THE THIRD LESSON
Nearly two months had passed since the evening of the last Bible lesson.
Walter was so interested in studying the Bible and "Science and Health,"
that he did not notice the dreary winter days. Besides, he was gaining
very rapidly in strength and flesh to the great joy of his parents.
His mother had some time ago noticed that he did not take his medicine,
and spoke to him about it. He answered her in a very positive, but
gentle tone, "No, mother, I am not taking any medicine and never intend
to take any more, for I am now depending entirely on God, and He is
making me well."
His mother had asked him when he had stopped taking it, and he said,
"I determined never again to take medicine the night I realized the
unreality of sickness, as it would be very foolish to take medicine
to cure me of something which in reality did not exist." Both his
father and mother tried to persuade him to continue taking his medicine,
as they believed his improvement was due to this last kind he had been
taking.
Walter knew better, so had said, "Please allow me to leave off taking
it for a short time, and if I do not continue to improve, I will start
taking it again to please you."
It had been left that way, although his parents were averse to his
stopping at the very time he seemed to be gaining. They watched him
closely, but he continued to improve so steadily and rapidly, that
taking medicine had not been mentioned to him again. His mother
continued taking hers, but showed no improvement.
Many times Walter asked his father when he would take up their Bible
lessons again; but his father never seemed ready. He noticed that his
father always seemed to be in a very thoughtful mood. The boy knew
what was the cause of it, and several times had tried to engage his
father in conversation regarding creation or some other part of the
Bible, as he desired to point out the truth to him. But his father
always dropped the subject as soon as possible, nor had he preached
his sermon on creation as he had promised.
The pastor daily studied his Bible and was taking copious notes as he
read, but did not seem to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. Many
times he wondered at the little things Walter would say about the
Bible, and on several occasions he had made up his mind to ask him
some questions, but he disliked to let the boy know of his own inability
to understand the Bible. He wondered if his wife was right in regard
to the boy's being inspired. How else could he account for some of the
things Walter said. On several occasions he had taken the trouble to
prove his assertions, and found to his surprise that the Bible easily
substantiated what the boy had said.
This was the state of affairs on a January afternoon when the pastor
said to himself, "come what will, I am going to continue those Bible
lessons this evening. What Walter said brought me into this darkness
and confusion and it is possible he may say something that will show
me the light."
That evening at supper the pastor surprised his wife and son by saying,
"If it is agreeable to you both, we will continue our Bible lessons
this evening."
They readily assented, and as soon as Mrs. Williams had finished her
work, they repaired to the library.
As soon as they were seated the pastor said, "Well, Walter, have you
changed your mind in regard to which of the two narratives regarding
creation is the correct one?"
"No, father, I have not. I have put considerable more study on that
subject since our last lesson, and I am now fully satisfied and
convinced that the view expressed in regard to the first narrative
being the true one is correct."
"Walter, I believe you are right. I have been studying and thinking
all of these two months, and have come to the same conclusion regarding
creation. Yet in no way have I been able to explain away all these
material things and this material body."
"James, have you come to the conclusion that everything is spiritual?"
asked his wife.
"Yes, Lillian, for there are only two conclusions to arrive at, either
God is the creator spoken of in the first narrative where everything
was made by the Word, or spiritually, and is pronounced very good, or
else God is the creator spoken of in the second narrative and therefore
He would be the creator of all this evil, sickness, sin, and death,
with all the other dire calamities we are subjected to. And since I
have thought and studied on this question, I cannot conceive of our
Heavenly Father being the cause of all our troubles, who are His
children, any more than I would bring such a visitation on my family.
So of the two, I prefer believing that God made everything good as
described in the first narrative, as it is impossible to believe both,
for they are direct opposites. What bothers me is this material body
and everything else that is material."
"Father, I believe I can throw some light on that subject if you will
allow me."
His father looked at him for a moment, undecided whether to ask him
to explain or not, for his last explanation had caused all his
confusion, yet, as he thought of it, he now agreed with that
explanation. Maybe the boy was inspired and he was doing wrong in not
hearing what he had to say. Anyway, his getting well without the use
of doctors or drugs was little short of a miracle to him, so he decided
to have him explain, and said, "I will hear what you have to say on
this subject, Walter, but be careful not to say anything ridiculous."
Walter smiled; he had learned a lesson the time he made his explanation
regarding creation, and he did not intend that his enthusiasm should
cause him to say too much this time and thereby make the same mistake
he had made before. So he simply asked his father a question. "Did not
everybody think the earth was flat years ago?"
