Part 32 (2/2)

When this is understood, we shall never affirm concern- 219:15 ing the body what we do not wish to have manifested. We shall not call the body weak, if we would have it strong; for the belief in feebleness must obtain in the human 219:18 mind before it can be made manifest on the body, and the destruction of the belief will be the removal of its effects. Science includes no rule of discord, but governs 219:21 harmoniously. ”The wish,” says the poet, ”is ever father to the thought.”

Scientific beginning

We may hear a sweet melody, and yet misunderstand 219:24 the science that governs it. Those who are healed through metaphysical Science, not compre- hending the Principle of the cure, may misun- 219:27 derstand it, and impute their recovery to change of air or diet, not rendering to G.o.d the honor due to Him alone.

Entire immunity from the belief in sin, suffering, and 219:30 death may not be reached at this period, but we may look for an abatement of these evils; and this scientific begin- ning is in the right direction.

Hygiene ineffectual

220:1 We hear it said: ”I exercise daily in the open air. I take cold baths, in order to overcome a predisposition to 220:3 take cold; and yet I have continual colds, catarrh, and cough.” Such admissions ought to open people's eyes to the inefficacy of material hygiene, 220:6 and induce sufferers to look in other directions for cause and cure.

Instinct is better than misguided reason, as even na- 220:9 ture declares. The violet lifts her blue eye to greet the early spring. The leaves clap their hands as nature's untired wors.h.i.+ppers. The s...o...b..rd sings and soars 220:12 amid the blasts; he has no catarrh from wet feet, and procures a summer residence with more ease than a na- bob. The atmosphere of the earth, kinder than the at- 220:15 mosphere of mortal mind, leaves catarrh to the latter.

Colds, coughs, and contagion are engendered solely by human theories.

The reflex phenomena

220:18 Mortal mind produces its own phenomena, and then charges them to something else, - like a kitten glancing into the mirror at itself and thinking 220:21 it sees another kitten.

A clergyman once adopted a diet of bread and water to increase his spirituality. Finding his health failing, 220:24 he gave up his abstinence, and advised others never to try dietetics for growth in grace.

Volition far-reaching

The belief that either fasting or feasting makes men 220:27 better morally or physically is one of the fruits of ”the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” con- cerning which G.o.d said, ”Thou shalt not eat 220:30 of it.” Mortal mind forms all conditions of the mortal body, and controls the stomach, bones, lungs, heart, blood, etc., as directly as the volition or will moves the hand.

Starvation and dyspepsia

221:1 I knew a person who when quite a child adopted the Graham system to cure dyspepsia. For many years, he 221:3 ate only bread and vegetables, and drank noth- ing but water. His dyspepsia increasing, he decided that his diet should be more rigid, and 221:6 thereafter he partook of but one meal in twenty-four hours, this meal consisting of only a thin slice of bread without water. His physician also recommended that 221:9 he should not wet his parched throat until three hours after eating. He pa.s.sed many weary years in hunger and weakness, almost in starvation, and finally made up 221:12 his mind to die, having exhausted the skill of the doctors, who kindly informed him that death was indeed his only alternative. At this point Christian Science saved him, 221:15 and he is now in perfect health without a vestige of the old complaint.

He learned that suffering and disease were the self- 221:18 imposed beliefs of mortals, and not the facts of being; that G.o.d never decreed disease, - never ordained a law that fasting should be a means of health. Hence semi- 221:21 starvation is not acceptable to wisdom, and it is equally far from Science, in which being is sustained by G.o.d, Mind.

These truths, opening his eyes, relieved his stomach, and 221:24 he ate without suffering, ”giving G.o.d thanks;” but he never enjoyed his food as he had imagined he would when, still the slave of matter, he thought of the flesh- 221:27 pots of Egypt, feeling childhood's hunger and undisci- plined by self-denial and divine Science.

Mind and stomach

This new-born understanding, that neither food nor 221:30 the stomach, without the consent of mortal mind, can make one suffer, brings with it an- other lesson, - that gluttony is a sensual illusion, and 222:1 that this phantasm of mortal mind disappears as we better apprehend our spiritual existence and ascend the ladder 222:3 of life.

This person learned that food affects the body only as mortal mind has its material methods of working, one 222:6 of which is to believe that proper food supplies nutriment and strength to the human system. He learned also that mortal mind makes a mortal body, whereas Truth re- 222:9 generates this fleshly mind and feeds thought with the bread of Life.

Food had less power to help or to hurt him after he 222:12 had availed himself of the fact that Mind governs man, and he also had less faith in the so-called pleasures and pains of matter. Taking less thought about what he 222:15 should eat or drink, consulting the stomach less about the economy of living and G.o.d more, he recovered strength and flesh rapidly. For many years he had 222:18 been kept alive, as was believed, only by the strictest ad- herence to hygiene and drugs, and yet he continued ill all the while. Now he dropped drugs and material 222:21 hygiene, and was well.

He learned that a dyspeptic was very far from being the image and likeness of G.o.d, - far from having ”do- 222:24 minion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle,” if eating a bit of animal flesh could overpower him. He finally concluded that G.o.d 222:27 never made a dyspeptic, while fear, hygiene, physiology, and physics had made him one, contrary to His commands.

Life only in Spirit

In seeking a cure for dyspepsia consult matter not at 222:30 all, and eat what is set before you, ”asking no question for conscience sake.” We must destroy the false belief that life and intelligence are in 223:1 matter, and plant ourselves upon what is pure and per- fect. Paul said, ”Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not 223:3 fulfil the l.u.s.t of the flesh.” Sooner or later we shall learn that the fetters of man's finite capacity are forged by the illusion that he lives in body instead of in Soul, in matter 223:6 instead of in Spirit.

Soul greater than body

Matter does not express Spirit. G.o.d is infinite omni- present Spirit. If Spirit is _all_ and is everywhere, what 223:9 and where is matter? Remember that truth is greater than error, and we cannot put the greater into the less. Soul is Spirit, and Spirit is greater 223:12 than body. If Spirit were once within the body, Spirit would be finite, and therefore could not be Spirit.

The question of the ages

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