Chapter III - Spirit and Matter
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ton, with more certainty than the falling apple; years
ton, with more certainty than the falling apple; years
had not made her old, and wherefore? because she did
not believe she was growing old, but lived according to
another belief in the hour of youth, the result of which
was, time could not make her aged, for the body repre-
sented the belief. Mind must say she was growing old,
or the body would not present the aspect of age. She
was young because during all those years she had never
believed she was becoming old, therefore time fell pow-
erless at her feet. Impossibilities never occur, and one
such instance as the above, proves it not impossible to
be young at seventy-five years of age, but the Principle
of this proof is worth more than the bare fact; it ex-
plains the cause of decrepit age, and how to avoid it.
Never record years and keep time tables of births and
deaths, if you would preserve the full faculties of wom-
anhood and manhood. It is only because every hour
of our years, mind is admitting we are growing old,
that it is difficult to present three score years and ten
unmarred by age. It is not the years but the belief
that years make man infirm, that brings the infirmity of
age; "as a man thinketh so is he." A belief of acute
disease – and all disease is belief – is more readily
destroyed than the chronic, because mind has not set-
tled the question so decidedly, nor admitted the belief
as long; the mental force of habit is not as strong in
one case as in the other. The belief that man has
birth, maturity and decay, is simply saying he is a veg-
etable animal, the animal not fit to live, and the vege-
table incapable of Life. Soul is Spirit, and Spirit Life;
God, neither an infant, adult, nor decrepit; and man
is "the image and likeness of God," then what prece-
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dent have we for the growth, maturity and decay of
dent have we for the growth, maturity and decay of
man. If man were matter, a tree, or a monkey, in his
earlier stages of existence, we might admit his growth
and decay; but he is the reflex shadow of Spirit, and
Spirit knows neither infancy nor age. If man goes out
in decay or death, there is a time when Jehovah is left
without a likeness or representation, and Soul is with-
out even an image, and Principle loses its idea. Reason-
ing from the premises that Soul is in body, and Spirit
and matter mingle, our only logical conclusion is, that
man goes down with matter, and is annihilated. But
Spirit forms man, and is not in that which it creates;
can the sculptor bury himself in the statue he is chisel-
ing, and inside the marble work out his model, at
every point of progress giving it new outlines and
touches? Nor is God, the Soul and Intelligence of the
universe and man, divided into larger or smaller propor-
tions, or "gods" which enter man and matter. There
is but one God, even the Intelligence outside of matter,
that is a unity and not integral parts, neither mixed up
with error, decay, or death. The Principle of man is
outside its idea; mortal man would possess no ponder-
ability if permeated by Spirit, and Spirit be ponderable
if it dwelt within matter. Reason permitted scope, and
guided by revelation repudiates theories so suicidal to
the science of being; for theories are false, and science
is true. Take away the belief, that limits, and sensation
in matter constitute man, and you have immortal man
the idea of God, and remove personality from your
belief of God, and you have the infinite principle,
even God that is Love. If Intelligence is in man and
matter, what is there outside of these to govern the