134

opinion regarding love; thus, each one worships a different God according to his opinion, while all claim to worship one and the same God, all holding an idea of a changeable love (God) while claiming to worship an unchangeable God. Therefore they worship they know not what.

Another might say I believe God is truth, so we will ask what is truth? One has this opinion of it, and another that, thus they all have different opinions of what truth is, else they do not know and cannot find out, and such a truth (God) they worship, not knowing what it is. Some believe that God is life, but when asked what life is, their only idea of it, is this life of man which is changeable, and over which death has control, while the scriptures declare God to be without shadow of turning.

The idea entertained by many, i. e., that it is impossible for man to know, understand or fully comprehend the Infinite, is only an opinion or belief upon which they rest, and

which is not truth. Jesus taught that we all could, and must know God; he said, "Of whom ye say, that he is your God; and ye have not known him; but I know him; and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be like unto you, a liar; but I know him and keep his word." And it is written, “For all shall know me, from the least to the greatest of them." Even St. Paul said, "If in this life, only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable." The church of to-day, has only hope in Christ, no belief (understanding) of him, and, as a body, are not its members diseased (sickly)?

Some believe that the people or saints in olden times were more imaginary and less scientific than people of the present time, for the reason that many things which are spoken of by them, we, to-day, cannot fathom, and we are so wise in our own conceit that we think what we do not understand could not possibly have any foundation; but we should bear in mind that they had a power

which we do not possess, and it was a power for good also, therefore, it is fair to presume that if we possessed that power we should understand many things with which they were evidently familiar, but which are now meaningless to us, and which we, in our boasted wisdom, have set aside as foolish

ness.

Many who accept the history of Jesus and his work, and who believe that Jesus healed the body, say that they are beyond that work to-day, and heal the soul instead of the body, by teaching God's word; thus, according to their idea, they are beyond Jesus and his teaching, for he said, "Go ye into all the world, heal the sick and preach the Gospel," and every one who understands and preaches the true Gospel, can heal. These people are no nearer right than were they of old who killed Jesus and his disciples; they thought, even as St. Paul said, that by so doing they did God service, and Jesus, foreseeing this condition of mind, told his disci

ples that the world would even kill them, in the belief that it was doing God service. Jesus forgave them, for he knew that they were blinded by their own ignorance, which appeared to them as knowledge. Thus, to-day, those who think they are beyond Jesus are in the darkness of ignorance. If they knew they had not the eternal Truth it would be easy to show it to them, but their ignorance appears to them as knowledge, and thinking they know all about Jesus' teaching and work, they refuse to listen and are unwilling to be taught. Jesus healed the soul or life of man, and that restored the body (the body cannot be sick unless the soul is), therefore, if these so-called teachers of Christ and God, who claim to heal the soul, really did heal the soul, the body would also be healed. "Man that is in honor, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish," says the scripture, and as "Holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof."

There are those who believe that man originated from dust because they read in the scriptures the words, "Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return." This refers to the body, not the soul. The body came from nothing, it is but a thought of the soul, and shall return to nothing again, because dust is a symbol of the smallest atom or nothing. The scriptures also say that the things (matter) that are seen are not made of the things (Spirit) that do appear. body or matter is not man, but is a burden that soul (man) has taken upon itself, through not understanding immortal Truth, and which must come to naught.

The

The body is the fruit of the material thought of the soul and is not of God, and the soul must be cleansed from all materiality before it can inherit eternal life. If the man. (soul) were formed from dust, then man would finally be destroyed or become dust again, for natural history teaches that all matter returns to its original element. This would