Page:Science and Health.djvu/178

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
174
SCIENCE AND HEALTH.

healing proved matter a fable; showing, despite the Rabbi's pride, his understanding of God exceeded theirs. Intelligence is the master of sickness and sin, else these are immortal, and evil equal to good. Away with the belief that something outside of himself, over which he has no control, makes man sick and a sinner, and finally kills him, but must stop here for it proposes to carry him no further than perdition. If man is hopelessly at the control of matter, of sin, and death, he is annihilated; for error is not immortal. But we have no faith in the necessity of sin, of sickness, or death, because God has no part in these. It is impossible to hide behind the plea, “I am not advanced to this science and higher understanding of Life, therefore I cannot triumph over sickness, sin, and death.” Then quicken your experiences, for your tardiness is without excuse. Every day and hour has its demands on man, saying, “where art thou? hast thou gained some conquest over error to-day, or resigned thyself more contentedly to its slavery?”

We do not stand still, but are moving forward or backward, as time glides on and the centuries repeat history. If not progressing, we must live over the past until its poor work is erased. If we are satisfied with being wrong, we must become dissatisfied with it; or if content with having done nothing, we must learn to loathe our leisure. Undoing, in time or eternity, the errors of sense, we learn to improve every opportunity to do our work well, and bring our bodies into subjection to Soul. This unwinding one's ways, learning from experience, and partitioning between error and Truth, means something. Nothing short of the suffer-