Part 9 (2/2)
You entertain an adipose belief of yourself as substance; [5]
whereas, substance means more than matter: it is the glory and permanence of Spirit: it is that which is hoped for but unseen, that which the material senses cannot take in. Have you never been so preoccupied in thought when moving your body, that you did this with- [10]
out consciousness of its weight? If never in your waking hours, you have been in your night-dreams; and these tend to elucidate your day-dream, or the mythical nature of matter, and the possibilities of mind when let loose from its own beliefs. In sleep, a sense of the body ac- [15]
companies thought with less impediment than when awake, which is the truer sense of being. In Science, body is the servant of Mind, not its master: Mind is supreme. Science reverses the evidence of material sense with the spiritual sense that G.o.d, Spirit, is the only [20]
substance; and that man, His image and likeness, is spiritual, not material. This great Truth does not de- stroy but substantiates man's ident.i.ty,-together with his immortality and preexistence, or his spiritual co- existence with his Maker. That which has a beginning [25]
must have an ending.
_What should one conclude as to Professor Carpenter's_ _exhibitions of mesmerism?_
That largely depends upon what one accepts as either useful or true. I have no knowledge of mesmerism, [30]
[Page 48.]
practically or theoretically, save as I measure its demon- [1]
strations as a false belief, and avoid all that works ill. If mesmerism has the power attributed to it by the gentle- man referred to, it should neither be taught nor practised, but should be conscientiously condemned. One thing [5]
is quite apparent; namely, that its so-called power is despotic, and Mr. Carpenter deserves praise for his public exposure of it. If such be its power, I am opposed to it, as to every form of error,-whether of ignorance or fanaticism, prompted by money-making or malice. It [10]
is enough for me to know that animal magnetism is neither of G.o.d nor Science.
It is alleged that at one of his recent lectures in Bos- ton Mr. Carpenter made a man drunk on water, and then informed his audience that he could produce the [15]
effect of alcohol, or of any drug, on the human system, through the action of mind alone. This honest declara- tion as to the animus of animal magnetism and the pos- sible purpose to which it can be devoted, has, we trust, been made in season to open the eyes of the people to the [20]
hidden nature of some tragic events and sudden deaths at this period.
_Was ever a person made insane by studying meta-_ _physics?_
Such an occurrence would be impossible, for the [25]
proper study of Mind-healing would cure the insane.
That persons have gone away from the Ma.s.sachusetts Metaphysical College ”made insane by Mrs. Eddy's teachings,” like a hundred other stories, is a baseless fabrication offered solely to injure her or her school. [30]
The enemy is trying to make capital out of the follow-
[Page 49.]
ing case. A young lady entered the College cla.s.s who, [1]
I quickly saw, had a tendency to monomania, and re- quested her to withdraw before its close. We are cred- ibly informed that, before entering the College, this young lady had manifested some mental unsoundness, [5]
and have no doubt she could have been restored by Christian Science treatment. Her friends employed a h.o.m.opathist, who had the skill and honor to state, as his opinion given to her friends, that ”Mrs. Eddy's teach- ings had not produced insanity.” This is the only case [10]
that could be distorted into the claim of insanity ever having occurred in a cla.s.s of Mrs. Eddy's; while ac- knowledged and notable cases of insanity have been cured in her cla.s.s.
_If all that is mortal is a dream or error, is not_ [15]
_our capacity for formulating a dream, real; is it not_ _G.o.d-made; and if G.o.d-made, can it be wrong, sinful, or_ _an error?_
The spirit of Truth leads into all truth, and enables man to discern between the real and the unreal. Enter- [20]
taining the common belief in the opposite of goodness, and that evil is as real as good, opposes the leadings of the divine Spirit that are helping man G.o.dward: it pre- vents a recognition of the nothingness of the dream, or belief, that Mind is in matter, intelligence in non-intel- [25]
ligence, sin, and death. This belief presupposes not only a power opposed to G.o.d, and that G.o.d is not All- in-all, as the Scriptures imply Him to be, but that the capacity to err proceeds from G.o.d.
That G.o.d is Truth, the Scriptures aver; that Truth [30]
never created error, or such a capacity, is self-evident;
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