Part 11 (2/2)

Even if communications from spirits to mortal con- sciousness were possible, such communications would 77:24 grow beautifully less with every advanced stage of existence. The departed would gradually rise above ignorance and materiality, and Spiritualists 77:27 would outgrow their beliefs in material spiritualism.

Spiritism consigns the so-called dead to a state resembling that of blighted buds, - to a wretched purgatory, where 77:30 the chances of the departed for improvement narrow into nothing and they return to their old standpoints of matter.

Unnatural deflections

78:1 The decaying flower, the blighted bud, the gnarled oak, the ferocious beast, - like the discords of disease, sin, 78:3 and death, - are unnatural. They are the fal- sities of sense, the changing deflections of mor- tal mind; they are not the eternal realities of Mind.

Absurd oracles

78:6 How unreasonable is the belief that we are wearing out life and hastening to death, and that at the same time we are communing with immortality!

78:9 If the departed are in rapport with mor- tality, or matter, they are not spiritual, but must still be mortal, sinning, suffering, and dying. Then why 78:12 look to them - even were communication possible - for proofs of immortality, and accept them as oracles? Com- munications gathered from ignorance are pernicious in 78:15 tendency.

Spiritualism with its material accompaniments would destroy the supremacy of Spirit. If Spirit pervades all 78:18 s.p.a.ce, it needs no material method for the transmission of messages. Spirit needs no wires nor electricity in order to be omnipresent.

Spirit intangible

78:21 Spirit is not materially tangible. How then can it communicate with man through electric, material effects?

How can the majesty and omnipotence of 78:24 Spirit be lost? G.o.d is not in the medley where matter cares for matter, where spiritism makes many G.o.ds, and hypnotism and electricity are claimed 78:27 to be the agents of G.o.d's government.

Spirit blesses man, but man cannot ”tell whence it cometh.” By it the sick are healed, the sorrowing are 78:30 comforted, and the sinning are reformed. These are the effects of one universal G.o.d, the invisible good dwelling in eternal Science.

Thought regarding death

79:1 The act of describing disease - its symptoms, locality, and fatality - is not scientific. Warning people against 79:3 death is an error that tends to frighten into death those who are ignorant of Life as G.o.d.

Thousands of instances could be cited of health restored 79:6 by changing the patient's thoughts regarding death.

Fallacious hypotheses

A scientific mental method is more sanitary than the use of drugs, and such a mental method produces perma- 79:9 nent health. Science must go over the whole ground, and dig up every seed of error's sow- ing. Spiritualism relies upon human beliefs and hy- 79:12 potheses. Christian Science removes these beliefs and hypotheses through the higher understanding of G.o.d, for Christian Science, resting on divine Principle, not on ma- 79:15 terial personalities, in its revelation of immortality, intro- duces the harmony of being.

Jesus cast out evil spirits, or false beliefs. The Apostle 79:18 Paul bade men have the Mind that was in the Christ.

Jesus did his own work by the one Spirit. He said: ”My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” He never de- 79:21 scribed disease, so far as can be learned from the Gospels, but he healed disease.

Mistaken methods

The unscientific pract.i.tioner says: ”You are ill. Your 79:24 brain is overtaxed, and you must rest. Your body is weak, and it must be strengthened. You have nervous prostration, and must be treated for it.”

79:27 Science objects to all this, contending for the rights of in- telligence and a.s.serting that Mind controls body and brain.

Divine strength

Mind-science teaches that mortals need ”not be weary 79:30 in well doing.” It dissipates fatigue in doing good. Giving does not impoverish us in the service of our Maker, neither does withholding enrich us.

80:1 We have strength in proportion to our apprehension of the truth, and our strength is not lessened by giving 80:3 utterance to truth. A cup of coffee or tea is not the equal of truth, whether for the inspiration of a sermon or for the support of bodily endurance.

A denial of immortality

80:6 A communication purporting to come from the late Theodore Parker reads as follows: ”There never was, and there never will be, an immortal spirit.”

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