happiness consists
in things of sense, his God is matter, person instead of Principle, and body
instead of Spirit; his affections are imaginary, whimsical, and unreal;
passion, falsehood, malice, hypocrisy, etc., are, alas! what it is to be
sensual. Strip the sensualist of his cloak, and what a loathsome spectacle he
becomes; he would shrink from beholding himself, and blush to be identified
with such being. Talk not of making scientists of elements such as these, the
very basis of error must be changed before we can unloose the sandals of Truth.
Either in time or eternity a sense of desolation must come to the wicked,
darkness and unutterable woo before they lay down matter for Spirit.
Mind is
the seat of motive and action, and forms individual character; if this source
be corrupt, it sends forth impure streams. Take away wealth, fame, and the
organizations of society that weigh not one jot in the balance of God, and we
get the view of a man. Break up clans, equalize wealth with accessions of
honesty, and worth will be decided by Wisdom; evil is predominant now, the
wicked man is master of his more upright neighbor, but success in error is
defeat in Truth. "Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man
his thoughts, for lo! I come quickly, and my reward is with me," is the
watchword of science. The voice of Sinai and the sermon of the mount are
pursuing man, and will overtake the age. Truth has been uttered in its
application to every want of man, but the world slumbers; when will the
wakening be?
Peals,
that should startle the dream of error, are
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sounding
in our ears; marvels, calamities, perils and sin much more abound now that the
understanding is making higher demands on man; and if its voice be not
suffocated, longevity will increase, sin diminish, and the world feel the
alterative effects of Truth through every pore. Aggravation of error foretells
its doom, and because of the madness of sin we know Truth is nigh, even at our
doors, and 6 will overt-urn until He whose right it is shall reign." What
is Truth? is the question that convulses the world to-day; hence its throes to
put down radicalism and free thought which purge better than a doctor's pills,
and to have this question decided permanently in favor of some 'ism. The march
of time we cannot stay, for progress is engraven on its banners; those whose
kingdom is of this world will fight for their positions, and furnish their
sentinels with orders "not to let Truth pass their guard unless it
subscribes to their sect;" but Truth has passed already beyond the pointed
bayonet; and there is a little tumult still, and rallying to its standard; we
must labor in faith many long years, still hoping the hour is not far off of a
higher and practical Christianity. Truth is liberty; its followers hoist the
standard of freedom; engraven on its banners we read, slavery is abolished, my
body is no longer my master, I claim the freedom of the Sons of God. What power
opposed to divine Wisdom is it that binds man to conditions of sickness, sin,
and death? Is it not the body material? Then is not this body an enemy to man?
But this foe is not stronger than Omnipotence, and is not a tyrant without a
master. The humble Nazarene rebelled against its power, and through his
demonstration of
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healing
proved matter a fable; showing, despite the Rabbi's pride, his understanding of
God exceeded theirs. Intelligence is the master of sickness and sin, else these
are immortal, and evil equal to good. Away with the belief that something
outside of himself, over which he has no control, makes man sick and a sinner,
and finally kills him, but must stop here for it proposes to carry him no
further than perdition. If man is hopelessly at the control of matter, of sin,
and death, he is annihilated; for error is not immortal. But we have no faith
in the necessity of sin, of sickness, or death, because God has no part in
these. It is impossible to bide behind the plea, "I am not advanced to
this science and higher understanding of Life, therefore I cannot triumph over
sickness, sin, and death." Then quicken your experiences, for your
tardiness is without excuse. Every day and hour has its demands on man, saying,
"where art thou? hast thou gained some conquest over error to-day, or
resigned thyself more contentedly to its slavery?"
We do not
stand still, but are moving forward or backward, as time glides on and the
centuries repeat history. If not progressing, we must live over the past until
its poor work is erased. If we are satisfied with being wrong, we must become
dissatisfied with it; or if content with having done nothing, we must learn to
loathe our leisure. Undoing, in time or eternity, the errors of sense, we learn
to improve every opportunity to do our work well, and bring our bodies into
subjection to Soul. This unwinding one's ways, learning from experience, and
partitioning between error and Truth, means something. Nothing short of the
suffer-
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ing that
comes of sin will turn man away from it; therefore, "He chasteneth those
whom He loveth." Wisdom lets alone the "greatest sinner" for a
period, until the awakening cometh, when he must pay the uttermost farthing.
Those perceiving the demands of the science of being, and refusing obedience
thereto, "will be beaten with many stripes." To heal the sick with
Truth, we must understand what is right, and what is wrong; hypocrisy is
impossible in science; be master of sin, to control your own or another's body
in science. Neither a mere mental process of healing, nor manipulation is the
science of being; it is sheer folly and ignorance of its Principle to say you
can heal scientifically, and be a hypocrite; this is the greatest mistake of
all.
Graham's
system, hydropathy, physiology, etc., were considered improvements on
allopathy, because they employed less drugs; but if drugs are abstractly the
antidotes for disease, why consider it a step in progress to diminish their
quantity, especially when sickness increases? Surrendering, in any direction,
the control we should hold over our bodies causes disease, and a demand for
drugs does this, by giving reins to matter instead of Spirit. To transfer our
own power into the bands of matter is destructive to the science of being that
employs Intelligence alone to control the body, and remedy all the ills that
flesh is heir to. The science of being purifies mortal mind, even as impurity
is destroyed in matter by the introduction of some cleansing agent. When Truth
reaches the mind, the body manifests the effects of an alterative, proving it
is mind that moves matter even though we place this mental weight in the
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belief
that drugs, air, exercise, and so forth, are benefiting us, calling it these
things only that affect our bodies. When Truth reaches the understanding it
stirs individual error to a change of base; and the wrong and right strive
together until victory is decided on the part of immutable harmony. This
chemicalization, or change, often follows our explanations of science, the
effect of which is that the patient recovers; disease comes to the surface
during the chemicalization, like a fermenting fluid, and throws itself off,
sometimes in violent perspiration, eruptions, increased secretions, and
discharges. We have observed with our students, and with the sick, a constant
recurrence of morbid symptoms, moral and physical, till the conflict is decided
on the part of Truth. We never witnessed as much effect from what is termed a
change of heart, or from cathartics or alterative medicines, as we have seen
follow the introduction of the science of being into the minds of the sinner,
or the sick; like the little leaven, it leavens the whole lump. These
undeniable facts establish the Principle that mind controls the body. Patients
with certain mentalities, or students with wrong tendencies and habits, are
more difficult to heal or to teach, than others differently constituted. Three
classes of students honor Science least, and give the teacher most trouble. The
first, whose bigotry and conceit are fixed facts, and the central views, a
mysterious God, and natural devil; the second, so early depraved they
impersonate innocence, never failing to utter a falsehood, looking you blandly
in the face, or to stab their benefactor; the third, so iron-clad with a belief
or doctrine, that the bullets of Truth roll off
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without
making an indenture. Errors are the least perceived that lie not upon the plane
of your own experience, and sink so deeply into the nature of others that you
never realize a serpent lies in your path until you feel its bite.
Society is
often a silly juror, that judges according to testimony on one Bide; and
honesty often agrees too late on its verdict, for fear of wronging the
criminal; hence people with work on hand have little time to furnish gossip
with law and evidence. To reconstruct timid justice and let Truth be heard
above falsehood, is the work of time; a good cause cannot be popular at first;
to live wrong and talk right, avails little in benefiting one's self or others.
The spiritually-minded, and honest man, although his beliefs are built in solid
masonry of thought, is open to the approach and recognition of Truth; therefore
he is the only apt student of the science of Life; we have no task in teaching
him, nor does he persistently turn back to error; or avenge himself on us. Such
an one should be a Paul to the modern Romans; his treasures are Truth, not laid
up on earth. Aspirations pure and God-ward, steadfast purpose, honesty,
understanding, and independent action, alone fit us for the science of Life.
The evil
deceive the good, but putting aside the vail that falls between goodness and
depravity; one has a more unerring guide than the other; this guide is
repugnance to evil, and their first impressions with regard to individual
character, When the good suffer from contact with certain individuals, it is a
hint that something is wrong in those individuals; but this hint is not always
heeded, and then comes the irresistible
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conflict
and separation between them, for good can never join hands with evil to gain
peace, place, or power. The impure are at peace only with the impure, virtue is
a rebuke to vice; and Truth to falsehood, etc. Whosoever, therefore, has drank
at the fountain of Soul to the purification of sense, is in the harmony of
science that blends not with sin. Let him come in contact with the sick, or
sinner, a tobacconist, or an imbiber of alcoholic drinks, and though a word be
not exchanged between them, in a majority of cases the scientist will
exterminate sickness and the bad habit; but in some instances an individual is
too opinionated, or dishonest, to yield without a struggle, or to acknowledge
when he has yielded, and only in case he does this, will the good done be
recognized above the evil. The meeting of opposite minds, is a spontaneous
separation when this commences, the unconscious individuals are enemies without
the preliminaries of becoming such; else they unite on a new base, and the evil
yield to the good or the subtlety of error, conquers even the latter; this
separation of tares and wheat is obedience to Science.
Never soil
your garments with conservatism, or
let soother's error dim the lustre of your own Truth; always separate yourself
from evil. Right is radical, and those walking in the light are like eyes
accustomed to the light, that must have it, for they cannot see in darkness.
while those accustomed to darkness, like it, and push boldly on. Flowers turn
to the sun, or fade and lose fragrance in the darkness. If you have grown out
of former things, hesitate not to put them away, and fear not, for conscience'
sake, to overstep the
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boundaries
and break the strong chains of old opinions. You must take up this cross if you
follow Christ, Truth, and never hold on to what you cannot understand, or
breathe an immoral atmosphere that you cannot purify. When error confronts you,
spare not the rebuke, or the explanation that destroys it, if you would benefit
yourself or others; but if, "having ears they hear not, neither will they
understand, that they might be converted and you might heal them,"
thereafter let them alone, but be sure you drop into no conservative position;
always keep well burnished your own armour. To sustain yourself in Truth, you
must meet error with a protest, and once beholding the beauty of holiness, you
are willing to leave all for it. To gather yourself with sinners hardens the heart.
When the spiritual sense of being unfolds Life's harmonies, you will take no
risks in the policy of error; far better is a frugal meal with contentment and
virtue, than the many gods of luxury and sense. If you are not a Christian
to-clay, delay not to become one, for no opportunity equals the present. We are
not neutral; all have some weight; then let the influence we exert be thrown in
the right scale.
Nothing is
mortal that deserves to continue; therefore decay belongs not to Truth; all
that dies is the offspring of belief, and not understanding. Left to the
government of Truth, all would be found harmonious and eternal. Nothing in
matter equals the power of mind; the baneful effects of an evil associate are
more terrible than earthquakes or pestilence. The influence one mind holds over
another should be understood and guarded with stronger keepers than it is. The
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following
rules, observed, would open the way for science.
Teachers
of primary and high schools should be selected as much for their morals, as
learning; these nurseries of character should be strongly garrisoned, and
parents demand a faithful fulfillment of such high trusts. The examination of
schools should embrace this thought, paramount to all others, that education is
both classical and spiritual, to lift one's being higher; schools should not be
applauded for a good show, while the thoughts of teachers constantly imparted
to their pupils are disregarded, and any thing but pure and uplifting.
Physicians, whom the sick employ under circumstances of great helplessness,
should be the guardians of virtue, and spiritual guides, when Life and death
tremble in the balance; not only should they be able to impart soundness of
body, but a higher moral tone of being. Clergymen, standing on the watchtowers
of the world, should grasp most firmly, and hold more fearlessly the standard
of scientific Truth; they should be teachers that turn the sinner from his way,
heal the sick, and cast out error from the land. Husbands and wives should
fulfill their tender trusts wisely and well; yielding faithful obedience to the
law of spiritual Love, aiding each other to gain its harmonies through the
blessing of mutual affection lifting the being higher. Children should obey
their parents; insubordination is a growing evil in the nursery and through the
land; parents should teach their children Truth through precept and example,
and love them, if they would be loved in return. Abstain from secular labor and
frivolous amusements, on the
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Sabbath,
observing it as a clay of rest and spiritual improvement.
Human will
is capable of much evil; by gaining the mind's consent against the convictions
of conscience, it may turn the judgment whithersoever it wills. To guard and
govern the action of mind, enables you to hold the body in subjection. The
world is better for all those honest Soul-inspired ones. who govern sense, and
sit down at the right hand of Wisdom. The hypocrite can do little with Truth,
and cannot understand the Principle of scientific healing: in discord himself
he cannot impart harmony to others. You may learn the letter of this science
that enables you to gain its Spirit, but the next question is, have you
improved your opportunity, and gained its Spirit? if not, you are unfit to heal
the sick metaphysically.
Touched by
the Principle of his grand symphonies, a Mozart or Beethoven experienced much
more than he ever expressed in music; each was a musician before the world knew
it; so to catch the divine harmonies of Soul, we must rise in the scale of
being through the understanding of science, and experience, in order to
demonstrate. Love gives forth its own concord, to correct the discords of
sense; and whatsoever inspires us with Love, Wisdom or Truth, whether it be
song, sermon, or science, will bless the human family; let us gladly welcome
every crumb that feeds the hungry; and every drop that bears to the thirsty,
living waters.
The
literal meaning of the Scripture is not its highest sense; its spiritual
signification is what explains God and man. Church rites and ceremonies have
nothing to do with Christianity, and more than this, they draw
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us towards
material things; hence away from spiritual Truth, and all Truth is spiritual.
To depend on medicine or the so-called laws of health, prevents the sick being
healed by Truth; and to observe rites and ceremonies prevents the Spirit that
is Truth. We shall all learn we cannot serve two masters. Physics act against
metaphysics, for these opposites produce different results; and if we trust one
we mistrust the other. When the metaphysics of the science of being are
understood, we shall not believe in physics; in which case we cannot produce
the effect through medicine we did before. All seeming effects from matter are
effects of mind, that constructs the aeriform, liquid, or solid; matter is
inertia; all action is mind. Certain forms of belief we call substance, and
name matter, others more rarefied, mind; the discordant, mutable and mortal,
are not realities, they are beliefs and illusion; the harmonious and undying
are all that is real; Principle, and its idea is the only reality. To depend on
personality is error; words cannot always be depended upon, and are sometimes
less real than thoughts; treasures in matter are all lost. Persons are riot to
be trusted; Principle, is all there is to trust; hence, the greater reliability
of science, than all else; but this word, science,
will not be appended to humbugs, when once we catch its meaning.
"Absent from the body and present with the Lord," were Paul's
directions for a scientist, for this is spiritual understanding reaching
outside of personal sense, and material things. Life, Truth and Love displace
the material with the spiritual, but they are self-expressed, and
self-existent; nothing is wanting in them. Not that Soul is voiceless, but that
it is in-
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capable of
jargon, or words "such as hypocrites use." "Let us lay aside the
weights that so easily beset us," for the better proofs of Christianity in
love to our neighbor, and a perceptible gravitation toward Spirit, and away
from matter, whereby man is governed by Soul, instead of sense, by God, instead
of man. As religion yields creeds and rites, it will build on the great
corner-stone, Truth, the church of Christ. Creeds are beliefs instead of
understanding, products of man instead of God. A higher state of existence will
be attained only as we lose the beliefs of personal sense, and gain spiritual
sense. When we lose our opinions and theories that are false, We shall find God
the Principle of being, and the only antidote for all the ills of mind and
body; Truth makes man harmonious as nothing else can.
To help us
ascend the scale progressive, we naturally appeal to the pulpit, so efficient
on the side of right, in all our mighty struggles; and rejoice that in some
instances already, it is preaching away creeds, and in their place preaching
"Christ, and him crucified "; in other words, Truth, and the
persecution it meets from error.
Already we
find materia medica losing matter, and gaining mind, and the latter more potent
to heal the sick. Homeopathy is a step in advance of allopathy simply because
matter is fading out of its doses, and mind supplying its place; it takes the
moral symptoms largely into account in diagnosing disease, whereas allopathy
consults only the physical; the former method is a step toward spirituality,
and the science of life. Homoeopathy proves the more you extermin-
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ate the
drug, the more potent becomes the dose, and its pharmacy is your process of
mentalizing the vehicle, as you shake and count; the higher attenuations become
more potent, as mind, instead of matter, and with spiritual natures, the less
matter and more Truth is the grand secret of success in healing.
The ages
are passing from the material to the spiritual, and to make this passage more
pleasant and beneficial we should welcome the fact, and aid it with the
understanding. As the cruder foot-prints of the past disappear, let us retain
primitive simplicity as much as possible in our customs and habits; resting
assured that no imaginary pleasure of sense is lost without its higher
recompense in Soul. For being to quicken into Truth and Life, outside of
matter, is not a trance, nor the change called death; nor is there anything in
it to awaken dread, or superstition; it is the foot-steps of progress, that we
all must take to be immortal; in science, it is as natural and painless a
development, as the unfolding of buds into blossoms. When we shut out the
belief of Life in matter, the transition from matter to Spirit, will not be
through death; but Truth and Life, brought to light; the Master Said, "I
will not leave you comfortless, I, Truth, will come unto you."
Life is
not realized in the belief of death, nor of Life in matter; we must empty the
mind of all this error, before Truth can flow in. Life in matter is but a dream
that must be exchanged for reality, by awaking to the science of Life, wherein
Spirit is found the only real being. If we would gain the harmony of being, we
must begin by admitting the delusion of
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personal
sense, otherwise error will continue until the awakening comes with the
tortures of "the rich man," and the dream of Life in matter ends in
suffering, thus proving itself error.
Life is
harmony and immortality, impossible to harness to sickness, discord, and death.
Love is universal goodness and blessedness, that mixes not with suffering and
sin. Truth is infinite understanding, without an error to obscure its perfect
peace, and these three are one in Soul, but many to sense-; then do you lose
happiness or caste by finding yourself Soul, instead of sense. Material man
loses his individuality, but the spiritual, never; his identity is as immortal
as the Soul of man. The man of personal sense loses his identity with all its
pleasures and pains, but the man of Soul possesses his individuality on this
safe platform, to wit: that there is no personality; being is spirit.
Man gives
neither shape or comeliness to beauty; it has these before he perceives them;
distinct outline, coloring, etc., are of Soul, else their idea were not given
in the universe and man; therefore, beauty is a thing of Life, the offspring of
Intelligence, and not matter. The world would collapse without Intelligence and
its idea; there is no chance for argument here, philosophy nor skepticism can
change the scientific fact that God is and was; and that man, His reflex shadow
is, and was forever. We find no diminution of happiness in learning we are
Spirit and not matter, Soul and not body; but a vast increase of all that
elevates, purifies, and blesses man. Sickness, sin, and death are all that is
mortal, and these come only from ignorance, that clings to personal sense and
silences
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the voice
of Soul; therefore science reveals the so-called pleasures or pains of personal
sense, illusion, and that there is no sensation in matter; the opposite belief
that denies this is not the utterance of man's Principle, not the true tone,
but the discord. Spirit is concord, matter discord. If it was understood that
Life is Wisdom, Truth and Love, and not sickness, sin, and death, things of
sense, man would be immortal, and spared the experience of sin. We find the
so-called pleasures of sense nearly unknown in infancy, and well nigh lost in
age; showing us at both extremities they are nothingness -- things of belief
alone. Nutriment, one of the parent's beliefs of personal sense, that is first
transmitted to their offspring, is nothing but instinct in infancy, instead of
pleasure, for appetites and their gratification grow through education into
many demands, that instinct forbids. In both biped and quadruped we find belief
develops only error, and that instinct is better than reason misguided. Birds,
governed by instinct, sing and soar; drenched with the shower, they dry their
plumage without having catarrhs, or wetting their feet, are not victims of
pulmonary disease; instinct procures them summer residences, even with less
difficulty than wealth affords.
Every
pleasure we lay up in the storehouse of personal sense, is lost; sickness, sin,
or death, destroys it; but joys of Soul are laid up in the immortal storehouse
of spiritual sense, where thieves cannot break through and steal. A happy
Spirit (and there is none other,) is independent of circumstances, accident, or
age; optic nerves never robbed it of light, nor a broken bone of limbs, nor
disease of a sound body. Matter may break
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through
sense and steal, but it cannot through Soul, nor take away joys that are
spiritual. A sick, crippled, or dying man is not the image of God, of Life, and
Truth. Nerves have nothing to do with pain or pleasure; nerves may be
destroyed, and pain be left. We suffer physically in dreams, but nerves are not
the occasion of this pain. Sometimes a tooth that has been extracted, aches
again, in belief. After a limb has been amputated a sense of pain is felt in
the old spot; and we find a limb lost, according to one belief, and aching
according to another; we have seen an unwitting attempt to scratch the end of a
finger that had been cut off for months. When the nerve is gone that we say
occasioned pain, but the pain is left, we naturally conclude sensation is mind
and not matter; now reverse the case and let mind be absent from the body, or
lulled by an opiate, and sensation is lost and nerves are of no avail. The
so-called pleasures, or pains, of personal sense, are beliefs only, instead of
nerves. Learning the nothingness of personal sense, is the basis of science;
this point proved, was our scientific standpoint for healing the sick through
mind instead of matter; physical effects, we learned, are not the result of
physical causes; that diseases are beliefs, that, ruled out of mind, are ruled
out of the body.
Most
forms, or stages of disease that the body manifests, is remedied on this
scientific mental basis; we have tested this in too many instances to doubt it.
When medicine is taken and the sick recover, faith and not the medicine, has
done this, whereas the almost universal belief is that medicine, or laws of
health heal the sick; and because doctor, nurse, patient, and people
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believe
this, according to their faith so is it unto them. But take from this weight of
mind and belief some mental power, destroy some confidence in these means, and
they will do less for the sick, and destroy all faith, and they are powerless.
The cure wrought through the science of being is not the result of faith, but
understanding. I never found a quotient proving numbers divided according to
the rule of mathematics, more unquestionable than my tests of this science; but
to gain prominence for this Truth until it is understood, is impossible;
perfection, in the midst of imperfection, is slow to be seen, and slower to be
acknowledged. The mental opposition to it at present, throws the great weight
of universal belief, (the only prop of materia medica) against the science of
Life: but notwithstanding all this, it will live, because its Principle is
Truth, independent of belief. The Principle that made harmless the poison viper
in the hands of Paul, and from the boiling oil delivered the Evangelist unharmed,
that healed the sick, triumphed over sin and death, and crowned the meek brow
of Jesus, is immortal; therefore we need not fear what man can do unto it.
Setting aside personal sense, the error that so easily besets man, let us
strive to attain this demonstration that Jesus set before us. Enough already
has been accomplished, by prophet and apostle, to shut all lips in regard to
its Truth; but one thing is sure, that whose learns the letter only of science,
without possessing its Spirit, will not be able to repeat their demonstrations.
The age will at length require demonstration, in place of doctrine and belief,
and the Christian will at length preach only what he practices. As mortal man,
and the mist
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of
knowledge enveloping man in darkness disappears, the first appeal will be to
reason or philosophy, to plant our next footstep, before we understand the
higher and spiritual resources of being; but when this period arrives, and
before former things have passed away, the reaction of mind will be fearful.
Theology, (I say this not with reference to Christianity,) and materia medica
have failed to demonstrate what Jesus taught and demonstrated; and why we have
not followed his precepts and example is not so much from lack of desire, or
willful disobedience, as lack of understanding.
In earlier
periods, even the cross that should symbolize a denial of personal sense, was
made an instrument of torture. Error is sometimes deceit; again, it is a
misconception of Truth, and the desire to grow better is attended with more
sermons and ceremonies than understanding and practice. A clergyman once
adopted a diet consisting of bread and water, to increase his spirituality, and
continued it six weeks, but finding his health failing, he gave it up, advising
others never to try fasting to grow in grace. But we will add a leaf of
experience here, showing how personal sense, or belief of any sort, shuts out
harmony and science. When quite a child we adopted the Graham system for
dyspepsia, ate only bread and vegetables, and drank water, following this diet
for years; we became more dyspeptic, however, and, of course, thought we must
diet more rigidly; so we partook of but one meal in twenty-four hours, and this
consisted of a thin slice of bread, about three inches square, without water;
our physician not allowing us with this ample meal, to wet our parched lips for
many hours thereafter; whenever we
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drank, it
produced violent retchings. Thus we passed roost of our early years, as many
can attest, in hunger, pain, weakness, and starvation. At length we learned
that while fasting increased the desire for food, it spared none of the
sufferings occasioned by partaking of it, and what to do next, having already
exhausted the medicine men, was a question. After years of suffering, when we
made up our mind to die, our doctors kindly assuring us this was our only
alternative, our eyes were suddenly opened, and we learned suffering is
self-imposed, a belief, and not Truth. That God never made man sick; and all
our fasting for penance or health, is not acceptable to Wisdom, because it is
not the science of being, in which Soul governs sense. Thus Truth, opening our
eyes, relieved our stomach, also, and enabled us to eat without suffering,
giving God thanks; but we never afterwards enjoyed food as we expected to, if
ever we were a freed slave, to eat without a master; for the new-born
understanding that food could not hurt us, brought with it another point, viz.,
that it did nut help us as we had anticipated it would before our changed views
on this subject; food had less power over us for evil or for good than when we
consulted matter before Spirit, and believed in pains and pleasures of personal
sense. As a natural result, we took less thought about "What we should eat
or what drink," and, fasting or feasting, consulted less our stomach and
our food, arguing against their claims continually, and in this manner
despoiled them of their power over us to give pleasure or pain, and recovered
strength and flesh rapidly, enjoying health and harmony that we never before
had done.
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The belief
that fasting or feasting enables mail to grow better, morally or physically, is
one of the fruits of the "tree of knowledge," against which Wisdom
warned man, and of which we had partaken in sad experience; believing for many
years, we lived only by the strictest adherence to dietetics and physiology.
During this time we also learned a dyspeptic is very far from the image and
likeness of God, from having "dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowls
of the air, or beasts of the field"; therefore, that God never made one;
while the Graham system, hygiene, physiology, materia medica, etc., did, and
contrary to His commands. Then it was we promised God to spend our coming years
for the sick and suffering; to unmask this error of belief that matter rules
man. Our cure for dyspepsia was, to learn the science of being, and "eat
what was set before us, asking no questions for conscience sake;" yea, to
consult matter less, and God more. When we govern our bodies by the
understanding of this great Truth, that Spirit forms its own conditions of
body, we shall be perfectly harmonious; we should not hold the body a seat of
pain or pleasure, but be able to dictate terms to it, even as to a muscle that
we admit is dependent on mind for its action. But to attain this government
over the body requires more instruction and explanation than we have space for
in this book; we always advance slowly with students, requiring them to digest
one part of the science before giving out another, and so on. We hear it said,
"I go into the open air daily to overcome a predisposition to take cold;
and yet I have continual colds." Yes, and you will not listen to the
explanation that frees
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you from
catarrhs and makes you better in mind and body, if it conflicts in the least
with old opinions or beliefs. The freedom of the sons of God you persecute
because it is a step outside some 'ism, or the favorite "tree of
knowledge" proscribed by Wisdom. Your teachers inform you, God sends sickness,
when the Scriptures say, He cures it; also, that His laws are carried out
through drugs, food, air, exercise, etc., which would make matter intelligent,
and the law of God that walks over matter of none effect. The peril to the
professions, if your eyes are opened to the science of being, is regarded by
your leaders, and the laws of God disregarded, so far as health is concerned.
They have not discerned, yet, the governing Principle of being. The Bible
teaches us to transform our bodies by the renewing of the Spirit; explaining
the Scriptures without understanding their application to heal the sick, does
little more towards making man harmonious than moonbeams to melt a plane of
ice. If you understood the science of being, your thoughts, resting on the sick
and afflicted, would do more toward their recovery than all the drugs,
manipulations, and long prayers ever adopted. The error of the age is teaching
without proof, and not practicing what you preach. Personal sense is error; but
the Principle of all being is infallible; therefore, the nearer we approach
unto it, the nearer we are to God, that appoints us more solemn trusts as we
advance higher, but if false to His commissions, in vain do we attempt to cover
it from Wisdom. You may bide your ignorance of spiritual things from the eyes
of the world, but can never gain the understanding and demonstration of the
science of Life, without an
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honest,
high, and God-given purpose. Sin is thought before it is deed, and you must
master it in the first, or it conquers you in the second instance. Jesus said,
to look with foul desire on forbidden objects, breaks a moral precept; hence,
the stress he laid on the character of a man that is hidden from our
perception. Evil thoughts reach farther, and do more harm than individual
crimes, for they impregnate other minds and fashion your body. The atmosphere
of impure desires, like the atmosphere of earth, is restless, ever in motion,
and calling on some object; this atmosphere is laden with mental poison, and
contaminates all it touches. When malicious purposes, evil thoughts, or lusts,
go forth from one mind, they seek others, and will lodge in them unless
repelled by virtue and a higher motive for being. All mental emanations take
root and bear fruit after their own kind. Consider, then, the guilt of
nurturing evil and impure thoughts, that send broadcast discord and moral
death. Sooner suffer a doctor infected with small-pox to be about you, than
come under the treatment of one that manipulates his patients' heads, and is a
traitor to science.
These
points are so vital to the success of all learning to heal the sick in the
science of being, we hesitate not to name them, even as we urge their
importance when teaching, and we never withdraw aid or interest from a student
unless we have found him unworthy his, place. Through a metaphysical mode of
healing, patients cannot be made harmonious by a dishonest or impure-minded
practitioner; it is the Truth of being that heals in science, and who will say
this doctor possesses it? We have classified sickness, error, and to destroy
an-
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other's
error we must conquer our own. If you are fettered by sin you are unfit to free
another from the fetters of disease; could you break the manacles from other
wrists, with your own hands bound? and yet this would be equally easy. A little
that is true regarding man's being, does wonders for the sick, so infinite are
the resources of Truth; but alas! how much more good could be done by the good
and honest practitioner, with more Truth. When a student learns the rules of
this science we expect him to use them according to their Principle, or not
parade his poor example before the world as a demonstrator. Our hands have been
made weak by this mal-practice; we must not seek the approval of man, but of
God, leaving futurity to explain us and our motives. It is science to do right,
and nothing short of this can lay claim to it. The injunction to "come out
from the world and be separate " has its inevitable fulfilment in
Christianity, not only from the natural tendency of opposites to separate, but
because the abuse it receives from sinners who verily believe they do right to
wrong Truth, or cannot see the wrong they do, separates them. The spiritual are
apart from the material from the necessity of opposite natures. The immortality
of man is only gained by his spirituality, hence material things are not what
he needs; besides, all things are finally resolved into Spirit, their ultimatum
for Life and heaven are of Spirit. What fellowship, then, hath light with
darkness, and matter with the kingdom of heaven that shall come on earth?
Mortal man is but a dream; even the belief that Life, sensation and substance
are matter, all of which the ultimatum of being proves illusion. A dream comes
in
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darkness,
and this belief comes from error, an ignorance of real existence; but the light
of science will awaken us all to the understanding of Life that is real, and
the grave is not its goal; sickness, sin, and death, enter not into Life; they
are mortality's self. The dream that Life or Intelligence is in matter, Soul in
body, and God in man, is fatal as it is false. To admit Spirit in matter is an
attempt to limit the limitless, and make immortality a myth; like saying frost
is in fire, and with this belief dream you get into the fire, but are glad to
waken to live and recognize Life independent of your illusion or matter.
Science reverses every belief of personal sense, for every condition of
mortality is destroyed in immortal man. Socrates understood this when pledging
the superiority of Spirit over matter in a cup of poison hemlock, refusing to
care for the body mortal. The malice of that age would have killed the
venerable philosopher because of his high regard for spiritual things and
indifference to the body. When nothing that loveth or maketh a lie is left, the
reign of Spirit will come on earth; science will not always wait, but lifting
its voice far above the centuries, will be heard, and old things be done away,
and all become new. Who can say that man is alive to-day and tomorrow dead?
What has touched Life to such strange issues? matter may destroy itself, but
cannot destroy Spirit. What, then, has unstrung this harp of many strings?
Theories stop here, and science alone rolls back the mystery and solves the
problem of immortal man. Error bites the heel of Truth, but cannot destroy it;
Truth bruises the head of error and kills it; error is mesmerism; one lie
scaring off another and taking
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the rule
itself; but Truth is science walking over all lies. Christianity is open seige
with the world; on which side are you fighting? Popularity gained by
dishonesty, is smoking flax ready to perish. The wrong you (To another weighs
most heavily against yourself, for at some time Truth will adjust the balances.
As soon think to make evil good, as to benefit yourself by injuring others. If
the balance of your character is wrong you lose the weight of Truth, and work
not in science; if you treat the sick mesmerically, or with medicine, you are
calling on your gods, like the worshippers of Baal, but they are not the
Prophet's God, the Principle of being; the moral mercury is what rises or falls
your demonstration, according to the amount of Truth you possess. Worshipping
in temples made with hands; loving the world and listening to the demands of
personal sense, is not the true worship. Then let the Christian who has grown
away from forms and ceremonies, enjoy his worship in the right way, viz.,
Spirit and in Truth. If we come out from the world, as the Scripture demands,
and are separate, we shall have its frowns instead of flatteries, and they will
enable us, more than its favors, to be a Scientist. Losing her crucifix, the
poor Catholic said, "I have nothing left now but Christ," and this
was not greater ignorance of God than to fall away from Truth because of
persecution. It we have God on our side, what Deed we more? Loving error more
than Truth we shall not separate ourself from the world, but wait on its
approval until sickness comes to dull this false sense of happiness. When we
silence the demands of conscience, at some future hour we shall hear the reply,
"darkness
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leadeth
not into the guest-chamber of Wisdom; ye cannot enter now." Our unimproved
opportunities gone, are not easily reproduced; nor can we borrow Wisdom,
therefore we must then learn from suffering. The hour of darkness will come to
those who improve not the preparatory school of the present, to fit them for
the future, but would step suddenly into all the benefits of experience; alas!
what were the science of being to them in that hour? -- a blessing? yea, a
blessing infinite. The dream of Life in matter, based on the evidence of
personal sense, will vanish ere long, when we would gladly turn from its fading
vision and the pains of sense, to peace and immortality; but the accumulated
error of years dies slowly, and sometimes with severe struggles. As a general
rule, man will not seek Truth until suffering shows him the need he has of it,
or science opens the eyes of his understanding to see it; for science guides
man safely over the quicksands and shoals, making Life what it is, harmony, and
not discord. Personal sense is a broken reed that leaves man to fall to the
earth; but science raises him up to the resources within himself. The very
logic of Truth declares the higher and more enduring claims of Spirit over
matter in all our experiences, showing that something besides the body, and
perishable things of earth, demand our care and must furnish our support. Soul
is heard above the din of sense, saying to error, " Depart from me, ye
that work iniquity." Man should obey the voice of Wisdom outside his body,
that calls him away from a sense or contemplation of sickness, sin, and death,
to harmony, health, and Life.
It is not
from matter, personal sense, or from doc-
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trines and
beliefs, that we catch divine echoes. We must be "absent to the body to be
present with the Lord; " only by caring less and less for the body, shall
we attain harmony and Life. Our Master's command "Take no thought what e
shall eat, or what drink," etc., means something. We must seek God,
Spirit, outside of our bodies, and through a disregard for them, and not until
we find Truth thus, shall we ever obtain it. Looking to the body for pleasure
or pain, for Life or death, is error, and asking amiss to consume it on our
lusts. After severe toil, we say, I am fatigued, naturally concluding the
muscles have been overtasked and need repose; but our only safe and permanent
method to overcome a sense of fatigue is to deny the ability of personal sense,
to make us weary, and let mind triumph over matter, with the opposite argument
that saith, I am not tired, for the "I" is Spirit, and not matter;
bid the physical report depart, even as you would a temptation to sin. It is
science, to put down the arguments of personal sense, with the higher ones of
Soul. Why this mental method of curing physical ailments is better than
yielding to the feeling of tired, and taking a respite from labor, is because
it is the science of being, that Spirit should control matter; action or
sensation belongs not to matter, independent of mind, and when you conquer
through mind, the next occasion for fatigue will find you less apt to feel it,
and you will not suffer from fatigue as you did before; the belief that body
has a sense of fatigue independent of what mind says, is error, that the
opposite Truth of being will destroy.
Your body
is as unconscious of action, or weariness,
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setting
aside what mind says in regard to this, as a wheel, and to understand this point
in science, will rest you as hours of quiet would not. Make a scientific test
of this, if you please, and you will find it true; but in order to do this, you
must understand how to hold and strengthen the mental argument against the
physical, and guard against the influence of other minds, that embrace opposite
beliefs. When through the Truth of man you gain one victory over the error, it
will bring out a faint understanding of the Principle that controls being
harmoniously. A disposition is often manifested to get rid of this physical
part of science, by saying the fatigue did actually occur, but you
psychologized the individuals to think they were not weary; this argument,
however, is weak in behalf of the old positions regarding mind and body, for it
admits the power of mind over matter, and this is just what you need to admit
first, and next to understand its Principle, and not to mesmerize a man to make
him wise, or yield to the error that belief is superior to understanding. The
difficulty to understand science is, personal sense comprehends it not, that
wars against it, for belief will not and cannot accept a Principle
understandingly. We hear a sweet melody, and not knowing how it is produced,
may explain it superstitiously, and leave the thing in mysticism. The sick
often recover through the science of being; but not comprehending the Principle
of their cure, misinterpret it, and do not render to God the things that are
God's; but give them to Caesar, saying, medicine, a change of air, or some supposed
law of matter, did it. How often have we seen, in chemicalization, produced by
the
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introduction
of the Truth of being, relating to disease, given a misinterpretation by an
ignorance of its real cause. We look for cause and effect in matter; whereas
science finds all causation, mind; that which is produced by the mind of Soul,
harmonious, and by the so-called mind of matter, inharmonious. The belief from
infancy to age, that muscles are tired and body inharmonious, is error, and
this error in the premises, leads to the error in conclusion, viz., that they
are tired. Admitting fatigue a sensation of matter that belongs to muscles and
nerves, we find rest only in respite from toil, thus admitting matter
intelligent; but when we understand a sense of fatigue is one of mortal mind's
beliefs, and not a sensation of matter, we begin to master it, and can continue
the exercise without the same fatigue or injury.
To gain
entire immunity from suffering and sin, and perfect control over the belief of
personal sense, or our bodies, we must be perfect in science; a thing not to be
looked for at this period; but if we abate the demands and sufferings of
personal sense, on the Principle laid down, it is sufficient for a beginning.
In doing this even, it will be found that in science we cannot multiply where
we should divide, and the answer be right; that we cannot say to muscles, you
have strength, and to nerves, you have sensation, and to matter, you hold sway
as well as Spirit, and then control our body, with the opposite Principle of
being; we must deny all sensation or Intelligence to matter or the body, with
the understanding that Spirit is all that possesses Intelligence, before we can
demonstrate in harmony the science of being. We are tired according to one belief,
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and rested
according to another, and we should understand that every condition, or
supposed sensation of the body is but a belief of the mind, and not Truth, the
reality of Life. Understanding this, we remove the condition of mind, that
affects the body, by destroying the belief producing it, whatever this may be,
and the effect will immediately be seen on the body. On this Principle we bring
our bodies into subjection to Soul, the immortality of man; and this makes them
harmonious and immortal, because it takes them out of the hands of personal
sense and mortality. When matter or muscles claim, "I am tired," let
Spirit contradict this; first, because matter cannot feel, nor report a
feeling; and secondly, that mind can, and that mind, and not matter is what
suffers. Soul, instead of sense, controls the universe and immortal man; but
reverse this order of science, and we say man is controlled by mortality. There
is but one God, or Intelligence, and our bodies are not this Intelligence, and
cannot say, I am tired, or sick. Again, there is but one Spirit, to utter
Itself, or report for man, and this voice is Life and Love that never produces
suffering, and never made man sick, nor a sinner. The Truth, that neither
Intelligence, Life, nor Substance dwelleth in matter, is the basis of harmony
in the universe and man. Even the desolate regions of the cold North, the sunny
tropics, the everlasting hills, the winds and mighty billows, the vale, the
flowers and heavens, all point to Intelligence, outside of matter; whereas
sickness, sin and death are our only evidences of Intelligence, God, in matter,
and these do not represent God. In the science of creation, man is harmonious
and eternal; but go
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attempt to
put Soul in body, and sensation in matter, and we loose the key of harmonious
being, and discord continually. The head says I am diseased, or the stomach, I
am deranged, and the body, I am sick, or filled with lusts, hatred, malice,
envy, and all manner of concupiscence; and what renders the case hopeless, is
the belief that Spirit cannot stay all this jargon. Error has another shift,
that God created this state of things, and that sickness, sin and death, are
His messengers, sent by Wisdom who is not able or willing to destroy them. Then
wherefore pray for the recovery of the sick, or that God will turn the sinner
from his evil way, and employ a doctor to do what Omnipotence refuses to do?
"In Him we live, move, and have being"; what, then, is this power
independent of God, that causes disease and then cures it? Does God make man
sick, and leave him to cure himself, Spirit send disease and leave its remedy
with matter? Life, Love, and Truth never produced disease and death, nor caused
man to sin, and then punished him for sinning, nor made man sick, in order to
heal him. Alan is not supreme, and God secondary, body first, and Soul last;
and evil stronger than good; this is not the science of being, but the error of
sense. The clay cannot reply to the potter, why bast thou made me thus? head,
heart, lungs, etc., cannot say we are sick, sinning and mortal, and Spirit, the
immortal and unerring Principle of man has made us thus, and is the author of
all this discord, He that made man in his own image and likeness. Man that God
created is the offspring of Spirit, and not matter, the product of God and not
man, and is immortal and harmonious. The base, the foul, and
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mortal,
malice, lust and lies, God has nothing to do with, nor do these belong to
immortal man, who is the representative of Spirit and Truth; they are what we
term mortal man, but are in fact nothing but error; for man is not mortal, and
error has no reality; it is neither God, nor His idea. Perfection acts not
through imperfection. God has nothing to do with the belief of Life in matter.
The Principle of being never produced sin and discord, therefore they never
were produced. "God made all that was made," and God has nothing to
do with sin, sickness, or death, only to destroy these beliefs. Jesus
demonstrated this for man. Spirit is cause, and there is no effect from any
other cause; hence there is no reality in what proceedeth not from this great
and only cause. Sin is error, and error the absence of all that is real or
true; sickness and death are error; therefore they are neither real nor true.
Matter has neither action nor Intelligence of its own; it can dictate no terms
to man, and because God sends not sickness, sin and death, that surely never
came from Life, Truth and Love -- they never were sent, and are but the dream
and illusion of personal sense, or Life in matter. We know this Truth will not
be seen and acknowledged until this dream be disturbed by it, or broken up,
nevertheless it is Truth, and the science of being. The only evidence we have
of sickness or death is from personal sense, that is inadequate to recognize
Soul, or the immortality of man, that alone reveals his harmony.
Again,
sickness, sin and death are without evidence in truth, which is the immortality
of man; there they disappear; the only evidence we have of their reality
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is in
mortality or error; but nothing real is mortal. If matter can heal the sick,
and mind cannot, it is more powerful than mind, and if God %ends sickness, it
is opposed to His government to heal it; and if matter produces its own
conditions, it acts against itself, and will be self-destroyed. Our opposite
views abuse the science of being, and give the lie to Truth. Has the clay power
over the potter, is matter self-acting and independent of God, thug prior and
superior to Spirit? To reap where Truth hath not sown, is to gather error; such
contradictory statements as these "soweth the wind and reapeth the
whirlwind." It is belief alone or mortal man, that holds matter as God,
intelligent, self-creative, and self-acting; Truth finds it unintelligent,
neither living nor dying, sick nor well. God has no part in suffering, sin or
death, and there is no reality where God is not. If God made man to be sick, it
is right that he should be so, and wrong to heal him; man cannot if be would,
and should not if he could, annul the decrees of Wisdom. If sickness is a
reality, it is a condition of Truth; and do you claim that drugs can destroy a
condition of Truth? But if, as is the case, sickness is but a belief, therefore
but a dream and illusion, the waking must come from Truth and understanding,
that alone can destroy it; and this is Christ healing the sick.
If man is
at the disposal of man and matter, of drugs and worms, he is not "the
image of God," and is mortal, but mortality is not man -- it is
nothingness, the sooner gone the better, for reason and revelation repudiate
it. Man is immortal, but be is not Intelligence in matter, else he were mortal;
man is the idea of God, the
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idea of
Spirit, therefore he is not subject to laws of matter, to sickness, sin or
death. Science reveals the fact that there is no Intelligence in matter, and
that all righteous government is Spirit that speaks and it is done; never for a
moment admitting matter controls man. The belief that God is the author of
sickness, sin and death, or that an opposite power named devil or matter is the
father thereof, implies a power independent of and over and above God; while
there is no separate might or Intelligence from Spirit, and to talk of
"spirits" is narrating ghost stories. There is but one Spirit, even
God, and this is always right because it is Life, Truth and Love; matter is but
a belief of Spirit, Substance and Life where these are not, and out of this
error and belief, we make all suffering, sin and death. Does Wisdom commit mistakes
to be rectified by man, does God send sickness and man destroy it, thus undoing
what he has done? That which is perfect cannot produce sickness, sin or death;
and if God cannot destroy these, they are immortal. Nothing to my understanding
exceeds the power of omnipotence, and the sick are never really healed except
through God, Intelligence; the power of drugs, electricity and matter is but a
belief: it is mesmerism and not science that claims Truth, Life or Intelligence
in matter bestowing a blessing that God cannot; and the so-called cures of
these agents continue only so long as the belief lasts. Truth, Life and Love
have got it all to do sometime, for they alone accomplish all that continues
and is harmonious. If God heals not the sick it is because He cannot or will
not, and in either case what chance would there be for matter, or man to heal?
Can drugs do more than Wisdom, or change the
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unalterable
Truth? or if God can heal the sick and does not, wherefore should man presume
to do it. The error of sickness ought to be as apparent as the error of sin.
When a man is sick, has God made him sick? No! Can He heal him? Yes. But does
He that creates wisely destroy his own creation, or what are we to conclude?
"That all things were made by Him, and without Him there was nothing made
that was made "; in other words, that all that he created was
"good," and what is not good has no creation, and therefore no
reality. To really understand that pleasure and pain belong not to matter,
heals the sick. Cold, heat, exercise, study, food, infection, etc., etc., never
caused a sick nor a healthy condition of man. Nerves, brain, blood, bones,
liver, lungs, heart, etc., never determined the Life of man; scrofula, fever,
consumption, rheumatism, small-pox, or any other disease never produced pain or
inharmony; not one of these can make a single hair white or black, mar or
change the creation of God; they are not creators in the smallest sense. If God
produced disease, it is good, for all was good that God made.
