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Topic: Quimby Manuscripts Section: Chapter 14 - Christ or Science, part 2 of 5 Table of Contents to this Topic |
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LOVE, II The identity of woman's soul can be compared to a fire, which throws an equal heat on all around. This heat is pure love, containing no knowledge, no selfishness, but is like the love of a mother for her child. This love is little understood, and causes doubts and questionings. It is an element of itself, containing no matter and asks nothing in return. Ignorance and superstition put false construction on this love, and think intelligence is contained in it. Its language is itself. It speaks not as man speaks, for it contains no error. It answers our inquiry by an impression which cannot be misunderstood, if man knows himself. This love is what leads man to truth. When I speak of man, I speak of the errors and ignorance of the world, and the heat that arises from this error contains the character of its author. When these two elements meet, which I will call man and woman, then comes the temptation, and as love never makes war for gain, it knows no evil. As error contains selfishness, dishonesty, jealousy, and disease, it cannot see truth or love in any element differing from its own, it therefore judges others by its own standard. This element, when excited by love to lead us to truth contains all kinds of disease and error. All mankind embrace both elements, and the separation is the resurrection from error into truth. As we learn the truth, we discard the error. True knowledge is in true love. False knowledge is in error. As God is in the former, He contains no matter. As man is the latter, he is made up of truth and error. Now as there is a gradual progression from error to Wisdom, our identities act in the two elements of pure and combined love; for man has two elements, and is subject to the one which he obeys. The question arises, Are these elements capable of separation? I answer, yes, by the mother for her infant, but not understandingly. She was a law to herself, and did the things contained in the law, without a knowledge of that law.-Dec. 1859. HOW DR. QUIMBY CURES Every phenomenon in the natural world has its birth in the spiritual world.(1) The world gives credit where it is not due, mistaking noise for substance. No man should have any credit over his fellow men unless he shows some superiority over the errors of his age. To show that he is superior is to reduce to a science some phenomenon which has never been explained, music for an example. Before music was reduced to a science there was a phenomenon. People could whistle and sing, but no one supposed that the one who made the most noise was entitled to any credit above the rest. Credit was due to him who first reduced it to a science. (1) A cardinal proposition with Dr. Quimby. Take diseases. The world is full of sickness, arising from various causes,-the phenomenon exists in the natural world, while the causes originate in an invisible world. Doctoring is confined to the natural world, and [it attributes] the causes of the disease to the natural world. Dr. Quimby, with his clairvoyant faculty, gets knowledge in regard to the phenomena, which does not come through his natural senses, and by explaining it to the patient, gives [another] direction to the mind, and the explanation is the science or cure. To illustrate: suppose a patient calls on Dr. Q. for examination. No questions are asked on either side. They sit down together. He has no knowledge of the patient's feelings through his natural senses, till after having placed his mind upon them. Then he becomes perfectly passive, and the patient's mind being troubled [this] puts him into a clairvoyant state, together with his natural state, thus [he is in] two states at once; when he takes their feelings, accompanied by their state of mind and thoughts. A history of their trouble thus learned, together with the name of the disease, be relates [this] to the patient. This [state which he discerns] constitutes the disease and the evidences in the body are the effects of the belief. Not being afraid of the belief he is not afraid of the disease. The doctors take the bodily evidence as disease. Disease with him does not come to the natural senses, therefore he cannot explain to the well his mode of treatment. The well take no interest, and his theory is of no use to them. Then what use is it to the world? To give the sick such confidence that they will not be frightened by the opinions of the world, for disease is an imprudent opinion. He throws the [patient's] feelings off, and imparts his feelings (1) which are perfect health, and his explanation destroys their feelings or disease. His theory in this respect differing from any other, is the result of the success of his practice. Therefore when he is with the sick, they feel safe. He is like a captain who knows his business, and feels confident in a storm, and his confidence sustains the crew and ship when both would be lost if the captain should give way to his fears. Dr. Q. comes to the sick as a pilot to the captain of a ship in a storm or fog, when dangers thicken and inevitable destruction threatens. He learns the trouble from the captain, and quieting the crew by his composure inspires them with confidence, gives other di?rections, and brings them into harbor.