The Text - Section 12
The Standard of Law
BU 162:10, LC 5:27
In my article of the standard of men's acts, I showed the political standard but did
not give the true standard, from the fact that it is not recognized as such. It is
known as judgment; therefore, any man's judgment is a standard. If his judgment
happens to be popular with the masses, then his standard is true, so it returns to
the first idea that each man is his own standard. Yet everyone knows and
acknowledges that there is a difference in deciding any problem, whether it is
decided by a mathematical standard or an opinion. All will say that the people are
not wise in regard to the standard of law. Law is one thing and the judges
another and their duty is to decide any troubles that parties get into which they
cannot decide themselves. The people make the laws and agree to sustain them,
so the judges listen to their stories and decide the case according to their own
laws.
Now as troubles often come up where the law is not defined, the judge makes a
decision, which is an opinion, not law, and the people are not bound by it, as for
instance, the Dred Scott case. The people are not bound by that decision, for it is
the opinion of a majority of judges and they are not supreme law. The people are
the law and the judges its expounders. The expounding of the law is like the
expounding of any other problem. It is as necessary to have an expert for a judge
as it is to have an expert in a bank to detect the spurious coin. These persons
must be selected by the banks, not by the people. And as it is for their happiness
to have the law properly executed, the court, like the bank, ought to have the
right to select their own judges. The people must not have the power, for in
selecting a judge, they do not stand in the same relation to themselves as in
making a law. In making a judge they make him by a party without regard to his
merits as an expert in law; while the law is made for the whole people, the judge
is made for the party. This defect makes trouble and is felt in the whole country. It
makes man act upon a political standard and is the basis of men's reasoning.
The same error runs through all the troubles in government and party opinions
have been the ruin of nations and statesmen.
As I have said, man is a nation and is his own judge and juror. A man, ignorant,
is like a nation in a savage state. As error enters a man, his error commences,
and the first law is self-preservation. Then arise opinions as to how to preserve
the peace and health. This brings up parties and man, being a nation, governed
by the same law of opinions, truth has never been acknowledged by them.
Opinions spring up in man, bringing everyone into the field and each man is a
government of himself, governed by the opinions of his friends. Now political
friends are one thing and friends to the government or health are another. And
when a person is in trouble, it is hard to tell who is the cause of it. The sick or
president makes his grievances known to his friends, as he thinks. And if they
are the friends of the government or health, then no harm is done by their acts or
opinions. It is well to know the officers of man's health, so we shall know them in
nations. The military are known by their dress. The priests were formerly and so
on down to the police. And the officers of man's health are under as good
discipline as those of the nation, the one being as corrupt as the other. I will
analyze man as I have nations, for he as a nation, is of all corrupt beings the
worst. There is no good in him that can be heard. His officers are deceptive,
hypocrisy and all kinds of evil, and they are prowling round seeking whom they
may devour.
This makes up that element in man, corresponding to the lowest passions of the
masses in a nation. This party has their leaders and they are as easily detected
by their wisdom as they are in a nation. I will give the foundation of each man as
a nation and men's acts as combined into a government, as a nation. The child's
mind is a new territory not explored. An adult is like an old world. The child's mind
or soil in a natural state brings forth the fruits of its mother's mind. As it is
naturally rich but uncultivated, it holds out great inducements for strangers. So
strange ideas are sown in the mind. And as its mind is under none but the first
law of nature, might is right and all kinds of ideas spring up in anarchy and
confusion. Each stranger wants to cultivate the mind according to the prejudices
of his father. This makes confusion and as in all governments, a convention is
called and a constitution is formed. Some concession is made to suit the rabble
and some to suit the more sober classes. But science is not taken into the treaty
at all, nor ever hinted at in the constitution of child's mind.
Now health and happiness are the first articles in the constitution of both the
government of man as man and nation as a nation and of course there must be
leaders and teachers for each. So a certain set of men come up as teachers for
this young nation and a controversy springs up as to what kind of laws best to
keep this child in subjection till it shall get large enough to take care of itself.
Meetings are called, arguments are brought forth and parties are formed. At last
a set of laws are agreed to by the majority but opposed by the minority. These
laws are placed in the hands of certain party leaders and the nation or child is to
be governed accordingly. And the first act is to bring the child into subjection to
these laws. These laws are based upon opinions that happen to arise in the
minds of the old world or people who wish to govern the young child or nation
according to the wisdom of their fathers. And to carry out the design, men are
appointed to instruct the young in all the religion of their fathers. Here is almost
the first false move, implanting in the mind of the child our religious opinions. As
they spring up, other opinions also come forth and a discord ensues. This fills the
mind or soil with foul seed or opinions and the mind becomes disturbed and
someone is selected to settle the difficulty. Another set of political guides is
selected to make peace with the religious or diseased opinions. This set are
office holders to the priests. For if they opposed the priests' opinions, they would
be unpopular. So it is for their advantage to acknowledge the priests' right and
not lay the trouble to their opinions, but to disobeying their laws.
This class is called doctors, who make their living as I have just said. And thus
the people are kept under by these blind guides. Their minds are kept disturbed
and the doctors call it disease. Their diseases or troubles increase; their burdens
are multiplied till rebellion springs up. Then a war is started by the unbelievers of
the two classes. A suspension of hostilities takes place; judges are appointed
through the influence of these blind guides and they decide according to the
party that is in power. This makes more trouble, so it goes on from one
generation to another coming up and flourishing for a time, then followed by wars
and rebellion and death. This is the case with disease and nations are only the
whole people's mind concentrated into one body called nation, having its feature
and growth like a man. The health or disease of the people shows the health of
the nation, not the intelligence but the health. Wisdom is not health, for if it was,
the beast would be wiser than the human species and this is not the case. So
there must be some defect in our bringing up, for if man's life is limited to seventy
or one-hundred years, then it may be compared to a bubble. This is the world's
reasoning. But science is a kingdom not of this world of opinions. It has no
dealing with the opinions of man but tests all things by a standard, not of man but
of science, which does not say, Believe this or that but shows its opinions by its
works. It does not ask you to believe what your fathers believed if it is false, but
proves all things so that the natural man will believe. This kingdom has its
government, its law and teachers. I will give you its form of government and
describe how it is establishing its power or wisdom on earth unobserved, yet
rising like the flood.
While the people of this world are eating and drinking, giving opinions and
marrying in parties, the kingdom of science will come to sweep them all away into
the death of eternal oblivion. You may ask for a sign, that you may tell when
these things will be. I will give you the signs of the times. Take one individual as
a fair specimen of a nation. A diseased individual is like a diseased nation, each
is under false leaders. The sick are under the hands of the priests and doctors,
just as the government is in the hands of the politicians. Public opinion in politics
is the opinion of the leaders of the parties. And national disease is the effect of
error as is the disease of an individual. The masses, in each case, are under a
silent influence that is not organized. So they think they are their own judges and
you will often hear this remark from them, "I have an opinion of myself," as
though they were the authors of their opinions. When questioned for proof, they
refer you to some one's opinion. To understand the signs of the times so you
may not be deceived by specious appearances, you must test each opinion by
the standard of science. Ask how they know and you will see them squirm and
gnash their teeth. Then in a fit of rage they will leave you and enter the swine or
their old superstition and are lost to the world.
As I have said, I will give you the foundation of the spiritual or scientific kingdom.
It is not built by man's opinions, but it is a kingdom of science-to test all the
kingdoms of the earth. Unlike all other kingdoms, it never commences war, nor
meddles with men's opinions. It is the scale or higher court to which all other
kingdoms refer their troubles. The court sits in the hearts of all the people and
just whatever parties agree to it, it obliges them to perform. It has no parties or
sects and no religious worship; it judges of all and measures out to everyone just
as they measure out to another. It has no laws but judges man by his own laws.
Its reasoning is to show the parties the folly of their own reasoning. It asks
questions to see if opinions can sustain themselves. It never argues but always
listens to hear the arguments of opinions. It shows no matter. It is unchangeable.
It is the same, today and forever. You may ask how we shall know it when it
comes-by its wisdom. It judges no man but leaves all judgment to the reasoning
of opinions. Thus man judges himself and he must be punished according to his
own laws. For the punishment is in the law; the law is the will of the people and
the judge administers the law. I will give you one or two cases showing how the
judge decides in this kingdom. This kingdom is not matter. But the kingdom of
opinions is matter. So when a subject of the spiritual kingdom sets up his
kingdom in the earthly man, he is liable to be overpowered by the children of
darkness or this world; and if he is overpowered, his kingdom is let out to the
kings of this world.
When a person is sick, he is in the hands of the children of darkness, and his
mind, like a nation, is taken possession of by the enemies of health. He is in the
same state as Job. His enemies are compassed about him and he is denied
assistance. Thus beaten and bruised till a reaction takes place, he is left to die of
his own accord. I will take such a one and bring him before the tribunal that
renders to everyone his due. This tribunal is invisible to the natural man and
cannot be seen by the natural sight. But the other senses are awake to its power
and it uses the natural organs to influence the natural world. As you may not be
acquainted with the inhabitants of this other world, I will try to compare them to
two persons conversing about these two worlds and their beliefs respecting
them. I will show that the natural man is ignorant of the spiritual or scientific world
and to be born again is to get out of the world of opinions into the world of
science. Imagine yourself listening to two persons conversing about religion. The
natural man is religious, not scientific. The scientific is not religious. The
conversation is from the world of opinions or religion to the scientific world; this is
no easy thing. Both have their identity: one in the world of opinions, the other in
science, and to separate them more plainly, I will call one matter and the other
wisdom. The world of matter is governed by opinion; that of science, by wisdom.
So the thing talked about must first start in the world of opinion, for wisdom never
starts anything. Every sensation is made on the senses and if they are attached
to wisdom, a scientific answer comes. But if a sensation is made on the senses
attached to opinions, then disease and misery come.
These are the two worlds. The man of opinion asks the question, Do you believe
in death? The man of wisdom says, No. (Opinion) What do you believe?
