The Text - Section 9
Controversy about the Dead
BU 166:5, LC 2:13
The religious world has always been in a controversy in regard to the dead.
Before Jesus taught a resurrection from the dead, the Pharisees believed that
the dead rose at the end of the world. Others believed that spirits came back and
entered the living, but there was no idea that was satisfactory to the thinking
classes. The Sadducees disbelieved in everything, but admitted one living God.
This was the state of man's belief at the time Jesus appeared before the people.
He spoke as never man spake, for he spoke the truth and his truth gave the lie to
all of the opinions of mankind. I will take the liberty of putting my own
construction on Jesus' ideas or truth and leave it all to the common sense of the
people to decide which is the most consistent with science or truth. You will see
that at the time Jesus spoke, the idea of an identity of our existence after death
was never taught, and to teach such an absurdity as that to the Jews was
blasphemy. Therefore, Jesus had to admit the same ideas as the Jews, or they
would crucify him at the commencement of his reform. So he admitted all their
beliefs but put a spiritual meaning to them all. Jesus never spoke to the people
but in parables, for his object was to reform the world of their superstition. Their
belief was got up by man; their priesthood and all their ordinances were of this
world or of man. Now Jesus opposed all of it from the beginning to the end;
therefore he spoke in parables so they could put such construction upon them as
they pleased and thus be shown the absurdity of their belief. So his sermons and
talk were called out in answer to some questions asked him by the rulers of the
people and his answer was in accordance with the questions put. But in it was
shown the absurdity of their belief, so they could not catch him.
The greatest evil to overcome was the resurrection of the dead. This was a very
difficult question to solve, for Jesus never believed in the natural body rising and
to deny the resurrection of man was just as absurd as to deny the resurrection of
the body; so to deny one and prove the other was not an easy task; it would
upset all of the people's beliefs. So he had to admit a resurrection and teach it.
And as the people called sin, death and truth, life, it was very easy for Jesus to
adapt these meanings to his teachings. He could then show that the resurrection
from the dead was a resurrection from an error to a truth, but this must be
explained by a parable. Now this was what Jesus intended to convey to the
people, that this power that they could not account for and which they ascribed to
evil spirits of the dead was a science of ourselves and, although we are ignorant
of it, yet it is ourselves and embraces all we are and all our senses. It is life itself
and a knowledge of it is to put it into practice so the world can be benefited. The
ignorance of it embraces all of the phenomena but in ignorance of their causes.
This makes man superstitious, for he is ignorant of himself and believes that this
belief is all there is of him and so it is till he is brought into a higher state of mind
that can see that man has two minds or knowledge. One embraces matter and is
in it; the other is the science and is out of matter but uses matter as a medium to
convince the natural man of a higher knowledge of himself. It was Jesus' mission
to convince the natural man of this truth. So when he spoke of Jesus he spoke of
the earthly man, but when he spoke of Christ he spoke of the heavenly man or
science. This the people could not understand, so when he said that he should
rise from the earthly man, Jesus, he spoke of this Christ or knowledge. The
people had no idea of what he meant to convey to them and when they saw him
taken and tried they all forsook him and stood afar off; some denied him. This
showed that they expected that Jesus would be crucified. This embraced Jesus
Christ and all of his preaching and when he was crucified that ended the life of
Jesus Christ to them.
Now, to rise from the dead was what he had promised his followers and they
believed that Jesus intended to prove that his body or Jesus, which was flesh
and blood, should rise. Here was where they misunderstood him. Jesus never
intended to convey any such idea. Now if the people had understood what Jesus
meant, they would have put a different construction on all the scene. If they had
known the facts, they would never have troubled themselves about the man,
Jesus, but (would) have let that body remain in the tomb and when Jesus
showed himself to his disciples and others then they could have seen the flesh
and blood in the tomb. Then he, that is Christ, had established the saying,
although you destroy this flesh and blood, you don't destroy the knowledge of it
and this same knowledge can make to itself another body and show it to the
people to convince them of eternal existence, not after death but a progression of
our knowledge.
Now, I want to be as liberal as I can to the friends of Jesus, but I must say that in
their zeal to establish what Jesus told, they made a great mistake, or at least
some of them, for I believe that they did steal or take away the body of Jesus to
establish their belief that it rose again. Now this just upset all that Jesus intended
to prove, that is, that although they destroyed the flesh and blood, I, that is,
Christ, will show myself to you to prove that man can live and have all his
faculties and knowledge after the world calls him dead. Now as it stands, it
shows nothing for no one expects the body to rise. In their zeal to carry out an
idea, like all religious fanatics, they left the whole affair in a worse state than
before. This gave rise to all kinds of controversy and as Christ had made himself
manifest to the people, they of course believed that his body rose so it was not
long till the believers were fighting, just as they are in our days.
Paul said to them, "I understand there is a dissension among you as touching the
resurrection of the dead." Now he says, "If Christ be preached, (not Jesus, but
this truth or science) that he rose from the dead, or from Jesus, how say some
among you there is no such science or resurrection and all is of no force?" You
see the people confounded the two ideas together, that is the people called
Jesus Christ one and when he rose he was one because they had no idea of two
identities. Those that differed from them had to contend against this deception of
those fanatics that stole the body of Jesus, for those who believed the body rose
were more enthusiastic than those who believed in the science. You will see how
all those persons who can work themselves up to believe that the time is coming
when our bodies will rise again are just about as far behind the times as those
old persons who believe the time will come when the factories will be abolished
and the girls will return to the spinning wheel and loom and railroads and steam
will be done away with. If they get any comfort out of that kind of food, I, for one,
will not disturb their repose. I have commenced climbing Jacob's ladder and I
have never heard of the top round. It is said to reach to heaven so that the
angels could descend on it. The Christian ladder has from one to seventy or
eighty rounds, so when man climbs half his life he takes the other half to get back
where he started. That makes him once a man and twice a child. So I suppose
he commences a child and climbs to a man and then steps over and returns to a
child. This is proof that man is a mere bubble. This is all that is held out to man
as proof. It is true that we are told that we shall rise again or at least the soul.
When we ask for proof we are referred to Christ but when told that there was no
proof that any other flesh and blood rose, then comes mystery and we are called
infidel because we don't believe what they don't prove nor themselves believe.
May 1860
Jesus' Healing and His Mission
BU 165:21, LC 2:1
Why should there be such a controversy in regard to the way in which Jesus
cured disease; also what was the real object of his mission to this world? These
questions naturally arise in the minds of men and bring up doubts and
questionings. By some it is believed that it (his mission) was to save man from
being lost in another world and by others it was to reform this world. All admitted
he had a power or gift superior to other men, but what it was has never been
ascertained. This was the same in the days of Jesus. The same controversy was
going on all the time and in fact it has always been a mystery to the natural man.
Phenomena are taking place every day proving this power or gift and all admit it
but it has as yet never been reduced to a science so that it can be taught and
learned. Yet its opponents speak as though it was governed by natural laws, but
when asked to put these laws into practice they get off by saying that it is nothing
but Mesmerism. When asked to explain Mesmerism they say it is psychology.
Then if you ask what psychology is, the answer is Mesmerism. So you see the
world is just as wise as it was before. No person has undertaken to reduce this
power to a science. Mesmer tried to explain it on the ground of electricity. Others
have done the same. But not one single step has it advanced since Mesmer.
Those who believe it is governed by some law attribute it to Galvanism or
electricity. The religious vary. The Spiritualists ascribe it to the spirits of the dead.
Christians, when speaking of Jesus, ascribe his miracles to the power of God,
but when they speak of this power in man, they attribute it to natural causes.
Some say that it is the power of the devil; others, Mesmerism, etc. In the days of
Jesus the people admitted it and reasoned about it just as they do now, for when
Herod, the king, was told that Jesus was performing these cures, he said that it
was John the Baptist, that is, that his spirit came and took possession of Jesus
and cured diseases. That was as the Spiritualists of this day believe. Others
believe that it was the spirit of Moses acting through Jesus. When the Pharisees
asked him where it was from, he said if they would tell him where the power of
John came from, then he would tell them how he performed his cures. This they
could not do; so you see it has never been explained nor even suggested that it
could be. Now settle this one point and you establish a basis for investigation. As
it stands, it puts Jesus on the level with all of the Spiritualists of his day and all
ages.
If it is a gift or power, why should he be called God or anything else above his
followers? And if he knew how he wrought the miracles, then it is a knowledge
and not a gift and to call his wisdom a gift or a power is depriving Jesus of any
knowledge superior to that of his followers. Admit it as a science that Jesus
taught for the happiness of man and then man will try to learn it. Then the inquiry
will be made: How can it be proved a science? I answer, never, until the people
will admit that mind and matter are all the same and both under the direction of
an intelligence superior to matter. Then man takes a higher standard and is
governed by a science and not by error or mind. Then matter becomes subject to
science and is the medium or power to be put in motion. This medium or matter
can be changed into any form or state and be destroyed, but not lost. The identity
of a thing can be put out of this world, as it is called, and only remains as a thing
that once was, but now is not.
I will give an illustration. Suppose a person believes he has a tumor in his left
side. His knowledge or error believes in the idea of tumors independent of his
knowledge. He thus admits an error to begin with. Now his knowledge gives
direction to the matter and the matter is formed. This is proof that there is such a
thing as a tumor. No one will deny that one is a phenomenon brought about by
false knowledge and true knowledge or science can destroy that tumor or idea
and establish a knowledge of truth that will prevent a person from ever being
deceived into that error again. All will admit that a person can be deceived into a
belief and his belief make him sick. They will also admit that to correct his error or
belief will make him well. This process is all that Jesus ever intended to convey
to the world. This is a science and can be learned. Its opposers are ignorance
and error. Its science is in unlearning what ignorance and superstition have
bequeathed to man. Our belief makes ideas out of our identity of a body. Our
bodies are nothing but an idea of matter that is under the control of error or false
knowledge, and happiness or misery is the wages of our investigation. If truth or
science reigns, all goes well. If error reigns the wages is death, for all the acts of
error lead to death. Death is an idea or matter and all the acts of science destroy
death and lead to life and happiness.
