"'Think well, thou too wilt find that space is but a mode of our human sense, so likewise Time. There is no space and no time. We are—we know not what; light sparkles floating in the ether of Deity. So this so solid seeming world, were, after all, but an air-image—our me the only reality.'
"This me is the spiritual self, the individual idea of God, His image and likeness.
"What then, about this body, which is not spiritual, you ask? What about the material universe?
"Wait a moment. Think of the premise. As God the invisible is the changeless, what is the variable, fleeting, visible unreality? The real is everlasting, the unreal is transitory. The real is called Spirit, the unreal matter.
"What is Spirit? The underlying omnipresent substance that we call God.
"What is matter? The counterfeit, shadow, emblem, showing that Spirit exists or is.
"We read in a very ancient Hindoo Scripture: 'Those who have understanding, whose thought is pure, see the entire universe as the picture of Thy wisdom;' and the thoughtful Carlyle said: 'All visible things are emblems.... Matter represents some idea and bodies it forth.'
"These thoughts are in perfect accord with the principles laid down in our premise, hence we find that as we believe matter, believe the body to be the real creation, we are believing a falsity. This is the idol we are worshiping instead of the true and only God. The grand visible universe in which we see so many beauties, so many charms, is but the mighty object lesson before us by which we may learn of the infinite, invisible All. As Theodore Parker said: 'The universe itself is a great autograph of the Almighty.'
"The characters used in mathematics do not constitute the science but merely represent to the senses the invisible ideas of the principle of mathematics. The visible does not constitute the invisible, but may carry its messages as we learn to read its poetic and mystic pages. The visible speaks to the mortal nature, but the invisible beyond and above, speaks to the immortal nature.
"Since we find matter to be so totally opposite the real, there is no other name for it than as the unreal, and the unreal being a counterfeit of the real, must be a lie, as the nature of a lie is to make false claims, pretending they are true.