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LESSON X

 

HOW CAN WE EXPLAIN MIRACLES SCIENTIFICALLY,

AND ACCOMPLISH WONDERS APPARENTLY TRANSCENDING

THE OPERATION OF NATURAL LAW?

 

            QUESTIONS similar to the above having poured in upon us from every direction, we have felt it desirable to devote a special chapter in this work to an elucidation, as far as possible, of a problem, the very nature of which appears at first sight to challenge the ability of even the ablest intellect. But when We look carefully at time proposition, and consider thoughtfully the nature of the inquiry, we shall perceive that no so-called miracle has ever claimed to be an interference with immutable law; but only an exhibition of spiritual power overcoming the ordinary limitations assigned by human infirmity to the operation of a law, the scope of which so far transcends ordinary comprehension and discovery as to remove it as completely from the realm of general observation, as the rings belting the planet Saturn are unrevealed to unassisted mortal eyesight, but stand out in vivid distinctness before the average eye when assisted by a telescope.

 

            Spiritual science is no more at variance with physical science than telescopes are at war with eyes. Spiritual perception enables us to see far beyond the limits

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of average observation, thus the only contention there can possibly be between spiritual science and physics is on the score of unwarrantable negative assumption on the part of many physicists. It was always said of Darwin that the most conspicuous feature of his greatness was his determination to publish his discoveries, and not antagonize in a controversial spirit the opinions of those who as yet were not blessed with the knowledge which had fallen to his share. Let us all emulate Darwin in this respect, be truly thankful for all the positive information we can derive from the most external source, and at the same time be ever ready and desirous to peer more deeply than the outer senses can into the realm of spiritual being which ever encompasses us, and of which we are now and ever denizens.

 

            No one can be justified in. supposing that any event no matter how remarkable is due to a suspension of law, but is not lawn infinitely beyond our acquaintance with it, we consider the time has already come for a clear forcible exposition of the triumphs of mind over matter, not as a contribution to the literature of dogmatic theology or speculative philosophy, but of science itself. Marie Corelli, a deservedly popular authoress, in a most fascinating work which has had a very large sale already, A Romance of Two Worlds, has without question, in her dissertation upon the nature and application of electricity, clone a good deal to prepare the public mind, which reads science in the form of romance, gladly for yet more explicit and startling disclosures which are to follow; her method of dealing with the occult forces is far in advance of Mr. Sinnett’s

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in his theosophical novels Karma and United, for while Sinnett deals almost exclusively when discoursing of phenomenal results, with the wonderful and almost the terrible, Marie Corelli shows how in her own case especially (if her narrative is to be considered a chapter from her own autobiography) the wonderful knowledge of the noble hero of the tale Heliobas is directed entirely to three most important ends: spiritual development, mental improvement and physical well being. In the same book a chapter devoted to the Eletric Creed, explains very reasonably how Peter was able to walk on the sea while faith upheld him, but when he felt himself sinking, it was at a time when fear overcame him, and fear disturbs electrical currents and renders danger imminent. Other wonderful doings of the Apostles and the strange natural phenomena mentioned frequently in connection with telling episodes in the life of Jesus are similarly explained, i. e. the electrical theory is applied throughout and it works well, especially as human electricity is never confounded with mineral, vegetable or animal electricity and it has always appeared to us that to attribute human force to animal magnetism or to call it by that name is to insult manhood and womanhood by unduly extolling the animal emanations. Man has an animal nature which links him physically with the lower orders of existence, but this lower nature is totally unable to accomplish those super-animal results which can spring alone from the operation of altogether higher capabilities. With persons who refuse to apply the scientific method of experiment or who are so satisfied with physical limitations of the most arbitrary character that they seek no spiritual light, also with