Mortal man
is improved, oftentimes, by sickness because it is error destroying itself; a
fermenting stage in which it throws itself off to some extent; again what is
named dying is but one belief destroying another; a belief of death destroying
a belief of Life in matter. Belief saith an ulcer becomes more painful as it
hastens to its end in suppuration, for error grows more imperative before it
kills itself. Death is but a chemical change, in which some disease that is
supposed to kill a man, reaches its own self-destruction; and we
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admit
certain diseases, such as measles, whooping-cough, etc., never recur a second
time; even thus when we say consumption has killed a man, he has only wakened
out of the dream of Life in matter, that was never a reality, to live on as
before, and find himself not dead, and consumption beaten ever thereafter. This
is just what Truth finally does with all sickness, sin and death; lets them
prove their own nothingness, that the science of being may appear. Man is not
dead when the body mortal is admitted lifeless; the Life of man was never in
the body, and to admit this, is the first step towards immortality. Heaven,
earth, and man, all the eye seeth, will pass away, and personal sense yield to
spiritual sense, which is the only real Reuse; and the supposed life of matter,
to Life that is God. To understand that Spirit and its immortal idea, the
universe and man, are all that is real, is the kingdom or reign of harmony that
is to come. The only reality of Life or Substance, is Spirit.
The
different phases of error, or mortal belief, are the conception, birth, and
death of man and matter, together with the pleasure, pain, sickness and sin of
personal sense; all of which are discords, and harmony proves discord not the
Truth of man. Once understanding the nothingness of error, we should never
again regard it with fear or submit to its false government. Sin is the
strongest error, because it embraces a belief of pleasure in matter, that a
belief of suffering alone can destroy. Wisdom allows sin to commit suicide.
That sickness, sin and death are error and illusion, and that the happiness and
Life of man are undisturbed by this error, is science. We should not regard our
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bodies the
source of happiness and being, but find these Soul, and not sense; even the
Principle of being that produces harmonious and immortal man. Opposed to this
science are the vast array of beliefs, saying lo! here, and lo! there; that
would reach perfection and immortality on the merit of another's suffering and
experience, instead of the higher understanding of God. We have no schools of
healing on the Principle that Jesus taught; yet he required of his followers,
all, to preach the gospel, heal the sick, and leave all for Truth. A religion
privileged through wealth and fraternity of interests, is not the first step
towards Christianity. A popular 'ism was not what our Master pinned his faith
upon; he taught taking up our cross, denying sense, and living Soul, to follow
Truth; and this did not include sickness, sin, and death, nor pre-suppose that,
brain, nerves, stomach and so forth, hold the issues of Life. Truth made man
upright; it was error that sought out the invention of sin, sickness, etc., of
wrong-thinking and wrong-acting, saying man is both a sinner and saint, dust
and Deity; these were the beliefs of personal sense or different phases of
mesmerism. Children were blessed by Christ, Truth, because of their emptiness
of these beliefs by which they were better able than adults to enter into the
science of being. While age is halting between two opinions, or battling with
some personal sense, children make easy and rapid strides towards Truth. A
little girl who bad listened to our explanations, severely wounding her finger,
proved this, concluding, "it cannot hurt me, for there is no sensation in
matter," this result followed to the delight of all, and the next day
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she came
running to her mother with laughing eyes and cheeks aglow, informing her
"my finger is not a bit sore, and you have done nothing for it." It
might have taken months or years for her parents to have gained her position,
and laid aside their drugs. We see, through the daily proofs of this science,
the power of education on the mind, and how "out of the mouth of babes
hast Thou perfected praise." The older and stubborn beliefs of adults may
even choke this good seed in the minds of their offspring; like unto the
"fowls of the air " they carry it away, because of their want of
understanding, before it can take root.
As in
mathematics a reversed statement proves the rule, so, also, in the science of
life, for example:
There is
no pain in Truth, and no Truth in pain; no matter in mind, and no mind in
matter; no nerve in Intelligence, and no Intelligence in nerve; no matter in
Spirit, and no Spirit in matter, etc. That man should lose his identity because
Soul is not in body, and Intelligence in matter, is quite as impossible as that
tones of music should be lost in their Principle. Theories and doctrines have
never yet explained Spirit and matter, but the Scriptures have, and as science
demonstrates them, namely, Life and its idea. "Thou shalt surely
die," is the sentence of Wisdom daily executed on the belief of Life and
Substance in matter, and yet man is not dead; then wherefore doubt belief is
error, and man idea and not Substance, and Spirit the only Substance, because
it is the Principle of man and the universe. This science of being cannot be
seen at once in the midst of so many beliefs that deny all explanations of man,
spiritually, and accept only a material
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anatomy of
him, calling bones, sinews, head, beat, etc., man. These theories cannot be
true, if man is immortal, and science and revelation reveal him the "image
and likeness of God"; man, therefore, is immortal, and that which is
mortal, is not man. It we understood God we should have reached nearer the
Principle that proves him immortal; our grand mistake is to suppose man both
mortal and immortal. The question arises at every point of theories, what is
Truth? and the answer to this, Christ built his church upon over eighteen
hundred years ago, namely, I am God, and man is the offspring of Soul and not
sense; but this answer was not understood then, and has since been interpreted
variously. His garment of truth we have rent and cast lots for, but the answer
Jesus accepted as explaining man and God is the unchanging and eternal science
of being; "Thou art Christ, the son of the living God," for "I
am the Truth and Life," takes all Intelligence out of matter, and yields
no homage to personality, making Christianity the foundation of right-thinking
and right-acting, and through which we reach our God-being, and not rites and
ceremonies, nor the persecuting clans that would stereotype progress. Peter
said, "Thou art Christ," and on this statement that Intelligence is
Spirit, and not matter, and that "I," is God, and not man, was built
the church of Christ, the superstructure of Truth and its demonstration, which
was, casting out error and healing the sick. Jesus reiterated this when saying
"I and the Father are one "; in other words, that "I"
signifies Spirit and not matter, Principle and not person, and "no man
cometh unto the Father" (the under-
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standing
of this Principle), "but through Me," Truth. Sin has no foundation
when we admit our bodies are not intelligent Sickness is without a foothold on
this platform; it is the Truth of man that destroys personal sense; therefore,
that alone can destroy sickness, sin, and death. The mission of Jesus was to
separate material belief from spiritual understanding, and to show that Truth
never mixes with error. Good and evil, Spirit and matter, are separate now and
forever. Jesus knew we must understand this, or never reach the harmony of
being. This is the science of Life that enables us to come out from the world
and be separate; to reach the moral distance between Life that is Spirit and
the supposed life of matter, and live apart from all that is sickness, sin, or
death. This is the Truth that brings to light immortality. Jesus knew personal
sense was error, and that there is no personal sense or Intelligence in matter;
therefore that all the reports of this sense are chimeras that the Truth of
being overthrows. This advanced standard of being is not yet understood,
although it is over eighteen centuries ago that Jesus taught it, and they
received not his sayings. Science, not personal sense, Principle and not
person, understanding and not belief, must interpret Jesus' demonstration; for
Truth and not error, Life and not death, health and not sickness, is its
Principle. In order to follow Christ, Truth, we must show by our example, what
Truth demonstrates; namely, that it casts out error and heals the sick; and
then shall we fulfill the prediction of Jesus when he said, "The works I
do ye shall do." The doctrines of man are not built upon the Rock of
Truth; theology
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leaves in
mystery the science of God that Jesus not only explained but demonstrated.
There is no Life or Principle in man that proves him immortal, hence we have no
resource but to annihilate the belief of Life and Intelligence in matter, and
understand God, the Principle of man and his immortality.
Beauty is
eternal; but the beauty of matter passes away, fading at length into decay and
ugliness. Custom, habit, opinions and belief form the transient standard of
material beauty; but beauty is a thing of Life, exempt from age or decay, and
to be this it must be a thing of Spirit. Immortal man and woman (and there are
none other), are unfading perfection, models of beauty that reflect all loveliness
insomuch as they are "the image and likeness of God", of Soul and not
sense. But in order to reflect beauty the body must represent only the perfect
and immortal. To become less sense and more Soul, is the recipe for beauty; but
to reach its standard we must put all sin, sickness and sorrow under the feet
of our God-being, and rise superior to them; retreat from the belief of pain or
pleasure in the body, to the unchanging quiet and glorious freedom of
impersonal bliss. The embellishments of person are a poor substitute for the
beauty of Spirit shining resplendant and eternal, over age and decay. Measuring
Life by solar years robs youth, and hourly gives uncomeliness to age. The
rising sun of virtue and Truth is the morning of being, and its manhood eternal
noon, unmarked by a setting sun. When beauty fades to personal sense, it is not
lost to Soul, and affection marvels our friend could seem aught but beautiful.
It is the belief of sickness, sorrow, and of
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solar
years, that mars the face and form. I say the belief, because science admits no
reality in aught but God and His idea. To Spirit a thousand years are as one
day; hence, a man of years and experience is ripening into higher beauty and
excellence instead of growing old; mind is feeding the body with immortality,
if it supplies it with Truth, and taking away the error of personal sense that
says a day points to a nearer tomb; our body neither suffers nor enjoys. When
will it be understood that "I" is impersonal, even mind and not matter?
Until this point is gained in the science of being, man will go on in belief, a
pendulum between joy and sorrow, sickness and health, Life and death, even as
at present. Is man tottering and ready to perish, or sick and sinning, the
likeness of Omnipotence? are Life and all our faculties measured by calendars,
and beauty a thing of decay? or is there a mortal man that grows, matures and
decays, out of which springs the perfect and immortal man? Verily such
admissions leap headlong into error. Science proves a corrupt fountain sendeth
not forth pure streams, and the same fountain both sweet and bitter water.
Solar years, that stamp the wrinkle on the brow, are the effect of man's
reckoning, and not God's; they are a belief of personal sense and not the
understanding of Soul. Mortal man is old only by admitting be is thus; for it
is mind and not matter that makes the body what it is. Intelligence without
beginning and without end is the data (if such it can be called), of Life; man
is not young or old; he is and was eternal as the idea of God. Man has neither
birth nor death; he is not a vegetable animal, nor a transmigrating mind,
passing first into a
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mortal
body, and thence to the immortal; this belief is a relic of heathenism; we have
no beliefs that are not. Personality is not man, therefore the body mortal is
but a belief of man, and not the reality of him. Life, Truth, and harmony are
the reality of being, and man is the idea of these; hence the body mortal is
but belief and error, discord and death. Shakespeare's description of age
presents a picture of mortal man; our bodies are not the repositories of us, else all would go down to dust. I is Spirit and not matter, and Spirit
never for a moment entered or animated matter. If happiness is personal sense,
joy is a trembler and builds on sand; or if materiality is man the very worms
do rob us.
To
understand Intelligence nor Life are in the body, is to conquer age and hold
being forever fresh and immortal. The error of growing old is seen in the
history of an English lady, as narrated in the London Lancet.
In early
life she was disappointed in love, became insane, in which she lost the
calculation of time, and lived only in the hour that parted the lovers, never
afterward recognizing the lapse of years, and speaking only from that sad hour.
The effect of this was, she literally grew no older, and when seen by some of
our American travellers at seventy-four years of age, presented the entire
appearance of youth, not a wrinkle or gray hair marred the picture, but youth
sat gently on cheek and brow. Before being informed of her history the visitors
were asked to judge of her age, and each placed her under twenty. This instance
of preserved youth suggests a point in science not to be overlooked, and which
a Franklin might have built upon, or a New-
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ton, with
more certainty than the falling apple; years had not made her old, and
wherefore? because she did not believe she was growing old, but lived according
to another belief in the hour of youth, the result of which was, time could not
make her aged, for the body represented the belief. Mind must say she was
growing old, or the body would not present the aspect of age. She was young
because during all those years she had never believed she was becoming old,
therefore time fell powerless at her feet. Impossibilities never occur, and one
such instance as the above, proves it not impossible to be young at
seventy-five years of age, but the Principle of this proof is worth more than
the bare fact; it explains the cause of decrepit age, and how to avoid it.
Never record years and keep time tables of births and deaths, if you would
preserve the full faculties of womanhood and manhood. It is only because every
hour of our years, mind is admitting we are growing old, that it is difficult
to present three score years and ten unmarred by age. It is not the years but
the belief that years make man infirm, that brings the infirmity of age;
"as a man thinketh so is he." A belief of acute disease -- and all
disease is belief -- is more readily destroyed than the chronic, because mind
has not settled the question so decidedly, nor admitted the belief as long; the
mental force of habit is not as strong in one case as in the other. The belief
that man has birth, maturity and decay, is simply saying he is a vegetable
animal, the animal not fit to live, and the vegetable incapable of Life. Soul
is Spirit, and Spirit Life; God, neither an infant, adult, nor decrepit; and
man is "the image and likeness of God," then what prece-
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dent have
we for the growth, maturity and decay of man. If man were matter, a tree, or a
monkey, in his earlier stages of existence, we might admit his growth and
decay; but be is the reflex shadow of Spirit, and Spirit knows neither infancy
nor age. If man goes out in decay or death, there is a time when Jehovah is
left without a likeness or representation, and Soul is without even an image,
and Principle loses its idea. Reasoning from the premises that Soul is in body,
and Spirit and matter mingle, our only logical conclusion is, that man goes
down with matter, and is annihilated. But Spirit forms man, and is not in that
which it creates; can the sculptor bury himself in the statue he is chiseling,
and inside the marble work out his model, at every point of progress giving it
new outlines and touches? Nor is God, the Soul and Intelligence of the universe
and man, divided into larger or smaller proportions, or "gods " which
enter man and matter. There is but one God, even the Intelligence outside of
matter, that is a unity and not integral parts, neither mixed up with error,
decay, or death. The Principle of man is outside its idea; mortal man would
possess no ponderability if permeated by Spirit, and Spirit be ponderable if it
dwelt within matter. Reason permitted scope, and guided by revelation
repudiates theories so suicidal to the science of being; for theories are
false, and science is true. Take away the belief, that limits, and sensation in
matter constitute man, and you have immortal man the idea of God, and remove
personality from your belief of God, and you have the infinite principle, even
God that is Love. If Intelligence is in man and matter, what is there outside
of these to govern the
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heavens
and earth that "declare thy glory." Intelligence in matter, and
outside of it, also, would be two powers, the unerring and immortal, and the
erring and mortal in perpetual warfare; there is no Omnipotence, or Omnipotence
is all there is. "Dust to dust " was not spoken of man; we know all
that God produces needs no erasure, and cannot be blotted out, for it is the
idea of Spirit and not matter.
Life is
the same yesterday, to-day and forever; anachronism and organization have
nothing to do with it. Life gives immortality to all it creates; what is not
Life, Wisdom, Truth or Love, and their idea, is but a fading error, and empty
dream. We say, "I dreamed last night"; would that we understood
better than this the wide difference between Soul and sense. "I,"
signifies Intelligence, the Principle of man, that never slumbers nor wanders
into illusion; belief is the only dreamer, and its dream says, Life and
Intelligence are in matter; to be sure sleep is one of the phases of this
dream, also the nightly thoughts get nearer the Truth of being, that silence
the waking dream of substance matter, and yet convey the body whithersoever you
will, for this comes nearer the reality of man's existence than the waking
dream of Life in matter; and is sometimes prophetic. We have no occasion to
find fault with science because it repudiates personal sense, if we would not
quarrel with a man for waking us from a nightmare, that produces suffering real
to belief, but unreal to science. Our past and present views of man and God,
have not made man harmonious or immortal, nor God, Love; hence the need of a
change of views, as in the science of man. The man intoxicated would
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be let
alone, because he thinks inebriety is enjoyable, but waking out of this error
changes his belief, and this error of personal sense becomes apparent. So at
the final demand of Wisdom, understanding will comprehend the falsity or
nothingness of the claims of personal sense. We say mortal man is born to
suffer and die, but mortal man is matter, and does matter suffer? Science will
at length destroy this ignorance relating to Soul and body, and teach us the
harmony of both never yet gained on the old platforms, and never can be. Why
not, then, begin in this direction to-day, and not scoff at demonstrative
Truth, because you cannot see it with eyes, feel it with nerves, etc.,
"for having eyes, you do not see."
Children
should be taught this science, the first lessons they receive, and the
education of personal sense kept out. Never discuss the so-called laws of
matter, food or raiment; rule out of mind sickness, sin and death, give not
error all your thoughts; looking in opposite directions, and away from such
thoughts, is all that will ameliorate the sharper and longer experiences of
getting out of them, either in time or eternity. To be out of an imaginary
existence in matter, and realize one's self not body but Soul, is the ultimatum
of being. When the belief of happiness in personal sense wanes, and the
enjoyment of the intellect and affections increases error is fading out, and
Truth is lifting its glad voice above the centuries; yea, above the horizon of
animality and sense. If we part not with the imaginary joys of personal sense,
appetites, passion, malice, pride, etc., at the suggestions of science, we must
at some future time suffer from these sufficiently,
219
to be glad
to relinquish them. Leaning on error proves it a broken reed that pierces to
the heart; but do you ask, why should we suffer for innocent enjoyments?
Because pain or pleasure of the body is not a reality, it is a belief only; and
this belief is error, opposed to the Truth of being, and at some time we must
learn this. It is not through enjoyment, but suffering, we learn the error of
Life in matter, and outside of suffering it can only be learned of science;
which do you choose for a teacher?
A farm, a
merchandise, a husband, wife, etc., may hide this science from individual
perception; therefore said our Master, we must leave all for Truth, or we are
not worthy of it; and this leaving all means much, even the relinquishing of
the belief of personal sense, for the understanding of the science of Life.
'Tis folly to scoff at what is not understood, or to deny the claims of
science; rather should we test the Principle of its statements by the rules
laid down, and so sure as this Principle is sufficiently understood, to apply
its rules to man, we shall bring out his harmonious being in accordance with
it. The loving discipline our Father gives to teach us the science of being, in
the nothingness of material things, is the schoolmaster that leads us to Christ,
Truth. We know the desponding reply personal sense makes to the demands of
Soul; but we also know, "Thou shalt surely die," is Soul's verdict on
sense; but error dies not at once either in time or eternity.
When the
miser loses his gold he has little left, and when the sensualist loses his five
personal senses, what he has left is Soul, not understood by him, and the
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body is
mortal until Life is understood, therefore, be wise to-day; willful ignorance
culminates in outer darkness, and the future will reveal the great error of
leaving the work of time for eternity. The end and aim of being is happiness;
but this can only be attained through righteousness; we cannot possess the love
of this world and be right, for it shuts out God, that is Love; one will be
master in the affections, and personal sense tramples on the pearls of
spiritual sense. Adhere to the latter and you will be able to govern the
former, but yield to the former and the latter will leave man to sickness, sin
and death. If you have stripped sin of its disguises, you have done well; but
expect your good to be evil spoken of, or if you have pointed out the straight
and narrow way of science, remember you will be persecuted for righteousness
sake. This is the cross, take it up; it wins the crown, then wear it. Pilgrim
on earth, thy home is heaven; stranger here, thou art the guest of God.
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The
evermore of Truth is changing the universe; thought is expanding beyond words;
we are losing our swaddling clothes, asking for more light; yea, reaching forth
to the stature of Soul outside the body. "Let there be light," is the
demand of Life and Love, changing chaos to order and discord to the music of
the spheres. Progress takes off all shackles, and the finite yields to the Infinite.
Advancing to a higher plane of action, thought grows new, and rises from the
personal to the Impersonal; from the mortal to the Immortal, which is from the
material to the spiritual idea of God. We have the authority of holy writ that
God is Spirit, therefore it is not personality that demands our ignorant
worship, and holds sway over man and the universe. There is but one God: yet
there are many persons, and to worship personality would be to have
"gods" many. That three persons are united in one body suggests a
heathen Deity more than Jehovah; integral molecules are no portions of Wisdom
and Love, "that spake and it was done;" and whose "word was
God." Life, Truth, and Love, are the triune Principle of man and of the
universe; they are the great Jehovah, and these three are one, and our Father,
which art in heaven. What is the person of God? He has no personality, for this
would imply Intelligence in matter; the body
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of God is
the idea given of him in the harmonious universe, and the male and female
formed by Him. The reflection of an object is by no means the opposite of that
object, and we cannot fail to see material man does not reflect Spirit, nor the
finite, the Infinite; therefore material and finite man is not the image and
reflex shadow of God. Intelligence is Substance, and nothing can hold or
embrace Intelligence, because it embraces in itself all things. Soul is outside
of matter, and not a person but Principle; unlimited and infinite, beyond all
boundaries, it is not pent up in person or man. Intelligence repels error and
attracts Truth; holds the universe in space; is diffusive, and extends through
all extent. There is but one Principle and its idea, hence, the oneness of God
and Soul, and the brotherhood of man; this idea is named man, it has infinite
expressions, all of which are members of the body of Christ, Truth, the
Intelligence outside of matter. Principle is expressed in one entirety or full
idea. Take the microscope of Spirit to discern animism, and then only can you
comprehend the generic term, man. The compound idea named man, is
unintelligent; it is a lifeless image and reflection of Principle, or Soul,
which is the Life, Intelligence, and Substance of this idea. A belief of matter
separates man from God, and from his fellow-man. The science of being gives
harmony to man. Loving God supremely is simply admitting Soul above sense in
all things, and loving our neighbor as ourself, because, all have but one Soul,
and should recognize themselves Soul, and not personal sense. Understanding
ourself and neighbor one in Principle, we shall hold no divided interests, and
find it good to
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keep the
two commandments that our Master said out-weighed all sacrifices and burnt
offerings, religious rites and ceremonies, and fulfilled the prophecies,
ushering in the reign of harmony that is to come on earth, even as in heaven.
To love God supremely is to hold no Intelligence in matter, neither pleasure
nor pain in the body. Truth, Life, and Love, are not in their idea, but are the
Principle of this idea; are not in man, but are God, outside of man. This
science of being alone enables us to love God with all the heart, and our
neighbor as ourself. To reach its harmony, we must look away from the supposed
Life of matter, and find happiness in Soul and not sense. Man is not distorted
into shocking dimensions, because be is the infinite idea, nor is be but a
solitary thought, disembodied and alone. When realizing Life as it is, namely,
Soul, not sense, or the personal man, we shall expand into Truth and
self-completeness that embrace all things, and need communion with nothing more
than itself, to find them all. But this statement of Soul and body, or God and
man, we shall understand, only in proportion as we lay up our treasures in
heaven, and not on earth; that is, in Spirit, and not matter, and approach the
broader interpretation of being, where we gain the glorious consciousness and
proof of Life and happiness. The sensuous and material man is slow to gather
this meaning. Constantly looking away from the body to the good and true, we
shall gravitate towards Spirit and immortality; but ever referring to the body,
talking and supposing incessantly, some pain or pleasures there, we shall never
become harmonious, but return, "like the sow to her wallowing," and
"the dog to his vomit." The freedom or
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blessedness
of the sons of God, is not communing with the body, but away from it with the
impersonal Life, Truth, and Love. Regarding the body as the seat of
Intelligence, Life, etc., is to hold one's self liable to be annihilated; and
believing God a person, robs Omnipotence, clothing it with vestments of
mortality. If Deity is personality, the forever "I am," or God with
us, is not Spirit, but matter, bounded by and narrowed into six feet of
stature. If God is a person he dwells in a body, in which case matter and
Spirit are God; this is impossible, for Spirit and matter are opposites. It is
of little consequence what our educated views are on this subject; it is
morally impossible for Principle to dwell in its idea; for Soul to inhabit a
body; the unchanging to dwell in change, and the undying with death, or the
Infinite with the finite, the perfect with the imperfect; yea, for Spirit and
matter to unite, and Soul and personal sense to join hands. Soul cannot exist
both within and without the body, else matter is gone, and all is found
Principle and idea, in which case personality disappears. There is a wider
difference between Spirit and matter than between light and darkness, that
surely are not min-led into one. We know better than to say Deity is the shadow
of matter, but if matter is Substance, God is shadow, and shadow never produced
Substance; hence, matter must have created itself, The body of Spirit is
spiritual and not material; but Principle, or Soul, cannot be compressed into
one of its ideas, into what it has made. If God is in a body He is person, and
not Principle, hence man is not his likeness or reflection. Again, the discord
that comes from the belief of Soul in body, and
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intelligent
matter, at once proves this theory of being a belief only, and error. Mortal
man is a very unnatural image and likeness of God, immortality. Turning from
the contemplation of Soul in matter, we shall not call on drugs, laws of
health, etc., for health or happiness, but obtain these by losing sickness, sin
and death; in the science of being Soul meets all wants spiritually, giving not
a atone for bread. "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit
against the flesh," hence the natural antagonism between Spirit and
matter. St. Paul called the body of Soul a spiritual body, and the flesh a
"natural body"; or what is more probable, some one else translated it
thus, when he longed to "lay off this body," i. e., to destroy this
belief, he must have thought it a very unnatural body, as he gained life, that
is God, Spirit; the personal man and woman is neither- us" nor our local
habitation. Who is safe leaning on man, or the body, or finds sufficient Life
or Love in man to make him happy? we feel this lack, and the great need of
resting on something higher. There is no lack in God, but we do not avail
ourself of Spirit, but of personality or matter. Joint heirs with God are the
partakers of an inheritance where there is no division of estate; we are
Spirit, but, knowing this not, we go on to vainly suppose ourself body, and not
Soul. God is not a personality, and Soul is not in body; the immortal is not
within the mortal, nor Life in death. This belief has hidden the glorious Truth
of man's being, and turned him away from his original self-hood; hence the
great need we feel for something better, higher, and holier, than personal man.
The material man depends for happiness
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and Life,
on sense instead of Soul; on matter, rather than Spirit, hence the insufficiency
he finds in himself, or personal man. But looking away from sense to Soul, and
taking the Principle of Life to demonstrate man, we regain the understanding of
our God-being, and instead of vain repetitions, such as heathen use, made to a
far-off, personal Deity to aid this hour, we must put our finger to our lips,
remembering that Spirit knoweth, while personal sense knoweth not, what man
hath need of. "The Father of the rain, who hath begotten the dew, and
bringeth Mazzaroth in his season, and guides Arcturus with his sons,"
knows the wants of every one of its ideas, and controls man and the universe in
harmony and immortality. If only we realized this glorious Truth, it would
silence sense, and leave the body in the hands of Soul, where all would be well
with it. Man has no Intelligence wherewith to govern man, however much he may
say, "I have made a covenant with my eyes" etc. Personal views of the
Supreme Intelligence are so bigoted, or narrow and inverted, they neither reach
Principle nor represent it, but appeal to a personal God of whom we have beard
through the hearing of the ear. Eye hath not seen Spirit, nor hath ear heard
its voice. Reverse this order of things, and above the appeal to a man-God,
lift thyself to the Wisdom and Love that maketh the God-man, and you will at
length reach Christianity. Denying sense, and holding no Intelligence in
matter, we have the guidance of Spirit leading in the way everlasting, where
the belief of supreme being changes from person to Principle. Job said, after
the withdrawal of all his matter-treasures, "I have heard of Thee by the
hearing
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of the
ear, but now mine eye seeth thee." Personal man is only an atom in
immensity, therefore the impersonal Life and Love, that embrace all things,
cannot be found in him; we must look outside of man for Life and Love, for,
"it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." Reckoning
ourself from the standpoint of Soul, instead of personal sense, we progress as
spontaneously as light emits light: but reversing this order of science, in
which man begins in the body, and looks there for both pain and pleasure, yea,
for Life and for death, he retrogrades hourly, until he finally disappears in
what is termed death. The evidence of personal sense, or Life in matter, is utterly
reversed in science, wherein we learn there is neither a personal God nor a
personal man. But here do you say, you, "have taken away my Lord,"
and "I know not where you have laid him," I have lost my Maker and my
own identity? Look away then from your body, and you will find them; let go the
belief you live in matter, and you will grow as the bird that bursts from the
ovum; personality will be swallowed up in the boundless Love that shadows forth
man; and beauty, immortality, and blessedness, be the glorious proof of
existence you recognize. This is not losing man nor robbing God, but finding
yourself more blessed, as Principle than person, as God than man, as Soul than
sense, and yourself and neighbor one. This science of being lessens not the
dependence of man on God, but heightens it; neither does it diminish the high
obligations of man towards God, but greatly increases them; it deteriorates not
in the least from every possible perfection in God, because ascribing all to
the impersonal Life, Love, and Truth.
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Personal
love is little better than personal hate; both bringeth a snare, for their
foundations are error, viz., Intelligence in matter, and we cling to them, only
because we have not reached higher; not that God is found in them, but that we
are groping darkly for Him where He is not, when there is no place where His
voice is not to be heard. Is there one individual putting off the " old
man" and "putting on the new," who has not felt the loss of
personal pleasures and pains? yes, and of personal friends, before he found
what belongs not to person, namely, the enlargement of his being in Love and
Wisdom that reaches beyond personal pain or pleasure. The loss of a friend has,
perhaps, given you the explanation of this. Pain quickly informs us that
personal pleasure is mortal, and that both are error.
A sinner
believes, momentarily, he is happier for wrong-doing, and another man that he
suffers for doing right; the one is a belief of personal pleasure, and the
other of pain, but both are false. God is not the author of personal sense, or
discord. Would existence seem blank without a personal friend? then the time
cometh when you will feel this solitariness, and when this vacuum must be
filled with Principle, instead of person, and with the Love that is God. When
this hour for development arrives, you will suffer from personal enemies so
severely it will cause you to approach more readily the science that destroys
all personal trust and gives you higher joys, even as pain is salutary in
taking away a belief of pleasure in sense. These are the footsteps of science,
by which Truth amputates error. Our individuality is never lost; but the belief
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of Life,
Intelligence and Substance in person is lost. Universal Love is individual
also, embracing every idea from infinitesimal to infinity. And so of joy that
issues from Spirit, it is both individual and collective; you cannot be alone,
for God and man are inseparable, and eternal, and the rich blessing of
understanding your individuality in Spirit and not matter, as Soul, and not
sense, is that you may learn how to follow Jesus in this saying, "I and
the Father are one." This spiritual understanding of man tends not in the
least to humanize Jehovah, but to turn man from the human to the divine, from
the belief of Life in matter, to the Life that is truth; to raise the
understanding above frailty, and to pass the barriers of sense into the
impersonal evermore of being. That man epitomizes the universe, and is the body
of God, is apparent to me not only from the logic of Truth, but in the
phenomenon, that is sometimes before my spiritual senses, and which the late
celebrated naturalist, Agassiz, saw in his microscopic examinations of a
vulture's egg. We had made the discovery through spiritual sense, that the body
of Soul embraces the universe, and that man is the full idea of Life, Substance
and Intelligence, before seeing this corroborative evidence of Professor
Agassiz's discoveries, in which he saw the atmosphere, sun, moon and stars,
represented in the ovum of a bird; the point where the so-called embryotic life
is formed appearing as the sun. Intelligence outside of matter, embraces every
idea of man and of the universe; this Intelligence is Soul, and man borrows all
Life and intelligence from this, his Principle, even as the earth borrows light
and heat from the sun. Water corresponds in figurative
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purity, to
Love, out of which Wisdom produced the "dry land," that is, the
condensed idea of creation. "And God divided the light from the
darkness." Truth and error were distinct in the beginning, and never
mingled.
The idea
which reflects most Life and Intelligence is man, and corresponds to the
meridian light; that of lesser effulgence to dawn and twilight, which are named
the morning and evening of our day. All calculations of a solar day were out of
the question in the record of first Genesis; the sun was not then created, and
Wisdom measured not time by matter; therefore morning and evening were
figurative of the ideas of God; faintly appearing and then disappearing in
belief, but soon to be symbolized by greater light, corresponding to the solar
sun, or the meridian idea representing the Principle of man, and man this idea.
"And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, to
divide them." The firmament was the understanding, that divided the waters
into those "above," and those "below," into the spiritual
and material, that we learn are separated forever; identity was given the idea,
representing immortal man; the material, or mortal man, was belief. Firmament,
or understanding, united Principle to its idea. Life and Intelligence this
Principle; idea, the universe and man. "And God made the firmament."
This shows that Life, Truth and Love produced the understanding and separated
it from belief, and all was "good " that God made. Also, that
understanding interpreted God, and was the dividing line between Truth and
error; to separate the waters which were under the firmament from those above
it;
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to hold
Life and Intelligence that made all things, distinct from what it made, and
superior to them, controlling and preserving them, not through laws of matter,
but the law of Spirit. In this arrangement, "all was good;" it being
the order of science. "And God called the firmament heaven," that is,
harmony, even the result of understanding. The first day in Spirit, is when
"He whom to know aright, is Life eternal," i. e., Life, Love and
Truth, bring forth their idea. The second day, is to perceive, and the third to
understand this idea, viz., heaven, earth, and man.
" And
God said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb, yielding Feed," etc.
Let the
idea of creative Wisdom reflect its Principle of creation, showing that the
seed yields not an herb, because of a propagating Principle in itself; for
there is none, insomuch as Intelligence made all that was made; the idea was
only to shadow forth what Intelligence had made. Science not only reveals this,
but the Scripture repeats it, that God made every plant of the field, before it
was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. Mathematically
speaking, ten multiplied by ten produces one hundred; but the science of being
assures us Intelligence produces the units, and multiplies them. Hereby we
learn creations of Wisdom are not dependent on laws of matter, but on
Intelligence alone; it was Spirit that moved upon the face of the deep, and
brought out of chaos, order, a universe and man, as the infinite idea of God.
Unfathomable mind had expressed itself.
"The
earth brought forth grass, and yielded fruit," in obedience to
Intelligence, and not matter; even as
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a picture
is produced by the artist. The idea of creative Wisdom and Love was given its
identity; but it was mind, first and last. The grass and tree grew from out the
infinite thought that embraced, and expressed them. The artist transfers a
landscape from Soul, to sense; but its only immortality is in the Intelligence
that forms it. This most important idea of creation constituted the "third
day," and was the third epoch; a number corresponding to the resurrection;
the third and seventh periods reveal the advanced ideas, whereby Intelligence
is seen the Life of the grass, the herb, the tree, etc., and every
manifestation of Life understood not Substance but the idea of the creative
Life and Intelligence, in no way contingent on organization or matter. This is
manifestly the science of being brought to light in our Master's reappearing on
the third day, when the idea named man, appeared to his students, independent
of matter-conditions. And also the finished figure of creation on the seventh
day.
"And
God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens, to divide the
day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons, for days and
years." Hereby we learn the continuance of vegetation, and the years or
age of man are not contingent on seasons, measured by our solar years, or
governed in the least by the so-called laws of matter, for the light of
understanding was to govern every idea of Intelligence. There was but one
law-giver, when the stars first sang together, and harmony was the anthem of
creation.
"And
God made two great lights, the greater to rule the day, and the lesser the
night; he made the
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stars
also." The sun is figurative of Soul, of the Principle of man, and the
universe; of the Life and Intelligence outside of matter, that governs the
entire creation. Stars represent scintillations of Truth, that appear in the
twilight of understanding, or darkness of belief. Matter never represented God;
geology cannot explain the earth, nor one of its formations, for these
formations are dependent alone on Spirit, that gave them forth the eternal
heavens, earth and man. Intelligence formed and peopled the universe. The
scripture gives no record of solar light, until after time had been divided
into day and night, and vegetation was formed; showing you light was the symbol
of the Life-giving creator, and not a source of Life to the vegetable kingdom.
"All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body nature is, and God the Soul."
Spirit is
inseparable from its idea, but never in it; one cannot exist without the other.
Principle would be nonentity without its idea, and idea could not be without
its entity, or Principle. Soul exists not without man and the universe, for it
is never separated from the complex and reflex shadow of itself; but God, the
Soul of all, is not in man or matter.
And God
said, let the waters bring forth the moving creatures that hath life," the
ideas of God that represent Life outside of matter; "and God blessed them
saying, be fruitful, multiply," etc. Here the difference is shown between
Wisdom's approval of those things created by Spirit and the command for them to
multiply, and the curse upon Adam's race that sprang from
234
dust,
matter. So far, Life, Truth, and Love, had "made all that was made "
and pronounced it "good "; but we have no record of their creating
sin, sickness, or death; all was good that was created by God. The same Truth
that made man harmonious, will destroy, at length, the belief of Life in
matter, or mortal man, and reveal man the forever idea of God; but this Truth
is met with the malignancy of error in return for Love, shedding its blessings
unsparingly on all. Malice pursues the reformer through every avenue of society,
and the evil that persecutes, and the pride that refuses aid, binds the hands
and feet of philanthropy, and then calls for stronger proofs of active limbs.
"And
God made the beasts of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind,
and saw that it was good." The beast and reptile made by Love and Wisdom
were neither carnivorous nor poisonous; Love never created hatred, nor Truth
error. In the science of being, man preys not on his fellow-man, and his
neighbor is as himself. One beast shall not devour another, and the lion shall
lie down with the jamb, and the little child shall lead them. The Wisdom that
handled serpents unharmed, and that made a staff as a serpent, held dominion
over reptiles and over all the earth; this dominion was illustrated by Moses
and the prophets, and afterwards by Jesus and his disciples, the very best
examples to elucidate the Truth of being. Understanding this science, Daniel
was safe amid the hungry lions, well knowing the Intelligence that formed the
lion was superior to him; therefore lie took refuge from the belief of Life in
matter ready to perish, in Life that was God, where safety and refuge lay, and
thus demon-
235
strated
his control "over the beasts of the field." Understanding Life not at
the mercy of death, and Spirit superior to matter, saved the prophet from the
hungry lions. To conclude an animal is superior to man, that matter is power,
and Life in the body, leaves man in the hour of danger a Samson with eyes
plucked out his strength a spectacle of weakness. When immortality is better
understood, there will follow an exercise of capacity unknown to mortals; man
will become a hundred fold more a man, when he holds himself in the science of
being, starting from the basis of Spirit. In Truth there is endless strength
and immortality.
"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 fowls of the air and over the
cattle and over all the earth." The "Us" used in this quotation
referred to Intelligence, the creative Wisdom, and expressed plurality;
therefore if God is a person it plainly implied more than one God; but to gain
the right interpretation, which is the spiritual sense of this saying, is to
admit the "Us" referred to, Life, Truth and Love; even the triune
Principle that reveals the Life that is Truth, and the Truth that is Life, and
both God, and God, Love. "Let them have dominion," also signifies
plurality, for man was the generic name of mankind; in contradistinction to the
belief that God made one man, and man made the rest of his kind, science
reveals the fact that He made all. The photographer transfers the likeness of
one or more objects, according to the number present, and we admit the likeness
of three is not one, and vice versa;
therefore, as man is the likeness of God the plain ex-
236
pression,
"let us make man," and
"let them have dominion,"
is conclusive evidence that God made man the idea of infinite mind, and was the
plural, Life, Love and Truth; not a plural person, but Principle that gave the
infinite idea. There could be no second creation after "all was made that
was made," nor ever a man formed since the full idea of God was given.
"So God created man in His own image, male and female created He
them." Hereby we learn, man was a generic name; also that he reflected the
Principle of male and female, was the likeness of "Us," the compound
Principle that made man. Male and female cannot be one in person, but are one
in Principle, and if God is a person his gender would be both male and female,
these being the likenesses of Him, as the Scripture informs us; but for these
different personalities or sexes to be found in one person, would be deemed
monstrous; hence, male and female being the likeness and representation of God,
we learn that person is not the image of Him; much less can He be in person,
inasmuch as he is Principle embracing the masculine, feminine, and neuter,
represented by the universe and man. Gender is embraced in Spirit, else God
could never have shadowed forth from out Himself, the idea of mile and female;
this idea comes from Soul and not body, from Principle and not person. Which,
again, furnishes the proof that an egg is not the origin of man, that seed
never produced a plant, etc. Intelligence 66 made all that was made," and
every plant, before it was in the ground; every mineral, vegetable, and animal,
were ideas of the eternal thought. Supreme and universal mind embraced every
237
form of
the universe and gave it forth, as Spirit and not matter, and nothing was left
for man or for matter to create, after Spirit had created all. This is science,
and it underlies the harmony of God and man. The Scriptures declare "God
is Love; " that "God is Spirit, Life, and Truth;" now these are
not person; also there are many persons, and but one God; hence Deity is not
person but Principle. Judging from Paul's rule, to learn the "invisible by
the things He hath made," the ideas that express God, render it impossible
for that to be one person which produces feminine, masculine, and neuter. The
expression of God's gender is Principle and not person; the entire universe and
man represent God as Principle, and not person; the infinite "Us "
that embraced every idea of the universe, shadowing forth each from out itself;
the unavoidable result of Intelligence that said, "Let there be
light," that is, let the Infinite be expressed.
"In
the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God;
all things were made by Him, and without Him there was nothing made that was
made." "In Him was Life," etc., and then to conclude in the face
of this infinite logic, that an egg is the starting point of Life, that seed
produces germination, etc., is to forget this is mythical, and a belief that usurped
the prerogative of understanding, starting an Adam from dust, calling itself
Life in matter, and resulting in mortality, the very opposite of Truth.
After
"all was made that was made," nothing could be added to the infinite
expression of infinite Intelligence, and person is not the image and likeness
of Intelligence, or matter of Spirit; therefore, these do
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not
represent the plural "Us" in one Principle, nor the generic man, or
male and female, created by Principle. We have not as much authority in
science, for calling
God
masculine as feminine, the latter being the last, therefore the highest idea
given of Him. The belief that the form of man is the body of the supreme Being,
or that He is in a body, is the error of supposed Life and Intelligence in
matter, that bore the fruit of sickness, sin, and death; even the "tree of
knowledge" reversing the science of being, by supposing Soul in body,
Spirit in matter, and substituting personal sense for Soul, having dominion
over man, instead of man's dominion over matter. This belief embraces all that
is finite, sinful, and mortal; but recollect it is Adam, the error, that sprang
from dust, nothingness, and by edict of Wisdom, will return to it. Man
originated in God; he is the product of Spirit; hence, he is idea, and not
Substance, even the body of Soul; his Intelligence is Spirit, not brains; mind
not in matter, God not in person. Love is spiritual, joy-giving and eternal, a
forever assurance that "God is Love;" personal attractions that
originate in the body are fraught with change and death, impure, transient and
mortal. The curse causeless came not to Adam, the original sin or error, in
other words, to this belief of Life and InteIligence in matter. Spirit
originating in matter, and Intelligence inserted afterwards, Soul pushed into a
body, matter intelligent, and the body named man where personal sense
takes the lead of Soul, is a myth. God was and is; and man was and is, His
reflex shadow. In Genesis, the spiritual record of the universe and man is lost
sight of, it was so materialized by uninspired
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writers;
the creations of Spirit are spiritual; for they cannot be material; they are
ideas of Principle thrown off from Soul, instead of sense, and their Substance
is their Principle. The bride of Spirit is the idea of Love, the lamb revealed
to John in spiritual vision, not a mere belief or personal attachment; this
idea came down from the New Jerusalem, the exaltation of Spirit over matter; it
was the unselfish, pure and immortal. "We worship we know not what,"
when we "worship in temples made with hands," even our bodies, and
from the stand-point of matter, instead of Spirit. "God is Love," and
man the idea image and likeness of Him. Love's ideas are spiritual; its male
and female are ideas of Soul instead of sense, expressed by the flower as well
as man and woman, even those that God bath joined together, and mortal belief
cannot put asunder. "And God blessed them, and said unto them, be fruitful
and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it and have dominion over
every living thing that moveth on the earth." All blessings and power came
with the creations of Spirit, and as such they were to multiply and replenish
the earth on this basis of being, and subdue it, making matter subservient to
Spirit, and all would be harmonious and immortal; in contradistinction to the
generations of Adam, or the belief that matter subdues Spirit. In this science
of being, man "held dominion over the earth, and every living thing that
moveth on the earth "; he knew neither Life nor power outside of Spirit,
the governing Principle of the universe and man; and this Truth of all being,
namely, that Intelligence is the only Life and Principle of all,
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brings to
light the harmony and immortality of man. Error claims Life in matter, hence
the creator a propagating vitality in vegetable and animal; and this error was
the original sin, it being a belief of God in matter, or matter without God.
This was the Adam, so totally depraved, insomuch as it claimed Life,
Intelligence and Truth, that alone was God. Thinking to put Intelligence and
Life in matter reversed the order of science, giving matter dominion over man.
Intelligence multiplies the ideas of God only by destroying the belief of
vitalized matter, for one is science and the other sense; one the Truth of
being, the other its error; creative Intelligence was never transferred from
Soul to sense, or from God to man.
We learn
from the science of being that Spirit, independent of the so-called laws of
matter, throws off its idea in every formation that is real or immortal. There
is no material law that creates and governs man, or that man should obey;
obedience to spiritual law is all that God requires, and this law abrogates
matter, and makes the body idea, and as such harmonious and immortal.
" And
God said, behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the
face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree
yielding seed," (the good fruit was not Substance but the idea of God,)
"to you it shall be for meat." To understand that Life is Spirit, is
this idea, and it consisteth not in the things man eateth; it is the Truth of
man that makes man immortal. But the poor belief that Life is supported by
bread or meat, makes matter his masters and man mortals however much he may
eat. Truth is the immortality of man, and error the only mortality;
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immortality
is Soul, and not sense; matter can neither give nor take away Life. The
Scripture saith, "Man liveth by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God," and this is not material bread, but that which comes from
heaven, harmony, giving its idea, immortality. We know the belief of Life in
matter is sustained by eating, drinking, etc., because it reverses the order of
creation, and predicates Life on matter instead of Spirit.
"And
every herb bearing seed, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree,
was given man." The idea of God (and this was man) was superior to earth,
because it was the supreme idea, that embraced the entire universe in itself,
and to which all others were subordinate. In this science of being, the herb
bore seed and the tree fruit, not because of root, seed, or blossom, but
because their Principle sustained these ideas, not as Substance, but idea, for
Intelligence held dominion over matter. Reproduction is the result not of seed
or soil, but the Principle of man and the universe, that produces through
Intelligence. "And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the
air, etc., wherein is Life, was given every green herb for meat." Unto
every belief of Life in matter, the green herb symbolizing the immature and
imperfect was apportioned, for this belief was error and must draw its
nutriment from the "tree of knowledge," whereof if a man eat he
should die.
