598 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



OUR 



HOMES, 



BY A.I. ROOT. 



And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the 

 ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of 

 life; and man became a living soul. — Gen. 2: 7. 



I was somewhat surprised recently to 

 see the Sunday School Times take the posi- 

 tion strongly that the soul perishes with 

 the body, and that it is only the spirit that 

 is imperishable. Of course, there were sev- 

 eral correspondents who disagreed, and 

 quoted the scripture to prove their position. 

 The editor replied that the terms body, soul, 

 and spirit are often used in the Bible in a 

 broad sense, or perhaps interchangeably; 

 but he insisted, notwithstanding, that the 

 general meaning of the word "soul." 

 as used in the Bible, is the part that 

 perishes with the body. After thinking 

 the matter over, and studying my Bi- 

 ble, I am inclined to believe that the po- 

 sition is correct. For instance, the Holy 

 Spirit is often mentioned. We speak of the 

 influences of the Holy Spirit; but nowhere 

 in the Bible is there any mention of the 

 soul of God, nor any suggestion that God 

 is a soul. Souls belong to humanity, and 

 perish with the body. If this is so, the ex- 

 pression "immortal soul" is an erroneous 

 one. No souls are immortal; but the spirit 

 is immortal, and lives for ever. 



Now, this is a little preface to what I 

 want to talk about; and may be you will 

 think the connection with the following is 

 rather remote; yet somehow or other they 

 persist in linking themselves together. I 

 am going to quote again at length from my 

 good friend T. B. Terry. Perhaps some 

 of you m.ay think that we are giving a good 

 deal of space to this matter of health, and 

 to the food we eat. I admit it, and some- 

 times I am tempted to think that our discus- 

 sions do not amount to much after all; 

 but I think daylight is coming; and friend 

 Terr J' gives us a most vivid glimpse of the 

 direction from which daylight is to come. 

 Now read carefully the following, taken 

 from the Practical Farmer for Feb. 7 : 



THE POWER OF THE MIND OVER THE BODY— WORK 



FOR HEALTH WITH ABSOLUTE FAITH 



IN VOUR SUCCESS. 



Several years ago, when the writer was sick in New 

 York, a first-class pi ysician vas employed. He ap- 

 peared to know his business perfectly. After analyz- 

 ing the urine, as he said, he understood the case ex- 

 actly. He told friends that I was in a critical condi- 

 tion; however, I got better in a few davs. Before I 

 left he said to me: "You are subject to kidney trouble. 

 There is an excess of acid in the urine. In the future 

 you rausi never eat any thing that is sour— vinegar.sour 

 strawberries, .sour oranges, lemons, etc. They will ag- 

 gravate this chronic trouble of yoiir.-^." This was said 

 with authority, and I had no more doubt of the truth 

 of the statement than I had of being alive. His man- 

 ner and earnestness made it a settltd fact in my mind. 

 I did just as he told me, for years, except that once in 

 a while the desire tor sour strawberries, or some lem- 

 onade, was too great, and I ate a few, or drank a single 

 glass, aUva s expecting to pay dearly for it In every 

 single instance my symptoms grew worse after indulg- 

 ing in this way, showing conclusively to my mind that 



the doctor was right, of which I had never had the 

 slightest doubt, however. During the warm weather 

 in particular, how I did want something sour! At last 

 I would indulge, and increased trouble would come in 

 a few hours, "sometimes I kept at it, but was soon in 

 such distress that I was only too glad to quit it. Al- 

 though the doctor's directions wer«; carefully follow- 

 ed, as a rule, and other good doctors consulted, life 

 was a burden much of the time during those years. 

 Well after a time I began to think and study over the 

 matter in dead earnest. My old motto, " Where there 

 is a will there is a way." came to my mind, and I 

 wondered why that could not be applied to curing 

 bodily troubles as well as poor land and hard times. 