(Wisdom) I have no belief. To bring these more clearly to your belief, I will
assume the character of the man of wisdom and you the reader, the man of
opinions. (O) Do you not believe that the soul leaves the body at death? ( W) I
have not said that I believe in death. (O) Of course you believe that the body
dies. (W) You say I do but I do not say so. (O) Well, what do you believe? (W) I
have no belief about the other world; I know it. (O) Then if you know it, do not
men die before they get into the other world? (W) Why do you wish me to admit
death when I have told you that I do not believe in it? (O) You do not believe that
your body can go to the other world? (W) Yes, I do, but not in the sense that you
do. Each world has the same ideas. The only difference between us is that your
world is made by superstition and your ignorance is the matter. My wisdom is in
your matter or ignorance, and your error cannot see it, you being blind cannot
see the light of wisdom or science, so that my world is to your world a mystery.
(O) I do not see any sense in what you say. (W) I shall not quarrel with you on
that score; it looks to me as though you do not understand yourself. (O) I can
make nothing out of your ideas. (W) Can you make anything out of your own?
(O) I think I can explain it better than you have done. (W) I have not tried to
explain at all; I cannot explain what never had an existence. (O) You do not deny
that man dies. (W) I do not admit it, do you? (O) Yes. (W) Will you tell me how
you know that a dead thing has life? (O) I do not mean the soul, I mean the body.
(W) Has your soul senses? (O) Yes. (W) Do you mean that your senses die? (O)
No. (W) Then the body only dies, as you say? (O) I do not know. (W) I agree with
you in the last statement. (O) Have you any proof that you will have any senses
without a body? (W) Yes. (O) What is it? (W) If you wish me to tell you what I
know of myself, I can do so, but if you believe in death, why do you not show it so
that I may have some idea of it? (O) I suppose that you do not deny that man
dies? (W) You have asked that question a number of times. It seems as though
you never would know what I do believe, so I will ask you to explain your belief
about death. Do not tell me what I believe or disbelieve, but tell me what you
believe yourself. (O) Well I believe that this body dies and that the soul or life or
something lives independently in another world, or this world or somewhere. I
cannot tell exactly where, but I do not believe that when man dies that is the end
of him. (W) All this is a belief, is it not? (O) Yes, I admit that I have no positive
proof of it. (W) How can a man have proof that he is dead? (O) The living have
the proof that he is dead. (W) Then the living are the judges of the dead? (O)
Yes. (W) Then because you say a man is dead, he is so? (O) Every one will
admit that he is dead. (W) I wish I could make you stick to one thing, that is, what
you mean by dead and not dead. (O) All the Christian world believe in death. (W)
Well, because all believe in death is that proof to any one that does not believe
it? (O) No, but the Bible teaches it. (W) Then because the Bible, as you say,
teaches it, it must be so, of course. I must take an opinion of someone who
knows nothing at all, for a truth. Just look at the absurdity of your own belief;
there is not one single idea of truth in all your opinions. If you will listen to me, I
will tell you facts, demonstrable, that will explain all your error; for yours is an
error, arising from heathen superstition and I will show you where they lie.
(O) Well, I will listen, if you will not fly off from the point. (W) I will try not to. (O)
You are a clock-maker by profession? (W) Yes. (O) Do you understand how to
calculate the train of wheels and the length of any pendulum to fit any case of a
given length? (W) Yes, I do not care what length of pendulum you give me, I can
calculate the number of vibrations in a minute and calculate a train of wheels to
correspond to the beats so the clock will keep correct time. (O) Did you always
have that power? (W) No, I do not call it a power. (O) Why not? I do not have that
gift or power. (W) It is because you will not try to obtain it. (O) I have prayed and
talked and used every means to get it and have finally concluded that it is a gift
or power which derives from some higher power which you do not acknowledge.
(W) How do you know? Can you calculate a clock? (O) No, I have not the gift, but
I know just as much about it as you do, in fact no one knows. We see clocks run
and keep time and that is all we know about it. To talk about a science is all
nonsense, for it is mystery. (W) Then because you can not see there is a science
by which a clock can be calculated, all these clocks are made and kept in order
by a power or gift that a man knows nothing of? (O) I will admit your power, but to
admit that you know more about it than all the rest of the world, I cannot.
Because if it could be taught and learned, every person could teach it; this shows
it to be a power.
(W) Do you admit that I can make a clock and repair old ones? (O) Yes, I know
you can but I do not believe that you know anything more about how you do it
than I do. (W) What is your business? (O) I am a musician, a violinist. (W) How
long since you had the gift or power? (O) It is not a gift. (W) What is it? (O) It is a
science. (W) You do not know any more then about the power than I do. (O) Can
you play? (W) No. (O) Then how do you know that I do not know any more about
it than you do? (W) I judge you by the same standard that you judge me. (O) I do
not judge you at all. (W) You said you know as much about a clock as I did. So
why should I not know as much about music as you do? (O) Perhaps you do, but
we cannot agree and when doctors fall out, we must leave it to some person
whom we agree has more knowledge than either of us. And as we are sick or out
of tune, we will call a physician to get his advice, for we both acknowledge the
medical skill.
A physician is called and, looking very wise, he listens attentively to each story
and after a careful investigation makes the following report.
Man is like a machine or clock; his power is in the pendulum which makes so
many vibrations in a minute. The clock will keep good time, but if it gets out of
order, you must send for a scientific man to repair it, not a quack. You are both
right. There is no correct rule to make a clock. Careful investigation by scientific
men show that it is impossible to make any accurate calculation in regard to a
science, from the fact that on examining clocks, all lengths of pendulums are
found also, all sizes of wheels with a different number of teeth in each wheel, and
very few are alike. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that a clock-maker
cannot tell with accuracy about a clock any more than a physician can about a
man; they are both mysteries in the world.
It is true the world has given the medical faculty the credit of wisdom or power
superior to the clock-maker or musician. But I am free to admit that the medical
men labor under the same trouble with the rest of the world, that is: that there is
no such thing as science. It is true that men can play on musical instruments, but
it is folly to say that there is a science by which it can be taught and learned.
Listen to the bird that sings; there is no science about that. One bird learns from
another by sympathy. To set up a standard of science shows an amount of
general information that the common people lack.
Here is the trouble. The masses, like the brutes, have the power of imitation. See
the beavers, how perfectly they arrange their houses and their young have the
same imitation and so on. The clock-maker does and the medical men too; only,
medical men have been selected as teachers to the masses. This gives them
more power, for the power of the profession is in the confidence of the people. If
there had been any such thing as science, the medical faculty could not have
stood one year, from the fact that all their power is in the position that the world
has given them. It does not come from wisdom in their profession but from their
opinions being acknowledged as superior to such men as you. You have given
them the charge of your lives and they are bound to preserve them to the best of
their ability. But so far as my wisdom is concerned in calculating any theory to
cure diseases by a science, it is just as erroneous as to undertake to say that
there is a science in music or in clock-making. In conclusion, I will say to you
both that all the science in our three cases lies in making the masses believe that
we have a science. But here is where we, as medical men, have the advantage
of you, as the common class. We do not recognize anyone without a diploma.
This all cannot get, from the fact that the deception must be kept from the people,
or the faculty is ruined. No one has any respect for your mechanical power; it is
too much among the masses and your musical power is in the same category.
But we, when a man undertakes to step in, cry out, Humbug, Quack, and the
people are so loyal that they put down all opposition so that all we have to do is
not to appear to notice them.
(O) Do you not think there is some science in it? (PHY) Oh, yes. Or that some
men have more sagacity than others? This you see is the profession. To be a
good professional man is to keep aloof from the masses, for otherwise he loses
his dignity, and his wisdom will not sustain him. So popularity and not wisdom is
the medical science. Wisdom never was popular, for it had no identity. So hoping
I have settled your troubles I leave. (Clock-maker and Musician alone)
(Clock-maker) What do you think of the doctor's opinion? (Musician) He has
shown that he knows nothing of music; what do you think of his opinion in regard
to your science? (CM) I have come to the conclusion that he knows nothing
about clock-making and we are in the same predicament that we were before. If
a man could be found who is a clock-maker, musician and doctor, then I think we
could get at the right answer. (M) I think I know just the one, so if you please we
will have his opinion.
Here is introduced a third person. (C) Have you read the doctor's report on our
cases? (Wisdom) Yes, but I saw nothing in what he said, showing that he knew
anything about his own business or yours, for I happen to be acquainted with all
these powers as he calls them and he showed entire ignorance in regard to them
all. (O) Can you explain where the truth is (W) Yes. The word science has never
had life attached to it but has always been looked upon as a power that never
had life. So that when we speak of science, we never have attached any of the
senses to it. Therefore, science is not known by the natural man, yet he has
science but knows it not and it has no place of respect in his heart or senses. I
will try to give it a foundation that you both will admit. Before you knew how to
calculate a clock, the calculation was a mystery; but as soon as you learned it,
the mystery was gone. Your senses left the mystery and attached themselves to
the wisdom you obtained. And the mystery to you was like an opinion that never
was true. So when the musician called it a mystery, you could see where his
senses were attached, also that he was in the dark. But your senses being
attached to the light or wisdom, you could see through his darkness or error. The
difference between you was this: his senses were in his error, and error's light is
a false light. Your senses, being attached to the true light that lighteth everyone
who is scientific, a mystery to his light, his senses not knowing the true light.
You both are right and neither knows it, from the fact that science has never
been acknowledged by opinion to have any wisdom, while science is wisdom.
And as fast as a person finds wisdom, he finds science, for the word science is
the name of the wisdom that sees through the opinions of man. As far as the
doctor's science went in his explanation, you could both see that his science was
ignorance in regard to your cases. And as far as the sick, his wisdom is just the
same. Here is the mystery. Science, as it is called, is something that the natural
man worships. He looks upon it as coming from some superior power,
independent of himself, when his own wisdom is all the science he knows of. For
to the fool who knows nothing, there is no science.
Your wisdom in regard to making a clock is one thing, but if you can calculate it
and know by what principle you do it, that wisdom is not of this world but of God
or Science. It has never entered man's senses that his senses are his wisdom
and his body is an idea that his senses are attached to. He admits it himself,
when the very senses are not recognized by itself, but speaks of itself as a third
person. This is the case in sickness; the senses often speak of themselves as
another person. I will try to illustrate. Suppose we should differ in opinion on
some subject, for instance, about a certain man's complexion. Suppose I said he
had black eyes, and you insisted that his eyes were hazel and we argued to
convince each other. We are both certain we are right, but ours is the wisdom of
opinion. We cannot agree, so we refer our differences to a person who decides
that his eyes are black, so the one in error gives it up. In all this, no science or
wisdom is displayed. Now suppose I am called to decide their controversy. They
do not tell me the thing in dispute, but ask me to tell them what they are disputing
about. I tell them they are disputing about Mr. A. How do you know, they ask.