"And
God saw every thing that He had made, and behold it was very good." Mark
the distinction between the things produced by Spirit, and those supposed to be
material products. Adam was sinful and
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mortal; in
other words, he was error, and this error the belief that Life and Intelligence
are in matter. The first product of this belief was Cain, a murderer, and earth
brought forth thorns and thistles according to error, Adam; and man must live
by bread, and earn it by the sweat of his brow. The belief of Life in matter entailed
nothing but discord; therefore this belief was error, and error illusion;
science says man has neither birth, growth, decay nor death; man is idea and
not Substance, and spiritual instead of material. God "saw all that He had
made," inasmuch as Intelligence understands all; hence the harmony and
immortality of its ideas and of man as idea, and not Substance, and governed by
mind instead of matter; mind that comprehends and sustains man, not as matter,
but idea. Soul understands this science of being, but sense does not, and the
less sense and the more Soul is brought out will man appear the glorious idea
of immortality. Soul alone comprehends immortality; personal sense says, when
the eye loses sight of him forever, man is dead.
"Thus
the heavens and earth were finished, and all the hosts of them." Here the
Scripture repeats again the science of creation, namely, that all was complete
and finished, therefore that nothing has since been made; that Intelligence
embraced all from the forever, and that all is perfect, infinite and eternal.
This assurance, even, is self-sustaining, but to understand it, is to gain our
harmony and immortality; no geological speculation can change or mar the fact
that Intelligence, the Soul of man, embraces the universe and man in idea, and
holds them thus, forever. As matter-substance, all is lost, but as Principle
and idea, all is eternal. Never
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a mineral,
vegetable or animal, was formed of dust; Spirit alone fashions all things.
Birth, decay and death, are a personal sense of things, not their idea; man and
the universe are complete and eternal in Intelligence, and nothing can exist
out of that.
"And
on the seventh day God ended His work, which He had made." This
corroborates the statement in science, that Truth, Life and Love had fully
wrought out the infinite and eternal idea named the universe and man; also,
that error the opposite of Truth, was about to claim a work independent of God,
in which matter instead of Spirit should be the creator. The Truth, and science
of being were already recorded, but error was now to make a reversed statement
of man and the universe, viz., that Life, Intelligence, and Substance belong to
matter, that Soul is in body, God a person, man a second Intelligence, and evil
a third. This error was belief, and belief not mind, but a supposition of mind,
not Soul, but what is termed personal sense, not Spirit, but intelligent
matter, all of which is a myth. "These are the generations of the heavens
and the earth, when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the
earth and heavens," in other words, when Spirit was the creator.
Generations signified the manifold ideas of Intelligence, and Life.
"And
God made every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of
the field before it grew, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the
earth, and there was not a man to till the ground." Here, again, is the
undeniable statement that Intelligence is the only creator; also, that it
produces vegetation, not through processes of culture or in obedience to what
are
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termed
laws of nature, but in obedience to Spirit; God made the plant before it grew;
no partnership with matter is here acknowledged, and man was the idea of
Spirit, and this idea tilled not the ground for bread; the Life of idea was its
Principle; hence man could not die of starvation, or dyspepsia. The time cometh
when we must all learn this science of being, in order to gain its harmony and
immortality, even as we have already learned that the opposite belief of Life
and Intelligence in matter, produces mortality, it being a belief of sin,
Sickness and death.
The record
of creation in Genesis repeats three times, "In the clay that the Lord God
made them," indicating there was a time coming when another creation should
declare itself the author of man. That creation was the history of Adam and his
progeny, or mythological life in matter. After God created man, "there was
not a man to till the ground," because there was no necessity of it ; the
earth brought forth spontaneously, and man lived not because of matter, and
earth was blessed for his sake, so unlike the curse that came with Adam, error.
Spirit was the producer of harmony only, and Life self-sustained; therefore man
was not to live because he ate much or little, giving no opportunity for
gluttony or poverty, to mar the work of Wisdom. Man needed not to cultivate the
soil, that matter might produce itself, nor to presume himself on the
prerogative of creator. Spirit was the Life and creator of all, and its work
was complete, and beyond the power of matter to destroy; all things were made
when comprehended by Intelligence. Soul had all in its own possession, and
there was no personal sense to do the work
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of Wisdom.
Life was not in matter, and there was no existence except to Spirit. Nothing is
new to Intelligence; the infinite understanding is not creating the universe or
man anew; these ideas were forever, without beginning and without end. Matter
has neither capacity, right nor power to create or to destroy; all is in the
hands of Spirit, that hitherto hath wrought independently before belief
claimed, through material law, to create and govern mineral, vegetable and
animal. Intelligence made all that was made, and was not in the things it had
made. Spirit never passed into matter to produce a world; heaven, earth and
seas, and all things therein came from the eternal thought, and mind no more
produces matter than matter produces mind. This is science, that God governs
the universe and man. That matter propagates itself through seed and
germination is error, a belief only, and not the Truth of being, and belief has
its penalty, for, admitting mineral, vegetable and animal things of sense,
instead of Soul, and dependent on matter for their ephemeral existence, makes
them mortal. Not so with the universe and man, born of Spirit; they are
harmonious and eternal.
"But
there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the
ground."
Truth
created through the understanding, saying, "let there be light," but
error came through darkness or belief, the figurative mist of earth, that which
started from a matter basis; Adam was the belief of Life in matter that rose
from the dust, saying man depends on material structure, and vegetation on the
rain and dew. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of
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life, and
man became a living Soul." This statement of a second creation contradicts
the first one, in which Spirit said, "Let 'Us' make man." The first
record was science; the second was metaphorical, and mythical, even the
supposed utterances of matter; the scripture not being understood by its
translators, was misinterpreted. After God had declared "all was
made," and the creation "good," Wisdom never repented, or
repeated what it had done; there was no second creation, and on a new plan. Had
the record divided the first statement of creation from the fabulous second, by
saying, after Truth's creation we will name the opposite belief of error,
regarding the origin of the universe and man, it would have separated the tares
from wheat, and we should have reached sooner the spiritual significance of the
Bible. We are repeatedly assured in the second chapter of Genesis, that God had
finished His work before Adam was created; that male and female, together with
all the hosts of heaven and earth, were already made; therefore we have the
authority of scripture for denying a second creation, or a single formation by
matter. The harmonious creation was ended, and all was "good" that
God created. Life, Truth and Love never made inharmonious man.
"God
saw everything that He bad made, and behold, it was very good." Admitting
He created Adam, Cain, and every other mortal error, He was the author of evil
as well as good; but this is contradicted by the prophet Jeremiah, who saith,
"Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good"; and
what did the Evangelist mean when he said, "All things were made by Him,
and without Him there was nothing made that
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was
made," "In Him was Life," etc.? Simply this, that Life never
created death, nor Truth error; it is error alone, that produces error. The
belief of Life in matter, named Adam, brought sickness, sin and death into the
world, and God denounced this error, or Adam, and said it was mortal; "For
dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." This was not spoken of
Soul, nor of man created by God; Life which is God, never entered into sin and
death. Spirit was not the component part of Adam, or mortal man. The history of
Adam is allegorical throughout, a description of error and its results, opposed
to the Truth of being, and contradicting the divine economy; it makes
Intelligence, Life, and Substance, matter instead of Spirit, saying,
"Believe in me and I will make ye as gods;" more than one God was its
starting point. Truth gives the immortal idea or man from Spirit, but error,
the mortal belief from matter. The express image and likeness of God was
immortal man, and there is none other, or ever a man since created. Through a
belief of pain and sorrow, error claimed to create man, but Truth gave its idea
of God in joy, blessing, and dominion. Error's process of creating, bases
Intelligence on matter, or would put Intelligence in matter; either of which is
impossible, insomuch as it would make Intelligence both God and devil; i. e.,
both good and evil; this belief is proved error, in that it produces sickness,
sin and death, hence the sentence of Wisdom, "Thou shalt die." The
science of being never produced sickness, sin, or death, but destroys them. The
symbol of error was the "tree of knowledge " which God, the Truth of
being, forbade man; it symbolized the belief
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of Life
and Intelligence in matter, of which Truth said, partake not, lest ye die; but
error replied, Truth is at fault, if you acquire knowledge, "your eyes
shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods, knowing good from evil," i. e.,
men shall be intelligences, Gods! and these Gods, matter, called men, to
distinguish them from another personal God. Is not this Idolatry, and walking
over the spiritual law, "Thou shalt have-no other Gods before me?"
Spirit in matter and Soul in sense, makes "lords many and Gods many";
theology, materia medica, mesmerism, and every other 'ology and 'ism under the
sun, originated in this very error. Intelligence and Life is God, omnipotent
and eternal, and God never in matter, but producing spiritual, harmonious, and
immortal man. There is but one God, one Life and Intelligence, one Principle of
being, and this heals the sick, gives sight to the blind, destroys error
instead of creating it, preaches the gospel to the poor, and is measurably
explained in this science of being; the followers of Christ, Truth, were not
the Rabbis, for it came to its own and was not received. Knowledge never
enabled man to judge between good and evil, therefore it was a falsehood from
the beginning, as Jesus said, "You were a liar from the beginning, and
Truth, Life, abode not in you," for Truth was never in matter, and mortal
man is matter, and knowledge was his projenitor; mortal man is a belief of Life
and death, of pain and pleasure, sickness and health, good and evil, mixed in
one mass, called intelligent matter or personal sense. Adam impersonated this
error, and Adam illustrated simply a belief, which we have endeavored to
explain in its nothingness,
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together
with the reality it would falsely make of the impossibility of Life and
Intelligence in matter. This error, or belief, shrinks from the voice of Truth
calling to man, "where, or what, art thou, Soul or personal sense? art
thou Spirit or matter? and belief replied, "I heard thy voice and was
afraid." Fear was the first manifestation of the belief of Life in matter,
for "the wicked flee when no man pursueth"; fear founded sickness
said death. Error was naked, but it could not bide from the eye of Wisdom; and
Truth replied, who told thee thou art naked? and error fell back on
personality, saying, "She gave me of the fruit of knowledge," (a
medical work, perhaps.) Woman, that was taken from my rib, (as if man was less
the origin of her fault because she was not back again under that rib); told me
I was in my body, and that Life and sensation are in matter. But when Truth
questioned woman regarding the "knowledge " that said matter is
intelligent, and personal sense is man, she replied, "The serpent beguiled
me, and I did eat." Woman was the first to see out of the difficulty,
owning this knowledge a serpent; as she is the first to lay down the belief
that Life Originates materially. A serpent hung on the "tree of
knowledge," metaphorically, to show its subtilty, and the Master bade his
students be wise as the serpent, i. e., never allow the belief of Life and
sensation in matter to put to silence the opposite, science of being. Woman was
a higher idea of God than man, insomuch as she was the final one in the scale
of being; but became our beliefs reverse every position of Truth, we name
supreme being masculine, instead of feminine. Woman first perceived reason was
beguiled by
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knowledge.
Truth's question to Adam, error, viz., "Is Life and Intelligence in
matter? " rebuked and exposed this would-be material consciousness.
"The
Lord formed man of the dust, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of Life,
and he became a living Soul," put Truth in error! Intelligence in matter!
made the body mortal embrace the Principle of being that embraces man! Did the
Infinite enter matter through man's nostrils? did God, the Truth and Life,
enter the Pick, sinning, and dying body? then Deity would be man, or man Deity,
and Life mortal! this absurd belief is atheism. "When God, who is our
Life, shall appear, then shall we be like Him." Man will be perfect,
sinless, and eternal, when Spirit permeates man. Principle never entered its
idea, nor Spirit matter. We have no record in Genesis that God gave Adam,
error, dominion over the earth, and yet, to belief, error holds this away. Adam
was a product of belief, and Eve, of Adam, and both were beliefs of Life in
matter; we say beliefs because that is not the Truth of being. Principle, and
not person, Spirit and not matter, Truth and not error, God and not man, made
male and female.
"And
the Lord said, behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good from evil,
and now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of Life and live
forever, therefore the Lord sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the
ground whence he was taken." No one can doubt this scripture is
allegorical, pointing out the results of a belief of God in man, or Intelligence
in matter; we cannot accept it in a literal sense without impugning the Love
that made man, and gave him earth for a possession, and blessed it for his
sake. A
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literal
acceptation of this quotation implies malice, withholding from man the
opportunity to reform, lest be should become better; but this is not our God,
and so contrary to Love and Wisdom, we must accept it only as the pagan
opinions of those re-writing the inspired word. The true interpretation of this
scripture is its spiritual sense. Beginning in person instead of Principle, to
explain God, we express him after the manner of man, the nature of personal
sense and on the basis of error instead of Truth, drawing all our conclusions
from a material, instead of a spiritual standpoint, hence the discord,
theoretically and practically, that follows the belief of intelligent matter.
"Behold, the man is become as one of us." Error and not the Truth of
being, said that; man is not God, therefore he did not become as one of
"Us." Intelligence is not in matter, therefore it is not personal
sense; Spirit in matter would make God mortal man, and Intelligence and Life,
person instead of Principle, and body instead of Soul. That this error be not
reckoned Truth, or as one of "Us," and claim the prerogative of Intelligence,
God said, let all that produces sickness, sin, and death, " till the
ground;" i. e., be understood as proceeding from a material, and not a
spiritual basis, and therefore an error that returns to dust, primitive
nothingness. Let material things be understood forever, as apart from the
spiritual; think not to blend matter and Spirit, for this is not the science of
being, and will result in discord and death. From the sweat of the brow to
derive Life or happiness, started with Adam, error; it was from the "tree
of knowledge," so unlike the harmony and immortality of man created by
Spirit. Lay not up
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for
yourselves treasures on earth, is the better understanding of Life. Whatsoever
proceedeth from Spirit, is harmonious and immortal, deriving all it is from
God; but what cometh from matter, is mortal, dependent on sense instead of
Soul. Material man, and a world of matter, reverse the science of being, and
are utterly false; nothing is right about them; their starting point is error,
illusion, therefore sin and sense are at home in this world, and mortal error
stalks boldly forth on firm footing until the waiting hand of science shall
strike it down. Truth has literally no foothold on such an earth, and with such
views, for they accord neither place nor privilege to God. Error
"tills" the entire ground here, working on a material platform,
therefore Wisdom said, let Adam, error, that is not the image and likeness of
God, not the immortal mind reflecting harmonious Intelligence, but a belief of
Life and Intelligence in matter, be set apart from the immortal, i. e., the
idea of Truth, for this is the science of being, that Spirit and matter, which
is Truth and error, never blend. Instead of the Life, Truth, etc., that make
man harmonious and immortal, the belief or error, named Adam, depends on
personality and pardon, like a vain child that demands to be blessed when it
must be punished, because it knows not the terms on which a blessing is gained,
but in its blindness expects from matter and personality the good that comes
from Spirit and Truth. If God had made Adam and sin, they must have been
"good," for "all was good that He made." The translators of
that record, wrote it in the error of being, to wit, the belief of Life and Intelligence
in matter, hence their misinterpretations; they
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spake from
error, of error, and from the standpoint of matter attempted to define Spirit,
which accounts for the contradictions in that glorious old record of creation.
Science in no instance has a material basis; matter and personality are not
man, neither God, Intelligence. Belief is all that claims Spirit in matter, and
would make personalities of error, and Truth, naming one mortal man, and the
other God. That God is a person, or Intelligence in matter, and man another
Intelligence of evil, is "knowledge, prohibited by Wisdom; " it was
not the tree of Life. Truth had but one reply to all this error, "Thou
shalt surely die;" therefore mortality attends every phase of this
supposed Life in matter, whether mineral, vegetable, or animal. Whatever
germinates after the manner of matter, will meet the fate of error, namely,
sickness, sin and death, until every vestige of this belief is self-destroyed,
and man understood, shadow and not Substance, whose only Life or Intelligence
is. God.
"So
he drove out the man, and placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims
and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of
Life." Here is a clear and distinct separation of Adam, error, from
harmony and Truth, wherein Soul and sense, person and Principle, Spirit and
matter, are forever separate. The figure used in the New Testament, of the wise
men coming from the East, was employed here, also, and prefigured the sun that
symbolized Soul, even the Principle of man, therefore the Wisdom of man. The
sword of Truth is represented as two-edged, cutting each way to protect from
error, or the belief of Life in matter. Also, the "tree of Life,"
symbolized the Truth
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of being,
and the "tree of knowledge," error or personal man. Truth also
guarded Eden, harmony, and the science of being pointed the way of happiness
and Life. Error alone was sickness, sin, and death, because it was a belief
that matter is intelligent, and evil a person, named Satan, working in and against
man. The "tree of Life " was guarded from the touch of mortality,
because it symbolized the Truth of man, and between this Truth and the opposite
error, was placed the metaphorical word, or flaming warning to hold them
forever apart; showing that Truth and error, or Spirit and matter never mingle.
The great point in the science of being is to learn that Spirit and matter
never unite, or dwell together; but are the wheat and tares that grow side by
side, until the harvest, when matter is destroyed, and God learned our only
real being.
The
infancy of this science is lisping to an unconscious age the great Truth of
being; and perceiving one idea, and not its correlative one, many will call
that science which is only a portion of it; and again, it is difficult in this
evil world to do as well as we know. If mathematics present a thousand
different examples, and one of them proves the rule laid down for the others,
are not all equally authenticated? When a single statement of this science is
proved, it settles the question for the others; all are dependent on one, and vice versa, one cannot be disapproved
without disuniting the general chain through which the Principle is reached;
hence, the command not to add or diminish one word to that which is inspired,
and demonstrable; but which personal sense cannot explain.
"And
Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and
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brought
forth Cain, and said, "I have gotten a man from the Lord." This
record implies a new creation commenced, after God had finished His work; that
Wisdom was entering into partnership with man, to create anew the whole human
family; but the beauty, sublimity and science of the record is lost sight of
here, if we enter this labyrinth of inconsistencies, unconscious it is the
record of error opposed to the Truth of being. Adam was a metaphor, showing the
opposite of God's creation, and the original texts were written metaphorically
at first, the only method of reaching the science of the scripture, hence, the
Truth of the Bible is to rise to its, spiritual interpretation, then compare
its sayings, and gain their general tenor, which enables us to reach the
ascending scale of being through demonstration; as did prophet and apostle.
The
scripture seems more obscure in Genesis and Revelations than other portions,
solely because the original texts were not understood by those re-writing them.
Three hundred years after the apostles, there was not a written text of the Now
Testament; it had to be taken up at first, orally. The record of creation given
in the first chapter of Genesis, is the science and Truth of being; but the
opposite statement in the second chapter, where man sprang from dust, instead
of Deity, is error's statement, even personal sense speaking in sin, sickness,
and death, that would confine Life to matter-conditions, and limit Omnipotence.
In this error and belief, the herb is not created without seed and soil, and
man is the product of an egg. The first record embraces the Principle of
harmonious man, even the Truth of being; and the second, the origin of the
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belief of
Life in matter, which belief embraces also, sickness, sin and death, -- all
that is mortal. To admit God made man of dust, and afterwards breathed
Intelligence into matter, and it became a living Soul, is rank atheism, that
would submerge supreme Wisdom in the things it creates; this statement of man
and God, makes both mortal. "In Adam, (error,) all died," "and
in Christ," (Truth,) "shall all be made alive." The Truth of
being casts out error, heals the sick, and raises the dead; understanding Life
exempt from mortality, and no sensation, or Intelligence in the body, is the
ultimatum of being; the way, the Truth and Life, that points out the footsteps
of science. Life is not in matter, unless Truth is in matter; Life is God, as
the scriptures declare, and God never germinated. He is the same yesterday,
to-day, and forever; outside of all He creates, and the creator of all. If God
breathed into the body, into matter, Wisdom, then matter became Spirit, and the
stronger rules out the weaker and matter is God; error claimed this when it
said, "I will make you as Gods "; but Truth replied to this belief,
"Thou shalt die." Life, Truth, and Love never formed their image and
likeness of dust, nor breathed into dust, (matter), Truth and Love. We should
naturally shrink from the error and belief, (if it were only understood) error
presupposing another God, or that the Supreme Being entered man that He had
made, or that matter embraces God. The statement that God made man of matter,
and then put Himself, into personal sense and sin, should be understood the
very opposite of the Truth of being; and if this was so understood, sin,
sickness, and death would disappear.
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Error
makes man a slave to matter, but this error came from "knowledge,"
and was mortal. Truth gave man immortality and dominion over matter. The mist
that went up from the ground, causing it to produce, was figurative of the
belief that matter germinates, and man's Life is matter instead of Spirit. This
belief takes the explanation of man out of the bands of science, wherein man is
the product of Spirit, and gives it to personal sense; denying the express
declarations of God, that man was made the image and likeness of Spirit. Truth
said, partake not of this knowledge, it is error, denouncing it as fatal; but
error replied oppositely, "In the day ye eat thereof ye shall become as
Gods;" that is, there shall be more than one intelligence, for matter
shall be permeated with Spirit, brains, nerves, etc., shall be intelligent of good
and evil, and pain and pleasure, Life and death shall be mixed and named
personal sense.
We cannot
fail to see the great contradiction between the spiritual creation of the
universe and man; and the so-called material creation of these through Darwinian
evolution or propagation. Mortal and material man is purely mythical; this man
started from what? "the ground," i.
e., his basis was matter; and woman
was evolved from this man; mythologically stated, she came from his rib.
Afterwards male and female physically were made the foundations of man, making
races and an egg the author of being. But this evolution or Darwin theory is
false; there is no Life and Intelligence in matter, passing &like from
vegetable, mineral and animal, hearing the while Wisdom's denunciation, so
unlike the blessings and honor bestowed on man's
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origin in
Spirit, and the offspring of God. Immortal man was sustained by Spirit, the
mortal by matter and the sweat of his brow. One held Life in Soul, the other in
sense; one was "good" and blessed, the other accursed. A
misconception of man pervades the whole statement of mortal, or material man,
from his origin in dust, until be returns thither; his entire history is the
origin and end of error, and not man.
"I
have gotten a man from the Lord," was a falsehood, from the beginning; for
this man was a foul murderer, and Truth and Love never created hatred and sin;
supreme harmony never produced the Adam and his progeny; that which is not God,
or His idea, is not only evil and mortal, but unreal, yea illusion. A wrong
version of the scriptures, has hidden their Truth. The Prophet Isaiah is
recorded to have said, "God creates peace and he makes evil"; but
turn to Jeremiah, and you find this contradicted. Jesus, also, takes the opposite
grounds for the basis of his demonstration, showing that God casts out Kin,
sickness, and death, instead of creating them.
What would
we say of the musician whose harmony produced discord? Science gets right these
knotty points, and renders to God the things that are His. We learn error by
its results. Sickness, sin and death are the fruits of error; Truth gives
harmony and immortality; thus Wisdom adjusted it, and "Thou shalt
die" was not spoken in vain of what purports to be Life, Substance and Intelligence
in matter, God in man, and Soul in body. Adam, made of dust, was not the image
or likeness of God, Spirit; therefore partaking of
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"knowledge"
never lost his first estate, but was the result of it. Man, originating in God,
never fell into sin or death; he is forever happy, harmonious, and immortal,
inheriting this birthright alone from Spirit. The so-called man that is
sinning, sick, and dying, is not man, but a dream of Life, and Intelligence in
matter; "dust to dust," nothingness.
"And
Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod, and
Cain knew his wife," etc. This second fabulous creation originated man
first in dust, woman in a rib, and the rest of humanity in an egg. Up to that
no mention was made of another woman save Eve, the mother of Cain. Eve, in the
Hebrew, signifies beginning, and the question is naturally suggested, whence
came the wife of Cain? This, however, is unimportant in the evolution of matter
whereby Intelligence and man are supposed to be developed, subject to
propagation, growth, and depth. This false theory or Adamic error, was ruled
out from the presence of God, Truth, to dwell in the land of Nod, the land of
dreams and illusion. Error, named Adam, was the foundation of this mythical
creation, and the belief still continues, namely, that man is matter, hence the
image of God mortal. Spirit created all things. Man created from matter is
mythological; with dust, a rib, and Cain's mother for his wife, alas! who shall
say that a monkey was not our great-great-grandfather?
Far be it
from us, with thought or expression, to touch profanely the glorious record of
the Bible, where alone we may gain the understanding of man's immortal basis;
and meager were all earth's possessions, dis-
260
inherited
of the inspired page. But the understanding of scripture is what we need, to
restore the harmony of being and gain its Principle, the Father's house, where
the prodigal returns, and the perfection of man appears. Christ said,
"Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, else believe me
for my works' sake", i. e., understand that I am Intelligence, and not
matter, and that Intelligence is God, (there is no evil Intelligence) else
believe this for the demonstration it brings, healing the sick, and casting out
error. We cannot doubt the inspiration that opened to us the spiritual sense of
the Bible, when it lifted us from disease and death, giving us triumph over the
body. Standing at the threshold of scientific being, and there beholding the
falsity of earthly things, "the Spirit and bride say, come, and whosoever
will, let him drink of the waters of Life, freely." Humbly, as fervently,
we join grateful issue with the Truth of being, that separates Adam, error,
forever from the presence of God, and says to the body, no personal sense, no
Life, Intelligence or Substance in matter. In the atmosphere or mind of Soul,
man is seen the image and likeness of goodness and perfection, and cannot lose
this estate, he being the only heir to the abundant affluence of Life, Truth,
and Love, that said, "Let us make man in our own image." Mortal, and
material man, is simply a belief of Life in matter; we say a belief, because he
is not the reality of man, and never can reach Life that is outside of matter,
where alone is our real, because our harmonious being. Looking and thinking
from a material point only, we never shall gain the science of being. In the
dark ourselves, how can we
261
see the
darkness or the light even. The belief of sin and sickness, or of death, or
Life in matter, hides man's Life in harmony, that is Soul and not sense; but
who will "believe our report, to whom the arm of the Lord hath not been
revealed." The sun, that is light and beat, gives little warmth or
brightness until the clouds pass from before it; thus the science of being is
seen only as sense is hushed, and Life is learned spiritually. Every agony of
mortal man wafts him onward over the billows until error is finally destroyed,
and "There is no more sea." This is the new birth, the travail of
error before it is self-destroyed, and man is born of Spirit and not matter. In
the allegory in Genesis, error said, "Believe me, I will make you as
Gods." But Truth replied, to this belief "I will greatly multiply thy
sorrow and conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth, and thy desire shall
be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee." The first intimation of
sickness, sorrow, and man's tyranny, came with the belief of Life and
Intelligence in matter. "My son, give me thy heart," restores concord
to all the dependencies and relations of being. Our Master's impotent foes,
were the world of sense; but he feared them not; that which killed the body but
was not able to destroy Soul, the Life and Principle of man, had no terrors for
him.
Treating
of the growth of eggs, Prof. Agassiz said, "It is very possible that many
general statements current now, about birth and generation, will be changed
with the progress of information." Had the great naturalist gained through
his tireless researches the scientific basis of being independent of growth and
organization, the blessing of that ardent mind would have
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continued
longer with us; history is greatly indebted to his labors and genius, for facts
relating to the belief of Life in matter. His discoveries brought to light
important points in what is termed embryotic life; the butterfly, bee, etc.,
propagating their species without the male element; and this corroborates
science, proving plainly that the origin of the universe and man depends not on
material conditions. The spiritual understanding of Life, embraces neither
sensuous formations nor conditions of matter. All that hag a beginning has an
end; what we name life germinating in an egg, and expanding thence to adult
being, will finally go out, which proves it never was Life, and nothing, in
fact, but a belief of Life, and this belief, mesmerism and not man. Animals of
lower organisms combine three methods of reproduction; they multiply by eggs,
buds, and self-division, proving the conditions of Life become less imperative
in lower organisms, or where there is less mind and belief on this subject.
Prof. Agassiz says, "Successive generations do not begin with the birth of
new individuals, but with the formation of the egg whence these individuals
proceed; and we must look upon the egg as the starting point of the complicated
structure of man." His deep researches into material structure culminate
here in logical conclusion, and with less hypothesis and more observation than
generally attend such theorems. His discovery aids the science of Life; he has
bearded error in its den, proved clearly the origin of mortal man to be matter,
and not Spirit; the product of an egg, instead of God, and that a belief of
structural life is the sole progenitor of what is termed mortal man; even as
Truth is the origin of immortal
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man and
the universe. But what availeth it to investigate this so-called life, that
germinates, matures, and decays; that is found to end even as it began, a
nameless nothing, starting in dust, or an egg, and ending in dust. This belief
and error the source of sickness, sin and death, hides the real harmony of
Life. When it is learned that God is our Life, man will be immortal, sinless,
and perfect, and never until then. Spirit is without beginning and without end;
but admitting the false premises of Life in matter, whence to draw our
conclusions of man, we may infer the discord and confusion consequent on this
error and belief with but one signification, viz., "dust to dust."
Error of thought leads to error of action; a constant contemplation of sin will
produce it, and the ever-present belief of existence in matter, drops the
standard of man in dust. Contemplate Life as it is, neither man nor matter, but
God, that which is Intelligence, purity and harmony, and we gain its happiness.
If Life has a starting point, immortality is a myth; commencing at a given
point, signifies &terminus. If Life has a beginning, it has an end also,
and there is no immortality. Life is spherical, without beginning or end; the
form of the globe typifies it, and the Principle of the universe is Life,
Truth, and Love. Life is cause and not effect, universal, infinite, omnipotent,
producing all that really is, and never inside its productions. An egg were a
narrow boundary for God! and matter cannot produce matter, much less can it
produce Spirit, or Spirit permeate matter. For Spirit to enter matter would be
to destroy it, and all would be found Spirit; the immortal destroys mortality,
and death would be swallowed up in Life. That like pro-
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duces
like, is not only true in homeopathy, but holds good in the science of being.
Embryology affords no instances of one specie producing another; of a serpent
germinating a bird, or a lion a lamb; this would be gathering grapes of thorns,
and figs of thistles. Such amalgamation would be deemed monstrous, and out of
the order of things. A pure fountain sendeth not forth impure streams, and vice versa. Then how can Spirit
germinate matter, the holy the unholy, and the immortal, mortality. The difference
is not as great between the opposite species, as between matter and Spirit, so
utterly unlike in substance and Intelligence. That Spirit propagates matter, or
matter Spirit, is morally impossible; science repudiates the thought, and
personal sense alone, must father it, because it is unnatural, unreal, and
impossible. Germinating Intelligence is germinating God; how very absurd!
Intelligence in matter would make matter the circumference of mind.
Intelligence produces, or is produced, which is it? Is matter first and mind
afterward? matter the primogenitor of mind, or does Intelligence germinate
non-Intelligence? Like produces like; Intelligence is Spirit that germinates
idea, and not matter; therefore matter is neither effect nor cause. All is
mind; matter is but a belief, and error. Natural history shows that each specie
produces its like only the bird is not the father of the beast; the egg
germinates the parent stock, and the seed the original plant; hybrids are rapes
upon nature, and not the common order. Harmonious and immortal man is the
offspring of Intelligence, of the unerring and infinite understanding that
said, "Let us make man," hence the scientific certainty
265
of his
continuance. All that is discordant is mortal, and without Principle or understanding.
Mind produces mind; Intelligence produces the idea of Intelligence; and the
mortal and material, the beliefs of belief. One is Truth, the other error; one
real, the other unreal; the material produces only the mortal, its basis is
belief, and not Truth.
Professor
Agassiz argues, "man springs from races." Mr. Darwin has it, he comes
up through all the lower grades of being, and must be a monkey before he can be
a man. Mr. Darwin is right with regard to mortal man or matter, but should have
made a distinction between these and the immortal, whose basis is Spirit.
Animality produces animals, and what is good and pure mingles not with evil or
the impure; these are two diametrically opposite sources and results; the good
comes from God, from Spirit outside of matter, the evil is a belief of matter;
hence, the less material the belief, the more transparent mind is for God to
shine through, for all that is pure is harmonious and eternal; and the more is
God, the Intelligence outside of matter, seen through man, but not from him.
Matter cannot produce Spirit, and vice
versa. Truth cannot produce error, therefore it never made a mortal, sick
or sinful man, nor error a spiritual, harmonious or immortal man. Error
reflects error, and Truth is reflected only by Truth. Spirit gives forth only
the image and likeness of itself, therefore the idea of God, pure and
undefiled; a mortal and sinful man is the product of mortality and not of God,
of error and not Truth; hence the scripture's statement of him, that he sprang
from the ground, i.e., from a material basis; and ours,
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that he is
a belief only, and error; and Mr. Darwin's that his primogenitors are beasts;
and Prof. Agassiz's, that he germinates from an egg. Our views will be accepted
later than the others, only because they are more spiritual. Prof. Agassiz
asked, "What can there be of a material nature, transmitted through these
bodies, called eggs, themselves composed of the simplest material elements, by
which all peculiarities of ancestry belonging to either sex, are brought down
from generation to generation." Here we see the darkness and doubt
creeping into the great mind of the great naturalist, because of the material
base of his reasoning; starting from matter instead of God, for the basis of
immortal man, who by searching can End out God?
A student
said to us, "I understand your explanations of Truth, but I cannot
understand error;" and why? because he made it something, and we, nothing;
he gave to error a local habitation and a name, making it what it is not, even
an entity and power. There is no mortal man, or reality to error; first,
because man is immortal, and error is not the Truth, or reality of being;
secondly, that these are neither God nor His idea; all that is real, is
eternal. Pains or pleasures of personal sense are unreal, and the so-called
life of mortal man is a myth. The belief of Life in matter is the so-called
mind of man, that suffers because it is a belief of suffering, and dies because
it is an error of belief. Searching into the origin of Life is vain; no
beginning or end hath Life, for it is from everlasting unto everlasting. Life
is Truth, and Truth is Life, act brought to light through error or sickness,
sin, and death; Truth is immortality, not in mortality, for it is Soul,
267
not in
sense and sin. If Life starts in an egg, it matter, and mortal; but matter
cannot produce Intelligence; whence then is mind? All is mind; there is Do
matter. Spirit destroys the belief of matter, as Truth destroys error. If
possible for Spirit, God, to enter into a body of sin and death, then harmony
enters discord, and discord destroys harmony; can good dwell in evil, or evil
represent good? The poor logic and lack of Truth that would blend Spirit and
matter, immortality and mortality, sin and goodness in one body, and call it
man, was the error Jesus argued against as the foundation of all discord,
showing its falsity by parable and proof; Christ, Truth, casts out this error
and heals the sick, beginning at once to destroy mortality with its own
immortality. The wicked often return evil for good, when the Truth of being
comes in contact with their error to destroy it; therefore the followers of
Christ, Truth, must love their enemies and go forth as lambs among wolves. The
sick sometimes pass through severe sufferings in the changes Truth produces,
before it destroys the error or disease; and the chronic sinner, or hidden
hypocrite suffers from the introduction into his mind of the science of being,
and often hates its teacher. Man's immortality rests on a spiritual, and not a
material basis, and his health on Soul and not sense. We have no foundation for
man's immortality, if the perfect is not distinct from the imperfect; and what
evidence have we of God, or perfection, where we admit imperfection germinates
from God? The good we are, the order, beauty, and loveliness we behold, all
assure us God is Life, Truth, and Love, and that matter embraces all error,
while
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Spirit is
perfect. Spiritual science reveals all matter inanimate, while personal sense
would make it both animate and evil; but which is the standard of Truth,
personal sense, or science?
That
harmony, Intelligence and Life, are outside of matter, wholly apart and
distinct from error, and mortality, even the leaf and flower, too beautiful to
die, declare. A consciousness of Truth, Life, and Love, is Soul, not body. The
Psalmist saith, "When I consider thy heavens the work of thy fingers, the
moon and the stare which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful
of him? thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast
put all things under his feet." Matter is as clouds, and Spirit the sun,
that appears to us only as the clouds disappear. The sun is not in the cloud,
but shines beyond it; thus it is with the Soul of man; when the belief of
Substance, or Life in matter disappears, we take up existence as Spirit, and
our body is transparent to Soul, and no longer a belief of substance-matter, or
personal sense, but the idea of Intelligence, harmony, and Life. Truth
separated Jesus, its idea, from the world of error, and the world of sense felt
the effect of Truth, because it was tearing away the foundations of error, that
could not understand the need there was of this; hence the unappreciated labor
and love of Jesus, the great demonstrator of the science of Life. Had Jesus
defended error, admitted its positions, and justified them, he would have been
the world's favorite. But this was impossible to him who chose his master of
Spirit. He could not destroy sickness with the Truth, that Life is God, and be
a stickler for personal sense,
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and Life
in matter. Had he believed with them on this point, he would have mingled
amicably with hypocrites and the sensuous man, and not rebuked them, and been
hated for it; but hypocrisy was more repugnant to goodness and Truth, than
other forms of evil. The fact that Christ was Truth, error soon found out, and
the world of personal sense hated Jesus, for he rebuked it, and chose not an
'ism, or 'ology, to define Christianity, or to aid him in its practice. Had he
believed as others did, he would not have so suffered from the world, or had he
preached better than he practiced, he would have mixed error with error, and no
chemical change, or separation from the world would have followed his
preaching; but he could not and would not cast out devils with Beelzebub; he
might have been a popular man, on this common bags, but then he could not have
been a Christian; he might have talked well, and not been good enough for that
goodness to prove itself, by making war on error, and he would have passed for
a good man. The world of sense and error felt him, for he was destroying it;
those whom he blessed, cursed him, yet he loved his enemies, and while they
thought of him only to condemn, his better thoughts answered theirs, healing
them of sickness and casting out their errors. Such was the effect of his mind
on all it touched, whether enemy or friend, and such will be the effect on
mankind, of every real follower of Christ. His mind, pure and spiritual,
touched theirs to higher issues, and restored harmony to the body. He knew that
like produces like, that his higher being in contact with others, changed and
lifted them higher, that Truth germinates Truth, and Spirit
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imparts
spirituality, and not materiality; this was the science and the Principle of
his consistent demonstration, that healed the sick, and cast out error. Any
hypothesis of birth and death, is unworthy Intelligence. What is real is
eternal, eliminated and sustained by Spirit alone, that matter cannot express,
and much less control or destroy. All the formations of God are based on Spirit
and immortality, and that which is formed by Soul, and not sense, is harmless,
harmonious and eternal.
Heaven and
earth, together with every animal, mineral, and vegetable that God hath made,
are harmonious and eternal. The belief of Life in matter, produces its own
kind, for it is predicated on error, that brings forth that which is sinful,
ferocious, impure, and mortal. Vertebrates, articulates, mollusks and radiates
are Simply what mind makes them. They are technicalized mortality, that will
disappear when the- radiates of Spirit illumine sense, and destroy forever the
belief of Life and Intelligence in matter.
The voice
of Christian science crieth in the wilderness to-day, with scarcely an adherent
on earth, but we also know, it is preparing the way for the Principle of being
to be understood, and its demonstration given that casts out error and heals
the sick. Death brings not at once spiritualization, nor is it the stepping
stone to a distant day of final judgment, when a personal God shall paw
sentence on man. The sentence of Truth against error is already passed; every
loss and experience of the falsity of earthly things, pronounce it. Truth
sentences error, now and forever, and the final judgment to which olden tenets
pointed,
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is when
the belief of Life or death in matter is destroyed. When the strong fetters of
personal sense are broken, man will be free to do God's, will, and then will we
behold the "new heaven and new earth, for the former things shall have
pawed away;" and the material given place to the spiritual; Spirit
destroys matter. The harmonious and immortal heavens, earth, and man, will be
revealed and understood when science shall take the place of personal sense,
and error yield to Truth. The sharp experiences of earth, and the tender Wisdom
that take away idols, help to hasten this hour, and to destroy the belief of
happiness in personal sense. Why the pleasure-loving world cannot discern the
science of Life, is "because carnal man cannot discern spiritual
things." When personal sense yields up the ghost, and Life is found, Soul
understood, it will be the resurrection of man in Truth; but Spirit can never
be apprehended until matter is understood a myth. Life, that is Spirit, is not
reached until all error is destroyed.
The belief
that death is the door to spirituality and Life, is the error that prevents a
better understanding and improvement of being, by which alone, immortality is
won. We gain immortality through the footsteps of science that reveal Truth,
Life, and Love, to our understanding, in which we learn there are no physical
laws, no necessary fulfillment of material conditions, no sin, sickness, or
death, in Life that is Soul. That death is a step towards Life, is error that
begets mortality; for belief fulfills the conditions of a belief, and therefore
will continue to die until the falsehood and error of Life or death in matter,
is destroyed. Death is but
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the
stepping stone to other mortal conditions of belief; it never procured Life,
for this is God, and God must become our practical Life, before man is found
immortal. We see in the vegetable kingdom that the seed must rot to propagate
anew, and the poor germ is doomed to this game experience also; it must rot
again, according to material law. The answer to the ancient question, which is
first, the egg, or the parent that takes care of the egg? is given when you
admit the parent is developed from an egg, for that is first which produced the
parent; but an egg never propagated man.
"We
have no right to assume that individuals have grown, or been formed under
circumstances that made matter conditions essential to their maintenance and
reproduction, or important to their origin and first introduction, unless we
dismiss reason and revelation utterly. That earth was hatched from the egg of
night was anciently argued, and this absurdity is less than to conclude Spirit
produces matter, or that it is in matter. Pursuing the varied hypotheses of
man, we think as a child, but putting away childish things and asking more
earnestly after God, we shall be answered from Soul, and not sense, and Spirit,
instead of matter, will guide our conclusions. Heathen philosophy, modern
geology, zoology, physiology, anatomy, etc., deal with other or different
phenomena from those proceeding from the Supreme Being. The first proceed from
belief only, but the latter are reflections of Spirit; these are the ideas of
God coming to the understanding, but the former are beliefs of matter. The
proof requisite to sustain assumptions diametrically opposed to personal sense,
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is just
what Jesus taught, namely, the fruit they bear, otherwise the demonstration
they bring; if you contradict sense with science and abide by the rules of the
latter, you will demonstrate harmony, and prove your position the right one.
Our experience of what is called Life germinating from an egg, corresponds with
that of Job, that it is of "few days and full of trouble." From this
material source flow all sorrow, sin, and death, and the power is not in its
origin to "deliver us from the body of this death," consequently our
next appeal is to something higher that to matter, drugs, 'ologies, or 'isms.
We may call on God to heal our sicknesses, and though we pray seven times a
day, and our clergyman and physician pray for us, we may not gain the blessing;
Dot faith, but understanding, brings the blessing. To know that God is not the
author of sin or suffering, and that " his band is riot shortened, or car
heavy," but that error produces error, is to learn what error is, and how
destroyed; then shall we find our remedy for sickness and sin, is to "work
out our own salvation." On this point mankind need much enlightenment, for
the science of being alone solves the problem of man harmoniously. God giveth
not a stone for bread; when we ask earnestly and strive for health to be
useful, able to do good to ourself and others, why does he withhold it? These
are unanswerable questions, irreconcilable with Wisdom until we learn God is
not person, but Principle, and that we must understand this Principle, to
direct our being in harmony with it; and then shall we be able to govern the
physical and mental. All depends on mind: matter holds no power over man to
create or to destroy him. Sickness and death are errors of belief arising
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from an
ignorance of our origin and immortal being, and to be harmonious and immortal
we must understand the science of Life, that changes our reckonings of Life
from body to Soul, and from matter to Spirit. Knowing we are Intelligence, and
not intelligent matter; Soul and not sense, is the Truth that destroys all
sickness, sin, and death. Once perceiving the mental hallucination that
embitters existence, we shall unmake what mind has made. God sends not one of
our diseases, and matter cannot create sensation, nor can it govern mind. Error
alone, produces error, and all sickness, and every discord of earth is error.
Thought,
let loose somewhat from the old basic theories amalgamates with other forms of
belief, and changes them; this we see prototyped in the floral kingdom, in
blended tints of leaf and flower. The metaphysical, however, will end as the
physical, when, according to Agassiz, "the intermixing of different
species, urged to its final limits, results in the distinct original
species." Error must be destroyed at its fountainhead, or it will resume
its old proportions and relations. Mind must settle down on an improved basis,
even the Truth of being, or health will never be universally established, and
when this is done, harmonious and immortal man will be the only man. Prof.
Agassiz has given the origin of mortal and material man; he has traced what we
term animal existence, through various stages of its embryology, and with most
important observations that ought to awaken thought to the higher and purer
contemplation of man's origin that must precede the understanding of being. Man
is not the offspring of sense, but Soul, and co-
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existent
with God. The fact that modern researches prove animal existence in some
instances free from its lowest instinct, is worthy our philanthropy, and points
to the future footsteps of the science of being. The great point, is to
understand the Principle of being, -- the Life that is eternal, without
beginning and without end, and this study will absorb the attention of sage and
philosopher at a not far-distant day; but the Christian alone will fathom it,
for he it is that understands better the Life that is God. We cannot reach this
Principle unless it be understood; man's immortality even, hangs on
understanding the science of being. Because God is the only Life and Principle
of man, that which is good is all that is immortal; but to prove our ignorance
of this, we have only to point to the tenacity with which we cling to beliefs
of sickness, sin and death. Had we the understanding of our God-being or the
omnipotence of Truth, we should have no fear of matter, and having none, our
bodies would become harmonious and immortal; a belief of Substance-matter would
then give place to the understanding of Substance-Spirit; for the spiritual
body is the only real one, and tangible as the material. Ontology receives but
little attention from the working-day world, and the signification of
psychology is shockingly perverted. The science of Soul is not mesmerism, by
any means, and is less understood than all other questions; little justice is
done metaphysics by a utilitarian people where the race is to the swift.
The
domestic economy of the bee, and its method of multiplying, foreshadows the
understanding of being yet to come. That mind produces mind, and our beliefs
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of matter
re-produced beliefs only, is the conclusion that accords with natural history
and the science of being. Again, we state, all is mind; there is no matter, and
this needs only to be understood to establish harmony perpetual. Mind is the
only actor, and produces mind, viz., the Truth or error of man; matter is not
an entity or reality. From the deep sleep that fell upon Adam, Eve was
produced. In sleep, cause and effect are beliefs only, that which seems, and
not that which really is. This was the advent of mortal and material man.
Sickness, sin and death, had no real basis, for they originated not with God,
Spirit, but were beliefs of matter, hence the very opposite of understanding,
and without Principle or immortality, therefore they proceeded not from the
creative Wisdom. All that originated in Adam (that supposed addenda to
creation) was not "good," it was illusion, the offspring of a dream;
hence it was a belief only, and not the reality of being. Sin, sickness, and
death were embraced in this belief of Life in matter, and are the dream, and
not the reality of Life. We classify-belief error, insomuch as it embraces all
that is mortal discord; it changed the stand-point of being from Spirit to
matter, from understanding to belief, yea, from God to man. Adam was the
impersonation of error, but man was the type and image of Truth. Adam
constituted matter and mortality; man represented immortality and Spirit; but
the dream or belief of Life in matter is, that Adam is man, and that error is
Truth. There was no more foundation for calling sin, sickness, and death, man,
than for saying, "I will make man as God." Should universal mind or
belief
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adopt the
appearing of a star as its formula of creation, the advent of mortal man would
commence with a star. The belief regarding the origin of mortal man has changed
since Adam produced Eve, and the only reason a rib is Dot the present mode of
evolution, is because of this change, and more mortal opinions to contend
against now, than when error first said, "Believe in me." Conditions
of matter are conditions of mind instead, therefore the supposed conditions becomes
imperative as mind only. Error, named Adam, is the belief, or alpha and omega
of what is termed Life in matter. When mortal belief says an egg produces man,
this condition becomes as fixed and imperative as the original one of a rib.