 Being in a frank mood to-day, let me tell you that my 

 first inspiration came from a so-called fakir. When I 

 was complrteiy discouraged, could not eat anything 

 scarcely without its hurting me, and doctors and med- 

 icine did no permanent good, a circular happened to 

 come from a man who promised to cure any disease, 

 no matter how bad, if the breath still remained in the 

 body, and to do it entirely without medicine. Treat- 

 ment, $5.00 a month I read it to wife, making fun of 

 it. of course. She said: " If there is any possibility of 

 his helping you any, why not try him? If you do not 

 take anj' thing he can not hurt you." Now I knew it 

 was all a humbug, but. just for the pleasure of study- 

 ing the scheme, and having something new to think 

 about and to help pass away the time, I sent $5.00, 

 with description of my troubles. The reply came 

 promptly, and was overflowing with hope and un- 

 bounded assurance that the writer could not fail. He 

 impre.ssed on my mind with wonderful force, what I 

 was fairly well up in before, that I must have more oxy- 

 gen from breathing more fresh air, for one thing. But 

 here was the great point, which I copy irom his letter: 

 "Just settle it, once for all, in your mind, that you are 

 going to get entirely well, sooner or later, doctor or 

 iio doctor, as you "certainly are." Why, mv dear 

 friends, I went down stairs after reading that inspir- 

 ing letter, like a boy, and within 24 hours new life be- 

 gan to come into my body. The mind, the spirit, was 

 rou.sed marvelously by the positive assurance, or mag- 

 netism, or .whatever you call it, of the man, and, frank 

 ly. he did far more forme than all the doctors had 

 been able to do; and still not long afterward the 

 postal authorities arrested and fined him for using the 

 mails to swindle people. Doubtless his game was to 

 make monev, and he claimed to do wh't he could not, 

 but I was vastly more th-m satis Ded with the value I 

 received for my money, and before I get through you 

 shall judge about the doctors. Among other things, I 

 got some good litmus paper at a drug.store in the city, 

 and began to keep an exact record of what I ate and 

 drank daily, and how I felt, and the condition of 

 urine. I_,iimus paper, you know, is blue but turns red 

 when wet with acid, more or le^s, according to the 

 amount present. In due time it was proven, abso- 

 lutely that when I felt the worst and suffered most 

 there was the least acid in the urine. When I told this 

 to one of the physicians who had tried in vain to ciire 

 me, he said at once, " It is an alkali condition, then, 

 that is making the trouble." Oh! why couldn't he 

 have discovered this years before? Well, I at once 

 made a quart tiowl full of good strong lemonade, and 

 never took it from mj' lips until the last drop was 

 drained, and another quart went the same way before 

 night. Oh, how good it tasted! I had craved it so. It 

 did not hurt meat all; in fact, I at once felt better. I 

 knew when drinking it. absolutely, that the doctor 

 had been wrong. Not ten dajs before, my wife had 

 lemonade on the table at dinner time, and I wanted it 

 so badly that at last I drank one glass, expecting that 

 it would hurt me, as the doctor said, and it did. There 

 is no chance for mistake in this matter; I know what 

 I am writing. I now use lemons freely whenever the 

 acid is craved. I carry lemons and sugar with me, 

 winters, always. My troubles in the past came partly 

 from withholding from the body the very fruit acids that 

 it needed and craved sometimes almost beyond endur- 

 ance. You may.gather several points from this article. 

 One is the marvelous power of the mind over the body. 

 When you determine to get well any way, whether or 

 no, you have made a tremendously long step in that 

 directioti. I confess I could not believe myself that 

 the very thing I needed would hurt me, just because I 

 was certain it" was going to, if I had not actually had 

 years of experience in the matter, on both sides of the 

 question. Many a physician owes his success, not to 

 drugs he gives, but to the power he possesses of mak- 

 ing patients certain they are going to get well right 

 along. On the other hand, unscrupulous doctors can 

 keep their patients back and line their own pockets. 

 As the space is more than full you may look for the 

 other points; they are easy to find. 



