If belief says that food disturbs the harmonious functions of mind and body, either the food or the illusion must be dispensed with. Which shall it be? If this belief be not destroyed, it may some day say that you are dying from want of food; for the penalty is thus coupled with the belief. The less we know or think about hygiene, the less we are predisposed to sickness.
It is sometimes said that the uncivilized Red Men are more exempt from contagious diseases than the more enlightened races. Our missionaries may introduce measles and small-pox to the Gentiles, but do they show them, either by precept or example, the power of God, Truth, to prevent and destroy disease? The poor Indian, ignorant of what is termed hygienic law, is healthier than the devotee of this supposed law. Must we not then call it a law “more honored in the breach than the observance”?
Even the hope of freedom from the bondage of sickness and sin has little inspiration to nerve our endeavors, owing to our fatal belief that error is as real as Truth, — that evil is equal in power to good, if not superior, and that discord is as normal as harmony.
If man did not exist before his material organization, he cannot exist after the body is disintegrated. If we live after death, and are immortal, we must have lived before birth; for if Life ever had any beginning, it must have also an ending, according to all scientific calculations. Do you believe this? No! Do you understand it? No! And this is why you doubt the statement, and the facts it implies.
We weep because others weep, we yawn because they yawn, and we have small-pox because others have it; but