That we must breathe in order to live is another belief, whereas the reality of
being is Life, and its phenomena not dependent on matter. Do you say man was
formed before knowing his origin, then wherefore any belief on this subject?
But Eve embodied the maternal egg, and was the offspring of Adam's dream, the
germ of belief, and mortals since appearing are these beliefs. There is no
mortal man; the sleep of Adam was what to-day we term mesmerism, in which
belief creates, and controls all it creates. In mesmerism matter is made not to
appear solid, and the harmless stick becomes a serpent; according to what mind
says of matter, it appears, hence we learn all material things are formed by
mind, first and last. Belief may adopt any condition whatever, and that will
become its imperative mode of cause and effect. The infinite and all-wise Maker
condemned this creation, but let it have its experience before the sentence of
our God was executed upon it.
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A mortal
body is but a belief of Life in matter, and controlled by this belief; its original
requirements were less than its educated ones. Consciousness rises above the
horizon of personal sense, starting first unconscious thought, and reaching
what we falsely term conscious matter, before its demands proceed from the
body. 'Tis safe to conclude man exists, though he has lost his lungs, or any
other portion of organism; if he has reached the science of being, his
existence is understood and eternal, and man is immortal only whose Life is
Soul, and not sense, God and not matter. We must have the sense and
consciousness of being that is independent of matter, self-existent,
self-sustaining and eternal; for this is the Science of Life that casts out
error and heals the sick. We know these statements jar on what is called
personal sense; but we disregard that altogether; our only sorrow is not to be
understood, or be thought irreverent of God, until Christendom learns how
important what we say is to follow the rich example of our Master in healing
the sick, preaching the gospel to the poor, etc. To-day our religions preach to
the rich, and depend on matter, instead of God, to heal the sick.
The
persecutions Truth met over eighteen centuries ago, and the demonstrations it
gave in destroying sickness, sin, and death, and bringing to light immortality,
it would be well to remember at this date; and if our readers understand what
is written in this book, they will be able to prove to themselves, it
reproduces, however faintly, the same proofs; shall it not then, be accepted,
on the ground our Master said, "For the work's sake." Every new idea
of Truth, that comes
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out from
the infinite Spirit, and touches the ragged shores of belief, has been met with
derision and chains, scourged out of synagogues at first, but afterwards
pardoned and received.
To the
pulpit we appeal. Judge not this science until you prove whether it be Truth or
error; test its Principle by the rules laid down, and then will you learn God
is the life of man, and that materia medica, or theology, never can take the
place of the science of God, in healing the sick, and casting out all error.
The beliefs that form the body mortal are not destroyed at once; "it is
not all of death to die." After what is named death, the belief of
sickness, sin and death continues, until the science of being is reached, and
man's Life is found Soul, and not sense.
Adam being
created before Eve, proves the maternal egg never propagated him, and Eve being
formed of Adam's rib, shows her origin was not that; "knowledge "
defined man falsely then, even as at present; although physiology has since
been grafted into the forbidden "tree." An infant a few hours old was
said to be immersed in water, to test the possibility of making him amphibious;
and this daily ablution continued until the infant could remain under water,
and the ordinary functions of lungs be suspended twenty minutes at one time,
playing the while and enjoying the bath. The infant is wholly controlled by its
parents' belief; addressing the mother mentally, we have stopped the moaning
and restlessness of her babe, but could not affect the child, except through
its mother.
This
should furnish a hint to parents to control their offspring mentally; beginning
in the science of being
280
to govern
their bodies; employing mind instead of matter, to heal them, and also to
prevent their being sick. We should be able at the bedside of a mother, without
medicine or applications of any sort, to prevent the pangs of child-birth;
labor should be painless, and this dreaded hour be without suffering and
joyful, even as the opening of the buds, or the development of the flower. Mind
controls embryology without pain to the universe, and why not the same with
woman? The parent's mind develops the infant before and after birth, until the
mother says, my child can take care of itself; at this period the human
species, bird and beast, dismiss their offspring from their immediate maternal
eye, and commence educating them to what is termed, self-dependence; but alas!
on the ground that Life depends on matter, and this destroys the Self-reliance
that science would give.
Although
the advancing stages of human development require the higher order of parental
mind to guide their offspring aright, we regret to say, the human species make
shocking work of it. The peculiar traits and characteristics of progenitors are
transmitted from generation to generation; but this is a transfer of belief
only, the parent's mind passing to their offspring. The poisonous reptile, bird
of prey, beast carnivorous, and mortal man, are products of mortal belief, of
error and not Truth, of Sense instead of Soul. The belief that Life and
Intelligence belong to the body, is the source of all wrong-thinking, and
wrong-acting; it takes away from Soul and gives to sense, and is the fountain
of sickness, sin, and death. All formations are shadows of being, and we their
Soul and Substance;
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but this
fact of science detracts nothing from God, the universal Intelligence; and
because this statement, understood, brings forth good fruits, heals the sick
and destroys error, we have the Master's rule for its correctness, insomuch as
the tree is known by its fruit. Life is the forming and governing Principle of
all things, and by no means the frailty that the foot of man crushes out. Soul
is the immortal basis of man and the universe, the Truth of all things, and the
Principle that holds the very winds in its fist.
Substance
is Intelligence, yea, Spirit, not matter. "I am the resurrection and
Life," are the words of him who spake as never man spake; and knew all
about it. But this understanding of Truth is to-day a voice crying in the
wilderness of error. All is discord in mortal man; the good he would do is held
back, by sickness, sin or death; if he works to benefit his race, he sinks into
a premature grave, with softened brain, or something of this sort. Mental labor
should strengthen man; mind is capable of endless action and immortal harmony;
but incessant action will destroy matter. Searching into the science of being
will never soften a man's brain, or produce disease of any kind, but is known
to cure disease. And the only difficulty in proving this, is the utter
ignorance of its principle. But taking an old belief by the throat is surely no
small task; somehow like the phoenix, it rises from its own ashes. The influence
one mind exerts involuntarily over another is little understood; all our
thoughts are moulded more or less by others; the body is governed by mind,
notwithstanding our utter ignorance of this, and involuntary submission to it.
If to-day the general
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thought
embraced the science of being, man's longevity would increase ten-fold, and
immortality be brought to light; the years of man will be extended as the
belief of intelligent matter is destroyed, until at length a full recognition
of Truth shall destroy all sin, sickness, and death. Error will continue seven
thousand years, from the time of Adam, its origin. At the expiration of this
period Truth will be generally comprehended, and science roll back the darkness
that now hides the eternal sunshine and lift the curtain on Paradise, where
earth produces at the command of Intelligence, and Soul, instead of sense,
govern man.
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Thoughts
unuttered are not unknown to the infinite Intelligence comprehending them, to
whom a desire is prayer, and no loss can occur from trusting God with our
desires, to mould and make higher before they are evolved in action. But prayer
has its motives, and what are they? To make him better that prays, or to
benefit his hearers, to inform the Infinite of what he is ignorant, or to be
heard of men? First, are we benefited by praying? Were God a person to be moved
by the breath of praise, or less than Infinite in understanding, or changing in
Love and Wisdom, He might do more good because of our petitions, and grant them
on the ground of the petitioner, in which case lip-service were an advantage
not to be overlooked. But God is Love, and do we ask Him to be more than this
to man? God is Intelligence, and can we inform the infinite Wisdom, or tell of
our needs, the infinitesimal part already comprehended? Do we hope to change
perfection in one of its arrangements, or shall we plead for more of the open
fount, pouring in all we will receive, and more cannot be given? Does prayer
bring us nearer the divine source of all being and blessedness? then it is the
prayer of works and not words; asking to love God never made us love him, but
this desire, expressed in daily watchfulness and assimilation
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to the
divine character, moulds and fashions us to His image.
The danger
of audible prayer is, that we fall into temptation through it, and become an
involuntary hypocrite. First, by uttering what is not a real desire, and
secondly, consoling ourself under sin with the recollection we have prayed over
it. Hypocrisy is fatal to Christianity, and praying publicly, we often go
beyond our means, beyond the honest standpoint of fervent and habitual desire;
if we are not yearning in secret and striving for the accomplishment of all we
ask, ours are "vain repetitions, such as heathen use." If our
petition is sincere, we shall labor for what we pray, and be rewarded by
"Him who seeth in secret and rewardeth openly." No expression of them
can make our desires more, or less, nor gain the ear omnipotent sooner by words
than thoughts. If every petition in prayer is sincere, God knows it before we
tell Him, and letting it remain honestly before Him we incur no risk of
overtalking our real state.
Prayer is
sometimes employed, like a catholic confession, to cancel sin, and this impedes
Christianity. Sin is not forgiven; we cannot escape its penalty. Being sorry
for its committal is but one step towards reform, and the very smallest one;
the next step that Wisdom requires is, the test of our sincerity, namely, a
reformation. To this end we are placed under stress of circumstances where the
temptation comes to repeat the offence, and the woe comes for what has been
done until we learn there is no discount in the law of retribution, and we must
pay the uttermost farthing. The measure we have meted will be measured to us
again,
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full and
running over; Christians and sinners get their full measurement, but not here;
a follower of Christ, for centuries to come, must drink his cup; ingratitude
and persecution will fill it to the brim, but God pours the riches of joy into
the understanding, and gives us strength as our clay. Sinners flourish as the
green bay tree, but looking farther, David saw their end.
Prayer
cannot change the science of being, for goodness alone reaches the demonstration
of Truth. A petition for another to work for us, never does the work required
of us. To address Deity as a person, perpetrates the belief of God in man,
which impedes spiritual progress and hides Truth. We reach the science of
Christianity only through demonstration, but here, our good will be evil spoken
of, and falsehood will war against advancing Truth. Principle should govern
man; person can pardon but not reform the sinner. God is not a separate Wisdom
from the Wisdom we possess, and the talent He hath given to be used we must
improve; therefore, to call on God to do our work for us, is vainly supposing
we have little to do but to ask for pardon and re-commit the offence. If prayer
cherishes the belief sin is forgiven, and man better because he prays, it is
asking amiss; for he is worse if the punishment sin incurs is kept back, or he
thinks himself forgiven when he is not. Prayer is impressive; it gives
momentary solemnity and elevation to thought, but does a state of ecstacy
produce lasting benefit? Looking deeply, and metaphysically into these things,
we find a reaction takes place, unfavorable to understanding and sober resolve,
and the wholesome perception of God's requirements; also that personal
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sense, and
not Soul, produces these moods of feeling. If spiritual sense guided men at
such times, there would grow out of those ecstatic desires, higher experiences
and a better life; self-examination, and more purity. A self-satisfied
ventilation of ecclesiastical fervor never made a Christian; verbal prayer
embraces too much error to forward this great purpose. First, it supposes God a
person influenced by man, making the divine ear a personal sense instead of the
all-hearing and all-knowing Intelligence, to whom every want of man is understood,
and by whom it will be supplied.
Again,
what we desire, and ask to be given, is not always best for us to receive, in
which case the infinite understanding will certainly not grant our request;
therefore what avails it with God bow much a man prays? When we pray aright, we
shall "enter into the closet; " in other words, shut the door of the
lips and in the silent sanctuary of earnest longings, deny sin and sense, and
take up the cross, while we go forth with honest hearts laboring to reach
Wisdom, Love, and Truth. This prayer will be answered, insomuch as we shall put
in practice our desires. The Master's injunction was to pray in secret; to
desire to be better, and let our lives attest the sincerity of that desire. Are
we really grateful for the good we receive? then we shall have more, and never
until then, and avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and this will thank
God more than speech. >From the Intelligence that numbers the very hairs of
our heads, we cannot conceal the ingratitude of barren lives by thanking
Omnipotence with our lips, while the heart is far from Truth. When we vainly
imagine gratitude is a mere expression
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of thanks,
we had better examine our hearts and learn what is there, and this will show us
what we are, and is the only honest expression of ourselves.
How empty
are the conceptions of Deity that admit theoretically, the omnipotence and
omnipresence of God, and then would inform the supreme mind, or plead for
pardon that is unmerited, or for blessings poured out liberally. If we are not
grateful for Life, Truth, and Love, but return thanks to them, we are
insincere, and incur the sharp censure bestowed upon the hypocrite. The only
acceptable prayer in this case is to put our finger to our lips and remember
our blessings.
Praying
for humility with however much fervency of expression, is not always to desire
it. If we turn away from the poor and set aside their judgment, we are not fit
to receive the reward of that which blesses the poor. When confessing to a very
wicked heart, and asking to have it laid bare before us, do we not know more of
this heart than we are willing our neighbor should know, and if a friend
informs us of a fault, do we listen to the rebuke patiently and credit what is
said, or rather join in thanks that we are not as other men? It is many years
that I have been more grateful for a merited rebuke than for flattery; the only
real sting is the unmerited censure, the wicked falsehood that does no one any
good.
Do we love
our neighbor as ourself, or because we do not, should we pray to be given this
love and expect it because of asking, while we pursue the old selfishness
satisfied with having prayed for something better, without a single evidence of
the sincerity of this re-
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quest by
living consistent with that prayer. If selfishness gives place in us to Love,
we shall love our neighbor and bless them that curse us, but can never meet
this great demand by asking for it; there is a cross to be taken up, before the
reward is given.
Do we
"love the Lord our God with all our heart, Soul, and strength?" This
includes much, even the surrender of all personal affections and personal
worship; it is the ultimate of being, the science of Life that recognizes only
the consciousness, Spirit, wherein Soul is our Master, and sense without a
claim. Are you willing to leave all for Christ, Truth, and be reckoned with
sinners? Have you reached this point? No. Do you really desire to attain it?
No. Then wherefore make long prayers about it, and ask to become Christ-like,
when these are the footsteps of our dear Master; if unwilling to drink his cup,
wherefore pray with the lips to be partakers of it? The only consistent prayer
is, to do right so far as we understand the right, and to walk in the light so
far as we receive it, even though it be with bleeding footsteps, and let our
real desires and works be rewarded by the Father who, seeth in secret. The
whole world will not understand Christianity for centuries to come. When we are
good enough to take His cup of earthly sorrows, we shall have it, and until we
are, and do drink of it, all the vain repetitions that heathen use can never
reach the demonstration that Jesus gave and instructed his followers to give,
as the test of Christianity, saying, "And these signs shall follow you."
We learn in science the necessity for Christians to suffer in this wicked world
of sense, insomuch as they oppose it, and are
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helping to
destroy it, therefore it would destroy them. Anciently, in Japan, they conveyed
a praying-machine through the streets, stopping at the doors to earn a penny
grinding out a prayer. But in the belief of higher civilization, we pay for
prayers in lofty edifices. Experience teaches that we receive not the good we
ask for inaudible prayer. Petitioning a personal Deity is a misapprehension of
the source and means of all good and blessedness; therefore it cannot be
beneficial, and we receive not, because, as the scripture saith, "We ask
amiss, to consume it on our lusts."
Suffering
for sin is all that destroys it; every supposed pleasure of personal sense,
will furnish more than its balance in pain, until the belief of Life and
Intelligence in matter is ultimately destroyed. We are not rid of mortal
experiences, of sin, sickness, or death, at the change called death; we cannot
reach heaven, the harmony of Life, except we understand the Principle of
harmonious being, that alone destroys personal sense and error. Seeking is not
sufficient to destroy error; striving to enter into the straight and narrow way
of science, is all that will enable us to do it. Spiritual attainments are the
preparation for heaven, and that which opens the door to a higher
understanding, even the Life that is God. The petitions to a personal Deity
bring to man only the results of his belief; they cannot obtain Truth, Life, or
Love. We know that a desire for holiness is requisite to gaining it, but if we
really desire this above all else, we shall lay down all for it; first learn
your willingness to do this, and then you may calculate safely on the only
practical way of reaching holiness. Prayer cannot change the
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unalterable
Truth, or give us the understanding of it; but a desire to know and do the will
of God is necessary, and also a symptom that we are growing wiser; but this
desire needs no expression from the lips; our lives express it.
Asking God
to heal the sick has no effect to gain the ear of Love, beyond its
ever-presence. The only beneficial effect it has, is mind acting on the body
through a stronger faith, to heal it; but this is one belief casting out
another; a belief in God casting out a belief of Sickness, and not the
understanding of the Principle that heals being. Jesus said, a kingdom divided
against itself cannot stand; a belief is not the science of being that heals
the sick, and casts out sickness on the ground that sensation and Intelligence
are not in matter; the Truth of being is what destroys error. Exchanges of the
same commodity are the mere merchandise of mind, and not science. Deity
interposes not in behalf of one, and not another, who adopts the same measures
in prayer. If the sick recover on the platform of prayer, it is the result of
individual belief. All may avail themselves of God in science as a present help
in trouble. Love is impartial, and universal in its adaptation and bestowments;
the open fount, that saith, "Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye, and
drink."
Prayer to
a person, affects the sick as a drug that has no efficacy of its own, but
borrows its power from faith and belief in matter. The drug does nothing in the
case, insomuch as it has no Intelligence. The Principle of man, and not a
person, produces all good.
Seeking
the Science of Life, and not content with a
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material
sense of things, gives hungerings and thirstings after righteousness, because
it reveals the perfect Principle on which Life and immortality are Avon. A
wordy prayer may afford a sense of quiet and self-justification, but this makes
the sinner a hypocrite. We never despair of an honest heart, but those
spasmodically face to face with their wickedness, and always seeking to hide
it, are the indexes that correspond not with contents, the counterfeits of true
manhood, that hold secret fellowship with their own sins. Such are spoken of in
the scripture as whited sepulchres full of uncleanness, "making long
prayers," etc.
If the
author of much apparent fervor and many prayers is sensual and insincere, what
is the mental comment of those understanding the science of being? That if be
had reached the standpoint of his prayer, this would not be the case. If our
silent thoughts support the conclusion that we feel all the aspiration,
humility, gratitude and love they pour forth, this is enough to know of our
Christian estate, and it is greatly wise not to deceive ourselves or others;
nothing is hidden that shall not be revealed. Professions and prayers, we
regret to say, cover a multitude of sins. Christians rejoice that the secret
beauty and bounty of their being, though hidden from the world, is known to
God; self-abnegation, purity and Love, are a constant prayer. It is the
practice and understanding of our God-being, that gains the ear and right hand
of Omnipotence, and calls down blessings infinite. Trustworthiness is the only
foundation of faith; without a fitness for holiness we shall not receive it,
nor yield faithful adherence to it.
"God
is Love;" more than this we cannot ask; higher
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we cannot
look; beyond this we may not go. To regard God a person that forgives or
punishes sin, according as His mercy is sought, or unsought, is to misunderstand
Love, and institute prayer as the safety-valve for wrong-doing. Do we ask
Wisdom to be merciful to sin, then "We ask amiss to consume it on our
lusts;" and to forgive sin without punishment, allows the sin to multiply,
and this is neither mercy nor Wisdom. A magistrate may remit a criminal
sentence; but this is no benefit morally to the criminal, and has only saved
him from one form of punishment. The moral law that alone is capable of
justifying or condemning, still demands man to go up higher, or meet the
penalty of a broken law that punishes to compel this progress. Personal pardon
of sin -- and there is none other -- for Principle, never pardons sin, leaves
man free to commit anew the offence; if indeed he has not suffered sufficiently
from sin, to turn from it with loathing. Truth entertains no pardon for error,
but wipes it out in the most effectual manner.
Asking God
to pardon sin, is a "vain repetition such as heathen use." Habitual
goodness, is praying without ceasing, in which motives are made manifest by the
blessings we bestow, whether these are, or are not acknowledged, and attest our
worthiness to be made partakers of Love. We cannot pray aright, and believe
that God, who is the same yesterday and forever, is changeable or influenced in
the least by a mortal sense of what man needs. He who is immutably right, will
do right, without being reminded of it; and the wisdom of man is insufficient
to select from God. We would not stand before a blackboard, and pray the
Principle
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of
mathematics to work out a problem for man; nor should we ask the Principle of
all good to do a work already clone, and which we have only to avail ourselves
of, that is, to understand, in order to receive its blessings. The Principle of
man must be reflected by man, else he is not the image and likeness of the
patient, tender, and true, yea, the one altogether lovely; and to go higher
than this, and understand "God is Love," is the work of eternity.
"When
thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door pray to
the father which is in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret shall
reward thee openly."
The closet
signifies the sanctuary of Spirit, its door opening on Soul, and not sense,
opening to Truth, God, and closing on error. The father in secret is the
Principle of man, unseen to personal sense, the infinite Intelligence that
knows all things, and rewards according to motives, regarding mind only and not
speech. The "prayer of the righteous" that "heals the
sick," is after the manner our Master taught, when he bade his students
enter into the Spirit of prayer, the door of personal sense closed, lips mute,
and man in audience with his Maker, where, Spirit instead of matter, and Soul
instead of sense are understood the standpoint of being, even the Principle
thereof, that destroys sickness, sin, and death. Thus the power of Life, Love
and Truth, will destroy sin, sickness, and death, and enlarge the capacities of
man, revealing his God-given dominion over earth; but remember, also, that "none
but the pure in heart shall see God"; shall be able to take this
scientific position of prayer, in which personal
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sense is
silenced, and Spirit the master of man. After a momentary cessation in the
belief and dream of Life in matter, whereby Life, that is God, unfolds itself,
comes the understanding and consciousness of dominion over the body that casts
out error and heals the sick, and you speak as one having authority. We have
taught our students the footsteps to this prayer; let them answer to-day, have
they followed them. A great relinquishment of material things must precede this
advanced spiritual understanding; 'isms but retard it, and mediumship more than
most things. This prayer is not faith; it is demonstration; it heals the sick
and advances man in the scale of being; it recognizes the falsity of personal
sense and the Life that is Soul.
Only as we
rise above sensuality and sin, can we reach its standpoint. Prayer addressed to
a person, prevents our letting go of personality for the impersonal Spirit to
whom all things are possible. We cannot serve two masters, if we are sensibly
with our body and consequently our words, and regarding Omnipotence a person,
whose ear we would gain, we are not Soul, Life, Love and Truth, and therefore
not in the harmony of being and oneness with the Father, "In demonstration
of the Spirit and power." Make it a conscious reality for a single moment,
that Life and Intelligence are not in the body, and you are without sensation
in the body, and if sick, will find yourself well; sorrow is turned into joy,
when we become conscious Soul, able to govern the body with Life, Truth, and
Love; hence those words of our Master, "I and the Father are one,"
that wrought such blessed works, and "greater works than I," (in the
flesh) "ye can do, be-
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cause I go
to the Father." The scientific position of Intelligence is Soul triumphing
over sense.
Absent
from the body and present with the Lord is not ecstacy or trance, but a
realization of the science of Life, as laid down in this volume; it is
obedience to the law of God, governing the body by Spirit instead of matter;
therefore our Master said: "After this manner pray ye"
Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name;
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our
debtors, And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the
glory forever."
The
following is the spiritual signification of the Lord's Prayer:
Harmonious and eternal Principle of man,
Nameless and adorable Intelligence,
Spiritualize man;
Control the discords of matter with the harmony of
Spirit.
Give us the understanding of God,
And Truth will destroy sickness, sin, and death,
as it destroys the belief of intelligent matter,
And lead man into Soul, and deliver him from
personal sense,
For God is Truth, Life, and Love forever.
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Atonement
is oneness with God; it is Life, Truth, and Love fulfilled, whereby sickness,
sin, and death, are destroyed. Jesus of Nazareth explained and demonstrated his
oneness with the Father, for which we owe him endless love and homage, although
at the time of his labors he received less gratitude and honor than other men.
His mission was both individual and collective; he did Life's work right in
justice to himself, and to show us how to do ours, but not to do it for us, or
to relieve us of a single responsibility in the case. He taught us the way of
Life, its Principle and proof, demonstrating what He taught, that we might
understand its Principle; how it healed the sick, cast out error, and triumphed
over death. Jesus was more the idea of God than a man can be whose origin is
less spiritual than his, therefore he demonstrated higher than others the
Principle of being, even his oneness with God. He understood the science of
those sayings of his, "I am the Truth and Life," "I and the
Father are one." Any reference to himself was made to Christ, the
Principle of the man Jesus, for he called not Intelligence man, but God. It was
not to a person, but to Truth, Life, and Love, he looked to destroy sickness,
sin, and death. The mission of Jesus was to demonstrate the science of Life, he
was its idea, even the chosen of Principle to prove God, and what God does for
man.
Belief had
established the false conclusion that God was in matter; that Truth and Life
were in man, and man was mortal, sinning, sick, and dying. He wished to show,
this belief was the very opposite of Truth, and that Spirit was not in matter,
hence the death of the cross and the re-appearance of Jesus according to
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his
scientific statement of Life, namely, "Though you destroy this temple
(body) yet will I (Spirit) build it again." "I," the Life,
Substance, and Intelligence of the universe, and man, am not in matter that you
can destroy. His beautiful metaphors and parables of the tree and its fruit;
the fount and stream; the tares and wheat; the sower and husbandman, etc.,
explained Intelligence and Life not mingled with sin and death. He laid the axe
of science at the root of the "tree of knowledge " to cut down all
that embraced opposite doctrines; hence error's hatred of him, and Truth's
approval. This more pure, and spiritual idea, named Jesus, destroyed the beliefs
of Life in matter, and gave to man the understanding of the Principle of being.
Those students who followed his instructions and example, loved and honored
him, and those who did not, hated and dishonored him. The former cast out
error, and healed the sick with Christ, Truth; the latter, only in the name of
Truth. Of the seventy he taught, but eleven remained faithful, showing how far
the science he taught and demonstrated, was apart from the acceptance of the
world of sense. And when Christ, Truth, cometh again, will he find faith on
earth? Over eighteen centuries ago, "He came to his own and his own
received him not." Those professing Christ are sometimes the first to
reject Truth, if it collides with their beliefs; even its severest persecutors
have been of this class. The honest fishermen who bad little to leave, were
those who left all for Christ, Truth, until progress compelled the change, and
the learned Paul stepped forth for Truth.
When a
teacher of music demonstrates by some masterly performance, the harmony of
music, he gives
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the proof
of a Principle that the learner must understand; but if this demonstration
included also a nameless sacrifice, we should admit, the Principle of it was
not only harmony, but Love. This was the precious import of our Master's
teachings and demonstration; he proved the science of being not only by
destroying sickness, sin, and death, but the significance of Life without
death, and in this proof was embraced big Love. Error had hoped to destroy
Truth, and kill Jesus. Those for whom he laid down all worldly honors, and bore
their infirmities that through his stripes they might be healed, were his
accusers. So will it be to-day, Christian martyr; he who best understands the
Truth of being, will be most falsified, pursued, and condemned.
The
teacher of music who demonstrates for the benefit of others, has by no means
relieved them from giving the proof requisite to show where they stand in
science; he rather does this, for their example that they may understand that
which they should demonstrate. Implicit faith in the teacher, whose
self-abnegation and toil have bestowed blessings on man, will never make
Musicians of the learners; they must go and do likewise, or they are not
improving their talents, which, unimproved, condemned them. We must understand
the Principle Jesus taught, at whatever expense, and practice it, or we are not
Christians.
The
science of Life that our Master demonstrated, was not a theory, doctrine, or
belief; it revealed a Principle that brought its proof with it; and this proof
was not forms, or systems of religion, but the science of being, that brought
out all the sweet harmonies of Life. Jesus informed John what the proof of
Christ's coming
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was,
saying, "Go and tell him the things ye see and hear; how the sick are
healed, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the blind see, and to the poor the gospel
is preached." Tell him what its demonstration is; and the spiritual John
will at once perceive God is its Principle. Materia medica professed the
ability to heal, also, and the Pharisees to teach Christ, Truth, but they only
hindered the success of Jesus' mission; many of the seventy he had taught,
stood in his way also, together with one who boldly betrayed him into the hands
of his enemies. If our Master had never had a student, he would not have come
to the death on the cross; but his mission would have been unfulfilled, and his
history lacked its sweetest pathos. Through his unmerited persecutions we see
the fate of science in a world of error, and the reception a sensuous world
gives the Principle that contradicts personal sense with Soul.
At the
same time that I love Jesus more than all men of the past or present ages,
treading alone a path of thorns, up to the throne of Wisdom, in speechless
agony exploring the way for others, yet I cannot see that he has spared us one
individual experience, or that we have not the "cup" to drink in
proportion to our fitness to drink it and demonstrate God, above others. To
keep the commandments of our Master and follow his example, is our proper
return, and only evidence of gratitude for all he has done for us; but this is
not a personal worship, nor reward to a person; it is to understand the
Principle Jesus taught and proved, and follow, as much as in us lies, his
example; to separate ourselves from the world of error and press forward to the
Life that is Truth and Love. The
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pleasures,
frowns, or flatteries of earth, are but ghosts of nothingness, compared to the
prize set before us, "And laying aside every weight and sin that so easily
beset us, let us press forward to the high calling of God in Christ,"
putting aside personal self and sense, for Soul, the Principle of being.
Every pang
of repentance, every suffering for sin, (accompanied with reformatory efforts)
and every good deed, stones for sin. But if the sinner is sorry, and continues
to pray, and to sin and be sorry, he hath no part in the at-one-ment. TO
understand God, "Whom to know aright is Life eternal," is to do the
will of Wisdom; and none hath part in Him, who demonstrates not, in part, the
Principle embraced in the teachings and practice of our Master. If not obeying
the science of being according to its Principle, God, we should have no
confidence in man's safety, because God is good, and man repents. But if we are
growing spiritual, and error is yielding to Truth in our demonstrations of
being, and our daily walk and conversation, we shall say at length, "I
have fought the good fight and kept the faith;" for I am a better man.
This is having part in the at-one-ment. If a man stands still, praying, and
expecting because of another man's goodness, sufferings and triumphs, he will
reach his harmony and reward; that man will vibrate, a pendulum, between sin
and the hope of forgiveness; selfishness and sensuality winding him up to this
action, and his growth will be slow. An at-one-ment with Love and Truth, is to
apply the meaning of the Life, and not death of Jesus, to deeds and a Christian
character, and not to cover, or forgive sin, but to destroy it in the most
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effectual
manner. When Truth lays the axe at the root of error, saying, cut it down, then
comes the experiences and sufferings that cause one, even as a drowning man, to
make vigorous efforts to save himself, and these efforts are what save him.
"Work
out your own salvation," is the demand of Life and Love; and to this end
God worketh with you. "Occupy until I come," i. e., wait for thy
reward and grow not weary in well doing. Although your endeavors are against
fearful odds, receiving no present reward, go not back to error, nor become a
sluggard in the contest, and you will find your reward when the smoke of battle
clears away, so that you discern the good you have done, and your gain from
experience. Love often delays to deliver from temptation, that it may try, and
prove you as by fire. If you understand the science of being sufficiently to
have faith in the right, and no faith in wrong, you will work more earnestly,
though more silently, perhaps, in persecution than amid applause, for your
labor is more needed; and the reward of your self-sacrifice is great, though it
be never here. Final deliverance from error, whereby we rejoice in immortality,
boundless freedom, and sinless sense, is not won through smooth footsteps, nor
through doctrines, or pinning one's faith to personality. Whoso believeth wrath
is righteous or appeased by the unmerited death of a good man, cannot
understand God. Justice requires no propitiation but from the sinner; mercy
cancels without pay or sacrifice, and revenge is inadmissible in Love. The
wrath that is appeased is not destroyed, but indulged, and may require another
sacrifice, one being found insufficient; but these are
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the traits
of heathen Deities, and not of our God, the Principle that is Love.
God's
wrath vented on his only son, is without logic or humanity, and but a man-made
belief. The beautiful import of this hard place in theology is, that suffering
is an error of personal sense that Truth destroys, and sin falls, a broken
reed, at the feet of Love. The Rabbinical teachings said, "He that taketh
one doctrine firm in faith, has the holy ghost dwelling in him." But this
receives a strong rebuke from our Master, who said, "Faith without works
is dead." Faith, as a belief, is but a pendulum between nothing and
something, holding on to no foundations; but the advanced understanding that is
sometimes misnamed faith, is the evidence gained from spiritual sense that
rebukes the belief of personal sense, and brings out of experience the Life
that is God. In Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English, the word "faith"
embraces two meanings, viz., "trustfulness" and
"trustworthiness." The first trusts all to another, and the second
understands and relies on one's self. "Lord, I believe, help thou mine
unbelief," expresses the helplessness of a blind faith, whereas
"Believe, and you shall be saved," is self-reliant, trustworthy faith
that implies the understanding that brings its own reward. The Hebrew gives the
following signification of the verb, "to believe:" "To be firm,
lasting, constant," and this certainly applies to Truth understood; for
firmness in error will never save man from sickness, sin, or death. An
acquaintance with the original texts, together with a willingness to give up
beliefs founded on dynasties and the wont passions of men, for the advanced
views of
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civilization
and the spiritual sense of Truth, makes the scriptures a chart of Life to man.
Christ and
God are words synonymous. Christ signifies the Soul and Principle of the man,
Jesus. The manner of expressing him in Scripture gives the meaning of this
relationship, viz., Jesus, the son of God, i. e., the idea of Principle, and
the offspring of Soul, and not sense.
Publius
Lentulus wrote to the conscript fathers at Rome, -- "The disciples of
Jesus believe him the son of God." Those who were taught by him the
science of being, reached the glorious perception that God is the only author
of man. The virgin mother first conceived this idea of God, and named it Jesus;
the illumination of spiritual sense had put to silence personal sense with
Mary, thus mastering material law and establishing through demonstration that
God is the father of man. The science of being overshadowed the pure sense of
the virgin mother with a full recognition that Spirit is the basis of being. The
idea we call Substance, and Mary named Jesus, dwelt forever in the bosom of the
Father, in the Principle of man, and woman perceived it because of her more
spiritual nature. The belief that Life originates with the sexes, is strongest
in the most material natures; whereas the understanding of the spiritual origin
of man cometh only to the pure in heart. Man and woman, as ideas of God, i. e.,
Spirit, meet Soul's expectancy, and are immortal evidences that Spirit is
harmonious, and man eternal. Jesus was the offspring of Mary's self-conscious
God-being in creative Wisdom; hence he was more spiritual, more the idea of
God, and demonstrated
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the
science of Life, as others cannot, whose origin is material. This idea of Truth
came to rebuke Rabbinical error; to point out the way of Truth and Life, and to
demonstrate, as it did, throughout the whole earthly career of Jesus, the
difference between the offspring of Soul, and of sense; of Truth, and error;
Christ was God; therefore the Principle of the man, Jesus, otherwise his
Father; Jesus acknowledged no ties of flesh, saying, "Call no man your
Father upon the earth, for one is your Father which is in heaven." Again,
"Who is my mother, and who are my brethren, but they that do the win of my
Father." We have no record of his ever calling a man father. He recognized
God the only Principle of being, therefore, the Father of all.
Referring
to the materiality of the age, he said,
The time
cometh and now is that they who worship the Father shall worship Him in Spirit
and in Truth." Again, foreseeing the persecution that must attend the
introduction of this science, he said, -- "The time cometh that whosoever
killeth you will think he doeth God service." "And these things will
they do unto you because they have not known the Father or me." In other
words, are ignorant of the Principle of being; their father, on earth and in
heaven, being personality instead of Principle; ignorant, also, of the origin
of man, his nature and true existence. The world of error is blind to the Truth
of man, and the world of sense, to Life that is Soul. Jesus was neither
understood in his origin, his nature, or works; not one component part of his
being did the world of sense get right. Even his righteousness and purity
hindered not
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the accusation,
he is Beelzebub, the chief of sinners, a glutton, and the friend of the impure.
Christian martyr of the nineteenth century, does it wrong thee one half as
much? then remember, it is enough for thee "that the servant should be as
his Lord," and that you be found worthy to unloose the sandals of thy
Master's faith. To conclude persecution for righteousness' sake belongs to the
past, and that Christianity to-day is at peace with the world, honored by sects
and societies, is to mistake its Very nature. History will repeat itself; the
trials of prophet, disciple, and apostle, those of whom "the earth was not
worthy," await, in some form, the pioneers of Truth.
Scripture
informs us, Jesus read the thoughts of man, discovering the hidden springs of
action, and construing them according to motive. Perceiving their thoughts, as
he walked with his students, he answered, unasked, questions that needed
explanation. This mind-reading was not clairvoyance, it was absence from the
body, a spiritual insight wherewith he shew the woman of Samaria her error, and
convinced her of his superiority over man, and she went away, saying, "Is
not this the Christ," the Truth of man that discerns the error? His
marvellous works are readily accounted for when we remember, Christ is God, and
that Jesus held all that he was, God, and wrought from the standpoint of his
God-being, and this was the science of being.
A
magistrate who lived at the time of Jesus, wrote,
His rebuke
is fearful," and his strong language in scripture regarding hypocrisy,
confirms this saying, but the stronger evidence that his reproof was pointed
and pungent, is the necessity there was for it when he
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cast out
devils and healed the sick. The only civility Truth exchanges with error is
"Get behind me, satan." There is too much animal courage, and not
sufficient moral courage in Society. Christians take up arms against error at
home and abroad, grapple with sin in themselves and others, and continue this
warfare until they have finished their course, and thenceforth receive its
reward.
If you
have triumphed sufficiently over the errors of personal sense for Soul to hold
the balance of power in your being, you will loathe sin and rebuke it, under
whatever mask it appears; and you can bless your enemies only in this way, but
they may not so construe it. We cannot choose but work out our own salvation on
the Principle Jesus taught and demonstrated, viz., casting out devils, healing
the sick, and preaching the gospel to the poor. A moral coward is unfit to bear
the standard of Truth, and God will never place it in his hands.
A member
of the Methodist Church once said to us, 61 1 hope, when you write your work on
science, you will dwell much on the atonement." After reading these pages,
if the "arm of the Lord is revealed " to that mind, anew she will
commence her own work, and with the unction of primitive Christianity, heal
herself and others, and thus gain the liberty of the sons of God. This is
regeneration, and to have part in the atonement, and to understand wherefore
Jesus suffered and triumphed. But Truth, lifting its voice above 'ology and
'ism, and requiring a reconstruction of man, must be persecuted, and those not
having touched its garments and felt in their body it has healed them, will
persecute it.
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If all
those partaking of the sacrament intended to commemorate the sufferings of
Jesus, had drank "his cup," they would have revolutionized the world;
or if all who partake of these symbols to-day, were Christians, taking up their
cross, healing the sick, casting out error and preaching Christ, Truth, to the
poor, it would establish the millennium.
But all
who eat bread and drink wine in memory of Christ, are not ready or willing to
drink his cup, and to leave all for Christ, the Truth and Life, that is God.
Then wherefore ascribe to this willingness with a dead rite, before showing
forth in your body, that the Truth has come to your understanding, that heals
the sick, and makes the body holy and acceptable, that Paul said, was "our
only reasonable service." And if Christ, Truth, has come to us in
demonstration, no commemoration is requisite, for it is "God with
us."
"And
as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave
it to the disciples, and said, 'Take eat, this is my body.' And he took the
cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, 'Drink ye all of it.'"
The
glorious sense or proof of that hour is lost spiritually, when confined to a
literal sense, or the use of bread and wine. The disciples were eating when he
prayed and gave them bread. Now this would have been improper in a literal
sense; but in its spiritual, it was natural and beautiful. Jesus prayed; was
"absent from the body and present with the Lord." His followers
silent, humble, patient, self-sacrificing, and strong, anticipating the
approaching hour of their Mas-
308
ter's
betrayal, sat eating the manna, that before had fed the persecuted followers of
Truth in the wilderness. Their bread came down from heaven; it was the great
Truth of spiritualized being, that often had healed the sick, and cast out
error; their Master had broken, explained it to them before, and now it was
feeding, sustaining them; they also had borne it from house to house,
"breaking," explaining it to others; and now it comforted them. For
this Truth their Master was about to suffer violence, and his cup of sorrow he
must leave to them; he had drank it even with thanks, after a momentary
weakness that said, "Let this cup pass from me," and now remembering
also the cross and crown it bore, he said to his followers, "Drink ye all
of it." Professors of Christ, are you drinking this cup? has the blood of
the New Testament, the sufferings and persecutions that attend a new
understanding of God, been shared by you? have you drank this cup? if not, have
you commemorated Jesus in his "cup?" When the human struggled with
the divine, our great exemplar said, "Not my will but thine be done";
not personal sense, but Soul be represented by me. This new understanding of
the Love that is impersonal, gives up all for Christ, Truth, blesses them that
curse it, heals the sick, casts out error, raises those dead in belief, and
preaches to the poor.
The rabbi
and priest taught a material law, and it was "An eye for an eye," and
"whose sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed "; not so
did Jesus, the new testator of God, copy his will; his law was Love, and
"Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for a
friend," but he did this for his
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enemies,
showing the Love, the Life and Truth, that is the at-one-ment with God.
First on
the list of Christian duties, he taught his followers to heal the sick; he
attached no importance to dead ceremonies; it was the living Christ, the Truth,
that is Life, that made him the resurrection and Life to all who follow him.
Thus keeping his precious precepts and following his demonstration in its
understanding, we shall indeed drink his cup and be baptized with his purity,
until we sit down with him anew in a fuller understanding of the Principle of that
man, Jesus. "For as often as ye eat his bread and drink his cup, ye do
show forth the Lord's death till he come."
A belief
can never show forth the works of understanding, and has never yet followed
Jesus in his demonstration; to do this we must consecrate our lives to the
Principle for which be was crucified, and be willing to drink of the cup it
brings. "But for this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many
sleep."
Rites
fetter the pinions of Soul, they materialize, and prevent the Spirit, by
holding us to the body; for matter separates from Spirit. We speak of the
atonement of Christ reconciling God to man; but Christ is God, and God
propitiates not Himself, and there is nothing higher to conciliate. Again, Love
and Truth are not irreconciled to the idea of God, and man is this idea. But
man being the shadow of Almighty, cannot exceed Him in Love; or reconcile Truth
to error. His students understood the sufferings, teachings, and demonstration
of their glorious Master better than all this. When Jesus gave up the body
material to
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be slain,
and afterwards presented it to his students unchanged, he had proved what he
had taught, showing them he was act dead, and they knew it was proof of the
Principle he had before taught, and disproved our opinions of a future
resurrection, or a spiritual body at the change, called death; his body was a
belief of matter, as before, until he rose to Spirit above the reach of
personal sense, and triumphed over the last enemy, death, as before he had
conquered sickness and sin, and this was what his followers were to commemorate
in their lives, so far as they understood his teachings and demonstration;
hence the saying, "The works that I do ye shall do, and greater."
Theology
explains the crucifixion of Jesus, a pardon ready for all sinners; Spiritualism
finds his death necessary only for the presentation, after death, of the
personal Jesus; calling this "a spirit's return." We differ from
both, and while we respect all that is good in the church, and outside of it,
our later consecration to Christ has been on the ground of demonstration, and
not profession, yea, to follow the commands he gave to those he sent forth. For
conscience's sake we dare not cling to the old belief, insomuch as
understanding somewhat the Principle of his proof, the Life, and not death,
that Jesus showed forth, raised us from hopeless disease, and gave us a triumph
over sickness and sin, we never had gained from our former beliefs and
profession of religion.
The
efficacy of the crucifixion of Jesus is the practical Truth it demonstrated for
our understanding, and that ultimately will deliver mankind from sickness, sin
and death. This Truth he had before spoken in their
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midst; but
until they saw it triumph over the grave the disciples were not able to admit
and demonstrate so fully its Principle. Thomas, beholding the idea of it in
Jesus, (after his supposed death) was forced to acknowledge how entire was the
proof. From all the disciples had seen and suffered, they became more
spiritual, therefore could better understand what the Master had taught them.
This, therefore, was the resurrection, for it raised them from the blindness of
a belief in God to the understanding of Him, "Whom to know aright was
Life." They needed this, for soon their dear Master that had just risen to
their comprehension would rise again, higher in the spiritual scale of being,
and so much beyond them in reward for all his faithfulness, he would disappear
to their more material thoughts, and Biblical history would name it the
ascension. Ancient prophets who wrought before Jesus, foretold his coming, and
the reception the world of sense would give Truth; also there is a connection
inseparable between their experiences, and those of every Christian who
perceives the idea and accepts the understanding of God. Jesus, born of a
virgin mother, was more of a miracle to that age, than to this; for even the
naturalist is now furnishing reports of embryology in some species wholly
without the male element. The Bethlehem babe was the nearest approximation
since the record in Genesis to the science of being, in which Spirit makes man;
for man born of woman, was the usual advent of mortal man, and this material
belief was what entered Mary's spiritual conception of Jesus, which accounts
for the struggles of Gethsemane, but it made him the mediator between God and
mortal man;
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this lack
of entire science in the advent of Jesus, produced its discord, and met its
fate in death. Had his origin and birth, however, been wholly apart from mortal
belief, Jesus would not have been recognized by mortal man; and "he was
the light that was to lighten every man that cometh into the world;"
therefore he must be the mediator, or interpreter of Truth to error that
destroyed error and rebuked personal sense with the Principle of being.
Jesus
never ransomed man, by paying the debt sin incurs; whosoever sins must suffer.
This Christian martyr suffered for the Truth, that destroyed error, and while
it blessed the whole world, was that for which it hated him; even the sinner
must learn Truth, by the things he suffers. Love is no compromise with sin, and
pays no debt of its contracting; but it can and does point out the way to
escape from it and reach the harmony and science of being. The blood of that righteous
man shed by sinners, was a crime that affords no ground for further sin or a
belief of its pardon, it was an injustice to humanity that the beat man should
be sacrificed by the worst men. Jesus taught the way of escape from sin, but
that all that sinneth shall die, in other words, that sin must be destroyed.
Wisdom punishes, instead of pardons, sin. The terrible effect of our false
views regarding the atonement, is to make a sinner less fearful to sin,
believing a tear or a prayer will secure its pardon; this heightens hypocrisy
and suffocates conscience. The time is not far distant when our theological
views of atonement will undergo as radical a change as those have already done
regarding a bottomless pit, burning with fire and brimstone, and the
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election
and fore-ordination of a portion to be saved or be lost. But for these false
views regarding the forgiveness of sin, ministers and laymen would never break
the commandment, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," and then talk of
their love for God, and Christian experience.