Because I see him here and the thing in question is his eyes. Turning to Mr. B, I
say, You think he has black eyes and Mr. C thinks they are hazel, but I know you
both are mistaken, for his eyes are blue. They are not bound to take my opinion
as such because I say so; but if I tell them what they think, and they know that I
have no knowledge of it through my natural senses, they believe. This belief was
founded on my telling them what they thought. This to them was stronger proof
than they could give me, so they admitted it was a truth although it was still to
them a mystery.
I will try to give a stronger proof that I knew more than they did and show that my
power was wisdom. Their minds excited mine till I could see the man in question.
His eyes were blue. I also saw another man with hazel eyes. The man with blue
eyes was in harmony with me, but the one with hazel eyes was not; neither was
the man with black. As I convinced them of their wisdom, their error disappeared
and at last there stood a man with blue eyes. Now to the world of opinion, this is
a mystery or power, but to me it is wisdom, just as much as it is to the clock-
maker or musician. Let science be looked upon as a character and opinion as a
character, and every man may be as these two principles. Then man can
measure himself by his own wisdom, but now he is weighed by the scale of
public opinion which is not science. Every science that is acknowledged is
wisdom to those who understand it. Why should it be an impossibility that a
person might see and feel another's feelings? Is not this the case in every branch
of wisdom? Does not the musician feel the discord of his pupil, and does not his
wisdom correct it? If the mind is not something that can be corrected, then there
is no wisdom or science to be applied. Now man is a machine, acted upon by
one of the powers, opinion or wisdom. The discord is made by a sensation on the
mind. If the sensation is rightly directed, then the effect is harmless, but if not,
then it embraces an opinion. For instance, take two persons. One knows the cry
of murder; the sensation following it depends on the wisdom or error of those
who hear it, for otherwise all would be affected alike by every sensation, for it
contains the basis of wisdom or error. Now if error is aroused, discord and
disease follow, but if wisdom feels or sees it, it amounts to nothing.
May 1861
Cures
BU 162:32, LC 5:42
I am often asked what I call my cures. I answer, the effect of a science because I
know how I do them. If I did not know, they would be a mystery to the world and
myself. Science is wisdom put into practice. For when it is understood it ceases
to be a science and becomes wisdom to all who know it. This is the case with all
wisdom acknowledged by the natural man. To him it is a power or mystery but to
the wise it is wisdom. The wise make this difference between the two wisdoms.
The natural man's wisdom is based on an opinion, but the scientific man bases
his on a wisdom that can be demonstrated by facts and this demonstration is
called science. So when we say that such a thing is based on a scientific
principle it is the same as saying that it is wisdom superior to an opinion.
There are certain truths admitted by the world as science, that is, they cannot
explain them, but to such as have wisdom there is no science but wisdom. All
wisdom that has not been acknowledged by the natural man is called a power or
gift or spiritual demonstration, not a science. The curing of disease has never
been acknowledged to be under any wisdom superior to the medical faculty, so
they by their opinions have kept the world in darkness till now, and how much
longer they will do so I cannot tell. Now to put the world in possession of a
wisdom that will make the natural man acknowledge a science is to admit the
person who teaches it superior to the medical men. This is what I am trying to do
and if I succeed in changing the minds of men enough to investigate they will see
that disease is what follows an opinion, and that wisdom that will destroy the
opinion will make the cure. Then the cure will be attributed to a superior wisdom,
not a power. I will give one or two illustrations to show what must come to pass
and how the people must be divided since they cannot serve God and Mammon,
for if a person believes one, he cannot believe his doctor or anything that makes
him sick.
I am accused of interfering with the religion of my patients. This is not the case,
but if a particular passage in the Bible or some religious belief affects the patient,
then I attack it. For instance, a person gets nervous from his belief that he has
committed the unpardonable sin. His wisdom is attached to the sin of his belief,
and his belief is someone's opinion about some passage in the Bible that he
believes applies to his case. I know this is all false, so of course I have to destroy
his opinion, and this destroys the effect which is the disease. His senses are
attached to an opinion, mine are detached from the opinion and attached to the
wisdom that shows the absurdity of the opinion. Their wisdom is of man, mine is
of God or Science. All disease is the punishment of our belief either directly or
indirectly, and our senses are in our punishments. My senses are attached to the
wisdom that sees through the opinion so that my love or wisdom casteth out their
disease or fear; for their fear hath torment, and perfect wisdom casteth out all
opinions.
Now it never entered man's brain that man's wisdom is a part of himself. The
natural man speaks of wisdom as a science which he has not got but wants to
get, so of course his senses are not in the thing he has not got. The wise man
has what the natural man is looking for and does not know it, when it is in his
very thoughts.
We talk about the very wisdom that the natural man calls a gift. He calls it a
science when he is the very science himself and knows it not.
I will make one illustration. Everyone will admit that a musician can play by note
and compose music and teach it to another; this is a science. Now is it wisdom
above the man who cannot play or compose? All will say, Yes. His wisdom is a
mystery to the natural man but he knows that he can teach that wisdom to
another and he calls it a science to distinguish it from that wisdom that arises
from an opinion.
The musician's senses are in his wisdom, the natural man's senses are in his
opinions; one is of this world, the other is of a wisdom far above. To be born
again is to get the natural man's senses out of his opinions and attach them to
wisdom. The science of music is lost in wisdom; then his wisdom of opinions has
become subject to his wisdom of truth. These are the two kingdoms and every
man is subject to one or the other and each man contains them both and is
judged according to his acts. One is eternal and the other must come to an end
and, as man has borne the one of opinions, he must also bear the other, for
opinions cannot live where wisdom is.
May 1861
Disease, Love, Courage
BU 162:45, LC 5:54
The question is often asked, what is disease? It could be very easily answered
by a physician of the old school by simply pointing out a person coughing and
saying that a person has consumption ... now instead of calling that phenomenon
by a name, explain how it came. This the doctor does not do except by another
phenomenon as much in the dark as the former, so you may chase him from one
lie to another till you are tired, and only find at last that it is a mystery. Where do I
stand as far as disease goes? I know that the bottom of all these phenomena is a
lie in the beginning and started by a liar till it was received as true; then the
phenomenon is called disease when it is the fruit of our belief.
Every idea is the embodiment of an opinion resolved into an idea. This idea has
life or a chemical change, for it is the offspring of man's wisdom condensed into
an idea and our senses are attached to it. For instance, you see something that
you would like, a person perhaps. You attach your senses to the idea and then
the value is in the idea in the shape of love or worth or anything you may chance
to have. If it is love, it is not in the idea but in the essence or author of the idea or
owner. I will try to make it plainer. You see a person. At first sight you are
affected and you attach your senses to the idea in the form of love. You may or
may not be deceived, for love is not matter but solid, and passion or excitement
is matter governed by error, subject to love. Love is wisdom; passion is error
acting upon ignorance. Science is to keep the two separate or error in subjection
to wisdom. When two persons meet we think that the first impression comes from
the idea or person but this is not the case. The atmosphere around the idea is
what is affected and this is not known to us, so we reason from a false basis not
knowing ourselves.
To give you a clearer idea of what I wish to convey, I must take myself as one
person and my patient as another. When I sit down I am one person, that is, I am
quiet, perfectly at ease, not afraid of any impression from my patient, feeling my
superiority to them, and in this lies my strength. My wisdom is my strength; my
opponent's wisdom is his error for if he knew the truth he would not want me. So
there are two persons in one body or two wisdoms acting through one medium,
and as the error is a coward, it assumes a sort of courage but it is the courage
that arises from error. I do not know how to describe true courage, for wisdom
needs no such word. I never knew that God showed any courage. It seems to be
a sort of braggadocio element. If a dog shows courage, it is based on the
assumption that he is not afraid, for when he is overpowered his courage fails; so
it shows that what is called courage in us is an element not perfectly understood.
Take away the fear of danger, then man has courage. Some men see danger
where others do not and as no two men reason alike, so no two men's courage is
alike. I know of no way of giving you a test of courage as well as to take myself.
When I first commenced my practice, I thought I had courage as much as my
neighbors or others, but as I found that I was liable to be affected by another's
feelings, my courage failed. So I used some sort of stratagem to get the
advantage of my patients, and being rather reckless, I ran risks which the world
would call courageous. For instance, I was not afraid of an insane man if I could
get his eye; to the world this looked like courage, but to me it was wisdom. I had
no fear, for I saw no harm. Here is where courage is made known. It may be
classed like the mechanical forces-pressure and power. Pressure is one element
of mechanics. Power is another and embraces both pressure and velocity. So
courage is based on the element of action which is like pressure, not upon power
which is like wisdom. Here is the difference: if you see the reaction, your courage
is lost in wisdom. Now I have been trying to get wisdom in regard to the diseases
of mankind, for a disease is like the rest of the evils that come within our senses.
When I first took the feelings of patients, it took courage to keep me from taking
the disease. I know this sort of courage; it was a fear lest I might be called a
coward, so I would pluck up courage. But now I see that if I had known what I
know now, I should not have been in any more danger than a person in a boat
where the water was not over three feet deep. But my courage admitted the
water twenty feet deep, rough at that, and myself in a leaky craft. Now as I began
to touch bottom or get wisdom, I found that the depth of the water or the danger
was in my patient's mind and I believed his story without looking for myself; this
made him two men to me. After I had found out the trouble, his fears were one
man and his wisdom was another. His error had possession of his wisdom that
was based on error and his courage turned to fear. To make courage out of fear
was to make him believe there was no danger; then his courage would come,
and to destroy both was to let him know the truth. I know that disease is the
invention of man; therefore it requires no fear to prevent my saying so. It requires
no courage, for there is no danger. Danger is that which calls out fear, and
courage is the element to face it. So just as a man's fear is, so is his courage.
Some men never see danger, so their courage is not courage but a sort of
artificial pride to be praised for what they do not feel, for their ignorance destroys
their fear.
This was the way with myself. My ignorance made me bold for I knew no danger,
but as soon as I found that I was liable to be affected by the sick, my fears came.
