Page:Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1898).djvu/274

254 of Spirit. Thoughts, proceeding from the brain or from matter, — illusions of mortal mind, — are beliefs.

Ideas are spiritual, harmonious, and eternal. Beliefs proceed from the material senses, which at one time are supposed to be substance-matter, and at another are called spirit.

To love one's neighbor as one's self is a divine idea; but this idea can never be seen, felt, or understood through the physical senses. Excite the organ of veneration, religious faith, and the individual manifests profound adoration. Excite the opposite development, and he blasphemes. These effects, however, do not proceed from Christianity, nor are they spiritual phenomena; for both arise from mortal belief.

Eloquence re-echoes the strains of Truth and Love. It is inspiration, rather than erudition. It shows the

possibilities derived from Mind, though it is said to be a gift whose endowment is obtained from books, or received from the impulsion of departed spirits. When eloquence proceeds from the belief that a departed spirit is speaking, who can tell what the unaided medium is incapable of knowing or uttering, this only shows that the beliefs of mortal mind are loosed. Forgetting her ignorance, in the belief that another mind is speaking through her, the devotee may become unwontedly eloquent. Having more faith in others than herself, and believing that somebody else possesses her tongue and mind, she talks freely.

Destroy her belief in outside aid, and her eloquence disappears. The former limits of her belief return. She says, “I am incapable of words that glow, for I am uneducated.” This familiar instance reaffirms the