{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_65916/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_65916","id":"gutenberg_65916","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65916","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Health & Medicine","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Medicine -- Religious aspects","Pastoral medicine"],"text":"Transcriber\u2019s notes:\n\nThe text of this e-book has been preserved in its original form apart\nfrom silent correction of a few minor punctuation flaws (missing commas\nand full stops). There are occasional spelling inconsistencies as a\nconsequence of its multiple authorship. One missing footnote marker has\nbeen inserted at what seemed an appropriate position. Footnotes have\nbeen numbered and relocated below the relevant paragraphs.\n\n\n\n\nMEDICINE AND THE CHURCH\n\n\n\n\n  MEDICINE\n  AND THE CHURCH\n\n  BEING A SERIES OF STUDIES ON THE RELATIONSHIP\n  BETWEEN THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND\n  THE CHURCH\u2019S MINISTRY TO THE SICK\n\n\n  BY\n\n  SIR CLIFFORD ALLBUTT, K.C.B., F.R.S.\n  A. W. ROBINSON, D.D.\n  CHARLES BUTTAR, M.D.\n  STEPHEN PAGET, F.R.C.S.\n  BISHOP OF BLOEMFONTEIN.\n  HON. SYDNEY HOLLAND.\n  PREBENDARY FAUSSET, M.A.\n  JANE WALKER, M.D.\n  T. B. HYSLOP, M.D.\n  ELLIS ROBERTS.\n  M. CARTA STURGE.\n  H. G. G. MACKENZIE, M.A., M.B.\n\n\n  EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, BY\n  GEOFFREY RHODES\n\n\n  WITH A FOREWORD BY THE\n  LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER\n\n\n  LONDON\n  KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TR\u00dcBNER & CO., LTD.,\n  DRYDEN HOUSE, GERRARD STREET, W.\n  1910\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\nBY\n\nTHE LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER\n\n\n  FARNHAM CASTLE, SURREY:\n  _July 4, 1910_.\n\n  Dear Mr. Geoffrey Rhodes,\n\nThe appearance of your volume is very welcome. There is, I believe,\na real need for such a work. You are to be congratulated on the\nresults of the energy and patience which you have bestowed upon its\npreparation. You have a true reward in the support of writers so varied\nand conspicuous in distinction as those whose names you have been able\nto bring together.\n\nYou are enabling the whole reading world to judge for itself, how the\nsubject of \u2018Spiritual,\u2019 \u2018Mental,\u2019 or \u2018Faith\u2019 healing, which during\nthe past ten years has forced itself upon public notice, is being\nregarded by able, thoughtful, and impartial minds. There is no\ndoubt that scientific medical men are not going to pay attention to\nevidence of an unscientific character. They will not waste their time\nover it. Nevertheless, to phenomena duly attested, and to evidence\nscientifically recorded, they will give the most scrupulous attention.\nIt is the detailed and accurate collection and classification of facts\nby those who are trained for the task and expert in its process, that\nmust precede generalisations upon this new, or shall we call it,\nrevived, branch of therapeutics.\n\nPrejudice against it will be found to exist both in ecclesiastic and\nin scientific circles. Your book will help to dissipate prejudice by\nthe spread of better-informed opinion. The time, indeed, is opportune.\nThe _British Medical Journal_ of June 18, 1910, has published a series\nof papers by men \u2018who could speak with the highest authority on the\nrelations between mind and body, as exhibited in the phenomena of\ndisease.\u2019 \u2018Their opinion,\u2019 as the _Journal_ tells us, \u2018serves as an\nauthoritative reminder that there are bodily ills which cannot be\ncured by pills and potions, but which yield to methods which, for\nwant of a better word, may be called \u201cmental\u201d; that cures which, in\na former day, would have been denied by unbelievers and accepted as\nmiracles by the faithful, really happen, and that they can be explained\nwithout invoking supernatural intervention.\u2019 On the other hand, we\nare confident the Church of Christ will never identify itself with\ncharlatan methods which might delude the poor and the ignorant into the\nsuperstitious idea that they can be more cheaply and effectively healed\nby a magic or thaumaturgic ministry, than by the knowledge and skill\nof trained and certificated doctors and surgeons. To quote our report\nin the Lambeth Conference of 1908, \u2018Medical science is the handmaid of\nGod and His Church\u2019 (N.B. not of His clergy, but of that Body of Christ\nin which all true callings unite in serving), \u2018and should be fully\nrecognised as the ordinary means appointed by Almighty God for the care\nand healing of the human body.\u2019\n\nThe temper of our age favours an inquiry conducted in a spirit which\nwill neither disregard the requirements of science, nor rule miracles\nout of court as impossible. We need not be anxious as to the results.\nIt looks, indeed, as if science were only just now awaking to the\nrealisation of its possibilities through psychical treatment; and as\nif the Church had never yet realised to the full its responsibility\nand its power in ministration to sickness, and its influence over the\nreason and the imagination.\n\n\u2018Suspect everything,\u2019 says St. Teresa, as quoted by Sir Clifford\nAllbutt, \u2018which weakens the use of our reason; for by such a way, we\nshall never attain to the liberty of the Spirit.\u2019 \u2018Prayer,\u2019 says the\n_British Medical Journal_, in the article quoted above, \u2018inspired by\na living faith, is a force acting within the patient, which places\nhim in the most favourable condition for the stirring of the pool of\nhope that lies, still and hidden it may be, in the depths of human\nnature.\u2019 Truly, it is a tribute to the intellectual temper of our day\nthat two such quotations, the one from a medieval saint, the other from\na leading article in our modern medical journal, can appropriately\nbe adduced in illustration of the spirit in which you have edited\nyour volume. I trust it will have many readers. That it may promote\nthe wise and temperate study of spiritual and mental, as well as of\nphysical, forces and disorders, is my earnest hope and desire. That it\nmay also tend to correct shallow and superficial delusions on the part\nof ignorant persons who imagine that they can dispense with scientific\nknowledge, and ignore the facts of mortality in suffering, disease,\nand death, is an expectation which I pray may be fulfilled.\n\nWishing, therefore, your volume all success,\n\n  I am, dear Mr. Geoffrey Rhodes,\n  Yours very sincerely,\n  Herbert E. Winton.\n\n\n\n\nEDITOR\u2019S PREFACE\n\n\nI have to acknowledge my indebtedness to a host of kind people for help\nin compiling this book. First of all to the many clergymen and doctors\nwho assisted me in finding suitable contributors for the different\nchapters, and then no less to the contributors themselves who, in spite\nof the exigencies of professional duties, managed not only to write\nfor these pages but to take part in many editorial discussions often\nentailing lengthy interviews and correspondence.\n\nThe Bishop of Winchester\u2019s work in connexion with this book has not\nbeen confined to the Foreword which appears under his name. I have had\nthe benefit of his Lordship\u2019s advice and help throughout, and he has\nspared the time to read all the essays in manuscript.\n\nMy thanks are also due to Sir Thomas Barlow and Sir Clifford Allbutt\nfor assistance in reading the proofs of the medical chapters.\n\nMessrs. Macmillan and the Editors of the _Hibbert Journal_ and the\n_British Medical Journal_ have kindly allowed me to make extracts.\n\n  G. R.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                                                PAGE\n\n  FOREWORD                                                         v\n      By THE LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER.\n\n  EDITOR\u2019S PREFACE                                                xi\n\n  INTRODUCTION:\n\n    PART I.                                                        3\n\n    PART II.                                                      31\n\n        1. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEDICINE AND RELIGION         33\n\n      By SIR T. CLIFFORD ALLBUTT, K.C.B., M.D., LL.D., F.R.S.,\n      Regius Professor of Physic at the University of Cambridge.\n\n        2. RELIGION AND MEDICINE IN THE HOSPITAL                  43\n      By Hon. SYDNEY HOLLAND, Chairman of the London\n      Hospital.\n\n        3. THE SURGEON, THE CLERGYMAN, AND THE PATIENT            45\n      By F.R.C.S.\n\n  MEDICINE AND RELIGION                                           51\n      By CHARLES BUTTAR, M.D., Sometime President of the\n      Harveian Society.\n\n  THE PATIENT                                                     69\n      By STEPHEN PAGET, F.R.C.S.\n\n  THE RELATION OF PRIEST AND DOCTOR TO PATIENT                    81\n      By JANE WALKER, M.D., Physician, New Hospital for\n      Women.\n\n  FAITH AND MENTAL INSTABILITY                                   103\n      By THEO. B. HYSLOP, M.D., Superintendent of Bethlem\n      Hospital.\n\n  MEDICAL ASPECTS OF MENTAL HEALING                              117\n      By H. G. G. MACKENZIE, M.A., M.B.\n\n  OUR LORD\u2019S ATTITUDE TOWARDS SICKNESS                           175\n      By W. YORKE FAUSSET, M.A., Vicar of Cheddar and\n      Prebendary of Wells.\n\n  THE PRINCIPLES OF MODERN CHRISTIAN HEALING                     205\n      By W. YORKE FAUSSET, M.A., Vicar of Cheddar and\n      Prebendary of Wells.\n\n  THE CHURCH AND MENTAL HEALING                                  227\n      By ELLIS ROBERTS.\n\n  THE EUCHARIST AND BODILY WELL-BEING                            245\n      By ARTHUR W. ROBINSON, D.D., Vicar of All Hallows\n      Barking, Examining Chaplain to the Bishop of\n      London, and Rural Dean of the East City of London.\n\n  PRAYER AND MENTAL HEALING                                      269\n      By ARTHUR CHANDLER, D.D., Bishop of Bloemfontein.\n\n  THE METAPHYSICS OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE                           289\n      By M. CARTA STURGE.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\nPART I\n\n\n\n\nMEDICINE AND THE CHURCH\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\nI\n\n\nIn the Middle Ages practically the only homes of learning were the\nmonasteries. Here all the knowledge of the time was taught and all\nthe studies carried on, so that under the same roof the theologian,\nthe chemist, the artist, and the artificer sat side by side, and\nconsequently each drew from and modified the study and practice of\nthe other. In England, at least, the dissolution of the monasteries\nchanged this order, and though the brilliancy of the Renaissance for a\ntime obscured the loss to society in general, in the backwater of the\neighteenth century both religion and medicine drifted into distinct\ncircumscribed professions. The dawn of the nineteenth century saw an\nenormous revival of interest and study in both directions, but the\nnewfound energy with which the two spheres of learning were pushed\nforward, proved in the end inimical to the highest interests of the\ncommunity, for religion and medicine found themselves carried farther\nand farther apart.\n\nBefore the stress of life became as severe as it is to-day, most common\ncomplaints could be overcome by rest and ordinary treatment. But under\nmodern conditions of extreme complexity healing can no longer be\nconducted on such simple lines, and as time has gone on the effects of\nthis divorce of medicine and religion have made themselves felt.\n\nIn correspondence with a more highly organised state of society, man\nhas become a more highly organised being. He has developed faculties\nin excess of the man of, say, fifty years ago, and the exercise of\nthese faculties, that depend for their operation on the nervous\nsystem, entails a strain on that system to which it was not exposed\nhalf a century back. The more elaborate the machinery the more ways in\nwhich it may get out of order. Man to-day is prone to a dozen nervous\ncomplaints whose existence our forefathers were happily able to ignore.\nOwing to climatic and other conditions that need not be discussed here,\nthese nervous disorders first forced themselves on public attention in\nthe United States of America. The overworked business or professional\nman has no time in the rushing life of the great growing cities of\nAmerica for rest. Carried off his feet by the tide of prosperity, he\nbecomes the slave of his inventions instead of being their master.\nHis sense of proportion becomes atrophied and he fails to maintain a\ncorrect balance between thought and action. A purely materialistic\nmedicine that ignores thoughts and feelings as being outside the scope\nof diagnosis is powerless to prescribe for such a case. And it is small\nmatter for astonishment that patients of this description have been\ndrifting into the hands of Christian Science and kindred cults in their\nsearch for relief. These systems of philosophy or religion (if such\nthey can be called) lack, however, that element of completeness without\nwhich no guide of human conduct can maintain its hold. And as it\nbecomes realised that these irresponsible and often mercenary societies\nare propagating views diametrically opposed to the common-sense\nconceptions of the patients, their power will be broken and the cures\ncease. Meantime Christian Science undoubtedly does overcome some cases\nof nervous trouble, but these in no sense outweigh the mischief done\nby its followers in denying the sick medical care. We must clear the\nground before we can commence building, and it may be well to examine\nbriefly the \u2018faith and works\u2019 of Christian Science before proceeding to\ndiscuss the relationship between Medicine and the Church.\n\nOpening Mrs. Eddy\u2019s handbook at random we come across these two\nexplanatory statements:\n\n(1) It is not scientific to examine the body in order to ascertain if\nwe are in health.\n\n(2) To employ drugs for the cure of disease shows a lack of faith in\nGod.\n\nThere is nothing new, of course, in these two statements, nor anything\npeculiar to Christian Science in them. They are put forward by the\nmajority of persons with these views, whether they belong to the\nPeculiar People or to Christian Science.\n\nWith Christian Science, as with all these unorthodox and irregular\nreligious healing societies, it is almost impossible to find any matter\nthat is sufficiently definite to enable one to form any conclusion of\ntheir objects. They talk glibly about having effected cures of various\nkinds of diseases, but on their own showing there is absolutely no\nevidence to prove that the individual ever had that disease or any\nother form of disease. Mr. Stephen Paget has very kindly allowed me\nto make one or two extracts from his invaluable work dealing with\nChristian Science. He has, at great pains, collected cases of Christian\nScience cures as reported in their own official publications. It is\nonly necessary to read a few of these to see the absolute hopelessness\nof getting at the bottom of them, not merely from a medical standpoint\nbut from the point of view of common sense. I would ask any person of\naverage intelligence to read the following five testimonies to healing\nthat Mr. Stephen Paget extracted from Mrs. Eddy\u2019s weekly journal,\nthe _Christian Science Sentinel_, and inform me if they convey any\nimpression whatsoever to his or her mind:\n\n\u2018_Mrs. R._--Healed of \u201csense of fatigue, and throat trouble.\u201d Also,\nwhen knocked down by a bicyclist, she \u201csuffered no pain at all, and had\nlittle sense of shock.\u201d\u2019\n\n\u2018_Mrs. E._--Was healed of the pain of a burn. \u201cThe healing went on\nrapidly, and in a very short time all manifestation of the trouble\ndisappeared.\u201d\u2019\n\n\u2018_Mr. W._--Cured of drinking and smoking, and of \u201cstomach and throat\ntrouble.\u201d\u2019[1]\n\n  [1] A good case of a drunkard converted. The healing of the stomach\n  and throat troubles, of course, followed the giving-up of the drink.