Page:The Garden of Eden (Doughty).djvu/91

Rh healthy or diseased, well or ill, depends very much on the character of its food. Good food makes a sound body; insufficient or improper food, an unsound one.

The correspondence of the natural with the spiritual system and its economy is exact. It is a matter of the greatest consequence whether we partake of nourishing spiritual diet or of that which is injurious. The Word of God everywhere recognizes this. It is for this reason that our Lord says by the mouth of his prophet, "Eat ye what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness" (Isa. lv. 2); and that He said, when on earth, "Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you" (John vi. 27). Again, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever" (John vi. 51). And again, "He that eateth me, even he shall live by me " (John vi. 57). Say we not well, then, when we assert that the Lord is the veritable tree of life which grows in the midst of Eden? Draw we then our food from Him, eat we of the fruit of that divine tree, recognize we his influence within our souls, obey we all his commands in their true spirit and intent, love we the higher life proceeding from the Lord who is in the midst of our mental garden, then truly do we live. The 8