● ● ● in a point-by-point confrontation of the “unreal” by the “real.” To range one’s thinking on the side of being was, she insisted, to have something happen. It was to have reality break through appearance, the Word become flesh.
Of words as words she always maintained a troubled suspicion. In “The Science of Man,” in answer to the question, “What is prayer?” she wrote in part, “words can deceive, thoughts are more safe, until we have grown up to every word we utter, for every idle word we are judged by Wisdom.”153 Her emphasis then as later was on the need for demonstration rather than for profession, and by this she always meant demonstration in terms of practical living and particularly of healing.
In “The Soul’s Enquiries of Man,” written at that time, Soul’s inquiries are practical Christian demands, as in the following typical passage:
Do you speak the truth and live the truth up to your highest understanding of what is right and think not to deceive? for nothing is hid from wisdom that shall not be revealed and Wisdom rewards and punishes; therefore at some time you will be rewarded according to a just judgment; then will the soul whisper to man “If you suffer from error your reward is in getting out of it; but if you suffer from truth you will be rewarded with truth, and this will help you to rise above the world and give you peace that the world knoweth not of. If when you are persecuted for truth you are so drawn into the atmosphere of your persecutors as to feel yourself their feelings of hate and malice, then are you in danger but if when they curse, you can bless, then have you overcome your enemies and gained a great conquest over matter and Error.”154
After a number of such inquiries and instructions, this companion essay to “The Science of Man” concludes, “To live the above will take you further into Science than all else can do.” Understanding was more ● ● ●