\n\n\u2018_Mamie D._--\u201cI seemed to have burned my hand very badly.\u201d Healed.\u2019\n\n\u2018_Mrs. P._--\u201cMany physical ailments have been met and overcome by\nTruth.\u201d\u2019\n\nAnd yet if they will refer to Mr. Paget\u2019s book they will find hundreds\nof similar instances. In an appendix to the second edition of his work\nMr. Paget quotes the whole of the correspondence in connexion with the\nabsent treatment of the Hon. A. Holland-Hibbert\u2019s mare, in 1900. This\ncurious correspondence needs no comment.\n\nThe following is an account _in extenso_ of an alleged cure by\nChristian Science taken from an article in the _Twentieth Century\nMagazine_, published in Boston, U.S.A., October 1909.\n\nThe contribution in question is from the pen of the editor, Mr. B. O.\nFlower. I leave my readers to form their own opinion on this remarkable\ntestimony.\n\n\u2018On the morning of the dedication of the Chicago Church, November 14,\n1898, I was in my bedroom in the third story of our house (the house is\nthree stories and basement). I was getting ready to go to the morning\nservice, and my little daughter, five years old, was playing about,\nwhen suddenly I felt a silence. I instantly noticed that the child was\nno longer there and that the window was open.\u2019\n\n\u2018I looked out and saw her unconscious form on the ground below, her\nhead on the cement sidewalk. Instantly I thought, \u201cAll is Love.\u201d\n\n\u2018As I went downstairs the entire paragraph in \u201cNo and Yes,\u201d page 19,\nbeginning, \u201cEternal harmony, perpetuity, and perfection constitute\nthe phenomena of Being,\u201d came to me and took up its abode with me,\nand with it the clear sense of the great gulf fixed between the child\nand the lie that claimed to destroy. The child was brought in, and\nas she was carried upstairs she cried. As she was laid down, the\nblood was spurting from her mouth, and had already covered her neck\nand shoulders. I instantly said, \u201cThere is one law--God\u2019s law--under\nwhich man remains perfect,\u201d and the bleeding immediately stopped. The\nchild seemed to relapse into unconsciousness, but I declared, \u201cMind\nis ever present and controls its idea,\u201d and in a few moments she\nslept naturally. During the morning she seemed to suffer greatly if\nshe was moved at all, and her legs seemed paralysed, lifeless. In the\nafternoon, all sense of pain left, she slept quietly, and I went to the\nafternoon service rejoicing greatly in my freedom from the sense of\npersonal responsibility.\u2019\n\n\u2018When I returned she sat in my lap to eat some supper, with no sense\nof pain, but still unable to control her limbs, which presented the\nappearance of entire inaction. At eight o\u2019clock she was undressed\nwithout inconvenience, and there was no mark on her body but a bruised\neye. During the day she had not spoken of herself. At eleven o\u2019clock\nwhen I went upstairs, I found her wide awake and she said: \u201cMamma,\nerror is trying to say that I fell out of the window, but that cannot\nbe. The child of God can\u2019t fall; but why do I lie here? Why can\u2019t I\nmove my legs?\u201d\n\n\u2018The answer was, \u201cYou can move them. Mind governs, and you are always\nperfect.\u201d In a moment she said, \u201cI will get up and walk.\u201d It seemed to\nrequire one or two trials to get her legs to obey, but she rose, walked\nacross the room and back and climbed into bed.... She then sat up, ate\na lunch, fell into a natural slumber, and woke bright and happy in the\nmorning.\u2019\n\nThe Archbishop of Canterbury gave a solemn warning in connexion with\nthis question at a recent conference at Lambeth Palace, and the\nfollowing statement from the medical side is important.\n\n\u2018Christian Science seems to present one fundamental point of difference\nfrom all other forms of spiritual healing. This is, that whereas the\ncures said to be wrought at Lourdes and other shrines are attributed\nto the direct action of Christ, exercised at the intercession of His\nVirgin Mother or His Saints, Mrs. Eddy and her disciples claim, as far\nas we understand the teaching--which is not only obscure in itself, but\noften inconsistent--to cure disease by the same power of healing that\nwas given to Christ. In the sacred book of the sect we read:\n\n\u2018Our Master healed the sick, practised Christian healing, and taught\nthe generalities of its divine Principle to His students; but He\nleft no definite rule for demonstrating His Principle of healing and\npreventing disease. This remained to be discovered through Christian\nScience. A pure affection takes form in goodness, but Science alone\nreveals its Principle and demonstrates its rules.\u2019[2]\n\n  [2] _Science and Health._ By Mary Baker G. Eddy. Boston. 1908. P. 41.\n\nShe tells us that \u2018when God called her to proclaim His Gospel to this\nage, there came also the charge to plant and water His vineyard.\u2019\nWhat she calls her \u2018sacred discovery\u2019 was made in 1866, and since\nthen it has become widespread in America and in this country. It does\nnot commend itself to the Latin mind, which is nothing if not lucid\nand logical. Its methods and results are fully discussed by some\nrepresentatives of the most advanced medical thought in the present\nissue of the _Journal_, and we have nothing to add to what they say.\nTo anyone who wishes to see the whole case against Christian Science\nput most clearly and convincingly from the medical point of view, we\ncordially recommend Mr. Stephen Paget\u2019s book on the subject.[3] It is\nattractively written, well \u2018documented,\u2019 and informed with the true\nscientific spirit.\n\n  [3] _The Faith and Works of Christian Science._ Macmillan and Co.\n  1909. The book is now in a second edition.\n\nWe need say only one thing more about Christian Science, which, to\nspeak plainly, is a repulsive subject, inasmuch as it shows, in a way\nno other form of spiritual healing does, the depths of degradation\nto which the human mind can sink under the weight of superstition.\nThat it cures cases of the kind that have been healed at all sorts of\nshrines--pagan, Christian, Buddhist, Mohammedan--from time immemorial,\nit would be idle to deny. That it brightens the lives of some persons\nwho have no aim in life, and have nothing to do but evoke pains and\nailments by thinking of their health, is also true. But, none the less,\nits pretensions go far behind anything that is credible, except by\nsuch as accept Tertullian\u2019s paradox, _Credo quia impossibile_; and,\ninstead of courting the light as other methods do, it seems to love\nthe darkness. We have asked over and over again for facts that would\nconvince a trained mind, but none are forthcoming. Christian Science\nmay, indeed, be described as faith with the least possible amount of\nworks and the largest possible number of words. Here are fair specimens\nof the kind of facts which forms all the evidence vouchsafed to us\nof its healing efficacy; they are taken from the _Christian Science\nSentinel_ of May 28, 1910, p. 777:\n\n\u2018A short time ago I was taken sick with fever. My mother asked for\nChristian Science treatment for me, and I was almost instantly cured.\nI have been reading \u201cScience and Health, with Key to the Scriptures,\u201d\nby Mrs. Eddy, and have been benefited in business and in health ever\nsince. I am very grateful for Christian Science, and thankful to God,\nwhence all good comes.\n\n  \u2018FRED. WERTH, Dallas, Tex.\u2019\n\n\u2018Some time ago I was attacked by stomach and bowel trouble. A Christian\nScience practitioner was called, and my ailment soon left and I was\nagain able to resume my duties. I am very thankful for the good done me\nand others, and praise God for speaking to us through Mrs. Eddy.\n\n  \u2018TILLIE WERTH, Dallas, Tex.\u2019\n\nThere is nothing new in Christian Science except the colossal impudence\nof its pretensions. Mark Twain spoke in ignorance when he said:\n\n\u2018The Christian Scientist has taken a force which has been lying idle in\nevery member of the human race since time began.\u2019\n\nWe have shown that it was not left to Mrs. Eddy to discover this force,\nand that, so far from lying idle, it has been active in temples and\nchurches, at shrines and tombs, for thousands of years. In one thing\nChristian Science has probably a unique record of achievement: beyond\nany sect or system that we know of it has succeeded in exploiting human\nimbecility and turning airy nothing into solid cash.[4]\n\n  [4] _British Medical Journal_, June 18, 1910.\n\n\u2018Every false system of philosophy, of ethics, of morals, and of\nreligion is floated on the vast ocean of conduct, of character, and of\nconviction by some element of truth. This corresponds to a water-tight\ncompartment in a vessel which is in danger of being sunk, through\ndishonest contracts, imperfect mechanism, ignorant seamanship, or the\nstress and strain of storm. But for this compartment, the ship would\ndisappear in the gurgling green of the ocean. In the moral Order, and\nin all our controversies, there is this unsinkable truth. It keeps\nafloat all with which it is for the time united, until the balance is\nlost. Then the system is submerged. But the truth sails on.\u2019[5] In the\ncase of the system we have had under examination this truth is the\npower of the mind over the body and the efficacy of faith. Christian\nScience undoubtedly cures certain kinds of neurotic troubles, just as\nit may do incalculable harm by teaching that scientific medicine is\nnot only useless but mischievous. If its followers confined themselves\nto merely enunciating the truth on which the flimsy superstructure is\nfounded little could be urged against them. As we have seen, however,\nby a careful examination of their official records, they contradict the\ncardinal doctrines of the Christian Churches, and encourage a disregard\nfor all bodily complaints that is not merely foolish in the extreme,\nbut where the sufferings of others are concerned, distinctly brutal,\nand in either case often leads to the most disastrous results.\n\n  [5] Dean Lefroy on _Christian Science_.\n\nThis indictment is a serious one. But then the claims of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s\nsupporters are so portentous that they cannot be lightly dismissed,\nand we must not forget that, as the Bishop of Birmingham points out in\na letter printed further on in this volume, both the Church and the\nmedical profession have played into the hands of Christian Science by\nignoring the facts that Mrs. Eddy has been occupied in distorting.\n\nHowever much it may have been possible in the past for the doctor and\nthe parson in dealing with the less nervous, more easy-going type to\nlook upon him as composed of two distinct and separate parts, body\nand spirit respectively, having no intimate relationship and amenable\nto quite different influences, such a view of men and women is to-day\nout of the question. To entertain it for a moment is to court failure.\nMind and matter act and react upon one another, and more than this,\nwithout faith all human enterprise would be stultified. Faith plays no\nless important a part in medical treatment than it does in the more\ncommonplace affairs of life. This aspect of the question cannot be\nbetter expressed than it has been recently by Professor Osler.[6]\n\n  [6]\n\n  \u2018_From the Regius Professor of Medicine, Oxford._\n\n  \u2018_Nov. 18th, \u201909._\n\n  \u2018Dear Sir,--\n\n  \u2018The question as you say bristles with difficulties, but no doubt\n  in the stirring of the pool healing in some form or another will be\n  the outcome. You are of course at liberty to use any writings of\n  mine.--Sincerely yours,\n\n  W. Osler.\u2019\n\n\n\u2018Nothing in life is more wonderful than faith--the one great moving\nforce which we can neither weigh in the balance nor test in the\ncrucible. Intangible as the ether, ineluctable as gravitation, the\nradium of the moral and mental spheres, mysterious, indefinable,\nknown only by its effects, faith pours out an unfailing stream of\nenergy while abating nor jot nor tittle of its potency. Well indeed\ndid St. Paul break out into the well-known glorious panegyric, but\neven this scarcely does justice to the Hertha of the psychical world,\ndistributing force as from a great storage battery, without money and\nwithout price to the children of men.\u2019\n\nThree of its relations concern us here. The most active manifestations\nare in the countless affiliations which man in his evolution has worked\nout with the unseen, with the invisible powers, whether of light or\nof darkness, to which from time immemorial he has erected altars and\nshrines. To each one of the religions, past or present, faith has been\nthe Jacob\u2019s ladder. Creeds pass; an inexhaustible supply of faith\nremains, with which man proceeds to rebuild temples, churches, chapels,\nand shrines. As Swinburne says in that wonderful poem, _The Altar of\nRighteousness_:\n\n  God by God flits past in thunder, till his glories turn to shades:\n  God to God bears wondering witness how his gospel flames and fades.\n  More was each of these, while yet they were, than man their servant seemed:\n  Dead are all of these, and man survives who made them while he dreamed.\n\nAnd all this has been done by faith, and faith alone. Christendom lives\non it, and countless thousands are happy in the possession of that most\ntouching of all confessions, \u2018Lord! I believe; help Thou my unbelief.\u2019\nBut, with its Greek infection, the Western mind is a poor transmitter\nof faith, the apotheosis of which must be sought in the religions of\nthe East. The nemesis of faith is that neither in its intensity nor in\nits effects does man find any warrant of the worthiness of the object\non which it is lavished--the followers of Joe Smith, the Mormon, are as\nearnest and believing as are those of Confucius!\n\nAgain, faith is the cement which binds man to man in every relation\nof life. Without faith in the Editor of the _Journal_ I would not\nhave accepted his invitation to write this brief note, and he had\nconfidence that I would not write rubbish. Personally I have battened\non it these thirty-six years, ever since the McGill Medical Faculty\ngave me my first mount. I have had faith in the profession, the most\nunbounded confidence in it as one of the great factors in the progress\nof humanity; and one of the special satisfactions of my life has been\nthat my brethren have in many practical ways shown faith in me, often\nmuch more than (as I know in my heart of hearts) I have deserved. I\ntake this illustration of the practical value of the faith that worketh\nconfidence, but there is not a human relationship which could not be\nused for the same purpose.\n\nAnd a third aspect is one of very great importance to the question in\nhand--a man must have faith in himself to be of any use in the world.\nThere may be very little on which to base it--no matter, but faith in\none\u2019s powers, in one\u2019s mission, is essential to success. Confidence\nonce won, the rest follows naturally; and with a strong faith in\nhimself a man becomes a local centre for its radiation. St. Francis,\nSt. Theresa, Ignatius Loyola, Florence Nightingale, the originator of\nevery cult or sect or profession, has possessed this infective faith.\nAnd in the ordinary everyday work of the doctor, confidence, assurance\n(in the proper sense of the word) is an asset without which it is\nvery difficult to succeed. How often does one hear the remark, \u2018Oh!\nhe does not inspire confidence,\u2019 or the reverse! How true it is, as\nwise old Burton says: \u2018That the patient must have a sure hope in his\nphysician. Damascen, the Arabian, requires likewise in the physician\nhimself that he be confident he can cure him, otherwise his physic will\nnot be effectual, and promise withal that he will certainly help him,\nmake him believe so at least. Galeottus gives this reason because\nthe form of health is contained in the physician\u2019s mind, and as Galen\nholds confidence and hope to be more good than physic, he cures most in\nwhom most are confident\u2019; and he quotes Paracelsus to the effect that\nHippocrates was so fortunate in his cures not from any extraordinary\nskill, but because \u2018the common people had a most strong conceit of his\nworth.