not materiality, but spirituality, was the reality of man's existence; while to the rabbi, the spiritual was the intangible and prospective, if not the unreal.
The Israelites centred their thoughts on the material, in their attempted worship of the spiritual. To them matter was Substance, and Spirit was shadow. They thought to worship Spirit from a material standpoint, but this was impracticable. They might appeal to Jehovah, but their prayer brought down no proof that it was heard, because they did not sufficiently understand God as able to demonstrate His power to heal, — to make harmony a reality, and to make discord the unreality.
If my critic had a child who was frightened at imaginary ghosts, and sick in consequence of her fear, would he say to her: “Ghosts are real. They exist, and are to be feared; but you must not be afraid of them”?
The child, like the adult, ought to fear a reality that can harm him, and which he does not understand; for at any moment she may become its helpless victim. But instead of increasing the fear of his child, by declaring ghosts to be real, merciless, and powerful, thus watering the very roots of the child's timidity, would he not assure the child her fears were groundless, that ghosts are not realities, but beliefs, and that these beliefs are erroneous and human?
In short, he would tell her not to believe in ghosts, for there are no such things; knowing, if he destroys her belief in their reality, her terror will depart and her health be restored; because the objects of her alarm will vanish into nothingness, no longer seeming worthy of fear or honor. To accomplish a good result, it is certainly not irrational to tell the truth about ghosts.