The sweet
and spiritual significance of the death on the cross, is Love laying down all
of earth to instruct its enemies the way to heaven, proving what heaven is, and
how obtained. We speak of the blood of Jesus as efficacious to save sinners; it
is the efficacy of the Truth and Love that Jesus taught and demonstrated, which
alone can destroy sin; and sinners are never saved. The blood of Christ was an
offering of Spirit and not matter, a pledge of undying Love. O! highest conceptions
of spiritual sense tell us, what is Love.
314
When our
great Teacher went to John to be baptized, not having reached his motive, the
good patriarch was astounded, and reading his thoughts, Jesus prefaced his
purpose saying, "Suffer these things to be so now, for thus it becometh us
to fulfill all righteousness," that is, yield obedience to common forms,
until you reach the understanding of their spiritual significance. Marriage is
the only legal and moral form among the higher species, for generation, and
until the spiritual creation is discerned and the union of male and female
apprehended in its Soul-sense, this rite should continue under such moral
regulations as secure increasing virtue. Infidelity to the marriage covenant is
the social scourge of all peoples; the pestilence that wasteth and walketh at
noon-day. The commandment, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," is not
less imperative, than "Thou shalt not kill." Virtue is the basis of
civilization and progress; without it there is no true foundation to society,
and it were utterly impossible to attain the Science of Life; but virtue should
be recognized; and the fear to take responsible posts of duty lest the vicious
misjudge you, be wholly removed. Owing to the shocking depravity of mankind,
chastity is looked at suspiciously; it requires more moral courage for woman to
meet the low estimates in society of virtue, than to help lift its standard
from the dust.
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The last
infirmity of error that would fasten itself on society, to see it hop and
hobble under a new burden of guilt, is named "free love"; wherein
"they declare their sin as Sodom, and hide it not," but the boldness
of depravity will show its deformity. A union of the masculine and feminine mind
seems requisite for completeness; the former reaches a higher tone from
communion with the latter; and the latter gains courage and strength from the
former; therefore, these different individualities meet and demand each other,
and their true harmony is oneness of Soul. Woman should be loving, pure, and
strong. Man, tender, intellectual, controlling; the attraction between the
sexes will be perpetual only as it is pure and true, and like the seasons,
brings its sweet changes and renewal. Beauty, wealth, or fame is incompetent to
meet the demands of the affections, and should never waver the balance against
the more honest claims of intellect, goodness, and virtue. Happiness is
spiritual, born of Truth and Love; it is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist
alone, but requires an object to cherish. Our affections are not poured forth
vainly, when meeting no return; they enrich the being, enlarging, purifying and
elevating it. The wintry blasts of earth may transplant the flowers of
affection, or scatter them to the winds; but sundering ties of flesh, unites us
to God, where Love supports the struggling heart, until it ceases to sigh over
earth, and folds its wings for heaven.
Marriage
is blest or unblest, according to the disappointment it incurs, or the motive
it fulfills. To happify existence by constant intercourse with those adapted to
elevate it is the true motive for marriage;
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wedlock
gives pinions to joy, or trails its drooping wings in dust. Notes are illy
arranged that produce discord; tones of mind may be different, but they should
be concordant, to blend harmoniously. Unselfish ambition, nobler motives for
existence, increased harmony, happiness and usefulness, because the different
elements of mind meet and mingle, finding in union there is strength -- is the
true marriage. Let there be moral freedom in wedlock; never contract the limit
of worthy deeds by a selfish exaction of all one's time and thoughts. With
additional joys, benevolence should grow more diffusive, for the narrowness and
jealousy that would confine a wife or husband forever at home, will not promote
the sweet interchange of confidence that comes of love; while a wandering
desire for incessant amusement outside the home circle is a poor augury for
happiness. Home is the dearest spot on earth, and should be the center, but not
the boundary of the affections. Said the peasant bride to her lover, "Two
eat no more together than when they are separate," and this should furnish
the hint, that a wife ought not to enter into vulgar extravagance, or stupid
ease, because another supplies her wants. Wealth may obviate the necessity- for
toil or ill nature in the marriage relation, but nothing can shirk its cares.
"She that is married careth for her husband, how she may please him,"
and this is the very thing it is pleasant to do. Matrimony should be entered
into with a full recognition of its enduring obligations, and the most tender
solicitude for each other's happiness and approbation should wait on all its
years. Mutual compromises preserve a compact that might otherwise become
burdensome. Man should
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not be
required to participate in all the annoyances and cares of domestic economy, or
woman to understand political economy; but fulfilling the different demands of
separate spheres, their sympathies may blend to comfort, cheer and sustain each
other, thus hallowing the copartnership of interests and affection whereon the
heart leans and is at peace. Tender words, and unselfish care for what promotes
the respect and happiness of thy wife, is more salutary in prolonging her
smiles and health, than stolid indifference, or jealousy; husbands, hear this,
and remember how slight a thing might have spared the old trysting times. It is
too late after marriage to grumble over disparities of dispositions; a mutual
understanding should exist before, and continue ever after this union.
Deception is fatal to happiness. The nuptial vow is never annulled so long as
its moral obligations are preserved, but the frequency of divorce shows the
sacredness of this relation losing its puritanical character, and that some
fatal mistake is undermining its true basis. A separation takes place when the
motives for marriage are not suited to individual progress and happiness. The
science of being inevitably lifts us higher in the scale of harmony, and will
ultimately shake off all shackles that fetter the mind, ripe for advancement.
Therefore, to avoid a disruption in the marriage relation, mutual tastes, joys,
and aspirations are necessary to form a happy companionship. The beautiful, is
the good in character, that clasps the indissoluble links of affection.
A mother's
affection cannot be separated from her child, embracing as it does, purity and
Truth, both of which are immortal, therefore it lives on under all
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difficulties.
From the very logic of events, we learn the selfish and impure are all that is
fleeting, and that Wisdom will ultimately separate what it hath not joined
together.
Marriage
should improve the species, become a barrier to vice, a protection to woman, a
strength to man, and a center for the affections. This, however, in a majority
of cases, is not its present tendency; and because the education of our higher
natures is neglected for other considerations, frivolous amusements, adornments
of the person, passion, display, and pride. An ill-attuned ear calls discord
harmony, not apprehending concord; so personal sense, discerning not the true
happiness of being, places it on a false basis; but science corrects the
discord and teaches us Life's sweeter harmonies. Soul hath infinite resources
wherewith to bless mankind, and happiness were more readily attained and secure
in our keeping if sought of Soul. The higher order of enjoyments are all that
satisfy the cravings of immortal man; we cannot circumscribe our happiness
within the limits of wealth or fame. The good we possess should have ascendency
over the evil, and the spiritual over the animal, or happiness is never
reached. This would improve progeny, diminish crime, give higher aims to
ambition, and prepare the way for science. The offspring of such parents would
inherit more intellect, better balanced minds, and sounder constitutions. If
some fortuitous circumstance places in the arms of gross parents a more
spiritual offspring, the beautiful child early droops and dies, like a tropical
flower dropped amid Alpine snows; or marrying reproduces in the helpless
offspring the grosser traits of
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her
ancestors. What hope of happiness, or noble ambition hovers around the child
inheriting propensities that must be overcome, or reduce him to a loathsome
wreck. For propagating the human species, is there not greater responsibility
than for your garden culture, or the stock of your flocks and herds? Nothing
should be transmitted to offspring unworthy to perpetuate. The formation and education
of even mortal mind, must improve before the millennium. The most important
education of the infant is to keep it mentally free from impurity, and let mind
develop the body harmoniously; mind, and not matter, should govern the
physical. For parents to create a desire in their child for incessant
amusement, always to have some demand on hand to be fed, rocked, tossed, or
talked to, and afterwards complain of their child's fretfulness, or in after
years of Its frivolity,- all of which they have occasioned, is art error.
Yielding
one's thoughts to contemplate physical wants surely produces them. A single
requirement beyond what is necessary to meet the most modest needs of the babe
is hurtful. The condition of the stomach, bowels, food, clothing, etc., is of
no serious import to your child. Your views regarding them will produce the
only result they can have on the health of your child. The daily ablution of an
infant is not more natural or necessary than to take a fish out of water and
cover it with dirt, once a clay, that it may thrive better in its natural
element. Cleanliness is next to godliness, but washing should be only to keep
the body clean, and this can be done with less than daily scrubbing the whole
surface.'
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Giving
drugs to infants, noticing every symptom of flatulency, or constantly directing
your mind to them, laden with beliefs of disease, laws of health, sickness, and
death, conveys your mental image to their bodies and stamps it there, making it
probable at any time to be reproduced in the disease you fear. Your child can
have worms if you say so, or whatever fear the mind holds, relative to that
body; it is thus you lay the foundation of disease and death, and educate your
child into discord and. out of harmony. The entire education of children should
be only such as will form habits of obedience to moral and spiritual law; there
is no physical law to be consulted.
Taking
less thought "what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink," will do much
more than you are aware of for the health of rising generations. Children
should be allowed to remain children in knowledge, and become men and women
through the understanding of their spiritual being. We should not think for a
moment a law of matter outside of ourselves can harm our babe, for it cannot.
Intelligence outside of matter, that forms the bud and blossom will regulate
the body, even as it clothes the lily, if we do not interfere by some belief.
The higher nature of man is not governed by the lower; this would annul the
order of Wisdom; the false views we entertain of being, hide the eternal
harmony and produce the ills of which we complain. Because the belief of
intelligent matter is accepted, and the opposite science of mind rejected,
shall we submit it is true, or that, the so-called laws of sense are superior
to laws of Soul? You would never conclude a flannel is better to ward off
pulmonary disease than the Intelligence that
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forms the
body, if you understand the science of being. Man is the offspring of Spirit;
the beautiful, good and pure are his ancestors ; his origin is not brute
instinct, nor does he pass through material conditions up to man. Spirit is his
primitive and ultimate being, and God his Father.
The rights
of woman are discussed on grounds that seem to us not the most important. Law
establishes a very unnatural difference between the rights of the two sexes;
but science furnishes no precedent for such injustice, and civilization brings,
in some measure, its mitigation, therefore it is a marvel that society should
accord her less than either. Our laws are not impartial, to say the least,
relative to the person, property, and parental claims of the two sexes; and if
the elective enfranchisement of woman would remedy this evil without incurring
difficulties of greater magnitude, we hope it will be effected. A very tenable
means at present, is to improve society in general, and achieve a nobler
manhood to frame our laws. If a dissolute husband deserts his wife, it should
not follow that the wronged and perchance impoverished woman cannot collect her
own wages, or enter into agreements, bold real estate, deposit funds, or surely
claim her own offspring free from his right of interference. A want of
reciprocity in society is a great want that the selfishness of the world has occasioned.
Our forefathers exercised their faith in the direction St. James taught, "
To visit the fatherless and widows, and keep yourself unspotted from the world
"; but ostentation, the master of ceremonies, and stereotyped belief have
ruled out primitive Christianity, so that when a man would lend a helping
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hand to
some noble woman, struggling alone with adversity, his more prudent wife saith
"'Tis never beat to interfere with thy neighbor's business."
Again, a
wife is withheld from the ready aid her Sympathy and charity would afford, by
some domestic tyrant. The time cometh when marriage will be a union of hearts;
and again, the time cometh when there will be no marrying or giving in
marriage, but we shall be as the angels; the Soul rejoicing in its own mate
wherein the masculine Wisdom and feminine Love are embraced in the
understanding. Because progeny needs to be improved, let marriage continue, and
permit no breaking down of law whereby a worse state of society is produced,
than at present.
Puritanical
honesty and virtue should be the stability of this covenant; Soul will
ultimately claim its own, and the voices of personal sense be hushed. Marriage
should be the school of virtue, and offspring the germ of man's highest nature.
Christ, Truth, should be present at the altar, to turn the water into wine,
giving inspiration to understanding, whereby man's spiritual origin and
existence are discerned. If the foundations of affection are consistent with
progress, its vows will be strong and enduring. Divorces inform the age that
some fundamental error in this union is the source of its discord. To pin the
science, hence the harmony of this relation, we should regard it more
metaphysically and less physically.
The
broad-cast power of evil so conspicuous to-day, is the materialism of the age
struggling against the spiritual era, that advances; beholding the world's lack
of Christianity, and the powerlessness of promises, to
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make good
husbands or wives, mind will at length demand a higher affection, and ferment
on this and many other subjects, until it settles down on an improved
understanding. But the fermentation of fluids is not pleasant, during this
nondescript stage, and matrimony that was once a fixed fact, is not so
desirable on a slippery foundation.
The mental
chemicalization that has brought infidelity to the surface, will as surely
throw it off, and marriage will settle down purer after the scum is expelled.
,Sweet are the uses of adversity, which like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears
yet a precious jewel in his head." They teach us not to lean upon earth,
it is a broken reed, that pierces to the heart. We do not half remember this in
the sunshine of joy and prosperity. But sorrow is more salutary, and points us
from the cross to the crown prepared for those who pass to their reward through
much tribulation. Trials are but proofs of God's care for his children. When
spiritual development takes place it germinates not from seed sown in the soil
of earthly hopes; rather do these decay to propagate anew in Spirit those
higher joys that have no taint of earth, and thus our experiences go up higher,
and a point is won in progress.
In
conjugal felicity, it is well to remember how fleeting are the joys of earth,
and be grateful for them. In conjugal infelicity, separate not if there is no
moral demand for this; far better &wait the logic of events, than for a
wife precipitately to leave a husband, or a husband his wife, for if one is
better than the other, this other pre-eminently needs good company. Socrates
considered patience salutary under such circumstances,
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making his
Xanthippe a discipline for his philosophy. Sorrow has its reward, and never
leaves man where it found him; it is the furnace that separates the gold from
the dross, and gives back the image of God. The cup our Father hath given,
shall we not drink it? and learn the lesson He inculcates.
When the
ocean is stirred by a storm, the clouds lower, the wind screams through the
straitened canvas, and waves lift themselves to mountains, we ask the helmsman,
"Do you know your course, and can you steer your vessel amid the
storm?" Even the dauntless seaman is not sure of his fate, well knowing
the science of navigation is not equal to the Science of God; but acting up to
his highest understanding, firm at the post of duty, awaits the issue. Thus
should we deport ourself in the seething ocean of sorrow, hoping and working,
stick to the wreck, until the logic of events precipitates the doom, or
sunshine gladdens the wave.
The
possibility that animal natures give more force to character than the
spiritual, is too absurd to consider, when we remember the exemplar of man
healed the sick, raised the dead, and commanded even the winds and waves to
obey him, through the ascendency of the spiritual over the material. What we
avail ourselves of God, is as potent with us as it was with Jesus, and our want
of spiritual strength speaks the rebuke it deserves; and our limited
demonstration puts to shame the labor of centuries. We should hold our body not
so much in personal, as spiritual consciousness, even as the orange we have
just eaten, and of which only the idea is left, then would there be neither
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pain nor
sin. Systems of physic and systems of doctrines treat of the pleasures and
pains of personal sense; but Christ takes them all away, and the epoch
approaches when to understand this Principle of being, will form the basis of
all harmony and progress. At present we live ridiculously for fear of being
thought ridiculous; are slaves to fashion, appetite, and sense; in the future
we shall learn Soul is an architect that makes men and women beautiful, noble,
and not to be blotted out. We ought to weary of the fleeting and false, hence,
of personal sense, and cherish nothing that hinders our highest self-hood.
Frugality
is essential to domestic prosperity, and so is affection; but to silence the
voice of conscience to gain wealth, is trade without profit. The genius of
woman shrinks from controversy with a knave, or a fool. A man respects the
reputation of a woman, but a mouse will gnaw in the dark a spotless garment.
Culture and refinement are not things of the toilet, but reflections of head
and heart. Innocence is a gem, worn unconscious of pick-pockets. Husbands that
dissipate care in the club, are poor stocks in ready markets. A husband is the
best friend, or worst enemy of his wife. "Favor is deceitful, and beauty
vain, but a woman of Wisdom, should be praised." A bad woman is a
loathsome leprosy, dangerous to all that approach her. In marriage, avoid
disparity in ages, tastes, or education, and make choice only of those
qualities that wear well. Jealousy is the grave of affection; mistrust where
confidence is due touches with mildew the flowers of Eden, and scatters to the
four winds the leaves of love. A bridal altar is the
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verge of a
new existence; wherein the old is fading out of the experience, to admit the
new; two beings mingling into one; be not in baste to take the vow, "until
death do us part," but consider well its obligations, responsibilities, and
relations to all your future happiness; "judge before friendship, then
confide till death."
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BECAUSE science reverses the positions
of personal sense, human reason acts slowly in accepting it, contesting every
inch of ground it occupies, while error, self-complacent and applauded, sneers
at the slow marches of Truth. Physiology is a name in our land. Institutions
honor it, and materia medica bows the knee, but notwithstanding this, it has
not improved mankind. We shall yet open our eyes to this fact in theodicy, that
depending on matter for what Intelligence is responsible, is a mistake with
grave consequences. The fundamental error of mortal man, is the belief that man
is matter, but theorizing from mushrooms up to brains, amounts to little in the
right direction, and much in the wrong. Classifying the different species of
man, mineral, vegetable, and animal, an egg is the author of the genus homo;
but we perceive no reason why man should begin thus sooner than in the more primitive
state of dust where Adam commenced. Brains are beneath the craniums of animals;
then to admit brains are man, furnishes a pretext for saying he was once a
monkey, which is met with the reply, if this be the case, he will again be one,
according to natural history.
What is man? brain, heart, or the
entire human structure? If he is one, or all of the component parts
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of his body, when you amputate a limb,
you have taken away a portion of man, and a surgeon destroys manhood, and worms
are the annihilators of man. But losing a limb or injuring structure, is
sometimes the quickener of manliness, and the unfortunate body presents more
nobility than the statuesque outline, and we find, "a man's a man, for a'
that." Admitting matter, blood, heart, brains, etc., and the five personal
senses, man, we fail to see how anatomy makes out the different species of
brute and human, or determines when man rises above his progenitors, for both
possess these constituent parts, and must, to some extent, be mortal man, if he
is matter. According to accepted theories, the genus homo ranges from dust to
Deity, the latter having its origin in matter, while the different varieties of
man are mineral, vegetable, and animal; but the spiritual is not a link in this
chain of so-called being, and is seen only as it disappears. If man was first
dust, he has passed through every form of matter, until he became man, and if
the material body is man, he is matter, and the dust that returns to dust. But
this is not man, the image and likeness of God, but a belief of Soul in sense,
and of Life in matter, that Wisdom consigned to annihilation. Anatomy makes man
a structural thing; physiology continues this definition, measuring his
strength by bones, sinews, etc., and his Life by material law. Phrenology makes
him a thief or Christian, according to the development of bumps on the cranium;
but not one of these define immortal man. The tendency of all true education is
to unfold the infinite resources of being, but to measure our capacities by the
size or weight of our brains, and limit
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our strength to the use of a muscle,
holds Life at the mercy of organization, and makes matter the status of Man.
Physiology is like fiction in which
debauchery is toned down to fascinate, and mankind are in danger of catching
its sentiment. The very opposite teachings of physiology, are all that will
open again the gates of paradise that beliefs have closed, and reach the
personification of Spirit, in which man is upright, pure, and free, having no
need to consult calendars or clouds to learn the probabilities of Life, or
brainology, to know how much of a man he is. Mistaking his origin and nature,
we call man both matter and Spirit; the latter sifted through the former, Soul
put through personal sense, carried on a nerve, and subject to ejection at the
hands of matter; the intellectual, moral, and spiritual, that exist as Soul
outside the body, subject to the body]
Unless civilization embraces
heathenism, why should man, in the nineteenth century, bow down to fleshbrush,
flannel, bath, diet, exercise, air, etc., when matter is not capable of doing
for him what be can do for himself? The idols of civilization are more fatal to
health and longevity than the idols of other forms of heathen homage; they
certainly call into action less faith than Buddhism in Intelligence governing
man. The Esquimaux restores health by incantations, as effectually as the modus
operandi of the schools.
Physiology is anti-Christian; it
teaches us to have other gods before "Me," the only Life of man. The
good it claims is positive evil, because it robs man of his birth-right from
God. Truth governs it not, and
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the inharmonious condition that calls
for physiology, is the result of physiology, or our beliefs of matter.
Did the teachings of Jesus comprehend
the economy of man, less than those of Graham or Cutter? They alone embrace the
Principle of man's harmony; but our theories do not. "He that believeth in
me shall not see death," contradicts, not only the systems of man, but
points to that which is self-sustaining and eternal The demands of God are
wholly spiritual, and reach the body only through Spirit that controls matter;
there are no physical laws; all are mental. The best interpreter of man's needs
said, ,Take no thought for the body, what ye shall eat or what drink."
Putting on the full armor of
physiology, obeying to the letter, the so-called laws of health, statistics
show, has not diminished sickness, nor increased longevity; diseases have
multiplied and become more obstinate; their chronic forms more frequent; the
acute more fatal and death more sudden, since man-made theories have taken the
place of primitive Christianity.
Explaining man a physical being
evolved from matter, is a Pandora box opened on mankind, whereby hope escapes,
and despair alone remains. If matter laws prevent disease, what causes it? not
the laws of God, surely, for Christ, Truth, heals the sick, and Mugs to light
immortality; but not through obedience to physiology. Laws of matter are
nothing more or less than a belief of Intelligence and Life in matter, even the
procuring cause of disease, and God its cure. Not more sympathy exists between
physiology and Christianity, than God and Belial. Failing to recover through
adherence to materia medica, physiology and hygiene, the
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despairing invalid drops these, and
turns in his extremity -- sometimes to God, the dernier resort of mortal man, and one in which he has even less
trust than in drugs, air, exercise, etc., showing we have other Gods before Me.
The balance of power is given to matter, by every theory of the schools,
whereas Spirit at last asserts its mastery over man, and holds the body
harmonious and immortal.
To understand the Principle that
embraces the harmony of being, is beyond burnt offerings or sacrifices. If the
recovery of the sick is submitted to a personal God we shall reach no higher
than faith; understanding will be wanting, therefore man's existence as Soul
instead of sense, will not be comprehended. We comprehend Life in science or the
harmony of being, only as we deny personal sense. The relative claims we permit
Intelligence and matter, determines the harmony of our existence; our health,
longevity and Christianity. We cannot serve two masters, and must reach God
through science, and not with sense, or material law. The source of all Life
and perfection, we should not offset with drugs, laws of health, etc. When man
would be both good and- evil, he will grow no better, and the result of this
error will make him grow worse; so it is with an attempted compromise between
Spirit and matter. Even in healing the sick, to gain the advantages of Spirit,
we must lose our faith in matter.
The severest part of teaching or
learning the science of being, is to empty the mind of the thousand and one
beliefs that war against Truth; for you cannot fill a vessel already full.
After laboring long with the well or ill-stored mind, to shake its faith in
matter, and give
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it a crumb of faith in God. viz., the
capacity of Spirit to make the body harmonious, we have thought yearningly of
our Master's love for little children, and understood how, "of such is the
kingdom of heaven."
We admit mind influences the body
somewhat, but conclude matter, blood, nerves, brain, etc., hold the balance of
power; in accordance with this belief, we continue the old routine, and this
deprives us of the available superiority of mind over matter. We cannot control
our body, mentally, with a negative position. Spirit works against matter, and vice versa. They can no more unite in
action than good and evil, and it is wise not to take a halting, or half-way
position on this subject, or think to work equally with right and wrong. there
is but one right way, and this we should learn to-day, is Spirit and not
matter. To govern the body scientifically, we must admit only mind, and you
will find it impossible to gain control over the body on any other ground; a
conservative position on this point, or faith strongest in matter, will never
do it.
If you manipulate your patients, you
lean on electricity more than Truth, and it is matter more than mind you employ
to heal the sick, while science teaches you success is on the side of
Intelligence, and that you only weaken your power with matter. It is useless to
say you manipulate patients, but lay no stress on this manipulation; then why
do you do it? We answer for you -- because you are not sufficiently spiritual
to do otherwise; and if this is so, why do you call it science, explained in
this work? If you are too material to understand the science of being, and rub
the head as a substitute for living Truth, adopting words and manip-
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ulation instead of good deeds, then
you adhere to error and flee to electricity because you have not science, and
are afraid to trust yourself to heal with your God-being. "Adam, where art
thou?" is your question here at every step. If you manipulate the sick,
the more to satisfy them that you are doing something for them, this is not
necessary, for they are generally satisfied when cured, and manipulation will
retard your success. "Where your treasure is there will your heart be
also." Having more faith in electricity than you have in your God-being,
balances you on the side of matter, and your power as a mesmerist will diminish
your achievements in the direction of science, and vice versa, and this should
remind you where your treasure is. Casting out error with Truth shows your real
position in science. The sensualist or dishonest man can never rely on Truth to
heal the sick; they must depend on personal sense, and their only power is
mesmerism and manipulation. Jesus cast out error and healed the sick, not with
manipulations or drugs, but his God-being.
Food, fatigue, or sleeplessness, you
say may cause distressed stomachs or aching heads, and then cudgel your brains
to reproduce in memory what you think hurts you, when your remedy lies in
getting the whole thing out of mind, for matter has no sensation and mind only
can give pain. To reduce inflammation, dissolve tumors, or cure organic
disease, mind is more potent than matter, and why not, since Intelligence is
Life, and mind the seat of feeling or sensation, the body has nothing to do
with it. When we say the stomach or head is disordered or pained, consider what
art thou that
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repliest to Spirit? can matter speak
for itself, or has it the issues of Life? Pain or pleasure belongs to mind
alone. Matter has no partnership with Spirit. The head cannot ache, but
believing it does, "as a man thinketh so is he." Mind is all that feels, that produces action or impedes
it; but, ignorant of this, or shrinking from its responsibility, you throw the
burden on matter, and lose conscious control over your body. Adjust a balance,
and a single weight removed from one of the scales gives preponderance to the
opposite one; so with body and mind; what you cast into the scale of matter to
weigh for or against health, you take away from Intelligence, and its power to
hold the balance against matter. Your belief weighs against your health while
it ought to weigh for it. When the body is sick according to a belief of
matter, you trust in drugs, laws of health and matter to heal it, when you have
got yourself into the difficulty through these very beliefs of Intelligent
matter. Disease is caused and cured by mind alone ; matter never did it; this
you do not understand now, but must before you are immortal. To lay aside our
God-being as of little use in sickness, seems anomalous; to depend on matter
then and put Truth aside for the hour of health, is to learn it can not do as
much for you then as in sickness.
Because materia medica and physiology
say man is sick and useless, suffering, or dying, in obedience to laws of God,
are we to believe this? despite his laws to the contrary are we to believe what
Jesus proved false? he surely did the will of the Father and healed sickness
instead of producing it. The demands of God relate to mind alone, but the
claims of physiology
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and what are termed laws of nature,
rest upon the body only. Which, then, are we to accept as legitimate and capable
of producing most harmony? We cannot obey them both, for one works against the
other, and will be supreme in the affections. Spirit and matter are opposites,
and we cannot work from the standpoints of both; attempt it and we shall find
ourself cleaving to one and forsaking the other.
Heal your body with the science of
being if you can, adhering to the old regimen, taking drugs, or yielding your
mental control to laws of matter. Obedience to what you call material law,
prevents obedience to the spiritual law that enables you to handle deadly
serpents unharmed, and put matter under your feet. Like a barrister that would
strengthen his plea, introducing the text, "Wo unto you, lawyers, for you
shut up the kingdom of heaven against man; " you plead for recovery of
God, and then abut out the aid of Spirit through your material means; thus
working against yourself, and suffocating your own strength and ability. The
plea for matter, medicine, laws of health, etc., goes against the science of
mind over matter, and vice versa. There
is this clause in the statue of Truth to which we call your attention at such
times, viz., that sin, sickness, and death are not governed by laws of God.
Error produces error, sin and sickness, for both are errors of belief, and what
causes disease cannot cure it, unless it be the homeopathic dose where matter
is destroyed and mind says this. Admitting sickness a condition of matter over
which God has no control, makes Omnipotence, on some occasions, null and void.
The law of Christ, Truth, finds all things possible to Spirit;
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but the so-called laws of matter find
Spirit of no avail, and demand obedience to them, reversing the basis and
economy of being; to matter we deny the support of law; our beliefs of matter
are not correct, as Jesus clearly demonstrated healing the sick, raising the
dead, etc., contrary to them.
Can the agriculturist produce a crop
without first sowing the seed and awaiting its germination, according to laws
of nature? Yes; if as the Bible says, error caused man to till the ground, for
in this case, obedience to Truth, would remove this cause. God never made a
necessity for error, or a law to perpetuate it. The opposite of harmony are
supposed laws of nature, and by these you mean laws of God, therefore, it is not
in harmony with Truth to be well. As you would construe them, laws of nature
annul the law of Spirit; But the law of Christ demands man's entire obedience,
heart, Soul and strength, which admits no reservation, or obedience to aught
else, and we should have no other God. Truth is Strength, and error weakness.
Physiology is one of the fruits of the "tree of knowledge," that
said, I will open your eyes, and make you as Gods, but instead, closes them to
man's God-given dominion over earth. Christ, Truth, cast out physiology and
every law of health, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, etc.,
contrary to them. If these explanations dishonor the schools, they honor God,
and there is no other Truth to honor.
What we term laws of nature, are
simply laws of belief regarding matter, the premises whereof are error;
therefore their conclusions are such. The All-wise has made no laws regulating
sickness, sin, and death, these are
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errors, that Truth destroys. Belief
produces the results of belief, and the penalty it affixes will be as positive
as the belief that causes it ; therefore, our remedy lies in reaching the
bottom of the thing, in finding out the error or mind that produces the discord
we see on the body, and not to honor it with the title of law, and then yield
obedience to it. Truth, Life, and Love are the only demands that rest on man,
and the only laws that govern him. We say my hand hath done this; but what is
the "my" in this case, but mind, the universal cause whence
proceedeth all harmony and inharmony. Discord is not a thing, but a belief, and
the action of our hand is either produced by Intelligence or belief, by harmony
or discord. The so-called voluntary and involuntary action of the body is
governed by mind, and not matter. And, controlled by Intelligence, the body is
governed by the Principle of being, in which man is harmonious and immortal;
but governed by man's belief, it is discordant and mortal. Under extreme cold,
heat, fatigue, etc., we say, the body suffers, but this is belief only, and not
the Truth of being; matter cannot suffer, mind alone suffers, and not because
we have transgressed a law of nature, matter, but a law of belief. Our proof
is, that if you destroy the belief in regard to the suffering, it disappears,
and the effect of what you term broken law, producing catarrhs, fevers,
consumptions, etc., goes with the belief. A lady whom we cured of consumption,
breathed with great difficulty when the wind was east; we sat silently by her
side a few moments, and her breath came gently, the inspirations becoming deep
and natural; we then requested her to look at
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the weather-vane; she saw it was due
east; the wind had not changed, but her difficult breathing had gone; therefore
it was not the wind that produced it, and our explanations broke this mental
hallucination, and she never suffered again from east winds. Here is testimony
on this point.
I was suffering from pulmonary
difficulties, pains in the chest, a hard and unremitting cough, hectic fever,
and all those fearful symptoms that made my case alarming. When I first saw
Mrs. Glover, I was reduced to such a state of debility as to be unable to walk
any distance, or to sit up but a portion of the day; to walk up stairs gave me
great suffering for breath. I had no appetite, and seemed surely going down the
victim of consumption. I had not received her attention but a short time, when
my bad symptoms disappeared, and I regained health. During this time, I rode
out in storms to visit her, and found the damp weather had no effect on me.
From my personal experience I am led to believe the science by which she not
only heals the sick, but explains the way to keep well, is deserving the
earnest attention of community; her cures are not the result of medicine,
mediumship, or mesmerism, but the application of a Principle that she
understands. James Ingham
East
Stoughton, Mass.
Mortal man is divided into five points
of sensation, called personal sense; these five points constitute pleasure,
pain, sin, sickness, and death; what would be left of man at the mercy of
personal sense? Spirit is superior
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to matter, and the body that is ours,
should be under our control; settle the question then, which Shall be master,
Soul or body, but do not think to serve both, for you cannot. Soul, owns man
now and forever; let the owner of man then govern him, and the body will be
harmonious and eternal. Neither a blade of grass appears, nor a spray buddeth
within the vale, nor a leaf unfolds its fair outlines, nor a flower starts from
its cloistered cell, without the Principle of man, even that Intelligence which
the winds and sea obey, hath clone it; naught but universal Soul, that numbers
the very hairs of our head, and marks the sparrow's fall, can govern man. Sin,
sickness, and death are inharmonies; they are not identity, action, or being,
they are matter-beliefs, that appear and disappear, governed alone by mind, but
without the reality or support of law or Spirit. That God is the law of
discord, is morally impossible, or that Wisdom instituted penalties to Protect
US from what is without law, except to belief, is again impossible. Wisdom
never made matter to subdue Spirit; to say it did is like concluding it made
Hades to get ready for sinners; but there were so many sinners they had to make
their own Hells. God is too pure to behold iniquity, "in Him was
Life," etc.; and harmony never produced discord, or Life death. Goodness
makes its own heaven, sin its own hell, and belief its own sufferings. A dream
seemeth a reality while it lasts; a falsehood is true to those that believe it,
and sickness is real to such as have it, but mind and not the body is
responsible for it all. Pain and pleasure are mind, not matter; the body has no
sensation of its own. Discord is unreal, harmony is real; admitting
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the same reality to discord we do to
harmony, one has as high a claim on confidence and obedience as the other. If
evil is as real as good, error is as real and immortal as Truth. What we name
diseased action is discord, but harmony is the reality of being; hence the
former is a belief only, and not the Truth of being; if death is as real as
Life, immortality is a myth, and if pain is as real as the absence of pain, it
will be immortal, and harmony is not the order of being. Personal sense
discords, and is therefore a belief only; matter has no sensation; the action
proceeding from Soul is harmonious and eternal.
In Mohammedan belief, a pilgrimage to
Mecca was salutary to Save man's Soul, and in still another belief, inanimate
matter is able to save man; one is paganism, the other materia medica. Disease
germinates in unconscious mind, until it reaches what is termed conscious
matter, or the body, named personal sense, but there is no conscious matter;
therefore disease is mind still, named matter; thus the belief of sickness is
developed as a germ, rising above its soil, and we have a crop abundant or
scanty, according to the variety and strength of soil, the mind full of materia
medica, laws of health, physiology, etc. The diagnosis of disease helps more than
most things to cultivate the seeds of disease, causing them to take deeper root
in the patient's mind, 9.nd to spring up, bearing fruit "after its own
kind." Doctors deport themselves, generally, as if there was no law of
mind ; at least, they regard not this law, or they would sooner administer
poison in matter than mind. They fight disease with matter and admit it with
mind, and this makes it a certain thing.
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They propagate it mentally, and then
consider a thing of mind should be dosed with matter; but after all, 'tis faith
in drugs, etc., that cures, mind is their remedy at last.
Faith is all that ever made a drug
remedy the ailments of a man. Mortal mind is belief, the immortal is
understanding, the latter is Spirit, the former personal sense; we must learn
to bold immortal and mortal mind or belief separate. The cause and cure of
disease is solely mental, and to understand this renders mind less productive
of disease, and able to destroy it. Matter has neither action nor sensation of
its own; mind moves the body, and feels for it. We cannot retain the old
positions diametrically opposite to metaphysical science, and conquer disease
with mind. And because physics must eventually yield to metaphysics, it will
keep the old schools fighting science for the next century. Ignorance,
superstition, or avarice will shut the door on health and harmony not obtained
through their systems. When there were fewer doctors and less thought bestowed
on sanitary subjects there were better constitutions and less disease.
In olden times, who ever heard of a
case of dyspepsia; if one had chanced to appear it would have yielded at once
to benevolence, or hard work; people had little time then to be selfish, or to
think of their bodies, and for sickly after-dinner-talk. The exact amount of
labor the stomach could perform was not mapped out in mind by physiology;
therefore a man's belief was not a law to his digestive organs. The action of
mind on the body was more harmonious before the " tree of knowledge "
had taken deeper root in man's belief. The
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primitive privilege was to take no
thought about the bowels, or gastric juices, letting these act in obedience to
Truth, instead of error. A ghastly array of diseases was not constantly kept
before the mind by works on physiology, hygiene and materia medica; hence the
greater longevity and more harmony of man. Before these got the floor,
dyspepsia, consumption, spinal diseases, etc., were not heard of in all the
land. The duties of man were thought of, and the naturally undisturbed
mechanism of man not interrupted by sorrow, cares, or materia, medica, went on
harmoniously. Damp atmospheres, and freezing snows, empurpled the cheeks of our
fore-fathers; but never reached the refinement of inflaming bronchial tubes;
they were as ignorant as Adam, before informed by his wife, of bronchial tubes,
or troches for bronchitis.
But, alas! the nineteenth century
would load with disease the very airs of paradise, and hunt mankind down with
airs in dress and airs of heaven. Metaphysics hold mind the only friend or foe
to man, and Truth destroying error, the great panacea. It is important to learn
the exact belief that has produced disease, if you would destroy it, unless
your spirituality is equal to this by holding a balance over matter; when you
destroy disease in mind it disappears on the body. A surgeon must hit the ulcer
with his lance to cure it, unless he is able to destroy it without the sharp
point; and you must reach the mind by argument, unless the Spirit reaches it
without speech. A strongly material, bigoted, or opinionated man yields more
slowly to scientific treatment than the more liberal and logical mind, but the
spiritual is more easily affected than either.
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Do you say, let an M.D. attend to the
real malady, and the metaphysician take up hysteria and imaginary disease? But
facts are stubborn things; we have found in healing the sick on the Principle
herein stated, severe and acute disease yields more readily than the chronic.
This method of healing is far from temporizing with disease, or unsafe in cases
difficult and dangerous; ignorance of science and the force of education, are
all that would lead to such a conclusion. A physician who understands the
science of being is the only one I would venture to conduct a dangerous or
difficult case. We had tried all others and failed to recover before learning
this "more excellent way." Many great and good men have passed away
within the two years we have been writing this work, that might have been saved
by the science of which it treats.
An accident once happening to us,
would have proved fatal, but for the Truth herein stated, that saved us;
hundreds of cases given over by materia medica, and the minor hosts of
Esculapius, we have since cured by it. Had we depended on materia medica, or
used the means ordinarily employed in such emergencies, or allowed the weight
of our former beliefs regarding structural and organic life, or the opinions
expressed regarding the fatal nature of our case, to balance the scale of Mind
at the time the accident occurred, we should have passed away, or survived only
to be a hopeless invalid and cripple. The Principle of science herein
explained, saved us, and the triumph we achieved over our body at that time
made us stronger in the Truth, and consequently more healthy ever since. A
supreme moment, more than ordinary circumstances,
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tests this science insomuch as it
proves more clearly than others the superiority of mind over matter, drugs, and
material law. Ignorance of the relations of mind to the body, and the
superiority of the former over the latter, are all that occasion skepticism
regarding mental pathology
A physician said to us, "I know
mind affects the body somewhat, and advise my patients to be hopeful and take
less medicine, but there are organic diseases that mind cannot affect." To
this we replied, it is poor logic that facts contradict; we have many cases on
record of cures wrought through mind alone, that materia medica had failed to
reach. You admit death has occurred from fright, and this proves every function
of the body controlled by mind; death covers the whole ground, it stops the
action of brain, heart, blood, lungs, etc., and if all organic action can be
stopped by mind, it is controlled by it, and can be cured also. Mind produces what
is termed organic disease, as directly as it does hysteria, and cures it as
readily; the demonstration we have given of this removes the question beyond
cavil. We predicate this science on proof, and have not more evidence of our
existence, than we have gained of the utter control mind holds over the entire
organization and functions of the body. Through mind alone we have cured
organic disease of the lungs, liver, heart, brains, bones, muscles, etc., that
defied physiology and materia medica to heal.
But to govern the body harmoniously
with mind, you must understand the science of being predicated on mind and not
matter. Few will admit that what is termed involuntary organic action is
governed alone by
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mind, or that mind unconsciously
controls the body, but man presents this phenomenon every moment, who
comprehends not his own being, for this proves ignorance of mind's action on
the body. Supposing a dose of poison be administered through mistake, and
physician and patient are looking for favorable results when the patient dies,
-- did mind produce this? As surely as if it bad been consciously done Mind is
ever active, for action signifies mind and the remote and predisposing thought
furnishes a link to the present, although what we term personal sense knows
this not. Accordingly, the thought that has risen above the verge of
unconscious mind is the only one recognized, but it has acted before, and
effects have followed this action all the same as when the thought became
conscious. The mortal body, of matter, is but a grosser strata of mortal mind.
When darkness is over the earth,
personal sense cannot say where the sun is, or that there is a sun; our
antipodes must tell us this, or we must learn it of science. Thus it is with
mind; the very reverse of what we are thinking at present, is often the remote
cause or belief that has produced the inharmony of the body, and we must learn
this belief of its opposite thought or the effect oil the body, or submit its
character and relations to science. We are willing to leave the explanation of
light and its effect on the earth, to science, and because sense takes no
cognizance, a portion of the twenty-four hours, of the sun, never say it has no
effect on the earth, or deny there is a sun, or that the earth borrows light
and heat from the run. No more should we deny the effect of mind on the body
because the belief that produces this effect is below the mental
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horizon, not having risen yet to
recognition. The valve of the heart, opening and closing for the blood, is not
less obedient to mind than our hands, that perform the offices of our will; but
because mind embraces one action consciously and not the other, we say the
cause is physical and not mental. Stop the action of mortal mind wholly, by
what is termed death, and every function of the body mortal ceases; proving
organic action produced by mind and not matter. Brains are totally ignorant of
thoughts; matter has no consciousness of its own, and its propelling power is
mind; all mechanism is controlled by mind.
Personal sense is a supposition that
matter is conscious, that brains are competent to say how much mind a man has;
that heart, lungs, stomach, etc., are capable of determining his harmony and
continuance. Soul is not heard in all this; the immortality of man is silenced
with utterances of mortality, Intelligence mute before non-Intelligence. This
personal sense is the source of sickness, sin and death; but there is no
personal sense ; matter has no Intelligence, and Soul is incapable of error.
Life goes on scientifically in Soul, undisturbed in its harmony, but personal
sense has no recognition of Soul or Truth. All discord is error, belief; the
Truth of being is harmony and understanding. Destroy the belief or error, and
the discord disappears.
The metaphysician understanding this,
in case of decaying lungs, destroys in the mind of his patient this belief and
the Truth of being and immortality of man assert themselves over the error and
belief of decomposition, and the lungs become sound and regain their original
proportions.
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Physiology has never explained Soul,
and had better not undertaken to explain body. Truth has no beginning, and
therefore no end. Life was, and is, and ever will be, for Life is God, and its
idea was, and is, and ever will be, and this idea is man, that Spirit has made,
and matter cannot unmake. Our body is as dead that ,we call living as ever it
will be, and when dead, as much alive as it ever was. Life is Spirit, not
matter, and if you understand the law of Spirit you understand bow to make the
body immortal. Physiology is like the drugs we say make man suffer because he
took too little of them; it causes sickness, and then to cure it we double the
dose. "Take no thought about the body what ye shall eat or what drink or wherewithal
it shall be clothed, and the body, or matter, will give you no intimation of
its own wants, for it has no requirements of its own. Happiness or misery
belongs to mind and not body; sensation is mind and not matter, and mesmerism
proves this when belief is seen to determine sensation.
Every new method of obtaining health
has its advocates, and when you get the consent of mind to this method as
preferable to others, the body will demand it and be benefited by it so long as
this belief lasts. You can educate a healthy horse to take cold without his
blanket, but the wild animal left to his instincts, snuffs the wind with
delight. Epizootic is an educated finery that a natural horse has not. The
principle of being reveals the immortality of man, on the basis of Spirit; but
personal sense defines him as matter, hence the mortality of this man.
We have discerned some diseases
approaching, weeks before they made their appearance on the body, and be
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cause they were latent things of mind
before they appeared as matter, that grosser strata of mind, and never in a
single instance, were mistaken in results. Again, during an aggravation of
symptoms that occur in the changes, or chemicalizations that sometimes alarm
the patient, we have seen the mental signs that assured us the danger was over,
and said to the patient, you are healed, sometimes to his discomfiture, when he
was incredulous of the fact, but it always proved as we foretold. We name this
merely to explain the mental, instead of physical origin of disease, therefore,
that rules of health, taking strong hold of the belief of the patient, beget
and foster disease, by keeping mind on this subject, fearing and trying to
avoid sickness. The faith reposed in drugs had better remain in one's self;
understanding the control mind holds over the body, we should have no faith in
matter. Science reveals the origin of disease wholly mental and not physical,
also that it is cured through mind and not matter. However much we trust the
drug, or medium through which this faith is exercised, it is the faith and not
the medium that heals the sick. The spirituality that enables us to read the
minds of patients, enables us to heal them also, for the action of Spirit on
matter is to restore the harmonious relations of mind and body. Healing the
sick through mind instead of matter, enables us to heal the absent as well as
the present. The spiritual capacity to apprehend thought, is reached only when
man is found not having on his own righteousness, which is the law, but the
righteousness which is of God. Science fits us to read the mind of the sick,
and heal them through mind; for having learned man
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is governed by Spirit that understands
all things, we know Spirit is that to which all things are possible. The
approaches to this great affluence of Truth that heals the sick, are made
through the footsteps of our Master. Christianity alone is its basis, and
physiology, that pins our trust to matter instead of God, its very opposite.
Ignorant of the footsteps and foundation of this science, the world may call it
mesmerism, trance, mediumship, electricity, etc., but not one of these in the
least express it, and whoever reaches the science of being in the high sense of
its sudden cures, learns it is by taking up the cross and following Christ. We
are scientific only as we let go material things, drugs, manipulations, etc.,
for the spiritual, and leave all for Christ, trusting only Truth to heal the
sick. Our beliefs are not spiritual, they are from the hearing of the ear, from
personal sight and sense.
Spirit never believes in God because
it understands Him. Power is a belief of matter, a blind force, the offspring
of will and not Wisdom, of the mortal, and not the immortal mind, -- yea, of
error, and not Truth. The headlong cataract, the devouring flames, the
tempest's breath, the lightning and storm, together with all that is selfish,
dishonest, and impure, represent power. Might belongs to Spirit, the very
"winds are in His fists; " and, controlled by Spirit and not matter, they
are harmonious. Error is the prototype of will; and willing the sick to
recover, or man to do this or that, infringes on his rights; it is mesmerism
capable of all evil, instead of the science of being. Christ, Truth, stills the
tempest and is the "peace be still" to destructiveness or disease.
