Page:Science and Health.djvu/34

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SCIENCE AND HEALTH.

to-day, and forever. Life is Intelligence, the Principle that is Soul or Spirit, and there is but one Spirit or Soul of the universe and man. If Life was in man, matter would govern itself, and Spirit would be a portion of matter; therefore, God would be Spirit and matter. No portion of the Infinite can enter the finite; Life and Intelligence that are infinite are not mortal man. But may there not be a portion of God in man and matter? This is equally impossible, for the least part of Spirit would destroy matter, for matter is non-Intelligence, not a power matched against Spirit; it is mortality only, and the immortal is Spirit.

God is Principle, — the Truth, and Soul of man, and man is “the image and likeness of God.” Again, God is substance and Life, hence man is but the image and likeness of these; man is not Truth, Life, or Love. God is Spirit, and man the image and likeness of Him; therefore, man is not matter, but idea, and idea no more contains its Principle than figures embrace the rule of mathematics. We have no resort but to reduce God to a level with man, or look away from man for his Substance, Life, and Intelligence, all of which must be outside of matter, or at the mercy of sin, sickness, and death. Darkness may hide the sun, but cannot put it out. Sickness, sin, and death are darkness, or moral ignorance that hide Truth, Life, and Love, but cannot extinguish them, or their idea, cannot destroy God or man. The stand-point whence to reckon man is not matter, but Spirit. The Soul of man is never lost, insomuch as it is God, Principle, and man its idea, and both are eternal; hence the immortality of Soul and body. Infinite Soul embraces perfect understanding,