Page:Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.djvu/349

Rh was gone. The conscious mortal mind is superior to its unconscious substratum, and the stronger never yields to the weaker except through fear or choice.

If mortal mind is its own enemy, and works against itself, it does little in the right direction and much in the wrong. Cherishing evil passions and malicious purposes, this mind is not a healer, but engenders disease and death.

I would sooner be exposed to every plague on earth, than endure the cumulative effects of guilty conscience. The abiding consciousness of wrong-doing tends to destroy the ability to do right. If sin is not repented of, and is not lessening, it is hastening on to physical and moral self-destruction. We are conquered by the moral punishments we incur, and by the ills we dread.

Disease is a fear expressed, not so much by the lips, as in the functions of the body. Mitigate the fear, and you relieve the oppressed organ; and the inflammation, decomposition, or deposit will abate. Destroy the fear, and the disabled organ will resume its healthy functions.

Consumptive patients always show great hopefulness and courage, even when in hopeless danger. This state of mind is anomalous, except to the expert in Christian Science. The mental state, being unconscious, is not understood. It is a stage of fear so excessive that it amounts to fortitude. The belief in consumption presents to mortal thought an image more terrifying than any other disease. The patient turns involuntarily from contemplating it; but, though unacknowledged, the latent fear remains strongly in mind.

Just so it is with the greatest crime. It is the most subtle, and does its work almost unperceived. The most