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To personal sense opposites
affinitize; but not so in science, the mind of Soul, where Truth never mingles
with error or the So-called mind of the body, and therefore is able to cast it
out. Spirit is Intelligence; matter is not; there is a mind of Soul, but not of
body, of God, but not man. The mind of Soul is the aroma of being, the
atmosphere of Intelligence thrown off by Spirit; but the so-called mind of man
is the belief that a pulpy substance under the skull contains mind, yea, that
matter is Intelligent, and this belief is false, the mocker of Intelligence,
even error calling itself Truth. This is the scientific statement of mortal
man, but man is immortal, therefore this is not man, but a belief anatomized
metaphysically. To classify Spirit and matter thus, that Spirit is distinct
from matter but must pass through it to be identified, is a mistake. The
limitless would destroy limits if it entered them, and Spirit cannot be
limited. It is a dream and illusion that Soul is in body and matter the medium
of Spirit. We are not aware it is a dream, the terrible nightmare, that makes
suffering or enjoyment just as the dream chances to run. We would prefer the
suffering that makes one willing to be aroused from this dream, to the pleasure
that tends to hold it.
We frequently heal the sick who are
absent from us, without the least consciousness of it on their part, except
from their recovery. Now reverse the case, and mathematically you prove that if
mind eschewing laws of health, dietics, physiology, etc., restores the sick, an
opposite mind crammed with physiology, etc., might make them sick. This proof
we gain of our body, for such mind causes us what are termed the physical
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sufferings that matter is powerless to
do and could not produce. Whenever we have taken charge of a practice to
establish a student, it was not necessary for us to see the patients to heal
them; we could do this without seeing them; if the student was not advanced
spiritually, we failed to benefit the sick so much in connection with him. Mind
acts mesmerically or scientifically; it is will in mesmerism, and Truth in
Science, that heals the sick. I can have no effect on the sick through
manipulation, and cannot affect them mesmerically. Cases of healing the sick
without seeing them, we record as proof of our statement. Mrs. Sarah Crosby, of
Albion, Maine, sent for our aid, in case of an injury to her eye. At the time
of writing she was hundreds of miles away, but after receiving her first
letter, as soon as the mail could bring it, we received another from her, of
which the following is an extract: --
"Since the accident to my eye, it
has been so exceedingly sensitive to the light, I have shaded it, unable to do
any writing or sewing of any note. The Sunday I mailed you a letter I suffered
a great deal with it; Monday it was painful until towards night, when it felt
better; Tuesday it was well, and I have not worn my shade over it since a week
ago Monday, and I have read, sewed, and written, and still all is well. Now you
may form your own conclusions. I told a friend the other day you had cured my
eye, or perhaps my fear of my eye, and it is so; though I am sure, for the life
of me,I cannot understand a word of what you tell me about the possibility of a
spirit like mine having power over a hundred and seventy pounds of live flesh
and blood to keep it in perfect trim."
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The following is a case of heart
disease described in a letter from a lady at New York.
"Please find inclosed a check for
five hundred dollars in reward for your services, that can never be repaid. The
day you received my husband's letter I became conscious, for the first time for
forty-eight hours; my servant brought my wrapper and I rose from bed and sat
up. The attack of the heart had lasted two days, and no one thinks I could have
survived but for the mysterious help I received from you. The enlargement of my
left side is all gone, and the M. D.'s pronounce me entirely rid of heart
disease. I have been afflicted with it from infancy, until it became organic
enlargement of the heart and dropsy of the chest. I was only waiting, and
almost longing, to die; but you have healed me; and yet how wonderful to think
of it, when we have never seen each other! We return to Europe next week. I feel
perfectly well. L. M. Armstrong."
Mr. R. O. Badgeley, of Ohio, wrote: --
"My painful and swelled foot was restored at once on your receipt of my
letter, and that very day, I put on my boot and walked several miles." He
had previously written me, "A stick of timber has fallen from a building
on the top of my foot, crushing the bones somewhat."
A lady at Louisiana wrote: --
"Your wonderful science is proved to me. I was a helpless sufferer six
long years, confined to my bed, unable to sit up one hour in the long, long
twenty-four. All I know of my cure is this; the day you received my letter I
felt a change pass over me, I sat up the whole afternoon, went to the table
with my family at supper, and have been growing better every day since; I call
myself well. Jenny R. Coffin."
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The following is from a lady in Lynn:
"My little son, one year and a half old, was a great sufferer from disease
of the bowels, until he was reduced to almost a skeleton, and growing worse
constantly; could take nothing but gruel, or some very simple nutriment. At
that time the physicians had given him up, saying they could do no more for
him, but you came in one morning, took him up from the cradle in your arms,
kissed him, laid him down again and went out, In less than an hour he called
for his playthings, got up and appeared quite well. All his symptoms changed at
once. For months previously nothing but blood and mucous had passed his bowels,
but that very day the evacuation was natural, and he has not suffered since
from his complaint, and it is more than two years since he was cured.
Immediately after you saw him, he ate all he wanted, and one thing was a
quantity of cabbage just before going to bed, from which he never suffered in
the least. L. C. Edgecomb, Lynn, Mass."
We were called to Mr. Clark, in Lynn,
with hip disease, saw him in the afternoon for the first time; his physicians
had probed the ulcer that day, and informed us the bone was carious; the
patient had not been up nor turned on his couch for months. On entering the house
we were told he was dying; his wife stood over him weeping. We stood at his
bedside a moment; he sank to sleep; woke presently, saying, "I feel like a
new man, my suffering is all gone." In a few hours he rose from his bed,
dressed himself, and that afternoon took supper with his family. The next day
we saw him in the yard, and have not seen him since, but are informed lie went
to work in two weeks, and is now
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well. Hundreds of similar cures might
be named, that we wrought contrary to what are termed laws of nature regulating
disease and recovery, but prefer you should learn the Principle of these cures
and be able to do your own work. Experience also has taught us the greater the
moral or spiritual distance between us and an individual, the more they
persecute us; as with individuals so with the general thought, those cures
remote from the comprehension of the age, have only afforded our enemies new
opportunity for detraction.
Theories admit the limbs are matter
and moved by mind, but the fact is, all is mind of different admissions and
constructions. Mind increases or retards action, causing sickness or health;
but this is not because of physical action. for it is effect and not cause. You
say man cannot exist with a headless trunk, or consumed lungs; but man was
never for a moment despoiled of his fair proportions; it is matter you are
talking of, and not man. Nerves have neither consciousness nor sensation; the
body has no life; Spirit is the only Life and Principle of man; but never for a
moment enters matter, or is destitute of its idea or man. Hearing is not
because of the ear or its mechanism ; if the construction of the ear or
auditory nerve is destroyed, man is not deaf. Intelligence is left, and hears,
sees, etc., independent of matter or organization. The error or belief of Life
in matter should give place to this understanding of Spirit's indestructible
faculties, that cannot be lost, because they exist without the necessities of
matter; otherwise, they were mortal.
Again, a change of belief changes all
the reports of
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personal sense, and man sees, hears,
etc., independent of the organs that you say determine the existence of these
faculties. If the mesmerized subject whom you call man, accepts the belief that
he sees, with closed eyes, or from the top of his head, or hears without sound,
such will be the case. To him sight is not confined necessarily to
organization, and is only what his belief says of a thing. Change his belief of
cold and heat, pleasure or pain, and cold is to him heat, and pleasure pain,
and vice versa. Here you perceive nerves bear a changed report with a change
of belief; therefore personal sense is not a standard, nor is sensation
dependent on organization; it is not matter, but mind that determines
sensation. Science reveals to spiritual understanding the body without
sensation, and man the reflex shadow of Soul, and Soul embracing all the
faculties of being, having no lack of emotion, speech, sight, or sound; and
possessing the consciousness of all things, its blessings are not at the
disposal of organization, that accident or disease can destroy. All being is
spiritual and not material, for this is the scientific statement of being, the
basis of immortality, and we shall all ultimately learn this. Nor can we begin
to understand Life a day too soon. Every theory opposed to this prolongs
sickness, sin and death, making that which is immortal in understanding, mortal
in belief. When the belief of Life and Intelligence in matter disappears, its
physical manifestation will cease, and mortal man return to dust, and why?
because be was simply a belief, and this belief an error, instead of the
reality of being; for man is not matter, and never dies. To prove the body
called mortal man error and not Truth, we
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have only to find it mortal. The
belief of Life and Intelligence in matter is destroyed; but Life and man, still
are, and ever will be.
Matter is not the medium through which
Spirit acts, or is manifested. Spirit is never individualized, and there is no
medium for it. Spirit is infinite, because it is Intelligence, what then can
limit it? Again, to Spirit Intelligence alone is Substance, and there is no
matter. If the body was intelligent, it could never return to dust, for mind
dies not, and Intelligence never developed from matter.
Physiology makes man both Spirit and
matter; and this error would make man mortal. if brains are mind matter is
mind; and a stone, a lesser degree of man. To admit Spirit is not in matter,
and then say it is manifested through it, contradicts facts, for matter
manifests mortality only, and Spirit is immortal; not a glimpse or
manifestation of Spirit is obtained through the erring or decaying. Spirit is
positive to all things, and if it passed through matter it would destroy it, or
become negative to it. Metaphysical science, dry and abstract though it
appears, should not be overlooked for the transient and mortal sense of things;
health, harmony and immortality are gained through spirituality only; and this
will be understood sooner or later. Truth has but, one department for its
students, and but one branch of education, viz., the science of being. Studying
into the nature of matter, that embraces sin, sickness and death, hath no real
advantage; and matter-laws of health lay the foundation of sickness. Knowledge
embraces neither Life nor Truth; but when we define the material with the
spiritual, and look from nature
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up to nature's God, learning is
profitable. Prof. Rudolph's astronomical explanations are of this sort. The
researches and experiences of our great minds are of the utmost importance,
when given thus.
Astronomy, Natural History, Chemistry,
Music, Mathematics, etc., as ideas of a Principle, are nine-stones in the
pathway of science; but when we attempt to put Principle into these ideas, we
give them the interpretations of personal sense, that mislead our conclusions.
Let spiritual sense give the last, because the highest explanation of all
things, and "the last shall become first, and will be final." If
material man was really man, when this body is destroyed man would be
annihilated; identifying man through matter you have no authority for saying,
he lives after that is destroyed. Education is all that develops sense, but it
cannot develop Soul; Casper Hauser, without this education, manifested less
Intelligence than a mouse, was unable to feed himself, even knew less than the
lower species, guided by instinct. The infant boy, incarcerated in a dungeon
where neither sight nor sound could reach him, at the age of an adult, was not
a man, -- showing years make not men -- he was an infant still and a belief of
Life in matter, that proved itself neither Intelligence nor the idea of God,
but in reality nonentity. Thus mortal man for whom laws of health are conjured
up from the abyss of condemned "knowledge," is just this material
nothingness, "dust to dust;" therefore, what availeth it to plant him
deeper in matter-belief, whence he sprang and was accursed.
The least thought or said of physical
structure, laws of health, etc., the higher will become manhood and
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woman-hood, the fewer diseases appear,
and less harm be derived from change of climate, unwholesome diet, laying aside
flannels, severe mental labor, sedentary habits, heated rooms, and all the et cetera of physiological rules based
on man as a structural thing, whose life is at the mercy of circumstance. The
scriptural warning against "knowledge " ought to be heeded, but it is
not; the stronger constitutions of our forefathers compared with this age,
should furnish a hint, but they do not; the difficulty lies in our nameless
theories; sin, sickness, and death, all over the land, are the fruits of the
belief of Life and Intelligence in matter.
The simple food our forefathers ate
would not cure dyspepsia to-day; with rules of health in the head and the most
digestible food in the stomach, there would be dyspeptics; the effeminate
constitutions of this period will never grow robust until the science of being
takes the place of materia medica, physiology, etc. The ignorance of our forefathers
of the knowledge that to-day walks to and fro in the earth, made them more
hardy than our physiologists, and more honest than our politicians. We by no
means deprecate learning, deep research, original thought, history,
observation, invention, science and understanding; it is the scheming
barbarisms of learning, the mere doctrine, theory, or nauseous fiction, we
deplore. Novels, remarkable only for exaggerated pictures of depravity, works
on materia medica, hygiene, or laws of health, remind you of Aesop's mountain
in labor with a mouse; introduce but a scandal and humbug and you please
society. What I wish to know is, if this taste be not a fault of our systems of
thinking and writing. All is mechanical; nature is suffocated;
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the core of mankind is not reached,
and its coverings thickly inlaid with foreign devices. Let us be individually
what we are; not swallowing camels for popularity, or mincing at gnats in the
shape of honest ideas, because they come from the Soul of man. If knowledge is
power, it is not Wisdom, but blind force, whose material origin is made known
by losing in time, what it gains in power.
To eschew error would usher in a new
era, pulling down the bars of sects, and the conventionalities of knowledge,
would build up spiritual foundations, whereby we take God into our experiences,
and become healthy and harmonious, noble men and women, instead of despairing
invalids and matter-automata. The less we have of personal sense, the more we
have of Soul; and the fewer laws material, the more longevity and spiritual
understanding. Learning all was vanity "in the flesh," made Solomon a
wise man, that before had been the fool of sense.
Ancient theories separated a personal
Satan from man by horns and hoofs; modern opinions compromise; eschewing his
satanic majesty in such proportions, they retain a sinful and mortal man, the
opposite of God's idea, at war with his Maker, and swaying his own destinies in
defiance of Him, yet supposed to have God dwelling in him! Whatever is sinful,
sick, or dying, is not man, but that which Paul described "without hope,
and without God in the world," and the psalmist said, was "a sleep,
and dream that is told." "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the
Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." Relinquishing the
belief of Intelligent matter, man abides in
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Spirit and is harmonious; but this is
a most high, and most secret place to personal sense, that knows nothing about
it.
When the relation between Soul and
body, and God and man is understood in science, we shall become harmonious mind
and body, and never until then.
If Life is affected in the least by
exercise, food, clothing, etc., God is discordant, the harmony of Spirit
beclouded, and Life at length put out. Physiology and materia medica, direct us
not, as David did, to God, "a present help in time of trouble," but
change the tones of Life to a minor key that flattens into discord, while the
science of Life that sharpens its sweet tones and conscious harmony into
immortality, asks in vain for a hearing. That "old things shall paw away
and behold, all things shall become new," I for one, anticipate with joy,
willing, if need be, that Truth shall cut off right hands and pluck out right
eyes, in amputating error. We perceive the "irresistible conflict "
that awaits the ages when Truth shall overturn the beliefs of man.
Let the science of Life be taught in
our institutions of learning and taken up by pulpit and press; give it but the
place of physiology and it would eradicate sickness, sin and death, in less
time than these have been increasing on the old systems and stereotyped plans
to beat them. Simply to understand the nothingness of error, saves a Don
Quixote warfare with windmills, and we gain the immortality and liberty of
being, by control over our bodies. Since man "hath sought out many
inventions," he has not learned that knowledge can save him from the dire
effects of knowledge. Many a hopeless case of disease has been induced by a
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single post-mortem. examination, not
because of virus taken into the system, (one condition of blood is as harmless
as another if mind says so, but not otherwise,) it is some fatal belief that is
admitted, that does the harm. Mind alone affects the secretions of the body,
gives action, and increases or diminishes it; a simple blush or fright tells us
this. When the unconscious mental conception of disease takes place, its
symptoms and locality appear on the body the same as in optics, when the image
is formed on the retina that becomes visible to personal sense. The error of
talking over sickness and peering into the symptoms of disease to conjure up
from the dark depths of discord some new discovery, is little understood. When
a physician names an ailment, describing its Symptoms and their danger, he has
committed an unconscious offence against being, against his patient's happiness
and liberty, and will make a sure job for himself, if not a fatal one for his
patient.
A lady was etherized and died while
under its effects, her physicians affirming it was not safe to perform the
surgical operation without ether. The case was brought to trial, the evidence
found conclusive, and the verdict returned that death was occasioned, not by
the ether, but her fear of taking it. Her sister testified the deceased protested
against inhaling the vapor, saying it would kill her, but after this, was
compelled by her physicians to inhale it. Had those surgeons understood the
action of mind on the body, they would have allayed her terror before
administering the ether, or much sooner have risked a severe surgical operation
than the effects of fear. Such ignorance, yea, cruelty, should arouse the
community; diplomas give no more
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claim to a dupe or a victim, than the
assassin's steel. Inert matter taken wholly into account, and mind disregarded!
when the sequel proved the patient died of mind instead of matter.
Books that would rule disease out of
the mind instead of impressing it more strongly on the belief, would abate
sickness ten per cent. in a short period. Instruct your patient that he is not
an involuntary subject of disease, but can resist it, and overcome it too, with
mind that is superior to matter. To understand their God-given dominion over
the body, would reassure and encourage the sick and impart healthy action to the
body. Knowing their mental power, they would meet sickness as fearlessly as we
encounter a swarm of insects that flee before us.
Science and personal sense are
antagonists, bearing very different reports of man, but demonstration proves
science right and personal sense wrong, and that mind instead of matter
controls matter. Doctors examine the body to ascertain the exact power matter
is bringing to bear on man to kill him, and render judgment accordingly. Giving
all precedence to discord, they poison the minds of patients with the belief
they have no defense, mentally, over their bodies, when the fact is, mind
produces all action, whether it be sickness or health. Reverse the case, and
when the symptoms of disease appear administer to the mind and not the body;
teach the patient that pain, swelling, ulceration, morbid or acute action,
etc., appear on the body only because they are mapped out in mind, for the
latter transfers its images to the body. Ask the patient what he thinks of the
ailment; and what his mind admits on the
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subject is what you must destroy in
order to relieve the obedient body of discord. Go to the fountain head to heal
your patient. But what a task! say you, to teach the present age mind's control
over the body. Admitting it changes the stand-point of old theories, turning
them upside down, and the sick may not understand your sayings at first, still
they will produce an effect on their minds, and this will affect their bodies.
This is the science of being, that Truth, brought to bear on error, begins to
destroy it. You will heal the sick with Truth despite the odds against you, and
inaugurate a perception of science that will be for "the healing of the
nation." You may be quite sure that not understanding your metaphysical
process of healing, your patients will have little faith in it until they feel
its beneficial effects, showing you their faith is not what heals them. Your
demonstration must be the only proof of what you say. The sick are sooner
restored by Truth than error, and through mind than matter. The mental cure is
higher proof of power, because it is made against fearful odds, even the weight
of universal opinion in favor of matter, and the preconceived views of your
patient working unconsciously against themselves and the metaphysical cure.
Physiology insists the body is
diseased independent of mind, and despite its protest; that its functions are
interrupted without the co-operation of mind, and that matter-laws control the
body. This error is quite as palpable to us, and will be to others at some
future day, as the rejected tenet of theology, that "all are lost who are
not elected to be saved."
The body is our servant, obedient not
only to mind in
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one instance, but in every case. The
shocking theory that man is governed all his days, and killed at last by his
body. is too absurd to last another century. Our press sends forth,
unwittingly, many a plague spot an the human family, in treatises on disease,
hygiene, and therapeutics; giving names for maladies and long explanations
regarding them, affects people like a Parisian name for a new dress; every one
that can, will have it. A minutely-described, long-syllabled name for disease
has cost a man all his earthly days of usefulness. What a price for knowledge!
but not exceeding its original market value, when God said, " In the day
thou eatest thereof thou shalt die." A doctor's belief in disease harms
his patients more than calomel, morphine, ether, or the forceps; mind is more
potent than matter. A patient hears the doctor's verdict like a culprit his
death-sentence. He may seem calm under it, and to exercise fortitude worthy a
better cause, or an occasion more real, but he is not calm; fear is mastering
the case and developing the disease. The mind's power to harm the body,
reversed in action, would heal it, and the sick would triumph over the disease
they resign themselves to suffer on the ground of inevitableness. If mind can
kill, as has been proved, it has power to cure also. Ah! patient, or impatient
sufferer, may your eyes be opened to behold your way of escape from sickness;
to this end we have pledged our endeavors, and labored since God raised us up
from hopeless disease and unspeakable sufferings. The doctor is the artist that
delineates in mind most distinctly the image of disease, and causes belief to
fill up his outlines on the body. Possibly discus had appeared before
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you saw your doctor, but it could not
be so positive or defined as afterward; you must have felt the influence of his
mind, his belief in disease affected yours, even if be said nothing, and but
for this it might have gradually left your mind and you would have recovered.
We would not deny to physicians, as
noble men and women, great philanthropy of purpose; we only urge them to make
their endeavors more effectual by changing their basis of action from body to
mind, and from personal sense to science. If the science of being was familiar
to them as the edicts of the schools, blessings numberless would flow from such
high sources. In every case of disease, or of health, to heal the one or
preserve the other, the science of Life is all that is necessary. But the
various methods of healing have not been science, else disease would have
disappeared ere this remote period since Adam, error, first introduced it. The
so-called laws of health are not science, for the latter delivers man from
their penalty and destroys the law, establishing a higher law, even the
superiority of Soul over sense, and of Spirit over matter. It annuls the
oppressive bondage that our theories enforce on man. The law of God is opposed
to laws of matter, and entitled to more obedience and respect. His law is
Intelligence, that recognizes no higher law, and if this be not apparent to
more than myself. why appeal to God to restore the sick, when the so-called
laws of health are of no avail. God should control man at all times, and under
all circumstances; and controlled thus, he is harmonious and immortal.
Sickness, sin, or death will never trouble man, or the body controlled
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by Soul and not sense, Spirit and not
matter. If the law of Truth, Life and Love, produced sickness, no law of matter
could destroy it, and it were morally wrong to employ means acting against this
government; the law of God is the only admissible authority in the universe,
but this law pertains to mind and not matter. What, then, is left to physiology
but crossbones and skulls? Man will never be learned in harmony and immortality
until the error of physiology is destroyed by Spirit triumphing over matter.
Because the muscles of a blacksmith's
arm are strongly developed, it does not follow that exercise did this, or that
he whose habits are sedentary must be fragile. If matter was the cause of
action, and muscles without mind used the anvil and smote the nail, such an
inference might be true; but muscles act in obedience to man, hence the fact
that mind and not matter enlarges and strengthens them only through the demand
man makes on them, and the corresponding power he supplies, and not because of
exercise or muscles, but the blacksmith is the strength of his arm.
Man moves his own body and develops it
in whatever direction mind determines; whether consciously or unconsciously, it
matters not. The feats of the gymnast are proofs that the latent powers of man
are unknown to him ; mind fixing on some achievement, makes its accomplishment
easy. Had Blondin believed he could not walk a rope over Niagara's abyss of
waters, to accomplish that feat would have been impossible; but, understanding
it could be done, be lost his fear and gave his muscles flexibility and power
that was attributed, perhaps, to a lubricating oil. When Homer sang
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of Grecian gods, how dark was Olympus
compared with Sinai. David expressed the science of being when he said,
"Thou madest man to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast
put all things under his feet."
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NOTE. The
learner will derive more benefit from studying this science with its author,
than is possible to gain from teachers in other departments of education. The
metaphysical requires the elucidations of spiritual sense, and personal sense
cannot apprehend the explanations of soul; hence a mere classical education
leaves Spirit much out of the question, and educates man only from the personal
standpoint of matter.
Observation
and experience teach us, those scorning to swerve from a direct line of duty,
or vainly to stoop to personal aggrandizement at the sacrifice of conscience,
and make popularity paramount to Truth, are traduced by many whom that line of
duty touches. In warfare with error, you attack with intent to kill, and the
wounded or cornered beast bites you if he can; the sin you assail turns on you
and succeeds in getting the world to condemn you, that it may justify itself.
It being found necessary to uncover sin to destroy it, you must tell a sinner
what his sins are before you can do him good, and if he hates you for it, it is
because he is unwilling to reform. Those we attempt to raise give us their
whole weight to lift, and when we let go to have them take hold, sometimes fall
back on us. Teach-
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ing the
bigoted, reforming the licentious, or exposing the hypocrite, who shall escape
without censure? We commenced our labors in the simple faith that all whom we
healed would acknowledge it, and those we taught would live up to our teachings
if from no higher motive than to promote their success in healing; but this has
not always been the case. Although it is plain the foundations of the science
of being are Truth and spirituality, and the seed that brings forth much fruit,
must fall into the "good and honest heart," yet all who know this are
not willing to yield to it. Truth stirs man to a better, or, temporarily, to a
worse condition that afterwards leaves him better; it affects error the same as
it does sickness, causing it to intermit before it yields and is destroyed.
The
humanitarian is above the arrows in the quiver of ignorance, envy, or malice;
they fly beneath his feet, until spent of their fury, they fall to the ground.
Such as are identified with a cause, until that cause is understood, are not
understood; in its birth they have travail and sorrow; in its infancy, toil and
sacrifice; but clasp their nursling more tenderly when menaced, knowing when he
is a man he will speak for himself and mother.
Nothing
but a lack of spiritual discernment, or dishonesty, could prompt one who in the
least comprehends this science, to call it mesmerism, or to practice mesmerism
and call it science. When those bidden of old to the feast of Truth came not,
our Master accepted such as did come. In like manner, to-day "the servant
must be as his Lord," exercising no choice of his own, but laboring for
posterity, bearing all blame and scorn,
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and
counting his victory in the far-off years. Healing in science has its reward
even here, but the task of teaching the science of being is quite another
thing. Pains of personal sense often make the sick willing to part with its
errors, but those in health and at ease in their possessions are reluctant to
change masters, hence the more thankless and toilsome task of teaching,
compared with healing. We instruct students to recommend their patients to
avoid, as much as possible, contact with minds filled with opposite physics,
hygiene, etc., while under treatment of metaphysics, for it retards their
recovery; but they forget the same right belongs to a teacher, and the same
necessity exists for students to avoid contact with certain minds that hinder
their advancement. Institutions have their by-laws to restrain the evil
passions of those under their care, but we have had no such necessary
protection in teaching.
Not to
admit God the Principle of the science of Life, is to be ignorant of this
science; and to say God is its Principle, and the discoverer, teacher, and
demonstrator of the science is not taught of God, is contradictory.
Students
may dwarf, or destroy for the present, their position in scientific healing
through error, with falsehood, dishonesty, or sensuality; in which case their
demonstration advances no higher, and their practice, if they have one, become
mesmerism and no longer science. Such students can never reinstate themselves
aright except through repentance, reformation and restitution. We should
welcome back the penitent and support the weak, but to him that covereth his
sins and rejoices in his iniquity let the reward of his hands be
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given; an
accumulated debt more to be feared than his creditor's account. The wickedest
or the best man is not understood by the age in which he lives; both are beyond
its appreciation. The wickedest man commits his sins knowingly and in secret,
having not grown sufficiently to be punished by Wisdom, he hides his evil in
the manner we shall name; and the best man is hidden from the present age in the
Wisdom of future ages. When separating tares from the wheat the mills of God
grind slowly, and if the tares that Wisdom casts away, predominate we see
little results, but if there be much wheat, stores are garnered because of the
grinding.
"Whomsoever
He loveth, him he also chasteneth."
There is
but one possible way of doing wrong with a mental method of healing, and this
is mesmerism, whereby the minds of the sick may be controlled with error
instead of Truth. Whoever has witnessed the effects of mesmerism, has seen it
make a joint stiff or a limb lame, proving beyond a doubt it can affect the
body injuriously. Whispering into the minds of the sick falsehoods, will do
their bodies harm if Truth poured into their minds does the body good. We have
witnessed the proof of both these statements. For years we had tested the
benefits of Truth on the body, and knew no opposite chance for doing evil
through a mental method of healing until we saw it traduced by an erring
student and made the medium of error. Introducing falsehoods into the minds of
the patients prevented their recovery, and the sins of the doctor was visited
on the patients, many of whom died because of this; cases that the Truth of
being would have healed, his own error rendered hopeless. Witness-
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ing these
terrible results was our occasion for learning their cause, or discovering this
mal-practice, and our students are well aware we have no difficulty in tracing
the mental cause of disease. But before we discovered this mal-practice and its
motives, the evil bad reached so far, and held such sway over the patient's
minds, when we informed one she was not recovering and had better return home,
she answered with indignation, "My doctor says I am recovering," but
died before she reached her earthly home. Wholly unconscious of his secret
method of turning the minds of those he manipulated, against his benefactor, or
of its effects on their bodies, the patients asked us if the doctor had lost
his power, not understanding it was his loss of Truth, and the hidden evil of
his course that injured the patients. A student of science cannot practice
mesmerism honestly, therefore successfully, as a Newton, who knows no higher
method of healing. But the mal-practice we allude to was more terrible than
simply a change to mesmerism; it chose darkness rather than light because its
deeds were evil. Such a practitioner putting aside our moral precepts retains
that portion only of our teachings which relates to the patient's belief of
disease and the method of destroying this belief by the doctor's opposite,
verbal, and mental argument. This is the very least of the science of being,
and yet the only part the mal-practitioner can avail himself of to heal the
sick. The patients have no recognition of how much error he may also mingle
with this argument of Truth that will affect their minds and bodies together,
and to bad results as well as good. If the sick recover from the effects of the
doctor's mental
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argument
opposed to theirs, it proves, on the ground of science, he has changed their
belief with regard to their disease, or the body would not have responded thus;
and now comes his opportunity to do evil; for, if be can change their belief
relative to sickness, he can also change it with regard to an individual, or
upon any subject. But, remember, it is only the manipulator and
mal-practitioner that can do this, and not those who heal with the Truth of
Science. First, because the latter do not manipulate the head; and secondly,
because their source of healing is science and Truth, and if they should
attempt to control the mind with error, they would not affect the sick, while
the mal-practitioner's principal power is to do evil, and a crumb of science is
all he has wherewith to heal; and his want of better success is the result of
his wickedness.
We have
actually stood in awe at the absolute might of Truth, when witnessing the
effect a little has on the sick, and sadly remembered how much could be done by
the truly wise, "who put oil in their lamps" and have not the power
to abuse the science of being. Since witnessing the evil one student did in the
name of science, we have utterly objected to students rubbing the head. The
mal-practitioner's sin standeth "in holy places." It is a crime
against the highest tribunal of Soul, commending wrong and condemning right, it
tramples on every law of justice and Truth.
In defence
of mesmerism is urged, that Dr. Quimby manipulated the sick. He never studied
this science, but reached his own high standpoint and grew to it through his
own, and not another's progress. He was a good man, a law to himself; when we
knew him he
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was
growing out of mesmerism; contrasted with a student that falls into it by
forsaking the good rules of science for a mal-practice that has the power and
opportunity to do evil. Dr. Quimby had passed away years before ever there was
a student of this science, and never, to our knowledge, informed any one of his
method of healing.
The only
practitioners of this metaphysical science to-day, have been our students; but
through wrong doing some have dimmed their pure sense of Truth, while others
stand firm in "the hope set before them."
We should
condemn a physician for adulterating his medicine and then claiming it was
genuine. The medicine in scientific healing is mind; and shall dishonesty,
revenge, falsehood, or impurity, be the stronger ingredient or quality of his
mind, and the practitioner say he heals with Truth, and the science of Life ?
Worse than poisonous drugs is the mental evil imparted through inoculation of
mind. Such a practitioner is the most effectual circulator of error on earth.
Even though he may change a belief of sickness to a belief of health, he has
not the power to destroy error with Truth.
There are
but two methods of healing, one is matter, the other, mind. The scientist heals
with Truth; therefore rubbing the head, or manipulating the body is no
assistance to impart Truth to heal the sick. To do evil in science is not more
possible than in prayer to God. We will consider, briefly, some points of the
mal-practice alluded to.
First, as
a weapon of revenge. The modus operandi of the mal-practice is as follows: The
doctor rubs the
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heads of
his patients, communing with them mentally as he does this, but instead of
speaking to them only Truth, and that which promotes harmony, he takes this
opportunity to introduce into their minds side-issues, such as suit his
sinister purpose, imparting his own likes and dislikes to the patients, either
from vengeance or ambition. It the doctor helps the patients through
head-rubbing, it is through their belief he does it, and mind is controlled
either with Truth or error. And a bad effect can as certainly follow this
practice as a good one, but the patients are wholly unconscious of this, or how
it is produced. If be has imparted error he certainly will deny it, but if he
had not done this we should never have learned what this mal-practice was.
Through an erroneous influence on their minds the patients are made, in a day,
worse physically, while to him whom they owe this state, even the author of it,
all unconsciously they turn to be healed. We have learned this mal-practice is
impossible in science, and is mesmerism demoralized. Had it been possible for
us to control mind through this subtle, criminal agency, we could not have been
tempted to do it, even in self-defence; the temptation, even, could not reach
us, and we resorted to our pen to expose this evil that reached, for the first
time, our apprehension.
Some
newspaper articles falsifying the science, calling it mesmerism, etc., but
especially intended, as the writer informed us, to injure its author,
precipitated our examination of mesmerism in contradistinction to our
metaphysical science of healing based on the science of Life. Filled with
revenge and evil passions, the mal-practitioner can only depend on
manipulation, and rubs
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the heads
of patients years together, fairly incorporating their minds through this
process, which claims less respect the more we understand it, and learn its
cause. Through the control this gives the practitioner over patients, he
readily reaches the mind of the community to injure another or promote himself,
but none can track his foul course; the evil is felt but not understood. It can
demoralize a community, and the mal-practitioner be undiscovered in his work
and claim fidelity in mental healing -- a sacred and solemn trust. Controlled
by his will, patients haste to do his bidding, and become involuntary agents of
his schemes, while honestly attesting their faith in him and his moral
character. Talking one way and acting another, he occupies a position the very
opposite of Truth. This is no idle picture of pen or imagination, but a faint
portraiture of facts discovered through the victims of this mal-practice; facts
that we submit to others for proof. Try it, whoever will, manipulate the head
of an individual until you have established a mesmeric connection between you
both; then direct her action, or influence her to some conclusion, arguing the
case mentally, as you would audibly, and mark the result. You will find, the
more honest and confiding the individual, the more she is governed by the mind
of the operator. But learn the lessons of the science of Life, and through
these go up higher, to the discovery of this great Truth, and do this if you
can; it would be as impossible as for light to be darkness.
If you had
the power that mesmerism gives to influence minds wrong as well as right, the
science herein explained would take it away. To control minds with
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sinister motives,
or in any but a right direction, would destroy your position in science.
Influence the minds of others from motives of selfishness, revenge, impurity,
or any bad motive, and you would lose your ability to heal in science, and
never regain your position until you had suffered sufficiently from this error,
to forever destroy it, and not venture again on ground so dangerous. A
mal-practitioner can never reach the standard of scientific healing. It would
be as impossible as for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
To prevent
the evil of this criminal outlawry growing without let or hindrance, the
community should understand it; this error can lift its giant proportions above
common modes of doing evil, and hold more arbitrary sway over minds than any
other past or present power of sin. The science of healing is incapable of
evil, but this opposite practice is as clearly proved capable of great
mischief, and even crime; able, while it lays high claims to right, secretly to
work out a hidden wrong against humanity, justice and Truth. Malice will
sometimes show itself and defeat its own purpose; falsehood, uttered aloud, is
met with rebutting testimony; but this method of injuring others by a silent,
and subtle impregnation of falsehoods and prejudices in the minds of
individuals, to be spoken by them to others, is "Satan let loose,"
the sin that "standeth in holy places." Law cannot restrain, or
punish it as it deserves, and community will be slow to acknowledge the heinous
crime, until they learn its power to work iniquity, and note its workings;
"more subtle than all other beasts of the field," it coils itself
about the sleeper, fastens its fang in innocence, and kills in the
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dark. We
thank Wisdom, that revealed this great error to us before these pages went to
press, that the years we have labored to bless our fellow-beings be not wholly
lost through this trespass upon the blessing of mental healing.
We knew of
no harm that could result from rubbing the head, until we learned it of this
mal-practice, and never since have permitted a student, with our consent, to
manipulate. We gained the little we understand of the Truth of being through
our own experiences and proofs, and learned this opposite error standing face
to face with it, through another's mal-practice; shall we deny the ability of
the mathematician to say wherein the mistake lies of examples wrought
incorrectly, or say to the musician who gives the true tone, you are not able
to say what is the discord?
Because we
never manipulate the sick, the opportunity to learn any evil possible to
head-rubbing was not afforded us until years after our first investigations of
science. The doctor that depends on manipulation (and he cannot employ it
honestly without such dependence), works from a matter basis, whence come all
the evil deeds and inventions of Satan. A cure wrought in science is the
spiritual predominating over the material; Truth mastering error; the very
opposite of mesmerism and the mal-practice aforesaid. In science mind must rise
above matter to admit the fuller effluence of Spirit, God, that heals the sick
and casts out error, but manipulation prevents this result. The multitudinous
minds a physician has access to, enables him, through this medium to do much
good, or much evil, throughout the community. This should be
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regarded
when employing a manipulator of the head, that moulds mind and controls it,
though less publicly and suddenly, not less surely than the mesmerist who comes
more honestly before the foot-lights with his performance. Through his mesmeric
control over minds, the mal-practitioner can hold his patients and practice,
whether he heals the sick or not, and he moulds some of them into a belief they
are healed, but others he must keep moulding, that is, continue to treat, or
they will relapse. There are certain self-evident facts; this is one of them. A
student of science, understanding its high requirements, cannot be unfamiliar
with the fact that the teacher must have reached it worthily who has grown to
its discovery, for this cannot be without pursuing faithfully the straight and
narrow path that leads to Truth. Therefore, to know this and acknowledge it, is
honesty and understanding on the part of a student, and not to know it, or
acknowledge it, ignorance or dishonesty, and every true student will bear
testimony to this statement. Paul said, "Live peaceably with all men
inasmuch as in you lies." This is wholesome counsel, and a most desirable
thing; but could he Eve peaceably with all men, when " that which is
perfect " had come to his understanding, and that which is imperfect was
to be done away? Not the learning of a Roman student spared him when he girded
on the armor of Truth and rushed to battle with the age. When be "fought
the good fight" and kept the faith, he passed from the forum into toil and
dishonor, and from a dungeon to a scaffold and a crown.
If virtue
forgives vice, it cannot love it; if charity
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overlooks
a multitude of sins, it hath no fellowship with sin; and if honesty endures
patiently and long the abuses of dishonesty, it hath the prudence at length to
get out of its hands. These are separate qualities of character, that
circumstance or duty compelling to meet for a time, must part company through a
law of being, and often with a tremendous explosion.
The
exhibitor of mesmerism startles you with his power, but you are satisfied to
conclude it is ridiculous, and you are not its subject; his experiments,
however, are honorable, being open, and illustrative of the influence he has
through it over the thoughts and actions of others. But the dishonest mesmerist
of which we speak, is the mal-practitioner, who claims to take a place in
science, but sinks to a secret assassin in society. So important are the rules
of mental scientific healing, that even repeated they do good, but we gather
not grapes of thorns, the tone of the individual's mind inculcating them,
overshadows them, and if his mind be not in accordance with them, it imparts
its own hue to the patient; then who shall say which effect is strongest, the
good he says, or the evil behind it that he imparts. If the mal-practitioner
says mentally to the patient, as he rubs his head, "be healed!" and
she recovers, or is improved morally, influenced in that direction, you say
this is a moral and physical gain, and behold the proof that he practices very
wisely. But suppose he says to her mentally, as he rubs her head, something
wrong to do, or believe, and designates this wrong, directing her thought and
action in that channel, and she unconsciously obeys him, feeling this hidden
spring to action as readily as the other. What, then, are your
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conclusions
of this practice? that you should be subject to evil because you are sometimes
subject to good? Never trust human nature in the dark, if this nature is so
dark it covers its footprints.
Manipulating
the head, we discovered, establishes between patient and practitioner a mental
communication not in the least understood by the patients or the people.
Through this medium the doctor holds more direct influence over their minds
than the united power of education and public sentiment. Mesmeric power is
stronger for evil, than good, in contradistinction to the enlargement of the
intellectual, moral, and spiritual being that science imparts to individuals,
elevating the capacity to do good, above others.
In
proportion to the mal-practitioner's power to govern the minds of his patients
from selfish motives, is his ability in science diminished. Whoso doeth evil
that good might come, incurs the sentence, "his damnation is just."
Witnessing
this abuse of metaphysics, a friend anxiously said to us, "You discovered
metaphysical healing, and have also discovered this abuse of it, and the evil
done through mesmerism; now why do you not forestall this wrong by controlling
the minds of individuals or the community to disbelieve its falsehoods?"
To this we replied, "We have neither divine authority, nor the power to
control minds for any other than their own benefit, and we are giving the
results of our moral, spiritual, and metaphysical researches to the world as
fast as possible, but the footsteps of falsehood and error are swift, those of
honesty and Truth slow, and strong. The community must understand the sci-
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ence of
being to appreciate it, and they must detect the wicked mal-practice to
appreciate that; therefore the true verdict is not yet given, and Truth can
wait, for it is used to waiting. Will should be impotent except in --good will
to man,-- and this involves open action and upright conduct; science is not a
blind Samson, shorn of his strength."
The silent
argument used in his own behalf, as be manipulates the head, the
mal-practitioner would blush to make audibly. Suppose he has a juror for a
patient, and establishes the mesmeric connection between them, he can influence
more than law or evidence, the verdict of that honest juror. If a bargain is to
ratify, or a purpose to accomplish for himself, or his reputation at stake, be
looks out for an opportunity to manipulate the bead of some party concerned,
and controls their actions or conclusions to suit the occasion and meet his
desires. Friendship is not too sacred for his depredations; the friends of many
years he separates, covering all recognition of his villainy and raising
himself in the esteem of those very individuals to whom he has done irreparable
injury.
Our rebuke
to a false student elicited his revenge, and through this we discovered the
mal-practice we expose. We have seen manipulating the head form a habit more
pernicious than opium-eating, in which the treatment must be continued, or the
patient go back to a worse condition than the first.
It is more
difficult to heal the sick, subject to this mal-practice, than under treatment
of drugs; and yet the patients are strangely attached to their doctor. We have
started patients at once out of disease on the
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road to
recovery, on whom this mal-practitioner has produced a relapse.
Scientific
treatment fills the mind with Truth that heals the sick, but the
mal-practitioner impregnates it with error that produces new disease; rubbing
the head, he keeps his cases constantly on hand, because of the struggle
between the little Truth he brings to bear on the case, and the error he
introduces. To have barely sufficient :right to make the wrong plausible, is more
fatal to science than the unmasked error. No enthusiasm or praise is as zealous
or fullsome as this mal-practitioner can elicit, while nothing is more
relentless and unyielding than the prejudice he can arouse; but mesmerism
governs them both, and enables the doctor to gain his point in sin, but not in
science. Surely "the fool hath said in his heart, no God."
Manipulating the head, even to a thinness that would reveal the brains, can
never heal the sick in science. This mental mal-practice is a shameless waste
of time and opportunity, an abuse of ignorance or good nature inconsistent with
science, the economy of Soul and the harmony of man. This secret trespasser on
human rights manipulates the bead to carry out, on a small scale, a sort of
popery that takes away voluntary action instead of encouraging the science of
self-control, and sets himself up for a doctor who is a base quack. Far
intermeddling with what should be the independent functions of society, the
mal-practitioner gets his fee, but the involuntary agents of his schemes get
bad pay for their services.
Conservatism
or dishonesty, either in the statement or demonstration of science, is clearly
impossible; where Principle is concerned there is no secret; explanation
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and proof
are required, and no concessions made to persons or opinions. The relation of
Truth to man, improving him physically and morally, we have stated as we
discovered it, and submit our statement to proof. Having first convinced
ourself through demonstration of the Principle of our discovery and its ability
to heal the sick and bring out the harmony of being, we deem it worthy the name
of science. Healing disease on this
basis, we learned beyond a doubt, that mind governs the body and is more potent
than matter to heal the sick.
To admit
personal sense a source of pleasure is to deny it is a source of pain also, and
vice versa, for "the same
fountain sendeth not forth sweet and bitter waters."
Personal
sense embracing both sin and happiness, sickness and health, Life and death, according
to the teachings of Jesus, contradicts itself, and therefore destroys its own
existence. Jesus cast out error and healed the sick through his God-being,
well-knowing that harmony cannot produce discord: hence he denied personal
sense, and admitted but one Intelligence, and this, not the author of evil. To
suppose evil and good, discord and harmony proceed from the same fountain, is
contrary to revelation. The common acceptation of Truth is that whatever
produces sin, is error. Then wherefore admit that materia medica, physiology,
anatomy, etc., are science when they take the opposite ground that insists on
personal sense governing man, whence cometh all discord.
God is not
the author of sin; Soul is not the source of sickness, sin and death; rather does
it destroy these to make man immortal. The body defined as personal
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sense, is
mortal; and that which is mortal is error. That sin proceeds from personal
sense, we know, and this proves the fountain evil, and the streams evil also,
therefore Wisdom never produced either; hence, God is not the author of
personal sense. We say food sustains the Life of man; and again, that a heavy
meal kills him. Here the old theory that opposed Christ, Truth, is reproduced
in affirming the same fountain sendeth forth sweet and bitter waters. If the
All-wise hath a law demanding food to preserve the Life of man, He hath no law
by which food can destroy him. We must take the opposite ground of personal
sense in regard to sin, Sickness and death, to fully destroy them; a physical
demand is not to be admitted, but destroyed, only the demands of Soul are to be
heard; the body cannot speak for itself, being unintelligent.
Is it mind
or body that declares undigested food irritates the nervous tissues producing a
terrible sense of pain, faintness, oppression, etc., and that your remedy is to
expel the food, or digest it? This is mental testimony, and there is none
other, 'tis a law of belief, mis-named a law of matter; the body cannot define
cause and effect.
A case of
extreme suffering from food, came under our observation. The lady had said, but
a few moments before we came to her assistance, "I shall die unless the
food is expelled," and in ten minutes thereafter was rid of her
sufferings, and when questioned in regard to her feelings, replied, "I
have no pain now, and would like to eat again." By contending mentally
against a physical position you can change it and destroy it through mind, even
as you have produced it thus. The
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sick argue
for their own suffering, by admitting its reality; they are ignorant of this
fact, however, or that their mental position is what produces the physical, and
their friends often strengthen this error and quarrel with you for trying to
help them out of it.
Mind, and
not matter, embraces 0 suffering; we prove this when removing the suffering on
this basis, or through mind. Our Principle heals. the sick, therefore it
produces a better physical effect than the opposite views that make sickness;
then why not adopt it, or judge of it by our Master's rule, the
"fruits." If you understood the science of being, your body would be
harmonious and immortal. The balance adjusted by science falls on the side of
happiness and Life.