-Jan. 1860. (1) That is, the silent spiritual realization of the Divine ideal. ANOTHER WORLD What did Jesus mean to convey when He said all men had gone out of the way, that there was none doing good, no not one? It is generally understoood that man had wandered away from God, and had become so sinful that he was in danger of eternal banishment from the presence of God, and unless he repented and returned to God, he would be banished from His presence forever. This being the state of mankind, God, seeing no way whereby man could be saved, gave His only Son as a ransom for the redemption of the world; or, God made Himself manifest in the flesh, and came into the world, suffered, and died, and rose again, to show us that we should all rise from the dead. This is the belief of most of the Christian world. Its opposers disbelieved all the above story but death. They can't help believing that man dies, and they have a belief that there will be some sort of hocus-pocus or chemical change, that the soul or spirit will jump out at death, and still have an existence somewhere. After the soul is set at liberty, it can go and stay just where it pleases. Others believe it goes to God, there to be in the presence of God, and be a saint and sing hallileujah forever. The above embraces all of mankind's belief, and in this belief people feel as though Jesus Christ was the author and finisher of their faith. These beliefs embrace all the horrors of a separation from this world, and a doubt whether man will obtain that world beyond this life. No person is in danger of this change but the sick, for if a person is well he can't be dead, and if he does not die, he is in no danger of heaven or hell, therefore to keep well you keep clear of both. This was just about the same belief that the people had before Christ began His reform. I will try to show that Jesus never taught one single idea of all the above, but condemned the whole as superstition and ignorance. He not only condemned the idea of a world independent of man, but proved that there was none by all His sayings and doings. He looks upon all the above theories or beliefs as false and tending to make men unhappy. These beliefs Jesus came to destroy, and established the Kingdom of God or Truth in this world. The two beliefs are in ourselves and we become the servant of the one we obey. The embracing Of the true Christ is the resurrection from the dead. The dead know nothing. To be dead in sin or ignorance is [to be in a state of] separation from God or Truth. To know God is to know ourselves, and this knowl?edge is Christ or Truth. What is the difference between Christ's belief, and the world's belief? Christ had no belief. His Kingdom was an everlasting Kingdom, without beginning or end. It is a Science based on eternal truth. It does not contain an opinion or belief. It is all knowledge and power, and will reign till all beliefs and error shall be destroyed. The last error or belief is death or ignorance, the Truth and Science will reign till ignorance is destroyed. Then the son or law shall be subject to God.-Jan. 1860. YOUR POSITION What is your position in regard to the world, or the errors of the world? You cannot embrace both. If you embrace the world you embrace its errors, and become a servant to its laws, and the spirit or truth departs to the God that gave it. But if you hold on to the Truth the world is in subjection to you, and instead of becoming a servant you become a teacher of Truth to the world, to lead other minds to the Truth. Instead of your happiness being in the world, the world's happiness is in you. Here is your true position, and this is the struggle you will have to go through. Shall the world lead you, or shall you lead the world? This is the point that is to be settled in your mind. Now I will give you the signs of the times. Many shall come in the name of the Truth, and say, do this, or do that ?music, dancing, and all sorts of amusements. But Truth says beware, be not deceived, seek first the truth, and all the above will be a pleasure to you. To know whether you are born of the truth, the truth shall show just your position in the world. Then you can take the lead, and the world will listen to you. Then the kingdom of this world has become subject to the kingdom of heaven, or error has become the subject of Truth. This is a trying scene to go through, it seems as though you must leave all the world's pleasure, and seclude yourself from society. But this is not the case; you will like society all the better. For where the carcass is there will all the eagles be gathered, so where error is, truth will go, to lead the captive free. This will make you love amusement for the sake of doing good. Then you will rejoice with those that rejoice and weep with those that weep, and your happiness will be their happiness. Then you will be loved and respected for your love or knowledge, then you will draw around you those minds that are in harmony with yours. Then will the old ideas or errors of the world come and knock at your door for admittance, but the truth will say, "Depart ye cursed, for when I wanted truth ye gave no answer, when ignorant or naked, you gave me no truth or clothes, therefore depart ye cursed, into everlasting darkness, where ignorance and error dwell."-Dec. 1359. MY THEORY All effects produced on the human frame are the result of a chemical change of the fluids with or without our knowledge, and all the varieties and changes are accompanied by a peculiar state of mind. If the mind should be directed to any particular organ, that organ might become deranged or might not. In either case the trouble is in the mind, for the body is only the house for the mind to dwell in, and we put a value on it according to its worth. Therefore if your mind has been deceived by some invisible enemy into a belief, you have put it into the form of a disease, with or without your knowledge. By my theory or truth I come in contact with your enemy, and restore you to your health and happiness. This I do partly mentally and partly by talking till I correct the wrong impressions and establish the Truth, and the Truth is the cure. I use no medicines of any kind, and make no applications. I am no spiritualist. . . . I am not dictated to by any living man, but am guided by the dictations of my own conscience, as a lawyer is in pleading a case governed by the evidence. A sick man is like a criminal cast into prison, for disobeying some law that man has set up, I plead his case, and if I get the verdict, the criminal is set at liberty. If I fail, I lore the case. His own judgment is his judge, his feelings are his evidence. If my explanation is satisfactory to the judge, you will give me the verdict. This ends the trial, and the patient is released. -Dec. 1859. ESTABLISHING A NEW SCIENCE What has a man