The seed
which has been kept in the storehouse for years will grow when planted in the
soil; it will produce a plant. But the life in the plant is not generated by
its growing; it is the life which makes the plant grow.
The
performance of function does not cause life; it is life which causes function
to be performed. Life is first; function is afterward.
It is
life which distinguishes organic from inorganic matter, but it is not produced
after the organization of matter.
Life is
the principle or force which causes organization; it builds organisms.
It is a
principle or force inherent in Original Substance; all life is One.
This
Life Principle of the All is the Principle of Health in man, and becomes
constructively active whenever man thinks in a certain way. Whoever, therefore,
thinks in this Certain Way will surely have perfect health if his external
functioning is in conformity with his thought. But the external functioning
must conform to the thought; man cannot hope to be well by thinking health, if
he eats, drinks, breathes, and sleeps like a sick man.
The
universal Life Principle then, is the Principle of Health in man. It is one
with original substance. There is one Original Substance from which all things
are made; this substance is alive, and its life is the Principle of Life of the
universe. This Substance has created from itself all the forms of organic life
by thinking them, or by thinking the motions and functions which produce them.
Original
Substance thinks only health, because It knows all truth; there is no truth
which is not known in the Formless, which is All, and in all. It not only knows
all truth, but it has all power; its vital power is the source of all the
energy there is. A conscious life which knows all truth and which has all power
cannot go wrong or perform function imperfectly; knowing all, it knows, too
much to go wrong, and so the Formless cannot be diseased or think disease.
Man is a
form of this original substance, and has a separate consciousness of his own;
but his consciousness is limited, and therefore imperfect. By reason of his
limited knowledge man can and does think wrongly, and so he causes perverted
and imperfect functioning in his own body.
Man has
not known too much to go wrong. The diseased or imperfect functioning may not
instantly result from an imperfect thought, but it is bound to come if the
thought becomes habitual. Any thought continuously held by man tends to the
establishment of the corresponding condition in his body.
Also,
man has failed to learn how to perform the voluntary functions of his life in a
healthy way. He does not know when, what, and how to eat; he knows little about
breathing, and less about sleep.
He does
all these things in a wrong way, and under wrong conditions; and this because
he has neglected to follow the only sure guide to the knowledge of life. He has
tried to live by logic rather than by instinct; he has made living a matter of
art, and not of nature. And he has gone wrong.
His only
remedy is to begin to go right; and this he can surely do. It is the work of
this book to teach the whole truth, so that the man who reads it shall know too
much to go wrong.
The
thoughts of disease produce the forms of disease. Man must learn to think
health; and being Original Substance which takes the form of its thoughts, he
will become the form of health and manifest perfect health in all his
functioning.
The
people who were healed by touching the bones of the saint were really healed by
thinking in a certain way, and not by any power emanating from the relics.
There is no healing power in the bones of dead men, whether they be those of
saint or sinner.
The
people who were healed by the doses of either the allopath or the homeopath
were also really healed by thinking in a certain way; there is no drug which
has within itself the power to heal disease.
The
people who have been healed by prayers and affirmations were also healed by
thinking in a certain way; there is no curative power in strings of words.
All the
sick who have been healed, by whatsoever "system," have thought in a
certain way; and a little examination will show us what this way is.
The two
essentials of the Way are Faith, and a Personal Application of the Faith.
The
people who touched the saint's bones had faith; and so great was their faith
that in the instant they touched the relics they SEVERED ALL MENTAL RELATIONS
WITH DISEASE, AND MENTALLY UNIFIED THEMSELVES WITH HEALTH.
This
change of mind was accompanied by an intense devotional FEELING which
penetrated to the deepest recesses of their souls, and so aroused the Principle
of Health to powerful action. By faith they claimed that they were healed, or
appropriated health to themselves; and in full faith they ceased to think of
themselves in connection with disease and thought of themselves only in
connection with health.
These
are the two essentials to thinking in the Certain Way which will make you well:
first, claim or appropriate health by faith; and second, sever all mental
relations with disease, and enter into mental relations with health.
That
which we make ourselves, mentally, we become physically; and that with which we
unite ourselves mentally we become unified with physically. If your thought
always relates you to disease, then your thought becomes a fixed power to cause
disease within you; and if your thought always relates you to health, then your
thought becomes a fixed power exerted to keep you well.
In the
case of the people who are healed by medicines, the result is obtained in the
same way. They have consciously or unconsciously, sufficient faith in the means
used to cause them to sever mental relations with disease and enter into mental
relations with health.
Faith
may be unconscious. It is possible for us to have a sub-conscious or inbred
faith in things like medicine, in which we do not believe to any extent
objectively; and this sub-conscious faith may be quite sufficient to quicken
the Principle of Health into constructive activity. Many who have
little
conscious faith are healed in this way; while many others who have great faith
in the means are not healed because they do not make any personal application
to themselves; their faith is general, but not specific for their own cases.