Chapter VIII - Healing the Sick
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the Principle, for it is the platform of health, joy and
the Principle, for it is the platform of health, joy and
immortality. To reach this proof by degrees, and only
as we are capable of doing so with increasing health,
harmony and happiness, is the only proper method.
We would not, for we could not transform the infant
at once to a man, or keep the suckling a life-long babe.
Man need not spend his days in ignorance of the science
of Life, expecting death will make him harmonious and
immortal, for it will not; we advance to Life under-
standing, therefore we cannot step at once from death
to Life, or from, matter to Spirit. Only as we under
stand the Principle of being, and reach perfection, are
we Spirit, and eternal.
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Death cannot advance man, but one step towards a
Death cannot advance man, but one step towards a
higher existence, insomuch as it changes not his belief
but in one thing, namely, that he died, and of the dis-
ease he supposed was killing him. Mortal man is the
same after as before the change called death; his body
is the same belief of man, the same supposed personal
sense, Substance in matter, and Life in the body, as
before death; and so long as this error remains, mind
being the same, the body remains mortal. We are
never Spirit until we are God; there are no individual
"spirits." Until we find Life Soul, and not sense, we
are not sinless, harmonious, or undying. We become
Spirit only as we reach being in God; not through
death or any change of matter, but mind, do we reach
Spirit, lose sin and death, and gain man's immortality;
hence the need to commence Life's lesson to-day. We
gain no higher experiences from death except to learn
we die not, and this we gain of Life only and not death.
The science of being reveals Substance, Intelligence
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and Life, not matter but Spirit. Herein also we learn
and Life, not matter but Spirit. Herein also we learn
the immense disparity between the belief of Life in
matter and the reality of being. Science makes the
demonstration of Life perfection; and this we all must
show before we have any grounds to say we understand
Life, or are Spirit. Instead of this science requiring
too much of man, at present we do not perceive one
half the rightful claims it has upon us, or we should
urge them at once on our own acceptance. The Scrip-
tures inform us man liveth "not by bread alone, but
by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
God." Truth is the Life of man, but the age objects
to making this practical, which is generally the case
with all high requirements. We ask, consistently with
the demands of God, and to-day, that less thought be
given to what we shall eat, drink, or wear, that we
live more simple and primitively, for this will increase
longevity and morality. If we admit food can disturb
the harmonious functions of mind and body, either the
food or the belief must be dispensed with before man is
harmonious. The belief that matter governs the Life
of man must be met and mastered on some basis before
man is learned immortal. Sickness is abject slavery;
an invalid haunted by the belief of physical suffering
that masters him at all points and on all occasions, is
the most pitiful object on earth. Laws of health con-
stitute a government of matter over man wholly un-
natural; they attach penalties to our best deeds.
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We ought to learn from history and experience the
We ought to learn from history and experience the
less we believe these so-called laws the less we suffer
from their infringement, and the better we obey God's
spiritual law. People who know nothing of physiology,