\u2019\n\nFaith is indeed one of the miracles of human nature which science is\nas ready to accept as it is to study its marvellous effects. When we\nrealise what a vast asset it has been in history, the part which it\nhas played in the healing art seems insignificant, and yet there is no\ndepartment of knowledge more favourable to an impartial study of its\neffects; and this brings me to my subject--the faith that heals.\n\nApart from the more specific methods to be dealt with faith has always\nbeen an essential factor in the practice of medicine, as illustrated by\nthe quotations just given from Burton. Literature is full of examples\nof remarkable cures through the influence of the imagination, which\nis only an active phase of faith. The late Daniel Hack Tuke\u2019s book,\n\u2018The Influence of the Mind on the Body,\u2019 is a storehouse of facts\ndealing with the subject. \u2018While in general use for centuries, one\ngood result of the recent development of mental healing has been to\ncall attention to its great value as a measure to be carefully and\nscientifically applied in suitable cases. My experience has been that\nof the unconscious rather than the deliberate faith healer. Phenomenal,\neven what could be called miraculous, cures are not very uncommon. Like\nothers, I have had cases any one of which, under suitable conditions,\ncould have been worthy of a shrine or made the germ of a pilgrimage.\nFor more than ten years a girl lay paralysed in a New Jersey town. A\ndevoted mother and loving sisters had worn out lives in her service.\nShe had never been out of bed unless when lifted by one of her\nphysicians, Dr. Longstreth and Dr. Shippen. The new surroundings of a\nhospital, the positive assurance that she could get well with a few\nsimple measures sufficed, and within a fortnight she walked round\nthe hospital square. This is a type of modern miracle that makes one\nappreciate how readily well-meaning people may be deceived as to the\ntrue nature of the cure effected at the shrine of a saint. Who could\ndeny the miracle? And miracle it was, but not brought about by any\nsupernatural means.\u2019[7]\n\n  [7] _British Medical Journal_, June 18, 1910.\n\nIf, then, faith is so important an adjuvant to ordinary medical\ntreatment, we see at once that religion that stands for faith\nin its highest and purest form should represent a tremendous\nrecuperative force. We have said that medicine and religion had become\nestranged--the one given over to a rigid materialism, and the other so\nbusy with men\u2019s souls that it forgot their bodies altogether. This book\nis a humble attempt to bridge over the gulf. There is a great movement\nthat has its roots in history that is already written and that will go\non into the far distant future, around about us. It is a movement that\nstands for Idealism and Optimism. It is the harmonising of all kinds\nof human experience into one great philosophy. Scientific medicine is\ncoming to reconsider its position and to realise its responsibilities.\nThis synchronises with a broadening of the basis of Christian teaching.\nWithout abandoning any of the cardinal tenets of their faith, the\nchurches are coming to see that Christianity is a much more wonderful\ntruth than they had ever dreamed; and, instead of there being any\nconflict between Christianity and science, science, like all work for\nthe good of humanity, must be an integral part of the Church\u2019s service\nto mankind.\n\nMedicine and religion had a common origin in pagan temples, and we\nhave already seen that in medieval times all such learning was the\nmonopoly of the monks. Healing by means of influence on the mind of\nthe patient is no newer a branch of the art than surgery or treatment\nby drugs. History abounds with instances of cures effected at shrines\nby means of relics, and by saints. Of all modern pilgrimage shrines\nthe one in the Pyrenees is by far the most famous. That cures actually\ntake place at the Grotto of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception at\nLourdes is undeniable. The cases have been medically diagnosed and the\ncertificates may be examined in the Record Office at Lourdes where\nsuch documents are preserved. Whether such cures differ in character\nfrom other cures by what is termed suggestion is an open question. In\nfairness to those who believe them to be due to the direct intervention\nof the Almighty it is perhaps only right to give here the opinion\nof Mr. Butlin, the President of the Royal College of Surgeons, who\nrecently said:\n\n\u2018When such cures take place in the presence of vast masses of people,\nalthough it may be possible to explain all the steps through which\nthe emotion has produced the \u201ccure,\u201d how can we be surprised that the\npeople fall on their knees before God and bless His holy name for the\nmiracle which He has wrought?\n\n\u2018I defy anyone to read Zola\u2019s story of the cure of Marie le Guersaint,\nwritten by a sceptic (Zola\u2019s \u201cLourdes\u201d), without being moved by it and\nwithout feeling convinced that all true Catholics who were present,\npriests and people, with the unhappy exception of the Abb\u00e9 Pierre\nFroment, truly believed that Almighty God had been moved by the\nintercession of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception to display His\ndivine power by instantaneously restoring the health of the poor girl\nwho had lain paralysed upon a couch for seven years. In the eyes of\nall who witnessed it, it was a miracle, for every medical man who had\nseen her had, with one exception, believed her to be suffering from\na damaged spinal cord. There is therefore no excuse, in such a case\nas this or in ninety-nine out of one hundred cases which are cured by\nfaith, to impute dishonesty and deliberate deception to the priests\nand the people who proclaim such cures to be the work of God. From the\nlittle I have seen of the priests actively engaged in the grotto at\nLourdes, I can feel no doubt that the most of them honestly believe\nthat the cures which they have seen are genuine. I would no more think\nof accusing them of deliberate deception than I would accuse my own\nrelative of it.\u2019[8]\n\n  [8] _British Medical Journal_, June 18, 1910.\n\nWe have spoken of a great movement, that tends to bring into closer\nco-operation all human effort and to consecrate it to one ideal--the\nservice of mankind.\n\nWe are here more particularly concerned with a smaller movement\nthat exists within the greater. It has made itself felt at Church\nConferences and at Medical Councils. It is a movement to bring the\nmedical profession and the Church into a closer practical connexion to\nfight disease. That such an intimate co-operation is not only desirable\nbut possible, the thoughtful chapters contributed to this book by\neminent authorities go to show. As regards the general principle\nunderlying this joint work for the sick, the Archdeacon of London\nrecently gave expression to what would appear to be the feeling of the\nleading ecclesiastics and foremost physicians in his charge to the\nclergy of his archdeaconry in the following words:\n\n\u2018Religion and medical science should always co-operate, while the\nultimate responsibility must lie with the accredited physician.\u2019\n\nWhen the scheme for the present volume was drawn up over a year ago,\nit was felt that some authoritative statement was needed to guide the\npublic in thinking out the topical questions of Spiritual Faith or\nMental Healing. There has, in recent years, been an endless series of\nbooks issued from the European and American presses on this subject.\nSome of these publications being obviously the hand-books of societies\nwhose name spelt their own condemnation, thinking people passed them\nby, but, on the other hand, much literature of a very misleading\ncharacter has been placed on the market and purchased by many in the\nbelief that they were learning from it the official views either of the\nChurch or of the medical profession, or of both. The qualified medical\npractitioners of this country do not lightly decide to give expression\nto their views on therapeutics in books issued to the general public,\nand whenever they circulate opinions it may be taken for granted that\nthey are the result of patient investigation of facts and of carefully\nthought out conclusions deduced from those facts. If one may be allowed\nto indicate in a general way the position taken up by the doctors who\nhave written for the following pages, it is one of scepticism towards\nquasi-miraculous healing as a practical means of combating disease, but\nat the same time it is an attitude of extreme cordiality towards the\nminister of religion--in his capacity as a messenger of hope and expert\nin peace of mind. Of all the weighty evidence that has been gathered\ntogether to build up this book, the opinion of Sir Clifford Allbutt\nforms no unimportant section. Few of us can escape sickness altogether,\nand although some illnesses may be blessings in disguise, nevertheless\nour desire for health is only second to our desire for life, and it\nis right that it should be so. \u2018The highest spiritual life depends on\nthe best bodily health,\u2019 Sir Clifford Allbutt tells us. The Bishops at\nLambeth admitted with regret that \u2018sickness has too often exclusively\nbeen regarded as a cross to be borne with passive resignation, whereas\nit should have been regarded rather as a weakness to be overcome by the\npower of the spirit.\u2019 That there exist potentialities of healing apart\nfrom physic to-day no one can refute, but it is to be feared the Church\nand the medical profession have much lost ground to recover, through\nhaving in the past ignored those psychic forces that are now the object\nboth of scientific inquiry and of theological study. The marvellous\nchemical discoveries of the past few years have revolutionised\nscientific conceptions. New theories of matter and of energy are\nbeing framed to explain the result of new researches. The wonders of\nradio-activity have converted the scientist from a materialist who\nbelieved in nothing unrevealed by test-tube or microscope, into an\nidealist prepared to argue from the unseen to the seen. Just as there\nare in the world of physical science forces whose existence we are only\nnow beginning to recognise and whose capabilities are still unknown\nto us, there are undoubtedly psychic forces in man that are capable\nof development, but of whose exact nature we at present are ignorant,\nalthough we can trace their effects.[9]\n\n  [9] The biologist who used to expect to discover the source of life\n  by dissection and analysis would be rather astonished at the modern\n  tendency among scientific men to substitute doctrines of \u2018energies\u2019\n  for \u2018atoms.\u2019 As Dr. Putman has pointed out, the modern physicist\n  scarcely feels the need of atoms for the world of his conception. We\n  may even go a step further. \u2018Energy\u2019 is \u2018immaterial,\u2019 \u2018consciousness\u2019\n  is \u2018immaterial.\u2019 May they not accordingly have a common denominator?\n\n\u2018In the case of vital truth ... it may be necessary for a writer to\nsay some hard things,\u2019 but criticism, prompted by no petty spirit,\nbut by a noble desire to bring out the best, will never be resented\nby right-minded people. Two great and noble professions are about to\nmake a combined attack on sickness and suffering. They have too great a\nsense of their responsibility to enter upon such a campaign lightly.\nMuch counsel is needed before the allies can give battle.\n\nThe respective spheres of action of the cleric and the doctor have to\nbe mapped out; so that all the efforts of the one may support and never\nhamper the other.\n\nIt will be seen that the medical contributors, not unreasonably,\nseriously deprecate any attempt on the part of the minister of religion\nto invade the province of medicine. Such intrusion is none the less\ndangerous because it may be unintentional. All \u2018treatment,\u2019 whether it\nbe by means of drugs, surgery, or hypnotic suggestion, must necessarily\nbe a matter for the doctor and those working under his immediate\ndirection: and for them only. In so far as he may be concerned with\nphysical disabilities the priest must inevitably defer to the physician.\n\nAt the same time the value of spiritual ministrations in sickness is\nemphasised on every page of this book.\n\n\u2018Probably no limb, no viscus is so far a vessel of dishonour as to lie\nwholly outside the renewals of the spirit,\u2019 says Sir Clifford Allbutt.\nBut we may go further than this in certain directions. Remembering\nthat the health of mind and body are mutually dependent, and that\ntroublesome thoughts may bring sickness in their train, we see that\nthere may exist sicknesses that are not amenable to medical treatment\nonly. These are among the ills that the _British Medical Journal_ has\ntold us cannot be cured by pills and potions alone.\n\nDr. Jane Walker writes pertinently on this, under the heading of \u2018The\nRelationship of Priest and Doctor to Patient.\u2019 As she points out, when\na character has to be remoulded, it is the priest rather than the\ndoctor who can best help the patient.\n\n\u2018A true and philosophic religion raises the mind above incidental\nemotionalism and gives stability,\u2019 says Dr. Hyslop: this is the\nstand-point adopted by all the eminent theologians who have written for\nthis book.\n\nMental and physical pain is part of the evil in the world. It makes\na great difference, however--it may be all the difference between\nsickness and health--whether we allow trouble to break down our\nself-control and weaken our will, or whether we face it boldly with a\nsupreme serenity of spirit, strong in a knowledge of greater things.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\nPART II\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\nII\n\n\nIn the course of gathering opinions from various authoritative sources\non the subject dealt with in this book, I received communications\nfrom Sir Clifford Allbutt, the Hon. Sydney Holland, and a well-known\nsurgeon, which, though they do not constitute separate treatises, are\nso important, not only in view of the distinction of the authors, but\nof the broad survey of the subject that they afford, that I venture to\nprint them as part of the general introduction.\n\nIn the case of Sir Clifford Allbutt\u2019s paper I have supplemented it by\nan important extract from one of his recent writings.\n\n\nTHE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEDICINE AND RELIGION\n\nThe response you are good enough to desire can be but brief, crude,\nand, I fear, too blunt; but I have not time for careful consideration.\nI can only indicate a few points which occur to me offhand, and taking\nmuch for granted. For instance, I must avoid any discussion of those\nantinomies which meet us at every side of human conceptions, and be\ncontent to accept the common uses. The chief of these (for the moment)\nis that of the material and spiritual; without forgetting that they\nmelt at their borders the one into the other, and that we meet with\ncorresponding ambiguities, yet I must take them as distinct fields of\nhuman life. In our interesting personal conversation you may remember\nthat I expressed the opinion that, on the whole, our prayers must not\nbe for material but for spiritual things. And, speaking on the whole,\nsickness is a material thing. In the stories of our Lord\u2019s miracles\nit has always struck me that He regarded His miracles--I must use the\nword for brevity--apologetically. The disciples were not to tell any\nman of them; or again, a miracle was performed under a compelling sense\nof the overwhelming faith of the pleader, which was the main thing.\nFaith, prayer, were to be for the needs of the soul, not of the body.