May 1860
On Consumption
BU 165:22, LC 2:74
As I have spoken of breathing, it is necessary that I should give my ideas
concerning it. The fact is, if man had not set up his wisdom above God, or error
had not undertaken to set up its standard as truth, there would not have been
any need of making war against it. The error of breathing has become the
common opinion of the world and mankind is affected by it. And it is time for
some one to step forward and define the truth or science. If there had been no
opinion taught to man, there would have been no need of an answer. So I do not
come to establish a truth but to destroy an error, for the destruction of the error is
bringing back the truth.
Now let us see what is the foundation for the common belief in regard to
breathing. It certainly does not lengthen life, for those who know the least about it
live the longest. And those who try the most experiments are the worst off; for all
that class of persons who know nothing about the lungs and never heard of such
an organ are not much affected till they become acquainted with this world of
science. And it strikes me that any theory that tends to make us worse is not
founded in truth. I will take a child that is perfectly well and show how to bring
about consumption.
I must be well posted up in medical science (not knowledge, but the science)
which is not to know anything about myself but to adopt the established opinions
of other people. This I must learn by heart so that I can use all the phrases as
readily as a sailor on board a ship. My chart is the medical science and my
knowledge is to put it in practice and the evidence of the senses is the proof of
my skill, for every tree or science must be known by its fruits. To show each
science is to know how to put it in practice. And as I have the knowledge of the
true science, it requires also the knowledge of the false science. Like a man
playing a game of checkers, he must know his opponent's game better than his
opponent does so that he can take advantage of his error. This is so in my way of
doctoring.
Health is the game to be played; truth and error are the combatants. Error plays
to destroy health and truth to save it. So that truth must know error's weak points
so as to show him up and like a lawyer prove the absurdity of his move or
opinion. And as life is in our senses, the game is to be decided by them. If I
succeed in showing the absurdity of my opponent's theory, life gives me the
game. So I will commence my plea as a regular physician and show how to make
consumption. As public opinion is my knowledge, the more I have of it the more
certain I am of success. I will assume the character of some learned physician,
educated in Europe, who has a chest full of medals marked "M.D." This is my
theory and the knowledge is to put it into practice. I commence my public career
by giving a course of lectures before the people of in which I set forth all evils that
flesh is heir to. I call their attention particularly to the lungs, describing minutely
their delicate structure and important office and lamenting the imminent danger
which hangs over the young in this climate. After getting the people excited on
the subject, all ready to be affected, I close my remarks by saying that a remedy
has been discovered for this worst of all diseases, consumption which is
inhalation, and that I shall be happy to attend to any person who would like to try
it. This ends my advertisement and I wait for a customer. Presently I receive a
call.
The patient is a young lady accompanied by her mother, who is more nervous
than her daughter. She can hardly wait for me to speak before she tells me they
attended my lecture and were so much interested by my remarks that she could
hardly wait until morning to bring her daughter to see me. She says she thinks
must have taken cold, for she seemed to have a nervous cough. "No doubt," I
reply. "I did not know," she continues, "but that she might have inhaled some of
the impurities. You know there is a great deal of dust in such places." "Yes." "I
should like to have you examine her lungs and see if there is any trouble. "What
is your fee?" "Ten dollars for an examination." Ten dollars! Is not that high?"
"Yes, but you are aware that to prepare one's self for the responsible duties of a
physician, where so much depends on their knowledge in regard to the
construction of the human system, must require a great deal of time and money."
"Yes. Well I wish you to give her a thorough examination." So looking very wise, I
commence tapping the chest and then place my ear down to listen. The mother
sits in a nervous state of mind and the child is as pale as death. Seeing all this, I
very modestly say, "I find the left side of the lung slightly diseased, but I think that
it can be entirely cured." "Oh! How happy I am. Well, doctor, what shall we do for
her?" "You remember that I spoke of my medicated inhalation treatment." "Yes."
"I think if she tried this it would entirely cure the disease." "What do you charge
for the preparation and fixtures?" "Fifteen dollars." "Nothing less?" "That is my
fee. I am not a quack but a regular and I will explain its effects to you and how it
acts. You will inhale this preparation into the lungs, where it produces a chemical
change and you will have to clear the lungs by coughing off the deposit that is
made there. If it should remain in the lungs they would become inflamed and
tubercles will form and this last condition is entirely incurable." "You think there is
no doubt you can cure her?" "I cannot say now but in a week or two I can tell. Be
sure not to have her take the least cold and have her breathe the purest air. She
must be particular about diet living on meat and ale with a little light food as
graham bread." "Can she drink coffee?" "By no means, cold water is the best.
Obey all my orders till I see her again." The lady and daughter leave and the
daughter becomes more nervous, the mother more anxious.
In a week they call again and the doctor examines her lungs again, looking more
doubtful. This kind of a practice is kept up till common report begins to do its
work and then all their friends can see that the Doctor is right in regard to the
lungs. The breathing becomes short, hectic sets in and all hope of recovery is
given up. Some person has the courage or impudence to hint that if she had
never seen a doctor she would have been well, but this is blasphemy and that
person is silenced. Finally the young lady dies. By the request of her physician a
post mortem examination is made. The brethren are called and the science
tested. They find the lungs diseased and a great deal more trouble besides but
finally they decide that she came to her death by consumption. Here you see the
science proved and tested, by a committee of scientific men. Thus ends the life
of one and thus is established the medical skill. This is one theory.
I propose now to introduce the other side, but as I have no chance with that
patient, I will take her sister going in the same way, the doctors having become
alarmed and decided that her case is like the other. The parents are induced to
try some other doctor, so I am called. I find the patient with a cough, pains in her
side, soreness about the chest and through the shoulders, heaviness about the
eyes, hectic and all the symptoms of a consumptive. Now what course do I take?
In the first place I take all her feelings on myself. Then I commence taking up the
doctor's opinions, her mother being present and show that they are false and
without the slightest foundation, that not one particle of fresh air goes into the
lungs. By my explanations and experiments I show the absurdity of his theory. In
the first place it is impossible for anything we inhale into the mouth to pass into
the windpipe or stomach till we swallow, and in the act of swallowing the vapor
would pass out of the nose. In smoking the smoke does not go into the lungs, but
if a person is in a room with smokers, all the smoke that goes into the nose is
carried into the lungs and stops up all the air cells so that he cannot breathe.
This inconsistency is believed. Why does not the smoke of a pipe ;o into the
lungs? Because it does not, yet persons are told to smoke to make them raise,
while at the same time it stuffs another up. One takes wiskey or brandy for the
lungs, another can take neither. Now all these absurdities everyone knows and
the people have never questioned the doctors' authority but have taken it for
granted, living and dying in their errors. The idea of any inhaling vapor into the
lungs is simply an absurdity. It goes to the brain, there stimulating and exciting
the blood like liquor. If you take liquor into your mouth you must smell it, showing
that it goes to the head and this is what excites. A person would become as
drunk by smelling rum as by drinking it, but not so soon, but in neither case does
anything go to the lungs. The expansion of the chest is an act of the will
independent of the circulation of the air or breathing. The nose is as much under
the control of the will as the mouth; everyone knows that we have the power to
close the mouth, and we have the same power to control the nose.
All medicines ever given to affect the blood go to the brain in the form of vapor
and affect the brain as the air does through the senses. If you are sick you know
it and this knowledge affects the brain first, for the brain is the seat of power. The
brain sets the body in motion and if that is disturbed by any chemical action
produced by any effect on the soul, then the body is acted upon like a steam
engine without an engineer. Both must be subject to a power superior to ;he
machines or they will fly to pieces. I speak of the chemical action as though it
contained no intelligence. But this is not the case, for mind is matter and any
action on this mind or matter must be the act of a power superior to the mind and
the effect shows which power acts upon it. For instance, almost any person can
set a steam engine in operation and the effect produced by the engine shows the
science of the operator; so when a sensation is produced the mind ,is obstructed
or disturbed, resulting in a chemical change governed by truth or error. It is not
chance, but the natural body or ignorance cannot understand it, for if it does it is
not ignorance. All actions on the body are governed by an intelligence above the
matter acted upon and the fruits or effect shows the intelligence of the power,
whether it be of God or truth, or error.
Now to make a disease is to produce a change on the mind or body according to
its author. When I believed all my mesmeric experiments were governed by the
laws of electricity, I brought about changes in the system to accord with my
ideas, showing that I governed the mind of my subject according to my
knowledge, but then my knowledge was of this world, not of the truth. It was true
that I produced the change and it is true that in the practice of medicine, the
doctors may be honest in their profession, but that does not help the person who
has to suffer from their ignorance. It is true that good results often follow from
their ignorance. It is true that good results often follow from their remedies, as it
did in the case of selling Joseph to the Ishmaelites. But if good comes from their
practice, it does not prove that they have any science, but that science comes in
spite of them. Now put man intelligently in possession of the idea that scientific
knowledge can produce a change in the system scientifically, so that it increases
man's happiness, then you establish the kingdom of heaven or happiness in this
world of ignorance. This is the science to be taught.
This teaches man that matter, as it is called, is nothing but an idea, subject to two
powers: one, truth and the other, error. And as error is the father of false
impressions or directions, all its effects are subject to its master and do not
contain truth. Now all that man can do is to separate them, the one from the
other. This can only be done by proving it by works, just as error proves that its
science is to derange matter, giving it a false direction and showing the author in
its effects. Truth does the same; it takes matter in a deranged state, giving a true
direction and the effect is harmony, happiness and peace. The effect of error is
discord, disease and death. This is the position of both. I will try to illustrate the
separation. Suppose that a person should tell you that the air you breathe is
poisoned and go on to tell you the effect it has on the system: how it passes
through the windpipe into the lungs, making you cough, and gives all the
particulars of this disease called consumption, and you finally get the idea into
your mind or knowledge. Now you live with all this knowledge. The matter is in
operation, condensing itself into a disease according to your knowledge. And
sooner or later you produce a body precisely according to the pattern you have
received. This is the wisdom of this world.
Now before you finish it, you in your trouble (for you are in trouble) call on me to
help you out. I know your feeling and see the disease you are trying to make,
also the effect it has on your happiness and I know that you have been deceived
by error. You were well enough before you received this knowledge, but your
ambition to subject your mind or matter to your will carried you in a false
direction. This was getting your life in trouble. Now I have to show you your error
and how you got into trouble. And in showing you I dissolve the matter like clay
and explain to you where your false direction is. This I do, not by experimenting,
but by a science which gives to man a knowledge of himself. And this knowledge
consists in destroying his opinions which he thinks are true and establishing in
their place a science which will enable him to correct any opinion made on his
mind without knowledge.
