Chapter III - Spirit and Matter
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admit certain diseases, such as measles, whooping-cough,
admit certain diseases, such as measles, whooping-cough,
etc., never recur a second time; even thus when we
say consumption has killed a man, he has only wakened
out of the dream of Life in matter, that was never a
reality, to live on as before, and find himself not dead,
and consumption beaten ever thereafter. This is just
what Truth finally does with all sickness, sin and
death; lets them prove their own nothingness, that the
science of being may appear. Man is not dead when
the body mortal is admitted lifeless; the Life of man
was never in the body, and to admit this, is the first
step towards immortality. Heaven, earth, and man, all
the eye seeth, will pass away, and personal sense yield
to spiritual sense, which is the only real sense; and
the supposed life of matter, to Life that is God. To
understand that Spirit and its immortal idea, the uni-
verse and man, are all that is real, is the kingdom or
reign of harmony that is to come. The only reality of
Life or Substance, is Spirit.
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The different phases of error, or mortal belief, are
The different phases of error, or mortal belief, are
the conception, birth, and death of man and matter,
together with the pleasure, pain, sickness and sin of
personal sense; all of which are discords, and harmony
proves discord not the Truth of man. Once under-
standing the nothingness of error, we should never again
regard it with fear or submit to its false government.
Sin is the strongest error, because it embraces a belief
of pleasure in matter, that a belief of suffering alone
can destroy. Wisdom allows sin to commit suicide.
That sickness, sin and death are error and illusion,
and that the happiness and Life of man are undisturbed
by this error, is science. We should not regard our
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bodies the source of happiness and being, but find these
bodies the source of happiness and being, but find these
Soul, and not sense; even the Principle of being that
produces harmonious and immortal man. Opposed to
this science are the vast array of beliefs, saying lo!
here, and lo! there; that would reach perfection and
immortality on the merit of another's suffering and ex-
perience, instead of the higher understanding of God.
We have no schools of healing on the Principle that
Jesus taught; yet he required of his followers, all, to
preach the gospel, heal the sick, and leave all for Truth.
A religion privileged through wealth and fraternity of
interests, is not the first step towards Christianity. A
popular 'ism was not what our Master pinned his faith
upon; he taught taking up our cross, denying sense,
and living Soul, to follow Truth; and this did not
include sickness, sin, and death, nor pre-suppose that
brain, nerves, stomach and so forth, hold the issues of
Life. Truth made man upright; it was error that
sought out the invention of sin, sickness, etc., of wrong‑
thinking and wrong-acting, saying man is both a sinner
and saint, dust and Deity; these were the beliefs
of personal sense or different phases of mesmerism.
Children were blessed by Christ, Truth, because of
their emptiness of these beliefs by which they were
better able than adults to enter into the science of
being. While age is halting between two opinions, or
battling with some personal sense, children make easy
and rapid strides towards Truth. A little girl who
had listened to our explanations, severely wounding
her finger, proved this, concluding, "it cannot hurt
me, for there is no sensation in matter," this result
followed to the delight of all, and the next day