THE HISTORY
OF HEALTH
AND ITS
DERANGEMENTS
By DIVINE REVELATION
DELIVERED TO
L. M. ARNOLD
of
The History of Health is a subject which leads into various ramifications and becomes the history of departures from it, of derangements of that harmonious operation of the animal economy known as healthy action. The causes which produce these derangements, the essential bearing of circumstances controllable by man, the long, and sometimes very prevalent changes of mankind in matters of little apparent moment, have all to be considered; and the true cause, and relationship to effect which these considerations have, must be detailed and dwelt upon in an apparent unnecessary prolixity, which will to some be tedious, to others tiresome and to all trying as a dispensation which is good or evil to a man as he receives it with faith and submission, or with desire to find in it something which to his finite reason, is unreasonable.
The next subject of our History having been thus announced, let us look back and see from what course of instruction I have led you, and how far you have profited by it. I have had patience; have you? I have led you to God; have you followed? I have sacrificed My will to Him; have you done so? Let us lead again, for we who act are many and yet One. We are thousands and ten thousands beyond computation, and yet we have One Voice and One Mind, and that is to do our Heavenly Fathers Will here or elsewhere, even as perfectly as it is done anywhere, as long as you are submissive and perfectly passive to the monitations and perfectly ambitious to overcome the imperfections which you perceive! I am to be
subject to here or elsewhere, I, or we and you, are One.
There is in all ages and in all men a desire for health. The young and the old pray for it, and value it. Not that they fully value its possession, but that they feel a consciousness, and in some instances an intuitive conception of its vast importance to them. The last state of every man is, generally speaking, disease, and consequent death; but the death of the body which is its natural consequence, is after all but a less evil to the body than life distorted by disease or derangement of the powers and capacities of the body; for I am not to be left a wreck of power and capacity of usefulness upon the earth, but must arise and go to My Father and your Father, My God and your God. The end of life is death; but the object of ending life is salvation of the spirit, and comfort of the true inner man. Let us then strive to live in health and die with composure. The one is a State of healthy action of body and mind, and the other is the casting off of an obstacle to healthy action of the mind, and consequent soul progress. Let us welcome that change, which thus occurring leads us toward Him from whom we came, and whose power or arm ever encircles and controls us. Let us be once more resolved to sustain life and health by every means God has been pleased to bestow upon us, for so shall we live to His glory and be ready to die in His chosen time. So shall we seek to avoid disease, but welcome death. The one is a frequent consequent of violation of His laws and the other is His reliance for cutting off an unnecessary, or a wasteful process of experience, which leaves its traces in deep marks upon the soul, which must only hope for their removal by a long course of right action. Thus the spirit and the mind of man are not to judge that God has not further use for them in the body, but to be passive to His will, and resigned to the performances of duties He may impose. Thus the healthy action of the body is desirable, and the disordered action of which death is the consequence, is the next most desirable. The one and the other are but preparations for another state or condition of action of that inner man which alone is the conscious man. There is then first, Health to be desired and sought for or preserved. Second, Life to be guarded as a sacred trust confided by God to man in a body, which has duties connected with it, many of which are beyond mans foresight or comprehension, but which he fulfills unconsciously as consequents upon visible or known duties. Third, there is also death to be welcomed as the close of life, the end of probation, the completion of a work, the period which denotes a change of existence from life dependent upon the body, to a life dependent upon the spirit. By this, matter becomes passive and Spirit more active. Matter is acted upon and decays. Spirit acts and lives. Thus, death is a change merely from one kind of life to another. Not, properly speaking, from a lower to a higher, but from one stage of action to another, from one form of existence to another, from one period in eternity, to another, from one phase of Gods action to another, not interior or superior, but of His ordination, and willed by Him to be the course of separate personal experience of each individuality, separately ushered from one phase of existence to the next, all useful and all conducive to eternal and nearly infinite happiness. Death is the process by which the body is disconnected from the soul and spirit. It releases the body from that action sustained by the "odic force" which the soul of man evolves from the spirit body, which maintains its relations to itself, and prevents it from undergoing the physical and chemical changes which speedily dissolve or destroy its complicated structure, and leave it free to combine with such other forms of matter as may by their possession of life, act with attractive force upon it, or by the general laws of condensation of matter by its action upon itself as declared in my second series of this work, The History of the Origin of All Things.
This then, is not a change to he dreaded, nor reluctantly entered upon. It is to be borne with calmness and resignation to the Will of Him who is All Wise and All Powerful, as well as Good and Benevolent in the highest or infinite degree.
Let us then be led, first, to the preservation of health and life; and next, to the cheerful surrender of both to that course of existence wisely ordained for us to encounter. So shall we manifest our passiveness and our freedom from reliance on ourselves or other men. Not that we are not to seek the aid of other men to maintain or restore health, but that we may with cheerfulness rest quietly expecting the will of Him who is supreme to be done in and upon us, we having done our duty by doing all we could to preserve the life He gave and to maintain the body He willed us to possess for a brief moment of existence, illimitable, to mans comprehension in its whole. Let us then look well to the teachings of this book and be the willing recipients of its truths and the unpretending judge of its claims. It is not declared by miracles though miraculously delivered. It is not established by signs though its existence is a sign: neither is its style lofty though delivered by a Son of God. Language is formed to convey ideas to man in the body and spirits use it for that purpose without regard to mere elegance of rhetorical structure. Let us not expect a miracle of language, or a hyperbolical structure of style. Be content with simplicity, dignity, and evident sense. Be willing to receive the language because of the ideas, not the ideas because of their elegant clothing. It is the last that persuades so many people to disobey, and partake of forbidden fruit. It is that which leads men to sin, suffering, and death many times endured by each individual; for there is a death of the soul to God whilst in the body, which is an absence of communion with God, or with Him indirectly by His Holy Spirit. For the Spirit of God pervades all yet acts by other individualities in influencing men and responding to their calls upon Him for aid, for guidance. The Soul of man, though in the body, and mostly confined by it is yet beyond the tangible contact of the mind of man. How then shall man by this mind or reason, find out God though God is in him? God cannot be found by man except as He chooses to let himself be manifest, but God is nevertheless there, and never absent even though the man is desperately wicked, and though all consciousness of His presence be absent from man either mentally or bodily. The subject of Health is negative. It depends upon known conditions of body, which is preceded by regular action and maintained by continued action of all the bodily functions, but the want of Health is positive and is the existence of disease, though man may not have a name or description of symptoms for its particular kind. So some are pronounced by physicians incurable, without detecting the cause of that incurability to be that they do not know the seat of or the origin of the derangement which is the cause of the disease. So the patient has not even the chance of being restored by Nature as the laws of structure are called, which would often relieve the derangement or disease if not interfered with by manipulations or doses of whose real effects the physician is totally ignorant. The utmost the physician can do is to assist Nature and he cannot assist Nature except by understanding what Nature is doing and what Nature proposes to effect. The last state of that disease will be in general, an unaccountable decline of vital power and prostration of strength ending at last in exhaustion or Death. From this we should infer that understanding and appreciation of disease and its causes as well as its remedy, is as necessary to a physician as a Scene to a painter. The one and the other are necessary as the beginning upon which all must rest. At best the physician can do little, the true reliance is the recuperative power of the bodily organization and the mental confidence which reacts upon the body increasing its energy of action, recovering itself from the extraneous attacks or overpowering the internal assault which might be called a rebellion.
