Progress is a law of Nature, and to resist its tendencies is to resist the workings of the universe. From the inexhaustible fountain of celestial love and wisdom flow streams of motion, life, sensation and intelligence, constituting oceans of Divine vitality. On the margins of infinite space these oceans scatter the most beautiful orbs, as flowers of unfading hue and eternal fragrance. For every germ that adorns the margins of earthly streams there are millions of orbs on the shores of infinitude, and they are flowers unfolded in the illimitable gardens of space, in accordance with the great laws of progression and development. The earth is one of those flowers which the oceans of celestial love and wisdom have planted, and man is the most beautiful of its developments, the ultimate of creation and germ of seraphs. Through all the habitable worlds, Nature has evolved man in the image of God, possessing all her wealth, completing the chain of life and love extending from spirit to matter, from God to the ends of the universe. But man has frequently and conspicuously deviated from the true path. Being a concentration of everything beneath his exalted position, man possesses universal affinities, and this has caused the human soul to misapply its attractions and attributes. By an extreme gratification of inherited tendencies, it has resisted and violated the developing laws of Nature and the
Divine Mind. Man experiences attractions toward everything, because he is made of everything, but following the strongest impulse he rushes into fearful extremes, ignoring that indwelling wisdom which is his guardian angel. It comes about in this manner that there are diseased spirits, and disease has developed physicians. The mission of the true doctor is not to the body, which is a subordinate portion of the individual, but to the spiritual principle. Man is a unit, and it is neither true that he has a body to be cured of diseases apart from his mind, nor a spirit, soul and heart to be cured of sin-diseases apart from his body.1 The body is an associate of the soul, and it cannot feel, think or act without the spiritual principle. All diseases originate with that portion of the oneness which acts upon matter. So also the true physician places his hand upon moral as well as upon physical diseases; he cures the maladies of future generations by closing the floodgates of individual excesses and manufactures healthy organisations by the improvement of those who are parents of generations to come. The medical and clerical professions are therefore one at the root.
The philosophy of disease teaches us to recognise that distinct causes are engaged in the production of spiritual and physical disturbances. The only true medicines in Nature, operating upon the body through the spiritual
principle, are clothing, food, water, air, light, electricity and magnetism. The Spirit of the Universe breathes forth those unchangeable principles of association, development, harmonious purification and refinement which educe the essential elements of life, spirituality and happiness from the grossest forms of visible matter. The Divine Essence is in all things; it is the spirit of plants, animals, men and angels; it is the mainspring of all motion, sensation and intelligence. The principle of advancement and purification not only develops and individualises the human soul but surrounds it with kindred, congenial agents to furnish nourishment and enjoyment. The seven elements or medicines just enumerated are vehicles by which the Divine Essence of Nature penetrates the human soul. Through these medicines Nature heals Nature and Spirit communes with Spirit. Dress is a medium through which air, light, electricity and magnetism flow into the organism. It may seem artificial but is not. Every created form has natural protective habiliments in addition to skin or cuticle; even flowers have their aromal vestures. Experiencing the attractions of this universal principle, man clothes his body, but his selection of materials and mode of wearing do not harmonise with principles of health and happiness, and a wrong use of clothing develops discord in the spirit.1 Some kinds of cloth conduct electricity rapidly to and from the body; other kinds have corresponding affinities for magnetism, producing different and higher consequences. If the body is dressed in very electric materials it will lose much of the warm and positive element, entailing lassitude, nervousness and negative diseases. If magnetic garments
be worn under proper circumstances health will result, though a high state of physical temperature is produced by conducting from the body too much organic electricity. These things being understood, it is right to use various habiliments, whereby to beautify the person and harmonise the soul. Had man been less richly endowed with intellectual attributes he would have been clothed like the animals, but not being himself an animal, the kingdoms below him are under his control and he can select from the great wardrobe of Nature those materials which will best subserve the purposes of personal health, refinement and elevation.