Delirium
tremens embraces error of two sorts; the plea of personal sense for strong
drink, and the belief that it diseases the brain. Both these mental positions
are mastered with metaphysical science; first, because there is no pleasure in
intoxication, or produced by matter, and secondly, that matter, or the brain,
is not inflamed. The belief of pain is more easily eradicated than an appetite,
or belief of pleasure, owing to the strong desire the patient has to be rid of
one, and his reluctance to pad with the other; both of which we the
self-inflicted positions of mind, and not matter. Disputing the grounds of
personal sense, that alcoholic drinks intoxicate the brain, giving pleasure or
pain to matter, and rising above this error, Soul, versus sense, gets the case
and relieves the patient. But the severer task is to destroy the belief of the
inebriate with regard to the so-called pleasure of sense in drunkenness, while
this is all that will reform him. Destroy the belief that
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pleasure
is derived from intoxicating drink, and the habit yields at once, but until
this is done, it intermits and lingers, proving intoxication a mental, and not
a physical error. Here are two points we desire you to note; first, the moral
advantage this healing has over other methods, and the falsity of the arguments
of personal sense, assuming drunkenness enjoyment. This admission, however, is
not more false than to conclude a liquid distilled from matter is capable of
destroying body and brain.
The belief
that pain and pleasure, good and evil, God and devil, fraternize, is a hoary
mistake meeting us at every point. Pleasure or pain in matter is a self-evident
falsehood. Lifting yourself, somewhat, to the understanding of the Life that is
Wisdom, Love, and Truth, you will break the spell of personal sense. The Truth
of being, coming to their consciousness, opens the prison doom to the sick and
affects the body as nothing else can. One mind, partly rid of the errors of
personal sense, touches another with the science of being that reproduces
harmony, causing what we term a chemical change in the body that goes on to
form a new basis of being; even as when an acid and alkali meet that form a
neutral salt. But remember, the opposites that destroy each other are without
spiritual affinity. To admit the positions of personal sense, would never
destroy them. To reform the drunkard, or heal the sick, or turn the sinner from
his way, we must argue against their positions; nothing else destroys them.
That mind
controls matter, is the fundamental strength of morality, for it gives man
control over sin, sickness, and death, whereas the old systems take it
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away. To
understand that brains never killed a mart would prevent his ever having
disease of the brain; but this result is not gained, simply repeating this fact
to the sick, or to one's self; it must be a mental conviction reached through
science and admitted only because it is understood. If a doubt exists in regard
to a patient's recovery, there should be none about the method of promoting it;
no fears entertained that Intelligence is not sufficient to govern the body and
make it harmonious. The fact seems to us self-evident, that the body cannot
destroy the body, or consign it to dust, and so put out the image of Soul.
Besides, there is no justice in law that punishes a man for doing good, for
honest labor, or deeds of kindness. Through the eternal law of right, we are
exempt from all sentences not passed on sin.
When the
sick are made to realize the lie of personal sense the body is healed. Faith
generally lies in the direction of material means; therefore the suffering or
sick are apt to overlook the fact, that science heals them, and impute their
recovery to some extraneous circumstance. The action of mind on the body is not
more perceptible to personal sense than the origin of the wind, or the chambers
of the hail. Turn to the eighth chapter of John, and you find the following
reply to the testimony of personal sense. "Ye are of your father, the
devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do; he was a murderer from the
beginning" (referring to Cain, the first offspring of Adam, error),
"and abode not in the Truth; when he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his
own, for he is a liar and the father of it."
If there
be any mystery in healing the sick on this
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platform
laid down by Jesus, it is the mystery of Godliness, ambiguous only to the
sinner, or to personal sense. Time alone is required to bring out the practical
proof of our statements; and because they are riot understood to-day, it is no
sign the time for their appearing has not arrived. Truth comes when it is
needed, and not because of a personal demand.
Anew birth
is the work of ages instead of a moment, Until the belief of Life,
Intelligence, and substance in matter is destroyed, man has not "passed
from death unto Life." A change of being's basis from sense to Soul
requires time and understanding; it is nothing short of man's perfection, and
what Jesus said was requisite to see the kingdom of heaven. The reign of
harmony that science will establish, will explain the great difference between
the moral effects of the present mode of healing and that of science, and the
different receptions they have met from the world of sense and sin.
First
comes the apprehension in science, of Life that is Son), wholly independent of
the body or sense. Next, its demonstration is commenced in living more of God,
and having sounder bodies and purer minds, until we go up through higher
understanding even as Elijah, to the Life that is God and knows no death. But
we are little in danger of such goodness and its demonstration in this century.
Loosing worldly approval indicates not only true Christianity, but? the
approach of this scientific stage of being; therefore we should welcome it as
our dearest hope and highest aim. The only link to Life is through science;
Life is never gained through death. The chemical changes that Truth introduces
into the body through mind, is what destroys
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error and
brings to light immortality. The works of our Master convinced Nicodemus their
origin was God, the Principle of harmonious man. So when he inquired of him how
he healed, this was the reply, "Except a man be born again, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of heaven;" except he understands Life outside of
personal sense he will never gain the harmony of being. But this was not the
Pharisee's Christianity, nor the Rabbi's choice; to them sense was more
desirable than Soul; matter had more claims than Spirit, and man, than God.
Said the Master, "Because I tell you the Truth, ye believe me not, but he
that is of God heareth God's words," i. e., the truly spiritual will
understand the things that belong to Spirit, but the more material find this
very difficult.
When Jesus
introduced Christianity that cut off right hands land plucked out right eyes,
demanding the control of our bodies and a nobler existence, they said, "He
is a Samaritan and hath a devil," i. e., we know his origin, and for him
to claim, "I and the Father are one," indicating he is God, is
imposition. Pride said, then as now, Truth must come from the rulers, be clad
in soft raiment, and nothing else should be found Truth. But Wisdom foreseeing
this error, said, "Out of the mouth of babes hast thou perfected
praise," and except you become as a little child, you cannot enter into
harmony; i. e., unless we yield our educated opinions and beliefs, and reject
the positions of personal sense, we shall neither discern our true being, nor
understand the omnipotence of Spirit.
Standing
at the bed of death, we need these words and their meaning to re-assure us and
raise up the dying.
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"He
that believeth in me shall never see death." The little trust we have in
Spirit, and the strong faith we hold in matter, will meet us at this point with
the inquiry. "Adam, where art thou," cherishing the belief of Life in
matter, or holding firmly on to Life that is Spirit ? and the answer we
honestly give will show us where we stand. The last enemy to be overcome is
death; therefore much is to be understood before we gain this great point in
science. Laying aside the beliefs that so easily beset us, we should not regard
a condition of matter able to destroy man, mind or body, for both are immortal.
A wasted form lies before you; the doctor calls his disease consumption, but
the scientist finding no identity in discord, regards the disease a belief, and
cures it thus; for understanding in part the Life that is Soul, he will destroy
this belief of sense with the science of being. Never consent to the death of
man, but rise to the supremacy of Spirit over matter, and denying the claims of
personal sense, prove what it is to be a Christian whose Life is "hid with
Christ in God;" therefore wholly spiritual. What if the lungs are
ulcerated or decayed, mind has done this; action is produced by mind and not
matter; Change, therefore, your belief in the case, combat the error and belief
of Life in matter, with the Truth that Life is Soul and not sense, and you will
form the lungs anew, and they will resume their healthy functions. We know this
to he true, and state it because we have proved it. Disease is a belief, its origin
mental instead of physical, and it matters not what the body indicates, in
reality all is mind, there is no matter, and mortal things are beliefs, and not
the science of man in which he is immortal.
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That pain
or pleasure, Life or death, belongs to the body, is but a belief. Immortal Soul
is the producer of all things, and never made out of itself, mortality, or a
suffering body. Speak to disease as one having authority over it, having Soul,
and not sense, on your side, and you will master this belief; and immortality,
which is the Truth of man, will assert its claims over mortality, and the sick
recover. God, Spirit, is your stronghold in this extremity, and you feel how
vain a thing is death pitted against the immortality of Soul and body. Life is
the law of Soul; and personal sense, or matter, has no law. Holding on to the
Truth of being is your only hope whereby to destroy its error. The science of
being raises the dead; fear ye not, therefore, death; you may raise up the
dying if minds around you are not strongly opposing this Truth, so little
understood to-day; and sometime over this wave of the troubled sea, your
God-being, that destroys all error, sin and death, will walk fearlessly;
showing how real is Life, and how unreal, death. But there were some people so
bigoted or material they even hindered the Master doing many mighty works
because of their unbelief.
When
healing the sick make your mental plea, or better, take your spiritual position
that heals, silently at first, until you begin to win the case, and Truth is
getting the better of error, then your patient is fit to listen, and you can
say to him, "Thou art whole," without his scorn. Explain to him,
audibly, sometimes, the power mind has over the body, and give him a foundation
in the understanding to lean upon, that he may brace himself against old
opinions. The battle lies
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wholly
between minds, and not bodies, to break down the beliefs of personal sense or
pain in matter, and stop its supposed utterances, so that the voice of Soul,
the immortality of man, is heard. The belief of Life and sensation in matter is
the source of all suffering and sin. The science of being reveals Life,
conscious Soul and not sense, Spirit and not matter, and this leaves man safe
in Soul, where there is no recognition of sickness, sin, or death. To raise the
dead, restore the sick, or reform the sinner, we should understand science in
its first statement, namely, that nothing is real but God, and His idea; aught
beside is illusion, error and belief, that disappear. Recognizing the
nothingness of sickness, sin, and death, is all that will ever bring out the
harmony of man, or enable him to conquer them. With this scientific
starting-point we shall master disease and temptation, or blush to be conquered
by what is unreal. Understanding discord unreal, and harmony the only reality,
emboldens us to fight the good fight.
Never
admit error real as Truth, for if you do you will have more difficulty to get
right than you need have. To turn a sinner from his error or belief, is more
difficult than to turn the sick from theirs; for the latter, weary of suffering
from it, yearn to relinquish it, and when the sinner reaches this point he is
reformed. If science destroys not sickness, sin, and death, they are immortal.
The only remedy for sin, sickness, or death, is obedience to the law of Life,
and if Christ, Truth, be insufficient to cure sickness and destroy death, man
is mortal. If we learn in part, even, the science of Life, it begins at once to
destroy mental and physical discord.
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The
demonstrations and explanations of Jesus embraced all the theology or materia
medica necessary to heal the sick or make Christians, and because he never
recommended materia medica, hygiene, physiology, etc., we infer these methods are
anti-Christian. If, as the Scripture saith, and science confirms, Jesus did the
will of God, we are not doing his will who follow not his example, but resort
to methods all our own.
"Herbs
for the healing of the nations" typified the "balm in Gilead" and
a physician there, even Soul the healer, and science the balm, which was Spirit
triumphing over matter. Truth neither destroys Truth, nor creates error to be
destroyed. Life never destroys Life, nor creates death to destroy it. Truth, or
Life, is not the author of sin or death, and there is neither power nor
Intelligence in matter. Sickness and death are the opposites of harmony and
Life, and no law can support what Christ, Truth, destroys. The only law in
existence, or that we should acknowledge, is God, the Principle of man,
controlling man and matter. Spirit is not personality, nor persons that have
passed away; and nature is God, hence it is Spirit and not matter. Intelligence
governs man and the universe, but never instituted material law to govern them,
and Spirit never produced matter. The Bible contains all our recipes for
healing, and this is one of them:
"Agree
with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the way with him, lest at any
time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the
officer, and thou be cast into prison; verily I say unto you, thou shalt not
come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing."
395
This was
one of our Master's rules for casting out error and healing the sick. It
referred, however, not to legal proceedings, or processes material, but to a
mental tribunal and judgment. The adversary was not man, but error; and the
directions, how to proceed with sin or sickness that would impose through
belief a penalty for transgressing law that is not law, insomuch as justice is
the moral signification of law, and injustice implies its absence. Shall a
teacher pay the penalty of sickness for performing well and faithfully her
tasks? or a great mind, because of the good it has done, fall soonest a prey to
disease? must man suffer at the hands of God, for steadfastly doing right?
Shall the mother droop, or suffer, because of maternity, if such is the design
of her being? Because of fatigue, exposure to cold, or some supposed
infringement of the so-called laws of health, we ignorantly admit there is
danger of being sick, and this mental position decides the physical one;
therefore, "agree with thine adversary quickly;" say to this belief,
" Get behind me, satan, for thou savorest not the things that are of God,
but those that are of man;" it is not a broken moral law to which your
penalty is attached, but a condition of matter, a demand from something wholly
unintelligent and incapable of justice. God has no law of injustice, wrong
proceeds from belief, and not Truth.
To
conclude quickly on the treatment of error, was the rule our Master left for
casting it out. He never recommended laws of health to our knowledge. On a law
that is not God's, we have a moral right to pass judgment, and to commute its
sentence; every instance of matter, or the body, governing man, is justly
396
condemned,
and morally impossible insomuch as it manifests a want of Wisdom that renders
it null and void. The only hope in sickness or sin, is to agree quickly with
thine adversary; that is, if tempted, or if disease appears, to banish the
temptation, or the disease, at once from the mind, and suffer it not to plead
in its own behalf lest you fall a prey to your belief in the case. On this
mental basis, when the first symptoms of disease appear, knowing they gain
their ground in mind before they can in body, "agree quickly with thine
adversary," i. e., dismiss the 6rst mental admission that you are sick;
dispute sense with science, and, if you can annul the false process of law, alias
your belief in the case, you will not be cast into prison or confinement. The
sick must never plead guilty; in other words, admit they are sick, for then are
they subject to sentence and imprisonment, according to the law of belief. Take
the ground of science in the first instance, never admit sensation in matter,
or that the body can be pained, or has any claims of its own, or power to make
man suffer; adhere to this scientific position and battle the old belief with
it until you destroy it, and you will get well.
To agree
quickly with thine adversary in the first instance of sickness, is to take
antagonistic grounds to it, and prove your superiority over it. Not to admit
disease, is to conquer it ; and if you understood the science of being, you
would admit no reality to aught but God and his idea. When you say, "I am
sick," you plead guilty, that is, you admit matter has sensation and will
be delivered to the judge, in other words, into the hands of this belief that
will deliver
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thee to
the officer (disease), the ruler of mortal man that casts him into prison and
fetters his entire being. But disease has no Intelligence of its own, or law,
whereby to do this. You sentence yourself unwittingly, therefore, "agree
with thine adversary quickly;" meet every circumstance as its master, and
watch your belief, instead of your body; think less of laws material, that you
may appreciate better the spiritual law of being, yea, the dominion of man over
matter. Meet every adverse circumstance with science, instead of the beliefs of
sense, and you will master it.
Error is a
coward before Truth, and death is but another phase of the dream of Life in
matter, wherein we meet at every point the consciousness of continued
existence, with the same beliefs to conquer, and the same errors of sense to
master through science. We must understand our way out of difficulties, or we
never in reality are out, and the harmony and immortality of man are never
understood until every error of sense is destroyed. To apprehend the economy
and capacity of man's being, metaphysics must take the place of physics, and
mind, instead of matter, be consulted in sickness. Fear, and its effects on the
body are involuntary. Fear of disease and love of sin are the foundations of
man's enslavement; but for these he could triumph over his body. Mind acts on
the subject before disease becomes apparent on the body; but the individual has
no recognition of his belief producing disease until it is developed
physically. We look to personal sense for the evidence of disease, but there is
no personal sense, unless matter is intelligent and holds the issues of Life.
Because mind acts unconsciously to
398
sense, the
sick say how can mind have caused disease, "I never thought of the disease
until it appeared on my body." But mind is first, and causation; nothing
commences in matter; the plant springs from the eternal Intelligence --before
we call it matter; but our mortal blindness and its sharp consequences, prove
our need to understand the action of mind and its effects; we should study mind
more and matter less, if we would avail ourselves of Soul in its control over
sense. We can destroy sickness, the same as sin, by learning its origin and
nature in mind, instead of body, and finding the belief that occasions it.
You can
prevent or cure scrofula, hereditary disease, etc., in just the ratio you expel
from mind a belief in the transmission of disease, and destroy its mental
images; this will forestall the disease before it takes tangible shape in mind,
that forms its corresponding image on the body. The science of being destroys
the errors of sense with the Truth of man, and this is " casting out
devils and healing the sick." Unconscious matter cannot dictate terms to
conscious mind, causing either pain or pleasure; and matter is unconscious. The
belief that our body forms conditions of its own, independent of mind, is the
error of mortal man that makes him mortal.
You say
the body feels, but the fact that pain is not felt without mind, and can be
removed through it, proves mind the origin and cause of suffering. All the
diseases on earth, (and there are none in heaven), never interfered for a
moment with man's Life and its harmonious phenomena. Man is the same after, as
before a bone is broken, or a head chopped off. Casualties
399
has no
reality to Soul; it exists only as belief, and is apparent only to personal
sense. Accidents are unknown to God. It the science of Soul was reached,
immortality would be gained, and there would be no chance for suffering. Soul
and body are inseparable and eternal; if one is indestructible, so is the
other. Understanding this, exempts man from disease and death, that anatomy and
physiology regard positive claims on Life. Denying the Truth of being,
measurably prevents its benefits on the body, by hindering its action in mind.
It is not faith, but understanding, we need in science, and, "whosoever
shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before the Father." This
beautiful text refers not to a person, but the Principle of man that embraces
the Truth of being, that casts out error and heals the sick. Reason discounts
on revelation when it denies God the things that are His, and contradicts the
omnipotence of Soul over sense; but whose reasons aright on this point, and
hesitates not to declare his- views, i. e., ,to confess me before men,"
becomes harmonious. When reason accords with the declaration of Scripture that
man has dominion over earth, we shall recognize this, and turn in triumph from
the seemingly impossible, to "all things are possible," and
demonstrate this.
"He
that denieth me before men," refers to a denial, or an open acknowledgment
of our honest convictions that effectually hinders or aids man's progress.
Because the science of being is not yet understood, and the age is not yet
awake to this subject, if we but half desire to understand it, and conceal this
desire, we shall be unable to demonstrate it. A hypocrite or liar
400
has no
part in the science of Life; whosoever overlooks moral honesty for worldly
policy, has not gained an insight into science sufficient to heal through it.
If be has learned its rules, he has not understood them, and must have gained
them of one whose experiences have gone up higher.
For a
broken bone, or dislocated joint, 'tis better to call a surgeon, until mankind
are farther advanced in the treatment of mental science. To attend to the
mechanical part, a surgeon is needed to-day, but let the scientist see that
inflammation, or long confinement, do not ensue. The time cometh when science will
be our only surgeon, but, "suffering these things to be so now," let
a bone be set, after the manner of men, then let science facilitate the
knitting process, and re-construct the body without pain or inflammation as
much as possible in these days of ignorance.
The time
approaches when mind alone will adjust joints, and broken bones, (if such
things were possible then), but in the present infancy of this Truth so new to
the world, let us act consistent with its small foothold on the mind. We
greatly mistake the nature of being to conclude that which is real, is
inharmonious or mortal. Sickness is not real, from the very fact it is discord
and mortality, and these, errors and beliefs, things of sense that constitute
the dream of Life in matter, but have no reality to God, the Soul of man. Meet
discord and death with the opposite Truth of being, and it wakens, in part,
from the dream of Life, to the realization of Life whereby we learn all discord
is illusion. We say sickness is something to be feared; but this belief
regarding it is what does the harm. Disease
401
must be
admitted in mind before it appears as matter; for body manifests only what mind
embraces, whether it be fever, consumption, or theft. The doctor tells his
patients their symptoms are feverish, and they vibrate between this opinion and
its belief, until the physician says the fever is established; then the sick
are confirmed, and go into confinement and serve out this mental sentence
executing the body, more surely than the sentences of our courts.
Because
science contradicts personal sense and sickness, you have no more moral right
to dispute the proof that science is right, than of a rule of mathematics; and
yet you will, for such is the case with all new discoveries. Cures wrought in
science, are naturally misconstrued by sense, imputed to something besides the
Principle producing them; hence, they must be understood to be appreciated. We
may understand, perfectly well, how we heal the Pick, but because others do
not, hey may interpret our cure on some other basis; and this not only works
against the recovery of the sick, because it is antagonistic to Truth, but
prevents their perception of it.
Jesus,
wiser than his persecutors, said, "If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by
whom did your fathers cast them out?" knowing they acknowledged the
prophets, but not the carpenter; this question was difficult to answer because
the prophets healed as he did, and he introduced the comparison on account of
this. Those calling the demonstration of the science of being demoniac over
eighteen centuries ago, might to-day tone down the judgment to imposition.
Jesus, reasoning clearly on this subject, although misapprehended by
402
the
materialistic age, introduced the following comparison to explain his healing. "How
can one enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods, except he first
bind the strong man, and then he will spoil his goods." In other words,
how can I cast out devils without bearding error, attacking the beliefs that
produce all this discord through ignorance of Soul and body, and then are you
sometimes "offended because of me."
Jesus
employed neither technicalities, the logic of the schools, nor formulas of
medicine to heal; be knew, if others did not, Soul's superiority over matter,
to heal the body, and that harmony is reached, only as we understand its real
basis, Spirit, and not matter, Soul, not sense; and acknowledge the supremacy
of Intelligence. Personal sense is the strong man that the Truth of being
binds, before destroying error. It being impossible to heal on the Principle of
science, and admit the grounds taken by personal sense; therefore, bind this
strong man bold sense in subjection to Soul, and pain, as much under control of
mind as a temptation to sin; then can you despoil his goods, i. e., prevent sin
and suffering.
When the
mental control we hold over our bodies for good or evil, touching sickness,
sin, and death, has been preached one-hundredth part as long as man's salvation
through faith, we shall have men and women approaching to the image and
likeness of God. Until personal sense is doubted, it will never be controlled.
The ages may go on, admitting personal sense and its control over man, and
fighting it with drugs, laws of health, etc., when, instead of pleasure, it utters
itself
403
in pain,
but this will only sustain disease in mind, and then it will show itself in
matter. Man will not be found harmonious until the belief of personal sense
yields to the science of Soul.
Deplorable
cases of passion mastering man, should arouse one to the responsibility of
governing his body. A person whom we snatched from this oblivion of Soul, said
to us, "I should have died, but for the Principle you teach showing me the
nothingness and falsity of sense; medicine, and treatises on my case, only
abandoned me to more hopeless sufferings, and slavery; adherence to hygiene was
of no avail, and I was cured only when I learned my way in science."
At present
we must accept the statements of science relative to personal sense, on the
inductive method, admitting the whole, because a part, involving the entire
Principle is proved. Pains of the body, or matter, are unreal, but not more so
than its pleasures; both cheat man into a belief of their reality, but only as
the mountain mirage that seemeth what it is not, or the terrible incubus from
which he finds it difficult to awake. Admitting the entire grounds of the
science of being, it quickly follows our poor demonstration looks us in the
face; but to this we reply, enough has been understood and proved, to reveal it
science, and to prove, measurably, the blessing it brings. When speaking of
this subject to others, instead of admitting the proofs we have already given
of its Truth, we are often met with demands for more proof; therefore, we
recommend you to read carefully what we have written, understand for
yourselves, and establish your own evidence through demonstration; at the same
time the
404
necessity,
exists for a teacher of this science, the same as for music or mathematics,
that must be explained to be understood, and understood to be demonstrated.
Pioneering
what is new, or of great value to the world, is like a traveller on the desert
of Arabia in company with one who becoming alarmed, his beat and sufferings
increase and his courage fails; but the explorer, despite the hardships, and
convinced he will come out right, accepts the situation more calmly, and
encourages his friend, assuring him the only danger is his fear, then points
anew the path; at length they reach an oasis, where, resting and slaking their
thirst, they are ready with new vigor to push on. But here the more helpless
traveller turns to his guide, saying, are you not sometimes alarmed on this
desert route? "Yes," is the ready response; but, replied the other,
you told me my danger consisted in my fear, therefore you have no more
practical Wisdom than myself; forgetting his guide carried the baggage, met the
intricacies of the way, and was attacked by brigands, plundered, and hindered
in his course, his fellow-traveller following not, until the danger was over.
Bearing others' burdens, if you undertake more than you can well carry, and are
tried or over-wrought, they name it a hopeless task, and desert you; few arms
are extended to your support, until you can help yourself and others, and have
no need of aid.
We learn
in science, food neither helps nor harms man; admitting its power in one
direction, we must in another. But here it were unwise to disparage the
Principle, or proof of this statement, because you continue to eat, not having
mastered the belief that Life
405
depends on
eating. This were like denying the Principle of harmony, because man is not yet
harmonious, or saying Soul is not immortal, because Personal sense takes no
cognizance of this fact. Man's Life is Soul, that eats not to live, and
immortal man is the idea of Soul instead of sense. We have no evidence of food
sustaining Life, except false evidence, even the belief of Life in matter, and
this belief an error. A telegram announcing incorrectly the death of a friend,
produces the same sorrow the reality would give; but you say your anguish is
occasioned by your loss, until another message arrives, informing you it is a
mistake, and your friend lives. Now did you not experience the same sufferings
the reality would have brought, and did you not say it was the death of your
friend that caused these sufferings; but afterwards learn your mistake,
realizing you suffered from a belief, and not a reality. Thus it is with all
sufferings; belief and not Truth occasions them. Had a scientist attempted to
calm the grief of your supposed bereavement before the second news arrived,
whereby you learned the sufferings were produced, by error and not Truth, would
you have thanked your comforter, though she gave you relief, until this fact
was made plain to your understanding. The body or matter never yet informed man
of disease; a belief carries the telegram to the body, and the body manifests
only the sufferings of mind. Never a formation of Truth was diseased, or needed
to be destroyed; error is all that suffers, sins or dies. The body manifests
only what mind embraces. The mortal body is mortal error, even a belief of Life
in matter; Truth holds man immortal, and no portion of him lost;
406
Science
and Scripture declare this, " He that believeth in me shall never see
death "; we are exempt from error or belief, and immortal only as we
understand God. Giving heed to inharmony is personal sense that in its
ignorance of God silences the voice of Soul; in other words is "total
depravity." Soul and personal sense are antagonists, one disputes every
position of the other -- which evidence do you accept? Reason instructs us
immortality is the friend of man. Hear the opposite testimonies of personal
sense and Soul.
Sense; I
am intelligent matter, a body of sickness, sin and death that constitutes a
mortal intelligence. The lungs, with alarming resonance, repeat this warning;
the fevered throbbing of arteries tells how fast the sands of life are running;
the failing pulse, that the places once knowing man shall know him no more
forever; the inevitable law of Life is death; that aught is beyond this who
knoweth. The evidence changes -- mortal man is in health, at ease in his
possessions, and sense says, eat, drink, and be merry; what a happy life is
this. I am unjust, and no person knoweth it, take vengeance on ray fellow
beings, chest, lie, and propagate this species; am brutish, but this is
obedience to the nature God hath given me. What a nice thing is sin, what a
joy, sense; my kingdom is of this world, and I am at peace. But a touch, an
accident, one wheel in the mechanism stopped, all is lost, for I am mortal!
Soul; I am
the Spirit of man that giveth understanding, beauty and Omnipotence, full of
unutterable perfections, height upon height of holiness, the wonder of being,
imperishable glory, for I am God, grasping, and gathering in all bliss, for I
am Love, giving immortality
407
to man,
for I am Truth, without beginning and without end, for I am Life, supreme over
all, for I am Intelligence, and the Substance of all, because I Am.
Does an M.
D. examine the body, feel the pulse, and look at the tongue, to ascertain the
condition of Soul, the Life of man, or the condition of his body, alias matter,
and according to signs material give his opinion of Life, God, and the prospect
for his continuing? If man was before God, and matter superior to mind, such
methods were consistent, but not otherwise. Mind, instead of body is the fount
of all suffering; but we forget this in sickness, when the mental condition is
not regarded and wholly unknown to patient or physician, while its physical
effect alone is taken up. Opinions and theories have so misguided judgment on
these points, the Truth of being is lost sight of, and illusion taken for fact.
However much the schools insist that discord rules harmony, and laws of matter
govern the Life of man; science reveals Life otherwise, and gives an
opportunity for this proof. Laws of God were never known to kill man, for this
would destroy immortality. Man is the image and likeness, therefore the reflex
shadow of God, and if one is mortal, why not the other? If man is lost his
Principle is lost, and God is not left. Doctors fasten disease on the body,
mapping it out in mind; when the mental picture is complete the patient will be
sick. A belief of disease is liable to be made manifest at any time on the
body.
If disease
is Intelligence that produces results of itself, or the body can make its own
conditions, despite the mental protest, we will admit the superiority of
disease over man, and its power to make him sick, or
408
kill him,
but not otherwise. Mind produces all effects on the body; personal sense has
neither pleasure nor pain except to belief, which is all there is to it. A
mental image of disease, fully formed, is already painted on the body, whereas
another picture of mind we transfer to canvas; 'tis the patient's fear that
draws the picture, and the artist, mind, executes it fully on the body, but the
patient is ignorant of his fear, or what mind's images are, until they are
drawn on the body. If no mental image of disease was formed, there could be no
manifestation of disease. The belief that disease is a power or Intelligence
superior to man, is ever ready to reproduce some image of disease before the
mind, and this image causes the fear, and the fear quickens or retards action,
producing inflammation or whatever the nature or type of disease that prevails
in the general thought, and comes to you entirely unbidden, and with no
particular association to call it up. Again, disease comes through association,
even as thoughts appear. For instance, your mental condition is a fixed belief,
that, exposed to severe cold or dampness, you take cold; hence, the
circumstance being this, you suffer the effects of a belief through
association. If fevers are abroad, you say, I am liable to have them; and this
mental condition, through association, produces the result.
Disease
comes after the manner that one thought calls up another. If her child is
exposed to conditions deemed dangerous, the mother says, my child will be sick,
and her belief reaches her offspring to this very end; but she calls it the
circumstances. You say, I have eaten too much, and shall find it difficult to
di-
409
gest such
a quantity of food; or, I have consumptive parents, hence am predisposed to
this disease, and the result follows, in natural sequence. The conditions of
your belief are re-produced on your body. The remote cause of all disease, is a
belief in it, and a fear of it; the present, or exciting one, the circumstance
you say will produce it.
Exposed to
contagion, having consumptive parents, being over-wrought, mentally or
physically, eating too much, fasting too long, etc., you say, are dangerous to
health, and you are a law to your body in the case, for the body could not
suffer from these without mind, and a mind, that did not embrace these beliefs,
would not suffer; the seeds of disease, germinated by circumstances, are sown
in mind, not matter. Even as thoughts on other subjects are re-produced by
association, so are diseases; and your belief regarding disease, and net the
circumstance, is what affects your body.
Parents,
nurses, and doctors, not perceiving these vital points in science, throw their
mental weight in the wrong scale, and injure those they would bless. Pursuing
an opposite course, and ruling out all mental admissions of disease, they would
save the sickness they now occasion. We should recollect suffering is no less a
mental condition, than enjoying. When an accident happens, you think, or
exclaim, "he is hurt;" but to prevent the result you fear, you should
oppose your own, and the frightened one's admission he is harmed. Contending
you are not hurt, your body obedient to mental control, will yield to this fact.
When destroying
scientifically the sufferings of children, oftentimes the mother will revive in
their mem-
410
ory what
you are blotting out, and describe how badly her child was hurt; or how much
disease she has, etc., little knowing the effect of this is like fire to a
burn. We should inquire only into our fears and beliefs regarding sickness, and
disregard all else.
Matter
cannot give testimony, therefore we should not believe personal sense; mind
alone reports physical conditions and produces them. The sick argue against
themselves by saying, "I am sick"; the physical affirmative should be
met with a mental negative; all discord is error, insomuch as harmony is the
only Truth of being; we must take a mental position, the very opposite of the
physical one, to control the body to a change of action. We inform the muscles
how to move, and they act in obedience to the mind, or there would be no
action; so does the entire system. The sick are frightened, whether they do, or
do not understand this, and the body, like a frightened man, runs too fast or
too slow, partially palsied, or inflamed with fear, the action is naturally
increased or diminished.
To advance
in the understanding of Truth, we must live up to our present perceptions of
it; and improving the present, we need take no thought for the morrow, for the
morrow will take thought for us, and afford more light as we advance toward the
light. When you know already, dishonesty is error, discipline yourself to meet
consequences rather than do wrong or hide a wrong. Truth is nearly worthless to
him who seldom uses it.
When
physical action is inflammatory, mind is the cause; some fear has taken
possession of you, although this fear is not recognized by the sick, yet the
physical
411
effects
show us it exists, and the results are the same as if it existed consciously.
Disease, originating in mind before it can be manifested on the body, is
arrested, or ruled out of the latter, by destroying the belief that occasioned
it. Fear causes the face to grow suddenly red, or pallid, proving the
circulation of the blood is controlled by this mental condition; the body
becomes weak, or suddenly strong, through fear, showing that weakness or
strength is the result of mind, instead of matter. A mother, informed of the
imprisonment of her son, instantly falls dead; here organic action has stopped
from no other than a mental cause, and yet we are so buried in the rubbish of
supposed Life in matter, we cannot, or do not, let this falling apple point to
the Principle it reveals. Fear changes the entire secretions of the system; not
only controls the functions of the brain, but the internal vicera, and the
entire mechanism of the obedient body. Remove the fear of disease, and disease
will disappear; for the body is restored through a change of mind; fear exists
when the mind is wholly unconscious of it, and produces disease involuntarily.
We never knew the patient that (lid not recover when the fear of his disease
was utterly destroyed. The stronger never yields to the weaker, except through fear,
or voluntary choice ; and mind is mightier than matter, and controls the body,
whether we do, or do not, admit this.
The ills
we fear are the only ones that conquer us. The body becomes inharmonious
through mind alone; no law, outside of mind, governs the body. The law of God
is the only absolute or inevitable, and this law never produces sickness, sin,
or death, as its conse-
412
quences.
There is no pain without mind; matter cannot suffer or produce suffering.
Disease is a fear expressed physically, not by the lips, but the functions of
the body. Mitigate the fear, and you relieve the affected organ; destroy it,
and the body regains its healthy functions. However impossible this may appear
to our educated views on this subject, it is, nevertheless, a fact in science
that we have tested sufficiently to declare it, as unhesitatingly as any other
demonstrable Truth. That man is unconscious of his fear, neither changes its
effects on the body nor the mental fact; ignorance of the cause, or approach of
disease, not in the least militates against its mental origin. More or less
fear accompanies all ignorance; who that understands the power of mind over
body, its impelling force, and how controlled, and this very ignorance, like
walking in darkness on the edge of P. precipice, is an ever-present involuntary
fear.
We say, my
body suffers, and mind has nothing to do with it; this is simply impossible.
The martyr, burning at the stake, conquers his body with mind, and silences
personal sense with Soul. So the opposite extreme of stolidity meets his
punishment with less torture than a mind touched to finer issues. Death has
occurred from imaginary phlebotomy; individuals have died of contagions,
hydrophobia, etc., believing they had been exposed to them, when such was not
the ewe. Many instances of the mind's control over body, producing death, prove
this control absolute, instead of partial. Physicians are ready to admit mind
affects the body somewhat; but this is but a small part of the fact; science
reveals all action produced and controlled by
413
mind, and
a single instance of this proved, as when people die from mental causes,
justifies this statement.
If mind is
the only actor, bow do we explain mechanism, apparently acting of itself, or
through what we term matter power. Simply that mind has constructed this
mechanism and carries it on. A mill at work, or the action of water on a wheel,
is secondary, and not the primary cause; mind caused the mill and constructed
the machinery. The eternal mind first "divided the waters," and
controlled the wave. Mind is the primitive, and the derivative would not
continue without mind to put it in operation; perpetual motion in matter is a
failure ; but perpetual motion of mind is science. Intelligence is the motive
power, or procurer of all action. Take away mind and the body is without
action; therefore it is but logical to conclude mind produces its action; but
when we go farther, and cure diseased action through mind, that medicine could
not remove, we gain this undeniable evidence.
Mind, like
a telegraph office, holds the message conveyed to the body, and to prevent any
bad results we must be careful the telegram is from science instead of sense.
Deprived of this despatch, the body returns no answer of inflammation or disease,
from the fact matter has no Intelligence of its own. The body is not an
independent sovereignty, or reigning autocrat over man; any supposed government
matter holds over Intelligence, is wholly mythical. The belief our body is
substance, is not more true than that it is Life and Intelligence. What a
material world we address; but Truth must be spoken; if not at all times, at
some time, and we seem destined to take the enemy's first
414
fire, for
speaking it this time. We have faith this book will do its work, though not
fully understood, in the nineteenth century. The revelator read its history in
the little book, "Sweet in the mouth, and bitter in the belly."
Though but a hint in time, it is a tale for eternity. Materiality must and will
go out, though it be slowly; the spiritual era advances when physical effects
will no longer be attributed to physical causes, but discerned in their final
spiritual cause.
When fear
causes the blood to bound through veins and arteries, or languidly to move the
palsied mechanism, destroy the fear, and the system regains its equilibrium;
anodynes, counter-irritants, or depletion can never reduce inflammation like
the Truth of being. Faith, or belief, is a poor equivalent for science; we must
understand man metaphysically, before we can control him aright, physically.
Ignorance, coupled with a smattering of metaphysical learning, is a shocking
bore; the Truth of being reduced to a petty cross-fire on every poor cripple
and invalid, sending into him the cold bullet, "nothing ails you,"
had better be unsaid until it be understood. If a boil appears suddenly, that
you say is painful, does it ache? The boil does not ache, for matter has no
sensation; it is mind that feels, and that boil bespeaks your belief of heat,
pain, swelling, and inflammation, but you call it the boil. Heat is a product
of fear; warmth is the normal condition of Truth, cold or heat is not; body
bereft of mind is cold at first, and afterwards nothing. Fear produces the
heat, and another phase of belief tries to expel it through yet another form of
belief, called a boil, that now appears on the body, mind holding at
415
the same
time the conclusion that boils are painful, but prolong Life, alias
Intelligence. An error of premises produces error in conclusion, mental error
occasions all the discords of body.
Heat would
pass off as painless from the body as gas expelled from boiling water, but for
our opposite beliefs. Chills are the effects of beat; ulcers, boils, etc., are
heat coming to the surface; but mind, and not matter, creates this beat and
forms all the identity disease has. The invalid may conclude a humor in the
blood causes boils, and when this humor is brought to the surface the system is
relieved; but mind, and not matter, has formed this conclusion and its results.
You will have these forms of disease so long as you regard them channels for
disease, or inevitable results of matter, Cherish any particular belief of
disease and you are in danger of reproducing it on the body. Reverse the case
and destroy your belief in this modus operandi of matter, and your fear of
disease will not engender the beat to be thrown off; and what you thought
before was scrofula, bile, and physical causes, you will learn was fear and
mind acting on the body.
Disease,
destroyed in its origin, viz., mind, never reappears again, and is cured
effectually; but matter can never destroy it. A mental position taken
doubtingly, is a very weak one; you must understand these points in science, or
you are never thoroughly persuaded in your own mind of the power of belief and
its sad effect on the body; neither can you discern the Principle bringing out
the capabilities and harmony of being, that enables you to hold what you
understand. In the positive belief and fear of disease yourself, it
416
were vain
to attempt, mentally, to remove another's fear or disturbed condition; as soon
attempt to destroy beat with fire. To succeed in the science of Life, you must
be found in it, having not on a belief, but the garment of Truth, and this will
give you self-possession, and ability to bring out the full amount of the Life
that is Christ healing the sick. Eschewing the belief you are Intelligent
matter, you gain the capabilities of Spirit and the freedom of the sons of God.
Men of
business have said this science was of great advantage from a secular point of
view. It not only enhanced their physical and mental endurance, but control of
man and perception of character. They have told us they could meet better the
exigencies of business, by meeting mind on its own grounds, perceiving thoughts
and their relation to men's acts. The science of Life not only brings out
latent possibilities and capacities, but extends the atmosphere, or aroma of
mind, giving man vent in broader and higher being. An odor, confined by a
stopper, is not so benevolent as when the stopper is removed and it scents the
room. Remove the belief of Intelligence beneath a skull bone, of Soul in body,
and matter the master of man, and there quickly follows more of a man or woman,
because they understand themselves and others better. Getting outside the
evidence of personal sense to judge of men and things, is a vast gain to
manhood and Godhood. We are suffocated by beliefs and 'isms, whereas a living
Soul is liberty and Life; understanding can grasp even the infinite idea. We
are conscious of intelligent Spirit; then away with the dream of intelligent
matter, or that Intelligence dwells in non-intelligence.
417
Soul and
body are different, but concordant, and one cannot be lost and the other left.
To apprehend completeness and perfection, we must reach them, and bring out our
model thus. Thinking of sin, sickness and death is not the method to conquer
them, and form your model of Life; destroy them in mind and they are gone
forever; get rid of the fear of sickness, or the love of sin, and you are rid
of these errors in physical manifestation. Action should proceed from
Principle, not idea, from Soul, and not personal sense, and mind instead of
matter; when this is so, we shall govern our bodies and bring out harmony.
Principle controls its idea harmoniously, governed alone as it is by the
supreme Intelligence, but for this, 'ology or 'ism would make a sick globe. The
belief that Spirit dwells in matter, and that matter has Intelligence, causes
all discord; man is not sick; for mind is not sick, and matter cannot be; a
belief is the tempter and tried, the sin and sinner, disease and its cause,
death and the dying. Shock this belief by some expression, or impression, of
Truth, start it from its fixed centre, and it will relieve the body at once. A
tooth ceases to pain you before the forceps, a greater fear having silenced,
for a moment, the lesser, showing the effects of mind on the body, and that
"our greater evils medicine the less."
A bigots
circumference of mind is very small; personality and matter he believes in, but
talk to him beyond these, of Principle and idea, and you get no response.
Ignorance is the greatest foe to metaphysical science.
Never
converse on sickness, watch its symptoms, recommend matter remedies, or seek to
learn its cause
418
in matter;
and you will find it easier for mind to destroy, and to enjoy health yourself,
and help others to do go. The basis of all disease, is error or belief ;
destroy the belief and the sick will recover. To be cheerful in sickness is
well, to be hopeful is better, but to understand the nothingness of disease
destroys it utterly. An invalid is a deplorable instance of mesmerism, with
which one belief controls another, and error re-produces error. We admit one
mind can control another mind, and thereby control the body, but never
calculate we do this daily with our own body. The mesmerizer causes his subject
pain without any physical cause, proving he produces this sensation through the
subject's belief, and not that it existed in the body; then, to the belief of
pain were he to add a belief of disease in any part, and keep up this state of
mind sufficiently long, the disease would certainly appear there. The
mesmerizer makes a limb rigid by making his subject believe he cannot move it.
Thus it is with the sick; they mesmerize their bodies unconsciously, through
their beliefs, to conditions of stiffened joints, disease, and death, and the
only difference is, the cause in one instance, is understood to be mind, or
belief, producing the results, and in the other case, believed to be matter;
hence mind is employed to remove one, and matter the other condition, whereas
both have their origin in mind, and are removed through mind. The lame man
mesmerizes his body through the belief an accident or disease caused him
lameness, and so long as this belief lasts, his lameness continues.
Sometimes
faith in medicine, or the lapse of time wears away fear to such an extent the
belief changes
419
with
regard to the disease, sufficiently to remove the bodily ailment. Remove the
belief that holds the limb rigid and it is restored. But, says one, no man can
mesmerize me. This may be true, and because you mesmerize your body so
positively, others are negative to you; but such an individual would be
difficult to cure with other's mesmerism, or materia medica, unless he bad more
faith in them than himself. Science would heal him more readily through the
understanding, for such minds are generally self-reliant and assured, holding
strong, if preoccupied grounds. There is no law of matter that governs
Intelligence; mind alone is supreme law. What we term laws of nature, governing
man, are nothing more or less than man's belief, producing the results of mind
on his body and not matter. Life is not evolved, but evolves phenomena. Life is
eternal, giving forth its representation as the sun emits its rays. That Life
is supported by food, drink, air, etc., that it is organic, or in the least
dependent on matter, or sustained by it, is a myth.
Soul has a
body when all matter is destroyed; the mortal body is a thing of belief called
man, an error from its origin to its end; the Truth of being is immortal Soul
and body. Expose the body mortal to certain temperatures, and belief says it
has colds and catarrhs; to severe labor, and fatigue follows ; to prick a vein
lets out Life, and this man is at the mercy of a bodkin! putting aside mind, no
such results follow to man. So long as the belief remains that dampness or cold
produces catarrhs, fevers, rheumatism, or consumption, these effects will
follow, and the air of tropical climes will afford exemption from them; but
change the belief
420
with
regard to this, and the effects will change, and you will find the body
manifests only what mind says, on these, and all other points. Matter is
governed by mind.
Man,
pursuing zealously the conditions of his belief, (and this is all there is to
mesmerism), if told how mind affects the body, and, to illustrate, you quote
the evidence of this in mesmerism, replies, "no man can mesmerize
me." And yet he calls his body this me, and that body is just what his
parents first, and secondly himself, has made it; and these parents were not
matter, but mind, as the body proves, that is no longer thy parent, if mind has
departed.
When we
reach the science of Life, we shall learn Truth casts out devils and heals the
sick, also, that Jesus gave disease and devil one signification. Those fear not
they shall murder, whose perceptions reach the average of goodness, and if our
spiritual perceptions were up to the standard of Christians, we should no more
fear sickness, sin, or death. It is not less wise to fear sickness than to fear
we shall steal ; both are admissions of moral weakness, and a loss of control
over the body that we should not permit. Let the slave to a wrong desire learn
the science of Life, and he never more will cherish this desire, but rise
higher in the scale of being. Allowing Soul to govern sense, is science,
wherein we are a law of Wisdom to our body, of Life and not death.
Let
mankind study this science with half the avidity they peruse volumes on
disease, and try the different drugs and drills for health, and they will
advance not from one disease to another, nor to decrepitude and death, but beyond
sickness into harmony and Life.
421
When
"in him we live, move, and have being," is it impossible to conclude
God is equal to camphor or a sweat? Life is proved Spirit, and not matter; and
the only possible objection to our eagerly accepting this munificence of being
is, that it requires a better demonstration of Life. The centuries are slowly,
but surely, tumbling down the old corner stones, and building on better
foundations. Not far distant, the hour looks down on us when sickness, sin, and
death will be admitted error, and the Truth that destroys them sought instead
of drugs.