"Yes, Walter, but what has that to do with our material bodies?"
"Did everybody believe it, father?"
"Certainly, for they did not know different"
"Did their thinking so make it so?"
"Most assuredly not, as you well know, Walter, the earth was always
round."
"And even though they believed this mistake regarding the earth, it
did not change the earth any, did it, father?" "No, but why these
questions?"
"Only this, father, that this is just what we have been long doing
regarding our bodies, thinking that they were material and believing
it, but our mistaken thought regarding our bodies has not in reality
changed them, any more than the thought that the earth was flat changed
the earth. It seemed flat to those who believed it flat, though the
truth was that the earth was round in reality. So with our bodies;
they are material to us who believe them so, but in truth or reality,
they are spiritual."
"I can readily agree with you in regard to the earth, because we know
that it always was round, but we cannot prove that the body is
spiritual."
"That is just the point, father. We can readily admit that the earth
is round after it has been proven so; still before this proof was
furnished the people would not admit it, any more than we will admit
that our bodies are spiritual. Nevertheless the earth was round before
it was proven so, and so with the body being spiritual. The proof of
its spirituality does not change it any, as it will always remain as
God made it, regardless of what man thinks or believes about it,
nevertheless, Jesus Christ on several occasions proved the body to be
spiritual and the proof that He done so is contained in the Bible, He
also said 'Blessed are they who believe and do not see.'"
"I know Jesus Christ said that, but that was about something entirely
different. You could hardly want me to believe something I could not
see or prove, for you know, Walter, the old saying is that seeing is
believing."
Walter immediately thought of what "Science and Health" said on this
subject, so he said, "Can we always believe what we see?"
"Yes, I think so, son."
"Father, if you were to look out of this window to-morrow morning you
would see in the distance where the heaven and earth seemed to meet;
would you believe they did?"
"Certainly not, for I know better."
"Still you say, seeing is believing." His father leaned back in his
chair and regarded his son critically; was the boy inspired? How else
could he account for his intelligence? What was he to hear next, should
he ask any more questions? Yes, he would ask him something more about
this material body: "Walter is there anything in the Bible that you
know of wherewith to substantiate your claim of a spiritual body?"
"I think there is, father. Jesus Christ must have known that his body
was spiritual, and not material, for if his body had been material he
could not have walked on the water, and in several places it speaks
of Jesus becoming invisible to those around him."
"I know, son, but Jesus Christ was the Son of God."
"That is true, father, so are we, I distinctly remember reading in St.
John--'now are we the sons of God.' St. Paul also speaks of us as sons
of God and joint heirs with Christ."
The Rev. Williams slowly closed the Bible he had been holding open on
his knee and looked at his son. Where would this thing end? He must
try and confine the boy to one thing at a time, so he said, "I am still
in the dark concerning your idea of how the material body came to be."
"Father, I will quote you again from the Bible--'as a man thinketh
in his heart, so is he' This means that if you think anything, no
matter what, and believe what you think, then so it is with you, and
it seems true to you. For instance, take a person that is demented,
who imagines he is King George, and believes it; to himself he is king
George and no one can make him believe otherwise."
"That may be true of one who is demented, but how about a sane person?"
"This person may be sane on every topic but that one. Still I will
give you another illustration of what the wrong thought on any subject
will do. I read a while ago about some college students who decided
to play a joke on their professor. This professor had several blocks
to walk to the college, and the students decided to place themselves
at frequent intervals along his path, and each one was to comment on
how badly he looked, and intimate to him that he was sick. So on a
certain morning as the professor was walking to the college (and he
was feeling as well as usual), the first person he met was one of the
students who greeted him warmly with a hearty 'good morning' and then
added, 'What is the matter, professor, are you sick?' The professor
said, 'No, I am feeling as well as usual; why do you ask?' The student
then told him he looked very pale, and that he thought he must surely
be sick. The professor then assured the student that he was feeling
well and started toward the college. The next student he met also told
him he looked sick; this was repeated several times, and caused the
professor to imagine there must be something wrong. After meeting
several more of the jokers he began to think he must be sick. Then
being told the same thing a few more times, he believed he was sick,
or believed what he thought, and turned back home a very sick man. So
it is with us, we think we have material bodies, and because we believe
what we think, it makes it seem true to us, even though it is not the
truth."
"A very good illustration, Walter, I think I understand what you mean.