It is very hard to give a person a clear idea of a science which they have no
previous idea of. To them it is a mystery and humbug, so I don't know exactly
how to express myself; for to say that mind is matter is to you a mystery and so it
is to every one that does not understand. If man had not been misled, the idea
would not have been so much in the dark, but words are used so it has
confounded the ideas of man and it is hard to explain what you mean. For
instance, the word mind embraces everything that is called knowledge without
another word. It embraces the soul, life, knowledge and in fact all there is of us.
Yet we speak of losing the mind and saving the soul, and losing the soul or life.
So you see there is no definite idea of life, mind or soul. Now as disease is in the
mind, according to my theory, it is necessary to show what I mean by mind and
matter, so that I can explain how I can change the mind or matter to cure
disease.
For instance, in the case of the young lady I spoke of. Before she embraced the
idea of consumption, the composition of the mind or matter was disturbed like
mortar. Mortar is clay disturbed; so is mind, matter disturbed; not under the
direction of truth or error, but merely disturbed and the result of this disturbance
is ideas thrown off without any direction, like a galvanic battery. This state of
mind or matter is sometimes called insanity, just according to the effect. But it is
the working of matter, that is the decomposing of the body, ready to be used by
any intelligence, superior to itself. " There is such a power or science called God
and also a power or science called the power of the devil or ignorance. One is
confined to matter and a part of it. Its life is in its acts or directions so it sees no
power superior to itself and its reason is confined to the length of its days. Now to
save its life it invents all kinds of diseases, which are its own destruction.
You see the effect of this in all error. It reasons wrong in everything. It produces
phenomena, for it is in its own opinion or knowledge. It creates disease as in the
case of the young girl and it has become so popular that it has set up its standard
as a real religious standard. It looks upon all science as mystery or humbug and
warns its followers to beware. This enemy of man is the father and mother of all
error and the true science is to correct it. Now to correct the error of the young
girl is the cure. Therefore, I stand in the place of a counsel to plead her case. The
indictment embraces all her symptoms and if she has them about her person,
she is guilty of an offense against the laws of health. Now laws are for the
protection of each man's rights and in the natural world as well as in the spiritual
world, every one is subject to its laws. The ignorant of this world are only a
shadow of those ignorant in the other or spirit world. For truth and error has its
spiritual as well as its natural world and those who are bound in the spirit world
are also bound in the natural world. Jesus gave Peter the keys or knowledge of
the two states, so that he could loose those bound in the spirit world and also
relieve those in this world.
I will explain the binding in the spirit world. The young lady, when she was well,
was not bound at all, but when she became nervous error began to bind her. This
was in the spirit world, and as her mind became troubled, it showed itself in the
natural world or body. This the doctor called disease. This contains their
knowledge and their science. To bring about this state of mind or disease
requires no knowledge of the scientific world, for that to them is all mystery or
chance. Now to cure the lady would be to break the fetters and bands and set the
prisoner free. As error is subject to science, it cannot hold the soul in bondage,
only so long as the error exists. Like a problem the soul is imprisoned, till the true
answer comes and then it is set at liberty. This is the way with disease. Error has
its laws which are subject to the laws of truth, as the laws of the State are subject
to those of the United States and when a person is accused of a crime, arrested
and imprisoned by the authority of the State, if he is ignorant of the laws, he
submits to his penalties. But if he is informed in regard to the laws of the United
States and sees that he has not committed himself in the law he, like Paul, will
appeal to a higher tribunal. This is the way with disease. God makes no laws to
bind mankind. His laws are not like error's laws, nor his ways like error's ways.
His ways are pleasant and all His paths are peace. There are certain principles of
truth or knowledge that are God that are not acknowledged by error to be
knowledge, but principles making God of no effect but chance. Error does not
admit intelligence in science. It admits the phenomena but sees no intelligence in
it, thinking that the intelligence which produces them is a gift or power derived
from some higher science which it knows nothing of.
This keeps up a warfare between truth and error. Error sets up a standard and
laws to protect its followers. As error is in a land of mystery, truth, like the
prodigal son, leaves his father's house and tries its luck in this dark and uncertain
experiment. As it passes, it is liable to get into trouble at every act. It finds the
road rough and ragged, robbers and murderers on all sides and it finds persons
ready to stretch forth their hand to help you. You will be decoyed into every place
where you will be liable to break the laws of the land. If you ask for information
you can get all you want and the more you get the worse you are off. For their
laws are all for their own benefit and their penalties are your misery. You will find
that you cannot step out of doors without being liable to be decoyed. Their laws
are so completely adjusted to their penalties that it is impossible to deceive them.
For instance, take the young lady. She enters this land to investigate its law and
penalties. The first caution she receives is this: not to expose herself to the night
air. This to her is an error, for God never made any such law and she will not
obey the order, so she steps out nervously to see the effect. Her fear makes her
cough and this frightens her and she tries to suppress it which increases the
tendency to cough, and the first thing is, she is accused of disobeying the law.
Now she is arrested and bound by error. Her offense is proved and she is cast
into prison, there to be tormented till the debt is paid (called death). If she has
any means, she has . enough to pretend to plead her case till they are all
expended, and she is left sick and without friends or means, like the prodigal son.
Now all this is known to science, and science is acknowledged by this error and it
dare not hold a person in bondage if the freedom from error is proved. This was
the case with the young man, when he came to the truth. That is, he saw that he
had been deceived by error and he then returned to his father or truth. Now this
young lady, from an ambition or desire to get knowledge, entered the world of
error and here she becomes deceived and was decoyed into bad company or
ideas. This disturbed her mind or matter and in this state she was misled and
made to believe a lie that she might be accused by the mother or public opinion,
condemned by the doctor and sold into bondage to live a life of suffering and
torment till truth should set her free. Now as I find from her friends or truth that
she has strayed away and not returned, I leave the health, like the ninety and
nine sheep, and go and search diligently till I find the lost one. Then I claim her
as a child of God and not of error. So a trial is held and all the witnesses are
summoned to prove that she was always a child of disease. This takes some
time, for there are many witnesses to be examined and I can't tell whether I can
prove her innocent.
If she was born a slave I have no claim on her, but if she has been deceived into
bondage, it is for me to prove her identity. So I will now state to the court that the
prisoner at the bar was not born sick or diseased, and is therefore not a slave by
birth, but was once well and happy and left her home to seek riches or truth and
was led by error into disease or bad company. She is accused of disobeying laws
that have no power over her and as she is not of your nation and having no
knowledge of your laws and having no person to advise her, she has been
frightened into an acknowledgement that she is guilty and submits to her
punishment. I have authority from the truth to take her and return her to her
father's house, from whence she has wandered away, if no proof can be brought
that she is a slave or always was diseased. So if there is anyone to accuse her,
let them come forward and condemn her.
Here you see a fair statement of error's effect on the truth or happiness of man.
This was the state of society when Jesus appeared. He pleaded the cause of a
guilty world and corrected the errors of his day, gave a different turn to society
and brought light in regard to the errors. This light or truth opened the eyes of the
blind or ignorant and broke open the prison doors, liberated the prisoners and set
the captives free. Now as society is only a figure or emblem of our spiritual
indentity, we are all liable to be caught by error and condemned to eternal
banishment from happiness if we do not find some one to assist us in our trouble,
just as it is in the natural world.
I will now show the course I have to take to free the young lady from her
enemies. It is necessary for me to answer all the questions as perfectly as
though I was pleading a case of life and death. This I do with as much feeling
and sympathy for the sick as though they stood accused of a crime, the
punishment of which would be imprisonment for life. It seems as though I was
actually standing as her counsel, with the judges, the patient's accusers, for it
seems that there is no jury, but public opinion on one side and truth on the other.
I have to take up all the symptoms that are embraced in the indictment and show
that they are false and if I succeed in my endeavor she is set free by common
consent and her accusers are seized and imprisoned for life. The prisoner is
acquitted with joy and a change is felt by all the friends even in the natural world.
I will now commence my defense for the young lady. She stands accused of all
the symptoms of consumption. These symptoms are the property or ideas of
error and if a person is found with them he is arrested and imprisoned. It seems
as if disease is something that error is afraid of. If a person is accused of it, the
whole community are up in arms about it and would kill the person to stop the
disease. Ignorance is a coward and dare not face error. See the effect of the
smallpox. The people are half frightened to death about it and if it was not for
some one who has more truth or nerve than the masses, the victims would be
killed for the benefit of the living. So it is with error in everything.
Error is very strict, ready to condemn everything, thinking that it is doing God's
service. Look at all sectarianism; look at witchcraft, spiritualism and all the
mysterious phenomena which have ever been. Error makes war and would fire or
burn or imprison all who would uphold it. Ignorance dare not take any part. Truth
investigates it and runs the risk of its reputation for the benefit of man's
happiness. So error stands ready to torment anyone that is caught with anything
confirmative to their laws. And as their laws are the cause of the very thing that
they complain of, it is very hard to get rid of them. The means used to destroy the
evil creates it, as it was in the days of the 1 Salem witchcraft. The course taken
to put down the evil was the very way to make it. And unless both parties had
been punished, it never would have been stopped. So it is at this time. I have no
doubt if there was a law that if a doctor told a patient who coughed that her lungs
were diseased and by killing the patient the investigation should prove it a lie,
then to execute the doctor, and do it in every case, you would not see so much
coughing and complaining as you do now. It would have the same effect as it did
in the days of witchcraft. The evil was made by the very authorities who were
trying to put it down, and that was by the very wisest men of the age. But when
the accuser and the accused both had to suffer the same punishment, it stopped
the evil or changed it from witchcraft to disease, but which is just as absurd as it
was under the other name. Now the witches are in the people in the form of
disease. Then they were outside and that is all the difference. Change public
opinion scientifically and you get rid of this curse of all evils, disease. This is my
opening of the case of the young lady. I will introduce her as accused of
consumption. Here she stands before her tormentors like the innocent girl of
Salem, accused of being bewitched. She stands pale, with quivering lips and
glassy eyes, a hard cough and flushed cheeks, nervously suppressing the little
nervous cough for fear she would expose herself to these worst of all devils or
barbarians, who stand ready to tear or choke her to death with their chains and
bands or to bind her and cast her into prison for the safety of society. Here they
stand before me and the judge of truth. I present the young lady to the judge,
who listens, not as a partial judge, but as the judge of the dead and living, who
has no respect for persons, but listens and decides just according to the
evidence.
