entire wisdom of the text; and this statement receives the mortal scoff only because it meets the immortal demands of Truth. The Science of Paul's declaration resolves the element misnamed matter into its original sin, or human will; that will which would oppose bringing the qualities of Spirit into subjection to Spirit. Sin brought death; and death is an element of matter, or material falsity, never of Spirit.
When Jesus reproduced his body after its burial, he revealed the myth or material falsity of evil; its powerlessness to destroy good, and the omnipotence of the Mind that knows this: he also showed forth the error and nothingness of supposed life in matter, and the great somethingness of the good we possess, which is of Spirit, and immortal.
Understanding this, Paul took pleasure in infirmities, for it enabled him to triumph over them, — he declared that “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death;” he took pleasure in “reproaches” and “persecutions,” because they were so many proofs that he had wrought the problem of being beyond the common apprehension of sinners; he took pleasure in “necessities,” for they tested and developed latent power.
We protect our dwellings more securely after a robbery, and our jewels have been stolen; so, after losing those jewels of character, — temperance, virtue, and truth, — the young man is awakened to bar his door against further robberies.
Go to the bedside of pain, and there you can demonstrate the triumph of good that has pleasure in infirmities; because it illustrates through the flesh the divine power