Then just as I saw the danger, my fears increased and my courage failed. But I
would feel the same reckless propensity to kill disease; so I would be more
cautious and more artful till I found my enemy had the same fear that I had. At
last it became a sort of warfare between myself and my patient. I found that my
courage was my protection and that error was an element or odor that arose from
ignorance and fear was what arose from that. So I came to this conclusion: that
ignorance begets error, error begets fear, fear begets courage and wisdom
destroys them all. So as man grows wise he grows strong and his wisdom makes
him happy and good, for goodness is wisdom and wisdom is the religion of
Jesus.
The Christian religion is the opposite of that. One is the invention of man; the
other is the wisdom of God which Jesus illustrated by taking a little child. I will do
the same to show that goodness is a science and also that religion is a science,
and all religion based on man's opinion must come down. One can be proved,
the other cannot. I will show the two by the child. Everyone will acknowledge that
the child's character somewhat depends upon its bringing up. If this is admitted, it
shows that if the parents could see what was best for the child's happiness, much
of its misery might be avoided. Here is a fact like all others in science.
Sometimes it works well, sometimes ill, but when it works ill, we see how it might
be avoided, showing that if we had more knowledge we could do better. This
shows that science is wisdom reduced to practice; so as goodness is the result of
our training, it is certain that to be good is a science; and as goodness is religion,
that is a science. It is all summed up in this: that the world is made of ignorance,
disease, religion and error, hypocrisy and all sorts of evil, and to be a follower of
Jesus and believe in the Christ is to separate yourself from all the above and
stand alone in your wisdom. This will teach you that man without wisdom is of all
things the most miserable. He is liable to get into trouble by every act of his life.
June 1861
Opposing the Physician and Priest
BU 162:38, LC 5:44
I am often accused of opposing the physician and priest or the religious creeds.
In answer to this I plead guilty, but you must not gather from this that I oppose
goodness or virtue or wisdom. I oppose all religion that is based on the opinions
of man, and as God never gave an opinion, I am not bound to believe that man's
opinions are from God. The difference between man's opinions and God's
wisdom is more than one would naturally suppose, but the former is taken for a
truth and this makes the trouble that the wise have to contend with. If man knew
himself he would not be misled by the opinions of others, and as disease is the
result of our opinions, it is the duty of all to know themselves so as to correct their
own errors. Now if error is something, as it must be, to correct it must require
more wisdom than the wisdom that invented it. So if error is wrong it cannot be
the offspring of wisdom, and of course it must be from some other source and
that source must be ignorance. Ignorance is the father and disease is the
offspring of error; therefore to correct the error is to cure the disease. How do you
cure anything but to explain the error to the sufferer so that his wisdom may
correct his error?
And as disease is like any other evil that wisdom has to correct, it must be by a
science to the natural man, although to a person who has wisdom science is
nothing. No one supposes that to oppose the physicians' opinions is to cure the
disease, for the opinion is father of the disease or life and to lose your life or
opinion is to recover your health. But wisdom is without father or mother, so to
destroy your earthly father is to destroy your opinions, and to be with your
Heavenly Father is to be wise; so everyone that loses his opinions and arrives at
the truth is dead to the natural world but alive in Wisdom or Christ.
When I sit down by a sick person and he or she wants to tell me what the doctor
says, to me it is nonsense, for I have not the least regard for their wisdom. Their
opinions are the very things I try to destroy, and if I succeed, their opinions have
no influence to create disease for they are the very disease I am trying to
destroy. Man's profession, not his wisdom, is the standard of his popularity. I
stand in direct opposition to all others in this respect and here is the conflict:
whether man's opinion is to rule or his wisdom. If the medical profession is based
on wisdom, then it will stand the test, and disease must have its origin out of the
profession; either this must be true or the opposite. I assert that disease is the
offspring of opinion. Ignorance produces the phenomenon or effect as in the
brute creation but the perfectly wild brutes, disease or phenomenon differs from
that of the domesticated brute. So it is with man. The perfect fool knows no
aches or pains; where there is no fear there is no torment. Fear is error, wisdom
casts out fear, for it knows no fear. Now does wisdom have an identity? I answer
"yes" and so does error. The opinions of man never have admitted wisdom to
have an identity but admit it as a power or gift, thus making it merely a servant to
error, known by the name of science; but the person who has the wisdom is not
admitted superior to the one who admits it.
You often hear persons attempt to explain my cures by their own opinions, not
admitting that I have any wisdom superior to their opinions; thus they make
themselves out wise by their own ignorance since they deny the very power or
wisdom they acknowledge by admitting it as a mystery to them. So they admit a
power outside of their wisdom and worship that of which they are completely
ignorant. Now I know that this something which is a mystery to them is wisdom to
me and that my wisdom sees through their opinions; also that the explanation is
the conversion from opinion to truth and health. These two characters, wisdom
and opinion, stand before each other and the people choose the one they will
obey just as they do in national affairs.
President Lincoln is the representative of health or the Constitution. Jeff Davis is
the representative of the head of opinions or disease. All those who follow Davis
are those who have departed from health or the Constitution and have followed
after false gods or guides. When the armies meet, they come face to face and
unfurl their banners. One is the flag of the sun or Constitution, the other is the
banner of darkness or opinions. This wisdom has been represented by Joshua
and as it says to the sun or Northern armies, "Halt!" and to the Southern moon or
error, "Stop!" the leaders seeing the wisdom are alarmed and flee, but the people
rejoice in the light of the American Constitution that shall make them well and
free them from these blind guides.
This is the way with disease; disease is the offspring of error, and as long as the
people will worship men's opinions, just so long they will be sick. To me it is as
clear as daylight that if the people could see themselves, they would discard all
the priests' and doctors' opinions and become a law unto themselves. All I do is
put the world in possession of a wisdom that will keep them clear from these two
classes of opinion. You may think I have some feeling against the doctor's
character. Not at all, nor do I think that they who know me have anything against
me as a man, but they scout the idea that I know any more about curing disease
than they do. They have the wisdom and I the power. I stand to the medical
faculty in this light as a harmless humbug, perfectly ignorant of what I profess,
and all my talk is to amuse the patient and make him believe the disease is in his
imagination. If I succeed it is all well, but so far as my wisdom goes, that is all
humbug. I am aware that this is my position with the faculty and their opinions
have such a strong hold on the people that the mass of people look upon me in
the same light, and if by chance someone chooses to see that I am not the
person that these blind guides call me, they are looked upon in the same light. I
acknowledge that all this is true with regard to my position in society and how do
I feel in regard to it? I know that it is all false although my word does not make it
so, but I suppose that I have the same right to give my opinion with regard to
these two classes as they have to give theirs about me, and I will now give it and
let the masses judge for themselves.
The truth that I am trying to establish is something new. All established theories
purporting to improve mankind are merely the effect of one set of demagogues
trying to get the ascendency over another; the people are no better off, but
worse. Disease of a person is like that of a nation; each is governed by arbitrary
laws and the governing of both is alike. Disease is acknowledged to have an
identity independent of man and man makes laws to govern it, attaches penalties
to their disobedience, and calls them the laws of God. Let us see if these laws
are not made by ourselves. Take fire for instance. If you put your hand into it,
having no wisdom about it, who is to blame? You are. How are you to blame?
Because you do not know any better, not because you do not know you are to
blame. Is a child to blame for putting his hand in the fire? No. Has he not
committed the same sin against the same law? You will say Yes, but he did not
know any better. Well, did you? If you did, then you committed a sin of your own
making for you put your hand into the fire against a law of your own
understanding and your punishment is according to the transgression. But it is
not so with the child. He has committed no sin for there is no intelligence in the
act. Then the act or sin of ignorance is winked at so that man invents his own
misery by his laws.
All governments have laws whereby to govern and in these laws is concentrated
the wisdom of the people, the disobeying of which is followed by some kind of
punishment. As the laws are our king we obey them through fear and the
mediums or officers of the law are condemned or approved so we have no
sympathy with the laws except as they keep the people in subjection. This keeps
the nation all the time in an uproar like a family of children who quarrel to get
possession of their father's wealth. If they respected their father more than they
did their own selfishness, all would go well, but a false idea makes the trouble.
The government of the United States was founded on another basis, a higher
principle of wisdom that had no laws for its children but whose laws were for
strangers. It was based upon the wisdom of the people, on the principle that man
was capable of self-government. This element filled the whole of the thirteen
states and men and children attached their senses to this wisdom as their father,
not as a man of flesh and blood, but an element of love. It was like the love of a
good parent who, when the flesh and blood was laid in the ground, hovered
around our fears in sympathy and wisdom and comforted us. So the wisdom of
the people, gushing through every pore of the signers of the Declaration of
American Independence, warms the hearts and limbs of all its children and each
child attaches itself to the wisdom, not the President. As the children grew they
wanted more land, and strangers coming among us, it became necessary to
have a servant to explain the father's will. So we selected Washington, not as a
leader or dictator but as a servant or counselor to explain our father's will and see
that everyone was rewarded according to his acts. Now in the course of time
differences of opinions sprang up and contentions arose; finally the father was
denied and the will was broken. At last the wisdom or father was lost and the son
became the power and then men began to worship the creature instead of the
creator. Now that President is all the government we have and he is the
President of a party; the old will is broken and man is like a sheep without a
shepherd.
This has been the case for more than forty years till at last a division of the farm
came up; this brought up the old will and revived the identity of the father or
Constitution. Then the father's sympathy began to ooze out of the pores of his
children at the North and adopted sons of the West. A struggle is now going on to
see whether the will is good and whether the people still let old principles of our
ancestors rule.
Disease began in the same way. Man at first was like a nation, just born into
existence with only the laws of life that ministered to their wants from day to day.
As in nations, opinions would spring up and as men multiplied, they must enter
into a sort of combination for their own protection. This of course brought up a
controversy, how to carry their plans into execution and this would lead to parties
and leaders. So little by little men bound themselves with fetters of their own
making and punished themselves by their own laws for God made man upright
and man of himself sought out these inventions. As controversies arose of
course men would get excited and troubles would come out of it, then laws and
penalties would be introduced leading to superstition and all sorts of error. It then
became necessary to select someone to explain the various phenomena. These
guides, seeing how their opinions acted on the masses, obtained a power over
the people; their next movement was to keep this power in their own hands, and
it has always been handed down to this day in nations and individuals.