Food is a medium through which the spiritual forces of Nature, or of the Divine Spirit, act upon and support the human constitution.1 The spirit of food cannot be detected by chemical instruments, because it is the essence of the celestial principle which animates the worlds. Everything conspires to keep alive the flame of divine consciousness in the soul. The food that we eat is saturated with elements of Divinity. The innermost elements of life and nourishment which reside in food can be appropriated and analysed only by the spirit of man. In a future period of man's history it will be selected and prepared for body and spirit in accordance
with musical principles. The adaptation of compounds, odours and flavours to the constituents of the organisation will be perfectly natural and harmonious. There are three kinds of food which possess different quantities of positive and negative vitality. There are negative, passive and positive combinations of matter which man selects and appropriates to the needs of his constitution. To ascertain where these combinations exist, and how and where to adapt them to his system are things necessary to his health and happiness. He must learn what to eat in disease and how to preserve harmony throughout his being in health. Contrasted with animal substances, vegetable food is negative and fish is passive. Mutton, beef, veal, venison and so forth contain more spiritual vitality, are positive and in a higher state of refinement and concentration. Fish, being intermediate between vegetables and animals, cannot furnish much valuable nutrition. Vegetables are not so near men as animals and are incapable of imparting that vigour which the human constitution demands. The digestive and purifying processes of physical man are adequate to the appropriation and spiritualisation of animal substances, when compounded properly and taken in such quantities as wisdom sanctions. We must not become sectarians in the physiology or philosophy of food, but should pay attention to the uses of things. Wisdom should decide how, when and where negative, passive and positive nutriments are essential to our bodies. This is a great secret to learn. In certain diseases negative or vegetable food is influential in restoring the organism to a state of health. It is the same with positive or animal substances and with the passive matter of fish. If the system is in a highly positive state, the use of negative foods for a sufficient time will supply the requisite alkali and vital electricity, with an equilibrium of matter, power and temperature as the result. So also negative diseases may be cured by the proper use of positive foods.
Water is a medium for the influx of electricity. It is essential to life and health, imparting vital electricity by its prompt chemical action. When used internally, water enters readily into combination with the blood; externally it is a powerful anodyne, alterative, tonic, diaphoretic and restorative. In its various degrees of temperature it is an agent for the development of happiness in the individual and for the restoration of harmony in the sick.
Air is a medium through which living emanations from the sun of our planetary system have access to the spirit and body of plants, animals and man. There are two kinds of atmosphere surrounding the globe which we inhabit—one of them unfolded from the interior departments of the earth and one proceeding from the orbs and suns of immensity. One is local and affects the visible organisations distributed over the face of the earth; the other is universal and acts upon invisible principles of vitality which animate and actuate the various combinations of matter, including the human economy. The latter may be considered the spirit, of which the atmospherical envelope of our globe is as the physical organisation. The particles composing the air which we breathe are globular, having interstices or openings between them, into which the spiritual atmosphere of the Great Positive Mind flows perpetually. In everything therefore we can feel and see the Divine Principle; all are physical mediums through which the Celestial Spirit—or God—communicates a portion of His essential properties to the soul. The Deity abides in food and water and air, imparting harmonial and spiritual principles through these instrumentalities. Air is a powerful agent in the production of harmony or discord, health or disease. Mind and body are influenced equally by the spiritual and physical envelope of our earth. It is a divine medium, not only suitable for the influx of physical elements, whereby the conjunction is
maintained between soul and body, but for the communication of celestial essences to the interior of the unfolding spirit.1
Light is a medium designed to refine and exalt our spiritual sensibilities and reveal to them the form, colour, relation and proportions of natural objects. It contains the elements of terrestrial and universal magnetism and electricity. There are, however, two kinds of light—one proceeding from the suns and planets of immensity, the other from heated or decayed substance. The former are endowed with a spiritual principle, deeper in their bosom than the electrical and magnetic elements which reside in light undeveloped. Light in its essence is love, and love is life: it penetrates and thrills through every particle that enters into the composition of the soul. It is the material vehicle of Divine Life. It acts upon our spiritual principle with great quickness and mysterious power. When Nature is bathed in glorious emanations from the source of light and life, the mind cannot but perceive something of the loveliness which characterises that Second Sphere to which we are journeying. But though we are designed to enjoy the light of heaven, we cannot share in that privilege unless we comprehend the many-sided influence of that element which pours forth from the sun to our earth. The natural development of everything is influenced and controlled by light. Wherever heat, light and electricity dwell there are the best health, the greatest happiness and the purest intelligence.
Electricity is a medium of universal relationship,2
and it dwelt originally in the mighty vortex of uncreated worlds. It is an omnipresent principle in Nature, pervading the vast universe which—like a shoreless ocean— rolls around the Supernal Mind. The Divine Mind employs electricity as a medium of communication to all realms of being: it expresses the pulsations of Divine Soul through all ramifications of Nature. So also the human mind employs electricity as a medium of communication to every part of the organism. Diseases can be prevented and cured by a proper application of electricity—meaning, however, not that fluid which is accumulated by electrical apparatus from surrounding substances and the atmosphere, but that which resides in these. The object in either case is establishment and perpetuation of equilibrium in the electrical mediums and moving forces which permeate and actuate the body; but this can be accomplished only through the instrumentality of the Spiritual Principle. The latter must rise superior to the dependent system, must exert its health-giving, magnetic, harmonising influence upon the various organs, nerves and muscles submitted to its control. Electricity will be a powerful agent in the hands of future generations, especially as a means of harmonising the human soul and rendering its various attributes capable of the highest illumination.
