evil motives and aims, will make any man (who is above the very lowest type of manhood) a hopeless sufferer. They consume the body with the fires of hell.
Christian Science commands man to master these propensities, — to hold hatred in abeyance, conquer revenge with charity, and overcome deceit with honesty. Choke these errors in their early stages, if you would not cherish an army of conspirators against health, happiness, and success. They will deliver thee to the judge (the decisions of Truth against error), the judge will deliver thee to the officer (justice), and the law's sentence will be executed upon mind and body. Both will be manacled until the last farthing is paid, — until you have balanced your account with God. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” This is sin's necessity, — to destroy itself, and so yield to the government of God, wherein is no power to sin.
Unremitting toil, deprivations, exposures, — and every untoward condition that is without sin, — can be relieved without suffering. Whatever it is your duty to do, can be done without harm to yourself. If you sprain the muscles or wound the flesh, your remedy is at hand. Mind decides whether or not the flesh shall be discolored, painful, swollen, and inflamed.
Be firm in your understanding that Mind governs the body. Have no foolish fears that matter governs, and can ache, swell, and be inflamed from a law of its own; when it is self-evident that matter can have no pain or inflammation. Your body is as material as the trunk of a tree that you gash, or the electric wire that you stretch, and it would suffer no more from tension or wounds than they do, were it not for mortal mind.