The last chapter having opened our subject, we will declare the view of the human system to be taken by a professed healer of diseases, working under the supervision of Spirits and in the Will of God, the Father Almighty. Having then brought you to this point of view, I shall soon after teach you how you may be an efficient healer of diseases, and work in the will of God such cures as will be in fact, as well as in name, miraculous. The body is a lamp of light, and so luminous that Clairvoyants may and do see every part and portion of it, either its externals or internals. Every nerve, every vein, every organ, has its appropriate manifestation to them; and the whole is distinct and clear as a picture to their vision. They see each organ, and viewing its condition and watching its action, can form a reasonable and correct opinion of its state, and the proper remedy for its disorder if it be disordered; but having said this, I would not have you infer that the Clairvoyant is the prescriber from his own knowledge of cause and effect, and selects his medicines by any intuitive or acquired knowledge of their properties and action. He does, indeed, see and prescribe; but he sees the body as it is, and delivers the prescription from the dictation of such Spirit as he finds in attendance upon the body affected. The Spirit thus in attendance as a guardian angel or spirit to the patient, is not always well informed upon these points; and therefore the prescription may be evil or good, truthful or unreliable. In some cases, too, the Clairvoyant may mistake the primary cause of the disease, viewing only the condition of the organs, and that perhaps with slight experience. Thus, there is still room for error, both in the diagnosis and in the Super-theory or practice of the superinduced means of cure. The super-theory is the theory based on the erroneous basis or supposed diagnosis of the supposed disease by which the Clairvoyant is misled. By this the patient is sometimes injured. and the Clairvoyant blamed for a fault which is in fact an inherent one of the system of practice in the will of men, by means of guardian angels or spirits declaring diseases and remedies through Clairvoyants. The true course is to seek Divine Direction by means of prayer to God and reliance on His protecting care. By this, the guardian angel or spirit is saved from error which otherwise than by Gods aid that spirit is as liable to as any human authority. The true course is prayer, sincerely offered and ardently expressed to God, that He will be pleased to permit the disease and remedy to be made known to the Clairvoyant or medium. For God can as well cause it to be made known through one medium as another and the examination of the patient can be as well made in one place as another, whether the examiner or the medium be present or not. Such is the abstract truth but the practical action of God may seem discordant with this, for with some mediums the requirement of the patients presence may seem to exist, because with some, God will not show so marvelous a miracle, with others, it will please Him to have it manifested. God does not choose to have sameness exist in manifestations, for though He is one and the same He is ever producing variety, and leading men to admire His magnificence as shown not only in the extent, but in the infinite variation of His works from every standard which can be formed out of the imagination of mankind. Let us then, in all cases, seek first for the care and guardianship of God, rather than of any of His Creatures, but let us receive. the command of God through such channel or medium as He may choose to select. He is wise and good, shall He not act in His wisdom and show forth His goodness as He pleases? He is ever present. Shall He not manifest Himself as He will, and withhold His manifestation as He will? Who shall say, Thou shalt do this? or that? Thou shalt answer now, or be silent hereafter! Who shall make laws for Gods action upon themselves or others? And who shall declare Him wrong who chooses to act in Gods will and seeking Gods direction follows that which he receives? No! Oh, reader! Fall not into the too prevalent error that God can only act by ways men have, devised or in some way they have before experienced to be His own. God will work in His own way and time, and the true seeker will be passive and receive God's coming in His own way and welcome Him at any time. For the Kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither does watchfulness consist in observing the signs of the times outwardly, so much as a watchful submission of our every desire and thought, wish and action to the will of God with a perfect passiveness, which I have so often inculcated and which so many find it so hard to achieve. Then seek a passive state, in which you can receive God as He pleases to be manifest and obey Him as He chooses to command, or in any way direct. God is always ready to work as is required for a mans own good, but it is as God Himself views the mans good to be. You may want one thing, whilst God perceives you would be benefited by another, either more, or not only more but exclusively. Then bow to Gods will and wisdom, and let no repining show or manifest your sinful rejection of His bounty. Let no repining show you the ungrateful recipient of His blessing and favor. For God bestows good gifts to mankind individually and collectively. All His works are good and evil is only found in perversion of His gifts and distortions of His wisdom. Man creates the evil by destruction or rejection of good and man destroys evil and obliterates its existence when he submits fully to God and leaves his own wisdom to suffer passively the operation of Gods will and pleasure. The truly wise man is he who seeing his own want of knowledge submits passively to God and His direction and only uses his own wisdom for reason in saving himself, by prayer to God, from deception or error in seeking Gods will or manifestation. He does not say God is not here, or not there, but that wherever God is, there it is good to be; wherever God directs, there it is well to proceed. Such is the way to be passive, such is obedience to God. Can you be brought to this state, or have you arrived at it, oh reader? If you think you can or have been, try yourself and watch yourself, for without great care you will be found asleep, or without oil. Be careful to be led always by Gods voice in each call you follow, for the true followers of God know His voice even as a shepherd is known to his flock; and I, who am the medium of His government, the everlasting Counsellor and Prince of Peace, will not suffer the elect of God to be deceived or their hearts to be cast down by deep discouragement. I will raise up the lowly and bind up the brokenhearted, I will make the crooked paths straight, and lay no burden upon you which I will not carry for him, if he asks My help. God is All in All, but I am Gods servant and His Holy Son. I do His will and I ask you to do His will. Be ye perfect, even as I am perfect. Follow Me, I am meek and lowly and have not, humanly speaking; where to lay My head; but I have overcome the world, and its temptations no longer assail or disturb Me. Let us all seek to do Gods will here on earth, as it is done there in Heaven. Let us all be His Servants, and we shall all be His Sons; not only His Sons, but His High and Holy Sons, united to Him as One with Him.
I am not to proceed in so straightforward a manner as some will expect in declaring the Origin of Health and its derangements, for I am resolved to communicate herewith much spiritual instruction. Indeed, I shall show that health and spiritual advancement have relation to each other, which are as extraordinary as anything known of either, for the health which men enjoy depends not only on bodily ease and arrangement, but the mind and the soul both derange the state of health and keep up too often a confusion of elements which waste their forces upon each other, and lead to strange results, which very generally are to the physician unaccountable. The true health is a composed mind and stayed mind on God or else the latter is a holy confidence in God, as good, honest, and faithful to Himself, and to all men, by which all men are sustained and kept in the condition best for themselves and their fellowmen. Such is the result of a perfect confidence in God. Born of this confidence is the long-suffering which God declares He will have for His people and for all mankind. Let us proceed to view Health as an abstract form of existence, for none can be said to enjoy it in perfection. The body and mind are harmonious and the mind yields to the bodys wants without being burdened by the bodys grossness. Still, the mind thus yielding, controls the wants of the body so much that the body is not allowed to indulge unnecessarily in pleasures of sense, or leave the mind enthralled without power to extricate itself. The true course is to be submissive to God, for He alone is All Wise, all Powerful and All Competent to know every act and deed we shall or will commit. Let us then be led to a confidence in Him, unfailing and unyielding. Let us seek to be His servant every time we doubt our faith or work, and be the unfailing, prayerful seeker of His Will. So shall Health of body and mind, and soul, visit and remain with you always. Not that, so shall you live forever bodily, or mentally, but so shall health and body and mind be continued to the time of change from one stage of existence to the next, and the passing through these bodily or mental changes shall not disturb the soul. Let us then seek to find this peaceful reliance on Gods Holy Son and Fatherly Care, for in that is peace on earth and good will to men. Behold the way, the truth and the life, for I am these, because I have their reliance and am the Son of God, adopted by Him as His agent and Christ, sent to the sons of men as their Savior and Redeemer from sin and from every kind of suffering if they will only cast on Me the burden of their oppression and yield to Me the leadership of their wills.
The next point is that Health of body is to be secured for others than those who thus sacrifice their wills to God by the exercise of the benevolence of the servants of God in performing upon the bodies of these willful men the means of cure. These means are or may be operations performed in the will of God, upon their bodies, and prayers to God to deliver them for His honor and glory from the evils which affect them. The means may also be in His will the administrations of outward remedies, for God acts by means evident to men, through agents chosen of Him, and with economy of miracle. God does all, but He accomplishes it by simple laws, which men do not always understand though they have greatly studied and traced them. Thus it is that men have applied medicine systematically, and have what they call laws of medicine, whilst they are continually disappointed in the effects of their chosen remedies, but God gives the result as He wills and He wills that result to be by His laws, not by mens laws, and simple as those laws are, man, by wisdom can never find them out. Be then attentive to the wisdom here recorded, which is not man's wisdom, though it passes through the mind of a man in its transmission from the Lord Jesus Christ to the pages of the book in which you see it. Word for word, I dictate it and my servant records it, without fee or reward, other than that equal penny which every laborer in the workhouse or vineyard of God shall receive at the last account and the satisfaction which every man may equally enjoy in feeling that he has performed his duty to his fellowmen and tried to serve his God with earnest prayers for acceptance and earnest and sincere willingness to be used in Gods own will and pleasure, at any and all times here or hereafter. Amen.
Having thus told you what Health is, and led you to infer what its Derangement must be, I shall particularize some of the Derangements more fully than others, and point out the proper treatment for their cure or removal. Having led you to see that Health consists in a Divine Harmony of the body, Soul and Spirit, you will naturally suppose the Derangement of Health to be Derangement of that Harmony. This inference is a correct one, for where that Harmony is established and maintained, health exists. When disturbed in part, all suffer deprivation in part. The body of Health. The Soul of peace. The mind or intellectual or Spiritual of its clearness and vigor. That often the mind retains its vigor and energy in some particulars to the very last, conscious existence of the body is not a disproval of this. It only shows the mind is unaffected by the derangement of the body in this particular, and that the derangement was not a severe or fatal one in all respects. It may be fatal to the mind and not to the body, or to the body and not to the mind. It also sometimes particularly affects the soul as that is separated from God without fully destroying, or indeed visibly impairing the harmonious working of the bodily life. How, then, do we account for our assertion that each part of man suffers from the derangement of its Harmonious relationship to God? By again saying that each part suffers, but not all at once. Sometimes all, sometimes only one perceptibly suffers. But the derangement partakes of the nature of its cause. If the disturbance of the Harmony be connected principally with a bodily act, or with a mental resolution, or determination, or with a souls reformatory action, or repentance, or estrangement from God or His fellowmen, the extent will be most evident to the observer in the condition of that part in which the disturbance originated. The other parts sympathize, sometimes more fully than others, in some individuals greatly, in others very slightly. It is then not a detrimental point to man whether the derangement of harmony occurred in one or the other part. Whether the sin of the body, mind or soul is the cause of the disease or derangement or how great was that sin. Besides, the sin is not really great or small according to mans measurements, but is judged by God, only in this respect. Here, then, God leaves man in darkness, when man undertakes to cure disease or restore harmony of the body.