\nFor instance, the father seeing his child in diphtheria would please\nGod better--so the experience of His world tells us--by spending his\nfirst hour in seeking the physician with his antidote rather than\nin prayer for a divine intervention. And when time came for prayer\nhe would pray not for a suspension of natural law but for unity of\nhis own will with that of the Father, and for the child\u2019s spiritual\nwelfare. Into the origin of evil do not fear that I shall enter; it\nis one of the antinomies which I have said that we must avoid, at any\nrate at present: I can only now say that disease is a material effect\nto be combated by material means, and not by religious processions or\nintercessions.\n\nThis being my view, I would try to eliminate notions of the priest as\nmedicine man; they are essentially pagan, though to this day they more\nor less unconsciously influence our thoughts on the present subject.\n\nBut, it may be said, strange healings do take place under religious\ninfluences; and this is true. And at no time in history were such\nmiraculous cures more frequent and wonderful than in the temples of\nAesculapius or of Serapis. Modern cures, whether of the Eddyites or at\nLourdes, or the like elsewhere, when compared with those of the Roman\nEmpire fall into insignificance. Now a careful study of all reported\ncures of this miraculous or miraculoid kind, a study illustrated for\nus many years ago by Charcot, proved to him, and proves to the expert\nobservers of to-day, that they all--palsies, convulsions and the rest,\noften inveterate cases--are and have been cures of one disease, and of\none only, namely hysteria; a malady which in its protean manifestations\nmocks all and any particular diseases. I say this of the genuine\ncases; but the majority of such wonders recorded turn out on inquiry\n(like the \u2018Grimsby\u2019 case) to be grossly exaggerated or wholly false.\nThe \u2018miraculous cures\u2019 then, so far as they are genuine, are cures\nby suggestion: they take their place with cures of the same kind of\ndisorder by panic, such as an alarm of fire; by \u2018hypnotism,\u2019 or by\nany other over-mastering impression which startles or transports the\nbalance of the bodily functions from one centre of equilibrium to\nanother higher and more stable one.\n\nSo much for the \u2018miracles\u2019; which owe nothing to any sacerdotal magic,\nand to the physician are part of a familiar experience, and of a\nfamiliar interpretation. But giving up the hysterical cases--which,\nby the way, is to give up a good deal--and admitting that disease is\nin the body a material thing, and one not properly matter for the\npleading of prayer, except in the spiritual sense of submission to\nthe Divine order, between these positions is there a sphere in which\nspiritual influences--whether by a clergyman or a Biblewoman or a\ngentle friend--may so infuse peace and confidence into a sick man as\nto promote even in the body a renewal, a conversion, or an economy of\nenergy which should make for recovery? Certainly; and here, I think, is\nthe restricted, if still important, sphere of religion as medical.\n\nTo consider this aspect of the matter we must go back for a moment to\ncertain principles. From the letters of Teresa--that noble saint--we\nmay learn much of the greatest value to us in the present inquiry.\nWe may learn from her to distrust the \u2018ecstasies and melancholies\u2019\nwhich--as she said--were \u2018the perils of conventual life\u2019; she roundly\ndenounced all that \u2018letting one\u2019s self go, outside the control of\nreason,\u2019 which has its origin in \u2018sick brains.\u2019\n\n\u2018If I were with you,\u2019 she wrote to a certain Prioress, \u2018you would\nnot have so many extraordinary experiences.\u2019 Now Teresa not only\napprehended, but thoroughly understood, that the highest spiritual life\ndepends upon the best bodily health. She tells us that she supported\nher own vigils with plenty of meat (_viande_) and sleep. High and\nholy thought demands the greatest effort of the healthiest body, of\nthe brain most finely balanced and best nourished. The piety of the\nsick-bed is at best a passive piety, which on recovery is pushed aside\nagain by the custom of the world; but herein it is that in sickness\nthe soul flags and droops upon itself, and that the support of other\nsympathy is more precious. The sympathy we all depend on in health we\nneed most when enfeebled by ailment. There is no delusion more terrible\nthan that which lets a man run up a score of sins and negligences to be\nrepented of under the discouragement of a sick-bed. In this melancholy,\nthis debility, this disappointment, perhaps this remorse, energy is\nwasted which is sorely required for the conflict with disease. And even\nthe man of religious life likewise--if in less degree, as one who has\naccumulated more inward light--is also disheartened to perceive that\nthe fountains of spiritual contemplation are then less copious, and\naspiration a wearier effort. He too needs help, if not to make, yet\nto reinforce, the happier conversations of his fuller life. In health\nthe mind in solitude droops and wastes, and the sick-bed is a kind\nof solitude; the thousand and one stimulating impressions of common\nlife cease, the impressions wane which should keep the mind and soul\nawake, and fill the wells of energy. On the sick-bed, therefore,\nshort times of encouragement and sympathy, periods not long enough to\nexhaust the scanty stores of energy, are precious; and if the physician\nbe jealous--as it has been said--of the priest, it is lest he should\nexpend these stores more in priestly functions than in \u2018angels\u2019 visits\u2019\nof love and hope which would unite and reinforce the vacillating and\nfading forces. Thus also prayer at the bedside and the short communions\nshould be of love and hope, not particular requests for material relief\nor cure. The kindly physician himself may be a vehicle of much of this\nencouragement; but--as I said to you before--he should avoid even the\nsemblance of attending to anything beside his own business of material\naid and general human sympathy. The most pious patient, openly or\ninwardly, resents the divided mind. The instinct of self-preservation\nis not lost even in those nearest to God.\n\nSo when all is said and done on this subject I fear that matters for\nme remain much where they were before; but they may lead to a more\nintimate understanding of the several parts of the spiritual and\nthe medical visitors, and to a completer sympathy between them. If\nstill it be urged that an imposing ceremony may, by a measure of the\n\u2018suggestion\u2019 so effective in the many-coloured hysteria, come to our\naid in more noxious maladies, if no more than on the fringe of them, I\nshould repeat that the advantage would be so indefinite, so relatively\nsmall, and so well to be attained by ordinary spiritual visitation, as\nnot to be worth the peril of the moral perversion which hangs only too\nclosely around these good intentions, the peril of imposing upon, even\nof bamboozling, the patient. We must remember the saying of Lavoisier,\n\u2018Medicine came into the world with a twin brother, called charlatanism.\u2019\n\n  Clifford Allbutt.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nExtract from Sir Clifford Allbutt\u2019s paper in the _British Medical\nJournal_, June 18, 1910:\n\n\u2018Spiritual gifts may or may not consist in the insertion of a new\nentity, they certainly do consist in a reanimation and remodelling of\nthinking matter in the uppermost strands of the brain, and probably of\nsome other, perhaps even of all the other, molecular activities of the\nbody. Probably no limb, no viscus is so far a vessel of dishonour as\nto lie wholly outside the renewals of the spirit; and to an infinite\nintelligence every accession of spiritual life would be apparent\nin a new harmony (\u03c3\u03c5\u03b3\u03b3\u03c5\u03bc\u03bd\u03b1\u03c3\u03af\u03b1) of each and all of the metabolic\nstreams and confluences of the body. On this conviction it is that\nthe hopes and methods of faith healing depend. Conversely, every man\nwho watches his own life must know this, as in time of weariness\nor pain he grieves over the drooping of his soul, that the highest\nspiritual life depends on the highest bodily health; but this health\nmeans, not health only of the belly, not only health of the heart\nand common brain, but also of the rarest and most exquisite textures\nof the cerebral web. If in a rude health of the grosser body these\nsubtlest parts have not been exercised and cherished, the total harmony\nis diminished; highly efficient as, on lower planes, the particular\nbody may be, it is defective in comprehensions, it is an inconsummate\nbody. To this \u201cmaterialism\u201d of the body, even on its most spiritual\nplanes of structure, we must not close our eyes lest in our search\nbeyond knowledge we walk contrary to knowledge. \u201cTo pray well,\u201d said\nthe noble Teresa, \u201cone must eat well and sleep well.\u201d If into the last\nanalysis the Pauline division between the carnal and the spiritual\ncannot be carried, if under the relations of other times and of other\nideas we have to re-interpret it, yet still in its broader contrasts\nit points out a plain way of life and conduct--one so plain that the\nperplexities of the middle terms may be left to the casuist.\n\n\u2018It must be granted then, in respect of faith healing, that spiritual\ninfluences, divine directly, or indirectly through human mediation,\nmay to some unknown power radiate from these highest currents downward\nthrough the more and more \u201cmaterial\u201d planes, arousing them less and\nless as they have become more and more statical in order.\n\n\u2018Once more; it is said that in his \u201csubliminal self\u201d man possesses a\nsubstance peculiarly divine, or a substance or means through which\nwe may reach divine communion, or through which especially divine\npurposes may be fulfilled in us. It is true that we do not know even\napproximately the content of the individual man, the materials racially\nand personally acquired, the products of past experience, racial and\npersonal, built sensibly and insensibly into his personality. May we\nnot each of us be compared with a ship which began its voyage with no\ninconsiderable rudimentary equipment, then, calling at many a port, has\ngathered many kinds of stores and treasure? Of some of these stores, of\nsome variety of them, the supercargo has a recollection, especially of\nthose in frequent use; but, for the most part, the bills of lading had\nbeen lost. Unlike a cargo, however, these contents are not a passive\nburden, but a system of coefficients; some on planes which we commonly\ncall material, some on spiritual planes, some working on the surface,\nsome working stealthily within; so that much tact and insight are\nnecessary to unveil and to re-animate those agencies in whose abeyance\ndisorder or ineffectualness may happen to consist. And the influences\nwhich are to effect these revivals must be akin in nature to these\nkinds respectively; some must be solidly material--such as splints\nor drugs--some must be religious, moral, and even intellectual, yet\ninspired by emotion, by appeal to hope and joy; and their instruments\nmust be devotion, sympathy, gladness, reasonable persuasion, and even\nsurprise.\u2019\n\n\nRELIGION AND MEDICINE IN THE HOSPITAL\n\nNo one who has been connected with one of our big general hospitals\ncan doubt for a moment the advisability of the collaboration of the\nphysician and the clergyman, each helping the patient from his own\nstandpoint. It must not be imagined that I advocate any usurping of\nthe duties of one by the other, but in the cure of certain types of\ndisease, and certainly in the cure of diseases that are primarily\ndiseases of mind or character, the doctor should welcome the minister\nof religion as a valuable ally. In fact none can doubt that the\nminister of religion can bring a power to bear on the mind of a\npatient, which the doctor cannot.\n\nWhatever his own personal belief may be, the medical man can of course\nonly view religion from a philosophic or ethical stand-point. It is\ndifficult for him to concern himself with dogma. The clergyman can\nhelp by administering suggestions of hope and encouragement. These\nsuggestions can and do often come from other sources with equal\nresults, but I think by virtue of his office the clergyman is specially\nqualified for the work.\n\nThere can be no doubt that cures of certain kinds of diseases have\nbeen effected by Christian Science and kindred faith-healing cults,\nall of which cures come under the head of healing by suggestion. I do\nnot think that healing disease by suggestion is specially a Christian\nwork, it can be achieved in many ways. But I think the average medical\nman likely to be more willing to seek the aid of a duly accredited\nminister of religion than a so-called \u2018Spiritual Healer\u2019 who is subject\nto no authority. But above and beyond all this I think the quieting\nand encouraging influences of religion are of the greatest value in all\nillness, and I believe a greater use might be made of such power.\n\n  Sydney Holland.\n\n\nTHE SURGEON, THE CLERGYMAN, AND THE PATIENT\n\nPossibly the gravest shock that a human being may receive, so far as\nit concerns himself or herself, is to be told that fatal disease is\npresent in the system. So great may be the actual shock that many a\nmedical practitioner shrinks from inflicting it, and purposely avoids\ndirect allusion to the certainty of dissolution. Whether this is\njustifiable or no, depends very largely upon the susceptibilities of\nthe patient and the tact of the doctor. But the word \u2018operation\u2019 is, by\nsome, almost as much dreaded as the word \u2018death\u2019; in fact even more,\nas it always implies to the lay mind the infliction of hours of pain,\nand days of discomfort, though this is far from being the truth in most\ninstances.\n\n\u2018Rather let me die than make me undergo an operation\u2019 is the not\ninfrequent remark of the highly-strung sufferer. And then comes in all\nthe sympathy, tact, and good breeding of the surgeon. He will gently\nexplain matters, will show how the disease is such that nothing short\nof removal of the growth holds out the least chance of life or the\navoidance of later severe pain, and will state, what is the truth,\nthat the operation, short and sharp, will give years of freedom from\nsuffering even if it does not completely remove all trace of the\ntrouble. How bewildered the patient will feel! He has been hoping\nagainst hope that his malady is only a slight one, and that it may be\n\u2018dispersed\u2019 by some magic of physic, and now his hopes have been rudely\nmocked and shattered. Surely here, if ever, help from an outside source\nis needed and should be welcomed. But such help must be rational, based\non truth, and fearing not the consequences.\n\nSupposing the disease is cancer, what awaits him if the sufferer flies\nto the quack and is befooled till all hope of successful treatment\nis gone? Or rushes to the Christian Scientist, who, with seeming\n_bona fides_, avers there is no such thing as a cancer cell! The\neye that has seen it a hundred times under the microscope, and can\nrecognise it amongst a hundred other varieties, does not exist in the\npurblind conception of such a \u2018Scientist,\u2019 for the cell is matter,\nit cannot exist, and neither for the same reasoning, if consistency\nis maintained, can the eye which sees the cell exist, for it also is\nmaterial.\n\nAnd still as the growth increases there is the lurking certainty ever\nprotruding itself that after all the surgeon was right, and the days\nare slipping by. Would that friends could be true and friends indeed,\nand not in ignorance hinder these circumstances, not mere blind leaders\nof the blind.\n\nIt is here if anywhere the enlightened clergyman and the surgeon may\njoin hands for the good of spirit and body. And then when a decision\nhas been arrived at calmly and deliberately, and the time of the\noperation has been fixed, there is still work for both the minister\nand the surgeon to do. A quiet talk and prayer the evening before the\nordeal, how it has often soothed the trembling soul, and invoked a\nnight of rest and refreshment, enabling the patient to meet the trials\nof the morning calm, because mentally and physically there has been\nrepose.