Man's life is controlled by arbitrary laws. He has no more power over his life
independent of the laws of the medical faculty than a State has over the laws of
the United States. Both act in accordance with the laws of a superior wisdom. In
every act of his life man admits the laws of the medical faculty and dares not
depart from them.
It is true that leaders spring up and form parties or theories, but all must admit
the old constitution of the faculty, that there is disease independent of the mind.
The whole controversy among them is how to kill it. One sets up his standard of
warfare and attacks the patient with calomel, blisters, etc. Another approaches
the patient with hot crop, ready to play upon the disease if it does not yield. A
third advances with a little sugar plum coaxing him to leave. Another commands
the disease to leave by power from another world, and so on; but no one
undertakes to deny the authority of their father the devil, or the origin of disease.
This was the condition of the world at the time of Jesus. Speaking of the same
thing, he says if the old covenant or theories had been faultless there would have
been no need of another. So it is with the medical theory; if their remedies were
equal to their laws, there would have been no need of another mode but they
have created a fire which they cannot put out. So a new remedy must be applied,
for the old theories are like an old garment ready to fall to pieces or an old carpet
which will not bear to be shaken.
Now I stand alone, as one risen from the dead or these old theories, having
passed through all these old ideas and risen again that I may lead you in this
light that will open your eyes to the truth of him who spake as never man spake,
for he spoke the truth. This truth condemns all man's opinions; it breaks down all
creeds and priestcraft and upsets all the medical faculty and brings peace and
good will to man. It teaches that man, in order to break off from his wickedness or
opinions and learn to speak the truth, must not try to deceive his fellow man by
pretending to know what is merely an opinion. Show me the doctor who really
believes that his medicine has any curative qualities or any intelligence except as
it is associated with his opinion and I will show you a fool, for no intelligent
physician would dare risk his reputation on a homeopathic pill to cure a cough
supposing that the patient took the medicine in his food and did not know it. This
shows that they believe that they work on the imagination of the patient.
There are certain drugs that will act as an emetic or cathartic, so I can act upon a
person as these drugs do; but if the patient should take an emetic by accident, it
would then make him vomit. Now when the patient vomits if a wrong direction is
given, another effect might be produced; so that it all goes to show that the mind
must be guided by some wisdom superior to itself. If error directs, nothing certain
is known of the effect; if wisdom is at the helm, no medicine is wanted, for
wisdom can break opinion in pieces and as disease is the effect of opinion,
wisdom is the destruction of disease.
I will illustrate the cures by myself and by the medical man. The medical faculty
have through their ignorance created a fire or disease as Jeff Davis has done,
and the masses believe that all the phenomena that they see and feel are the
effect of a cause outside of themselves and leaders. So they make war with their
own shadow and in their insane mind come down upon their best friends thinking
they are the cause of their trouble, while their troubles are the effect of their own
belief. So it is with the sick. Ignorance, not knowing how the mind can be affected
by a direction outside of itself, identifies wisdom with error or matter so that truth
is a stranger and it is all the time fighting against itself to get rid of an enemy of
its own creation. Now teach man this simple fact-that in all action the wisdom of
reaction is in the act, but the act knows it not for if it does, no bad effect will
follow. To show these two ideas of action and reaction, it is necessary that the
act should be known by some strong power or error that cannot be stayed
without some loss. These embrace all the wisdom of the two worlds; one is
action and the other reaction and our senses are attached to one or the other;
therefore, if we look for the effect we shall find out the cause. But man does not
look so far into this principle when applied to himself and here of all others is the
very place to apply this rule, for it is the very balance of our existence; it is the
principle of eternal life. It is life itself and to know it is to know every sensation,
what it is and what will be the effect on our happiness before it takes place, so
that we may apply another idea of safety. I will give an illustration to show how
this principle is known in part by some and by others not at all.
I will take a child for a medium to explain this principle. The child sees a light.
Here is a phenomenon. In it there is no wisdom to the child, so it puts its finger in
the light; the sensation frightens the child; this excites the matter or mind and out
of the sensation comes reason. It tries it again and the same results follow till
fear prevents the child from repeating the act. Now the fire to the child is an
enemy so it shuns it, fearing it will produce the same effect as before; thus you
see it feels a sort of life or wisdom in the fire till it is taught that the fire is nothing
of itself, only a simple chemical action without wisdom. To know that is all that is
necessary to allay its fears and when the child knows it that wisdom keeps him
from being burned.
Another case: A child will toss a stone into the air, not knowing or thinking that it
will come down until it hits him on the head; here is where they fail. As soon as
they learn how to apply this principle they will throw up the stone and the wisdom
guides them out of danger. This principle runs all through our lives and unless we
understand it so as to know how the phenomenon is produced, we do not know
the effect.
I will here relate a case which just happened that I shall watch and report at a
future time. A young lady whom I had been attending had been stopping with a
friend some little time. One day her friend broke out with the measles. She had
never been exposed to it she said, but they were in town and the U.S. troops had
been sick with them. This was known in the city, so here was the origin of the
measles. The soldiers were from the country and were accustomed to soldiers'
living, eating, drinking and smoking. These habits and the idea of going to war
and leaving their friends acted upon their minds and, being bilious or full of
excitement, these different causes produced an eruption on the skin. Here was
where the error commenced. The doctors, ignorant of the cause, invented the
application of measles to the phenomenon and made the people believe their lie
and this created the disease. So all persons, by the laws of these blind guides,
who have exposed themselves or who have not were liable to have the disease.
This made the disease common and the people gave credit to the doctors for
tormenting them with an evil of their own make, just as the South praises the
scamp Davis and others for making a disease that will be the means of their own
destruction, while they fight the very friends who are warning them of their
leaders. This was what Jesus did but the people, like the South, believed him an
imposter and crucified the very man who was their friend. This has always been
the case and always will till man can apply this test of seeing through the
phenomena of this world and looking for causes in the effect. They must not call
every new phenomenon the result of a power or gift or unknown cause in order to
convince people of anything; but must admit their own ignorance.
I think that I have explained the phenomenon of the measles to the young lady so
that she will not be affected by them; but if she is not, these blind guides will say,
"It does not follow that a person must catch the measles because they are
exposed," then I ask, Why do they catch them at all? Here is the fact. This young
lady was nervous. Now see the shrewdness of these blind guides, although I will
not give them the credit of knowing the fact. For they are only the mediums of the
devil who invents these ideas, and he, like Jeff Davis, acts upon his mediums but
see the craft of the old fellow. The measles are slow getting along. This is just as
it must be; if you drop a seed into the earth it takes time for it to come forth. So it
is with disease. When the devil sows his seeds through these doctors, they
scatter the seeds promiscuously; some fall on good ground as it did with the
soldiers, others fall on public opinion and are caught by the wise which prevent
them doing much harm and some fall on stony ground or where they have had
them before, so they do not take root but wither. Like every other error that the
devil sows, he sows it in the night or darkness and while men are ignorant or
asleep to the little nervous effect the seed is creating, the devil is busy in creating
showers of opinion, like rain to help the seed come forth. The minds are agitated
for a time to create the disease and when it comes these blind guides are called
upon to destroy their own work. So when wisdom or this principle of action or
reaction is acknowledged, then the devil and his works or mediums will be
destroyed. This is the end of the world as far as disease is understood.
Then comes up a new theory having no consumption or any disease but a
wisdom that will explain all these phenomena by the result of action and reaction
or cause and effect. Causes not known are a mystery or power, but when known,
the effect is known before it comes so that man's life may not be affected by it. In
one sense it is foreknowledge; the effect is combined in the cause. The natural
man never sees the cause, but when the effect comes he admits a cause, but to
him it is a mystery or power that he is afraid of. So he reasons to keep clear of it
and in his reason he creates his own misery and here doctors his own errors as
though he had caught them from another. In this way man has been acting
against his own happiness like an insane man that is always trying to destroy
himself by fighting an invisible man, not seen by the well.
June 1861
Mind and Disease
BU 100:1, LC 5:58
[orig. untitled]
I have often spoken of the word mind as something which I call matter. I use this
term from the fact that man cannot comprehend wisdom in any other way than as
attached to matter, although they always make a difference between them. We
always speak of mind and matter as different; one is something and the other is
really nothing or it is like velocity, which is the result of motion. Now velocity is
not the result of motion but is the power that makes the motion. And mind is the
weight or error to be moved while wisdom is the power or velocity; and as weight
cannot see the power or velocity, so mind cannot see the wisdom that governs it.
There is another element called reason, like friction, which sees the effect but
being ignorant of the cause puts weight and velocity together and calls them one.
This reason in man is the result of a chemical change of the mind. We are all
taught to believe that mind is wisdom and here is the trouble; for if mind is
wisdom, then wisdom cannot be relied on, for all will admit that the mind
changes.
The ancient as well as modern philosophers knew that this mind or wisdom could
be changed, so they tried to separate one from the other, calling one soul and
the other matter or mind. Jesus separates the two by calling one the wisdom of
this world and the other the wisdom of God. If we can understand what he meant
by this world, then we can follow him along. I have spoken of that element in man
called reason. This is a low intellect, a little above the brute, which is the link
between God and mind and the same that is called by Jesus the wisdom of this
world, for this world is called matter.
Now mind is the spiritual earth which receives the wisdom of this world of reason.
Disease is the fruit of the wisdom of this world, and the wisdom of God or science
is the clearing away the foul rubbish that springs up in the soul or mind. This
rubbish is the false ideas sewn in the mind by the blind guides, priests and
physicians who cry peace when there is no peace. This wisdom is of this world
and must come to an end when the axe of wisdom shall strike at the roots of their
theories and lay them low. When the fire of truth shall run through this world of
error and burn up the stubble and, the plough of science, guided by the wisdom
of God and pressed forward by the power of eternal truth, shall root out of the
mind or matter every root and stubble, then error can find no place to take root in
the soil. Then minds like a rich cultivated vineyard shall spring forth that which
shall be sweet to the taste and pleasing to the eye. Then man can see and judge
of the tree for himself whether its fruits are those of error and opinions or of
science.