Here man meets with the errors or discrepancies in his medical experience which so greatly impede his progress in the art as he loves to call it. Here is the remedy: Act in all respects in Gods will yourself, oh. Physician! And you will have no longer to record failures. Your course of practice will have unprecedented success. Be then willing to rely on God and call upon Him to help you in every time of doubt or fear, or hesitation from any or all causes, and God will make known His will through you to yourself. How this is to be done I will explain, for a want of knowledge of what a communion with God is, has kept many from hearing within themselves that Still Small Voice, which
A true communion with God or with His authorized Servant or Son is to be first passive, willing to receive truth for its own sake: second, to seek to know from God His Will respecting a doubtful duty or act, in which you are at a loss to know what you should do. First, to be willing as above, you must be willing to say in truth and in heart as well as with words outwardly, Not my will, but Thine, Oh God, be done! Second, you must be willing to make some sacrifice to do this will. Third, you must be led to sacrifice your desire for knowledge so far as to give up all will respecting the kind of information you would receive, or the manner and form in which it should come to be received by you as Divine in its Origin. Secondly, as regards the desire to possess knowledge you must confine your desire to the thing which you find yourself called upon to do and you must submit unhesitatingly to the direction which you may receive. Again, there is another clause of direction to be studied. You must seek by prayer to purify your desires to the furtherance of Gods glory, honor, and praise. You must desire to be led by the Holy Spirits, or by the Lord Jesus Christ, or by God Himself, to the knowledge of a Spiritual communion by an experimental knowledge, or attempt to know. The true communion is internal. It is best described as a Still Small Voice, which is almost heard, not quite felt, but fully evident to yourself as being in you, but not of you; and which is different from your ordinary conscience voice, which however, ought not to be neglected. God's word being thus placed in every mans heart, the man may know they are from God by their internal evidence, and this is unmistakable; for man can distinguish good from evil and the just and wise declaration from those that originate in ignorance and tyranny. The true communion is rarely understood till it is experienced, and it is often overlooked when presented, because it is not appreciated. So the blessings of God often fall on barren ground, and thus waste away or are destroyed because they are not received into the moist and congenial earth. The term of existence on earth is short and many never discover what communion with God is, though they seek for it, but without intelligence sufficient respecting it to enable them to discover its appearance or presentation to them. The long course of experience which a man goes through is therefore seldom blessed and favored with this aid to his happiness, this happy bond of union between the outward man and the inward Spirit, the Soul and its Maker. True it is that the medium or transmission to the Soul is often used, and that the Soul receives help and strength from God, during its obscuration in the outward body. But the mind, the intelligence, the acting man, refuses to hear the words of God in his internal or heart as it is usually expressed, and so rejects the approaches of the Spirit or God towards himself, and marches on self-complacent to the silent receptacle of the body, the opening by which the Spirit becomes conscious of further views of existence, and of the communion with other Spirits without sound or even word. Be then attentive, ye who would progress, and be even more faithful ye who would improve what you already have. To him that hath shall be given and from him who hath not shall be taken that which is an approach toward having. Amen.
So be it, for so saith the Scriptures. In them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they that testify of Me. Amen.
The last part of the supposed basis of the Soul for rejecting inspiration is that it comes from within itself, but that it proceeds from some foreign or evil influence, or originates by some compound, or unknown concatenation of mental power unconsciously exerting undirected even by a consciousness of its object, yet affected by the desire or the unconscious bias of the mind, and so placed measurably beyond the control of the conscious will of the medium or subject of hallucination. This is an absurd idea yet as man knows so little of himself, and is so unwilling to believe what he has not some tangible evidence of, I shall deliberately show by reason and analogy, that this basis is an untenable one and that this inspiration or movement, can have no other origin than God, the Father, the Creator, Preserver, the Almighty and the All Wise. Amen. The next chapter will give the argument. In this I shall expatiate on the former named subject of the soul's ecstasy, or the long-sought communion with God. Under the supposition that the good men of various ages have not been deceived, either Numa, in relying upon what he received in the grove of Egeira or the inspired Christian of our own or Apostolic times.
The communion of the Soul and thereby the mind of man with God, the Father and Creator is usually through a mediator, and that mediator is the
The Soul is strengthened by its action as well as by its reception of action. Let us then see plainly how this action or reception is to be realized and brought into view as the one thing which is all important and deserving of close attention. So that we shall know more clearly how it is to be obtained, and how its continuance is to be prolonged or forever retained. In the first place how it is to be obtained has been set forth at considerable length in the books heretofore given through this medium. By diligent study of them you will see how to ask for, pray for, and seek for in every possible way the reception of Gods presence manifest in you. God is always in man, but He does not always manifest Himself. Be then diligent and untiring in seeking and faithful in holding or sustaining the continuance of the manifestation. The satisfaction with which you receive it is only a small part of the pleasure you will enjoy from it. You will find a tenfold satisfaction in observing that you are benefited in an increase of happiness, of purity and of peace. Peace which years of continuance will not obliterate or dim, even which will not be lessened or lost in eternity. Such peace has come from Heaven, as can be carried to Heaven again, and as the treasure which never leaves its possessor, so long as its possessor is the same seeker and finder that he originally was. Be then desirous to possess this peace and the Son of God will lead and guide you to it and keep you satisfied with it forever. But then shall no progress be made or desired? Not as an individual should it be desired, but as a part of Gods whole, infinite to us as it is well calculated to appear when viewed with our limited capacities. The last and the greatest of the born or unborn shall never be beyond perfection either in one or another particular, much less than in all. So man is allowed, and created to progress toward perfection infinitely in part; and more than infinitely according to finite ideas. Having thus shown the capacity of man to improve, we will here after look to the means of improvement, the sources of happiness, and the joys of progress.
Let us see what improvement means! Does it mean anything else than approach to harmony with God, a slow moving toward perfection? Nothing else is improvement but approaching nearer to God in knowledge, or Power, or Love or some other attribute or quality possessed by God, Infinitely and by man in a finite degree. In thus stating what improvement means, I want you to see that it is worthy of pursuit, and that it can be pursued by a communion with God; which is obtainable through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ or some Spirit in harmony and joint heirship with Him, for He is the High and Mighty Prince of Peace, the Wonderful, the Counsellor and Son of God; and so are all who are in the Seventh Circle of the Seventh Sphere, because they are all as one with each other, and all as one with God, though they are also Separate beings, well defined, and restricted in power because finite. God though is Infinite and they act in His Power infinitely when they are infinitely united to Him. But they are finite and never can be infinite and be separate things, for there can be but One infinite. And God is that One, and these Sons of His are greatly to mans ideas infinitely in harmony with Him, so they have a degree of His Power for exercise equal to that which is, though limited, so nearly infinite as to be conceived of by men as equal to it.