I will state her position and my defense. I assume that the young lady at the bar
was born healthy and is not liable to any disease that her parents had or had not
and that the symptoms are the effect of fear produced by her accusers. Now I will
call the mother as witness and see what she knows. She tells her story which
goes to condemn her daughter. She testifies that she has been looking around
and watching her daughter for some time, had often heard her cough and caught
her weeping and when she accused her she would deny the whole thing, saying,
"If you would only let me alone I should be well enough." When cross questioned
by myself, "When did you first perceive that your daughter was in trouble?" She
answers, "Some time ago." "Did you think it was consumption?" "Yes, I knew it
was." "How did you get your information?" "From the doctor." "Had the doctor
ever seen your daughter at that time?" "No, but he attended her sister who died
of the same complaint." "How do you know it was the same?" "Because she
appears just like her sister." "Then because she appears just like her sister, she
must have consumption. Is that all the proof that she has it?" "No, I know that she
has it." "How do you know?" "Because she has, that's all."
Now the young lady cannot be condemned on this testimony and the witness, as
she knows nothing, is dismissed from the stand. She goes off muttering, as
though her opinion was law and she knew all about it. I will now call the doctor
who appears ready to testify always on one side, for they never testify except as
party concerned. "Will you state what you know of this young lady?" "I was called
to see her about two months ago and found her very nervous." "What is that,
what do you mean?" "Why nervous, an excitement of the nervous system." "Well,
what is it?" "Must I be disturbed in this way?" "You can answer the question." "I
have." "How?" "Why her mind was disturbed." "Is not your mind disturbed by
me?" "Yes." "Have you consumption?" "No." "Then it does not follow that every
one who has his mind disturbed or nervous has consumption?" "No." "Well then
what more have you to say in regard to the patient." "I have not said that she had
consumption." "No, I know that you have not, and do you say that she has it?"
"The symptoms go to prove it ." "How?" "Because she has all the symptoms of
consumption." "Will you state what you know? If so go on." "I was called to see
her and found her nervous." "That is, her mind was disturbed, I suppose." "Yes,
and I examined her lungs." "How did you do that?" "By sounding on the chest
and listening to the sound we detect the state of the lungs." "Do you not get
deceived sometimes?" "Yes." "Will you say on your oath before your God, you
are sure that the young lady's lungs are affected?" "I think that they are." "That
does not answer the question." "Well, just taking the lungs alone does not prove
that the disease has affected the lungs, but you must take in all the other
symptoms." "Have you ever seen the lungs?" "No." "Then will you say on oath
that you know what you never saw? and state it as a fact without qualifications?"
"No, I won't say positively, but it is my opinion." "Then it is your opinion?" "Yes."
"Your opinion is not law, so if you have no other proof than your opnion you can
leave the stand."
Now I will show how this comes about and leave the judge to decide the case. I
wish to take the stand. I say I feel all this young lady's feelings. Is this true? The
young lady says, "Yes." Now here we both agree. I have no consumption and I
know it, for I had not the feelings before I sat down; so is it not fair to suppose
that she could have the feelings from some other cause, as it is that I should
have consumption? Everyone would answer, Yes. I will ask the doctor a few
questions. "Can't a person be nervous without having the lungs diseased?"
"Yes." "Can't a person cough without having the lungs diseased?" "Yes." "Can't
they have every symptom this young lady has without having consumption?"
"Taking them separately, Yes." "Then when combined it is consumption. Can't a
person be so frightened, that they will turn pale?" "Yes." "Can't they cough from
fright? Can't they have what you call hectic from fright?" "Yes." Well, if this young
lady is to be condemned on this testimony, the reader may decide.
June 1860
The Effect of Religion on Health
BU 166:47, LC 2:43
I will give my opinion of the inconsistency of our religious ideas and how they
affect our health. I was visiting a patient who was suffering very much from what
is called rheumatism and a general debility of her nervous system. The doctors
had tried all in their power to relieve her but to no effect and all their efforts only
made her worse. At last she sent for me. I found her very nervous, complaining
of aches and pains all over. When I told her that it was her mind that was
disturbed, she replied, "Oh! No, my mind is at rest. I know that I am in the hands
of a merciful God who will deal with me according to his will. I have full faith in
Him." Do you suppose He knows your trouble, I ask? "Yes, He knows all things."
Suppose that Jesus was here as he was eighteen-hundred years ago; do you
think he would cure you? "Oh, yes. I know that He knows all my suffering." Then
you believe He knows all your sufferings? "Yes." Then why doesn't He cure you?
"Because it is His will that I should go through all this suffering to fit me for the
Kingdom of Heaven." Suppose your daughter should be taken sick away from
home in a strange land and suppose some kind friend should call upon her and
say to her, "You seem to be very low spirited," and she should reply, "Oh no, I
know it is all right." Suppose your mother was here, would you not get well?
"Yes, she knows all my suffering but she thinks or knows it is all right for it makes
me better prepared to enjoy her company when I get home." Do you believe that
if she chose to cure you that she could do so? "Certainly." Can you say you love
your mother when you admit that your life is in her hands and she permits you to
suffer so much? "Oh! She is my mother and she knows God knows what is best.
It gives me great comfort to know that I am in the hands of a merciful being."
Would you like to have me cure you? "Yes, if you can, but not if I must give up
my beliefs and my religion. I should rather go down to the grave with my belief
than to be cured and lose my religion. If you can cure me of my lameness and
not talk to me about religion I should like to get well, but if you can't cure me
without that I don't know as I will be cured, for I think my religion has nothing to
do with my disease." Don't you think your belief has something to do with your
happiness? "Oh, yes, but it has nothing to do with my disease." What is your
disease? "It is rheumatism, the doctors say, and a general prostration of the
nervous system." What is that? "Neuralgia, I suppose." What is that? "I don't
know, only the doctors say that it is a general prostration of the nervous system."
What is that? "I don't know." Suppose I should try to explain how you came to be
in this condition, would you listen? "Yes, if you don't talk religion." I have no
religion to talk. "I know it." Have you? "I hope I have." Well I don't want it if it
makes me as sick and unhappy as you are. "All the comfort I take while lying
here all these long nights is thinking that I am in the hands of a merciful God who
will do all things right." Would you like to get well? "If it is the will of God I should
be very glad to get well." Do you think I can cure you? "I do not know, but I hope
that you can; if you can't, I shall give up all hope of ever getting well." Then you
think that your health depends on my science? "Yes." If I could cure you, would
you give me the credit? "Yes." But would it be right to upset the will of God who is
keeping you in all this misery for his own pleasure? "Oh! If God sees fit to have
me cured I believe it is all right. I know that I feel badly enough and I should like
to feel better, but if it is the will of God that I should suffer, I will submit, for I know
that it is for the best. God suffered in the flesh to teach us to be better prepared
for Heaven." Then you think if you should die, you would go to Heaven? "I hope
so, for I can't suffer this pain always." Where is Heaven? Do you believe it is a
place? "No." Then what is it? "It is a state of mind." Then you are not very near it
I should judge by your mind. "Well, I don't know as that has anything to do with
my pains." What is pain? "I don't know what it is but I know how it feels." How do
you know it? "I know it through my senses." Are not your senses affected by your
mind? "I suppose so." Then if your mind is affected, you know it through your
senses? "Yes." Then if your mind is disturbed and you put a false construction on
the disturbance, will it not produce an unpleasant effect upon the senses? "I
suppose so." Suppose this unpleasant effect should be pain, is it not the effect
produced on the mind? "I don't know what that has to do with my lameness. I
want to get well." Who wants to get well? "I." That is you, Mrs. H. ______ "Yes."
Then that which wants to get well is that which suffers? "Yes. "Is not that all there
is of you which has any mind or knowledge? "Yes." You don't expect this flesh
and blood to go to Heaven? "No." Why not? "Because the Bible says flesh and
blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven." I thought you just said that Heaven
was a state of mind. "So I did." Do you mean that flesh and blood are in the
mind? "Oh! You make me so nervous you will kill me." Why? "Because I don't like
to hear you talk so. My mind is made up and I don't like to be disturbed in this
way." Do you mean your flesh and blood are disturbed? "You disturb my mind
and body." Then your mind is one thing and your body another. You believe in
the soul? "Yes." You believe it goes to Heaven when you die? "Yes." I thought
you said that Heaven is a state of mind. "Oh, yes. But we must die." What does?
"This flesh and blood." Has it life? "Yes." Has it feeling? "You would think so if
you suffered as much as I do." Then this that suffers is the flesh and blood?
"Yes." Then it is conscious of all these bad feelings? "Yes." Are the feelings its
consciousness or has it another consciousness independent of itself? "No." Then
at death you mean that all these aches and pains leave you and you will be
happy? "Yes." Then these aches and pains are the body's identity and belong to
the flesh and blood? "Yes." And you say they can't go to Heaven, that is, they
can't be in a happy state of mind? "Yes." Can two states of mind exist together?
"No." Are you happy when you feel so bad? "No." Then you are not in Heaven. "I
don't expect to be happy till I get to Heaven." Can you get there and have these
pains? "No." Then when these pains leave you it will be Heaven on earth? "Oh,
yes! If that ever takes place."
Now let us see where you stand. You have admitted enough to show that your
mind is in a confused state like a person in trouble. You have not one particle of
true knowledge. All your supposed knowledge is the effect of an impression on
the senses without any wisdom. What takes the place of knowledge is the
opinion of some one who explains some person's ideas according to his own
ideas of truth; taking this for truth makes you nervous and brings about all your
suffering. You are afraid of your enemies and pray to that very God who you
admit keeps you in misery. You are taught to believe that God is watching all
your actions and that He has laid down certain laws and regulations for you to
follow, and, if you disobey, you will be punished. This keeps you in bondage and
all your life subject to disease. Now to suppose that God selects you to be
punished above all your companions is to believe that God is partial. This you
cannot believe.
