This page has been validated.
SPIRIT AND MATTER.
165

appear in demonstration; hence when their Spirit or Truth is gained, all forms should be laid aside; we cannot serve two masters, and keep the commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.”

We worship spiritually only as we cease to worship through material forms; the material must and will give place to the spiritual; let it be so then, and not as in the fable, because the wind blows that would take off the cloak, hug more closely what the wind should remove. Displace the belief of God in matter, or Soul in body, and happiness and immortality will be understood, and never can be until this is done. We gather not grapes of thorns; nor fill vessels that are unemptied.

To empty mankind of error so that Truth may flow into the mind, is the work before us; and those commissioned for this work will suffer tribulation such as has not been since the beginning. When Truth advances, error must recede, but will cry out as it goes: “Why art thou come hither to torment me before the time;” persecution, however, advances the true idea, for it sets thought at work on the subject at issue. Our individual sufferings for Truth, serve to spiritualize us; hence the benediction on those persecuted for righteousness sake, “For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Christianity is not a creed, doctrine, or belief; but the demonstration of Life, Love, and Truth; it is not a special gift from a personal Jehovah, but the understanding of God, that is gained through much tribulation in the world, but great peace in Truth; error must and will make war on Truth, because it is proof, and not