We will therefore see, if the power of God is exercised thus through finite being, that Power though Infinite, is exerted in a finite degree. Because though God is Infinite, and His Power like each and every attribute of His nature, is also Infinite, yet His Wisdom, also Infinite, established laws by which matter and Soul are governed. These laws being thus the result of Infinite Wisdom, are the established rules which govern the manifestation of His Infinite Power; and this Power, even by His own Will, is never made to counteract or overbear those laws till He wills to change them. And why should He will to change them? Evidently only because they have fulfilled the purpose for which they were made. No other can be conceived of as sufficient to induce the exercise of His Will and Power, because any other would contradict His Infinite Wisdom and show Him to be an experimental operator who knows not what results or consequences will follow His Laws, as they unfold in operation upon man and His attendant matter. To His Sons then is given all power in Heaven and on earth to execute His Laws, to show forth His mercy and to establish His Wisdom and Power and the knowledge of it in the minds of men, their brethren who are joint heirs with them to the great and glorious inheritance of Gods Power, Will, Love, Wisdom and Mercy. Such is the condition we or I bear and sustain. So we work in subjection to God, yet having all Power to act in His Will in accordance with His Laws which are His Wisdom, and in and with His Power which is His Will. So we act for God, and as God; and to you are as God, because we act in His Will, Power, Love, Mercy and Laws; such being our power, we choose now to unfold so much of the Knowledge we possess to the sons of men in bodies as shall enable them to triumph over disease in many cases which might otherwise produce death, or lasting distress and affliction to themselves and others. Death, to be sure, is a blessing. When a man has prepared his mind for it, but life is a blessing when man resolves to devote it to Gods service, for then he rapidly advances in his submission to and reconciliation with God and prepares himself to enter those Heavenly Spheres at a more advanced position, to progress more rapidly and receive the blessings God continually offers to all at a price, which price they are willing to pay who have ardent desires to give all they have to Gods Service. And being so prepared they will surrender to God their Free Will more readily and more fully than those who not having had these desires to serve God, have delighted most especially in exercising that Free Will and gratifying self, serving the lusts of the body or of the animal or intellectual mind but neglecting the aspirations of the Soul. True knowledge is that which leads to God, the Fountain of all honor, glory, and love. True faith is that which depends not upon reason but is satisfied to rely on intuition or things unseen, which present themselves to the consciousness of mankind and are more sure reliance than outward of bodily proofs can be. Thus it is that I have refrained from presenting to this medium any outward tests or proof that I am He whom I claim to be; thus it is that I do not yet give outward evidence to others, through him, that he is my chosen medium to declare to the world what glory and knowledge I do reveal, and a faint indication of that which will be revealed in due time. Thus it is that more blessings are prepared for those who believe by faith than for those who insist on bodily proof thus denying the power of God till their senses are convinced, and receiving knowledge not from God by the highest faculties of their being, but by the lowest. Such is the end of my teaching, to lead you to cultivate the higher, the highest faculties you possess, and to use the others only as stepping stones to reach the higher; not to test the higher by the lower, but to let the lower lead to or confirm the higher. Such is the higher, the noble faculty of communion with Spirits, Saints, Christ, God, Word or Holy Spirit, as men variously denominate that reception which they perceive to be above their own minds, or at least foreign to them. Names are inconsequent. The thing desirable is the communion, which if attended to and cultivated in prayerful submission to God will increase in distinctiveness and force and frequency, and will become indeed your light, which cannot be hid, and which will lead you to God whether you call it by one or the other name.
We will again return to Health as a blessing full of Gods Love as a manifestation of His Wisdom by which His Power and foresight are revealed. God must have foreseen all the various changes, by climates, seasons, food, government and religious wandering from truth, which man would encounter; and provided remedies or antidotes in His system for all such, and for similar changes in animal and vegetables in nearly as great a degree. God has prepared man to enjoy health under the most varied circumstances, but man may pervert the gifts he has and destroy that balance of action in his body which is called health, by acting in disobedience to evident laws of being or principles of right. Man may bring disease upon him or derangement of that balanced action. Man may be born in health and live and die in health. But the sins of the parents are visited upon the mental and bodily organization of their offspring and the rule of compensation acts upon him continually. As he sows, so he reaps. He deranges his bodily recuperative action by excesses of action, or indulgence of appetite or passion, and the inevitable consequences of bodily disorder follow. He then aids or endeavors to aid Nature, as he calls his organization, in returning to its normal state of action. But often his medicines, as he calls these assistants, are more injurious than the first cause of derangement, and so he is prostrated by sickness and sometimes prematurely laid into death, by this error. Again, man from want of knowledge or skill in interpreting symptoms often mistakes his disease, and so administers that which is injurious. It is these errors I wish to relieve man from, and induce him to seek for and obtain that Divine Aid and Direction which will be to him a more sure guide than all his reason can furnish notwithstanding the falsities and errors which his imperfect submission will sometimes entail upon him. For God cannot by His laws relieve man from a consequence of a violation of those laws, without an interference by a powerful helper, a Son or Spirit, which may apply a remedy so that to mans perception the consequence does not follow, yet the consequence does follow, though in a different appearance to man; which man, therefore, does not observe or else calls a miracle. But miracles require Submission, and willingness to receive them and to be their object. Thus to be benefited fully by this Divine Aid, man must be passive and unresistant, willing to be helped and desirous to be strengthened into a pure and holy reliance on God. Man must be willing to be a Servant, or the help cannot come through him; he must be willing to be a recipient of Gods favors or he cannot have them bestowed out of the usual course of His laws of action, by which the consequences of violations of those laws are not suspended, turned aside, modified or pardoned. Strictly speaking pardons are not granted for those violations. Pardon implies a release of consequences. Gods mercy is bestowed in a different mannerthat is, by counteracting the consequences, or substituting such as do not usually follow, but yet legitimate and substantial. Such are the means by which God, by His Spirit or Son relieves disease or restores health. Such are the miracles recorded as having been at various times performed by various persons in the body as means or mediums of Spiritual action and demonstration of power. Such will be the appearance of the action of God in this present and coming day of His Glory amongst men, for God rules and reigns always, but sometimes His governmental action is more apparent than at other times.
So having led you to the vestibule of knowledge of curative means, let us once more give God thanks that His mercy endureth forever, He is never weary of bestowing good gifts upon His Children, but viewing all with love, and some with great pity because they need pity, He blesses all with the wise government He has established from the foundation of the world, and lays upon man no command so hard to obey, that, His pleasure and enjoyment will not be increased by obedience. Such is the wisdom and love of God, and such our relations to Him. Be thankful; that is all you can give God except your Free Will and to give God thanks heartily and sincerely is a partial yielding of self, and of your Free Will. Be thankful.
There is in every man a desire for knowledge, and advancement, under some name or form of manifestation. Were such desire always well directed, man would individually, and collectively, rapidly advance. But his desire is generally selfish, and in his own will, which is not at all a favorable condition of reception of Gods Special Gifts. So it is that his nature often leads him from Truth. so it is that My Will is seldom long followed by any man. But man, thus following his own selfish will, walks not peacefully, and is often spurred to endeavors to obtain heavenly peace by sacrifices and returns to obedience. Thus the theory of mans continued progress, from his first condition or state, upon earth, collectively, or in the body individually is often disturbed in the view of men by discordances and retrogression. Thus the way to Heaven, though plain to him who walks therein, or enters in the straight gate and once walks the narrow way that turneth neither to the right nor to the left, is to those who seek it not with earnestness, unfound, and therefore difficult, and to those who wander from the straight path it becomes tortuous and divergent. Thus the road is ever the same, but the mode of traveling upon it is as various as the characters of the travelers. Thus it is that men seek good oftentimes unknowingly, and are not rewarded for it; thus it is that men sometimes seek good by evil courses, and are rewarded for their good desires and pure efforts. So it is that evil appears to men, to prosper at times, and good to be down. No man seeth to the end. But God has provided compensation for all, every evil desire shall perish, and every evil thought shall vanish, when God has obtained the victory by man's surrender of his Free Will. No man experiences his full reward or punishment in this life; and as
Such being the call, let every man resolve to hear, to obey, to walk humbly before God. Walking humbly before God is not merely walking humbly before men, either in reality, which seldom happens, or in pretense, which is often performed. But it is walking so humbly before God as to listen with aching or desiring or internal ears or perceptions for that Voice which speaks to all who hear or earnestly and perseveringly endeavor to hear it and who let themselves be governed by it, thereby becoming true spiritual Servants of God. So seek, so find, so have peace and so become a Son of God, for the Sonship is the next step from the servants position. Such, oh man! is the urgency of my call to you, to hear and to follow Christ who, thus heard and followed, that I beseech you earnestly in season and as appears to you, out of season; I urge you upon every occasion and at all times. For this is the one great prize, the pearl of great price, the possession of which includes and excludes all else.
There is in every man a desire to advance in knowledge and love of God, but some are unwilling to make any sacrifice to obtain this progress and others are willing only to make slight ones. Few or none surrender all to Gods
So we conclude that man can advance if he will, and that his desire to advance is given him to urge him to make sacrifices of his Free Will, of his earthly inclinations, of his selfish gratifications. These are the sacrifices acceptable to God, these are the antitypes of burnt offerings and legal ceremonies. These are the antitypes of the sacraments, and the true worship which is only performed in spirit and truth. Such is the plan of redemption, not that falsely so-called which teaches you to rely on anothers sacrifice and atonement for your pardon and reward, but that requires of you a pure and perfect sacrifice, an atonement made by you, by which you become one with the nature and sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth, and as His joint heir inherit eternal life.