If we all thought our bodies were spiritual and believed what we
thought, then our bodies would be spiritual; in other words, whichever
way we thought and believed, so it would really be."
"No father, that is not quite right. Simply thinking you are sick or
well and believing it does not make you sick, or well, in reality; it
only seems to do it to our mistaken mortal sense of things; the truth
of anything remains the truth, regardless of how many falsehoods are
told about it."
"Am I to understand Walter, that no matter what I or others may think
or believe about this body, it does not change the facts regarding it,
but only seems to do so to our senses?"
"That is just what I mean. God made us in His image and likeness, and
as He is Spirit we must be like Him or spiritual, for matter is not
the likeness of Spirit, but its opposite."
"That seems quite reasonable, Walter," said his mother, "but this
material body is here, I can see it and feel it."
"It only seems to be material, mother, because we take our information
from our five material senses; and as these five senses can only testify
regarding material things because of their materiality, they do not
testify to the truth, or reality, of man and the universe."
"But Walter," said the pastor, "if I am not to believe the testimony
of my five senses, how am I to know anything?"
"The five material senses are continually deceiving us. The sense of
sight I have spoken of before, but will give you a different
illustration that shows up the deception of all the senses." "Father,
do you believe life to be a reality?"
"I certainly do."
"Can you see life?"
"I hardly know how to answer that, I can see that you are alive. No,
I shall say we can not see life itself, but only the manifestation of
life."
"I agree with you, father, we cannot see life itself. Can we hear
life?"
"No."
"Can we touch life?"
"No."
"Can we smell life?"
"No."
"Can we taste life?"
"No."
"Then our five material senses do not testify anything regarding a
reality, for you said life was a reality." The pastor and his wife
were very much surprised at Walter's ability to explain these things,
and his mother was fully convinced of his being inspired, and the
father was fast coming to the same conclusion.
"Did you understand me, father?"
"Yes, fully, you made it very plain."
"Now, father, would you say that the opposite of a reality was an
unreality?"
The pastor hesitated, hardly daring to answer; at length he said, "Yes,
it must be."
"Is not death the opposite of life, father?"
"Yes, Walter."
"Then if life is real, its opposite, or death, must be unreal; can you
agree with me, father?" He always addressed his father, for his mother
was showing by the nod of her head that she fully agreed with him."
"I must say, Walter, that I do agree with you, to quite an extent;
but, I shall have to think it all over carefully before I will be fully
convinced."
Walter then continued: "We have found that the five senses do not
testify regarding a reality, now let us see if they testify regarding
an unreality. As we had agreed that death was the opposite of life and
that life was real and death unreal, we will take death as our example.
When a person dies, we say life, or the reality has flown, and the
unreality, the material or dead body, remains. Do our five material
senses testify anything regarding this unreality or dead body? Yes,
all five of them, for we can see this unreality with the eye. If we
move this unreality, we hear it move with the ear. If we reach forth
our hand we can touch it. After decomposition sets in, we can smell
it; and if we would put a piece of it into our mouth, as we do of the
dead cow or bird, we could even taste this unreality. This ought to
convince us of the unreliability of the knowledge transmitted to us
by the five senses; for, as I have shown, they all say the unreal is
real and that the real is unreal. St. Paul said, 'To be carnally minded
is death, and to be spiritually minded is life eternal.'"
"I know that St. Paul said this, but do not see as it has any bearing
on the question we are discussing," said the pastor. "On the contrary,
father, I think it is a verification of what I have been illustrating."
"Can you explain what you mean, Walter, so your mother and I will
understand?"
"To me it seems plain, the carnal mind is the fleshly mind, which
thinks everything is material; and this method of thinking leads to
the belief in a material body and eventually in the death, or unreality,
of this material body, the returning of the fleshly body to its original
state, dust to dust, the real meaning of which I think is, nothing you
were, to nothing you must return, for only the real is eternal."
"Walter, where do you get that definition of the word dust?"
"I take it from what is implied in the 2d chapter of Genesis, 7th
verse, where it reads, '_And the Lord God formed man of the dust of
the ground_'; as there is no record of any dust having been made,
it is very easy to see that dust must be the name given to designate
something that exists only in our imagination, a false sense of the
real, an illusion, and this 'Lord God' the suppositional creator of
material things, is the false or material sense of God entertained by
us mortals, and only exists in our imagination. I believe our prayers
are unanswered for this very reason that the God we have been praying
to exists in our imagination only and is a man-made God, or, as I said
before, a God conceived by man."