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those who ignorantly and pugilistically denounce whatever is above their crude physical perception, we refuse to enter into controversy, such people will throw down a treatise on spiritual themes with a contemptuous sneer or they will attack vigorously what they fail to understand in a manner which positively compliments the work they fondly imagine they demolish, as they only succeed in advertising publicly their own shallow irascibility and overweening self-conceit. To those alone who are in search of light, who are dissatisfied alike with theologic and materialistic husks, who can neither believe in antiquated supernaturalism nor be content with frozen materalism, should teachers and healers appeal, we only waste tithe in seeking to make proselytes; hungering and thirsty children of the Eternal, our needy brethren and sisters who are seeking light, health and peace, and who are willing to make material sacrifices to secure higher blessings than can possibly flow through the channels of the senses, are the only persons to whom the new illumination can come, or by whom it will be welcomed, and to these is now being vouchsafed an interpretation and exposition of spiritual truth far beyond any light, previously thrown upon life, its origin, nature and destiny, and the power of man to control the outward elements and most certainly his own body. We acknowledge without qualification an Infinite Supreme Power of perfect Love and Wisdom, and to the Infinite Being alone will we submit, but while we are absolutely certain that God is the one infinite truth in being, we do not allow that we as men and women are unable to so utilize and manifest divine power as to exhibit godlike

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qualities even on earth. There is a passage in the Psalms, which exactly states our position: All the whole heaven is the Lord’s, the earth hath he given to the children of men,” which signifies that while God is supreme in the universe as the life and soul of all, man has it in his power to subdue the earth, and therefore we do not raise any objection to the teachings of theosophists and transcendentalists who declare that man has such resources within himself that ultimately he can and will control the raging elements and show himself master of the whole earth. Swedenborg’s doctrine that man lives from God but appears to live from himself is perfectly reasonable, and the necessity of man’s appearing to live from himself while in reality he lives from God, is also made quite clear in the writings of this greatest of modern seers. Now as we have no intention of intrenching, in this lesson, on the views of Trinitarians versus Unitarians with regard to the deity or divinity of the personal Christ, we shall bring forward only such instances from the New Testament as are clearly intended to refer to the exercise of a spiritual power common to all mankind, but like every gift or talent, susceptible to cultivation and needing careful culture for its expansion.

 

            It is a very great mistake to suppose that spiritual gifts are so miraculous that they are the possession of a privileged few who have done nothing to merit them, while all others must remain hopelessly destitute of such endowments, however much they may desire to possess and use them. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone without exception, but to ail the same gift is not given, and where we often fail is in seeking to

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obtain what we have not when it would be wisdom on our part to cultivate what we have. A formal, routine system of school discipline is fatal to normal education, as all children are not adapted to the same pursuits, but no child, with proper care and training, need become or remain a dunce, an idiot or an invalid. Abnormal, unhealthy, unlovely conditions are unnatural. All works on pathology freely admit this. Then do not fall into the error of supposing that any one exists who has not some vocation, and who can not, by judicious treatment, be brought into a state of manifested health and harmony. Jesus chose his immediate followers from all ranks and stations. Previous to their call to follow him some had been fishermen, but others had belonged to the medical profession, and sat at the receipt of custom. They continued, in some instances at least, to ply their vocations after joining the apostolic band, as Paul continued his trade as a tent-maker after the greatest orations had fallen from his lips.

 

            Concentration of mind on a given object is the open door to success and without it genuine and stable success is impossible in any direction. Prayer and Faith must ever go together, as aspiration without confidence is well nigh useless, and belief without an endeavor to ascend to a higher interior realm is practically futile. We can pray without ceasing by unceasingly desiring to accomplish a definite result, we can continually exercise faith by refusing to allow our thoughts to be diverted even for an instant from the good toward which we unceasingly aspire, and we can truly fast or abstain by so subduing the lower to the higher nature that reason is lord over passion, while reason in its turn

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is rendered subject to the moral sense. These three necessities, faith, prayer and fasting can be so explained as to prove to every intelligent and fair-minded student that the words of Jesus, as recorded by the evangelists, are in exact accordance with demonstrable fact, therefore scholarly or sciolistic criticisms matter nothing, for while the scholar questions and the sciolist impudently denies the authenticity of the gospel tale the enlightened spiritual scientist assumes a position far in advance of historical controversy, a position which is in fact, utterly impregnable, for to those who understand the law governing the production of marvelous phenomena the recorded facts themselves are taken as illustrations of the consequences attendant upon a certain course of action and line of development, therefore history is of quite secondary importance so far as it refers to tine and place. It matters not whether persons believed to be dead were raised to life in Palestine 1800 or in Egypt 18,000 years ago, the question is, can the so-called dead be raised at all, is there a law which renders their resuscitation possible? History furnishes us with startling accounts of the prevalence of a power in the world confined however to exceptional individuals able to restore to physical health and vigor those pronounced dead by all other testimony than that of far-seeing intelligence consciously possessed by those alone whose lives have rendered them superior to every ordinary limitation of mortality. Leprosy is instanced as being cured by remarkable men in accordance with fixed law and unalterable conditions, and when we remember that “men of like passions with ourselves” accomplished these marvelous feats of spiritual prowess,