\n\nAnd the surgeon with his cheering word, and the an\u00e6sthetist with his\nquiet reassuring manner and conversation, both tend to allay any fresh\nalarm at that which is perhaps the most trying moment of all--the\nplacing oneself unreservedly in the hands of the operator.\n\nSurely, surely here is a period when the efforts of the spiritual are\nto crown the success of the material.\n\nAnd then, observe how the quiet and confidence, engendered by the\ncombined efforts of pastor and doctor, continue during convalescence,\ncausing that period to be shortened in many a case.\n\nIn a hundred different ways members of the two professions may work\nhand in hand, but each should be able to mutually esteem the other and\ngive to each his proper place and function. They ought never to despise\none another, because they ought never to encroach on one another\u2019s\nprovince.\n\nTill the clergyman recognises that it is his duty to understand\nsomething of elementary physiology, if he is going to be a benefactor\nto spirit and body, and the medical practitioner is willing to admit\nthat there are spiritual forces which can be brought to help the\nperfection of his work, so long is it the opinion of the writer that\nthe sufferer who looks to both of them for aid will fail to receive\nhis full due of assistance. May the time soon come when the rising\ngeneration of all classes may be so taught at school, and in church,\nthat they will come to understand something of the composition and need\nof the tripartite nature of man, and may the day speedily dawn when the\nenlightened clerical and medical professions mutually work for the good\nof the whole, spirit, soul and body.\n\n  F.R.C.S.\n\n\n\n\nMEDICINE AND RELIGION\n\nBY\n\nCHARLES BUTTAR, M.D.\n\nSOMETIME PRESIDENT OF THE HARVEIAN SOCIETY\n\n\n\n\nMEDICINE AND RELIGION\n\nBY CHARLES BUTTAR, M.D.\n\n\nWidespread interest has been taken of late in what is called \u2018Spiritual\nHealing,\u2019 or \u2018Healing by Spiritual means\u2019; interest which is manifest\nfrom the popularity of such books as \u2018Religion and Medicine,\u2019 and\n\u2018Body and Soul,\u2019 no less than from the thoughtful articles contributed\nto this volume by many eminent authorities. Yet it may be observed\nthat, although some of these contributors belong to the profession of\nmedicine, it is doubtful if many medical men are acquainted with the\nobjects and purpose of Spiritual Healing, and probably few of them\nregard the movement seriously. It is unwise, however, to adopt an\nattitude of indifference towards the aspirations of earnest men, so\nthat it seems well to attempt to define the position of medicine with\nregard to such methods of healing, to investigate the cures alleged,\nto utter some warning as to possible dangers, and to inquire how far\nthe results justify the movement, and to what extent it is possible\nto adapt the processes of Spiritual Healing to recognised forms of\ntreatment.\n\nSpiritual Healing has been hailed with enthusiasm by certain members\nof the Church of England, under the impression that it constitutes a\nresumption of the early powers of Christianity as evidenced in the\nmiracles of healing ascribed to Christ and His Apostles. A theological\ndiscussion as to the possibility of miracles occurring at the present\nday is outside the scope of this article, but it would be well to\ndefine the standpoint from which the medical man approaches all\ninvestigations connected with disease.\n\nThe researches of scientists are conducted by the methods of\nobservation, experiment, and induction; it is the medical man\u2019s duty\nto observe symptoms, to experiment as to their cause, to investigate\npossible remedies, and to apply these to the relief or cure of disease.\nIn recent times much has been done towards elucidating the influences\nof mind upon body and its diseases; but so far questions connected with\nthe Spirit have been regarded as outside the scope of medicine.\n\nThe minister of religion, on the other hand, has been content hitherto\nto leave questions of physical health to be dealt with by the doctor;\nhe has not interfered to any extent in mental questions, and his chief\nconcern has been with what is called the \u2018Spirit.\u2019 It would seem a\nlittle difficult to define the attributes of Spirit, or to draw a\nsharp line of division between spirit and mind; but, however this may\nbe, spirit has usually been considered as opposed to matter, and no\ninfluence over the material diseases of the body has been ascribed\nto it. Whatever views the Church may have held as to the miracles\nof healing mentioned in the New Testament, she has to some extent\nkept them in the background; and it is possible that they might have\nremained there, but for the success obtained by certain irrational\ncults that have sprung into being, with the object apparently of\nabolishing both parson and doctor. The foundation on which all these\nsects are based would seem to be a passage in the Epistle of St. James,\nchap. v. verses 14, 15, which reads as follows: \u2018Is any sick among you?\nlet him call for the elders of the Church; and let them pray over him,\nanointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith\nshall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.\u2019\n\nAgain this is no place to go into theological discussions, such as\nwhether \u2018elder\u2019 can be taken to mean \u2018priest,\u2019 the views to be held\non anointing with oil, and so on. But it may be suggested incidentally\nthat the term \u2018elder\u2019 is hardly likely to be accepted by either the\nChurch or the medical profession as applicable to a person untrained\nboth in theology and in medicine, whose claim to authority rests on his\nown assertion, and whose methods are only too liable to drift into what\nis known as \u2018quackery.\u2019 Even the Peculiar People, who rely upon the\nsame text in support of their tenets, retain, I believe, some meaning\nof authority in the word \u2018elder\u2019; and their position seems logically\nsounder than that of the believer in a self-styled \u2018Spiritual Healer.\u2019\n\nAs regards the procedure of the Spiritual Healer, it would appear to\nconsist in laying hands on the affected part of the body, at the same\ntime offering up extempore prayers of a very impassioned character for\nthe recovery of the sick. The treatment takes place in as impressive\nsurroundings as possible, and at times a priest is called in to anoint\nthe patient with oil. It is doubtful to what extent the practitioners\nof Spiritual Healing claim what are called \u2018special powers\u2019; but it\nseems certain that the possession of these powers is sometimes alleged.\nUnlike the Christian Scientist, the Spiritual Healer does not despise\nmedical assistance, though it is probable that at the present time his\ntreatment is sought chiefly by those to whom medical methods can offer\nno further hope of cure.\n\nIt has been indicated already that the first great difficulty\nexperienced by a medical man, in discussing such a treatment as\nSpiritual Healing, is the definition of terms. Accustomed to deal with\nmore or less concrete facts, a doctor has some sort of mental picture\nof an infectious disease, as the reaction of the physical body to the\ninvasion of a germ or its poison; he can see and feel a tumour, and\ndetermine its relation to anatomical structures, though he may not know\nas yet the cause of its growth; he has learnt by experience the results\nof the removal of new growths.\n\nIn the region of the mind also he has investigated many phenomena; he\nis able to attribute many insane states to toxic influences; he has\nstudied to some extent diseases known as \u2018functional\u2019--a class that is\nbecoming numerically less with the advance of knowledge; but he is not\nable to grasp to the same extent the meaning of the word \u2018Spirit.\u2019 The\nmedical man recognises in many cases the influence of the temperament\nor character of the patient upon the course of the disease, and would\nprefer to treat one who takes a hopeful view of the future; just as he\ndesires quiet cheerful surroundings, and the avoidance of conditions\nthat tend to irritate or depress. In so far as the \u2018Spiritual\u2019 attitude\nof the patient conduces to his peace of mind, its assistance would\nbe welcomed by every practitioner of the healing art. But to regard\nthis ill-defined attitude as not only influencing the character of the\npatient, but also as having a direct effect on all the ailments to\nwhich the body is subject, is a view that can hardly be accepted so\nreadily. For example, it would seem to be inconceivable that Spirit\ncould have the slightest influence on a parasitic skin disease such as\nringworm.\n\nThis is an instance of a simple ailment due to a local extrinsic cause.\nNumerous other conditions might be mentioned, such as congenital\nmalformation, aneurysms, valvular affections of the heart, and\nstrangulated hernia in which curative influence of the Spirit is\ndifficult to imagine. Even if a single well-authenticated miracle in a\ncase of any of these affections could be produced, we should still be\nmet by many difficulties; such as the question why a solitary sufferer,\npossibly not highly distinguished for his spiritual attributes, should\nbe selected for the manifestation of this power. And all rational\npeople would admit that the occurrence of such a miracle in a case\nof strangulated hernia would not justify other patients in postponing\noperation in the hope of a repetition of this bloodless cure.\n\nThus there are limitations to the field of operation of Spiritual\nHealing.\n\nIn view, however, of the hopes raised amongst many good Christians\nthat the Church may take part once more in healing the sick, everyone\nwould wish to avoid offending the susceptibilities of enthusiastic\nand religious people. Still it is by members of the Church that the\nquestion of Spiritual Healing has been brought forward, so that\nit should be for the Church to define her meaning and wishes. In\nthe nature of things it seems impossible to define \u2018Spirit\u2019; and,\nperhaps, it would be wiser not to attempt the impossible, nor to\nendeavour to yoke spiritual forces to purely material conditions such\nas bodily diseases. But if certain cases are produced as cures by\nspiritual means, and if the co-operation of the medical profession\nis desired in investigating such cures, the Church must be prepared\nto accept scientific methods of inquiry, methods which do not permit\nof assumptions except as tentative explanations, to be given up when\nthey fail to explain phenomena, or when they are replaced by simpler\nexplanations.\n\nIf it should appear that the results of Spiritual Healing are\nattributable to ordinary activities of the human mind, and that no\ndifference exists between cures by this means and those resulting from\nordinary mental influences of the nature of \u2018suggestion,\u2019 then the\nChurch must be prepared to abandon all miraculous explanations in these\ncases. From the medical point of view the main thing to be insisted\nupon is that all alleged cures must be submitted to the ordinary\nexamination by observation, experiment, and induction.\n\nAt the present time the whole question of Spiritual Healing is in so\nnebulous a condition that it is not easy to obtain suitable cases\nfor investigation. Much has been said and written on the matter;\ncomparisons have been made with the cures said to be effected at\nLourdes; even the Venerable Bede has been quoted as an authority on\nmedicine. But when a request is presented for the production of actual\ncases for investigation by trained medical men, it is found that the\nsources of supply are few and very limited.\n\nAn examination of some of these cases appears to reveal the fact that\nso far no actual cure of any definite gross organic disease can be\nrecorded. It must be remembered that to avoid any loophole for error\nthe requirements of a really scientific investigation are somewhat\nsevere. In the first place the diagnosis of the disease must be\nabsolutely certain. This frequently necessitates microscopical or\nbacteriological examination. A medical man is not always infallible in\nhis opinion of cases; and it may happen that a condition that has been\nthought to be cancer turns out to be merely a comparatively harmless\ninflammatory thickening. Such a condition might have recovered by\nnatural processes without any treatment; to attribute such recovery to\nany particular treatment that the patient might be undergoing at the\ntime would be rash; to use such a case as an advertisement for that\ntreatment would be dishonest.\n\nIn the second place, a fair comparison must be made between the results\nobtained by the method under investigation, and by other means of\ntreatment. Warts may disappear rapidly under many forms of treatment,\nor with no treatment at all. To attribute the disappearance of warts to\nSpiritual Healing would be very unsafe argument.\n\nThirdly, a careful distinction must be drawn between the cure of a\ndisease and the relief of subjective symptoms.\n\nIt is in this matter of subjective symptoms that Spiritual Healing\nappears to have obtained the greater part of whatever success it can\nboast. There is some evidence that under this treatment pain may be\nrelieved, and there is little doubt that patients attain a calmer,\nhappier and more confident frame of mind, however hopeless their\ndisease may be. Their outlook on life is improved, their thoughts are\ndirected into other channels, and the pain is forgotten, or hindered\nfrom rising into consciousness.\n\nYet there are certain dangers connected with the process, to which\nattention should be called. It is well to remember that, in cases such\nas incurable cancer, false hopes are being raised, and the patient\nis deluded into a vain belief that he will recover. How far this is\njustifiable is a matter for philosophical discussion; moreover it\nis true that most doctors allow their patients to delude themselves\nwith the same vain hopes. Still, it might be better that ministers of\nreligion should strive for the spiritual welfare of their charges,\nrather than help directly to maintain these delusions as to physical\nconditions.\n\nMore important still is the possibility that treatment, that might be\neffective in the early stage of a disease, may be postponed until too\nlate, in order that a trial may be given to Spiritual Healing. It is\nall very well to say that ordinary medical means are recognised and\nthat the follies of the Peculiar People and of the Christian Scientist\nwill be avoided; but it must be remembered that a literal reading of\nthe text of St. James undoubtedly may suggest to a deeply religious\nperson that medical methods are of minor importance. \u2018The Prayer of\nFaith shall save the Sick\u2019: is it not possible that the sufferer may\npossess a grain of that faith that will remove mountains? And in\nthe end that small focus of malignant disease, that might have been\neradicated by the surgeon\u2019s knife, has extended and disseminated itself\nuntil all hope of cure is gone. And such results are more likely to\nfollow while this treatment remains in the hands of untrained laymen.\nThere is great danger that an earnest person, with limited knowledge\nboth of theology and of medicine, may come to regard himself as\nsuperior to theologian and physician, owing to the fervour of his\nfaith, combined possibly with a belief that he is endowed with special\npowers. It is on practical points such as these that the medical man\nis entitled to expect an expression of the views of the Church; and in\nthis connexion it is permissible to hope that in the examination of\n\u2018special powers\u2019 the authorities of the Church will be content to be\nsceptics, in the true sense of the word, until irrefutable proofs of\nthe possession of these powers are produced.\n\nIn attempting to inquire how far the results obtained by Spiritual\nHealing justify the movement, the medical man is met by the difficulty\nthat exists in obtaining evidence. It is true that there is a Society\nwhose objects are stated thus:\n\n1. For the cultivation, through spiritual means, of both personal and\ncorporate health.