Page:Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1906).djvu/182

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
166
Science and Health

the whole thing; for matter has no sensation of its own, and the human mind is all that can produce pain.

As a man thinketh, so is he. Mind is all that feels, acts, or impedes action. Ignorant of this, or shrinking from its implied responsibility, the healing effort is made on the wrong side, and thus the conscious control over the body is lost.

The Mohammedan believes in a pilgrimage to Mecca for the salvation of his soul. The popular doctor believes Delusions pagan and medical in his prescription, and the pharmacist believes in the power of his drugs to save a man's life. The Mohammedan's belief is a religious delusion; the doctor's and pharmacist's is a medical mistake.

The erring human mind is inharmonious in itself. From it arises the inharmonious body. To ignore Health from reliance on spirituality God as of little use in sickness is a mistake. Instead of thrusting Him aside in times of bodily trouble, and waiting for the hour of strength in which to acknowledge Him, we should learn that He can do all things for us in sickness as in health.

Failing to recover health through adherence to physiology and hygiene, the despairing invalid often drops them, and in his extremity and only as a last resort, turns to God. The invalid's faith in the divine Mind is less than in drugs, air, and exercise, or he would have resorted to Mind first. The balance of power is conceded to be with matter by most of the medical systems; but when Mind at last asserts its mastery over sin, disease, and death, then is man found to be harmonious and immortal.