Chapter VIII - Footsteps Of Truth
Hygiene ineffectual
220:1
We hear it said: "I exercise daily in the open air. I
We hear it said: "I exercise daily in the open air. I
take cold baths, in order to overcome a predisposition to
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,
and induce sufferers to look in other directions for cause
and cure.
220:8
Instinct is better than misguided reason, as even na-
Instinct is better than misguided reason, as even na-
ture declares. The violet lifts her blue eye to greet the
early spring. The leaves clap their hands as nature's
untired worshippers. The snowbird sings and soars
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-
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
Mortal mind produces its own phenomena, and then
charges them to something else, – like a kitten
glancing into the mirror at itself and thinking
it sees another kitten.
220:22
A clergyman once adopted a diet of bread and water
A clergyman once adopted a diet of bread and water
to increase his spirituality. Finding his health failing,
he gave up his abstinence, and advised others never to
try dietetics for growth in grace.
Volition far-reaching
220:26
The belief that either fasting or feasting makes men
The belief that either fasting or feasting makes men
better morally or physically is one of the fruits of "the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil," con-
cerning which God said, "Thou shalt not eat
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
I knew a person who when quite a child adopted the
Graham system to cure dyspepsia. For many years, he
ate only bread and vegetables, and drank noth-
ing but water. His dyspepsia increasing, he
decided that his diet should be more rigid, and
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
he should not wet his parched throat until three hours
after eating. He passed many weary years in hunger
and weakness, almost in starvation, and finally made up
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,
and he is now in perfect health without a vestige of the
old complaint.
221:17
He learned that suffering and disease were the self‑
He learned that suffering and disease were the self‑
imposed beliefs of mortals, and not the facts of being;
that God never decreed disease, – never ordained a law
that fasting should be a means of health. Hence semi‑
starvation is not acceptable to wisdom, and it is equally
far from Science, in which being is sustained by God, Mind.
These truths, opening his eyes, relieved his stomach, and
he ate without suffering, "giving God thanks;" but he
never enjoyed his food as he had imagined he would
when, still the slave of matter, he thought of the flesh-
pots of Egypt, feeling childhood's hunger and undisci-
plined by self-denial and divine Science.
Mind and stomach
221:29
This new-born understanding, that neither food nor
This new-born understanding, that neither food nor
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