\n\n2. For the restoration to the Church of the Scriptural practice of\nDivine Healing.\n\n3. For the study of the influence of Spiritual upon Physical well-being.\n\nInvestigation of the literature published by this Society does not\nthrow much light on the methods by which these objects are pursued.\nA pamphlet entitled \u2018The Principles of Spiritual Healing\u2019 seemed to\narouse hopes of elucidating the problem. Yet the author says, \u2018I do\nnot know how \u201clife\u201d is affected by spiritual means, I observe that it\nis so.\u2019 There is no attempt to define spiritual means. Again, it is\nasserted that no one will ever find, at meetings of the Society, a\nparade of successful cases. Is the statement, then, of members of the\nSociety to be the only evidence vouchsafed to inquirers? And how far is\nthe second object of the Society to be carried? It must be remembered\nthat the Scriptural practice of Divine Healing was unassociated with\nthe ordinary medical treatment. In \u2018The Principles of Spiritual\nHealing\u2019 it is asserted that miracles of healing did not cease; they\nhave only become less frequent because faith is less intense. The\nsecond object of the Society is to restore to the Church this practice\nof healing; and it is difficult to see how the dangers suggested\nearlier in this article are to be avoided.\n\nThe fact of the matter is, that it is useless to attempt to adapt\nthe processes of Spiritual Healing to recognised forms of treatment,\nuntil the exponents of the method cease to soar on the wings of the\nimagination, and descend instead to the more prosaic levels of reason.\nNevertheless, there is no doubt that theologians equally earnest, but\nfar more rational than the founder of the Society to which reference\nhas been made, are anxious that something should be done by the Church\nto assist in the work of restoring the sick to health. These men do\nnot aspire to work the miracles of Christ and the Apostles by laying\non hands and anointing with oil, but they wish to retain for the\nChurch some portion of the command \u2018Preach the Gospel; heal the sick.\u2019\nThis wish is entitled to respectful consideration by the medical\nprofession, and most certainly will receive it from broad-minded\nmedical men. But inasmuch as the trained physician must be paramount\nin his own province of mental and bodily disease, it is the duty of\nthe minister of religion to recognise that he is subservient in purely\nphysical matters of health. By all means let him visit those of his own\nfaith who are sick. Let his object be to inspire these patients with\nhope, directing the sufferer\u2019s thoughts away from his disease to higher\nthings. The laying on of hands and the anointing with oil may well be\ndangerous, unless used in a purely symbolic sense; for in the minds of\nthe more ignorant such proceedings tend to occupy the same position as\nthe treatment for King\u2019s Evil in former times; and admirable though\nthe spirit of reverence may be, it is not good to attribute miraculous\npowers to the object revered.\n\nTherefore, let the clergyman be content, for the present, to leave\nthe untrained practice of methods of suggestion to quacks; and\ninvestigation of so-called cures to the medical profession. At the same\ntime, let the medical man avail himself of the services of the minister\nof religion in cases in which exhortation is likely to be of use; for\nin the field of functional nervous conditions, and slight mental\ndisturbances, the help of a priest of forceful character, reasonably\ncontrolled, may be of great service.\n\nIn concluding this article a summary of the suggestions offered for\nconsideration may be made:\n\n(1) The main function of the minister of religion should be concerned\nwith what is called the spiritual side of man, and not with purely\nmaterial conditions, such as disease.\n\n(2) If ministers regard the Scriptures as imposing upon them duties\nin healing the sick, they should be content to be subservient to\nthe physician in material conditions that are not included in their\ntraining.\n\n(3) In dealing with phenomena as specific as diseases, the Church\nmust be prepared to accept scientific explanations. It is useless to\ncomplain of the materialism of doctors in connexion with material\nphysical disorders.\n\n(4) It is not unlikely that the effects of spiritual healing will prove\nto be merely results of a form of suggestion.\n\n(5) Results that can be described as curative will be found, probably,\nonly in what are known as functional and neurotic conditions.\n\n(6) It is most unwise to countenance untrained laymen in carrying on\nspiritual healing in the name of the Church; for in the end the Church\nmay find herself dragged at the heels of quackery.\n\n(7) While much can be done by ministers of religion in encouraging\nsufferers from disease, or in distracting the attention of\nneurasthenics, and while such assistance should be welcomed by medical\nmen, yet the Church should beware of attempting to attract believers\nby means of thaumaturgic displays of healing, which are open to\nexplanation in other ways. The Church should not enter into competition\nwith bone-setters, osteopaths, physical culture quacks, and other\nundesirable persons.\n\n(8) Opinion on so-called \u2018special powers\u2019 should be suspended until\nalleged instances of their existence have been thoroughly investigated\nby competent trained experts.\n\n\n\n\nTHE PATIENT\n\nBY\n\nSTEPHEN PAGET, F.R.C.S.\n\n\n\n\nTHE PATIENT\n\nBY STEPHEN PAGET, F.R.C.S.\n\n\nThe Bishop of Birmingham wrote to me, last year, the following letter.\nHe gave me leave to publish it in the second edition of a book of mine\nabout Christian Science: and he gives me leave to publish it again here:\n\n\u2018... I should wish to make a little more of your admissions as to\nMental Therapeutics. Thus--If, as you admit, there are so many\nfunctional disorders; and they are curable by mental influences; and\nreligion is a great mental influence; and this influence (\u201cQuietism\u201d)\nis much needed in such and other cases--I should demand of the Church\nthat it should recognise, far more explicitly, this field of legitimate\ncurative power, and control it, and claim it by showing the power to\nuse it. The neglect of this sphere of influence by the Church plays\ninto the hands of Christian Science. (All this could be associated with\nthe revival of unction.)\n\n\u2018Also, I think the medical profession likes--in public--to ignore all\nthis, and thus in its turn plays into the hands of pseudo-theology.\nMy criticism is that I want your \u201cadmissions\u201d made the basis of a more\npositive claim both on the Church and on the medical profession.\n\n\u2018My own experience in the case of well-to-do people when sick or\ndying is that the medical profession is very much inclined to exclude\nreligion in any form from sick beds till it cannot be of any use.\nI do most seriously want to reform (1) the Church, (2) the medical\nprofession, in the light of what you admit.\u2019\n\nThis wise letter says all, to my thinking, that need be said as to\nthe duty of the doctor towards the cleric, and the duty of the cleric\ntowards the doctor. It says not a word about the signs and wonders\nalleged by the Society of Emmanuel in London: and I hope that Dr. Gore,\nby his silence, condemns them, as not worthy of credence. I hope, also,\nand am sure, that in a few years we shall hear less about that Society.\nMeanwhile, I should like to say something about one aspect of this\nmatter of \u2018spiritual healing,\u2019 which has not received so much attention\nas it deserves. We have heard all about the cleric, all about the\ndoctor: and we are in danger, I think, of forgetting the patient. We\nhave been tempted to believe that the patient, somehow, belongs to the\ncleric and the doctor. That we may clear our minds of this mistake,\nlet us put ourselves in the patient\u2019s place. Most of us, I suppose,\nknow that place: I have been there half a dozen times. It is the\ncentre of a great planetary system of kind people. Home love, and the\naffection of my friends, and the pleasant goodwill of the servants, and\nthe wisdom and the gentleness of doctors and of nurses, and all prayers\nfor my recovery, wheeled round me, each in its appointed course. There\nI lay, and was watched, like a big baby: and these activities of the\nspiritual life encircled me, day and night, till I got better. The\npoint is, that it all came naturally to everybody. It was the habit\nof the home, it was our usual way of doing things. My friends did not\nsuddenly begin to care for me: the doctors and the nurses did not\nsuddenly begin to be gentle: the maids were not stung by the splendour\nof a sudden thought for my comfort: the use of prayer on my behalf was\nnothing new. Everybody was kind to me, because everybody in the house\nalways is kind to me. They made me comfortable, and one prayed for me,\nbecause they are always making me comfortable, and one daily prays for\nme. All of us, except myself, were doing what we always do: and I was\nbeing what I always am.\n\nIllness, nine times out of ten, no more changes a man than sleep and\nexercise change him. As by a long sleep, or a long day in the open air,\nwe gain tranquillity, insight, and self-judgment, so, by an illness,\nwe gain, if we will, a like measure of self-improvement. The same good\nthoughts come to us, as we lie idle in a sick-bed, which come to us as\nwe lie idle, in holiday time, on a hillside. An illness, apart from its\ndrawbacks, is in reality a sort of holiday, a dull but not unprofitable\nvacation, something halfway between a real holiday and what religious\npeople call a retreat. There is no sudden change in the patient\u2019s\nmind and outlook: only, there is more inlook, more self-doubt, more\nquietness of vision.\n\nOne day, I shall put myself in the patient\u2019s place, and not come out\nof it: I shall not get well, but die. On that occasion, the love,\nsympathy, goodwill, medical attendance, and prayers, will be the same\nas before. They will swing round me once more, each in its proper\nsphere, these familiar angels and ministers of grace defending me. But,\nas I begin to stop, so they will begin to stop. It will become absurd,\nfor my friends to call and ask after me; absurd, for the household to\ndevise plans for my comfort; absurd, for the doctors to try to feel\nwhat is left of my pulse; absurd, for anybody to pray for my recovery.\nSpiritual processes are blessed with plenty of common-sense: they leave\noff, when it becomes downright foolishness to go on. Let them leave\nwhat remains of me, and start again round another centre.\n\nThey who desire, extravagantly, to put \u2018spiritual healing\u2019 among the\nmethods of the Christian ministry, seem to me to be losing sight of\nthis fact, that common-sense is an essential part of the spiritual\nlife. Common-sense tells me, that as I was intended to live, so I\nam intended to die. I cannot see any reason, human or divine, why I\nshould live to old age, and die of that. I would rather not: anyhow,\nI see no reason why I should. God, who brought me into the world by\nmy mother\u2019s pain, will some day put me out of the world, by my own\npain. He is in no sense more on the side of life than on the side of\ndeath. I have been looking at the \u2018Order for the Visitation of the\nSick\u2019 in the Prayer-book and I am quite sure that nobody now could\nwrite anything half so sensible or so majestical.... _Know this, that\nAlmighty God is the Lord of life and death, and of all things to them\npertaining, as youth, strength, health, age, weakness, and sickness.\nWherefore, whatsoever your sickness is, know you certainly, that it is\nGod\u2019s visitation._ And the prayer for a sick child, also, seems to me\na very sensible and beautiful piece of writing. I find, also, a prayer\nfor a sick person, \u2018when there appeareth small hope of recovery.\u2019 I\nhave heard it read over one at the point of death, when there was no\nhope at all of recovery. \u2018We know,\u2019 it says, \u2018that, if Thou wilt,\nThou canst even yet raise him up.\u2019 I hope that I shall not, when I am\ndying, hear this phrase. It rings false, to my thinking: it offends\nthe natural dignity of a dying man. We doctors are blamed, now and\nagain, for not telling the truth to patients hopelessly ill: but here\nis the Prayer-book, at the last moment, hardly more straightforward.\nAll the same, this Order for the Visitation of the Sick is admirable;\nand I desire to contrast it with the following instance, how Christian\nScience treats the dying:\n\n\u2018Mrs. ---- is a widow, and an old friend of mine. In February 1905,\nher only child, a boy of eleven, was in the last stage of a hopeless\nillness--mitral valvular heart disease, with rheumatism and dropsy. I\nhad an opportunity of a few minutes\u2019 talk with the Christian Science\n\u201cpractitioner\u201d--a sweet, gentle, earnest woman--and asked her if\nshe really thought she would do any good. \u201cOh yes,\u201d she replied,\nwith a smile of confidence; \u201cI have never known a failure.\u201d \u201cBut,\u201d I\nsuggested, \u201cthe boy is very seriously ill:\u201d and I explained the nature\nof his complaint. Still confidently smiling, the practitioner replied,\n\u201cWe have had worse cases than this.\u201d I told her the best medical advice\nhad been taken, and the doctors had all given the boy up. Upon which\nthe lady remarked, with gentle emphasis, \u201c_God_ has not given him up.\u201d\nThat of course was conclusive, and I left her to do her best. I went\naway at ten o\u2019clock, and then the Scientist seated herself by the\npatient, read to him from the Bible and Mrs. Eddy\u2019s book, and exhorted\nhim in some such language as this: \u201cYou must not think you are ill, my\ndear little boy. You are _not_ ill: you _can\u2019t_ be ill. God would not\nmake you ill. He made all things good, but not illness\u201d--and so on,\nand so on. The boy, I am told, heard her patiently but wearily, and at\none-thirty he died. Then the practitioner gathered up her books and\npapers and went away, and that is the end of the story.\u2019\n\nHere we have Christian Science in a favourable light: all the same, it\nis not a pleasant picture, these falsehoods told to a dying child. If\nit be not true that God \u2018makes illness,\u2019 and if it be not true that God\n\u2018gives us up,\u2019 then I attach no meaning at all to that Name.\n\nLet us put ourselves at that point of the case where there appeareth\nsmall hope of recovery. The doctors have given the patient up. God,\nin their opinion, has done the same. The cleric will not say that,\nnot in so many words: _Yet_, he says, _forasmuch as in all appearance\nthe time of his dissolution draweth near, so fit and prepare him, we\nbeseech Thee, against the hour of death, that after his departure\nhence in peace, and in Thy favour, his soul may be received into Thine\neverlasting Kingdom_. The cleric does not pray for the patient\u2019s\nrecovery. He does not expect anything to happen, save the patient\u2019s\ndeath. He will not point-blank deny the possibility of a miracle: but\nhe neither asks for anything to happen, nor, so far as I can see, wants\nanything to happen: he only cares to be sure that the patient, who is\nfast going, shall go the right way.\n\nIt is here, on this edge of time between life and death, that the\nprofessional spiritual healer loves to perform. He desires to make\nsomething happen: he will not take it for granted that nothing will\nhappen.\n\nHis position is logical, and may be held in absolute sincerity. Only,\nhe is bound to tell us what, in his experience, does happen: and he is\nbound to tell us of every case of failure, or partial failure. And we\nare bound to examine, test, cross-examine, criticise, analyse, watch,\nand almost spy upon every scrap of his work; and that in a spirit of\nhard and well-nigh brutal indifference to his belief in himself as a\nchannel of divine intervention. What else does he expect of us? What\nelse are we here for?