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Speaker 1: Bodily conditions. There are to day scores of distinct schools

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devoted to the healing of the body, a fact which

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shows the great prevalence of physical suffering, as the hundreds

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of religions devoted to the comforting of men's minds prove

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the universality of mental suffering. Each of these schools has

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its place in so far as it is able to

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relieve suffering, even where it does not eradicate the evil.

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For with all these schools of healing, the fact of

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disease and pain remains with us, just as sin and

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sorrow remain in spite of the many religions. Disease and pain,

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like sin and sorrow, are too deep seated to be

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removed by palliatives. Our ailments have an ethical cause, deeply

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rooted in the mind. I do not infer by this

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that physical conditions have no part in disease. They play

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an important part as instruments, as factors in the chain

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of causation. The microbe that carried the black death was

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the instrument of uncleanliness, and uncleanliness is primarily a moral disorder.

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Matter is visible mind, and that bodily conflict which we

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call disease has a causal affinity to that mental conflict

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which is associated with sin. In his present human or

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self conscious state, man's mind is continually being disturbed by

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violently conflicting desires, and his body attacked by morbid elements.

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He is in a state of mental in harmony and

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bodily discomfort. Animals in their wild and primitive state are

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free from disease because they are free from in harmony.

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They are in accord with their surroundings, have no moral responsibility,

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in no sense of sin, and are free from those

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violent disturbances of remorse, grief, disappointment, et cetera, which are

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so destructive of man's harmony and happiness, and their bodies

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are not afflicted. As man ascends into the divine or

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cosmic conscious state, he will leave behind and below him

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all these inner conflicts, will overcome sin and all sense

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of sin, and will dispel remorse and sorrow. Being thus

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restored to mental harmony, he will become restored to bodily harmony,

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to wholeness health. The body is the image of the mind,

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and in it our trace the visible features of hidden thoughts.

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The outer obeys the inner, and the enlightened. Scientists of

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the future may be able to trace every bodily disorder

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to its ethical cause. And the mentality, mental harmony, or

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moral wholeness makes for bodily health. I say makes for it,

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for it will not produce it magically, as it were,

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as though one should swallow a bottle of medicine and

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then be whole and free. But if the mentality is

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becoming more poised and restles, if the moral structure is increasing,

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then a sure foundation of bodily wholeness is being laid.

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The forces are being conserved and are receiving a better

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direction and adjustment. And even if perfect health is not gained,

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the bodily derangement, whatever it may be, will have lost

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its power to undermine the strengthened and uplifted mind. One

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who suffers in body will not necessarily at once be

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cured when he begins to fashion his mind on moral

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and harmonious principles. Indeed, for a time, while the body

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is bringing to a crisis and throwing off the effects

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of former in harmonies, the morbid condition may appear to

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be intensified. As man does not gain perfect peace immediately

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he enters upon the path of righteousness, but must except

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in rare instances pass through a painful period of adjustment.

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Neither does he with the same rare exceptions at once

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acquire perfect health. Time is required for bodily as well

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as mental readjustment, and even if health is not reached,

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it will be approached. If the mind be made robust,

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the bodily condition will take a secondary and subordinate place,

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and will cease to have that primary importance which so

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many give to it. If a disorder is not cured,

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the mind can rise above it and refuse to be

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subdued by it. One can be happy, strong, and useful

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in spite of it. The statement so often made by

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health specialists that a useful and happy life is impossible

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without bodily health is disproved by the fact that numbers

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of men who have accomplished the greatest works, men of

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genius and superior talent in all departments, have been afflicted

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in their bodies, and today there are plenty of living

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witnesses to this fact. Time the bodily affliction acts as

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a stimulus to mental activity and aids, rather than hinders

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its work. To make a useful and happy life dependent

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upon health is to put matter before mind, is to

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subordinate spirit to body. Men of robust minds do not

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dwell upon their bodily condition. If it be in any

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way disordered, They ignore it and work on live on

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as though it were not. This ignoring of the body

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not only keeps the mind sane and strong, but it

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is the best resource for curing the body. If we

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cannot have a perfectly sound body, we can't have a

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healthy mind, and a healthy mind is the best route

