truth is conveyed to the mind, namely, that man was created in a state of happiness. And had he observed the Divine commands,—that is, the laws of Divine order, in which, as declared, he was expressly instructed,—he would, doubtless, have continued in that happy state; and human life would have been, as above described, a paradisiacal and joyous one.
But man, abusing that freedom of thought and action, which (as shown in the preceding Chapter) necessarily belonged to him as man,—disobeyed the Divine commands, violated the laws of Divine order, and so, perverting his moral nature, precipitated himseIf into evil. With moral disorder came physical disorder, as cause produces effect. The body was created to be the servant and instrument of the mind; and, discharging those its proper functions, it responds to, and, as it were, sympathizes with the mind's varying states. When the master is bright and cheerful, the servant, reflecting its master's look, is brisk and alert, also,—ready to do cheerily it's lord's will and pleasure, when the master is dull, the servant is heavy and languid, too. The body is quickly and correspondingly affected by the changing states of the mind. It is also the case, indeed, that the body reacts and influences the mental states. And especially, in man's present depraved and disordered condition, when the servant has been so long allowed to rule,—when the sensual passions and appetites have been so long given way to, and have been permitted to tyrannise over, to brutalize, and almost to destroy, man's higher and purer nature,—the order of things with many seems at length to have become almost completely inverted, and the healthful or disordered state of the body seems to de-