\n\nAmong a pile of letters and pamphlets on my table is a tract called\n\u2018New Eyes in answer to Prayer.\u2019 It gives the case of Mr. Evison, of\nGrimsby. He had something the matter with his eyes. At last, \u2018while\nwalking out with a friend one day, I put my hand in my pocket for\nsomething, and dropped it on the ground: on stooping down to pick it\nup, the remaining pieces of my eyes dropped out of their sockets on to\nthe ground. They were about the size of the kernel of a nut.\u2019 So he\nwent to a \u2018Divine Healing Home,\u2019 where he was anointed with oil in the\nname of the Lord. Ten days later, as he was praying in his bedroom, he\nfelt two warm fingers touch his empty sockets, and they became warm.\nLater, at a prayer meeting, his eyes \u2018came wide open,\u2019 and he saw\nperfectly. Next day he testified to his recovery; and, says the tract,\n\u2018When this testimony was given by Mr. Evison, there were fifty-seven\ncases of blindness restored in answer to prayer.\u2019\n\nI feel sure that the writer of this tract thought that he was telling\nthe truth. And I am no less sure that a great deal of \u2018spiritual\nhealing\u2019 is just as worthless, just as untrue, as these Grimsby\nmiracles. Till the alleged wonders of spiritual healing, and its\nunpublished failures, have been all submitted to keen scrutiny, and to\nevery severest and most searching test that can be devised in science,\nnobody who knows anything about pathology can take much interest in\nthem. So I come back to the Bishop of Birmingham\u2019s wise eirenicon.\n\nIt is a great pity that the work of the cleric and the work of the\ndoctor should ever clash; for they are ordained (the Prayer-book again)\nfor the mutual society, help, and comfort that the one ought to have of\nthe other. Only, if they are to be friends in ministering to the sick\nand the dying, they must be friends always. If, in social life, they\ndo not get on well together, they will not work together well in the\nsick-room. If the doctor makes stupid jokes against religion, and the\ncleric doses his parishioners with quack medicines; if the doctor is\ndull to the wonders of faith, and the cleric is dull to the wonders of\nscience: if neither has the grace to recognise and honour and openly\npraise the good works of the other--how shall they adjust themselves,\nin the presence of impending death, who thus waste the opportunities of\ndaily life?\n\n\n\n\nTHE RELATION OF PRIEST AND DOCTOR TO PATIENT\n\nBY\n\nJANE WALKER, M.D.\n\nPHYSICIAN, NEW HOSPITAL FOR WOMEN\n\n\n\n\nTHE RELATION OF PRIEST AND DOCTOR TO PATIENT\n\nBY JANE WALKER, M.D.\n\n\nIn considering the subject of Religion and Medicine, we shall be helped\nby looking back to the beginnings of things, when people first realised\nthat illnesses existed, and that certain of them were curable. They\nknew nothing of internal anatomy or physiology, nothing of the origin\nand treatment of disease, nothing of its infectious, communicable\ncharacter. The treatment, or, at any rate, the healing of disease,\nmust have been by means of what seemed to be mental influences in\nthose early ages. Why, our very word \u2018Influenza,\u2019 revived within\ncomparatively recent years, shows how vaguely and imperfectly was\nunderstood a disease which now we recognise as having a definite train\nof symptoms, but of which we still know so little that we speak of it\nmerely as an _influence_.\n\nThe idea of mental influence in disease was first scientifically\nformulated about twenty-five years ago, and was provided with one of\nthose queer names which we now use more or less glibly, with a sort\nof comforting feeling that we understand the subject, when we have\nsuccessfully mastered the spelling and pronunciation--the scientific\nname _psychotherapeutics_, or, in plain English, _mind cure_. These\ninvestigations were undertaken in France, to start with, at Nancy\nUniversity, by Li\u00e9bault, who published, in 1866, \u2018Treatment by\nSuggestion,\u2019 and by Bernheim, and simultaneously in Paris by Charcot,\nand they were primarily to observe sundry methods of treatment used\nat that time in an unscientific manner, such as animal magnetism,\nmesmerism, hypnotism, &c. Li\u00e9bault\u2019s book, which was taken little\nnotice of at the time, gave a full description of the methods he\npursued, which more or less coincide with those followed by doctors\nwho practise Treatment by Suggestion and Hypnotism at the present day.\nHe lived a retired life, and practised entirely amongst the poor, who\nwere devoted to him, but, at the same time, regarded him as an amiable\nenthusiast. Li\u00e9bault finally retired on a very small competency, not\nacquired from his practice, which was altogether unremunerative.\n\nAs a result of this gathering up of all these so-called occult methods\nof treatment into the more or less exact science of Psychotherapeutics,\nhave come into prominence many cults--or sects, shall we call\nthem?--such as Mental Healing, Faith Cures, Peculiar People,\nMetaphysical Healing, Christian Science, each of which is overlaid with\ndoctrines of a more or less dubious kind. The growth of these various\nbodies of late years has been extraordinarily rapid: to mention two of\nthem only, Christian Science and New Thought are now enthusiastically\npractised and believed in by many thousands of people, both here and\nin America, and hundreds of churches have been provided and erected in\ntheir names.\n\nIt must not be lost sight of that Christian Science, as well as New\nThought, which has been described by Mr. Dresser, one of its chief\nexponents, as being \u2018a common-sense, rational phase of the Mental\nHealing Doctrine,\u2019 \u2018are dealing with genuine _facts_ in the sphere of\nMental Therapeutics\u2019; but these facts are entirely independent of the\ntheories by which either school attempts to explain them.\n\nThe spread of Christian Science was viewed with considerable alarm by\nmany influential members and dignitaries of our own Church, and this\nfeeling was brought to a head at the Pan-Anglican Congress in 1908,\nwhen a large meeting on the subject was held at the Albert Hall, which\nis fully reported in the handbook of the Pan-Anglican Congress.\n\nFollowing on the Pan-Anglican Congress meeting came the Pronouncement\nof the Bishops assembled in Conference at Lambeth, in July 1908. The\nreport of this Conference is published by the S.P.C.K. as a pamphlet.\nOn November 16, 1908, an important conference on Spiritual Healing\nwas held at Sion College, which was presided over by Prebendary\nPennefather, who said that the Church had too long neglected that\npart of her teaching and ministry. Mr. Hickson gave an account of the\nSociety of Emmanuel, and stated that they desired to revive in the\nChurch the use of the gift of healing committed to her by our Lord.\n\nThe Rev. Francis Boyd explained the objects and work of the Guild of\nHealth. They held that bodily healing was not of primary importance,\nthat sanctification might indeed be gained through sickness, but\nthat a fuller sanctification might be gained by those who sought\nto be made whole by a more real and vital union with our Lord. The\nGuild of Health, Mr. Boyd proceeded to say, recognised three systems\nof healing--physical, mental, and spiritual--though there was not\nnecessarily any opposition between them. They felt, however, that\nSpiritual Healing was the only system which concerned the Church. They\nwere quite alive to the dangers of over-estimating the value of bodily\nhealth, and only desired to further it so far as it ministered to the\nperfection of the whole nature of man. After some further discussion,\na resolution was passed that, \u2018In the opinion of this Conference,\nthe time has come to form a Central Church Council in the diocese of\nLondon, for the consideration of questions connected with Healing by\nSpiritual means.\u2019\n\nAt the outset, we must take exception to Mr. Boyd\u2019s three systems. I\nvery much question whether there is more than _one_ system, and I am\nconvinced that physical and mental are one and the same. And I would\ngo so far as to say, that the disastrous mistakes that have been made\nin the past, and which are still in operation to-day in the treatment\nof one large section of sick people, viz. the insane, largely owe\ntheir origin to this arbitrary division. And, by a curious irony, the\nbranch of medical science where there is the most marked predominance\nof materialism is this very department of mental diseases. This is all\nthe more curious when we reflect, what occult influences have been,\nin all ages, supposed to work upon the insane. The obnoxious word\n\u2018lunatic\u2019 is a proof of this. The moon was by some supposed to have a\ndeleterious effect on the intellect; insane persons were spoken of as\n\u2018moonstruck\u2019; the periodicity of the mental attacks was also supposed\nto have some relation to the lunar interval. Indeed, the whole subject\nof insanity bristles with occult and mysterious theories. The really\nhopeful treatment of insanity began when it--a mental disease--was\ntreated, not by mental, but by physical methods, and the more mental\nand physical are taken together as one and the same, the more rational\nand productive of good, in the best sense, is our treatment likely to\nbe. Indeed, the whole indivisibility of the three systems is nowhere so\nwell shown as in the arbitrary division of Religious Insanity. Surely\nif we try to turn the minds of the sufferers from any considerations\nof religion, by removing their Bibles, by preventing them from any\nreligious discussion, or from taking part in any religious ceremonies,\nwe are helping to keep up the evil. People, as we put it, become\ninsane on religious matters, not only because they have been dwelling\non the subject unduly, but because it is naturally of the greatest\nimportance, and absorbs more attention than probably anything else in\nthe world. Now, as the more purely physical, as distinguished from the\nmore or less occult methods of regarding the insane, has become the\nmore enlightened and modern view of the subject, so has the spiritual\nmethod of dealing with it come into prominence. Spiritual ministrations\nto the insane may be thought to be useless, or, at any rate, to be\nfraught with little practical utility. Comparatively recently a man who\nhad charge of a country parish was appointed chaplain to Broadmoor,\nwhich is the asylum for insane criminals. A friend, on being told of\nthe appointment, said to him, \u2018Why, whatever will you say to them? You\ncan only talk to them of their sins.\u2019 \u2018Talk to them of their sins!\u2019 he\nsaid; \u2018I shall never mention them.[10] I shall talk to them of Hope.\u2019\n\n  [10] \u2018The Society of the Crown of Our Lord\u2019 was formed for the\n  purpose of supplying spiritual ministrations to the insane.\n\nI have thought it advisable to dwell rather at length on the question\nof the insane, because it really rather fairly represents my point of\nview on this subject. Whether you agree with me or not, it is better\nthat I should state quite fairly and straightly my position, which has\nonly been reached by honestly striving after truth, and by looking\nfully into the subject for the purposes of this paper. In talking about\nSpiritual Healing, we are hampered at the start, because we have only\nactual knowledge of physical things, i.e. of things as they appear to\nus here. We have to define spiritual things in physical terms, because\nthey are the only things we know and understand. Time and space do not\nexist in the spiritual domain. Take just one word in illustration of my\nmeaning, the word _Rest_. Our present state of being here has certain\npeculiarities. Labour involves rest from labour, and if the limits of\nrest and labour are exceeded, the result is ruin to man\u2019s moral and\nphysical being. Disease is sure to follow the inactive mind or body,\nand then comes a time when \u2018we cannot do the things we would.\u2019 But\nthese things do not exist in spiritual language. \u2018They rest not day and\nnight, but cry \u201cHoly, Holy, Holy.\u201d\u2019 When we pray \u2018Eternal rest grant\nthem, O Lord,\u2019 we have no thought of a period of rest as we understand\nit, but rest in and with God.\n\nWe are far too apt to think that suffering is an evil--it is not\nnecessarily so; on the contrary it may be a blessing, because it is\noften a direct means of advance towards perfection. Far too much\nattention is paid at the present day to temporal benefits. \u2018Get rid\nof poverty, of suffering, and the world will be virtuous and happy,\u2019\nbut this is not so. The people who starve and brutally ill-use their\nchildren are not the very poorest; they are usually well-to-do in\nthe world. There is a great deal too much of considering poverty as\na _real_ cause of suffering. Christ\u2019s mission of redemption was not\nprimarily a mission for the relief of suffering. If He bids us to take\nup our cross, He also bids us, as a quite essential corollary, to\nfollow Him. Indeed, taking up our cross is useless, if we do not follow\nHim. Pain, far from being shunned, should be welcomed and embraced,\nbecause it brings us nearer to the sufferings of our Blessed Lord. It\nis not, of course, mere pain in itself that lifts and cleanses: it is\npain rightly and courageously borne, from whatever motive. If this\nbe true, the modern revolt against all suffering--and here I quote\nfrom the late Miss Caroline Stephens\u2019s article on \u2018Pain,\u2019 published\nin the _Hibbert Journal_ for October 1908--\u2018is obviously suicidal. To\nextinguish all suffering, were that possible, would be to deprive the\nworld of a leverage as all-pervading and effectual towards spiritual\nelevation and purification, as is gravitation towards stability.\u2019\n\nPain and evil are not interchangeable terms, but are quite different.\nEvil cannot be innocent, though pain can be, and often is. When the\ndisciples said, \u2018What hath this man or his parents done that he should\nbe born blind?\u2019 they formulated the usually accepted idea at that time,\nand an idea, moreover, that dies very hard. The whole treatment of\ndisease in the Middle Ages was based on it.\n\nIf we quite briefly consider our Lord\u2019s miracles, they were _signs_\nof His Divine mission, not proofs, and in performing them, He felt\nlimitations; for we are definitely told that in Capernaum \u2018He did no\nmore mighty works, because of their unbelief.\u2019 These signs were sudden\nmanifestations of His power, and as such they are preferably called\nDivine Healing. They showed the very highest degree of spiritual power,\nbut there was nothing really new. Christ was the perfect manifestation\nof eternal things, and eternal things are obviously never new. Perhaps\nthe fact that our Lord thought it worth while to show his power in\nbodily healing was intended to teach us that to keep our bodies in\nhealth is an important religious duty, and more than that, that all\nhygienic social work undertaken is an important part of the duties\nof religion. Both nursing and doctoring bring us very near to part\nof the work of Christ, for He went about doing good to the sick, and\nHe symbolised this, not only by His healing words, but by the simple\nmedicines and nursing of the Good Samaritan. But just as illness is\nby no means caused by evil or ill-doing, so it is equally clear that\ngoodness does not of necessity bring health. The question of bodily\nhealth has no connexion with spiritual conceptions at all. If it were\nso, the persons who are the strongest physically would be the most\nspiritual; but we know, of course, that this is not so. Take St.\nCatherine of Siena, one of the greatest of saints, statesmen, and\nscholars that the world has ever known. She healed others, but she\ndied herself of a lingering, painful disease, at the early age of\nthirty-three. Also St. Paul, who prayed the Lord thrice that the thorn\nin the flesh which tormented him might be removed. And the Lord\u2019s reply\nhas been a help and comfort, and a lesson to countless thousands ever\nsince. \u2018My grace is sufficient for thee, for My power is made perfect\nthrough weakness.