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no claim whatever being made that they were wrought only by Jesus, indeed, the exact opposite being positively stated in the Bible, we can afford to dismiss without attention the silly bombast of those rabid iconoclasts, who think they can wipe out by their absurd negations man’s confidence in what he can prove for himself independent of history, if he only forms the acquaintance of a great spiritual truth and harmonizes his conduct with his understanding of it.

 

            One of the most striking illustrations of spiritual agency overcoming what has been universally termed incurable disease, is the story of Elisha directing Naaman, the Syrian, to the mystical Jordan in whose cleansing streams every trace of leprosy was washed away. Now Elisha stood in the attitude of a guide, a teacher, a director, but he was in no sense a mesmerist, neither did he attribute Naaman’s recovery to any, potency inhering in his personality. Elisha was a prophet and the successor of a prophet. His fitness to tale Elijah’s place after the latter’s translation was determined altogether by his clear-sightedness. Elijah says to Elisha, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be evidence to you that my mantle has fallen upon you, but if you do not see me the hard thing you have asked can not be accomplished. Here at the outset we have presented to us a correct view of what Christains might call apostolic succession. Elisha had been both servant, student and companion to Elijah, for a long time, during which period innumerable opportunities had been afforded him of attaining the high rank of prophet or seer which signifies one in whom the power of insight into spiritual things is coupled with the ability

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to proclaim truth, and lead others into paths of wisdom. Elisha had so far profited by his discipleship to Elijah, as to have developed his spiritual perception to the point of ability to see and describe what was occurring on another plane than that of sense, he proves by this that his advantages have been improved, and that he is, therefore, ready to commence his journey as a witness to truth against every form of error and idolatry, and he testifies to the divinity of his mission by blessing the city into which he first enters, changing bitter and unwholesome waters into pure and sweet. If we could pause to linger over the incidents in Elisha’s ministry, we could, we think, convince you that his baldness was but typical of the absence of material pomp, authority and show which ever accompanies the highest type of spiritual worker. The children of the city who ridiculed him were those, (plentiful in every age and land) who deem externals all important and ridicule every truth, and all who proclaim it unless it is rendered outwardly attractive and presented with the pomp and display ever characterizing civil and ecclesiastical, imperialistic despotism. The children eaten by bears in the old figurative story to be found in the Book of Kings are like multitudes in Europe and America to-day who in consequence of slighting the only agent of redemption, the spiritual teaching which bids them forego externals and cultivate the spirit, find themselves devoured by the she-bears of the woods which Swedenborg so aptly describes as human affection for earthly and dangerous things.

 

            Elisha represents a man of unswerving integrity,

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and loyalty to principle and conviction, he therefore claims nothing for himself, and stands to the afflicted Naaman as a wise and helpful teacher and he tells this great Syrian captain to bathe seven times in the river Jordan. The name Jordan means a stream flowing front above, and therefore refers to those spiritual blessings which are obtainable only when we divest ourselves of confidence in material things, and permit the cleansing and illuminating grace of spirit to remove from us all earthly defilements. Naaman, justly proud of the beautiful situation of the city of Damascus, and attached to the broad flowing rivers Abana and Pharphar, desires to wash in them and be cleansed, but following the line of correspondence we shall see that these rivers represented external means of relief to apply to which in case of leprosy was manifestly absurd, as Oriental medicine and surgery had proved hopelessly impotent to relieve that terrible disorder. Now, as no miracle can possibly be performed except in accordance with universal law, Elisha could only point Naaman to the fount of healing, he could not heal him by any act of personal sovereignty or favor, nor in consideration of a proffered reward. All of you, who are seeking to excel in blessing others, remember always that though you can open doors and windows, and let in sunshine, you cannot create it, even though you can assist others into the light, persuading and directing them by every measure of persuasive force, you can not compel any one to avail him or herself of the means of salvation. Jesus, we are told, could do no mighty works in certain places because of the obstinate infidelity of the people, his

