Chapter III - Spirit and Matter
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leaves in mystery the science of God that Jesus not
leaves in mystery the science of God that Jesus not
only explained but demonstrated. There is no Life or
Principle in man that proves him immortal, hence we
have no resource but to annihilate the belief of Life and
Intelligence in matter, and understand God, the Prin-
ciple of man and his immortality.
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Beauty is eternal; but the beauty of matter passes
Beauty is eternal; but the beauty of matter passes
away, fading at length into decay and ugliness. Cus-
tom, habit, opinions and belief form the transient stan-
dard of material beauty; but beauty is a thing of Life,
exempt from age or decay, and to be this it must be a
thing of Spirit. Immortal man and woman (and there
are none other), are unfading perfection, models of
beauty that reflect all loveliness insomuch as they are
"the image and likeness of God," of Soul and not sense.
But in order to reflect beauty the body must represent
only the perfect and immortal. To become less sense
and more Soul, is the recipe for beauty; but to reach
its standard we must put all sin, sickness and sorrow
under the feet of our God-being, and rise superior to
them; retreat from the belief of pain or pleasure in the
body, to the unchanging quiet and glorious freedom
of impersonal bliss. The embellishments of person
are a poor substitute for the beauty of Spirit shining
resplendant and eternal, over age and decay. Measur-
ing Life by solar years robs youth, and hourly gives
uncomeliness to age. The rising sun of virtue and
Truth is the morning of being, and its manhood
eternal noon, unmarked by a setting sun. When
beauty fades to personal sense, it is not lost to Soul,
and affection marvels our friend could seem aught but
beautiful. It is the belief of sickness, sorrow, and of
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solar years, that mars the face and form. I say the
solar years, that mars the face and form. I say the
belief, because science admits no reality in aught but
God and His idea. To Spirit a thousand years are as
one day; hence, a man of years and experience is ripen-
ing into higher beauty and excellence instead of grow-
ing old; mind is feeding the body with immortality, if
it supplies it with Truth, and taking away the error of
personal sense that says a day points to a nearer tomb;
our body neither suffers nor enjoys. When will it be
understood that "I" is impersonal, even mind and not
matter? Until this point is gained in the science of
being, man will go on in belief, a pendulum between
joy and sorrow, sickness and health, Life and death,
even as at present. Is man tottering and ready to per-
ish, or sick and sinning, the likeness of Omnipotence?
are Life and all our faculties measured by calendars,
and beauty a thing of decay? or is there a mortal man
that grows, matures and decays, out of which springs
the perfect and immortal man? Verily such admissions
leap headlong into error. Science proves a corrupt
fountain sendeth not forth pure streams, and the same
fountain both sweet and bitter water. Solar years,
that stamp the wrinkle on the brow, are the effect
of man's reckoning, and not God's; they are a belief
of personal sense and not the understanding of Soul.
Mortal man is old only by admitting he is thus; for it
is mind and not matter that makes the body what it is.
Intelligence without beginning and without end is the
data (if such it can be called), of Life; man is not
young or old; he is and was eternal as the idea of God.
Man has neither birth nor death; he is not a vegetable
animal, nor a transmigrating mind, passing first into a