"Not so fast, Walter; let us finish one thing at a time. Your
explanation of the dust man is very reasonable, but I don't see where
you get your authority for calling dust an unreality, or illusion."
"Father, I thought we had agreed that there was a hidden, or spiritual,
meaning to all that was written in the Bible, and I think what I have
said about this dust or material man is this meaning; take for instance,
the first verse of chapter 3 of Genesis, which reads, _'Now the serpent
was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had
made, and he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said ye shall not eat of
every tree of the garden.'_ Now, father, who ever heard of a talking
snake. No one. It is only a myth, and I believe this snake was used to
symbolize the narrator's idea of evil, tempting the children of God,
Good, to do evil.
"Another illustration that this second narrative is metaphorically
written is in Genesis 2, 9th verse, which reads: _'And out of the
ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the
sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the
garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.'_ We can readily
agree that there is no tree that bears fruit called good and evil, so
this word 'tree' is used metaphorically, and stands for something quite
different."
Here Walter stopped and looked at his father to see what effect his
speech was having on him, also because he thought he had said enough
for one time. But his father was leaning slightly forward and had been
drinking in every word the boy was saying, as he was fully convinced
that his son did not of himself know all these things about the Bible,
and, consequently, it must be that he was inspired.
The mother had the same opinion, so did not care to interrupt him.
Walter continued looking from one to the other not knowing what to
make of their silence and the knowing look which passed between them,
as he did not know that they thought him inspired.
At length the father, said, "Walter, do you know what is meant by the
word 'tree' in that verse?"
"I think I do, father; to me it stands for the word, 'thought,' for
this seems to bring out the spiritual meaning of the verse; for
instance, if we would read the verse this way, 'Every thought that is
pleasant to the sight, i. e., understanding, and good for food, the
thought of life also in the midst of the garden and the thought or
belief in good and evil'; this may not be correct, but it at least
makes it plain to me. And when we remember that Adam and Eve were
allowed to eat of all the trees excepting this tree of knowledge of
good and evil, it seems to me that they were forbidden to believe that
both good and evil were real, in other words, to believe that both
spirit and matter existed; for as soon as they would eat or believed
in materiality the penalty would be death, as they were believing in
something that did not in reality exist. This false belief must in the
end inevitably result in death or annihilation, as it is this false
belief of life as existent in matter, or material body, that dies and
is annihilated, for the real or spiritual man cannot die."
"What do you mean by spiritual man?"
"The Bible says: 'God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent.' Let us
define this word omniscient. In a common sense way, 'omni' means all,
and 'scientia' means science, then it would be proper to say, 'God is
all science, and science is perfect intelligence,' for the scientific
reality concerning anything, is the perfect intelligence pertaining
thereto. We can now say, 'God is all intelligence,' the word 'all'
includes our intelligence, then God is the intelligence, the thinking
ability, or mind, of man."
"Walter, do you wish to intimate that the brain is God?"
"No, father, the brain cannot think."
"Walter, this is nonsense, of course the brain thinks, we certainly
do not think with our hands or feet."
"Just a moment, father, and we will see if the brain has the ability
to think. Supposing we take it out and lay it on a platter, does it
think?" "Certainly not, it is not in its proper place," said his father.
"It seems to me, that if the brain had the ability in itself to think,
it could do so no matter what place it occupied."
"No, Walter, that would not be a fair illustration."
"All right father, we will now take another example. Say a man should
drop dead on the street from apoplexy; there lies his material body,
his brain occupies its accustomed place, not having been disturbed at
all, yet you would not say that his brain had the ability to think?"
"But the man was dead, life had flown," said Mr. Williams.
"Then it is Life that has in itself the ability to think, for everything
else is there, in its proper place, and what is the life of a man but
his consciousness, his intelligence, his mind. Now we have arrived at
the same point in our reasoning where we were before, that God is Mind,
intelligence, the Life of man, and that brains cannot think. You see,
father, the brain is also matter, the same as the rest of our material
body, that is, dust, or as I explained before, nothing; an illusion,
or false conception."
"Do you mean to say I have no body at all?"
"No, father, what I mean is that man has taken a false view of his
body by thinking it material when in reality it is spiritual, as is
all the rest of the universe; for God, Spirit could not make a material
world, as matter is the opposite of spirit."
