be brought back through great tribulation, to deny sense and become spiritually-minded, which is Life.
Jesus' spiritual origin and understanding enabled him to demonstrate the facts of being, and to prove, above all others, how this spiritual Truth of being destroyed the material error, healed the sick, and overcame death. The conception of Jesus illustrated this Truth and presented the example of creation. Jesus was the idea of Spirit, inasmuch as he was less material and more spiritual than all other earthly impersonations. He walked the wave, made the loaves and fishes, healed the sick, and raised the dead on this very platform—namely, that God, Spirit, is supreme, and there is no other power, yea, that all is Mind and there is no matter. Because Jesus had in part a personal origin, and was the conception of the virgin mother, he was the mediator between Spirit and what is termed matter, in other words he explained the midway of the actual science of being, and destroyed all halfway positions, showing that the Truth of being is its only reality, and error is but supposed being. The Scripture saith, “He took upon himself flesh;” this implies that when Truth is understood it will be made manifest upon the body, it will heal the sick and save from sin. Jesus presented that idea of God, hence the warfare that went on between the spiritual idea and [ 52 ] their material beliefs of religion, and the blindness of their belief to conclude it could kill the spiritual idea when it crucified the flesh. The idea rose higher because of that crucifixion, and proved its stronger control over the body or material belief. And Jesus presented himself, the man that matter cannot destroy, the man that Spirit creates, that Truth, Life, and Love constitute, and which so blends with his Maker and spiritual being, it gives him dominion over all the earth.
Paul writes “If Christ, Truth, be not risen, then is my preaching vain,” that is, if the idea of Spirit, which is a true conception of Life, Truth, and Love, come not to your thought, you cannot be benefited by what I say.
Jesus said, “He that believeth in me shall not see death.” He who perceives the true idea of Life and adopts it has less sense of Life as matter, and by reason of this he is becoming more spiritual, gathering himself yet more and more into the reality of Life as Spirit, and manifests more Truth and Love. Sin, sickness, and death, or matter, are incapable of supporting, of manifesting, or developing Life, which is God. Again, the true idea of Life results in the greatest blessing to mortals, for “when God, who is our Life, shall appear,” when this spiritual status of being is understood, “then shall we be like unto Him in glory.” Then shall man be found perfect and immortal, for he will have no life that can be destroyed, and cannot sin because “his life is hid with Christ in God.”
We learn from Holy Writ that the idea of God, named Jesus, was scourged, scoffed, and coupled with crime by the pharasaical churches, even when it was proven, bearing their infirmities, healing the sick, casting out error, raising the dead, uplifting their beliefs, dead in trespasses [ 53 ] and sin, from the basis of matter to the perception of Spirit and Truth. Of old the Pharisee thrust the spiritual idea of God out of his synagogue, and retained his material beliefs of Him; and to-day church and state, unconscious of the reappearing of this spiritual idea as it came of yore, casting out error and healing the sick, shut the door upon it, and would trample it under the feet of law and gospel. Prophesying this very rejection of the true idea and demonstration of Truth Jesus said, “When I come again shall I find faith on earth?”
Paul had a clear sense of the power of Truth upon mortals, physically and spiritually, when he said, “Present your bodies holy and acceptable, which is your only reasonable service.” But he could not reach the divine heights his Master trod—he who was begotten of the beliefs of the flesh, or a servant to them. The time cometh when the spiritual origin of man will be understood and demonstrated; but Truth, like the light, shineth on darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not. Our false beliefs of Life, substance, and intelligence hide the reality of them, and the scientific origin of man and his Principle as God. The creative Principle or Mind is eschewed by our material theories. Materia medica substitutes drugs for the power of God, even the might of Mind to heal the body. The science of being is the only curative agent; and while it divests drugs, matter, of all imaginary power, it clothes Spirit with its native supremacy to destroy every ill that flesh is heir to. This science is yet the stranger within our gates that is not remembered even when its elevating effects are proving practically its divine origin. Theology includes no creed or faith sufficient to heal the sick; while our Master's first article of faith was healing, [ 54 ] and he proved that faith by his works. The ancient Christians were healers. Our systems of religion are governed by our systems of medicine. Idolatry and priestcraft have uprooted faith in God, Spirit, and instituted faith in matter. The schools have rendered it fashionable to have faith in drugs instead of Deity, and to trust matter to destroy material discord; therefore such systems are devoid of Christianity and its vital points, wherein sense becomes the servant of Soul.
Jesus never spake of disease as difficult or dangerous; and when his students brought to him cases they could not heal, he said unto them, “Oh, ye of little faith!” implying that the only difficulty was in mind and not matter. He urged no obedience to the so-called laws material, but acted in direct disobedience thereto. He uttered things that had been “secret from the foundations of the world,” since ever knowledge had usurped the creative principle, and insisted on the power of error and the insignificance of Truth. But the Master forebore not to declare the whole Truth; to tell us just what will destroy sickness, sin, and death; although that truth set households at variance and brought to their material beliefs not peace, but a sword. Whoever, therefore, shall declare the Truth that he taught shall share the hatred of error until wisdom is justified of her children, and this blessed benediction rests upon the warfare, “If the world hate you, ye may know that it hated me before it hated you,” and “Lo, I am with you alway.”
When the sharp experiences of this supposed life in matter, its disappointments and ceaseless woes, turn us as a tired child to the bosom of Love, then are we fit to begin Life in divine science; but without this weaning [ 55 ] process who, by searching, can find out God? It is easier for belief to desire Truth, and try to trust in it, than to rid itself of error. Mortals may seek, but shall not be able to enter into the understanding of metaphysical science, the spiritual facts of man's harmony and immortality. They must do more than that; they must strive to enter in: and this strife consists in destroying our beliefs of intelligent matter, sentient bodies, and another Mind than God. Through the wholesome chastisements of Love we learn this divine Principle, and arrive at righteousness and purity—the footsteps of metaphysical science. Then pausing before the infinite task of reaching Truth, we rest only for a moment, and struggle on, until enraptured thought walks boundless, and conception unconfined finds wings to reach the infinite. Only the true idea of God takes away the sting of death, masters sickness and sin, and the lion lies down with the lamb, the beliefs that would rob God fall at the feet of Love.
The identity of our Master was not less tangible or real to him because it was spiritual, and his Life not at the mercy of matter. Understanding that metaphysical fact made him more real and formidable, as the idea of Truth, and enabled him to triumph over death, and present to his students the self-same Jesus. To the material belief of Thomas, that turned to matter instead of Spirit for God's idea, and to the evidences of body more than Soul for proofs of immortality, Jesus furnished the evidence to his senses or belief that he was the same immediately after as before his crucifixion, and remained thus until he rose higher through the triumph he obtained over death, and disappeared, to the stupid apprehension of [ 56 ] Thomas, to whom nothing but the beliefs of matter could then make existence apparent. To call matter substance was no task, but to understand the substance of Spirit was hard, to know that no substance can rule out Mind from piercing it with Truth, and immortality, wherein Spirit is found substance, was more difficult. What is termed personal sense can lie about being, but spiritual sense must tell the facts of it. To a material sense, the falsehood of being is the fact, until that belief is rebuked by science. Belief is the sum total of mortal man; and if this belief says “I am wretched,” it is so, and no circumstance can change it until the belief changes; and if it says “I am happy,” no circumstance can make or mar the situation until the belief changes. It is as necessary for a belief of health to be instructed
