nfusion--religious
confusion. Each has a different concept of God; yet they all believe
Him the creator of a man of flesh and bones, a man who was originally
made perfect, but who fell, and was then cursed by the good and
perfect God who made him. Oh, what childish views for men to hold and
preach! How could a good God create anything that could fall? And if
He could, and did, then He knew in advance that the man would fall,
and so God becomes responsible, not man. Oh, Doctor, is it possible
that you believe such stuff? How can you! how can you! Is it any
wonder that, holding such awful views, you preachers have no longer
the power to heal the sick? Do you not know that, in order to heal the
sick, one must become spiritually-minded? But no one who holds to the
puerile material beliefs embraced in your orthodox theology can
possibly be spiritual enough to do the works Jesus said we should all
do if we followed him--really understood him."

"My dear child--you really are quite inconsistent--you--"

"Inconsistent! What a charge for an orthodox preacher to bring! Let us
see: You say that the Scriptures teach that God made man in His image
and likeness--the image and likeness of spirit. Very well. Spirit,
God, is eternal, immortal. Then while He exists can His image fade
away, or die? Can or would God cause it to do so? Can or would He
destroy His own reflection? And could that image, always being like
Him, ever change, or manifest sin, or disease, or evil, unless God
first manifested these things? And if God did manifest them, then,
perforce, the image would _have_ to do likewise. But, in that case,
could God justly punish His image for faithfully reflecting its
original? Consistent! Oh, it is you preachers, lacking sufficient
spirituality to correctly interpret the Scriptures, who are wildly,
childishly, ignorantly inconsistent!"

Carmen rose and faced the clergyman. "I did not mean to condemn
you, Doctor," she said earnestly. "I wage no warfare with persons
or things. My opposition is directed only against the entrenched human
thought that makes men spiritually blind and holds them in the
mesmeric chains of evil. I am young, as you reckon years, but I
have had much experience in the realm of thought--and it is there
that all experience is wrought out before it becomes externalized.
I have told you, my teacher was God. He used as a channel a priest,
who came years ago to my little home town of Simiti, in far-off
Colomb