Now look at those who worship God; they have a false idea of the God they
worship. God is not in any kind of worship that man has established. God is not
an identity as man is. If He was then He would be matter, so all their prayers are
in matter and all they are afraid of contains matter. This false idea keeps man in
the dark. You never see a man praying to the fire that warms him nor does he
pray to the elements; but his prayer is how he can understand them so as to
keep them under his control. How is it with steam? Is not the person who knows
the most about steam the best person to control it and does not everyone have
more confidence in such a person than in one who is ignorant of it? So it is with
all the elements. Man differs in one respect from living matter. The beasts and all
God's creatures, except man, have never undertaken to control the elements so
as to make them subservient to their will. This is where man commences his
wisdom over all the rest of creation; he is so constructed that he is not happy or
contented to live like the brutes and let the elements alone, but seeks to subject
not only the brute creation but these also to his will. It is true there are some of
the human species a little above the brutes and they are the class who never see
anything outside of themselves. They sometimes show a kind of intelligence but
it is like that of the monkey or parrot, all imitation. They show no power or desire
to control the elements but are satisfied with carrying out the ideas of some long
established authority. This they do with as much zeal as the brutes, mistaking
zeal for knowledge, and set up their standards of judgment based on an opinion.
This they take for the truth, from the fact that they cannot discriminate between
an opinion based on another's opinion and one based on science. For instance,
we often hear persons talking about the laws of nature as though they were the
laws of God. They say that if we did not disobey them all would go right. Now
here is the mistake. The laws of nature are very simple of themselves and they
never trouble man if he does not trouble them. The beasts conform to these laws,
for when they are thirsty, they find the law which quenches their thirst; when
hungry, the same intelligence dictates the remedy. But man, in his eagerness to
be lord over the brutes and elements, has developed the law of life which puts
him in possession of certain faculties called senses. These are under a superior
wisdom which can control the elements and use them for the benefit of the
human race. Now, it is not to be expected that every person who happens to
think of flying can make a flying machine that will be successful. Nor is it certain
that any invention to control the elements will always work so that accidents, as
they are called, will not take place and lives lost and much trouble made before
the law or science is established. So it is with life. Life is a science that is little
understood. The brutes have never shown any desire to investigate this science.
Man is the only one that has ever undertaken it and now let us see how far he
has progressed.
It is a fact that man's life is shortened by the theory of his own belief, for his belief
is his practice and the length of his life is in his belief or theory. Everyone has his
theory in regard to the lengthening of life but all admit that it must end, that it is
set in motion and it may run some time or not. Some think that life is a perpetual
machine which never was set in motion and never can stop. This life is the great
problem to solve, and to save it from being lost, theories are invented for the
benefit of man to save his life. He is given all the knowledge of every danger he
is liable to pass through and warned against them. These call out all the science
and skill of the world to put man in possession of a science to save his life just as
though his life was something independent of himself. This makes competition
and there is no science which teaches that life is eternal and that the discoveries
of man go to destroy the happiness of life itself. Life cannot be destroyed but
error can keep life in trouble.
A science which established life as an eternal principle is not for itself but for the
happiness of mankind. In error there is continual warfare-one party or sect
invents all sorts of bugbears to frighten man so as to get a chance to save
something called life. So man is told if he does not believe just so, he will lose his
life. Another who has made the elements his study and endeavored to control
them finds that they are a great enemy to mankind and it is necessary for the
preservation of human life that the people should know how to control them. And
in order to give man this knowledge it requires that there should be a certain
class of people who devote their time to it, who can show by their theory that life
is in the knowledge of their practice or science. For instance, they show for one
fact that fire will burn you to death and this ends your life according to their belief
or theory; but you may be nearly scalded to death and then there is a chance for
the science to save your life. This requires all their science. Experiments are tried
and facts set down by persons trying them, and when a new phenomenon is
produced, that is set down as a scientific fact. Thus the world has been
humbugged by these blind guides leading the blind till their theory of opinions,
like the locusts of Egypt, are in everything we eat or drink or wear. You cannot do
anything but there is a penalty attached. If you go out of doors, you are liable to
take cold. In short, all evils called disease are the inventions of man and they are
as real as his life for they have complete power over it and we are afraid of them
because they can destroy our lives. Now here is the trouble. Error has taken life
as a thing that can be destroyed. Truth makes error matter that can be changed
into any form or shape, and error is the servant to life or truth but error supposes
it is the master and thinks that life or truth is the servant. So when the servant is
above the master then error and superstition reign. But when the truth comes,
error dies and as truth never makes war, it sits and sees error destroy itself.
I will try to separate these two powers, as far as disease goes, so that you can
see to which of these elements you are subject. As matter is under the direction
of life, it is its servant, and as life does not act, it is like a lord who has servants
and gives his vineyard to man for their happiness. If the overseer gives to the
servants false directions, disease is the result and confusion and unhappiness
reign. But the disease or result is in the direction and not in the effect. Error puts
disease in the result but the lord (of the vineyard) puts it in the direction.
Therefore, when he comes to settle with his servants and finds that the overseer
is ignorant of what he is about, he turns out that overseer and lets his vineyard to
some other who will do better. So it is with our health. Health and happiness are
a result of our acts and belief. They are under error or truth and all the misery
that follows our belief is the natural consequence of our opinions. To suppose
that we could be happy in a belief that puts restrictions on us is an error, for it is
impossible for us to feel pain without knowing it. And to know the cause and
know that it is from an intelligence that has the power to stop it if He pleases and
will not (giving no reason, only what we may conjure up) is to believe that God is
worse than we are ourselves. All of these errors arise from a superstitious mind,
not daring to think or not having capacity to think, which lives in an error and is all
his life subject to disease for the sake of his belief. Now God is not in this belief
at all. He is in that truth that destroys this belief. I will make an illustration
showing where error is, also where God is. Take the fire. The child is burned and
is afraid of the fire and looks upon it as its enemy. Science sees the child's error
and that its knowledge is error. The child tries to get rid of its enemy, supposing it
will harm it. Its true knowledge will correct the child and then the wisdom of this
world becomes subject to truth or science. So it is with all true knowledge. There
is no true knowledge in an opinion and, as the most of our knowledge is made up
of opinions, we are to ourselves just what we think we are.
Religions and medical opinions are the worst enemies that man has to contend
with and they make him nervous. This leads to all sorts of dissipation to drown
sorrow. Our lives are like a journey through a wilderness: we first take the priests'
opinion, that is to trust in God. When we ask for an explanation of God we are
told that He knows all things and not a hair of our head falls to the ground without
His knowledge; that if we look to them they will deliver us out of all danger and
that He takes better care of us than a parent does of his child. This is a brief
sketch of God's goodness. Now suppose that we should not do quite as well as
we expect, what follows? God has made a devil or something worse that stands
ready to catch us if we don't do just according to His will or laws. These laws are
not definite but are like the laws of the United States that every President can
construe according to his belief. The laws of God, made by man, are arbitrary
though not acknowledged as such. Jesus said, "Call no man master, but one,
that is God." Here you see you have made a God that is full of inconsistencies
and cannot stand the test of common reason. Now look at the true scientific
answer to all our beliefs and it shows us that they contain no knowledge of God
or life, for God is life eternal and this life was in his son, Jesus, which was Christ
or Science. Now to suppose you lose your life is to be cut off from God, for God
is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him.
Man's belief in religion and disease is all founded on the opinion that man must
die or lose his life; therefore, we are called upon to do something to save it. This
keeps man in ignorance of himself or life and all the time troubled from fear of
death. Now destroy man's belief and introduce God's truth and then we are set
free from this world of error and introduced into the world of light or science
where there is no death but the living God or science. This science will lead us
along to that happy state where there is no sickness or sorrow or grief, where all
tears are wiped away from our eyes, there to be in the presence of this great
truth that will watch us and hold us in the hollow of its hand and will be to us a
light that will open our eyes. We shall not then be deceived by the blind guides
who say, "Peace, peace," where there is no peace. Then we shall call no one
master or leader for there is only one that leads us and that is God. He puts no
restrictions upon us for our lives are in His hands or science, but our happiness
or misery is in our belief. For our belief is what follows a direction. So if we are
misdirected and disease or misery is the result, blame not God, or the result, but
blame the cause or false direction. We, through our ignorance, put God into the
false direction but not into the effect. But there can be no effect without a cause;
therefore God or the cause is in the effect; so is the devil or ignorance in the
cause and effect. Now to suppose that God is in the devil or error is to put God
on a level with the errors of this world.
I will give an illustration of these two powers. Man has no idea of God but error
pretends to know all about Him. Error says that all the hairs of our head are
numbered and not one hair falls to the ground unnoticed by Him. Now what
would be the most liberal construction that a child would have of God as far as
His knowledge over us is concerned? For the Bible says, "Except you become as
a little child you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven." Would it not be that God
has eyes as the child has and is watching us and if a hair should fall He sees it?
We are taught by this same error that God is watching all our acts and if we
should happen to do something that is not in accordance with some person's
opinion then we have disobeyed His will, are liable to be punished and thank the
Lord for it.
Now I will give the scientific man's opinion of God. All laws are a part of God and
intelligence is in them so that every act of our lives shows of which power we are
the servant. These laws govern the beast and all living creatures and the
knowledge is in the law. If the beast wants food, the desire contains the
knowledge and direction how to get it and, if no obstruction is put in the way, he
will have his prayer answered. So it is with all God's laws. The law of gravitation
or attraction contains the cause and effect. So if there is no obstacle in the way, it
will come according to those laws. This is God and to suppose God is in the
effect of error is not the case. Now you see that to know what will be the result of
every act is to see and know its cause and effect. Now as a hair is governed by
the law of attraction, which is knowledge, and this knowledge is in the law, when
it falls to the ground it must fall with the knowledge of the law which is God.
