"If we concede the Creator, God, to be omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent, the only Power there is, perfect, unchangeable and eternal, we must necessarily concede that all which He creates is good, and must remain so because everything connected with, emanating from, or similar to Him is, and must be like Him in quality and essence.
"The true man is spiritual, perfect like his Father, and can only be subject to perfect conditions. If we continually and persistently recognize the true creation which is invisible, we make manifest the perfect conditions in the sign of the true, which is the visible. In doing this, we are, in the most essential sense, acknowledging God, worshiping the one Deity.
"Because we have so long recognized the other powers we have become idolators, and must now turn back to the only true God. 'If thou return to the almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles.... For thou shalt have thy delight in the almighty and shalt lift up thy face unto God.'
"We have become filled with false beliefs, because we have judged according to appearances, and hence drawn false conclusions. How can we know spiritual truth without spiritual knowledge? How can we have spiritual knowledge without spiritual perception; how can we have spiritual perception without recognizing Spirit, Substance, God, as the supreme Essence back of all visible forms?
"This is the fundamental principle of healing—this recognition of spiritual being and spiritual law. Grasping only the surface meaning of this grand truth, we recognize and admire the mental power which produces cures, hence it is frequently called mind-cure, because, through the agency of mind, the cure is wrought, as we say, water-cure or sun-cure for the same reason; but as we proceed in the study, we will go beyond an intellectual to a spiritual perception of what is meant by met-a-physical, which pertains not only to a science of mental phenomena, but the science of real being, and has to do with the spiritual or real self of man.
"Now John, if you don't understand, just wait and study, for really we must study these statements, without prejudice, too, for that is the only way, and of course we cannot expect to understand at once. The great essential is to keep uppermost the desire for truth, but I need not tell you that, for what an earnest truth-seeker you are, nobody knows better than myself.
"This is the best I can do toward giving the first lesson, but you must think well upon it and get a good foundation laid for what is to come next. This science is to be developed rather than learned.
"I want to put in every moment I can get for study, so must close. Hand this to Kate and Grace. I do hope they will be interested.
"Tell me all about your progress, and the precious little ones—how are they?
"Your loving Marion."