July 31, 1861
Language of Men and Animals
BU 100:11, LC 5:98
[orig. untitled]
Language is the invention of opinions to communicate to another opinion what
wisdom knows. Do animals reason like men? This question cannot be answered
categorically. It is like thousands of other questions asked by those who know not
what the question involves. Error is not science; it uses language to try to explain
what it does not know. In this way the standard of opinions is based on
ignorance. How do animals communicate with each other? Here is a question
that opens a wide field for the wisdom of opinions which offers no proof of
wisdom above the person that asks the question. After some argument, they
settle down on the opinion that animals reason and have a language. This is all
an opinion without the slightest evidence or wisdom above the animal. Can there
be any wisdom above the opinion of man to explain the actions of animals?
As all give their opinions, I will give my knowledge of the human species. Instinct
is a mystery to opinion and is not admitted as intelligence or wisdom and is not
superior to opinions but inferior to them. Now opinions divide wisdom into two
classes: instinct and knowledge. Science also makes two divisions, but not like
opinions. It makes opinions neither science nor instinct, but a sort of mixture of
ignorance and error. How does wisdom act on animals? By the law of harmony.
Wisdom has its bounds that man or beast cannot pass. Science is wisdom
reduced to self-evident propositions which have an identity. So that science is a
child that progresses and receives wisdom according to its capacity to take it up.
Or, it is like water that takes up salt; it is capable of taking up just so much and
no more. Man and beast, fish and foul and every creeping thing that has life,
except the scientific man, have their bounds that they cannot pass and when
they arrive at perfection, they either recede or assume a wisdom superior to their
race.
Man is the only one who has ever been capable of teaching a science or of
proving it by self-evident wisdom. Take the dog. He will trace the various and
winding routes of his master till he finds him. Suppose the master leaves the dog
in the house and travels in a straight direction till he comes to three roads that all
meet. When released, the dog will come to these roads and try one of them a
short distance, when he will return and take the other as though he reasoned that
if his master had not gone two of the roads he must have taken the third. If that
was so, way did he not keep on? But he went a little way and then returned, not
seeing his master on any other road; so there must be some better explanation
than that.
I will give an explanation according to my wisdom of scientific facts. The dog,
when with his master, was like a mesmerized subject. The master held the dog
by sympathy, just as a mesmerizer holds a subject. When the master left home,
the dog went with him as the subject under this wisdom of harmony. When the
dog was let loose, his wisdom was drawn by this master till he came to where the
three roads met. Then reason entered and the dog hesitated. But as he left the
right road his sympathy was disturbed and he returns to the spot where he feels
in harmony with the wisdom. He then takes another road and meets with the
same result; returning, he starts on and his sympathy grows stronger. He follows
the dictates of his own feeling until the object is obtained. Animals are a
combination that act according to their organization. Their wants are few;
happiness is all their aim. The gratification of their appetites and rest is all that
they want, so they eat and drink, not from any reason but from a simple desire to
gratify themselves.
This is perfection in the beast. They also have imitation to a certain degree, but it
is not of their combination but a higher. Left to themselves, they soon return to
their native element. This imitation, opinion calls intelligence; so it is the
intelligence of the man of opinions, but not of God or Science. A monkey is a
monkey; you can teach him to imitate, but science can never be learned by him.
You can make an automaton chess player, but he cannot go beyond his limits
and it is so with the brutes. Man is another combination, higher. But the man of
opinions is no more a scientific man than the brute. Like the brute he is capable
of imitation to a certain extent, but if he goes beyond that, he ceases to be a
brute and becomes a living scientific being. Woman is not matter but science or
truth. Man is matter or opinions, so that every one is of these two elements and
by their acts are to be judged. Man is made up of opinions. Science is the
woman, so when they are imitated, you see the man and woman or Jesus Christ.
Now destroy the man of opinions and the Christ lives in the flesh and if you
destroy the Christ, man becomes a brute. Man (after the fashion of opinion) is the
offspring of father and mother. Wisdom defines them in this way. The father is of
opinion, the mother is science. So the child being the offspring of its father or
opinion receives the wisdom of its mother or science. Here are the two. Science
and opinion never have agreed and never can; their identities are as opposite as
light and darkness. Although opinion has always been trying to take to itself
wisdom, wisdom has never acknowledged the union and never can.
These two identities are all through man's life; not one act of his life is
independent of both. Science admits nothing but facts; opinion knows nothing but
error. These two characters are as plain in the world as light and darkness. I will
give you some names that they have been identified with since the wisdom of the
world has discovered the two and will show how every phenomenon has been
acknowledged by both. I will commence with the Old Testament. This book
shows a state of society and wisdom and progression far above the wisdom of
opinions. So that science or wisdom had made considerable progress in the
world of error at the time the Old Testament was written. If the Bible was not for
the development of some wiser truth than the masses had, they never would
have accepted Moses as a leader. According to the account, Moses taught his
wisdom to the people. What motive had Moses in taking the course he did if it
was not to convince man of a more excellent way of making them happy than
they were taught in Egypt? If so, then we must expect Moses must have been a
better man even than he is represented. One thing is certain, that at the time of
Moses all nations were very religious and superstitious, for these two elements,
superstition and religion, have always gone hand in hand. So have science and
progression gone along together.
Moses and Aaron were representatives of these characters: Saul and Paul,
Adam and Eve, the law and the gospel, the rich man and the beggar, the tares
and wheat, the prodigal and elder son. All symbolize these two elements in man:
the religious man or sinner and the scientific man. Just as a man breaks off from
his superstition and embraces wisdom based on science, just so he is not
religious. Religion belongs to the man of opinions who, not knowing God,
worships something he is afraid of. While the scientific man worships God in
wisdom and sees nothing but love and harmony and his love or wisdom casteth
out fear, for fear hath torment.
I will introduce you to a religious man of the world of opinions, reasoning with a
man not of the same dispensation in religion, but a man of wisdom and science
without any religion. i he former I will call Christian and the latter Skeptic.
(S) Is there any such substance as matter?
(C) Everything we see goes to prove that fact.
(S) Is matter a solid substance?
(C) There is matter that is solid and there is matter that is not.
(S) Is there any matter so solid that light cannot penetrate it?
(C) Yes, I have no doubt of that.
(S) Do you admit a wisdom that can penetrate all matter, substances?
(C) Yes.
(S) Suppose you should be in a prison where there was no light or any chance
for matter to penetrate. Do you believe there is a wisdom capable of penetrating
your prison and communicating to you any intelligence? You may call it God or
anything you please. Do you believe it?
(C) Yes.
(S) Well, is it matter?
(C) No.
(S) Then it must be something not matter.
(C) Yes.
(S) You admit it intelligence?
(C) Yes.
(S) Then you have intelligence in prison where matter cannot go. You believe it?
(C) Yes.
(S) Do you believe it is aware of its own presence with you?
(C) Yes.
(S) Would your belief prevent its coming?
(C) No.
(S) Can there be a wisdom that can be at any particular place and know it without
a consciousness of itself?
(C) No. [unfinished]
August 1861
Origin of Political Parties
BU 84:1, LC 5:91
It is laughable to hear people talking about political parties and claiming to belong
to this or that party, just as though parties never change their principles. This
error arises from the fact that all parties spring up in opposition to some measure
or ambition of a few politicians. They get up a false issue and talk about it till the
people believe it; then a party is started and the people attach themselves to it
without the slightest idea of the principles or whether there is any principle at all.
Let us go back to Washington. All parties claim Washington as the father of our
country. Why do they, when the opposition to Washington by the friends of
Jefferson was so great that it was with difficulty Washington could be prevailed
on to become a candidate the second time? Here commenced the two great
political parties. The opposing party after Jefferson came in had no sympathy for
Washington, but when Adams and Jefferson, Hamilton and Burr came up, then
the Jeffersonians praised up Washington and denounced all others as
Federalists. The country was in debt from the war, and Jefferson in reality was
opposed to it, and the friends of Washington elected the elder Adams.
The war debt must be paid and a spirit of revolution in the country was kept up by
the opposers of Washington and Adams. All sorts of stories were circulated
about the latter, and as a direct tax would be unpopular, the enemies of Adams
elected Madison. Then came the war with England and parties split up, but finally
all settled down on Monroe; so that at his second election there was no
opposition. In all these changes, slavery was never mentioned. Its extinction was
never advocated. But as there must be two great parties, they must have political
food to live on.
When Jackson and Clay, Adams and Crawford came up, they were called
Republicans; being in favor of the war, they were said to have brought it on. But
be that as it may, the war was popular as all wars are after they are over, and
these men being all of one stripe, for all other stripes had faded out, a new era in
political parties sprang up. Men had their preferences, some for Jackson and
some for Clay, but as Clay gave his influence for Adams, Jackson was defeated,
and Adams elected. Adams not making any changes for party preference
displeased his friends and they left him, so the next election Jackson came in.
Here is where the present dynasty commenced. It began with deception and
lying politicians and ended with that traitor Buchanan.
As soon as Jackson came in, commenced the war, founded on the proverb, "To
the victors belong the spoils." The people identified their senses with the party,
never looking to measures, and the Jackson party took the name Democrat,
while their opponents were called Federalists. Yet Jackson never varied one
particle from Adams till Calhoun nullified when he put him down. The very next
message recommended the reduction of duties on tea, and then the Democrats
engrafted free trade and direct tax. This free trade was food for the people. It was
sweet to the mouth, but bitter to the belly or purses. But as it never came, it
worked well to keep up the steam. But when this died away, another element
must be introduced to keep up the party or name and as the North and West
were gaining, the democracy saw that they must lose political power so they
must get up a false issue to split up the North and South.
The blacks could be made a wedge to drive between the two parties, but to do
this it required a party so obnoxious to the Whig or Federal party that they would
not unite. So the South starts up a party of fire-eaters, claiming that slavery,
according to the Constitution, might spread all over the land. Another party in the
South did not want to carry slavery into politics but leave it just as the state had
made it and Congress must have nothing to do with it. This hypocrisy of the
South inflamed the North and a set of men sprang up actuated by pure revenge
for the wrongs heaped upon the honesty of the North. They appealed to the
Whigs or Federal party for help, but as the Federal party never had anything to
do with slavery, as a party they got no sympathy. This fretted them and the
democracy saw this and hugged it like a twin brother. So the Democratic party
made a wedge of the abolitionists to split up the Federal party. This gave them
the power and they have nourished a viper which has destroyed the democratic
party and it will before long establish the old party of North and South, which
always held that slavery was a state institution and the government never had
any authority over it, outside the states where it existed.