Suppose you let a one pound weight of lead fall to the ground and a piece of cork
at the same time. Is not your knowledge of attraction in the cork and lead to know
the difference in the time? So it cannot fall without the knowledge of the law that
governs it and this is God. But to have a God with eyes and ears and every
faculty that man has is to have a being of flesh and blood. Now if you see God in
your knowledge, you will admit that everything you do intelligently you do under
the direction of a power or intelligence superior to yourself. So when you do
anything ignorantly and the effect is bad, giving you trouble, you try to correct
your errors thereby showing that you admit a power superior to yourself. This
power is called Christ or God and, if you have not the power or Christ, you are
not of Him. To know God is to know ourselves and to know ourselves is to know
the difference between science and error. Error is of man and truth is of God and
as truth is not in the cause of the disease, it is not in the effect; but as error is the
cause of disease, it is in the effect. Therefore, to say we are happy when in
disease is to admit that we have no disease, for disease is the error and the
effect. Now as opinions contain either truth or error, not known, we are affected
by the effect when it comes to the light of science and then the happiness or
misery follows. This is called by the doctors, disease, and they treat the effect
denying the cause or letting it go as though it was of no account.
Here is the difference. I put the disease in the direction and then I know what will
be the effect. The doctors and ministers do the same, but being ignorant of their
power, they mislead the patient and the result is just what science would have
known and counteracted. For instance, I believe in disease and all I do is to
prove it. Now if I had no belief and had the truth, this truth could not make
disease but it could destroy it. Our belief is formed of matter that can be
destroyed and our happiness is the result of correcting our impressions when first
made; our error is the ignorance of these impressions. The opinions of the world
and the error of ourselves are the cause of our trouble and the destruction of our
opinions, whatever they may be, leave us better. Suppose you were afraid of
some person and you dare not stir lest he should kill you; do you think that you
would be any worse off to know that he was your friend and felt unhappy to know
that you had such an opinion of him? So it is in every act of our lives. The
knowledge of ourselves never harmed us. Disease is not in knowledge but in
ignorance. For instance, the fear of any trouble is the disease. Then you will say
that you had no fear, so that cannot be true; but you misunderstand the idea. Go
with me back to the time of the persecution of the church and the Salem
witchcraft. The people believed in evil spirits and witches and considered it wrong
to have anything to do with them. Here you see the disease in the people's belief
and their belief was put in practice for the safety of mankind. Therefore every
invention of their belief was called out to get rid of an evil that was tormenting
man. Here you see the belief was one thing and the evil another and so it is in
everything.
The wisdom of this world sees the mind one thing and disease another and
reasons by saying the pain came before I had any thought about it and I had no
mind about it. Take the man with the wooden leg. When this wooden leg itches,
does it itch, or is it in his mind? No one would say that it was the leg that itched.
So it is with all our troubles. That peculiar feeling was a state of mind which he
,ailed itching. If his leg felt cold, it was not the leg but the mind, and each
sensation is only another combined state of mind or mater. This mind or matter is
not understood, so the power that governs it puts intelligence in the wooden leg
and makes the leg intelligent and itself intelligent. That makes two intelligences:
one, the leg, and the owner, the other. But the wisdom of truth puts the
knowledge in the owner and the effect in the leg. At first some sensation was
made in the mind; ignorance and superstition gave it a false construction and lo!
error formed the idea of white swelling on the knee. Thus the trouble of the mind
was located in the knee and showed itself in that form. Now mind being a part of
the man, when the limb was cut off, it might or might not have changed that
peculiar state of mind. So it is with rheumatic pains. The state of mind or disease
is admitted to have an existence in the minds of men as much as evil spirits and
we are affected by our belief.
If anything disturbs our happiness, we fly to someone for protection and in our
trouble we create some form of something in the mind and locate it in some place
in the body. We suffer ourselves to be tormented to get rid of the enemy or
disease just as those who believe themselves bewitched would suffer being
whipped to drive out the devils. So do persons of this age suffer themselves to be
tormented by the doctors to get rid of some enemy that the same doctor has
made by his ignorance and treated in some part of the system.
I could name hundreds of cases where persons have called in physicians, and
between them both have made an enemy and the patient suffered himself to be
poulticed and blistered almost to death to get rid of the bronchitis or spinal
disease or white swelling or some other devil supposed to have an existence
independent of the mind. The doctors who use these means show just about as
much knowledge as the persons did in Connecticut who beat the beer barrel if it
worked on Sunday. It is the relic of heathen superstition that wisdom will
sometime eradicate from the mind by explaining facts on scientific principles. Till
then, the knife and lancet and calomel and all such things that are only
introduced by a show of truth, not much in advance of nailing a horseshoe on the
door or sleeping with a Bible under you to keep the witches off, must govern the
world. Jesus knew that all the above beliefs were founded on ignorance;
therefore he was not afraid of these beliefs and said these words, "Greater love
hath no man than to lay down his life for his friends." This is the meaning. I know
all this is false, that it is in your minds, so I am not afraid to lay down my life or
put it in jeopardy for the sick so I can explain to them or lead them to health. You
may say we must have physicians. I answer, "Have I not been with you in your
trouble and relieved you without tormenting you?" For twenty years I have never
said one word to a patient which, if he believed, would make him worse or cause
him one moment's pain or misery. I have never tormented a patient by making a
disease by which he would suffer to be burdened with caustic, blistered and at
last lose his limbs in order to be rid of an evil that I have made. If the people
would serve the doctors as they did those who accused another of bewitching
them, it would put a stop to a great deal of evil. If a doctor tells a patient that he
has a disease (which, if he believes, he is worse off), punish the doctor and they
would soon learn to keep their tongues from speaking lies and learn to tell the
truth or say nothing. I have tried it and seen the effect and know that the principle
is right-never to say to a person anything that will, if believed, make him the least
disappointed or grieved. If you cannot leave a happy impression, do not leave a
bad one. This cannot be done under the old system as it kills the practice.
Therefore, reform is necessary.
June 1860
Jesus' Parables of Another World
BU 31:11, LC 3:48
[orig. ANOTHER WORLD]
The question is often asked why Jesus spoke in parables to convince the people
of another world. Why not tell the simple story and not mystify everything, so that
even his own disciples could not understand him. I will admit that there is
something in that question that looks dark, but when one understands what
Jesus was trying to establish or teach, it will give you a very different slant on his
ideas. The first question should be: what was Jesus trying to establish-not take it
for granted it was another world. It is generally believed that it was to establish a
belief in a future state or world beyond this material world and it was necessary
for him to come from heaven to earth in order for him to teach this great truth and
to show the people that he really did come from heaven; and to make them
believe, he must show a sign or do something a little above the rest of mankind.
How natural it is to mystify everything so that the ignorant cannot understand!
Men do not want to think; so if they can only get rid of investigating a
phenomenon and attributing it to an invisible power so that they stand just as well
as their neighbors, that is all they want. There is another class called the wise
men, who have been set up as oracles of wisdom. To them everything that starts
up must take its rise from their fountain, or they will open their flood gates and
overflow the little streams that are trickling over the rocks and pebbles of their
superstition.
It is too much labor to be a hewer of wood; so if you take a person of eminence
and make him a laborer, he will say like the slothful servant that truth is a hard
master. So such persons will hide their talent because they will not put
themselves on a level with the thinkers of their age, but rather lie still and cry,
Crucify him, for our craft is in danger! The people take the cue and fall upon him
with staff and stone or ridicule till they have put him down. Then those wise men
rise in their majesty and praise the people for their good sense in putting down
the very person who is their friend. This was the case with Jesus; the opposition
came from the wisest men or class of men who led the people for their own good.
This course taken by the wisdom of this world has always opposed all science
ever since the commencement of the world. For when science is established the
wisdom of this world has to yield, but a hard battle must be fought before the
science is established.
So when Jesus commenced his reform he was despised of all men,
misrepresented by fools and construed by knaves and hated by priests and
doctors. They thought as they do now: our craft is in danger, so they called him
infidel and imposter. When they crucified Jesus they put such a construction on
his acts as they pleased and instead of giving his ideas, they gave just such an
opinion as anyone would expect from those who wanted to keep the people in
subjection and ignorance. Thus they have explained Jesus' meaning just
according to their ideas. Now the Bible is in the hands of the people and they can
all read and judge for themselves and every one has a right in this land of liberty
to give his own opinion in regard to the Bible. I will avail myself of the same
liberty as others. All I ask of you is to lay aside all prejudices and listen to my
explanation of Jesus' mission in the world. I will state what I intend to prove, and
afterwards, I will prove it by his works and my own and leave it to the people to
judge which is the most natural construction -the priests or mine. I will now give
my opinion. I take this ground, that Jesus never intended to teach any kind of
religion, acknowledged by any religious class of people, but opposed all kinds of
religion of his days and ours. Secondly, I say he never meddled with any
institution or laws made by the people. Thirdly, he never put any restrictions on
man but left him a free agent to do just as he pleased, but subject to the laws of
men, for God never made a law. All laws are the inventions of men, not of God
and Jesus' kingdom or truth was not of this world but of science. His religion was
a science and science was never known to have any connection with ignorance.
There are two standards: one is ignorance of science. It belongs to that class of
intellect or wisdom that is of this world and can be detected as easily as you can
detect any other error. The difference between the two is this: the wisdom of this
world tells what others know. It takes memory of events and the history of the
learned for science. But science talks what it knows and stands ready to prove it
by works.
Here is the difference in men. A great man is one who can remember anything
he ever heard and repeat every person's opinion but has no idea of his own. He
stands ready to prove all he says by his standard, so if he is doubted, he shows
you his authority. Thus he is a sort of court or town record that is ready to receive
any opinion that is supposed to be true, having the court or town stamps this
makes a learned man. A truly scientific man is a book of nature, understood, so
that he can prove all he says. He is made not of opinions but of wisdom, and
never refers to old authors but proves all things by his science. His memory of
events or names or places, he has no shelf to put on, for to him they are only as
an amendment. He listens to persons having that knowledge as a parent listens
to a child to hear him give an account of some play or story that amuses him for
the time. In his leisure hours, he seeks such men as a person goes to a play for
the sake of amusement, not expecting to realize any true wisdom. This sort of
amusement is of this world and is well expressed by Shakespeare when he says,
"All the world's a stage and all men are players," etc. This is the case and as
science is a stranger to this world it comes into this world and pays tribute
money, to be instructed in all things pertaining to the world.