Such is the end of this condition of life, and thus life in the body is but a means to the increase of the happiness of the soul. When it may well be that bodily affliction and mental distress may be employed to incite you to make this sacrifice of your heart, of your love for the things of time, of all that appertains to the body. Then if God sends sickness to you or death to your friend or child, believe God does it because He would have you lean more on Him, less on yourself or man whose breath is in his nostrils. Less on outward, more on inward; less on the body, more on the Soul. The soul is of God, a part of God; His image, finite, whilst He is infinite. By the Soul, then, God may be reached, communed with, entreated and loved. By the Soul we may be raised above earth and its temptations; and by the Soul we enter heaven, even whilst we dwell on earth in the body. All diseases, then are not the mere consequences of an act of the body; of an imprudence or a passionate gratification; because some are for the teaching of the Soul. But the sins of the Soul, or its omissions of duty, lead to acts of the body which receive a compensation by disease. So pain, which afflicts ofttimes the body, is necessary even to its preservation; as without its manifestation, fatal injuries, as well as the most annoying ones, would be perpetually occurring from the want of sensation. Pain is only intense repugnance of the body to certain acts or circumstances, and is wisely ordained to prevent an abuse of the body or its neglect when it needs attention. It is pain which makes known the existence of disease, and forms the strongest motive for seeking cure for relief. So the longer the disease exists, the more intense the pain, in general, unless remedial measures are pursued. What those remedial measures should be, I shall in a degree unfold in this book, notwithstanding you are impatient at my preliminary, and to your perception, apparent wandering from my subject. But I teach not as others teach, and choose not to act according to the will of men, or in gratification of their worldly expectations. You would like to have me tell you how to be relieved from pain and suffering, not that you might praise God continually, but that you might forget Him altogether. So you would ask a favor or a blessing to be made a curse, and the bread you ask for would prove to be a stone. Ye know not what is good for you as knoweth your Heavenly Father, and He will bestow out of His rich treasures most abundantly.
We will once more then urge you to attend carefully to the internal Voice, which is only discoverable by him to whom it may be directed within whom it may be manifest. Look for it, pray for it, search your heart and see if you are willing to hear God in it, calling you as Adam was called and as Adam is called, Where art thou? What hast thou done? The soul can respond, and blessed is that Soul that can say, here am I, oh, Lord! ready to obey Thy command, and try to keep Thy Statutes! I give up to Thee my own plans and desires to Thy direction! I will no more work in my
And who shall take rank above the sinner: the sinner whose only hope is humility and becoming a little child before God and in the reception of His revelation. Shall it be the Pharisee thanking God that he belongs to the church and gives alms of all he possesses to the maintenance of the pomp and the vigor of the church policy? Shall it be the Sadducee who scoffs at believers in religious progress, who eats and drinks because tomorrow he will die, and enter upon a matter of-course progress to eternal and perfect happiness, during which he will give himself glory that he is disturbed by no fear of God or the future, and will surely enter the Kingdom of Heaven with foul desires, his earthly affections, his unwashed sins, his unatoned-for crimes?
God seeth in secret. He rewardeth openly. The last shall be first here, but hereafter, it shall not be so. God invites all, but He first accepts those who first call on Him, next He entreats those who did not come, last, He compels those who would not come. Entreats by His servants, compels by His dispensations, till all are assembled at the marriage feast, where the Soul is united to God by harmony and because it has no longer any will of its own. Such is the preaching I make and have made and if any man will be taught of Me, I will lead him to God. And if any man will not be taught of Me, he will lead himself to death, or destruction, or unhappiness, all synonymous, all States or separation from God, the only Saviour by His own power, the only Redeemer of man by doubt from doubt, by affliction from affliction, by sorrow from sorrow, and by love from hate, separation, death or self-will of man. Amen.
The subject of health is a broad one. I have shown or at least set forth that it is dependent on morals and on faith. I have declared that it is sometimes impaired by dispensation, and that Divine Action is thus exerted upon the body to improve the Soul, or lead the mind to God. I have also stated that its derangements arise frequently from dereliction of duty appertaining to the body, called sometimes physiological laws. I have also let it be understoodthat the faith of a man can affect his body as well as his mind, and that he can thus triumph over death in more than one way, or by more than submitting cheerfully to it when it comes and rising a freed spirit to another condition of existence. I have also shown that the longest life but ends in this change, and that we may not shorten any life without interfering with wise provisions of Gods ordaining, by which the soul makes, or has opportunity to make progress here, which cannot so well be made hereafter. Let us then endeavor to be patient whilst we look over the ground once more, and see what object can be secured when men, having led themselves to destruction of their harmony, are brought face to face to destroy each other. This can only occur when the rulers or controllers of men are corrupt or senseless; they cannot be on both sides actuated by pure desires for Gods glory and peace, and for the happiness of mankind. One side may act in self-defense but then if pure desires fully pervaded their hearts, if with each desire to resist wrong or obtain right in or from others was a careful watch over the desire to obtain more than justice, fairness and strict equity would warrant, asking therefore nothing but what the other party could, with propriety grant, there would be less occasion for wars, there would be fewer battles. But if, after this modified and strictly benevolent course were adopted, conjoined with a willingness to yield something which could be spared without real injury to mankind, there might be an exercise of faith, by which mountains of opposition would be removed, by which the Power of God would maintain the right, and His arm protect the feeble, uphold the downcast, and lead the world to peace. Faith is the one thing needful. Greater things than I did when in the body may you do now, if only you have faith, if only you surrender your own wills and walk in Gods ways, doing His Will. Such power has faith; and yet faith is not founded on reason, and can never be produced in a man by reason or argument. It is the one thing that is lacking when a man is called upon to surrender everything he has or thinks he has, to the Will of God, to a direction he regards as Divine. Few there are who can receive this faith by any means, but none can obtain it from earth or things pertaining to earth. All who will have it must take it without outward demonstration, for it always remains to be the evidence of that which is unseen, and is also derived only from the unseen. Conviction and belief may be obtained by outwards, but Faith is altogether Spiritual and cannot be affected by outwards, either for its increase or diminution. Many think if they could remove a mountain once, they could do it again by faith. This is an error. Faith could no more result from it, than from a failure to accomplish the intention or desire. The mover of the mountain might be convinced and might believe he could do it again, but Faith and Belief are as different as body and spirit, and as Faith is Spiritual its basis of support can only be Spiritual, and the belief will waver and subside if it be not continually supported by facts and circumstances. Faith is of God, and in its fullness is unshakable. Few attain to it in a bodily condition; but the Sons of God reach it when they have arrived at that nearness of God which is the fact by which they are united to His nature.
Faith is the one great requisite of remedial cure of disease; or of derangement of health. Faith is the evidence of cure by Gods assistance, whether medicine be used or not. Faith will receive its reward, if not by cure, in some other way. Faith is a reliable means of cure in a more perfect degree than medicine as usually employed. The usual curative agents are noxious substances, which derange some other part of the system than was at first affected, and thus induce two or more derangements of true and proper action. Exactly as calomel avowedly does. But the necessity of this is not proven; it is assumed; and it assists nature undoubtedly, because the intensity of the deranged action is reduced, and the means of cure are affective, by the vigorous attempts of nature to overcome all derangements and by Faith. The patients mind is affected by the belief that he is to be benefited in some mysterious, unknown to him, way. The way is equally unknown to the physician; and allopathy, with all its boasts is as empirical as homeopathy. But the prescriptions of the former are in general untraceable to their empirical origin, whilst in the latter they are avowed. So the boast of the former is a proof of ignorance, and the pride of homeopathy has no better foundation for the very empiricism is a proof of ignorance, and of unlearned or uninquired into modes of action. The law of Similia similibus has no foundation better than the proverb that the hair of the dog will cure his bite. The one lacks proof as much as the other. The cures supposed to be evidence of the truth of the theory, are only proofs that faith meets its reward, in a fuller action of nature, perhaps sometimes assisted by a division of the deranged action. The allopathic theory that two diseases cannot co-exist, by which calomel is made to play such an important part in their modes of cure is not true. The true explanation being that the disease or derangement is spread over more of the animal system, and nature brings more healthy action in contact with the deranged action, by which the derangement is overcome. Faith assists this through the action of the mind or spirit upon the body, by which an unconscious aid is rendered to these efforts or this healthy action. By this the cure is performed if the effort of cure does not exhaust the vitality of the body. The mental action sustains the bodys vitality, and attracts to it invisible and intangible forces and agents, existing in and about all animals and all inanimate matter. These forces, or agents of force are found abundantly, and medicines or means of cure employed by the physician of any or every school, or system of practice, contain them. These, then, are placed in the body where the spirit of the man may act upon them, and where their chemical form being exposed to change by the action of the fluids of the body, they are left free to enter into new combinations. Such is the real nature of the operation of medicine. It is not a specific action but a means by which a variety of action is produced, from amongst which the derangement receives that aid which tends to make its action more healthy, and to produce in the end, by the attraction of these forces or agents, a similar action to the healthy action yet existent in the body. This healthy action then may properly be said to overcome the deranged action as a large or powerful magnet overcomes a weaker one, and reverses its action, or as it is usually expressed, its poles are reversed. Thus are derangements, or reverse actions of the human or animal system overcome by the power of the healthy action, by the true natural action; whilst the deranged action is properly an artificial action being a consequent of some violation of natural material or moral law.
