Editorial April 24, 1971 Issue

Renovating the Digestive System

Naomi Price

From the human point of view it seems that one must eat food and digest it in order to live and be active. Anyone who knows and accepts the theories of physiology and dietetics concerning the process will come to the conclusion that his digestive system is pretty important. He may also suspect that the mechanics of the feeding and ingestive process, said to be required to sustain him by converting food at the dinner table into mental and physical energy, is so complex that it can all too easily get out of order and cause him trouble. He may even wish he could renovate his own.

But Christian Science brings a different, a spiritual explanation of the nature of man, the functions and action of his being and the way he is sustained. It shows that despite the fixed belief of mortals, man is not a material entity, an organic structure powered by a complicated food-consuming mechanism. He is a spiritual being composed of and sustained by the spiritual qualities and ideas of immortal goodness and love. This heavenly daily bread comes from divine Principle, God, who not only is the creator of all but also the inexhaustible source of the strength, intelligence, and vitality of every individual in His universe.

In its figurative account of creation the Bible says, "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat."^{Gen. 1:29;} And Christian Science, which discloses the inspired meaning of the Scriptures, shows that since God is divine Spirit, or Soul, everything He creates—man, beast, plant—is spiritual. The herb and fruit, the daily bread that God supplies for the sustenance of His idea and perfect likeness, man, consists of divine, not mortal, substance. God is divine Spirit, and His creation consists of the expression of His own qualities. These are the substance of His manifestation. And man, who is the likeness of Deity and the object of God's care, is fed by Him with the spiritual food of divine ideas that sustain, energize, vitalize, beautify him, and cause him to demonstrate the strength and dominion with which God has endowed him.