It pays the clergy for their opinions of truth or science of this world for its own
amusement. It asks questions of the wise men about itself as science, as Jesus
did, to hear what kind of answers they gave to this spiritual world.
This world is very strict. It worships science as a power not known and is very
strict in regard to its followers. It erects standards to this unknown God or
science, for it is a God not known to this world, ', but the world of science is in it.
Now as Jesus came from this world of science, he was a stranger in this land
and liable to its laws. So that his mission, like all science, being to destroy error,
he must come into the world of error to lead the science that is imprisoned in this
world of error to the truth or health. Jesus knew that God or science was not in
their worship, that all it did was to keep science down and retard it. So he must,
like Sampson, throw firebrands into their minds so as to get up a dis-union in
order to dissolve the bands or burdens that kept them down. He knew that the
people knew not what they did or believed. They never had any science about
their belief and had not the slightest idea of what it was or how it could be
altered. They never dreamed that to be good was a science, so that all their
goodness was based on fear, either of being punished by the laws or being
destroyed by the science that they called God. Thus, all their prayers were to this
science, not to destroy them. For as the truth came, their life or error was
destroyed. So Jesus said in the name of Christ or Science, "He, that is error, that
loseth his life or opinion for my sake or science shall find it." So to understand
Christ or Truth was to forsake opinions and embrace truth, and not to receive an
opinion from anyone who knew nothing about what he affirms.
He told them how to know the difference. If any man say I am Christ and have
not the evidence, only resting on an opinion, believe him not, for there shall be
many theories and beliefs founded on opinions. So try them and see whether
they are based on science or error. (Mark 13:21). If they are based on science
they can stand the test of investigation. But if based on error, you will hear a
voice like the mighty winds and the earth shall be shaken to its foundation and
every idea shall arise and they will make as much ado as the devils did when
Jesus told them to depart. Men have to be questioned in regard to their belief, for
it won't stand the fire of science.
So they rail and foam, and if that will not do, they escape into the wilderness or
run headlong into the sea of public opinion where the common opinion holds
them. To attack public opinion is a risk; this Jesus had to run. Now Jesus' world,
that God or Science was in, was science. And when he came from science he
came to this world of ignorance and superstition. It may be necessary to give
some idea of Jesus' knowledge of this other world and where he differed from the
leaders of his time. Jesus' two worlds were science and ignorance. Therefore,
science can come from its world and go to error and release that science that is
bound by error. These are the two worlds and Jesus never intended to teach any
other. Now what is the difference between these two worlds. I will try to show.
This world is made up of all kinds of deception, superstition and ignorance, all
based on heathen superstition governed by leaders of theories which are based
on opinions and do not have the slightest foundation in truth. These two worlds
are in and around every one. The natural world is in man, looking out and
prophesying about the other world. The scientific world is outside of man and
sees all the natural man's ideas of science, as the musician sees the errors of the
natural man in regard to music. All science is inspiration and from a spirit world
far above the natural man. The natural man has found it out and submits to it as
a science. Now in all science God is not known by the natural man. His God is in
his ignorance of himself. So when he prays he never prays to any science or
wisdom; therefore he thinks all the phenomena he sees are the natural result of
the development of man. But being ignorant of science he is not a fit judge of the
phenomena that he may chance to see or hear. And being ignorant of himself, he
applies the same rules to others. It may be a good rule but there are exceptions
to all the rules, so I will make an exception to this: for error is not accountable for
its acts as truth is. If a scientific man does wrong he knows it, but if he is wrong
from ignorance there is no right in it, so there is no sin to him. Science tells you
that fire will burn your hand and you cannot put your hand into the fire ignorant,
when you know it. So you cannot commit that wrong without suffering
punishment, for your punishment is in your knowledge and not in the fire.
Now suppose you are a child and do not know fire. You see it and as all children
do, you want it, or a piece of the red hot coal. Your ignorant desire for the coal
excites you and you put your hand into! the fire. The sensation frightens you just
as much as though you had put your hand into a dog's mouth and been bitten.
The sensation produces fright; then comes reason. You reason about the fire as
though it contained life and would hurt you, so the fire and the dog are to you just
the same. As you stand weeping, some one comes up and tries to soothe you by
telling you to keep away from the dog or fire and not get hurt, but makes no
distinction between them. So the child sees the dog can move around and thinks
the fire is the same as the dog. He shuns them both alike, but puts intelligence in
the fire. Now the child grows up with all the ignorance of his youth till he becomes
a man. Then he takes his place with other men and knows nothing of science. So
it sees a sort of intelligence in everything it does not know and reasons how to
keep clear of every phenomenon it happens to see. At last in its ignorance it
prays to this enemy; so it worships all things that it cannot comprehend. It puts
God into everything; therefore, in its ignorance it gets up a sort of creed or belief
to offer up a prayer to this invisible power, to which it has given the name of God
and it lives and dies in the fear of it. It worships and pretends to adore it. So
when it goes into the water, it prays that the water will not drown it. It sees God in
all danger and prays to it to have mercy on it till it can get clear of the enemy it
worships. This is the religious man.
Now where stands Jesus as a man? Not Christ. Jesus knew that all this was
hypocrisy, fear and ignorance. He made a difference between his God and their
God. He knew that their God was a devil, so he said to them, You worship ye
know not what; I know what I worship. Again, he says: You are the children of the
devil; he was a liar and abode not in the truth. The people in their ignorance want
leaders and they will hire them. These leaders know that the people put trust in
them and they know that they are not worthy of taking the high responsibility of
leading or instructing them. So their first prayer is correct when they say that they
are not worthy to take the Lord's or Science's name upon their lips. This is true
for God is true and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in
truth. So when a person is all the time crying Lord, or Truth, never showing any
fruits, beware of such, for they are wolves in sheep's clothing. Jesus told them
that all this was hypocrisy and this made them crucify him. The priests never
taught the people anything except for the benefit of their craft. The leaders must
have a living and a pretty good one. This deception could not be kept up but
must go down before the progress of science in the people's minds. All science
was confined to the leaders and was of this world. It made them crafty and
inventive of all sorts of humbug to keep the people in subjection. This kept the
people superstitious and led to sorcery and witchcraft. So deception became the
order of the day, so much so that they got frightened at their own beliefs and
passed laws to keep it down, just as though the development of science must be
under the ignorance of this world.
Jesus saw all this and as the people were groaning under the yokes or beliefs
that bound them down, he said, Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy
laden and I will give you rest to your soul by explaining to you the cause of your
trouble. When he commenced explaining to the people, the explanation was to
save them from the misery of this world of belief and to introduce a science or
kingdom, where there would be no offering up of prayer or forgiving of sins but a
consciousness or science that would put them in possession of a knowledge of
themselves, which the natural man knew nothing of. When Jesus says, Take my
yoke upon you, he means my wisdom or science. That is easy, for it contains no
restrictions. This, to the people was something new, so they reasoned together
like people who want to get some information. This setting the people to
reasoning was a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks, for
they had no idea that the people could govern themselves. So he took up the
laws of Moses and gave them common ideas of them. Then he showed them a
more perfect law of love that bound them together by sympathy, not of this world
but of science. The people had never known that a good act must proceed from a
goodness that they felt. The priests had never taught such a thing. So goodness
was a sort of low wisdom and only applied to the poor. To try to be good without
having any reward in view was of no use and the person who put any religion into
it was as ignorant as the swine or dogs.
Now here was where Jesus struck at the root of error. He says, Every plant or
science that is not planted by wisdom shall be rooted up and goes on to tell the
people what his kingdom of heaven was. It was peace and joy in the Holy Ghost
or Truth. He explained to them by illustrating the difference in the motives that
govern the people. Therefore he said, Except ye become as little children you
cannot enter into the kingdom of God or Science. Now every one knows` that a
little child has no idea of what man calls right or wrong, but might is right. So to
become as a child means that you must not be under any restriction that
prevents you from doing just as you please.
Suppose you were in this state and Jesus and one of the priests called on you to
teach you the wisdom of this world, and you should put this question to the priest.
I want my neighbor's ox for my family to eat, can I not take it? The priest says,
No. Why not? Because it would be stealing and that is not right. Why? I want it
and see no reason why I cannot have it. I am stronger than he is and am not
afraid of him. We know that and the wisdom of this world has seen fit to make a
law that if you steal an ox you shall pay five oxen " back. Well suppose I kill the
owner, then there will be no one to tell, what can they do? The Great Spirit will
catch you. How? Why he has a place where he puts all who do not repent of their
sins. What sins? Stealing from each other. How must I repent? By asking this
Great power to forgive you. Will he do it? Yes, if you are sincere. What is that?
Say you won't do it again. Is that all? Yes. Well if that is all that is easy enough.
Oh, you must confess it to the priest and he will lay your case before the Great
Spirit and get your sins forgiven. Why cannot I do it? Because God has
appointed certain men to attend to that for his special purposes. Then if I steal,
as you call it, I must pay the man four times as much. Yes. Suppose I steal and
he never finds it out, will the Great Spirit know it? Yes, he knows all things. What
will he do? Just what I told you, if you do not confess to the priest and tell him all
you have done. What does the priest get for his trouble? Does the Great Spirit
pay him? No. Who does? The person who steals. So if I steal and you are a
priest, I must pay you for getting the Great Spirit to let me off? Yes. Then won't
he hurt or punish me? No. Does he not have anything to do with the laws of
man? No. Then if the laws of man do not catch me, you can clear me from God's
punishment. Yes. Well I understand.
So religion is made up of rewards and punishments, not of good works, lest any
man should boast. Goodness is a sort of clever fellow, always in the way of the
religious man. An honest man at heart is the greatest eyesore that a Christian
can have. He is as bad as a man who never drank or smoked or chewed tobacco
is to the temperance party. He must be of them or he is the worst enemy the
party has to contend with. So it is with all hypocrites. True goodness, not
hypocrisy, is the worst enemy that religion has to contend with. For an honest
and upright man is the noblest work of God or Science, but the religious man is
of his father, the devil and his works, he will do. Now I do not intend to apply
these ideas to any particular man or class of men but to all. We all have religion
or error and we all have some science or wisdom of God. Religion is our
superstition and belongs to the natural man. Science is spiritual and belongs to
the spiritual man. Paul had these two characters; therefore, when he would do
good, his old religion was present and that which he would do, his old ideas
prevented him; so it was not science that did wrong but his old religion that was
in him. Jesus had the same enemy to contend with. If he had listened to the
voice of religion of his day he might have been king of the Jews but enemy to all
science. Honesty or doing unto another as you would have another do to you
was not just the thing, for it struck at the root of all their religion. It made man a
responsible being to himself and put into his mind a truth that would show him to
act from a higher motive than religion. It teaches us that God is in science and
not in ignorance, that might is right for the religious world; but for the scientific
world, action and reaction are equal. And just as we measure out to another, just
so it shall be measured back to us, and no priest or prayer of this world can stay
the hand of this law.