Health is a result of a correct moral and sensual action of good or harmonious action by body and mind, or, more properly speaking, it is consistent with these and inconsistent with their opposite, or with their defective existence. Health is one of the rewards of a consistent course of life, But you will say, health cannot be a test of moral or correct deportment, for we see too many pious well-intentioned men, feeble and diseased, and too many wicked actors upon the scene of life who enjoy the perfection of health, to receive such announcement with faith. In saying this you misapply the word Faith. Conviction is the word which would express your meaning; for Faith as I have said, does not depend on observation or facts or argument. It is by Divine Action of the Divine part of man, the Divine part of the Soul upon the mind with which it is connected or in contact. Faith calls a man to act unreasonably sometimes, as
The next point I shall urge upon your attention is that the way to practice medicine successfully is to do it with Faith. with reliance on God for His aid, and as far as possible taking His guidance. The least among men may have this guidance, but the greatest also may. There is no distinction of high or low, bound or free, amongst the servants of God. They are found regarding one another as brethren whatever relation they may individually bear to others. But as brethren may also sustain various relations to others, whilst they cease not to be willing to know and regard affectionately their brothers, so the true servants of God are to be known by their affections for each other. Thus it is that the Love of God will be evidenced in man by love for his fellowman: the only part of God he can come into an intimate relation with, is man, or what is found within man. He may act or receive the acts of God in His soul, or he may act upon or receive the actions of the fellow creature with whom he sympathizes, and thus being taught the love of his brother by a willingness to do justice, to love mercy, and walk humbly before God, and be desirous to render to men what he desires to receive from men and also measurably what he desires to receive from God, he becomes faithful in the service of God by sacrificing self and living for others in the hope and confident expectation that thereby the general happiness will be promoted, and the particular happiness of his own soul be elevated higher and higher till the grossness of the body shall be trodden under foot, as it were, and the Soul on its release from the body, shall find itself without these animal desires and mistaken affections which require ages perhaps, to become purified in the next stage of existence. These stains affect the soul there as it is affected here, by a part of the mind or affections of the mind, by which it is kept from soaring above earthly ties, earthly thoughts, earthly desires or earthly hopes. Till the soul is released from the body or earthly ties and bondage, by the Free Will action of the individual mind, with which it is thus intimately united, it is left in bondage and cannot elevate itself, and will not be elevated, in that blissful progression on which is the reward of sacrifice, the blessed peace and eternal joy which God prepares for all who love and serve Him. Who love and serve Him, I say, but I might say only one of these performances since the one cannot be without the other. So he who loves God truly must really be His Servant, whilst he who serves God, necessarily is already a lover of God, as no service but a willing and living service is an acceptable one.
There is then in the mind of him who desires to serve God a willingness to love mankind, for love to God is only active or manifested by love for man. Man, then, has no surer path of duty, inclination and religious service of God, than to be a physician. He then may serve God by loving and serving men, and his inclination, his interest and his duty, all conspire to produce in him an ardent desire to benefit the patient, to relieve him from disease or deranged action. But men should be careful to have these motives acting, or they will more often fail than succeed in affecting cures. The best preparation for success is prayer, and the best medicine is Faith, Faith both in physician and in patient. In the physician, as then it acts upon the system of the patient, and aids the patients faith; in the patient because it acts upon his own system, and reacts on the physicians faith, by which both are strengthened and united in the work of restoration of the healthy action. So it is that medicine acts violently or mildly, whether it be taken or received with faith, so it is that the same medicine will cure various diseases, because it aids faith. The patient and the physician by long custom and prejudice and education, require a material substance to act upon their imagination, and by it they expect a cure, whilst without it, none would be likely to occur; because none would be hoped for, and the mind would weaken the healthy action yet in the system, by its despondency and its faith that it would be worse. Thus the administration of almost any medicine produces a favorable change, whilst if it does not, it at least satisfies for the time during which its operation was confided in and the action of nature or of faith proceeds with the attempted cure. Then the patient receives a different medicine with greater faith, perhaps, and then again the process of restoration of health goes on as at first and often results in a cure, not from any inherent virtue of the medicine, but from faith, and the recuperative action of the powers of mind and body called nature. Thus it is that the most opposite systems of practice perform cures, or as we should say, suffer cures to be made, by faith. Thus it is that medicine is required and neglect of the patient become dangerous to him. Thus it is that health depends on mental action and spiritual faith; and thus it is that mans diseases are more complex than those of animals.
But you will say, why then need we any medicine; why will not a pretense of medicine do as well, as the most powerful drug? And why need our physicians be so learned if they require but faith and reliance on the help of higher Intelligence? Why is it set forth above; they have faith by that process, and their patients faith rests also upon such basis. But the medicine-man amongst the North American Indians, the Fetish in
But there is another view to be taken of the matter. If faith is so effectual, how is it that many die who expect to recover and many recover who expect to die? and these expectations, too, often pervade physician and patient and those who may be in communication with them! This is a formidable objection, but only so to reason. Faith jumps over such obstacles. Let us however, address ourselves to reason, and see whether the reply is not satisfactory to that arrogant faculty. Reason tells us that diseases differ much in violence, that they are often incurable, being hereditary or inherent to the existence of the body; and Faith, being only that which induces an exertion of the healthy action of the system, must sometimes meet with such widespread or deep-seated disease, such wasted organs or such weakened tissues, that the derangement preponderates, the good or healthful action is reversed by the power of the disease. Again, faith is sometimes unperceived, yet active; again faith may be non-existent, yet the cure follows by the action of other forces, by dispersion of the diseased action as I have described, or by the aid of other magnetizing action, such as the operation of departed men or Spirits, upon the diseased system.
These often act upon men, for though their communion with men has lately become evident, to men, it existed before, though not so generally because the Spirits themselves did not know that they produced an effect, or how to produce the effect desired by them. The Spirits in the Second Sphere having an unreal existence or experience, were peculiarly liable to error in all communication with or action upon men, because they were also restrained by laws which they did not understand and even yet this is much the case with them and their action in regard to men in the body. Sometimes higher spirits interfered, and this being done in the will of Him who is Lord of All, effected His purpose, whether that purpose was the destruction of the body or its restoration to entire or partial health. God, then, or this Higher Intelligence, sometimes caused death to the body? Yes, His Power executed His Will, and His Will was the product of His Wisdom and His Mercy. Many men are withdrawn from the Vale of Experience, as the bodily existence may be termed, because their longer continuance would be injurious to themselves and others. They would receive greater corruption, be less happy in their next condition. But if God thus interferes why does He not interfere more? Why does He not evidently restore the Good, remove the Evil! Because if God were to do this by general action it would cease to be viewed as a miracle or action from Him, it would be regarded as a Natural consequent upon a certain condition, because if He thus acted, He would often remove the good who would in their future bodily life more often fall than improve, and retain in the bodily condition the Evil, who thus would have opportunity for restoration to a more healthy mental or spiritual action. God interferes much. He knows every hair of every mans head, and the most insignificant body of animal life does not perish without His notice. Do you doubt this? Do you think I spoke hyperbolically to My disciples 1800 years ago on this Subject? Reflect on your idea of what God is and if you have not given Him power enough, assign more to Him, add all power and Love to the extent of your imagination or conception, and then consider how weak is man, how feeble his conceptions, how infinite is God and how far beyond the ability of any finite being to conceive of. Then, have faith for Faith is the evidence of things unseen, and reaches as far beyond the flight of Reason as the Spirit of man soars above the loftiest position a body can attain to. It is a sure guide to truth, if founded in truth and submission or passiveness and resting on the Rock of Revelation. Its structure will be a glorious one even reaching to Heaven. The builders by Reason must be confounded as
Having thus opened My subject, I shall proceed to more practical information respecting the treatment of disease, or derangement of normal action of the bodily system. I shall perhaps disappoint your expectation, but if you have read My other books, you are prepared for that, and ought to have Faith enough to receive what is given as being the best you are prepared for; but I shall tell you much that was unknown to mankind, and enough to pay you for earnest inquiry and careful study, enough to induce you to read again and again this book for every time you thus carefully, studiously read it, you will find something decidedly new. which you have not before observed. Proceed then with care, caution, prudence, submission, passiveness, prayer to God, reliance on His care and Power and Love and Mercy, never dying, ever active as they are and eternally will be; proceed in Love of God and Love of man; in Love and kindness to all present or to be present. First, to those nearest you, next to more distant, till your love embraces all that have lived or will live on the earth, all that you will meet in heaven at any time, which will be eventually the whole human race. Amen.
