Page:The Quimby Manuscripts.djvu/222

218 had been confined by sickness, unable to walk for nine months. At the time appointed I went and used my power to restore her to the use of her limbs and to health. On the Wednesday following my letter, her husband wrote me that on Monday night she was very restless, but was better the next day. On the Monday following that, I received a letter saying that at the time I appointed for her to rise from her bed, she arose from the bed, walked into the dining room, and returned, and laid down a short time. She then arose again, dined, and also took tea with the family, rested well that night, and continued to do well. Now I suppose all of this transaction would be accounted for by the religious community by the power of the imagination of the patient. Suppose you do give it that explanation. How was the lady cured by prayer? On the same principle, I suppose. If so, how was it with the centurion who came to Jesus, saying that he had a servant lying sick with the palsy, grievously tormented? Jesus said unto him, “I will come and heal him.” The centurion said, “Speak the word only and my servant shall be healed.” Then Jesus told him to go his way and the servant was healed in that self-same hour. Now who cured the servant? Jesus, or the centurion, or the servant's own imagination? Settle this question among yourselves.

Another case: When Jesus came into Peter's house, He saw the mother of Peter's wife lying sick with a fever. He touched her and she arose and administered unto them. Now if you cannot tell how this was done, and yet admit it, you must admit a power that you cannot explain or understand, and if you cannot understand it, it is an unknown power. To attribute to any individual this power from which you hope to derive benefit is to worship an unknown God or principle. This principle which you ignorantly worship, this I declare unto you by explaining it.—March, 1860.

We often use words, putting upon them a wrong construction, and think that a person is bound to believe what we say because we say it. For instance, you often hear a scientific person make this assertion, that there is no such thing as weight, that weight is attraction, that its true scientific explanation is attraction. Now this is easy to say, but hard to prove. You cannot convince a man of what does not come