August 1861
Patriotism
BU 84:4, LC 5:93
Patriotism is the feeling which prompts man to respect the right of his fellow man,
also his obligation to his country and to his God. Every man might say these are
my sentiments, but as one opinion is as good as another, we must find a higher
principle than opinion to try them by. Now what is that feeling that we call
patriotism? This can only be proved by the same scale that all other truths are
proved. A nation is nothing but a child; like any child, it contains its father and
mother. The father is of the earth or opinions; the mother is the warmth or
sympathy of the earth or opinion. Every person takes after his father or mother.
George Washington was like his mother; therefore his life was attached to his
country or mother. Opinion is the man, wisdom or science is the woman. As each
man contains these two characters, to know who is a patriot is to know which
rules in man, opinion or wisdom. Each rules its offspring according to its
character.
The man rules his child by arbitrary power, the mother by love. Just so in a young
nation. The opinion of man rules by arbitrary measures, the higher principle rules
by wisdom. I will give the platforms of both. The nation like father and mother has
offspring and the inhabitants of the United States are the offspring of the
Republic. It is necessary that some sort of an agreement must be entered into to
unite the children who contain the wisdom of the mother and the opinions of the
father. As a nation grows up, there must be some kind of an organization, for all
will acknowledge that the earth produces neither nation nor individuals. Therefore
all nations are the offspring of other nations as men are the children of parents.
So as a nation commences its growth, it respects its parents just as long as it
thinks itself bound.
Children are bound to their parents till they are twenty-one; then they are free. So
nations arise from some governments and continue their relations to each other
as parent and child. This nation is the descendant of England and as such, they
respected their mother country, but it contains another element from other
nations. The renegades of all nations came and united themselves with this
young province. They, not respecting the mother but dictated by the father's
opinion, became stubborn and had to leave their country. So in the bosom of this
country, they found sympathy. As time passed on and opinions came in contact
with wisdom or that part of man called science, it, being more subtle than
wisdom, made war. For opinions and all that opposes it must come down. So it
makes war with the harmless Indians instead of enlightening them. It made war
with its father, for its mother or science never made war. At last it conquered its
father and established itself. Then it being weak, it was found necessary to enter
into some contract that would hold itself together. As the mother or higher
principles are always ready to yield, they with opinions came together to
establish a government or contract to bind themselves together for their defense.
Opinions ruled as they must always do. For it is easier to force people than to
reason with them. And they formed the best government that could be formed,
for their fears caused their opinions to yield to the subjection of the higher
wisdom of the mother.
Slavery was not recognized by wisdom but was created by opinions, which would
not yield up this overbearing clause. So the contract was made binding on all so
that they should unite themselves like one family for their own protection.
Opinions ruled and wisdom sanctioned the bargain and called on the mother of
all to attest the agreement and hold the deed. In the course of time, the father
commenced war with the sons. They fought and the latter succeeded and in the
trade they got more territory. Then the earthly or aristocratic part wanted to
increase their power. And as opinions or error must always have a pretext for
their acts, they went to overhauling the old agreement of the people made with
the contract. Difference of opinions sprang up and each man selected from the
old agreements the opinions of their fathers and in their zeal they forgot the
wisdom of their mother.
So parties sprang up and arguments were made upon the opinions got from the
constitution. All error has its object in view and therefore cannot agree with
wisdom, but being a chemical change must beat itself to pieces by its own
strength, for action and reaction are equal. The evil of slavery being admitted at
first, wisdom held the people to their agreement. But error never wants to be
bound but wants to bind everything that happens to affect its progress. Liberty or
freedom is the destiny of man, as well as all wisdom. Its heat or love sets error in
action. So freedom in religion and every other department of wisdom warms the
heart of man, and a chemical change takes place and man throws off the
elements of his existence. So if there is more of opinion than wisdom in him, then
opinion takes the lead and wisdom or freedom is bound. Wisdom, having nothing
to gain and opinion having its life to lose, fights itself like an insane man.
Whenever opinions get the better of wisdom, then man is beside himself. This is
a demagogue and when wisdom gets the stand, then he is a patriot. Both are
tested like all other facts. The true standard is wisdom according to the
agreement in the Constitution. So all patriotism that would destroy the
Constitution is of demagogues or opinions, not of wisdom. Each man stands on
one or the other of these platforms. One rests on the Constitution or agreement,
the other on opinions or arbitrary power. One wants the Constitution as it is; the
other wants it for the party or to have it destroyed with the idea that they can
make another one without the element of freedom.
The Constitution is like a man in the hands of the people. It is passive. It makes
no trouble. It is the same today and forever. But parties spring up to get favors
from it and as it has no respect for persons, opinions arise; then men argue. The
man of opinion leads off, for wisdom never gives any opinion. Wisdom does not
move itself, so opinions show themselves through a machine called man. Now
when you see a man trying to alter wisdom and turn it to an opinion, he is either a
fool or a knave. I do not say the Constitution is true to the letter, but it is true that
there was a Constitution which the people admitted right and true and it came as
near true wisdom as the people were able to make it. If it is assailed, it must be
by some one who thinks his opinion is better than the wisdom of the framers. For
they do not say that the framers made any mistake, but they think the people do
not understand it. Thus they set up a standard based on opinions and make war
with the wisdom or Constitution.
The patriot sustains the wisdom or Constitution, while the demagogue tries to
destroy it. The demagogue always uses reason as he calls it; his weapons are
getting up false issues, throwing them out like a fisherman to catch the people.
When he sees them nibbling at the bait, then he begins to draw in the net. And
as there are all kinds of people or opinions, it sometimes happens that the net is
torn and all the people escape. So the demagogue gets mistaken; when he
thinks the people have swallowed the bait, he commences to draw them up on
the dry land where opinions can be seen. And he finds his net full of all sorts of
absurdities or impressions that the people cannot receive. Now all a man has got
to do is to apply this one rule to allay their argument, to see that their opinions
are based on some false issue that the people have been made to believe. The
true patriot's duty is to stand firm on the Constitution or mother, never making
any false issue, nor any compromise that will rob the children of their inheritance.
So as the Constitution is a spiritual truth in the heart of every patriot, sanctioned
by the blood of our fathers, never let our earthly passions become wedded to
harlots or opinions that will rob us of the blessing that wisdom has bequeathed to
us.
August 1861
Popular Definitions of the Word "Mind" Confused
Illustrations and Explanations of the Same, Meaning Matter
BU 84:9, LC 5:96
Why do people differ so much in regard to the word mind? Every person uses the
word and still there is a difference in their meaning of it, although it might seem
as though there was no difference of opinion about it. Yet, upon analysis it is
found that its meaning is so broad that it gives great scope to the imagination and
in reality does not mean anything. Words ought to express what those who use
them mean, but such is not the case. Ask persons what the word mind means
and they will all differ. Some will say it is the thinking principle. Ask what that is
and they will fly off to what a man knows. Ask if man knows he is alive, the
answer is, Yes. What is your mind or opinion about it? I have no opinion or mind
about it. I know it, if I know anything. Here he makes a distinction between his
wisdom and his mind and yet he calls his wisdom mind. This and hundreds of
similar cases all go to prove that the word mind does not apply to intelligence
above man's opinions. The inventor of the word either meant to apply it to matter
or he never had an idea of any wisdom superior to the natural man, for it does
not apply to science.
Mind is applied to something that is admitted to have life and dies. This is all that
mind can cover, so that when you apply the word mind to that something that
proves all things by a standard which all will admit, it fails to apply. The wisdom
of man is matter or mind, but the science of life eternal is not mind but science,
so that all men are a phenomenon of both. Mind is the something. I will call it a
medium or matter in which ideas are sown; each idea is matter of another
combination from mind. I will try to illustrate my idea. Suppose we call mind the
soil or medium to receive the seed or idea or thought. The body is the earth or
man. Now every seed has its own body and every body its own mind. So that
when a seed or thought is sown in the mind, it springs up like a tree or plant and
its roots embed themselves in the soil of the earth. As the seed grows, it
becomes an idea. So as the idea grows, it branches out like a tree and its roots
spread in the mind.
Ideas growing like trees take to themselves a character and are known by their
fruits and also are detected by the wisdom of the wise. The wisdom of the fruit is
like the child's; it contains no knowledge. The beast or natural man eats of the
fruit according to his fancy or taste. But the scientific man judges of the tree by its
fruits. So of course, the natural man like the beast eats of the fruit and learns
what he likes by experiment, but he is guided by his senses which are attached
to his taste or sight. The idea or tree or science is a different combination and its
qualities embrace a wisdom of all the rest of the ideas. To eat of this tree is to
open the eyes of the blind and see the difference between light and darkness. So
it is called a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But there is one more tree
that man must eat at some future time, and that is the tree of life; this would
make a man live forever. These figures, to explain them literally mean this: if man
could content himself to live like a brute, there is plenty for him to live on if he
chooses to stay where it grows. But man is so constructed that he won't keep still
and the restlessness of his mind is the natural effect if his ideas. So man's
combination varies like the varieties of the earth, for all the varieties of the earth
are the natural result of wisdom, superior to the earth or mind. Ideas like trees
bear fruit; each idea has its mind or soil to sow other thoughts in, like grafting one
idea into another. Every idea containing misery or pain is in the fruit, as sweet or
sour is in an apple. But the peculiar flavor cannot be detected by looks but by
taste, and ideas are the same.
You see or hear of a certain kind of fruit. You cannot judge of its flavor till you
have tasted it and then you are affected by it, just according to your own sense of
taste. So with disease. Some diseases are not looked upon as catching and
therefore we are not affected by them anymore than a person is affected by
anything that is out of sight and hearing. But bring it within your sight and it
affects you. There are certain diseases that are at a distance from us; these do
not affect us, except as they come nearer. Our beliefs are another element,
which has more to do with man than anyone thinks. Our belief is our senses and
according as our life is attached to it, it goes to make up that idea called man. So
man is a compound of opinions, belief, wisdom, science and ignorance, all
arranged into a temple, not made of wood or stone but of ideas, and the world
judges of the architect by the finish and workmanship. So if the ideas are so well
arranged that harmony is the result, all is well.
