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306 Instruct the sick that they are not helpless victims; but that — if they only know how — they can resist disease and ward it off, just as positively as they can a temptation to sin. This fact of Christian Science should be explained to invalids when they are in a fit mood to receive it, — when they will not array themselves against it, but are ready to become receptive of the new idea. This fact reassures the depressed mind. It will impart a healthy stimulus to the body and regulate the system. It will increase or diminish the action, as the case may require, better than any drug, alterative, or tonic.

Mind is the native stimulus of the body; but mortal belief, taken at its best, is not promotive of health or happiness. Surcharge mind with the explosive gases of fear, or the dread of defeat, and what can you expect but some sudden detonation, cataclysm, or sinking into the belief of death? Tell the sick, that they would meet sickness fearlessly, if they only realized their mental power over every physical action and condition.

“Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the way with him.” Suffer not an illusion of sin or sickness to grow upon the thought. Dismiss it with an abiding conviction that its claims are illegitimate, because you know that God is no more the author of sickness than He is of sin. You have no law of His to support the necessity either of sin or sickness, but you have divine authority for denying it that necessity.

Expose the error that would impose penalties for transgressions of the supposed laws of health, — a law of matter opposed to the harmonies of Spirit, without divine authority, and having human sanction only for its approval.