Page:The Quimby Manuscripts.djvu/212

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208
CHRIST OR SCIENCE

it. The same subject is in the world now that was at the time when Jesus put His theory into practice. He gave His disciples knowledge to put the same into practice for the benefit of mankind.

Who art thou, man, that shall say to the poor and sick, lame and blind, that the person who can help you is a “humbug” or acting under the direction of the devil? If the devil will take your aches and pains and relieve you, cling to him, and at the end of your disease you will see that this devil is the same one who was crucified eighteen hundred years ago, by just such enemies to the sick as they have now. I, for one, am willing to be called a humbug by all such people. I have the same class to uphold me that Jesus had, the sick. The well opposed Him, and the well oppose me. I do not set myself up as an equal with Jesus, or any other man, but I do profess to believe in that principle that Jesus taught, which I call Christ. That I try to put into practice as far as I understand it, and the sick are my judges, not the well; for as the well need no physician they cannot judge me. Neither am I willing to be judged by the creeds till they can show that their belief is above their natural power. I shall not take their opinions of what they know nothing about. I will draw a line between the professor of Christ and myself, and leave the sick to pass judgment. As I have the Bible I have the same means of judging as any one, for every one has a right to his opinion concerning it. But there is no truth in an opinion unless it can be put into practice as Christ put His into practice. Then it becomes a fact.

What does Jesus Himself say of this power? He admitted it, for He says, “of myself I can do nothing,” thus admitting a power superior to Himself; and also when asked a question by His disciples, He said, “No man knoweth, not the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but My father only.” At another time when asked by a scribe who had been listening to Jesus, while He reasoned with a Sadducee, “What is the first commandment of all?” Jesus answered “The first commandment is Hear, Oh, Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” Here He admits a supreme power, and says, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself.”

The young man said unto Him, “Well, Master, thou hast said truly, for there is one God, and there is none other than