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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,
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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
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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.
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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,
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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-
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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.
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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-
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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
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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
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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
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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,
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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,
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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-
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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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