The course of medicine which may be administered to the patient is of little consequence, as I have already made you understand. It is necessary that the patient should have faith, and that the physician or prescriber should assist that faith, if good results are expected or desired. But I have also to point out that the last expectation must be strong or the effect will be weak, and that other things being equal, faith will make itself manifest in proportion to its degree. Let us see now how reconcilable this is to experience. The reformer, or the originator of a new Scheme or System with curative practice is usually enthusiastic, and impresses that ardor and energy, that will and mode of action upon his hearers, who become willing to be experimented upon, and to experiment on others in the same way. This ardor or enthusiasm is derived from faith, a high degree of it. The most absurd theory, the most unreasonable argument is sufficient to maintain this faith in the face of reason and experience of other men. True it is though that they have the support of success, which is the reward of faith; and this guarantees their faith and continues their reward. When the enthusiasm subsides in the followers, or when the system is pursued as a mere matter of reason, or speculation, of profit or gain of some kind, its success is rare, and the delusion subsides, the folly is exposed, the humbug exploded as its opponents best like to approbriously declare it. But inasmuch as Faith performs the cures, and the want of Faith became evident by ill success, so some other system soon takes its place by having that Faith, that enthusiasm, that earnest conviction and unfailing ardor which is the accompaniment of discovery or fancied discovery. The faith of the patient must be passive, or active in favor of the system pursued. Children are generally passive; they do not take medicine willingly, but they do not desire a different plan of operations. They sometimes have faith through the assurances of those they love and respect, in which case their faith is very useful as a means of cure. Faith acts by means, and is a means of action. Faith acts by means thus: it causes a healthy action of the unaffected part of the system to predominate and to overpower the deranged action. It causes the Soul to act by drawing magnetic-od and electric-od to help to revivify and maintain the healthy action; it causes Od itself to assist this action; and by means of its faith it draws in the help of those organized Spirit bodies which have had earthly relations to it, and which therefore continue to be near those they loved when in the body, and which from their supervisory regard, and desires to aid and protect the individual with whom they are called Guardian Spirits. Faith calls them to aid, because the faith is a quality of the Soul above the earthly mind and through that, they can work and affect the body when the two or more individuals agree as to the means or end to be used or attained. Through Faith, the Guardian Spirits become able to affect the outward body. But do they not also affect outward without the aid of faith on the part of any living man or rather living earthly body? They do, but by a different process and less effectively. The various Spiritual manifestations of former periods of time were very generally without the aid of the earthly body of any, but they were less effective, more disturbing to the minds of men in the body, than those mild and genial influences, which fall like a gentle dew upon the diseased body, whose Soul has faith and unites in a desire with the guardian Spirit of Spirits. Thus it was that the rappings commenced in
But Faith is also a means of action by which the earthly magnetism and electricity are brought to aid and restore the normal action of the human or animal body. By the action of the mind of man, by intense desire, by ardent aspiration, by unceasing will, the Sent Spirit of God becomes resident in the heart of man; by the same action of the mind conjoined, as it necessarily is with Faith that there is balm in Gilead, it controls its bodys action so much as to secure its reception of this material action of electricity and magnetism, imperceptible, perhaps, to any observer, or even to the subject himself, but yet affecting him in many instances favorably, and sometimes unfavorably; causing people to say: How great is the power of imagination! Whereas, imagination is a different action of the mind, powerful, indeed, but not by such action. Faith is as different from imagination as both are from reason. Imagination depends on Faith, only as Faith depends on God. Imagination is a possession of the earthly mind, founded, generally, on desire, sometimes on apprehension; involving the exercise of memory, the combination of reason and intelligence, or rather of all the powers and faculties of the mind with a visionary mind with a visionary creative power, which builds and constructs a scene or an appearance of action or a condition of affections. Faith, I have already described to you, and you may see the difference between it and imagination, if you will study to do so. Faith is the evidence of things unseen; but Imagination builds from seen or experienced things, or an unseen combination of them, which it does not regard as a reality, but as a possibility, or a desirable, or as liable to occur in some supposed condition of circumstances or action or relation. Expectation is as different from Imagination, as the latter is from Faith. None of these terms should be confounded; and readers should be careful not to condemn Me or this book, from misunderstanding, or want of knowledge of the true meaning of words. I speak, or use, the true English language, generally in advance of the body of grammarians, or writers who are giving shape to it, and I am careful to use its familiar words when they will as correctly express the idea intended to be conveyed, for I do not ask you to believe because of style but because of My precepts.
Faith is a great agent of cure. Faith is the curative of disease, the restorer of healthy action, the corrector of derangements, by the aid of the Spirits of departed men, and by means of its forming the Spirit of its possessor, into a condition to obtain relief from magnetic forces resident in the atmosphere and various bodies which may surround or be within its reach. Thus the cure takes place, nine times out of ten, without medicine producing any other curative effect than to induce Faith to act, its existence, even, being supported by the supposed or expected good action of the administered medicine. By faith success is often secured to the most absurd and contradictory remedies; and by Faith the most malignant disease, or the most violent derangement of healthy action may be relieved. Faith then, may supercede medicine, and yet it will not readily do so. There was a time in the history of the church that men had the power of conferring faith on the Sick, so that they were healed. Why this power Was lost has been explained in The History of the Origin of All Things; and why it shall be again in My servants at the time of My second coming, is evident, for it is one of the Signs of union and harmony with the Divine Action that the cure of disease is affected in an apparently miraculous manner. A manner not fully miraculous, because not fulfilling the expectation of miraculous action as formed to mens minds. They expect instantaneous action and perfect relief instantaneously, but I do not choose to act so now, but by laws which I have just described and which are now to mankind yet which can be found true, by reason and observation.
Let us then once more return to Faith, as the principle of cure, as the foundation of Love, as the evidence of wisdom, and as the light of dark parts of revelation. Let us no longer be doubters, but assurers. Let us follow Peter rather than Thomas, and though, like Peter, courage may fail, and faith be broken, we shall by repentance and tears be brought again to the point of steadfastness, at which we may dare the tempest of outward elements of nature or outward raging of men, and boldly step forth the advocate of our principles, of our faith. Such is the way, the truth, and the light. By faith you receive all, by faith all things are added to the
Such faith, I would have you possess as
Let us be then ready receivers of Revelation by Faith, if we would be profited by Faith; for Faith, being the evidence of things unseen, is the only evidence we can assuredly have of our relation to God, and of His commands. Without Faith, Reason undertakes to guide us to that which it cannot find out, to God, whom it cannot comprehend. Let Faith, then, be perseveringly sought for, unmistakably brought forward, as the one sure internal reliance for Gods oversight and control of human affairs, by which Free Will of man, and sovereign rule and mastership of God is fully established as one. By these reconciled opposites, man has been arrayed against himself, and placed in opposition to God; for he has been led to believe God less wise, and powerful, or more regardless of him or man, as less a Free Agent. But all these errors and departures from true faith, which is as I have said, the reconciler of all opposition to truth, the one sure foundation for loving God and for serving men. Such is the desirability of faith and such is its use in the Divine Government. Such Faith I would have you possess, if you are to practice medicine or, as I would name it, heal the sick. Such faith will make you a successful practitioner, whether you undertake to cure souls or bodies.
When you shall have obtained this faith, be wise and maintain it; for you may then fall and be destroyed by unbelief or doubt. Be strong in reliance on God, be strong in faith, be strong in doing good; for this faith was not given for yourself alone. Be strong in exerting yourself for its useful exercise among men, for men are the representatives of God, His images, when you have love to show to God; and except you can feel this love for man as a duty to God you cannot have faith you will be but a withered tree that is incapable of bearing fruit, and as such shall be cut down. Such is the way to maintain faith, and so it may be lost. Be then faithful, attentive, to the Word in your heart; the revelation that God through Me or some other Son of His, will give you in such fullness as you can receive with faith, and with such power as you can use to advantage. So shall ye be led to victory over the combined power of all opposition, whether it be from within or without, and the house thus built upon the rock shall not fall, or be shaken upon its foundations; for God is mighty to save, ever ready to save, ever pleased to be asked to save, when a man is willing to be saved in any way God may be pleased to save him, and thus is passive, submissive and forever sacrificing his Free Will. Such is Faith; such are its requisites and such its attendants. Will you seek for it, strive for it, pray for it? If you do, earnestly, sincerely, perseveringly, I will help, you will succeed. God will accept you and your offering, your own heart, your Free Will. Be then exertive and untiring, ceaseless in prayer and devotion to God. Be ever the seeker until you find and the maintainer when you find. So shall you have peace which powers of darkness, principles of ignorance, doubts of uncertainty, or wisdom of man, cannot overthrow. Amen.
