Physical Sins

Herbert Spencer, a philosopher with prophetic earnestness, writes: "Few seem conscious that there is such a thing as physical morality. Men's habitual words and actions imply the idea that they are at liberty to treat their bodies as they please. Disorder entailed by disobedience to Nature's dictates, they regard simply as grievances; not as effects of a conduct more or less flagitious. Though the evil consequences inflicted on their dependents and on future generations are often as great as those caused by crime, yet they do not think themselves in any degree criminal. It is true that in the case of drunkenness the viciousness of a bodily transgression is recognized; but none appear to infer that if this bodily transgression is vicious, so too is every bodily transgression. The fact is that all breaches of the laws of health are physical sins."

"Just because we do not place life on a physical basis this should appeal to us; we are all the more bound to accept it, because life has a moral basis."

"Mental vigor and spiritual insight are not got through despising the physical side of life."

Purity of mind is quite incompatible with gluttonous habits of eating. The Bible inculcates the same principle, although most Christians fail to recognize such or to carry it out in practice.

We must recognize that religion includes the body, and that the laws governing the healthful performance of the bodily functions are as much the laws of God, as are those governing the soul.

Christ, by his forty days' fast in the wilderness, taught us a most important lesson regarding the subjection of the appetites: not only this but during his entire life He taught and practised the principles of simplicity regarding the habits of living. John the Baptist with his frugal fare of wild honey and locusts, the Apostle Paul, as well as all the other Apostles, lived up to the motto: "Moderation in all things."

The religion of the soul and the religion of the body are inseparably associated. The ministry in general has failed to recognize the significance of this. Men need "to be born again" from a physical as well as from a moral standpoint.

The practise is now, and has been for centuries, to preach only one-half of the Truth. To be a successful and powerful preacher now-a-days, one must preach more than one side of the Bible, and the preacher should combine the qualities and possess the knowledge of both preacher and doctor, thus enabling him to understand and teach the laws of the body, as well as to preach the religion of the soul. Physical and moral sins are indissolubly associated, and should be so recognized and taught.

Simplicity in habits of eating, and the avoidance of all stimulating foods, are, with the exception of religion, the most powerful of all aids to purity of life. Good living is a religion in itself. Many a man is trying to do by prayer what can be acquired far more easily and naturally by correct habits of living. Men fail to see this, yet it is so simple that "the way-faring man, though a fool, cannot err therein."

The "good health" idea is one from which we cannot get away, and while we are inclined to dismiss these thoughts from our minds, with a shrug of the shoulders, yet the only way any individual can feel, think, and act naturally, is to be possessed of good health, health both of body and mind. Good digestion makes a man feel saintly, at peace with God, his fellow man, and himself. The only way to get and keep good health is to observe the laws governing it. which follow from correct habits of living.

The Perils Of Overeating

Overeating acts harmfully in a great many ways. While the columns of the various physical culture and health magazines are teeming with information about the relative merits of a vegetable, fruit and nut diet as against meat, and while volumes upon volumes have been written upon the value of dozens of other things - physical culture, deep breathing, exercise, etc. - all these are secondary in comparison with the question of overeating ; the greatest point of all is lost sight of, probably even more important than the character of the food taken into the system, that is, the quantity of the food and the manner in which the food is to be eaten. Too much stress cannot be laid upon these points. If there be one thing more than another deserving of serious attention it is this : that any excess of food, even if the food be perfectly adapted to the wants of the system, results in but one thing: auto-intoxication or self-poisoning. Putting it in another way poisoned blood or mal-assimilation results from an excess of food. Let us further follow up the evil effects of overeating. Primarily it distends the walls of the stomach, lessening its muscular power and finally ending in weakening the organ beyond recovery, producing what is known as a dilated stomach, which must of necessity always remain a weak stomach. The object of food - the nourishment of the body - is entirely defeated in that the original character of the food is wholly changed, so that instead of a beautifully clean assimilable milk-like fluid, chyme, there is formed a fermenting, rotten, and decaying mass, the absorption of which can have but one effect, poison, ending in many instances in the life of the individual by sudden outbursts of appendicitis or enteritis. This circulation of poisoned blood in the human body causing continual irritation and inflammation of the delicate cells of the lungs, the kidneys, the liver, or any other of the organs of the body, can have but one ending in the long run - disease - it may be Brights' disease of the kidneys, cancer of the liver, tuberculosis of the lungs (consumption), diabetes, pneumonia, rheumatism, or premature senile decay. All diseases are practically alike, however different they may appear. Diseases seemingly so unlike as gout and pneumonia are supposed to have the same common cause. Aside from surgery and midwifery the practice of medicine for the most part revolves about the stomach. While there are hundreds of diseases, they differ in name only according to the organ of the body affected. They have a common centre or origin - the stomach : and a common cause - overeating. This being so, it behoves every thinking man to give a little serious attention to the question of eating, or overeating. To make even the beginning of an attempt to show more of the why and wherefore of the harmful effects of overeating in the case of disease would involve the writing of a book itself, giving a description of nearly every disease in existence.