So Christ dies for all and Jesus abandoned all his heathen religion and
worshipped God or Science, laid down his life or science for the world so that all
can enjoy it if they will only forsake their father or their old creeds and embrace
Christ or Science. This will wash away all superstition. This was the religion of
Jesus. To be a disciple of Jesus you must forsake all these forms and
ceremonies, for in sacrifices and prayers he has no sympathy. But to worship this
Christ as Jesus did is to worship it in spirit and in truth. This religion was
blasphemy. So they crucified him, and parted his garment or Science, and drew
lots for it. The doctors took that part which applied to healing and the priests that
which applied to preaching. So the people are just about as wise as they were
before. Christ or Science is in the world, not in the church or medical faculty but
in the hearts of the people, working itself along.
July 1860
Odor
BU 99:29, LC 3:122
[orig. ODOURS]
You know I have spoken of odor. It is like the odor of any flower or vegetable and
is what arises from an idea. Thought is a chemical change in the fluid, caused by
a sensation produced on the mind. The mind is under the direction of a power
independent of itself and when the mind or thought is formed into an idea, the
idea throws off an odor that contains the cause and effect. For instance, a person
is affected; the effect is called nervousness; this contains no knowledge to
science, only an effect. Error or the natural man thinks knowledge is contained in
it and tries to convince the patient of the truth of this science, which to the true
science is false. The patient is more disturbed by this theory and by the direction
of this blind guide; an idea is formed which is held up to the patient's mind to
receive a name. The mind or error of the doctor gives it the name of
consumption. This disturbs the mind of the patient which like a galvanic battery
throws off sparks or ideas. And these ideas being under a false direction are
formed into any disease that ignorance and superstition can invent. Now the idea
is formed and as it grows it has a sort of intelligence which is not recognized by
error but admitted and called instinct. This odor or instinct contains the cause of
the trouble and the answer. But to error this is a mystery. So it calls it a power or
instinct and never looks upon it as anything that can be reduced to a science.
This odor is the trouble called disease, but the doctors know nothing about that
odor and think that what can be seen by their eyes is the disease or trouble. This
odor is what I come in contact with. It is the spiritual life of the idea and by the
doctors it is called mind. This embraces all they can comprehend and this they
make independent of the disease and never treat it as having anything to do with
disease. In this way they keep the soul in bondage, for fear of death. This odor is
the soul's trouble, imprisoned in error. As the soul tries to escape, it becomes
subject to error and as long as error holds it in bondage, it is in death. Truth sets
it free by destroying the error. All we see of this is in the prison, and that is not
visible to the natural eye. Not one-hundredth part of the misery of the human
species is in what is called disease. Ninety-nine hundredths of human misery is
in prisons not seen by the natural eyes. This misery is confined to the popular
opinions of the day. The common opinion is the prison of the soul. Its destruction
is the liberation of the soul from its earthly prison or error. From these prisons the
smoke of their tormenting belief ascends and when I come in contact with their
grief or odor, I know the cause of the trouble. The trouble is a sort of intelligence
and belongs to this world. It is a sort of instinct to the natural man and has
nothing to do with science.
July 1860
Taking a Disease
BU 99:14, LC 3:113
I will try to define what I mean by taking a disease. Mind is matter and is under
the direction of a power called the senses. The senses embrace no knowledge of
themselves, no more the mind, but the soul or intelligence is some way
connected with the senses, like the power with the direction. This same
combination runs through all mechanical science; the direction is the wisdom that
directs the senses. The senses cannot act at all of themselves -only as they are
acted upon by this power called wisdom. This wisdom can act upon the body or
independently of the identity. This is all there is of man. The senses are under
the direction of wisdom, either right or wrong, that controls them either by science
or error, or for good or evil. As matter is an idea, I shall class it all together but
attach the senses to it in some cases and detach them in others.
I will illustrate. Suppose I think of Niagara Falls; my senses are no part of the
falls, nor are they attached to them. Now suppose a person should undertake to
throw me, that is, my bodily senses, over the falls; my senses are attached to my
body and both are matter, but one is under the senses and the other is
independent of my senses. The trouble lies in my knowledge of the result of
being thrown into the falls: that is drowning, which is losing my identity, senses,
matter and all there is of me. Now put me in possession of the fact that my
senses will not be lost, if the identity of my body is, then death is swallowed up in
truth. As our knowledge is progressive and a higher power than ourselves, we
know God only as we know ourselves, so that eternal life is in the dark. Our
knowledge is in our belief and we are taught that our body contains the senses;
we have no proof that they can act independently of the body's identity.
So when I am afraid that my life is in danger I am afraid just as much as my
knowledge sees any danger of losing my life. So I stand nervous and trembling
for fear that I shall be thrown into the falls. The fear is not in the falls, nor in my
knowledge, but in the ignorance or idea that I shall be lost if I fall into the water.
Now suppose I escape. The idea is now a part of my bodily identity, not the falls,
but the danger. This is my disease. By the doctor this is called nervous, but is all
the disease there can be. This is being bound in heaven or the mind. Now till all
this is cleared up, the mind, as in a dream, is groaning over the trouble, fearing to
be destroyed. This trouble, being a part of the matter, throws off a heat or
atmosphere and the soul or senses are in the scene. Every person who comes
within this atmosphere affects me because 1 am afraid. This knowledge or fear,
for it is fear, is not known to another as knowledge but as fear or a peculiar state
of mind which they construe falsely, giving a false interpretation to my acts
because they know not my trouble. Now if the fear changes my bodily identity,
producing a deranged state of matter which can be seen through the bodily
senses, this effect is called by the profession, disease and treated as such. So
their explanation is like Aaron's priesthood, where sacrifices are offered up every
year but which could never take away sin or error. Therefore to cure man of
disease or error, it must be done by a new priesthood, not after the order of
Aaron that can never explain it away but after a higher and more excellent
priesthood that can take upon himself our infirmities, can bear our burdens and
lay down his life to save the sick.
Now return with me to the falls and behold a young person standing trembling,
with flushed cheek and quivering lips, with cold and clammy perspiration starting,
urged on by her friends to make the last leap, never to return. Urged I say, for
error is always urging us on to destruction. Now in the midst of all this confusion,
a voice is heard out of the clouds of error saying, "Be not afraid, there is no
danger." They all stop and lo! I appear before her enemies, for it happens to be a
young female, sentenced to be cast into this lake never to return. There stand all
her earthly friends, weeping and forcing her along. Just as she approaches the
precipice, I seize her by the hand and command her enemies to desist. A sort of
parley takes place and I propose to run the risk of my own life to save the lady.
This being agreed, I then say a few words to the friends. I tell them there is no
danger of her being lost and will run the risk of my reputation to convince them of
their errors in regard to her disease. This act washes away her sins or error and
establishes the doctrine of eternal life, which is to them a mystery. So I step
forward to the brink and in I go-now lost to sight and gone forever. In an instant I
am seen on the surface perfectly calm, with not a ripple to be seen. This, to
bystanders, is a miracle; so I repeat it till the fears of that danger are passed.
Then I return the young lady to her father's house where all will rejoice, as all
fears of the danger are gone. Health is returned and again she is ready to
embrace some other errors of the priests and doctors.
The errors of these two classes of mankind give rise to all the evils that flesh is
heir to. They are separate and apart from all science and do not embrace one
single truth but are the stumbling blocks for the truth to overcome in arriving at
science. It is true that they were once necessary evils, but it is time now that man
should look about and see if there cannot be a higher mode of worshipping God
or science from a higher principle than fear. For say what you will, the whole
foundation of the creeds is based on fear. This fear causes all the misery in the
world and I will show how it is grafted into the mind. All mankind have a kind of
reverence for something they call God. No matter what name you give it, most
admit it and their fears of it depend on the idea they have of this power. For at
the same time that they call it God, they call it a power-supposing that God is in
the power, whether it is good or bad. Man in his wisdom has undertaken to give
an explanation of God's wisdom and define what is good and what is bad or what
is right and what is wrong and has tried to make the people believe that they are
the true oracles of God. So they get up certain laws and forms of obedience to
God, just as though the father of wisdom had condensed his wisdom into a little
shell about as large as a coconut and required of man certain acts for his own
gratification. If the child will obey these laws, he holds out to him all sorts of
happiness, like a toy shop, where they can get just as many playthings as they
desire. This is in one hand. In the other he holds out a direful rod, with all the
horrors that a crazy brain could invent. These, like the pillar of fire and cloud of
smoke that went before Moses while he was leading the people of his age, go
before the people in our days. And the people now as then murmur and complain
at the food that they receive from these spiritual guides.
July 1860
Love I
BU 31:1, LC 3:1
[orig. SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION]
What is the element that receives all sensation? Love for oursleves. This is the
ground mark or foundation of all our acts, to gratify its own element. It is the
mortar or dough in which all sensation is made. Of itself it contains no
knowledge. It is perfect harmony. Its element or language is its perfection. It
embraces all the senses but not wisdom. It is the power that wisdom uses to
bring all things into harmony with itself. This to this world of error is not known but
admitted; the matter or ideas of this world is put into this element. So it is like the
ocean. It can hold all sorts of ideas and, like the ocean, disturb error to its lowest
depths and then calm by wisdom, so that not a ripple on the surface can be seen.
But in the depths of this ocean of love lie all kinds of evil spirits that are gnawing
the life of the soul, that are identified with it. This is the disease in the mind.
When the storm of ignorance and superstition was raging and all the ships or
minds were tossing to and fro, and even Jesus' disciples were in danger of being
swamped by the errors of