vil _ad infinitum_.
Christian Science rends this veil in the pantheon of many gods, and
reproduces the teachings of Jesus, whose philosophy is incontestable, bears
the strain of time, and brings in the glories of eternity; "for other
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."
Divine philosophy is demonstrably the true idea of the Christ, wherein
Principle heals and saves. A philosophy which cannot heal the sick has
little resemblance to Science, and is, to say the least, like a cloud
without rain, "driven about by every wind of doctrine." Such philosophy
has certainly not touched the hem of the Christ garment.
Leibnitz, Descartes, Fichte, Hegel, Spinoza, Bishop Berkeley, were once
clothed with a "brief authority;" but Berkeley ended his metaphysical
theory with a treatise on the healing properties of tar-water, and Hegel
was an inveterate snuff-taker. The circumlocution and cold categories of
Kant fail to improve the conditions of mortals, morally, spiritually, or
physically. Such miscalled metaphysical systems are reeds shaken by the
wind. Compared with the inspired wisdom and infinite meaning of the Word of
Truth, they are as moonbeams to the sun, or as Stygian night to the
kindling dawn.
IS THERE A PERSONAL DEVIL?
No man hath seen the person of good or of evil. Each is greater than the
corporeality we behold.
"He cast out _devils_." This record shows that the term devil is generic,
being used in the plural number. From this it follows that there is more
than one devil. That Jesus cast several persons out of another person, is
not stated, and is impossible. Hence the passage must refer to the _evils_
which were cast out.
Jesus defined devil as a mortal who is full of evil. "Have I not chosen you
twelve, and one of you _is a devil_?" His definition of evil indicated his
ability to cast it out. An incorrect concept of the nature of evil hinders
the destruction of evil. To conceive of God as resembling--in personality,
or form--the personality that Jesus condemned as devilish, is fraught with
spiritual danger. Evil can neither grasp the prerogative of God nor make
evil omnipotent and omnipresent.
Jesus said to Peter, "Get thee behind me, Satan;" but he to whom our Lord
gave the keys of the kingdom could not have been wholly evil, and therefore
was not a _devil_, after the accepted definition. Out of the Magdalen,
Jesus cast seven devils; but not one person was named among t
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