Magnetism is a medium of great power and unspeakable importance, but I refer to that spiritual element which encompasses the Centre of Omnipotence, and connects all mind with matter, rather than to the gross
magnetism which flows from the rarefication of terrestrial electricity. Every human soul is surrounded with an atmosphere more or less pure and influential: it is an emanation from the individual comparable to the fragrance exhaled by flowers.1 The soul can exercise thereby a favourable or unfavourable effect upon contiguous individuals, in proportion as they approximate to reciprocity in their positive and negative relations. The further that two persons are removed from such reciprocity the more they will repel each other, and vice versa. In all ages of the world there have lived those whose physical and spiritual constitutions qualified them to exert a powerful influence on the body and mind of others—even to the working of miracles and curing the
lame and palsied. But while the ancients employed the indwelling virtue, or magnetism, they believed that human diseases were caused by wicked spirits or devils.
Hereinafter follow certain maxims by which the diseased mind may be directed to the sphere of health and harmony.
1. Be it remembered ever that the human soul was made for a great and glorious destiny, as the principles of Nature, the voice of intuition, the immortal aspirations of the spiritual principle and the unchanging testimonies of wisdom do all affirm.
2. In view of this destiny, it is wrong to devote the present life, or beginning of existence, to insignificant or inglorious pursuits, and it is unrighteous to acquire habits which may ultimately become our masters.
3. Remember that the strife after material riches begets discord and deception, by which the progress of the soul is retarded.
4. Do not seek after fame, because the desire and effort deform inward beauty, and the soul is neither righteous nor happy in the pursuit of this object.
5. Do not allow your affections to flow in narrow or unclean channels, nor your feelings to exceed and hamper the principle of wisdom.
6. Let kindness possess your whole nature, and be sure that uncharitableness never invades the inward sanctuary.
7. Remember that happiness, being an effect and not an end, should not be the aim of your endeavour.
8. Eternal progression and development are the only objects for which we should pray and labour.
9. Realise that the healthy cannot continue in such condition, nor can the sick be healed, unless the laws of health are comprehended and applied to daily life.
10. Let each individual study himself and become his own physician.
11. The soul can rise superior to every species of discord, and thus subdue disease, by self-magnetisation, or —this failing—by the magnetic or spiritual influence of another, in accordance with the laws of positive and negative action.
12. The power of will can repel, overcome and banish every description of discord and unhappiness; but it is most important that this power be developed practically from birth and directed through channels of wisdom.
13. Bear in mind—ever and in all things—that Nature must be obeyed and not violated or subverted.
14. Realise that wisdom is the world's saviour, the extirpator of all sin and misdirection.
15. Be cheerful, joyful, exceeding glad, though death is knocking at your door.
16. There is nothing to shun, fear or deplore in any department of Nature, or in the Sanctuary of the Divine Mind.
17. Remember that sleeping, eating and drinking are means by which we exist physically.
18. In health, the standard whereby to judge of the quality and quantity of food, water and the amount of sleep to be taken, is the unexaggerated suggestion and simple demand of each several constitution.
19. In disease, the standard should be one of intuition, reason, time, age, situation, occupation and circumstances.
20. Those who employ their intellectual faculties almost exclusively should generally abstain from all salt food and stimulating beverages.
21. Never sleep upon any description of feathers, for they impart no life-giving elements and absorb many of the atmospherical energies which emanate from the human frame.
22. It is better not to exercise the body than to do so
in the absence of some object superior to the mere process of walking, for the mind having nothing to accomplish exhausts itself and the body which is its material vehicle.
In conclusion, I have spoken of a saviour whose name is wisdom. It is that wisdom which is co-essential and co-eternal with the Creator of all things, which is incarnated more or less in every correct movement made since the world began, which is the embodiment and image of universal harmony and the ever-blooming flower of the Divine Mind. This wisdom is, in a finite degree, a bright and protecting angel resident in each human soul; and I believe that the power which preserves the world of matter from chaos and confusion will save also the world of mind from evil and from discord. Its exercise will be followed inevitably by identical and corresponding results in all places. The form or body of this wisdom is that which we call harmony, and when it has been realised in universal society there will be established in its fulness that "Kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness" which has been ever prayed for and anticipated by man.