I will make one further illustration. All believe water is matter; but with wisdom, it
is not anything, for there is no solid to wisdom, neither is there any space.
Opinions are darkness called matter. Wisdom is in darkness or matter and it
knows it not, as the seed is in the soil and the soil knows it not. Here you see I
make mind something and yet it is nothing but an idea or the invention of man.
Man is the offspring of wisdom for wisdom's own happiness, for happiness is not
wisdom but the satisfaction of gaining our own ends. Now man being made in the
image of God or Wisdom, his happiness like that of God, is to create something
that will add to his happiness, so he becomes an inventive being. But as his
wisdom is not of God or Science, he does not pattern after the true and living
wisdom that acts by science. Here is the difference between the wisdom of God
and the wisdom of man.
Every man is a part of each and our senses are attached to both. 3o when a man
speaks of himself as a man, he is in matter; but when he speaks a scientific truth,
he is out of matter and so far equal to :god. So man's investigations are but an
imitation of wisdom's experiments for his own happiness. And man not wanting to
be outdone by his father tries to imitate what he sees and hears; this makes man
a kind of progressive being. Man invents language from the fact hat he cannot be
satisfied to let God or wisdom dictate his acts, so he invents language to explain
his wisdom. It has been said that language was invented to deceive others. In
some cases I have no doubt but the world thinks it does but wisdom gives it
another direction. or language acts to undeceive and it often exposes our
ignorance.
It is said if a man had held his tongue, people would not have found out he was a
fool. By language, man destroys himself, for the life of the man of opinions is in
his belief and his belief is darkness; but this eternal life is in his science or
wisdom. As man's identity s a knowledge of himself, it is not dependent on a
belief. So when man's life is attached to a belief, it does not affect his life except
to make it happy or miserable. his life is in his wisdom or in his belief, it does not
alter, but his belief is all the time changing. A belief is darkness and opinions are
in the darkness. Everyone knows that if you frighten a person in the dark, it is
very easy to make him see anything you please. So matter or darkness is our
belief; opinions or ideas are also matter or beliefs. So when we are in the dark,
these enemies or devils come up and can be seen. Now as the light springs up,
the shadows disappear. This is the new birth. Religion is in this darkness and all
the belief is of darkness or matter. So when the lamp or wisdom is lit up in
science, religion, superstition, ignorance and ten thousand bugbears disappear
and the true light of science takes its place. So our life is in both, but when we
are in science, we are dead to error.
Aug. 16, 1861
PROVERBS
A body without soul is a man of opinions without science.
Man is made of opinions and therefore is matter.
Wisdom reduced to practice is the spiritual man or Christ.
Life is self-evident-not matter or mind.
The senses are a knowledge of sensation, with or without science.
Science is a wisdom superior to opinions.
It is not seen or known by opinions; it is harmony.
True Wisdom
BU 100:45, LC 5:87
Let me give you an idea of true wisdom and how it acts on man. True wisdom is
like heat. Now you know that heat in the soil of the earth brings forth vegetation.
Vegetation is like ideas. Wisdom warms the heart of the mind or matter. This puts
vegetation or thought in action so the mind brings forth food or ideas; these being
forced by the heat or activity of the soil, they grow like a tree, and the root or
fibers take root in the soil or mind. As it grows, it derives its life from them and the
mind being fed by the wisdom of the world, the tree takes up the particles it
receives. The earth brings forth all creeping things, everything that has life as
well as all diseases. They grow in the mind like a tree. For instance . . .
[unfinished]
August 1861
What Is the Relation of God to Man?
BU 100:42, LC 5:88
What proof is there of a God according to the popular opinion of the day? Is there
one single quality of wisdom in the God that man worships? Is not all the worship
confined to an intellect far inferior to the natural man? And is not the true wisdom
of justice, sympathy, love, good order and intelligence set aside or looked upon
as a secondary thing? Are we not told that religion is something independent of
man? It is true there is a wisdom higher than the natural man. For the natural
man is superstitious, bigoted, overbearing, proud, vain, full of cunning deceit and
all the passions of the beast. He is very religious under some circumstances: fear
of death for instance; bold when there is no danger and only kept in check by
fear. This is the religious man, but this is not the religion or wisdom of the wise.
All religion is of man and the trouble lies not in the religion or belief, but in the
separation of opinions from the truth.
I will not quarrel with any man's religion or opinions, but only see if his religion or
wisdom is of this world of opinions or of the wisdom of God or Science. I will try
to separate these two religions and to do this, it is necessary to show to the
religious man the absurdity of his religion. This cannot be done except by a
knowledge of the religion that these vain men worship. They, being ignorant of
the true wisdom, set up a standard of worship and bow down and worship an
unknown God or wisdom. Now this unknown God or wisdom is not in their
worship at all. He is not in houses made with hands, nor in temples made of
stone, nor is he in the field of battle directing the opinions of man. He requires no
offering of silver or prayers and has no laws outside of wisdom. In fact he is no
man's God but the God of all who admit him.
I will now try to explain to the natural or superstitious man the living and true God
whom he ignorantly worships. All admit this God is not a part of themselves nor is
his kingdom of this world of opinions. But it is in the skies or clouds of their
ignorance. They admit that his coming must be in the clouds of their ignorance.
They admit that his coming must be in the clouds, so of course he is not with
them but is to come. The God of wisdom says, You need not look for him in the
clouds of your ignorance nor in the foundations of your temples for he is near
you, even in your own hearts. But you know him not and crucify him every day by
your vain worship. Therefore I say, Repent of your vain worship and worship the
true and living God that is not made in the image of man's identity of matter but in
wisdom that can be shown by his acts. I will give you the true God that I worship
and thousands of others who know him not and yet are a God to themselves,
who do not know that they worship any God, when they are the very children and
heirs of God. But being strangers in the world of opinions, they are wandering
alone in the world, like sheep without a shepherd, subject to this world of opinion.
Let man become aware of these two principles of truth, based on mathematical
fact and the other based on an opinion. Then he is ready to test the Gods to see
whether they are from man's opinions or wisdom. Each has its God and its world,
but the natural man not knowing how to account for the phenomena that often
occur makes to himself a God like himself. As the wisdom of truth progresses, it
has no identity independent of Science. As it contains no superstition, it contains
no religion, for it has no identity of God or man; it is either admitted as a science
or one of the laws of this God of opinions. This the scientific man will not admit.
So a warfare is kept up by the opinions of man trying to convince the scientific
man that all his wisdom is from their God of opinions. This he will not believe, so
he is an infidel to the man of opinions. For he disbelieves in his God and knows it
is the invention of heathen superstition and has no wisdom above the natural
man.
To which of these classes did Jesus belong? Let us examine the writings of the
New Testament and see if they will give any light on the subject. Jesus called
these two characters Law and Gospel. The law is the natural man or opinions.
The true science or wisdom is the gospel; there was where he differed from the
world. The new birth was to search into that Science that would destroy opinions,
so he called upon all men everywhere to repent of their sins or belief and prove
all things by Science. For their false science or beliefs had deceived the people
and bound burdens on them that their mode of reasoning could not remove. So it
was said that which the law or their opinions had failed to explain, this truth in the
form of a science took upon itself that the errors might be explained. Opinions
knew not this Science, so it was a stranger and they said, Crucify it. So they spit
upon it, stoned it and finally made it so unpopular that it ran out. Then the men of
opinions stole the body or truth, parted it among them and reported it was all a
humbug. To this day, it is looked upon as a humbug by the Jews. So Christ's
wisdom lost its identity at the crucifixion of Jesus and has never been
acknowledged by man's opinion since.
False Christs have sprung up and deceived many and at this day all mankind are
worshipping these false gods who can never take away the sins of their
ignorance. But the true Christ or Science will come in the clouds of their
ignorance. Every eye shall see him. He shall sit on the throne of wisdom and
judge the world of opinions; then he will reward everyone according to his truth.
There are some standing in the high places, who shall not see nor even believe
till it comes. Then they will hide themselves in the rocks of their opinions and
creep into their beliefs or dens to hide themselves from the great truth of
scientific progression. Then Science will take a God to itself and man shall
worship it day and night. There will be no darkness. For the light of wisdom will
light up the dark dens of superstition. The evil or ignorance will be cast out and
the truth will prevail. Then the truth will bind this old serpent, the opinions or devil,
and chain him to the earth or superstition, so that he shall not deceive the child of
wisdom by his smooth tongue and false doctrines.
August 1861
The Christian's God
BU 100:8, LC 5:62
I will now sum up by introducing the Gods of the two foregoing theories, and as
one of them is only man's opinion, I will introduce a priest, a doctor and the law
as the God-head, for the three are equal in power. The priest is the father, the
law is the son and the doctor is the Holy Ghost or explanation of the law. All
these make up the God-head of the heathen idolatry. These two give the people
their beliefs which are sanctioned by a sort of divine wisdom and so
acknowledged by the wisdom of the father of all. Strange as this may seem, it is
the foundation of all the misery that man suffers. Although we are taught to love
and respect this man's God as the giver of everything we receive, yet if one-half
of what we attribute to Him was true, He would be of all tyrants, the worst. If we
should look upon a parent as we are taught to look upon God, we should hate
and despise the very name of God.
Let us see what kind of a God He is and how He compares with a parent. In the
first place God is represented as knowing all our acts and having a watchful care
over us as a good father. Now if any parent could have half the power that they
say that God has over His children, they would curse Him to His face and treat
him like a tyrant. Now all this talk about a God who reasons and makes bargains,
accompanied with rewards and punishments, is so much like the natural man's
wisdom that no one can help seeing that our Christian God is the embodiment of
man's wisdom, when man was far behind the present generation. No attribute of
their God shows any wisdom but a sweeping idea of everything. When His
wisdom or acts are spoken of, it is like a military officer or some grand monarch
or king. He is King of kings, Lord of hosts, the great High Priest. Once it was the
height of honor to get a feather in your hat, for a military man was the greatest of
all men; therefore God must be a military man for He had war in heaven.
The devil was the first secessionist we find and he was driven out of heaven. You
never hear God compared to a statesman or any other learned man. It is true
that when He came to earth some eighteen hundred years ago. He was not
represented as a military man, but He was far superior to the wise. He was called