University of Virginia Library

Matter is not substance

If matter, so-called, is substance, then Spirit, matter's unlikeness, must be shadow; and shadow cannot produce substance. The theory that Spirit is not the only substance and creator is pantheistic het- erodoxy, which ultimates in sickness, sin, and death; it is the belief in a bodily soul and a material mind, a soul governed by the body and a mind in matter. This be- lief is shallow pantheism.

Mind creates His own likeness in ideas, and the sub- stance of an idea is very far from being the supposed sub- stance of non-intelligent matter. Hence the Father Mind is not the father of matter. The material senses and human conceptions would translate spiritual ideas into material beliefs, and would say that an anthropomorphic God, instead of infinite Principle, - in other words, divine Love, - is the father of the rain, "who hath begotten the drops of dew," who bringeth "forth Mazzaroth in his sea- son," and guideth "Arcturus with his sons."