Chapter III - Spirit and Matter
181:1
Sabbath, observing it as a day of rest and spiritual
Sabbath, observing it as a day of rest and spiritual
improvement.
181:3
Human will is capable of much evil; by gaining the
Human will is capable of much evil; by gaining the
mind's consent against the convictions of conscience, it
may turn the judgment whithersoever it wills. To
guard and govern the action of mind, enables you to
hold the body in subjection. The world is better for
all those honest Soul-inspired ones, who govern sense,
and sit down at the right hand of Wisdom. The hypo-
crite can do little with Truth, and cannot understand
the Principle of scientific healing: in discord himself
he cannot impart harmony to others. You may learn
the letter of this science that enables you to gain its
Spirit, but the next question is, have you improved your
opportunity, and gained its Spirit? if not, you are unfit
to heal the sick metaphysically.
181:17
Touched by the Principle of his grand symphonies, a
Touched by the Principle of his grand symphonies, a
Mozart or Beethoven experienced much more than he
ever expressed in music; each was a musician before
the world knew it; so to catch the divine harmonies of
Soul, we must rise in the scale of being through the
understanding of science, and experience, in order to
demonstrate. Love gives forth its own concord, to
correct the discords of sense; and whatsoever inspires
us with Love, Wisdom or Truth, whether it be song,
sermon, or science, will bless the human family; let us
gladly welcome every crumb that feeds the hungry;
and every drop that bears to the thirsty, living waters.
181:29
The literal meaning of the Scripture is not its highest
The literal meaning of the Scripture is not its highest
sense; its spiritual signification is what explains God
and man. Church rites and ceremonies have nothing
to do with Christianity, and more than this, they draw
182:1
us towards material things; hence away from spiritual
us towards material things; hence away from spiritual
Truth, and all Truth is spiritual. To depend on medi-
cine or the so-called laws of health, prevents the sick
being healed by Truth; and to observe rites and cere-
monies prevents the Spirit that is Truth. We shall all
learn we cannot serve two masters. Physics act against
metaphysics, for these opposites produce different re-
sults; and if we trust one we mistrust the other.
When the metaphysics of the science of being are un-
derstood, we shall not believe in physics; in which case
we cannot produce the effect through medicine we did
before. All seeming effects from matter are effects
of mind, that constructs the aeriform, liquid, or solid;
matter is inertia; all action is mind. Certain forms of
belief we call substance, and name matter, others more
rarefied, mind; the discordant, mutable and mortal,
are not realities, they are beliefs and illusion; the har-
monious and undying are all that is real; Principle,
and its idea is the only reality. To depend on person-
ality is error; words cannot always be depended upon,
and are sometimes less real than thoughts; treasures in
matter are all lost. Persons are not to be trusted;
Principle, is all there is to trust; hence, the greater re-
liability of science, than all else; but this word, science,
will not be appended to humbugs, when once we catch
its meaning. "Absent from the body and present
with the Lord," were Paul's directions for a scientist,
for this is spiritual understanding reaching outside of
personal sense, and material things. Life, Truth and
Love displace the material with the spiritual, but they
are self-expressed, and self-existent; nothing is wanting
in them. Not that Soul is voiceless, but that it is in-