3. EFFECTS OF THOUGHTS ON HEALTH AND BODY

The body is the servant of the mind. It obeys the
operations of the mind, whether they be deliberately chosen or automatically
expressed. At the bidding of unlawful thoughts the body sinks rapidly into
disease and decay; at the command of glad and beautiful thoughts it becomes
clothed with youthfulness and beauty .

Disease and health, like circumstances, are rooted in thought. Sickly
thoughts will express themselves through a sickly body. Thoughts of fear
have been known to kill a man as speedily as a bullet and they are continually
killing thousands of people just as surely though less rapidly. The people
who live in fear of disease are the people who get it. Anxiety quickly
demoralizes the whole body, and lays it open to the entrance of disease;
while impure thoughts, even if not physically indulged, will sooner shatter
the nervous system.

Strong pure, and happy thoughts build up the body in vigor and grace.
The body is a delicate and plastic instrument, which responds readily to
the thoughts by which it is impressed, and habits of thought will produce
their own effects, good or bad, upon it.

Men will continue to have impure and poisoned blood, so long as they
propagate unclean thoughts. Out of a clean heart comes a clean life and
a clean body. Out of a defiled mind proceeds a defiled life and a corrupt
body. Thought is the fount of action, life and manifestation; make the
fountain pure, and all will be pure.

Change of diet will not help a man who will not change his thoughts.
When a man makes his thoughts pure, he no longer desires impure food.

Clean thoughts make clean habits. The so-called saint who does not wash
his body is not a saint. He who has strengthened and purified his thoughts
does not need to consider the malevolent microbe.

If you would perfect your body, guard your mind. If you would renew
your body, beautify your mind. Thoughts of malice, envy, and disappointment,
despondency, rob the body of its health and grace. A sour face does not
come by chance; it is made by sour thoughts. Wrinkles that mar are drawn
by folly, passion, pride.

I know a woman of ninety-six who has the bright, innocent face of a
girl. I know a man well under middle age whose face is drawn into in harmonious
contours. The one is the result of a sweet and sunny disposition; the other
is the outcome of passion and discontent.

As you cannot have a sweet and wholesome abode unless you admit the
air and sunshine freely into your rooms, so a strong body and a bright,
happy, or serene countenance can only result from the free admittance into
the mind of thoughts of joy and goodwill and serenity.

On the faces of the aged there are wrinkles made by sympathy others
by strong and pure thought, and others are carved by passion; who cannot
distinguish them? With those who have lived righteously, age is calm, peaceful,
and softly mellowed, like the setting sun. I have recently seen a philosopher
on his death-bed. He was not old except in years. He died as sweetly and
peacefully as he had lived.

There is no physician like cheerful thought for dissipating the ills
of the body; there is no comforter to compare with goodwill for dispersing
the shadows of grief and sorrow. To live continually in thoughs of ill-will,
cynicism, suspicion, and envy, is to be confined in a self-made prison
hole. But to think well of all, to be cheerful with all, to patiently learn
to find the good in all– such unselfish thoughts are the very portals
of heaven; and to dwell day by day in thoughts of peace toward every creature
will bring abounding peace to their possessor.

Next Chapter: THOUGHT AND PURPOSE