The Rev. Mr. Williams leaned his head on his hand and was thinking
deeply. Could Walter's explanation be the truth? He could see when
what we called death occurred the consciousness, intelligence, or what
we called life, seemed to leave the body and thereafter the body was
inanimate, and in time returned to dust. Reasoning from this standpoint,
he could agree that life and intelligence were the same, and that the
intelligence of man was his mind was also plain, but that Mind was
God, was beyond his comprehension, because he had always conceived of
mind and brain as being the same, consequently, that the brain had the
power of thought. Yet Walter's explanation concerning the inability
of the brain, in the corpse, to think, and that it was as material as
the rest of the body was quite convincing that brain, in itself, did
not contain the power of thought. Was the boy right regarding the word
omniscient? If so, it would be very easy to agree with him when he
said that God was the intelligence or mind of man; he, himself, believed
in an all intelligent creator.
Walter all this while had been waiting for his father or mother to
express themselves, as they did not, he said: "If we can agree that
Mind is God, then it is very easy to conceive of man as the image and
likeness of God, and this image would be spiritual and not material."
His father looked up at him but did not speak. His mother said: "How
would that help it, Walter?"
"If we reason from the standpoint that Mind is the creative force or
first cause, and as we know that like produces like, it would be
impossible for the creative force, or Mind, to produce matter, for
matter is the opposite of mind. Now let us see what Mind does
create,--why thoughts or ideas and nothing else, so we see that man
is a thought, or a number of them, or idea emanating from the one Mind
or creative force and the idea or thought must be the image and likeness
of the mind or intelligence that conceived it. This would give us a
spiritual man, who in reality would be the image and likeness of the
real God."
"Walter," said his father, "I cannot stand to hear any more to-night,
I will not say that you are right or wrong, as I must have time to
think, and the more I hear you say, the more in the dark I seem to be,
besides it is getting quite late and it is time we were retiring."
"I hope you are not angry for my presuming to explain the Bible as I
see it, for I believe I am right; in fact, I have had proof sufficient
to convince me that it cannot be otherwise."
"No Walter, I am not angry, but very badly mixed up in my reasoning
because of the peculiar views you entertain concerning God and man.
What proof have you had that you are right?"
"Through these peculiar views as you call them, I am being restored
to health; in fact, I believe every symptom has gone forever, and that
I am entirely well, besides I feel so happy, contented, and free that
I can hardly wait for the day when mother will understand, and be free
from her bondage."
"If understanding will make her free I pray God that He will give her
such understanding, but I cannot see what connection understanding can
possibly have with sickness."
"You know, father, Jesus Christ said, 'Ye shall know the truth, and
the truth shall make you free.' The question is, free from what? For
the men He was speaking to answered Him saying: 'We be Abraham's seed
and were never in bondage to any man, how sayest thou then, ye shall
be free?' Jesus Christ answered them, 'Verily, verily I say unto you,
whosoever commiteth sin, is the servant of sin.' At another time as
related in Matthew 9:5, Jesus Christ intimated that sin and sickness
were one and the same. He said to the _sick_ man, 'Son, be of good
cheer, thy _sins_ are forgiven thee,' and certain of the scribes said,
'This man blasphemeth.' Jesus Christ, knowing what they were thinking
and saying, said, 'Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts, for whither
is easier to say, thy sins are forgiven thee or to say, arise and walk.'
If we can now agree that sin and sickness are the same, we could say
with Jesus Christ, 'Verily, verily I say unto you, whosoever commiteth
(sickness) sin, is the servant of sickness,' for we certainly are the
slaves of any sickness that we claim to have, and give it the power to
rule us with a rod of iron, and in doing so, we sin against the first
commandment, 'Thou shalt have no other Gods before me,' as we are making
a God or power of our sickness. And if we take medicine, we are giving
the medicine power to heal, or making a God of it, and in doing so we
break the same commandment. Now, father, good-night, and I hope by a
careful perusal of the Bible on this subject you will be able to agree
with me. Good-night, mother."
"Good-night, Walter," said both his father and mother, as he turned
to leave the room.
As soon as he was gone Mrs. Williams turned to the pastor and said:
"To-night you must surely agree with me that the boy is inspired."
The pastor looked up at her and said, "That is the only way I can
account for the wonderful things he says. I must admit he has gone far
beyond me, in his understanding of the Bible. I intend to put in the
next few days in verifying his explanations."
"James, do you think the boy can be right in regard to sickness and
sin being the same?"
"There is hardly any other conclusion to arrive at, if we believe the
words of Jesus Christ. Now let us go to bed, as it is quite late."