Page:Science and Health.djvu/183

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SPIRIT AND MATTER.
179

boundaries and break the strong chains of old opinions. You must take up this cross if you follow Christ, Truth, and never hold on to what you cannot understand, or breathe an immoral atmosphere that you cannot purify. When error confronts you, spare not the rebuke, or the explanation that destroys it, if you would benefit yourself or others; but if, “having ears they hear not, neither will they understand, that they might be converted and you might heal them,” thereafter let them alone, but be sure you drop into no conservative position; always keep well burnished your own armour. To sustain yourself in Truth, you must meet error with a protest, and once beholding the beauty of holiness, you are willing to leave all for it. To gather yourself with sinners hardens the heart. When the spiritual sense of being unfolds Life's harmonies, you will take no risks in the policy of error; far better is a frugal meal with contentment and virtue, than the many gods of luxury and sense. If you are not a Christian to-day, delay not to become one, for no opportunity equals the present. We are not neutral; all have some weight; then let the influence we exert be thrown in the right scale.

Nothing is mortal that deserves to continue; therefore decay belongs not to Truth; all that dies is the offspring of belief, and not understanding. Left to the government of Truth, all would be found harmonious and eternal. Nothing in matter equals the power of mind; the baneful effects of an evil associate are more terrible than earthquakes or pestilence. The influence one mind holds over another should be understood and guarded with stronger keepers than it is. The