to contend with who undertakes to es?tablish a new science? He has the opposition of all the opinions of the world in regard to it, and all their influence. He will be misunderstood by fools, and misrepresented by knaves, for [his science] will tear down their fortress or belief, and they will use all their skill and deception to defeat their enemy. Their weapon is their tongue, and the tongue of a hypocrite is of all weapons the most deadly to truth; for it can assume the form of an angel, while it is sapping your very life's blood from your soul. Its life and happiness are its own torment. Ever since the world began, Science has had this enemy to contend with, and some very hard battles have been fought before error would leave the field. Even when forced to retreat into darkness it would come out. . . . Therefore, science must keep awake for its own safety. These two powers are in every person, and each one's happiness or misery shows which one he is under subjection to. If well and happy, it is no proof that he has been through this war of science and arrived at the truth, but that from some cause, he is satisfied to become the friend of both powers. In this way he is a kind of know-nothing; but his position is not safe, for his enemy knows his position, and only lets him remain while he will keep still or quiet. What has Truth accomplished? A great deal. It has planted its standard in this battlefield. The standard of mathematics waves its banner to the truth. These monuments of Science, like Solomon's Temple, are the place where truth comes to worship, and the true priests are those who can teach these sciences understandingly, and the masses are those whose belief is founded on these teachers' opinions, without knowing the Science or Truth, but whose faith is pinned on another's opinion or sleeves. This credulity of the people prompts men to selfishness, and there arise false teachers, whose aim is to deceive the people and make themselves famous. They throw discredit on their ideas, and render them unpopular, so that if the same standard should be adopted by a true priest, he would have much opposition to meet with in the minds of those who have been deluded and imposed upon by hypocrites. This places a man in a very bad situation to defend himself, and all the influence he gets is from those he cures, and they dare not stand up and face the world and sustain their position, for it is so unpopular that their reputation is at stake. This is the state the two armies are in, when the leader plants his standard of Science with this inscription, The Science of True Religion is Health, Happiness, and Deliverance.-Dec. 1859. TWO SCIENCES There are two sciences, one of this world, and the other of a spiritual world, or two effects produced upon the mind or matter by two directions. The wisdom of this world acts in this way: It puts its own construction on all sensations produced in the mind, and establishes its knowledge after the effect is produced. For in a child feels a pain in its head, the child has no idea what it is, and if the mother is as ignorant of its origin as the child no effect of any moment is produced. But the wisdom of the world arrives in the form of a lady. She hears the account of the pain from the mother, and assuming a wise look gives her opinion in regard to the trouble, and says the child is threatened with dropsy of the brain, because she shows the same symptoms of another child who died of that disease. This account excites the mother, whose mind acts upon the child. The explanation of the wise lady gives direction to the mind, and presently the work commences to show that she is right. A doctor is called who is as wise as the lady, and not being willing to be outdone by her he puts in a few extras like congestion of the brain, says the lady was right but did not get the whole of the matter. So he has two chances after the child is killed to prove his superior wisdom over the lady. It sometimes happens that a controversy arises between the two parties, each trying to establish their own opinion so as to have the disease turn their way. In the meantime the patient is left to her own self and gets well. This is all the good result I ever saw from such a controversy. The patient is a mere tool in the hands of these blind guides who attempt to cure her. While this controversy is going on, seeing that all each party wants is to establish their own way, the mother sends for me in her dilemma. I arrive and a fire-brand is thrown in between the combatants. I contend that the child has no dropsy of the brain, but only some slight shock upon its mind, and quieting the child is all that is necessary for a cure. Here the controversy ends. If the mother employs me I prove my theory and the child gets well. If they prove theirs they kill the child, and an examination is made which establishes their theory, and I am a humbug or quack. If I take the case, and the child gets well, the child was not sick, only a little nervous.--Dec. 1859. CHRIST AND TRUTH Eighteen hundred years ago, while Jesus was disputing with the Pharisees upon the old scriptures, He asked the question, what do you think of Christ or this Truth? Has it a father, if so, who is be? They answer, "David," or this truth is David's ideas or theory. Jesus said, "If David is the father of this Christ (or theory, or ideas, or truth), why did he call it Lord, if it was his son?" 