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to a sound body. A sickly mind is more deplorable

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than a disordered body, and at least to sickliness of body,

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the mental invalid is in a far more pitiful condition

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than the bodily invalid. There are invalids every physician knows them,

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who only need to lift themselves into a strong, unselfish,

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happy frame of mind to discover that their body is

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whole and capable. Sickly thoughts about one's self, about one's

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body and food should be abolished by all who are

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called by the name of man. The man who imagines

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that the wholesome food he is eating is going to

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injure him needs to come to bodily vigor by the

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way of mental strength. To regard one's bodily, health and

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safety as being dependent on a particular kind of food,

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which is absent from nearly every household, is to court

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petty disorders. The vegetarian who says he dare not eat potatoes,

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that fruit produces indigestion, that apples give him acidity, that

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pulses are poison, that he is afraid of green vegetables,

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and so on, is demoralizing the noble cause which he

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professes to have expoused, is making it look ridiculous in

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the eyes of those robust meat eaters who live above

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such sickly fears and morbid self scrutinies. To imagine that

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the fruits of the earth, eaten when one is hungry

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and in need of food, are destructive of health and

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life is totally to misunderstand the nature and office of food.

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The office of food is to sustain and preserve the body,

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not to undermine and destroy it. It is a strange delusion,

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and one that must react deleteriously upon the body that

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possesses so many who are seeking health by the way

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of diet. The delusion that certain of the simplest, most natural,

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and purest of viands are bad of themselves, that they

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have in them the elements of death and not of life.

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One of these food reformers once told me that he

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believed his ailment, as well as the ailments of thousands

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of others, was caused by eating bread, not by an

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excess of bread, but by the bread itself. And yet

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this man's bread food consisted of nutty, homemade, whole meal loaves.

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Let us get rid of our sins, our sickly thoughts,

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our self indulgences, and foolish excesses before attributing our diseases

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to such innocent causes. Dwelling upon one's petty troubles and

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ailments is a manifestation of weakness of character. To so

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dwell upon them in thought leads to frequent talking about them,

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and this, in turn impresses them more vividly upon the mind,

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which soon becomes demoralized by such petting and pitying. It

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is as convenient to dwell upon happiness and health as

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upon misery and disease, as easy to talk about them,

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and much more pleasant and profitable to do so. Let

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us live happily, then, not hating those who hate us.

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Among men who hate us, let us dwell free from hatred.

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Let us live happily, then, free from ailments among the ailing.

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Among men who are ailing, let us dwell free from ailments.

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Let us live happily, then, free from greed among the greedy.

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Among men who are greedy, let us dwell free from greed.

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Moral principles are the soundest foundations for health as well

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as happiness. They are the true regulators of conduct, and

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they embrace every detail of life. When earnestly expoused and

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intelligently understood, they will compel a man to reorganize his

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entire life down to the most apparently in significant detail,

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while definitely regulating one's diet. They will put an end

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to squeamishness, food fear, and foolish whims and groundless opinions

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as to the harmfulness of foods. When sound moral health

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has eradicated self indulgence and self pity, all natural foods

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will be seen as they are nourishers of the body

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and not its destroyers. Thus, a consideration of bodily conditions

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brings us inevitably back to the mind and to those

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moral virtues which fortify it with an invincible protection. The

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morally right are the bodily right to be Continually transposing

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the details of life from passing views and fancies without

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reference to fixed principles is to flounder and confusion. But

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to discipline details by moral principles is to see with

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enlightened vision all details in their proper place and order.

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For it is given to moral principles alone, in their

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personal domain, to perceive the moral order. In them alone

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resides the insight that penetrates to causes, And with them

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only is the power to at once command all details

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to their order in place as the magnet draws and

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polarizes the filings of steel. Better than curing the body

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is to rise above it, to be its master, and

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not to be tyrannized over by it, not to abuse it,

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not to ponder it, never to put its claims before virtue,

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to discipline and moderate its pleasures, and not to be

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overcome by its pains. In a word, to live in

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the poise and strength of the moral powers. This, better

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than bodily cure, is yet a safe way to cure,

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and it is a permanent source of mental vigor and

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spiritual repose.