Page:Miscellaneous Writings.djvu/376

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350
MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS

my own contributions. I hold receipts for $1,489.50 paid in, and the balance was never receipted for.

I temporarily organized a secret society known as the P. M., the workings whereof were not “terrible and too shocking to relate.” By and with advice of the very student who brings up the question of this society, it was formed. The P. M. (Private Meeting) Society met only twice. The first subject given out for consideration was this: “There is no Animal Magnetism.” There was no advice given, no mental work, and there were no transactions at those meetings which I would hesitate to have known. On the contrary, our deliberations were, as usual, Christian, and like my public instruction. The second P. M. convened in about one week from the first. The subject given out at that meeting was, in substance, “God is All; there is none beside Him.” This proved to be our last meeting. I dissolved the society, and we have not met since. If harm could come from the consideration of these two topics, it was because of the misconception of those subjects in the mind that handled them. An individual state of mind sometimes occasions effects on patients which are not in harmony with Science and the soundness of the argument used. Hence it prevents the normal action, and the benefit that would otherwise accrue.

I issue no arguments, and cause none to be used in mental practice, which consign people to suffering. On the contrary, I cannot serve two masters; therefore I teach the use of such arguments only as promote health and spiritual growth. My life, consecrated to humanity through nameless suffering and sacrifice, furnishes its own proof of my practice.