It is often said that ill-health is the result of sin. It is, for
thinking about disease, sickness and ill-health, believing them to
be inevitable, is one of the greatest of sins. The way of life is
to walk (think and act) after the Spirit (which is perfect, whole,
immortal and incorruptible) and not after the flesh (corruption,
disease, sickness, death). By thinking "after the flesh" we dishonour
God who is absolute Wholeness and Perfection, and cut ourselves off
from the Divine Life and Power.

But there are other ways by which wrong thinking destroys the health.
Thinking thoughts of lust is a prolific cause of unhappiness, sickness
and nervous disease. The divine forces of life are directed into a
wrong channel, resulting either in indulgence and inevitable weakening
of body, brain and will, or in repression and its consequent nervous
diseases. If the thoughts are allowed to dwell upon impurity, evil
results must follow in some form, either in action or ill-health,
or both. Thought must be controlled and reversed continually. Not
repressed, but reversed, be it noted, for there is a tremendous
difference between the two. Repression creates nervous trouble, but
by reversing or transmuting the thoughts the life becomes transformed,
and the bodily health greatly improved.

Further, indulging in thoughts of hate, resentment, ill-will, fear,
worry, care, grief, and anxiety, produces ill-health, and, by lowering
the tone of the body, lays it open to infection and disease. We
therefore see that the state of the mind and the character of the
thoughts are important factors which cannot be ignored. It is useless
to treat either ill-health or disease if they are merely the external
_effects_ of hidden causes of the mind. In order to effect a cure
we have to get back to the cause of the trouble.