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disciples were directed to leave a sinful, sensual city, shaking its very dust from their sandals. No work of art has ever been more admired, or portrayed deeper pathos than Christ weeping over Jerusalem, mourning because the children of Jerusalem would not avail themselves of the only means which could possibly save them from degradation and distress. The great and leading error in modern thought is precisely the error of olden times. Call it the will of God, or maintain if you please that it is the operation of a blind law of necessity (though the latter position is insane), there is unmistakably a law in the universe which governs and regulates conditions so arbitrarily that no one’s wishes are respected in any case more than were Naaman’s preferences for the waters of Damascus.

 

            If the Jordan, or what it corresponded to, possessed healing virtue, then a prophet could point out the method whereby that regenerative force could be applied to the cure of an otherwise incurable disorder, and not only the prophet but the captain’s servants and friends could bring argument and moral suasion to bear to induce the suffering ruler to enter and bathe in the healing stream, but that was the extent of their united power. The folly of those who claim that spiritual scientists or metaphysical practitioners ignore the law of nature, or that those of any name who acknowledge the power of spirit as beyond that of “force” or “matter” believe absurdly that God changes or the universal order is reversed by prayer or any human effort, is commensurate only with their ignorance, and were it not for the almost invincible strength of blind prejudice it would be impossible

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for the merest tyro in logic, or a child who comprehends the ordinary use of language to fail to understand that so-called miracles are not in the slightest degree discordant with the immutable law and order of the universe recognized by materialists as a blind force, but by theists as the unvarying expression of divine intelligence. Never, under any conceivable circumstances, can two and two make other than four, never can oaks be raised except from acorns, never can one type be changed into another in the whole economy of nature, but nature’s resources are so little known that he is guilty of insane bombast who undertakes in this age of electrical appliances to deny that anything may not be accomplished which does not involve a reversal of the order of nature, or state a mathematical impossibility. One can never be three or seven, but at the same time the single ray of white light can be made manifest in three primary colors and seven prismatic hues and countless tints and shades, thus the essential life of the universe is one life, but its expression may be both three fold, seven fold and multiform. When in the future direct telegraphic communication is established between this earth and the planet Mars, it will be by means of an electrical system as natural as the overland telegraph or the sub-marine cable. What marvelous intellectual prodigies those men are who conceive the idea of modern appliances: the Canadian Pacific Railroad running as it sloes through a territory presenting at first sight utterly insurmountable barriers to the skill of the engineer, is a solid working testimony to the fact of mind surmounting any and every material barrier as it unfolds to perceive the method of such mastery.

 

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            Now shall one accept the Brooklyn Bridge and prospectively the tunnel under the English Channel uniting France and England and laugh to scorn predictions of further conquests over earth and tides? Does not the wise man speak very cautiously and with infinite reserve concerning the wildest dreams of future human attainment? All who think and observe must conclude that as intelligence unfolds things formerly considered utterly beyond the reach of possibility as well as probability actually will occur. Now to apply this precise reasoning to spiritual attainments we declare that what is meant by the three-fold command, believe, pray, fast, is that through the exercise of supreme confidence in spirit, coupled with sincere and constant aspiration and a complete subjection of the lower appetites to the higher promptings to the extent that transmutation is accomplished, wonders of healing can be wrought, truth can be stated and applied with reference to the entire economy of man’s finite expression in external form, equaling if not excelling the sublimest works performed in ancient Galilee. The Esoteric Magazine, published in Boston, constantly publishes very instructive articles giving practical directions in this line, all tending to prove the immutability of divine law and the certainty of success in spiritual directions if the affections are weaned from earth and centered in the things of the spirit. The question of will is one that is continually recurring and is a subject upon which more misapprehension prevails than perhaps any other. Mrs. Eddy and those calling themselves Christian scientists in general, have much to say against the exercise of personal will. Science and Health contains some particularly strong

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condemnations of mesmerism, but after all, you will note that Mrs. Eddy’s particular aversion is malicious mesmerism. Now all mesmeric operation is no more necessarily malicious than all speech is malicious. If Mrs. Eddy or any one else has discovered malpractice among her students and sees a danger resulting front the views entertained by some, she is conscientiously and humanely fulfilling her duty by calling attention to erroneous beliefs and practices, but wholesale condemnation of what is usually classed as mesmerism is unwise as she herself admits it can either kill or cure. Its curative proprieties are as serviceable as the constructive action of electricity, while its destructive action may be likened to the electric flame, striking and demolishing a building or blasting a handsome tree.

