Page:Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.djvu/324

312 addresses himself to the work of destroying it by the power of matter. When we remove disease by addressing the mind, and giving no heed to the body, we prove that mortal mind creates the suffering.

The depraved appetite for alcoholic drinks, tobacco, tea, coffee, opium, is destroyed only by the mastery of Mind over body. This normal control is gained through divine strength and understanding. There is no enjoyment in getting drunk, in becoming a fool or an object of loathing; but there is a very sharp remembrance of it, a suffering inconceivably terrible to a man's self-respect. Puffing the obnoxious fumes of tobacco, or chewing a leaf naturally attractive to no animal except a loathsome worm, is self-evident error.

Man's enslavement to the most relentless masters — passion, appetite, or malice — is conquered only by a mighty struggle. Every hour of delay makes the struggle more hopeless. If man is not victorious over them, they crush out happiness, health, and manhood. Here Christian Science is the sovereign panacea, giving, to the weakness of mortal mind, strength from the immortal and omnipotent Mind, lifting humanity above itself, into purer desires, — even into moral power and good-will to man.

Homœopathic remedies, sometimes not containing a particle of medicine, are known to relieve the symptoms of disease. What works the cure? It is the faith of mortal mind that changes its own self-inflicted sufferings, and produces a new effect upon the body. In like manner, destroy the illusion of pleasure in intoxication, and the desire for strong drink is gone. Appetite resides in mind, not in matter.