Mind is
the only alterative of the body; every secretion and function of the human
system depend on mind and are controlled by it. The pallid invalid supposed to
be dying from a bad state of blood, is restored to strength and health by
changing her belief on this subject; it matters not whether she knows or does
not know the working of mind and its bad effect on her body, she will recover
when mind is set right on the physical question, and the blood will circulate
naturally and healthily. The Oxford students furnished this precedent, who
caused a felon to die of the belief he was bled to death; when not a drop of
blood had flowed. This single case proved the superiority of belief over matter
and blood, to kill a man. The belief that Life is contingent on matter, or that
certain conditions of the blood and organic structure are fatal to man, must be
met and mastered, before Life is understood, or found immortal. Mind causes all
conditions of the body, and you can change them effectually and permanently
only through this medium. To heal the sick with science, has this advantage
over physiolo-
422
gy, drugs,
mesmerism, etc.; it is the Truth of being opposed to its error, by which man goes
up higher in the scale of being; other methods are error opposing error, that
have a temporary advantage only. Belief is on their side to be sure, for error
coincides with error, strengthens it and weighs against the science of Life;
but this has no advantage in the scale of Truth. The perception of man's
possibilities enlarges his being, giving higher aims and broader scope to
manhood. If there were no other and higher motives for acquainting ourself with
God, the Principle of man, than to be rid of sickness, this would seem
sufficient.
A student
once said, "this science has made me all I am," and that was saying
more, perhaps, than he was aware. There is infinite room in the science of man,
for here the limits of personality confine not Intelligence.
Disease is
one of the beliefs of personal sense that Truth finally destroys. No scientific
work can treat of disease as an identity, or power. Any allusion to disease, or
confession that you are sick, should be avoided, as you would shun telling
ghost stories to children in the dark. Shut out from the light, a child suffers
from thoughts of danger, and so does the adult who comprehends not his own
being; the child must be taken out of darkness to get rid of his fear, and the
suffering it occasions, and so must the man. The universal belief that
suffering is physical, and not a creation of mind, produces suffering, owing to
our ignorance of its origin. That Life is not dependent on matter we prove when
Life goes on and matter is destroyed. Spiritually, I cannot perceive sickness,
sin or death; and recognize these only as beliefs of matter.
423
Sickness
is error, its remedy Truth; and the science of being reveals that our body is
sensationless, and that Spirit sees, hears, feels, acts, and enjoys, but cannot
suffer; and this makes Soul and body harmonious and immortal. To conclude our
body is Life, Substance, or Intelligence, and this body matter, that sees,
hears, feels, sets, enjoys and suffers, makes sickness, sin and death autocrats
over Soul, and man a slave to personal sense. To Soul there is neither matter,
sickness, sin, or death; but to personal sense these are realities, that even
govern Spirit; what a mistake! we know this is error, and error a belief,
destitute of understanding; and change the belief, the error changes, destroy
it, and the error is gone. You see through solid walls, hear without sound,
Walk over water, and have your body with yon in clairvoyance; but in the
opposite belief of sense, your body remains in statu quo, and your mind goes without
a body. Let the mesmerizer experience what we term the fears of personal sense,
its pains or its pleasures, and his subject has those same sensations, which
proves they are produced by mind and not matter, and are beliefs instead of the
reality of things. Sickness is not imagination ; it is more than this, it is a
belief, a conviction of mind instead of a fancy. One animal looking another in
the eye may cause a quarrel; but notice the superiority of Soul over sense,
when the eye of man fastened fearlessly on the beast, starts him away with
terror. This illustrates the effect of Spirit looking disease steadfastly in
the face to destroy it, compared with our physiological drills, drugs, and
mesmerism, which is the quarrel between beasts. When we submit to personal
sense that we admit is the author of sickness, sin
424
and death,
we do not govern our bodies; we must turn to spiritual sense for happiness and
immortality. Thinking less of what we term substance-matter, and more of
substance in Spirit, we become a law to our bodies of Life, and not death, of
harmony instead of discord, and of Truth instead of error.
I pity him
more who is sick than him who is a sinner, for we rely on God to help man in
the latter, but not the former case. If sense masters man in sickness, it may
in sin, and Soul is out of office. Because personal sense reports you poor, it
may tempt you to steal; or exposed to fatigue, or cold, say you must be sick;
but should you believe it in one case more than in the other? in both cases it misguides
and deludes. The belief that sickness is a necessity, or the master of man,
disappears in science where our normal control over the body reappears.
Bathing, friction, dietetics, air, exercise, electricity, etc., never yet made
man harmonious; drugging or pounding the poor body to make it sensibly feel
well, that ought to be insensibly well, is a sorry equivalent for the control
of Spirit over matter. Has brains, blood, heart, lungs, stomach, bones, nerves,
drugs, whiskey or sin, reduced thee to the slave of matter; remember these are
not as strong as thou, and rise to thy God-given dominion; man is not the tool
of personal sense, the Truth of being declares this. Sickness, as well as sin,
is error, and can matter err? Sickness is a jar, an abnormal action,
inharmonious, and what is the corrective of this ? matter cannot resuscitate,
without mind, it cannot act of itself. We say it can; that certain
combinations, gasses, secretions, acute or morbid conditions of matter produce
inharmony, and bodily
425
sufferings
also; but this is not so, if the body causes pain it can also cure it, but
matter neither caused nor cured disease; not a gas accumulates, or a secretion
takes place, or a combination occurs without mind. We admit the voluntary
action of mind controls muscles, bones and nerves, but conclude, when these
please to rebel against mind, as in case of lameness or contraction, they will
not obey, however much we desire it, and mind has no more control over them;
but this makes muscles and bones superior to man in one instance, and in
another his servant, which is unnatural and not equal to the economy of human
governments. If muscles are capable of action without the mind, we might say
they are capable of inaction also, on this same premises, but not otherwise;
and if they are able to inact of themselves at any time, they are at all times,
and man has no control over them, and one state is as much their normal
condition as the other; hence a stiffened joint or paralyzed limb is as natural
as its opposite. But if mind controls muscles in one case, it does in all
cases, When Shakespeare said, "Throw physic to the dogs," I have some
faith he added to the cast-aways, the belief of intelligent matter. Sometimes
in fevers, consumptions, etc., the patient seems full of courage, and we say,
"bow calm he is; how can he be suffering from fear; his body is the victim
of disease, but the mind is unmoved." Mind that in sickness we deem
tranquil, is frightened with its own images; fear heats the insensible body and
dashes the blood in mad currents; but Christ, Truth, stills this tempest, with
its "Peace be still." If disease can attack and control the body
without man's consent, so can sin; both are error
426
to be
destroyed; dare you admit Spirit cannot govern the body when error of any
nature takes it in hand? Destroy the belief of fever and the fear it occasions,
and blood will circulate again mildly, and the body be at peace. Personal sense
takes no cognizance of what is going on in mind; it is blind to the cause of
effects; to comprehend our explanation of man you must perceive its Principle
in science, that demands understanding and demonstration; whereas personal
sense requires belief only.
The
metaphysical physician looks for effects where the physical doctor thinks he
finds causes. The former finds all causation mind, the latter looks for cause
only in matter; the former heals on the scientific basis of being, whereby mind
governs the body, the latter through the belief that matter controls man.
Metaphysical pathology rests on psychology, or the science of Soul; but the
signification of psychology is perverted whenever construed mesmerism instead
of science. The metaphysical method of healing the sick labors under this
disadvantage, that mortal belief apprehends matter only, and not Spirit; and
disparages the metaphysical, and gives the physical precedence in all things,
throwing all the weight of belief in the scale of personal sense, and on the
side of matter. Meeting the affirmative to disease with a negative, neutralizes
the positive belief and its effects on the body, making discord become negative
to harmony, and introducing the science of being. A patient thoroughly booked
in physiology, materia medica, etc., is more difficult to heal with science,
than one having never bowed the knee so methodically to matter.
427
In case of
insanity you argue, mentally and verbally, against the belief that brains are
diseased, the same as in other cases of physical disorders, for all physical
inharmonies proceed from mental causes; insanity is but another form of mental
error. We could afford to scorn a bold denial of personal sense if proof was
wanting; but when it is not, and this reversed idea of man restores harmony to
mind and body, as nothing else can, we must admit it science. Did riot this
Truth of being silence personal sense and the so-called laws material, man were
lost, and discord, sin and death, immortal. Insanity is a very interesting case
to treat metaphysically, it being a clearer case, and affords better evidence
of the effects of mind on the body. The only good effect you can produce on
body or brain is the result of mind instead of matter, through the Truth of
being that destroys error; but you cannot introduce the science of being that
restores health, through manipulation; as soon teach man mathematics by rubbing
his head. If the physician is scientific he is morally and practically fit for
healing, without manipulation or medicine, and speaks as one having authority,
possessing the Truth that destroys error. Under some circumstances it is well
to converse with the patient audibly, explaining to him the science of his
course; but under others, it arrays him and his sect against you and thus
retards his recovery. Should a nurse or the friends of the sick think lightly
of metaphysical healing, or despair of the patient's recovery, you should
inform them as much as they cart comprehend, of its basis and results,
requesting them, for the sake of the sick, to leave the patient out of their
thoughts as much as pos-
428
sible,
that the influence one mind holds over another may be obviated. You have as
much better opportunity to be heard mentally, when speaking alone, as
physically; we admit one cannot be heard when others are speaking louder than
himself, or talking on other subjects; and this is why the physician needs to
be alone with the patient, when mentally healing him. A scientific practitioner
never converses on other subjects when he is treating the sick; yon cannot gain
the spiritual sense of your patient if you are addressing his personal senses,
by manipulating him; besides you need to learn your patient's mind, and to do
this you must be silent and still; manipulation, or conversation on other
topics are injurious. The spirituality that abstracts all attention from the
body, never manipulates and is the only positive position of scientific
healing. The demonstrator of the science of healing is to-day an Atlas with the
world on his shoulders, and the only reason he heals in one or a majority of
cases is, not that law material or a single opinion or prejudice is in his
favor, but because it is the Truth of being demonstrated by its fruits.
Understanding the science of music, we have firm reliance on our ability to
practice it; so with the science of Life, the only difference is, the latter
demonstrates God controlling man, and the former, God controlling music; but
the latter meets with more opposition because it tends to destroy all error,
and is not understood at present.
The
Scientist sees more clearly the cause of disease in mind, than the anatomist
can in body; the latter examines the body to learn how matter is committing
suicide, and the former reads mind to find what beliefs
429
are
destroying the body. The scientist is a law to himself; he would not do wrong
knowingly, and if he has not reached this standpoint, he cannot give the more
wonderful demonstrations of healing. Whosoever justifies an evil-doer, and does
not expose his iniquity, is a partaker of his sin, and will have his reward.
Whenever we have discovered a dishonest student claiming to be scientific, we
have first explained to him his error, and next, rebuked him; and if neither
explanation nor rebuke are heeded, and he does not reform, he becomes our
enemy. The greatest hindrance this science can meet will arise from backsliding
students, those claiming to practice it who do not adhere to its moral
obligations, who have not yet realized until the fountain is purer, the stream
will be turbid; mind must be right or its action on others will be inharmonious.
A mental
condition, or error of belief unknown to both patient and physician, is not
readily removed, and to gain a scientific perception of it, or apprehend the
mental condition of the sick, you must hold the reins over your own body. Our
Master knew the thoughts of others, solely because of his goodness and
spirituality; therefore, mind-reading, with him, was very far from
clairvoyance. To be able to discern the cause of sickness after the scientific
mode of our Master, depends on your spirituality, obedience to your higher
nature, after acquiring the rules of science that guide you aright. If you are
becoming spiritually minded, you will discern the things that belong to Spirit;
and in the ratio that you are not carnally minded, and according as you
surrender error, will your spiritual discernment increase.
430
Mental
healing may be done both right and wrong; the wrong method is capable of evil,
and is mesmerism, of which the lowest natures are capable. The scientific
method is without power to do evil; it is Soul, not personal sense, or
manipulation that destroys belief and fear and heals the sick, in which
mind-reading is not Only found important to your success, but especially
characterizing the demonstration. When once you understand disease has no
identity, you will perceive sickness is but a belief. You should instruct the
sick that Soul is Substance, and body its idea; that disease is not in the idea
of Soul or immortality, nor can it exist in shadow, the body of Soul, therefore
it has no existence.
The mental
co-operation of the sick will promote their recovery. To move mind from its
central error, viz., that Intelligence and Life are in the body, and matter is
the master of man, is the great point in metaphysical healing. Every invalid has
an especial fear, in which some disease and its approaching symptoms are more
alarming than others; not because the disease is more dangerous, but more
feared; remove the fear, and the danger is gone, for mind will master the
disease. Physical phenomena epitomize the mental, in which a fearful object
troubles us until it is removed from our observation. Disease is an image of
mind, that must be removed from mental sight, or the fear it occasions will
increase, and this will increase the inflammatory or morbid symptoms. A belief
is the seed within itself that propagates all physical, because all mental
discord. We know this is difficult to admit before it is understood, when the
proof is ample; demonstration is all
431
that
convinces us of this fact, and until this proof is made, you cannot be safe.
Conversing on disease, reading, or thinking about it, should be sedulously
avoided. If doctors knew one half the harm clone by medical books they would
abandon works on disease, and never Speak again of sickness to their patients.
Thinking of disease and pointing out its character makes it liable to appear on
the body; such conversations or ruminations should be repugnant as obscene
thoughts or words.
Mind
engenders all disease, in which case your only hope lies in thinking and
hearing less about it, or in understanding the science that absolutely prevents
it. When you employ a material remedy you must have more faith in it than the
disease, and believe you are getting cured with more tenacity than you believe
you are growing worse, that the balance of your faith in recovery or the
remedy, may restore you; this condition of mind, neutralizing the effects of
your fear, relieves the body. The whole is a mental operation, and matter has
nothing to do with it.
The mortal
body is but a phenomenon of mortal belief. Watch, then, mind more, and the body
less. In case of sickness, or sin, to destroy the one, or remedy the other, we
should begin in mind instead of matter; "pluck the beam out of our own
eye, that we may see clearly to cast the mote out of our brother's eye."
Unless we are rid of blindness ourself, we are the blind leading the blind,
whereby both fall into the ditch.
The study
of materia medica, physiology, etc., should give place to metaphysical
research, whereby we gain an insight into the power mind holds over matter.
432
Mental
power, governed by science instead of personal sense, by Truth instead of
error, makes man eternal, and will destroy sickness, sin and death; while the
material methods for reaching the ultimate harmony of man, have failed to
accomplish this. The attention given medicine, laws of health, and saving
souls, bestowed upon the moral elevation of man, or the metaphysical
understanding of him, would usher in the millennium. Jesus understood this, but
the Rabbis did not; hence their scorn of the glorious Nazarene and his
demonstration above theirs. Soul takes care of the body in science, where God
is an ever-present help in times of trouble. Keeping the body, or,, the outside
of the platter, clean," is only done by keeping the mind right. Bathing
and brushing to remove exhalations from the cuticle, receive a useful hint from
Christianity, and another from the Irish emigrant, who is in health, although
in filth; showing that the physical must correspond with the mental. When dirt
gives no uneasiness, body and mind are equally gross, and the result is not so
chafing. Filthiness that harms not the filthy in mind, could not be borne with
impunity by the refined or pure; but what we need is the clean body and clean
mind, and the body rendered pure by mind and not matter, for the latter can
never do it permanently. One saith, "I take good care of my body,"
and repeats his decalogue with all the zeal of a devotee; but the scientist
knows he has taken best care of his body who leaves it most out of his
thoughts; hence the demand, absent from the body and present with God.
John
Quincy Adams, and hundreds of others were instances of health and physiology;
so the tobacconist
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who has
taken poison for half a century, assures you it preserves his health; but does
this assertion make it so, or establish the fact that tobacco is a good thing,
or prevent the conclusion he would have been better without it ? Such instances
only prove the power of belief over the body, and fasten our conclusions in
science, "as a man thinketh, so is he." Mind decides the effect of
drugs, regimen, physiology, etc., on the body; for man is governed by mind
instead of matter. The only condition of health and happiness, is ignorance of
the so-called laws of matter, and understanding God, hence more confidence in
Soul governing sense, and rising above selfishness, or mere personal
considerations, in which pleasure or pain of the body is taken so largely into
account, into the atmosphere of Spirit instead of matter.
A highly
opinionated man, booked in the old school systems, has little room for enlarged
reasoning; metaphysical science being intangible to touch or taste, he casts it
overboard. His treasures laid up in sects, pride, person, or popularity, are in
earthen vessels, that yield little space to God. The man of avoirdupois is
shocked at our small estimate of exquisite viands; the diminutive intellect,
alarmed at our exclusive appeals to mind, and the man of sense, sad at the
prospect of Soul only! thus, when the world is bidden come to the feast and
Truth of being, one has a farm, another a merchandise, and another a wife,
therefore they cannot come; but ere long Truth compels us to come in ways we
least expect. When sickness overtakes man, he is weak with all his imaginary
strong-holds of matter, having nothing but material law to lean upon, and this,
he owns he has
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transgressed,
where can he look for immortality? Is it to person or Principle, to matter or
Spirit, to body or Soul, he finally flees ?
If matter
is the identity of man, existence is but a continuation of personal sense that
proves itself the source of pain. To contend for personal sense, and against
mind's control over the body, is like the defendant arguing for the plaintiff,
and in favor of a law that sentences him to suffer. Sin, sickness, and death,
would destroy man; then why should we sustain these by a supposition of their
inherent power and control over man, making him amenable to laws that destroy
him. Until metaphysical science becomes popular, the weal, or vain will never
advocate it, however much they are benefited by it. Those of a very different
mould are commissioned for its hours of depreciation and struggles. The final
proof that all is Spirit hastens. Life will be demonstrated ere long according
to our statement of it, viz., Spirit and not matter; then shall we marvel at
the tenacity of opposite opinions, that with the law and prophets and science,
we must at length learn Truth of the things we suffer. Because science is in
advance of the age we should not say, "adhere to personal sense to-day,
for our present life depends on matter." If this is the case, man is
mortal; but it is not so, and we cannot advance in science until we lose this
belief. Error is not a necessity at present or in the future, and to-day is the
acceptable time of Truth; the present, even as the future, demands the science
of being. To stop utterly eating and drinking until your belief changes in
regard to these things, were error; get rid of your beliefs as fast as
possible, and admit
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the
Principle, for it is the platform of health, joy and immortality. To reach this
proof by degrees, and only as we are capable of doing so with increasing
health, harmony and happiness, is the only proper method. We would not, for we
could not transform the infant at once to a man, or keep the suckling a
life-long babe. Man need not spend his days in ignorance of the science of
Life, expecting death will make him harmonious and immortal, for it will not;
we advance to Life understandingly, therefore we cannot step at once from death
to Life, or from matter to Spirit. Only as we understand the Principle of
being, and reach perfection, are we Spirit, and eternal.
Death
cannot advance man but one step towards a higher existence, insomuch as it
changes not his belief but in one thing, namely, that he died, and of the
disease he supposed was killing him. Mortal man is the same after as before the
change called death; his body is the same belief of man, the same supposed
personal sense, Substance in matter, and Life in the body, as before death; and
so long as this error remains, mind being the same, the body remains mortal. We
are never Spirit until we are God; there are no individual "spirits."
Until we find Life Soul, and not sense, we are not sinless, harmonious, or
undying. We become Spirit only as we reach being in God; not through death or
any change of matter, but mind, do we reach Spirit, lose sin and death, and
gain man's immortality; hence the need to commence Life's lesson to-day. We
gain no higher experiences from death except to learn we die not, and this we
gain of Life only and not death. The science of being reveals Substance,
Intelligence
436
and Life,
not matter but Spirit. Herein also we learn the immense disparity between the
belief of Life in matter and the reality of being. Science makes the
demonstration of Life perfection; and this we all must show before we have any
grounds to say we understand Life, or are Spirit. Instead of this science
requiring too much of man, at present we do not perceive one half the rightful
claims it has upon us, or we should urge them at once on our own acceptance.
The Scriptures inform us man liveth "not by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Truth is the Life of man, but
the age objects to making this practical, which is generally the case with all
high requirements. We ask, consistently with the demands of God, and to-day,
that less thought be given to what we shall eat, drink, or wear, that we live
more simple and primitively, for this will increase longevity and morality. If
we admit food can disturb the harmonious functions of mind and body, either the
food or the belief must be dispensed with before man is harmonious. The belief
that matter governs the Life of man must be met and mastered on some basis
before man is learned immortal. Sickness is abject slavery; an invalid haunted
by the belief of physical suffering that masters him at all points and on all
occasions, is the most pitiful object on earth. Laws of health constitute a
government of matter over man wholly unnatural; they attach penalties to our
best deeds.
We ought
to learn from history and experience the less we believe these so-called laws
the less we suffer from their infringement, and the better we obey God's
spiritual law. People who know nothing of physiology,
437
hygiene,
or materia medica, until missionaries give them of this "tree of
knowledge," suffer not as we do from the so-called laws that we say must
be obeyed or they kill us, and they enjoy better health than those obeying
them. What, then, shall we say of law "more honored in the breach than the
observance?" Slavery must yield to innate right, and destroyed in mind, it
will die out of forms of government; ignorance of our inalienable rights makes
us slaves. If we recognized all being, God, we would perceive our dominion over
Sickness, sin and death; for governments oppressive and unjust Wisdom layeth
its hand upon to destroy, and they fall forever before the might of
understanding. The watchword of freedom from the bondage of sickness and sin is
not taken up; it has no inspiration for mankind.
This is
owing to the fatal belief that error is as real as Truth ; that evil has equal
power and claims with good, and discord is as normal and real as harmony; such
admissions work badly. That matter is solid Substance, and Spirit essence
inside of matter; that Spirit is Life, but dwells in decay and death; that
Spirit is God, but cannot make man without partnership with matter; that man is
not man until he is matter; are false admissions and contradictory statements
that Seem too absurd to be permitted a place in reason. If man is matter, he is
not mind, and dust is as intelligent as Deity. If Intelligence or Spirit is in
matter, the infinite is in the finite, and Spirit is less than matter, for we
cannot place the greater within the less. If man existed not forever, and
before material structure, he does not exist after his body is disintegrated.
If we
438
live after
death we lived before birth. Life has no beginning, therefore no end; all that
is material must disappear before man is found immortal. How strange, then, to
conclude man would have had no individual being unless he had been
individualized through matter, an impossible beginning of Intelligence.
The body
never affected the Life of man for a moment; eating never made him Eve, nor
abstaining from food caused him to die. Do you believe this? No! Do you
understand it? No! and this is the only reason that you doubt it; the
cadaverous dyspeptic learning this, has a sweet face without a sour stomach,
and is nearer the kingdom of heaven than you. We are attracted or repelled
mentally without knowing the thoughts that lead to this. We weep because others
weep, and laugh because they laugh, and have small-pox on this ground, for
disease is not hereditary or contagious only through mind. The more spiritual
we are, the more conscious to us is an error of belief. Surrounded by minds
filled with thoughts of disease, constantly dwelling upon their bodies, and
with some complaint always ready, the spiritual suffer greatly in this mental
atmosphere; such involuntary agents of pain to themselves and others, must be
reformed. When mental contagion is understood, these people will be avoided as
we now avoid small-pox. To stop the manufacture of disease and give us a better
mental atmosphere, is worthy the present age of progress. We would sooner risk
our health, inhaling the miasma of a rice swamp, than be obliged to listen
constantly to complaints of sickness, or through sympathy or society be kept in
the mental atmosphere of the sick; some natures may stand it, but ours has a
struggle.
439
We admit
man is immortal, -- our only evidence of this, however, we gain from his
harmony; discord, sickness or death never begat this conclusion. Immortality
was never demonstrated to personal sense; but apprehending in the least, Soul
and science, no man doubts his eternal existence. Physical effects proceed from
mental causes; the belief we can move our hand moves it, and the belief we
cannot do this renders it impossible during this state of mind. Palsy is a
belief that attacks mind, and holds a limb inactive independent of the mind's
consent, but the fact that a limb is moved only with mind proves the opposite,
namely, that mind renders it also immovable. Medical works fill the mind with
images of disease that are liable sooner or later to be re-produced on the
body. The consent of mind must first be given that palsy is practical, then the
circumstance said to produce it, and the result follows you have it developed.
Ossification,
or any abnormal formation of bone, is produced by mind alone; for a bone never
grew independent of mind, and the cause producing this can remove it. What the
physician and others determine is fatal in a case, and above all what the
patient believes regarding this, is the only obstacle in the way of the
recovery. A condition of matter must first have been a condition of mind; hence
to destroy the former we must begin with the latter, and when the cause is
removed its effects disappear. We will suppose two parallel cases of bone
disease, both produced similarly and attended by the same symptoms; for one we
employ a surgeon, and for the other a scientist. The surgeon, believing matter
forms its own conditions, entertains doubts or fears in
440
regard to
the case, and his state of mind is communicated to the patient, whether
verbally or otherwise. While we vainly suppose the sick feel the effects only
of thoughts expressed, they feel more surely the unexpressed fear, doubt, or
anxiety, inasmuch as it is more intense. The scientist, understanding how mind
alone forms every condition of matter, gives courage and strength to the
patient while imparting to his understanding the Truth of being that destroys
error, and restores the limb without stiffness, displacement, or unnatural
formations; whereas the surgeon's similar case will terminate, if not fatally,
in some unnatural condition of the joint. Understanding the cause of disease
wholly mental, a scientist will never for a moment admit general opinions
regarding it, or take physical symptoms into account, except as mental
conditions or beliefs to be destroyed through mind.
Personal
sense and science clash, of course, in this statement, for they are opposites
and without affinity, and this quarrel will wax warmer until it is over, and
sense yields to science. Pride, ignorance, prejudice or passion will close the
door on science until future centuries open it wide to man, and he regains the
harmony of being. If Life and Intelligence depend on organization, man is
material; and stop the functions of the body, or let the body be spiritual, and
man is annihilated; and there must be a new creation of man. If Life escapes from
matter it is not Spirit, and must return again to matter, in which case there
is no spiritual existence. If material existence is real, the spiritual is
unreal, and vice versa ; if Life is
matter, or in matter, it cannot continue outside of matter; and material
decomposition
441
must
reduce material man to dust. Even the worm begotten of death, springing from
corruption, we name Life in matter; making Life a product of death and death a
product of Life. When will the age awake to reason on being, as fairly as on
other subjects.
We should
object to natural history leaping thus the barrier of species. There is neither
vegetable, animal, nor organic Life, if Life is Spirit, and the testimony of
Scripture and demonstration of Life prove that it is. Called to the bed of
death -- the Truth of being is your only resource to restore health and raise
up the so-called dying; on its basis alone can you recognize immortality, and
dispute personal sense or the apparent fact of death, with Soul; man is not
dying if Intelligence is Life; man's being is mightier far than death, for
Truth is mightier than error. Your privilege is to prove "He that
believeth in me," i. e., understandeth the Truth of being, "shall
never see death." Understanding Life, destroys death. We have demonstrated
the effect of this statement of science on the sick sufficiently to establish
its practical value. Though we admit man is immortal, we apprehend Life only as
a thing material, or escaping from the body; this is not correct; personal
belief and error is responsible for this wrong statement of God. Death is but
another phase or belief of the dream of life in matter; and while there is no
reality in either, both will continue until the science herein stated is
understood. The obsequies of the dead are a pitiful part of this dream, when we
remember Life has neither beginning nor end. The so-called dead, although
liberated from their belief that Life has ended, or even changed to them, are
separated
442
from our
opinions and recognition of them; and they have no more cognizance of the body
we are disposing of than we of their actual existence; these two dreams of Life
are separated never to unite again until we pass into their phase of belief, or
at length reach the understanding of Life and yield the error of personal
sense, or matter-man, for Life that is God.
Science
reveals immortality in such a light it precludes the possibility of Life in
mortality. The lessons of earth should lift the affections and understanding to
a spiritual base whereby we lose error to gain Truth, for, "he that loseth
his life for my sake shall find it." Electric currents never passed from
Spirit to matter; Spirit evolves the idea of Life, and this idea has no
fellowship with matter or decay; to this final understanding we are all
hastening.
We will
suppose a case on the docket of mind, in which a man is charged with liver
complaint. The patient feels ill, ruminates, and the trial commences. Personal
Sense is plaintiff; Man, the defendant; Belief, the attorney for Personal Sense;
Mortal Minds, the jury, and Materia Medica, Anatomy, Physiology, Mesmerism, and
Mediumship the judges. The evidence for the plaintiff being called, testifies:
" I
am Laws of Health, was present on the nights the prisoner (patient) watched
with the sick, and, although I have the superintendence of human affairs, was
personally abused on those occasions, and informed I must remain silent until
called for at this trial, when I should be allowed to testify in the cue.
Notwithstanding my rules to the contrary, the prisoner watched with the sick
every night in the week; ,when thirsty, he gave
443
them
drink, and when sick, and in prison, he visited them;" at the same time
attending to his daily labors, partaking of food at irregular intervals,
sometimes retiring immediately after a heavy meal, etc., etc., until he was
guilty of liver complaint, that we construe crime, inasmuch as we deem it
punishable with death; therefore I arrested the man in behalf of the State
(body) and cast him into prison. At the time of the arrest he summoned
Physiology, Materia Medica, Mesmerism, and a masked individual named
Mediumship, to prevent his punishment or imprisonment. The struggle, on their
part, was long; missives of matter were employed vigorously but unavailingly;
Materia Medica, held out the longest, however, being paid for it; but at length
they all gave up their weapons to me (Laws of Health) and I succeeded in
getting Man into close confinement." The next witness being called,
stated:
1, 1 am
Coated Tongue, covered with a foul fur placed on me the night of the liver
complaint, Morbid Secretions, Irregular Appetite, Constipation, Foul Stomach,
and Debility being witnesses. Morbid Secretions mesmerized the prisoner, took
control of his mind, producing Somnolence, etc., making him despondent, also,
the sooner to precipitate his fate." Another witness being called, took
the stand and testified:
"I am
Sallow Skin, dry, hot, and chilled by turns since the night of the liver
complaint. I have lost my healthy hue and become bad-looking, although nothing
on my part occasioned this; I have daily ablutions, and perform my functions as
usual, but I am robbed of my good looks." The next witness testified:
"I am
Nerves, generalissimo of man, intimately ac-
444
quainted
with the plaintiff, Personal Sense, and know him to be truthful and upright,
while Man (the prisoner at the bar) is capable of falsehood. I was witness to
the crime of liver-complaint; knew the prisoner would commit it, for I convey
messages from my residence in matter, alias
brains, to the body, and am on intimate terms with Error, a personal
acquaintance of the prisoner, but a foe to Man." The name of this third
person was called for by the court, and the reply was, "Mortality,
governor of the state (body) in which Man is supposed to reside." In this
state there is a statute regarding disease, namely, that Man upon whose person
disease is found should be treated as a criminal and punished with death.
Judge.
"Did Man, by doing good to his neighbor possess himself of disease,
transgress your laws and merit punishment?" "He did." The
deposition of Bowels was then read, they being too inactive to be present.
Another witness took the stand, and testified as follows: "I am
Ulceration; was sent for shortly after the night of the liver-complaint, by
Laws of Health, who protested the prisoner had abused him, and my presence was
required to make valid his testimony. One of the judges, (Materia Medica) was
present when I arrived, endeavoring to assist the prisoner to escape from the hands
of what he termed justice, alias nature's law; but my sudden appearance with a
message from Laws of Health changed his purpose, and he decided at once the
prisoner (patient) should die."
The
testimony for the plaintiff (Personal Sense) being closed, Materia, Medica
arose and with great solemnity addressed the jury, (Mortal Minds) analyzing
445
the
offence, reviewing the testimony, and explaining the law relating to
liver-complaint, the conclusion of which was, that laws of nature render
disease homicide. In compliance with a stern duty, Materia Medica said he must
charge the jury not to allow judgment to be warped by the petty suggestions of
Soul; to regard in such cases only the mortal evidence of Personal Sense
against Man. As the judge proceeded, the prisoner (patient) grew restless, his
sallow face blanched with fear, and a look of despair and death settled upon
it. A brief consultation ensued, when the jury, Mortal Minds, returned a
verdict of guilty, the prisoner being charged with liver-complaint in the first
degree. Materia Medica then proceeded to pronounce the solemn sentence of death
upon the patient, who, for loving his neighbor as himself, was found guilty of
benevolence in the first degree, that led to the committal of the second crime,
liver-complaint, that matter-laws construe homicide, for which crimes we
sentence this man to be tortured until he is dead, and may God have mercy on
his soul.
The
prisoner, (patient) was then remanded to his cell (sick bed) and Theology sent
for to prepare Soul that is immortal, for death! the body, called Man, having
no friends. Ah! but Christ, Truth, was there; the friend of man, to open wide
those prison doors and set the captive free. Swift on the wings of Love a
message came, "Delay the execution! the prisoner is not guilty."
Consternation filled the court-room, some exclaiming, it is contrary to law and
order; others,
Christ
walks over our laws, let us follow Him."
After much
debate and opposition, permission was
446
obtained
for a trial at the bar of Spirit, where Science should appear as counsel for
the poor prisoner. Witnesses, judges, and jurors of the Mental Court of Common
Errors were summoned to appear at the bar of Truth. When the me for man versus matter opened, his counsel was
regarding the prisoner with the utmost tenderness, but that solemn, serene look
changed, the earnest eyes kindling with hope and triumph uplifted for a single
moment, turned suddenly to the Mental Court of Common Pleas, and Science opened
the argument by saying: "The prisoner at the bar has been sentenced
unjustly his trial was a mocking tragedy, morally illegal; Man has had no
counsel in the case; all the testimony was on the side of matter, and we will
unearth this foul conspiracy against the liberty and life of Man. The only
valid testimony in the cue proved the alleged crime was never committed, and
the prisoner unworthy of death or of bonds. Your Honor, Materia Medica, has
sentenced Man, the image of God, to die, denying justice to the body, has
recommended mercy for Spirit who is infinite Wisdom and Man's only law-giver!
Here you win please inform us who or what has sinned; has the body committed a
deed ? Your counsel, Belief, argues, that which never sinned should die, while
mind, that is capable of sin and suffering you comfort and commend to mercy.
The body committed no offence, and man in just obedience to higher law, helped
his fellow man, which should result in good to himself. The law of our Supreme
Court decrees, whoso sinneth shall die, but good deeds immortalize man,
bringing joy instead of grief, pleasure instead of pain, and life instead of
death. If liver com-
447
plaint was
induced, trampling upon Laws of Health, it was a good deed, the witness is a
usurper of man's liberty and rights, and should be consigned to oblivion.
Watching beside the couch of pain in the exercise of Love, that fulfills the
whole law, doing unto others as ye would they should do unto you, is no
infringement of law, for no demand, human or divine, renders it right to punish
a man for doing right. If man sins, our Supreme Judge of equity decides the
penalty due to sin; but he can suffer only for sin, and for naught else can he
be punished according to the laws of God; then what jurisdiction has your
Honors, Materia Medica and Physiology in the case? 'Sittest thou to judge a man
after the law, and commandest him to he smitten contrary to the law?' The only
jurisprudence to which the prisoner shall be made to submit is Truth, Life and
Love, and if these condemn him not, neither shalt thou condemn him, but shall
restore to him the liberty against which you have conspired.
1 Your
principal witness (Laws of Health) deposed he was an eye-witness to the good
deeds for which you sentence a man to die, and even betrayed him into the hands
of your law, then disappeared on that occasion to reappear on this, against
Man, and in support of Personal Sense, a known criminal. The Supreme Court of
Spirit, versus matter, finds the
prisoner, on the night of the alleged offence, acting within the limits, and in
obedience to the divine statute, upon which 'hangs all law and testimony,
giving a cup of cold water in my name,' etc.; and thus laying down his life, he
should find it; such deeds beer the justification, and are under the protection
of the Most High ruler. Prior
448
to the
night of the arrest the prisoner summoned two judges, Materia Medica, and
Physiology, to prevent his committing liver-complaint; but they employed their
sheriff, Fear, who handcuffed him and precipitated the deed you would now
punish, leaving Man no alternative but to believe your law, fear its
consequences, and be punished for all this. The judges struggled hard to rescue
the prisoner from the penalty they considered justly due; but failing in this,
ordered him to be taken into custody, tried and condemned, whereupon these
abettors appear at the bench to sit in judgment against him, and recommend the
jury, Mortal Minds, to find the prisoner guilty. Their Honors sentence Man to
die for the offence they compel him to commit; construing obedience to the law
of Love disobedience to the law of Life, claiming to wrest Man from the penalty
of law at one time, and at another sentencing him by it.
"One
of your principal witnesses, Nerves, testified he is a ruler of the State,
(body) in which he says Man resides; that he is on intimate terms with the
plaintiff, and knows Personal Sense to be just and truthful, but man, the image
of God, a criminal. This is a foul aspersion on his Maker, unworthy a worm; it
blots the fair escutcheon of Intelligence; 'tis a malice aforethought to
condemn Man in defence of matter. At the Bar of Truth, in the presence of
Justice the judge of our Supreme Court, and before its jurors, Spiritual
Senses, I proclaim this witness, Nerves, destitute of Intelligence, without Truth,
possessing no reality, and bearing the messages of Error only. Man
self-destroyed, the testimony of matter respected, Intelligence not al-
449
lowed a
hearing, Soul a slave recommended to mercy, whose body is supposed to be
executed-are the terrible records of your mental Court of Common Pleas."
Here the
opposite counsel, Belief, called Science to order, for contempt of court, and
their Honors, Materia Medica, Anatomy, Physiology, Mediumship, and Mesmerism
rose to the question of expelling Science from the bar, for high-handed
treason, and stopping the judicial proceedings. But Justice, the judge of the
Supreme Court of Spirit, overruled their motion on the ground that
parliamentary usages are not allowed at the bar of Truth, that holds
jurisdiction over the petite Court of Error.
Science
then read from his own statute, the Bible, remarking it was better authority
than Blackstone, extracts from the Rights of Man. "And I give you power
over all things that nothing shall by any means harm you." "Let us
make man in our image, and let him have dominion over all the earth."
"Whoso believeth in me shall not see death," etc.; proving the
witness, Nerves, a perjurer, and instead of a governor of the state, (body),
wherein man was falsely reported to reside, an insubordinate subject, prefering
false claims to office, and bearing false witness against Man. Then turning
suddenly to Personal Sense, (by this time silent) Science continued, I order
your arrest in the name of Almighty God, on three separate charges: perjury,
treason, and conspiracy against the rights and existence of God's image and
likeness. Another testimony, equally unimportant, said that a garment of foul
fur was spread over this witness, by Morbid Secretions, on the night of the
liver-complaint, while the facts in the case proved
450
this fur
was foreign, and imported by Belief, the attorney for Personal Sense, who is in
company with Error, and smuggles his goods into market without the inspection
of Soul's government officers. Whenever the court of Truth summons Furred
Tongue to appear for examination, he disappears, and is never more heard of.
Morbid Secretion is not an importer or dealer in fur, but we have heard their
Honors, Materia Medica and Mediumship explain how it is manufactured, and know
they are on friendly terms with the firm of Personal Sense and error, receiving
pay for their goods, and introducing them into market. Also be it known, that
Belief, counsel for the plaintiff, Personal Sense, is a procurer for this firm;
manufactures for it, keeps a furnishing store, and advertises largely for this
firm. Ulceration testified he was absent from the state (body) when a message
came from Belief, commanding him to take part in the homicide; at this request
he repaired to the spot of liver-complaint, frightened away Materia Medica, who
was manacling the prisoner under pretence of saving him, but this ignorance,
not malice, was in fact an unconscious participation in the deed, for which
Laws of Health has had Man, innocent of all crime in the case, imprisoned,
tried and condemned to die.
Science
then turned from the abashed witnesses, with words like sharpened steel,
pointed at the hearts of Materia Medica, Physiology, the felon Mesmerism, and
the masked form, Mediumship, saying: God should have smitten thee, thou whited
walls, sitting to judge in justice, but condemning in thine ignorance the
prisoner who sought your aid in his struggles against the deed whereof you
accuse him, then coming to his rescue
451
only to
fasten, through false testimony, an offence on the prisoner of which he is
innocent; aiding and abetting that for which you would sacrifice man, declaring
your executioner, Disease, to be God's servant and the executor of His laws,
when our statute decides your witnesses, jurors, and judges condemned, by
higher law, and only awaiting the executioner, Progress. We send our very best
detectives to whatever locality you report your Disease, but visiting the spot,
they learn it was never there, or it could not elude their discovery. Your
Mental Court of Errors, at which you condemn or acquit man on the ground of
disease, is the oleaginous machinations of your counsel, Belief, that Science
arraigns before the supreme bar of Soul, to answer for his blood-shed. You
taught Morbid Secretions to make sleep befool his reason, before sacrificing
man to your gods; your jurors, Mortal Minds, were mesmerized by your attorney,
Belief, and compelled to deliver man to his open-jawed packs. You would
transform good deeds into crimes, to which you attach penalties; but no warping
of justice renders disobedience to Laws of Matter, disobedience to God, or an
act of homicide; for matter cannot kill what Spirit has made.
Even penal
law construes homicide under stress of circumstances justifiable, and what
greater justification hath a deed than that it did good to our neighbor,
wherefore, then, we ask in the name of outraged justice, do you sentence Man
for ministering to the wants of his fellow man, in obedience to higher law? You
cannot walk over the supreme bench; Man is amenable only to God, who sentences
for sin only. The false and unjust beliefs of your Mental Court of Errors enact
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a law of
sickness, then render obedience to this law punishable as crime; such are the
spurious enactments of "knowledge." In the presence of the supreme
law-giver, standing at the bar of Truth and in accordance with its statutes, I
repudiate the false testimony of Personal Sense, forbid his entering more suits
against man to be tried at the bar of matter, and appeal to the just and equitable
decisions of Spirit to restore the prohibited rights of the body.
Here the
counsel for the defence closed, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court with
benign and imposing presence, appropriating, comprehending, and defining all
law and evidence explained from His statute, the Bible, how law punishing aught
but sin is null and void. Also that the plaintiff, Personal Sense, is not
permitted to enter suits at the bar of Soul, but required to keep perpetual
silence, and in case of temptation, to give heavy bonds for good behavior. The
plea of Belief we deem unworthy a hearing upon all occasions; therefore, let
the things it has uttered, now and forever, fall into oblivion, unknelled,
uncoffined, and unknown. According to our statute, Laws of Matter cannot bear
witness against man, neither can Fear arrest him, nor Disease cast him into
prison; our law refuses to recognize man sick or dying, but holds him the image
and likeness of immortal Soul; reversing the testimony of Personal Sense, and
the decrees of the Court of Error in favor of matter versus man, we decide in
favor of man and against matter; therefore, we recommend that Materia Medica,
Physiology, Laws of Health, Mesmerism and Mediumship be given a public
execution at the hands of our Sheriff, Progress. The supreme bench
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decides in
favor of Intelligence, and that no law outside of mind can punish man. Your
personal judges of the Mental Court of Common Pleas are chimeras, your
attorney, Belief, an imposter persuading Mortal Minds to return a verdict
contrary to law and Gospel, while your plaintiff, Personal Sense, is recorded
in our Book of books, a perjurer. Our Teacher of spiritual jurisprudence said
of him, "You were a liar from the beginning." We have no trials for
Disease at the tribunals of Spirit, and man is adjudged innocent of
transgressing physical laws, because there is no spiritual statute relating
thereto. The law of Christ, Truth, is our only code, and "will not the
judge of the whole earth do right ? "
The plea
of Science closed, and the jury of Immortal Mind agreed at once upon a verdict,
and there resounded throughout the vast audience chamber of Soul, "NOT
GUILTY"; then the prisoner (patient) rose up strong, free, and glorious.
We noticed as he shook hands with his counsel, Science of Life, all sallowness
and debility had disappeared, his form was erect and commanding, his
countenance beaming with health and happiness; dominion had taken the place of
fear, and man no longer sick and in prison walked forth, "whose feet were
beautiful upon the mountains."
The above
allegory illustrates the effect of mind on the body, how the testimony of
personal sense and the plea of belief would punish man; while the plea of
Science commutes the sentence of error, with Truth.
When
symptoms of sickness are present, meet them with the resistance of mind against
matter, and you will
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control
them. Life, that is Soul, must triumph over sense at some time, and it is wise
to-day to learn this of scientific being. Silently or audibly, according to the
circumstances, you should dispute the reality of disease on the basis of the
explanations herein given; when healing mentally call each symptom by name, and
contradict its claims, as you would a falsehood uttered to your injury. Here is
a phenomenon I will state just as I discovered it; if you call not the disease
by name when you address it mentally, the body will no more respond by
recovery, than a person will reply whose name is not spoken; and you cannot
heal the sick by argument, unless you get the name of the disease; but the
higher method of healing in Christian science is, so to live that your Life,
" hid with Christ in God," is the Life of Soul that destroys the
errors of sense. Agree not with sickness, meet the physical condition with a mental
protest, that destroys it as one property destroys another in chemistry;
understanding this in science, your mind will neutralize the disease, destroy
the fear, and the system will regain its equilibrium.
I have
seen a dose of Truth, regarding disease, produce stronger physical effects than
ever I witnessed from a dose of drugs. The opposite negative neutralizes the
affirmative of disease, and thus destroys it. We have before told you all is
mind; therefore, what you term physical effects, are purely mental ones. The
mental admission produces what is named the physical effect ; hence the fatal
results of treatises, admitting, describing, or locating disease. Diagnosing
symptoms physical, to learn the actual cause of bodily discord, when mind is
the only causation, is error, proved
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already
the procurer, instead of destroyer of disease. I never presume on statements
diametrically opposed to personal sense, unless I have proved their Truth
beyond a doubt. I have tested this mode of healing with scientific certainty,
in many cases, and in no case has it failed to prove a benefit to the sick. The
task, herculean, of introducing a science has before been tested by patient
discoverers; but when the Truth of being is learned, it will be proved. It was
said to us, "The whole world feels you, and why are you not more widely
known?" Could they have seen the little time we have to be known, and how
our work is done, in the closet with the door shut, ,seen by Him who seeth in
secret," they would have understood why. To make a specialty of healing is
really impossible for us, when our time, means, and health are required for the
fuller investigation of this subject; to teach, write, establish practices for
students, or halt, perhaps, at measures to be adopted, because of persecution.
None should reject Truth because it exposes some past poverty of opinion, or
requires the surrender of present beliefs. Indifference to Christian science
surprises one when we know it is the eternal right in which God holds the
scales, and adjusts all harmonious balances. Even doctrines and beliefs are
to-day reaching forth their hands for the science of being; and that which
reveals Truth ought not to be misjudged because of ignorance or prejudice.
Some of
our present readers may wish to tone down the radical points in this work,
others to cast them overboard; yet science will reproduce itself, and as mind
changes base from matter to Spirit, there will be
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severe
chemicalization. Truth cannot be lost; if not admitted to-day in its fullness,
the error that shuts it out will occasion such discord in sickness, sin, etc.,
that future yews will point it out, and restore at length the fair proportions
and radical claims of Christian Science.
FINIS.