 

            Personal will must be subdued to universal divine will, or it runs riot and proves itself an outlaw, while all selfish abuses of psychology inevitably lead to the misery alike of those who operate and those who are operated upon. Hypnotism, now so fashionable, is not a desirable form of psychology, as the hypnotic state is one of subjective insensibility, but whenever experiments are successfully proven in such directions, it is because the one who entrances is more fully in the light than the one entranced. Modern Spiritualism during the past four decades has amply illustrated how much good and evil can emanate apparently from the same source. Psychologists and Spiritualists will always be in danger till they learn that subjection to the higher is the only safeguard against control by the lower. Our paramount resolve must ever be to educate, not coerce, to unite ourselves Iovingly, willingly, completely

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with whatever appeals to us as highest and divinest in the universe. We can not succeed as rebels forever militating against universal order; we can not turn the eternal current of infinite energy out of its course because we, like straws or tiny boats, are struggling to float or row against the stream. If, as Matthew Arnold said, there is a stream of tendency ever making for righteousness, is it not wisdom on the part of all to seek to move in and with this glorious current, not to strive against it? The prayer of Jesus, “Father, not my will, but thine be done,” is the very essence of profound wisdom, for what man is there however great, who can control the Pleiades or Orion to borrow appropriate similes from the book of Job? He is a lunatic, mad with pride, staggering through the intoxication of vanity, who can gaze at the matchless order of the universe and say with the foolish ones, “There is no God.” The utter puerility of atheism or blank materialism is so contemptible as to make every genuine rationalist pray that modern infidels may learn wisdom from one of their own favorite text-books, Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason, in which that celebrated deist reveals atheism in its true light and atheism or infidelity with a ghost, professed by some utterly illogical spiritualists, is the most hopelessly chaotic system ever presented to any public.

 

            Now listen to the reasoning of some spiritualists who are utterly unwilling to affirm the being of Deity. They declare most reasonably that intelligence acts through force upon matter. This explanation of the phenomena of existence can scarcely be improved upon, but it at once strikes the reflective mind that every

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manifestation of intelligence through matter is the expression of intelligence at least commensurate with such expression. Now while there are many forms of existence below man, displaying far less intelligence than man, man is utterly unable to create. There is a law lie can not set aside, immutably fixed by an intelligence far superior to his own. Now this law proves God, i.e., Supreme Intelligence, as no law can exist save as it is a manifestation of mind, the being of God is axiomatically proven through this universal law, and the fact that man can discover, obey or rebel against this law but can not possibly change it, is to the thinker proof direct of an infinite and unchangeable intelligence, for law is unknown among men save as it is the result and embodiment of intelligence. It would be just as reasonable to argue that a state was governed by law and then deny the existence of any human will back of that law producing and enforcing it, as to deny the sovereignty of Infinite Will, Eternal Spirit. Now the renunciation of our human will is not required of us. Our will is a talent to be used not renounced. The true attitude of the human will is an intelligent acquiescence with the divine will, a perfect surrender of pride and rebellion, and a loving, harmonious union with the Infinite.

