Our health and morals
SOUND morals are indispensable to good health. This valuable lesson was learned by a young woman several years ago. Most of her life she had experienced good health. One winter, however, she was plagued by a series of heavy colds that lingered for days. In great discouragement she began to pray about the situation to see what relationship there might be between the physical trouble and her state of thought. As a student of Christian Science she had learned that thought directly affects the quality of one's life, because causation is actually mental, not physical. As a result of prayer, it became clear to her that in this instance her bad health was a direct result of lax morals. Accepting popular thinking, she had not been living up to her highest sense of right or expressing true honesty and purity. Basing her actions on a material rather than a spiritual sense of life, the young woman had inadvertently opened herself up to the pains as well as the supposed pleasures of physical being. She came to understand that an earthly, material sense of life never really satisfies. Pleasure in matter is a mesmeric belief, a tempting illusion, nothing more. It brings no permanent joy or well-being, and never leaves one in genuine peace. Over the next several weeks the young woman made a sincere effort to watch her thinking and correct her life style. She recalled these words of Mary Baker Eddy's1 from the Christian Science textbook: ``We ought to weary of the fleeting and false and to cherish nothing which hinders our highest selfhood.'' 2 As she made a conscientious effort to live a morally pure life, her health and relationships improved. Through prayer and daily study of the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings she gained a higher sense of life and love, and was happier than ever before. The colds never returned. Chastity and pure-mindedness are never outdated. They are fundamental elements of true happiness and well-being. They reflect man's God-given innocency and goodness. We must not lose sight of man's actual, spiritual nature as God's image. ``Let the `male and female' of God's creating appear,'' 3 Mrs. Eddy writes. Only then will life be truly progressive and satisfying. As we look away from matter to Spirit, we gain a higher sense of identity, a fuller sense of being. Limitations are progressively overcome as we consciously realize the truth of man's incorporeal, spiritual selfhood. Expressing God's nature in thought and life, we demonstrate true perfection and grace, permanency and control. It's not easy, but it can, and ultimately must, be done. Health, in its truest sense, is a spiritual quality, not a material one. As such, it never deteriorates. And we can prove this to the degree that we think in spiritual rather than material terms. The Bible tells us that Moses, the great spiritually-minded leader, ``was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.'' 4 After healing the sick man at the pool of Bethesda, Christ Jesus told him, ``Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.'' 5 We each can choose to ``sin no more.'' We can choose to be spiritually-minded. The well-being such thinking confers is indeed a rich blessing. 1 The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. 2 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 68. 3 Ibid., p. 249. 4 Deuteronomy 34:7. 5 John 5:14.
