Chapter III - Spirit and Matter
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is in mortality or error; but nothing real is mortal. If
is in mortality or error; but nothing real is mortal. If
matter can heal the sick, and mind cannot, it is more
powerful than mind, and if God sends sickness, it is
opposed to His government to heal it; and if matter
produces its own conditions, it acts against itself, and
will be self-destroyed. Our opposite views abuse the
science of being, and give the lie to Truth. Has the
clay power over the potter, is matter self-acting and
independent of God, thus prior and superior to Spirit?
To reap where Truth hath not sown, is to gather error;
such contradictory statements as these "soweth the
wind and reapeth the whirlwind." It is belief alone or
mortal man, that holds matter as God, intelligent, self‑
creative, and self-acting; Truth finds it unintelligent,
neither living nor dying, sick nor well. God has no
part in suffering, sin or death, and there is no reality
where God is not. If God made man to be sick, it is
right that he should be so, and wrong to heal him; man
cannot if he would, and should not if he could, annul
the decrees of Wisdom. If sickness is a reality, it is a
condition of Truth; and do you claim that drugs can
destroy a condition of Truth? But if, as is the case,
sickness is but a belief, therefore but a dream and illu-
sion, the waking must come from Truth and under-
standing, that alone can destroy it; and this is Christ
healing the sick.
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If man is at the disposal of man and matter, of drugs
If man is at the disposal of man and matter, of drugs
and worms, he is not "the image of God," and is mor-
tal, but mortality is not man – it is nothingness, the
sooner gone the better, for reason and revelation repu-
diate it. Man is immortal, but he is not Intelligence in
matter, else he were mortal; man is the idea of God, the
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idea of Spirit, therefore he is not subject to laws of
idea of Spirit, therefore he is not subject to laws of
matter, to sickness, sin or death. Science reveals the
fact that there is no Intelligence in matter, and that all
righteous government is Spirit that speaks and it is
done; never for a moment admitting matter controls
man. The belief that God is the author of sickness, sin
and death, or that an opposite power named devil or
matter is the father thereof, implies a power independent
of and over and above God; while there is no separate
might or Intelligence from Spirit, and to talk of "spir-
its" is narrating ghost stories. There is but one Spirit,
even God, and this is always right because it is Life,
Truth and Love; matter is but a belief of Spirit, Sub-
stance and Life where these are not, and out of this error
and belief, we make all suffering, sin and death. Does
Wisdom commit mistakes to be rectified by man, does
God send sickness and man destroy it, thus undoing
what He has done? That which is perfect cannot pro-
duce sickness, sin or death; and if God cannot destroy
these, they are immortal. Nothing to my understanding
exceeds the power of omnipotence, and the sick are
never really healed except through God, Intelligence;
the power of drugs, electricity and matter is but a belief;
it is mesmerism and not science that claims Truth, Life
or Intelligence in matter bestowing a blessing that God
cannot; and the so-called cures of these agents continue
only so long as the belief lasts. Truth, Life and Love
have got it all to do sometime, for they alone accomplish
all that continues and is harmonious. If God heals not
the sick it is because He cannot or will not, and in either
case what chance would there be for matter, or man to
heal? Can drugs do more than Wisdom, or change the