what we term the physical body, whatever may be the
facts regarding a finer spiritual body within it all the time giving
form to and animating and directing all its movements, is of material
origin, and derives its sustenance from the food we take, from the air
we breathe, the water we drink. In this sense it is from the earth, and
when we are through with it, it will go back to the earth.

The body, however, is not the Life; it is merely the material agency
that enables the Life to manifest in a material universe for a certain,
though not necessarily a given, period of time. It is the Life, or the
Soul, or the Personality that uses, and that in using shapes and moulds,
the body and that also determines its strength or its weakness. When
this is separated from the body, the body at once becomes a cold, inert
mass, commencing immediately to decompose into the constituent material
elements that composed it--literally going back to the earth and the
elements whence it came.

It is through the instrumentality or the agency of thought that the
Life, the Self, uses, and manifests through, the body. Again, while it
is true that the food that is taken and assimilated nourishes, sustains
and builds the body, it is also true that the condition and the
operation of the mind through the avenue of thought determines into what
shape or form the body is so builded. So in this sense it is true that
mind builds body; it is the agency, the force that determines the
shaping of the material elements.

Here is a wall being built. Bricks are the material used in its
construction. We do not say that the bricks are building the wall; we
say that the mason is building it, as is the case. He is using the
material that is supplied him, in this case bricks, giving form and
structure in a definite, methodical manner. Again, back of the mason is
his mind, acting through the channel of his thought, that is directing
his hands and all his movements. Without this guiding, directing _force_
no wall could take shape, even if millions of bricks were delivered upon
the scene.

So it is with the body. We take the food, the water, we breathe the air;
but this is all and always acted upon by a higher force. Thus it is that
mind builds body, the same as in every department of our being it is the
great builder. Our thoughts shape and determine our features, our walk,
the posture of our bodies, our voices; they determine the effectiveness
of our mental and