A vacant domicile
478:3 What evidence of Soul or of immortality have you
within mortality? Even according to the teachings of
natural science, man has never beheld Spirit
478:6 or Soul leaving a body or entering it. What
basis is there for the theory of indwelling spirit, except
the claim of mortal belief? What would be thought of
478:9 the declaration that a house was inhabited, and by a cer-
tain class of persons, when no such persons were ever seen
to go into the house or to come out of it, nor were they
478:12 even visible through the windows? Who can see a soul
in the body?
Harmonious functions
/Question/. - Does brain think, and do nerves feel, and
478:15 is there intelligence in matter?
/Answer/. - No, not if God is true and mortal man a
liar. The assertion that there can be pain or pleasure
478:18 in matter is erroneous. That body is most
harmonious in which the discharge of the nat-
ural functions is least noticeable. How can intelligence
478:21 dwell in matter when matter is non-intelligent and
brain-lobes cannot think? Matter cannot perform the
functions of Mind. Error says, "I am man;" but this
478:24 belief is mortal and far from actual. From beginning
to end, whatever is mortal is composed of material hu-
man beliefs and of nothing else. That only is real which
478:27 reflects God. St. Paul said, "But when it pleased God,
who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me
by His grace, . . . I conferred not with flesh and blood."
Immortal birthright
478:30 /Mortal man/ is really a self-contradictory phrase, for
man is not mortal, "neither indeed can be;" man is im-
479:1 mortal. If a child is the offspring of physical sense and
not of Soul, the child must have a material, not a spirit-
479:3 ual origin. With what truth, then, could the
Scriptural rejoicing be uttered by any mother,
"I have gotten a man from the Lord"? On the con-
479:6 trary, if aught comes from God, it cannot be mortal and
material; it must be immortal and spiritual.
Matter's supposed selfhood
Matter is neither self-existent nor a product of Spirit.
479:9 An image of mortal thought, reflected on the retina, is
all that the eye beholds. Matter cannot see,
feel, hear, taste, nor smell. It is not self-
479:12 cognizant, - cannot feel itself, see itself, nor
understand itself. Take away so-called mortal mind,
which constitutes matter's supposed selfhood, and matter
479:15 can take no cognizance of matter. Does that which we
call dead ever see, hear, feel, or use any of the physical
senses?
Chaos and darkness
479:18 "In the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and
darkness was upon the face of the deep."
479:21 (Genesis i. 1, 2.) In the vast forever, in the
Science and truth of being, the only facts are Spirit
and its innumerable creations. Darkness and chaos
479:24 are the imaginary opposites of light, understanding,
and eternal harmony, and they are the elements of
nothingness.