'Here they both admitted a truth independent of the natural man. The Pharisees believed it was the offspring of David, and therefore called it David's son or theory. Jesus knew it was not of this world, but of God or Truth, hence that it could be reduced to a Science. This has been the rock upon which the people have split. This is the thing to decide, whether there is a knowledge independent of man, or whether it is the offspring of an organized being. Jesus called this truth the Son of God. Peter called it Christ. The people's ignorance confounded the two together, and called it Jesus Christ. This last construction has given rise to all the religious wars and bloodshed since the Christian era. Decide this question and you shut the mouths of all the lions of the world. Now let us look at the controversy of the two parties. This makes the two worlds, ignorance the one, and Truth or Science the other. These two powers act upon every man. One is identified with the body and a part of it. Jesus gave some of the traits of that power when He said that it is of the earthly man, and when He said, "Out of the heart proceedeth all kinds of evil thoughts." These thoughts are matter, and are the result if error, superstition and ignorance, without any knowledge of God. Science is the opponent of the above, and as it accounts for all phenomena, ignorance is destroyed. Science has had to fight this battle with the world of error and ignorance before it could establish its standard, and take its position above the natural man. Then it is acknowledged and worshipped in spirit and in truth. Before it becomes a science it is under the law of ignorance and superstition, directed by blind guides leading the blind, through the knowledge of this world, and this wisdom Jesus calls foolishness with God (or Science). Now to separate these two, so that the wisdom of this world shall become subject to the knowledge of God, is not an easy task. Almost all who have ever tried to do so have lost their lives. I will not go back further than John the Baptist. John saw that the time was very near when his truth or Christ was to become a science, therefore he says, "As the truth is laid at the root or foundation of their theories, every tree or supposed science that cannot stand the test of true science must be hewn down." Therefore his belief was like water that could wash away some of their errors, but when the Truth or Holy Ghost should come than it would be reduced to a science. At this time Jesus had not received the Holy Ghost so as to explain it. Therefore He went with others to John to be baptized or hear John's ideas, and when Jesus asked John to explain to Him, John modestly replied, "I have need to be baptized or taught of you." Jesus declined explaining, so John then went on to tell his ideas or belief. Jesus entered into his water or belief, and understood it, and when He came out of the water, the Heavens were opened to Him alone, and the Holy Ghost descended like a dove and lit on Jesus and a voice said to Him alone, "This is my beloved Son (or Science), in whom I am well pleased." This Science had no name till Peter gave it the name of Christ, as an answer to the question put to him by Jesus-"Whom do the people say that I, this power, am ?"-Peter answered, "Some say, Moses, etc." Jesus then said, "Whom say you that I am?"-not Jesus, as is supposed, hut this power; for all the persons that Peter had named were dead, so of course Jesus did not include Himself, but His theory. Peter answered Him "Jesus, the Christ, the living God (or Science)." This Science he called Christ. Then Jesus said, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed this to you." It must have come from the same power that Jesus had. Therefore He said, "Upon this rock or truth I will build my church or theory, and the gates of error and superstition shall not prevail against it." This truth or Christ is what Jesus taught. This broke the locks and bars, opened the prison doors and let the captive free from the old superstition and ignorance. By this power He healed all manner of diseases, cast out devils, established health and happiness, brought peace and good will to man. This theory came in contact will all other theories, for there were false ones and Christ warned the people against them. He said there were false Christs and told them how to distinguish between the false and the true. Now as Jesus became popular with the people, the chief priests, and the doctors or scribes sought how to put Him down, and they tried in every way to catch Him. At one time while in the temple the chief priests and elders of the people came to ask by what authority He did these things. Jesus answered them by asking them a question which, if they answered, He would tell them how He performed His cures. The baptism of John, or his theory, was it from Heaven or of man? And they reasoned among themselves, saying, If we say, from Heaven, He will say, "Why then did ye not believe it?"-for they had killed John as a prophet. And so they answered, "We cannot tell." "Neither can I tell you how I do these things." As it never has been explained how Jesus did these things, the people have looked upon them as miracles. But to suppose Jesus performed a miracle is to suppose Him ignorant of the power He exercised, and if so He was just as much a quack as those He condemned; for He said, when accused of curing through ignorance or Beelzebub, "If I cast out devils through Beelzebub, my theory or kingdom cannot stand, but if I do it by Science, it is not of this world, but of God, and it will stand." Here He makes a difference between ignorance and knowledge. Again, if Jesus was ignorant of His power, and did not know how to explain it to others, why did He tell His disciples to go out in all the world and heal all manner of disease? If ignorant of what He said, and gave no explanation of His manner of curing, He was as ignorant as they. But I am certain that He knew more than His disciples could understand, and as soon as Jesus was crucified, the cures ceased to be done by a Science, but went back into the hands of priests and magicians, and have been a miracle ever since, and the Christ that. prompted Jesus' acts is not known at all. That Christ never did any doctoring, nor offered up prayers, nor creeds. It never belonged to this world, nor talked about any kind of religion. It talked itself. Itself was its life, and its life was the healing of the sick and distressed. It takes the feelings of the sick and knows their wants, and restores to them what the world has robbed them of. This is the Christ that was crucified eighteen hundred years ago. Now the only thing we hear is what was said about Him. Yet He is in the world but has no identity as a Science.-Jan. 1860. |
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