Be then My servant, because I am Gods servant and Son, and appointed to help you and received your work, your obedience, your prayers. Address whom you will, Father, Son, or Spirit, or all united as one, still I regard you as Mine, and as My servant, and if you are sacrificing enough you will receive My commands. Be faithful unto death, unto martyrdom, but seek not turmoil, strife, or opposition; be wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove, inoffensive to men, Unresistant to their outward buffetings, but strong and unfearing in maintaining your faith and avowing it when the occasion comes for it. Fear not those who can kill the body, but fear those whose persuasions may overcome your life, and cast your body and soul into destruction and suffering. Destruction of your peace, of your faith, and of your love of God, manifested in love of man. There are few who have any faith of the kind or extent that is available for the manifestation of Gods love, and Mercy and Power. But such as have faith are not always willing to be passive and submissive. Such should seek to satisfy their faith by zeal for Gods cause, by desire to benefit their fellowmen in temporals and eternal matters. Proceed then to cultivate faith and promote good, to be useful and active, and seek to know and to do Gods will, for the sake of being of service to others, as well as saving yourself from error and crime, from departure from truth, or separation from God. There are few who are thus actuated, but I call you, Oh Reader! To be one of them, to give up all to God, who alone is worthy of all honor and praise, and who leads every soul to Him by persuasives and mercies and keeps every sincere seeker in the path that progresses towards eternal glory. And heed My admonitions and be not impatient at My wanderings from the care of bodily ailments to soul afflictions. Be not wrathful that I do not tell you what you cannot receive, but be thankful that I tell you what is most necessary for you. Have faith and you shall be established in power and love from on high, by which your brethren and sisters can be helped and by which you will be required to help them in submission to Gods will. So will you be led to give God Himself the glory and honor of every cure, of every success, you may have, and take upon yourself the want of success, of failure, you may meet with. So shall you inherit eternal Life as the gift of God whilst He will accept you as His servant and lead you to greater power and higher trust. But I shall reveal to you in the progress of this Book a way of reception, a way of communion, by which the holy counsel of the Son of God may be accorded to you, by which you may, by attention and obedience, reach to greater purity, power and usefulness. I shall thus bring you to a fit condition of body and mind, of affection and desire, to receive my directions for the cure of disease, for restoration of bodily health, for salvation of souls, by directing them to Me and to God; for my directions shall be freely given to such as can receive them with faith, and the prescriptions for the sick shall be correctly stated to such as act in My will or by My direction. Yet many will say, Lo! Here is
Having led you, to expect in the preceding chapters what I have not given, having led you to disappointments and outcry against Me and Mine, I shall be obliged to refer you now to Books I have before caused to be published for explanations of My course, and for assurances and proofs that in thus trying you I have done well. Having led you to inquire thus into My antecedents, I shall have accomplished an object more important than the acquirement of health of body, namely, health of Mind or rather of Soul. Because the first great question is How shall I be saved from future want of happiness? And that answer will show, too, how the present is made comfortable or happy, so the next will be of far less consequence. The next then, is How shall I enjoy health of body, Sanity of mind being included in this.
This first question I have answered many times in the books which have preceded this, but unless you receive some, one or more of these answers with faith, unless you act upon them with resolution and determination to secure the happiness, the blessings they offer to you, by making the sacrifices they require, the answer is to you, as not given; except that you are responsible to God for your rejection of it, which is implied in your non-reception of it. Faith is not conviction, as I have explained, but conviction may lead to faith. Have Faith, then, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt he saved. Have Faith first, belief next, salvation last, and forever. This is the one pearl of great price, which is worth more than all else a man has or can have, and is also that which is attained by obedience to My advice. Sell that thou hast and follow Me. Follow Me in doing good to mankind, and being continually useful, ever seeking to serve God, by being the medium of His blessing to your fellowman. Such is the answer to the first question, again made in a different form, but in the one only substance, which will answer. Such is My call continually, and such it will be eternally if you do not accept and act upon it. Such is the effect and such is the price of hearing Me, the beloved Son, in whom God is well pleased.
How shall health of body be secured, and maintained, then, is the next question, far less important, and more evidently so, as you have profited by the answers to the first question. Health of body is often deranged that you may seek to know and act upon the answer to the first question. Then it is fair to presume the first question embraces the second in some cases, and I shall show that it measurably does in all cases. For whatever comes from God is to be borne with patience and resignation, if not with joy and thankfulness; and if God afflicts us, by which we mean, if He crosses our natural outward wills, He does it for our good and to secure more fully our future happiness. If health be deranged by excesses of body, or indulgence of mental passion, we but suffer the due punishment of our transgression. But we must all die. Then our bodies must dissolve, and return to earthly elements, which they are and always will be. The soul must put on immortality, and can only enter Heaven as a Spirit substance. It may be in a heavenly state without the body or in the body, but not by means of the body, nor does the body as such, partake of the enjoyment of heavenly bliss. This is reserved for the spirit of man, and it is only the spirit of man which renders acceptable work. The movements of the body, the forms of worship, are at best, but aids to the spirit of its expression of its aspirations. Aids by which its attention is directed or maintained towards Heaven, towards God. God looks to man and views not so much what he does, as what he desires to do, not so much his actions or their results, as his intentions and his motives.
Here is the true point of view of the relationship of God and man. Here is the very gate to Heaven, and the road that is so plain that the wayfaring man cannot err in it. Doctrines are not regarded but desires are; faith is called for and obedience required, but God observes why the man has faith, why he yields obedience, why he is passive to the Holy influence that gathered around the good desires, the pure motives, that originate true obedience and service of God.
Let each reader strive to be a servant of God, doing His will as it is done by His Holy Angels, doing His Will on earth as it is done in Heaven. Doing all he can to please God, seeking continually to know Him better and to serve Him more. So shall you have peace and health, for if the body be afflicted, the soul has peace; if the body be diseased, the soul has health; and what would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own Soul. Even if he could remain on earth and possess the whole world? Alas! Nothing. For nothing but God and union and harmony with Him can confer real happiness upon the mind or soul of man; and nothing but God can prevent man from destroying his own and others happiness by the pursuit of his ungodly lusts and unlawful desires. Man, who is outward, and desires the whole world, shall possess it, in that next condition of existence; for there, as I have explained, man shall have every desire gratified, and find that all is vanity except love of God and union with Him in harmony and will, which is obtainable only after sacrifice of the whole world of man, outward and inward. All else must be given up, then shall all be realized that the soul can enjoy, which is what the heart of man previously cannot conceive of.
Having then shown you that Health is not important, compared with life eternal, which is harmony with God. I shall not therefore refuse to give you rules for its maintenance or for its procurement, for I write this book that you may have such instructions, and I write it as I do, with directions to higher happiness interspersed, that you may be doubly benefited, and if possible, persuaded to follow after the things that be of God, eternal.
I will hereafter be found more interesting to those who look only for bodily health; but the true seeker for happiness, peace from God, will not regret his faithful study, and earnest endeavor to understand the before-written chapters.
In the beginning of this book I led you to expect Revelation as to the Origin of Disease, and the means of guarding against it and securing Health. In the preceding chapters I have already given much that will conduce to this end. The Health of the Soul and Body is one and the same in many particulars, and a good conscience is the best preservative of Health. But there are other considerations to be weighed, and related, other physical influences and agencies to be revealed, which may be modified in application to the human or animal system, so as to regulate and establish Health or its opposite condition. Having led you to expect this kind of revelation, I shall not wholly disappoint you, though you may feel disappointment and desire something more and somewhat different.
I have the power to reveal, but you have not the faith to receive, or I would reveal, the true source and foundation, the true channel and cause, of that which preserves Health till death comes in the fulfillment of the design of Life in the body. But I shall at least point you to the means of securing this knowledge, and being benefited by it. Come, then, study, compare, ponder; be at peace with me, with God, with man. Read and be profited, study and be advanced, ponder and be saved, by making sacrifice of your will, power, and hopes to God the Almighty Maker, Giver of all and everything you possess and the most loving Being with whom you have any relations. Be, is the word which is of the most importance: be kind, be loving, be thoughtful, be affectionate, be ever desirous to serve God, be His servant and become thereby His Son. Walk humbly, seeking to be thus, to be sacrificing ever to God your will and He will cause you to be advanced. Be what God calls you to be and be content with your wages. Amen. I shall call, you can follow; I shall walk humbly, you can follow; but all must make the sacrifice I made, the sacrifice of will, the daily and continual sacrifice of a broken heart, a relinquished desire, an active exertion for the good of others. Let not self be predominant, let not cares of the body consume your eternal life. Be at peace with men, and passive to the Holy influence which comes from God, and sheds upon the humble and contrite, and sacrificing spirit of man the holy and perfect peace, which is at once the reward and incentive of union and Harmony with God and His Son, by obedience, love and power. In this is life eternal, and I am the way, the light, and the truth, and in Me is life eternal, coexistent with the Father, and with Son, and with Holy Spirit; One in love, power, will and authority; and in substance the same primarily, but modified by Gods pleasure at their separation from Him, so as to be capable of sustaining such relation to Him and to others as they do. God did not create the Word, or the Souls of men; but He established them as beings in union and harmony with Him, of which their real essence, their true immortal parts were of Him, and had been Him, and therefore co-existent, therefore eternal, one and the same, yet endowed with an office which they gladly, joyfully perform. In the beginning was the Word, but in the beginning the Word was God; so in the beginning The Father had the Son in Him unseparated; but after the Word was, the Son became separated from God by Individuality; and the Son was God, before that, by being unseparate, and is God, since that, by being in union, harmony, love, power and action One with God, the Eternal, Ever-existing, All Powerful, the I Am. But before