Chapter VIII - Healing the Sick
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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,
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hygiene, or materia medica, until missionaries give
hygiene, or materia medica, until missionaries give
them of this "tree of knowledge," suffer not as we do
from the so-called laws that we say must be obeyed or
they kill us, and they enjoy better health than those
obeying them. What, then, shall we say of law "more
honored in the breach than the observance? "Slavery
must yield to innate right, and destroyed in mind, it
will die out of forms of government; ignorance of our
inalienable rights makes us slaves. If we recognized
all being, God, we would perceive our dominion over
sickness, sin and death; for governments oppressive
and unjust Wisdom layeth its hand upon to destroy,
and they fail forever before the might of understanding.
The watchword of freedom from the bondage of sick-
ness and sin is not taken up; it has no inspiration for
mankind.
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This is owing to the fatal belief that error is as real
This is owing to the fatal belief that error is as real
as Truth; that evil has equal power and claims with
good, and discord is as normal and real as harmony;
such admissions work badly. That matter is solid Sub-
stance, and Spirit essence inside of matter; that Spirit
is Life, but dwells in decay and death; that Spirit is
God, but cannot make man without partnership with
matter; that man is not man until he is matter; are
false admissions and contradictory statements that seem
too absurd to be permitted a place in reason. If man
is matter, he is not mind, and dust is as intelligent as
Deity. If Intelligence or Spirit is in matter, the infi-
nite is in the finite, and Spirit is less than matter, for
we cannot place the greater within the less. If man
existed not forever, and before material structure, he
does not exist after his body is disintegrated. If we