 

            In union is strength, in disunion is impotence. Houses divided against themselves cannot stand, and it is because men and women are continually warring against each other, that they are weak, sick and generally wretched and unsuccessful. To gain perfect power over the lower self, and to become strong enough to resist all defiant elements, to live above the reach of

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disease, is to accomplish a conscious voluntary union with the Infinite Will. Now this union the divine is diametrically opposed to the relinquishment of freedom. Our freedom is never so great, never so dearly prized as when with an absolutely free spirit, in perfect liberty we elect to walk in paths of righteousness and peace. To love the divine law, to obey it from love, to apprehend something of its perfect wisdom, and to choose the path of wisdom and deliberately walk therein, is to follow the only course which intuition and common-sense recommend alike. Now if any of you feel sick, sad, lonely, desolate, and you turn in thought to the Infinite, your cares wilt be dismissed, your burdens lifted, your sorrows assuaged, while hope will immediately resume the place left vacant by despair. The greater works which Jesus said should be performed by his disciples, may be understood in two ways: 1st, The obvious meaning is that what had hitherto been confined to a very circumscribed area should at length cover the globe; and 2nd, as the minds of men expand, they are over becoming ready for greater marvels than would have been of any use before. No matter how much a teacher knows, instruction must ever keep pace with the comprehension of the scholars; because a learned professor can solve an intricate problem in the higher mathematics, does not prove that any among his class are prepared for its solution before them, and were it solved in their presence, it would be practically unsolved for all save the professor. If a divine voice speaks and but a few can hear what it utters, the multitude may confound the sound with ordinary thunder, the fault is not with the voice that speaks in thrilling

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tones of perfect distinctness, but with the deaf ears of the auditors. The voice of truth is ever speaking, but as the world only gradually advances to a point where many can interpret the voice of truth or behold its form, the voice seems to be ever drawing nearer and speaking more clearly to men, the voice speaks as it always spoke, the light shines as it always shone, the processes of nature are continued as they always were, but the hearing ear, the seeing eye, and truly understanding heart are only by continuous and apparently slow processes of growth unfolded to perceive and understand these “mysteries.” Dr. James Martineau, one of the most deeply spiritual minds in the Unitarian denomination introduced a beautiful canticle into his Ten Services for Public Worship, commencing with the words: “Blessed be the Lord God of ages, who ever delighteth to draw more nigh. In the morning of the world he appeareth from afar, in the evening he draweth nigh to abide with us forever.” This quotation conveys the aspect of divine revelation, as seen  by students of evolution, but as all human perceptions of truth are relative, it is no more absolutely true that the Eternal One draws gradually nigh to his children, than that the sun draws gradually near to the earth. In the Mosaic account of creation, the doctrine of gradual and successive developments is stated in such a manner as to lead the uninitiated to suppose that whoever was the author of the Pentateuch, taught the astronomical absurdity that the earth was created before the sun. Interpret the record in the light of science and you will at once perceive that the theory is, that at the time when the moon was formed, through the separation

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of an encircling ring from the earth, the sun and stars began to appear, just as colors are a new creation to a man born blind when he first beholds them, and sounds are a new creation to one who was deaf from birth, but whose ears are now for the first time unstopped. Transposing the idea of revelation it is at once comprehensible and accordant with all science, but let it remain in its old groove and it suggests the idea of a fitful Deity. Once we understand that the ability to perform any wonder is ours, so soon as we discover the law which makes a result possible, once we get free of the false belief that God or nature is partial, once we behold universal law in place of chance or caprice, and nothing is any longer impossible save a mathematical absurdity.

 

            Fear in the sense of dread is the great obstacle to human liberty, fear in the sense of doubt is the great drawback to success in all matters where confident decision is required, fear in the sense of reverence, respect, submission to divine guidance is the beginning of wisdom. But in its good sense the word fear is now very rarely used, therefore we do not commend to you even the fear of God as recommended in the Proverbs of Solomon. Perfect love casteth out all fear, we can not fear what we love perfectly, fear causes men to tremble and cringe even before a partially beloved object, fear and love hold divided sway in many a heart and you are doubtless all of you able to relate some chapters in your own experience when you trembled at the approach of one you thought you loved. All that we deem superior excites to awe until through the fullness of our love, all terror is displaced. Before we can heal

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ourselves or others perfectly, we must have lost all fear and then with liberty to utilize our every faculty and gift we shall be equal to every emergency and ready at all times to obey the summons of the Spirit. Strive to excel in calm confident assurance that all is well, in quietness is strength, the calmer we are the more we can accomplish. Anything like haste or nervousness is at deadly variance with success. Do not seek to fight a disease, do not attack an ailment, but transfer your thought to the perfection of life immortal and let the soul act. This is the secret of power.