Chapter IV - Christian Science Versus Spiritualism
77:1
suddenly here or hereafter. The pious Polycarp said:
suddenly here or hereafter. The pious Polycarp said:
"I cannot turn at once from good to evil." Neither do
other mortals accomplish the change from error to truth
at a single bound.
Second death
77:5
Existence continues to be a belief of corporeal sense
Existence continues to be a belief of corporeal sense
until the Science of being is reached. Error brings its
own self-destruction both here and hereafter,
for mortal mind creates its own physical con-
ditions. Death will occur on the next plane of existence
as on this, until the spiritual understanding of Life is
reached. Then, and not until then, will it be demon-
strated that "the second death hath no power."
A dream vanishing
77:13
The period required for this dream of material life,
The period required for this dream of material life,
embracing its so-called pleasures and pains, to vanish
from consciousness, "knoweth no man . . .
neither the Son, but the Father." This period
will be of longer or shorter duration according to the
tenacity of error. Of what advantage, then, would it be
to us, or to the departed, to prolong the material state and
so prolong the illusion either of a soul inert or of a sinning,
suffering sense, – a so-called mind fettered to matter.
Progress and purgatory
77:22
Even if communications from spirits to mortal con-
Even if communications from spirits to mortal con-
sciousness were possible, such communications would
grow beautifully less with every advanced stage
of existence. The departed would gradually
rise above ignorance and materiality, and Spiritualists
would outgrow their beliefs in material spiritualism.
Spiritism consigns the so-called dead to a state resembling
that of blighted buds, – to a wretched purgatory, where
the chances of the departed for improvement narrow
into nothing and they return to their old standpoints of
matter.
Unnatural deflections
78:1
The decaying flower, the blighted bud, the gnarled oak,
The decaying flower, the blighted bud, the gnarled oak,
the ferocious beast, – like the discords of disease, sin,
and death, – are unnatural. They are the fal-
sities of sense, the changing deflections of mor-
tal mind; they are not the eternal realities of Mind.
Absurd oracles
78:6
How unreasonable is the belief that we are wearing
How unreasonable is the belief that we are wearing
out life and hastening to death, and that at the same
time we are communing with immortality!
If the departed are in rapport with mor-
tality, or matter, they are not spiritual, but must still
be mortal, sinning, suffering, and dying. Then why
look to them – even were communication possible – for
proofs of immortality, and accept them as oracles? Com-
munications gathered from ignorance are pernicious in
tendency.
78:16
Spiritualism with its material accompaniments would
Spiritualism with its material accompaniments would
destroy the supremacy of Spirit. If Spirit pervades all
space, it needs no material method for the transmission
of messages. Spirit needs no wires nor electricity in order
to be omnipresent.
Spirit intangible
78:21
Spirit is not materially tangible. How then can it
Spirit is not materially tangible. How then can it
communicate with man through electric, material effects?
How can the majesty and omnipotence of
Spirit be lost? God is not in the medley
where matter cares for matter, where spiritism makes
many gods, and hypnotism and electricity are claimed
to be the agents of God's government.
78:28
Spirit blesses man, but man cannot "tell whence
Spirit blesses man, but man cannot "tell whence
it cometh." By it the sick are healed, the sorrowing are
comforted, and the sinning are reformed. These are the
effects of one universal God, the invisible good dwelling
in eternal Science.