\u2019 And what we so very often see now, persons bereft\nof all that makes life dear, in suffering of mind or body maybe, yet\nrise above their weakness, and carry through such reforms and such\nnoble acts as they never could have done had they been allowed to\nremain in bodily health and comfortable and happy surroundings. Indeed,\nSt. Paul\u2019s affliction was the means of his converting the Galatians,\nfor his illness compelled him to stop with them for a time, and in\nwriting to the Corinthians from them, he could truly say, \u2018Most gladly,\ntherefore, will I rather glory in my weaknesses that the strength of\nChrist may cover me.\u2019 To repeat, it is our duty, as far as can be,\nto keep our bodies in health, though we can most of us conceive of\ncircumstances when to lose our life may be indeed to save it.\n\nIn a sermon preached for the \u2018Guild of Poor Brave Things,\u2019 the present\nBishop of London, who is the president of the Guild, said: \u2018What made\nmore impression on me as an undergraduate at Oxford than all the\nsermons I ever heard in chapel was a young don, insisting, at the\nrisk of his life, on ministering to an undergraduate dying of a most\ninfectious disease.\u2019\n\nAfter all, St. Paul\u2019s life, as narrated by himself, can hardly have\nbeen considered as hygienic. \u2018Of the Jews five times received I forty\nstripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned,\nthrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep;\nin journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in\nperils of my own countrymen, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in\nthe city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils\namongst false brethren; in labour and travail, in watchings often, in\nhunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides\nthose things that are without, there is that which presseth upon me\ndaily, anxiety for all the churches.\u2019 In comparison with this, the\n\u2018Don\u2019t-worry Gospel\u2019 of the Christian Scientists seems utterly beside\nthe mark. Health is undoubtedly good, but it must sometimes be cast\naway in the service of others.\n\nOf course there is a philosophical difficulty in the whole position\nof the relation of religion to medicine. In a manner they are, as it\nwere, at loggerheads from the outset. The Church is bound to teach\nthat it matters not how long or how short a man\u2019s life is, if it is\nrightly spent, whereas the doctor\u2019s point of view must be to keep the\nman alive at any price. And although we may feel that, under certain\ncircumstances, the medical attitude might be modified, it is the only\nsafe one in the present state of our knowledge. Euthanasia seems,\non the surface, a most humane and comforting suggestion, but it is\nallowing us finite beings to take into our own hands things which are\nbeyond our comprehension. We all know of instances where it must\nhave been thought that death would be preferable to life; but apart\nfrom the presumptuous thought of mere human beings, look how often\nthe maimed bodily frame \u2018rises on stepping stones of its dead self to\nhigher things.\u2019 A man struck with blindness, for example, may be living\na full and perfect and whole life, in spite of his maimed condition,\nbecause he puts out all his powers and lives at the top of his bent.\nSuch a man is in the highest state a healthy being. The unwhole man is\none who is always in terror of his life, and who does not accept with\nfaith and cheerfulness, and in a life of prayer, the ills that are\nlaid upon him by a wise and Divine Providence. It is true that there\nare more things wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. Yes, but\neven our prayers have necessary limitations arising from our imperfect\nknowledge, and when St. James declared that the prayer of faith shall\nsave the sick, he spoke at a time when scientific investigation was\nnon-existent, and when people must have been sorely distressed by\ntheir total inability to overcome the diseases from which those around\nthem were suffering. But for us, whose physical knowledge is so much\nmore exact, to refuse to accept the remedies which hard and patient\ntoil has discovered, under God\u2019s help and guidance (there whether\nwe recognise it or not), is both presumptuous and foolish. Spiritual\nHealing--i.e. a quasi-miraculous process--_must_ die a natural death,\neven if the agony is prolonged. It is simply pandering to charlatanism,\nand by its exaltation of the Health of the Body, is almost pagan in its\neffects. It is, moreover, an emphatic expression of individualism at\na time when co-operation in every direction is the natural and right\ntrend of affairs; for truly never did we feel so strongly as now,\nthat no man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself--as true\nof nations as of individuals. It is, therefore, in the highest sense,\nreactionary, and a sentimental attempt to put the clock back, which is\ndoomed to failure. Take one item, which is wrapped up in this idea of\nSpiritual Healing, and that is Demoniac Possession. This was an ancient\nbelief, as is shown by some of the miracles narrated in the Gospels,\nand there is an attempt to revive it in the present day, and with that,\na practice of Exorcism as a cure for it. \u2018But,\u2019 and here I quote from\n\u2018Religion and Medicine,\u2019 \u2018it is a significant fact that as education\nspreads, belief in demoniac possession dies out, and the greatest\nstrongholds of the belief to-day are in non-Christian countries.\u2019\nA possible explanation of this is, that in Christian countries,\nspiritual forces have been actively at work for many generations, and\nthat this spiritual activity has weakened the power of the forces\nof evil. There is, too, no blinking the question that the behaviour\nof insane people, or even of people supposed to be insane, might be\nexplained on the theory of demoniac possession. For example, how often\none sees people generally good and kind, and even truly religious, go\nsuddenly into a fury of temper or violence of some kind; or in delirium\nwe know that quite sweet, innocent people say dreadful things which one\nwould think they could not even _know_. No doubt to some people the\ntemporary possession by some evil spirit is a more comfortable theory\nthan that it is a revelation of the natural man in us, when discipline\nand training are in some way relaxed, and that such is our _real_\nnature let loose.\n\nThe dangers of a belief in, and of practising _consciously_, Spiritual\nHealing are great, as far as doctors are concerned. It simply puts\na premium on ignorance and laziness, and is disastrous to exact\nknowledge and scientific investigation. Spiritual healers assert that\nto dwell on the abnormal and pathological prevents their work on the\nnormal. But who is to say what is the normal, till abnormalities have\nbeen weighed and considered? No, to people like myself who practise\nmedicine, it is a dangerous and uncertain weapon to employ. Far be it\nfrom me to say that the spiritual side of medicine should be ignored\naltogether. We know that our prayers, rightly offered, are a help to\nour patients--we _know_ that the ordained Sacraments of the Church are\na help to them. Moreover, we know very well that there is no royal road\nto the treatment of disease. We know well how many cases there are in\nour various hospitals and infirmaries, that have baffled all the skill\nof diagnosis and treatment that has been vouched to the world up to the\npresent time. Is it rational to believe that such cases will be healed\nby a glance, or a touch, or a word of any merely human person, however\nholy, who is manifestly ignorant of any ordinary scientific knowledge?\nNo, Spiritual Healing as a cult, as a part of the sacramental life of\nthe Church, will cease to exist, but all that has come out of it will\nbe quickened and strengthened. We shall feel greater need of prayer\nand intercession, and we shall feel more and more the real value of\nmeditation.\n\nThat the medical profession is fully alive to the importance of the\nquestion, in spite of its difficulties, may be inferred from the\nfollowing extract from the _British Medical Journal_, November 6, 1909:\n\n\u2018We welcome the discussion at the Harveian Society, as a sign that the\nprofession is more fully realising the value of certain potentialities\nof healing and relief, which an ingrained materialism passes by on one\nside. All around us spiritual or mental healing is going on. It is our\nduty, as it is our interest, to study the process scientifically, to\ndefine its limitations both in regard to the conditions to which it\nis applicable and to the persons who can successfully apply it, and\nto recognise perhaps more fully than before that man is a compound of\nbody and spirit, both of which have to be taken into account by those\nwho undertake the treatment of disease. The first step to be taken,\nif the profession is not to surrender a large part of its sphere\nof usefulness, is that medical practitioners should be trained in\npsychology as well as in physiology. In saying this we do not wish to\nbe understood as pinning our faith entirely to experimental psychology.\nA careful study of the works of the great masters of the human heart\nis at least as important as the estimate of time reactions and the\naccuracy of visual impressions.\u2019 \u2018A careful study of the works of the\ngreat masters of the human heart\u2019--this rings true, and makes one\nhopeful, in spite of the confusion in terms that exist in regard to\nPsychic Healing and Spiritual Healing.\n\nSpiritual Healing may be defined as a change in a person\u2019s point of\nview. It may be a question of building up character, or of development\nof spiritual attributes. In both cases, it is essentially a matter of\ninstruction. And the teaching will be effective in proportion as the\nteacher is possessed of sincerity and sympathy. I am anxious to be most\nemphatic in saying this, because so much misunderstanding has arisen\nof late on all sides, owing to misconceptions on this point. Spiritual\nHealing can only, in quite a secondary way, be a physical process.\nAgain, take the case of a man who becomes blind in a way that prohibits\nany idea of his ever recovering his sight; he may develop into a\nmiserable, discontented being on account of his affliction. He comes\nunder the influence of some teaching, of some person, or of some sudden\nreligious inspiration. He is healed. Can he see again? No, but he has\nrisen superior to his blindness. He is a _whole_ man once more. This\nis all that he and his lay friends know. He _may_ even enjoy better\nphysical health than he did while his blindness oppressed him. Or,\nagain, there may be morbid physical conditions directly or indirectly\nattributable to a morbid temperament, sleeplessness due to wrongdoing,\nor chronic dyspepsia due to worry. In such cases as these, the doctor\nmay do little or nothing. The malady is only incidentally a physical\none. Here \u2018Spiritual Healing\u2019 in the true sense is the only remedy,\nand every liberal-minded medical practitioner would desire it for the\npatient.\n\nPractically, as I have repeatedly found from experience, priest and\ndoctor can combine to the great advantage of the patient. Medical\npractitioners need have no fear that, with wise and experienced\npriests, they will find their special province interfered with; on the\ncontrary, their hands will be strengthened, the patients calmed, and\ntheir fortitude increased. It has been my lot many times to find the\nirritable patient resentful of her illness, and of God\u2019s dealing with\nher, brought to a calm, hopeful, restful frame of mind, and that by the\nministrations and prayers of a wise and tactful priest.\n\nPerhaps St. Catherine of Siena expresses what is meant by all this in\nspeaking of praying for others. \u2018It is toil for him ... to hold him in\nthe presence of God.\u2019 And it is here that the priest can so greatly\nassist us in our labours on behalf of those weak or sick ones who have\nbeen entrusted to our care.\n\n\n\n\nFAITH AND MENTAL INSTABILITY\n\nBY\n\nTHEO. B. HYSLOP, M.D.,\n\nSUPERINTENDENT OF BETHLEM HOSPITAL\n\n\n\n\nFAITH AND MENTAL INSTABILITY\n\nBY THEO. B. HYSLOP, M.D.\n\n\n_The Tendency for Insanity to increase on Account of the Stress of\nLife._\n\nThat there is a tendency for insanity to increase on account of the\nstress of competition and all the complexities of modern civilisation\nfew will deny. The burden of taxation upon the nerve tissues and the\ndrain upon their stores of energy must necessarily go on increasing as\nthe uses for the physical mechanism of the body and limbs diminish and\nbecome replaced by the more complex nervous activities essential to\nbrain and mental avocations. The influences of rural and urban life,\ntrades and occupations, &c., as favouring the occurrence of insanity,\nhave been dealt with in an exhaustive manner in various reports,\ntreatises, and innumerable papers, and the result has been to apprise\nus of the fact that the percentage of individuals who are incapable by\nreason of mental perversion or defect from taking active and useful\nparts as citizens far exceeds our previous conceptions as to the extent\nof the degeneration in our midst.\n\nIt is well-nigh impossible to obtain a complete census of the physical\nand mental states of the people. Statistics furnish us with so many\nfallacies that for present purposes I prefer to omit them, and deal\nonly with broad issues which seem to have direct bearings upon the\nmental health of the community.\n\nIt is now an accepted fact that civilisation, with its tendencies\ntowards the aggregation of individuals into dense communities, favours\nthe occurrence in those communities of overcrowding, pauperism, crime,\nand degeneration. For those designed by habit and heredity to rural\nlife, migration to cities where the struggle for life is continued\nunder totally different circumstances is disastrous, and for them\nthe step from country to town is but one of the commonest of all the\nsteps towards mental and physical deterioration, the accidents of\ncivilisation finding in them merely the readiest victims.\n\nThe necessity of this migration, as determined by the state of\nagriculture, makes it none the less an evil, and it is a symptom in the\nevolution of an essentially agricultural race which is fraught with\nextreme danger to the maintenance of its nervous and mental stability.\n\nThe problem, however, has a different aspect for those who by habit and\nheredity are trained for city life, and certain it is that increased\nfacilities for travelling are tending to decentralise our cities and\nthereby render the city dwellers healthier and more fit to cope with\nthe drain upon their nervous energies. As a physician, it would appear\nto the writer that the problem of Sunday observances in town and\ncountry have different bearings on the health and physical fitness of\nthe people. There is no doubt that periodic decentralisation of town\ndwellers is essential to the maintenance of bodily health, and it is\nalso true that physical exercise and change from mental to physical\nfunctioning and _vice versa_ is essential to all--i.e. if the balance\nbetween the mental and physical powers is to be adequately maintained.\nIt is, of course, to be understood that to a physician the preservation\nof this balance is his first care, and to him is entrusted the function\nof aiding in the proper observance of all that is in agreement with\nbiological and, therefore, natural laws. To him there is a great\ndifference between \u2018observance\u2019 and \u2018belief\u2019; and he sees in them\neither mutually co-operative or mutually destructive factors for good\nor ill respectively.\n\nIf religious observances, under determined conditions, are found to\nbe useful and essential for the sane in mind and body, they are also\nlikely to be so, under conditions otherwise determined and arranged,\nfor the insane. Many insane patients are totally incapable of attending\nany religious function. Some must be prohibited; others may be\nencouraged. As an asylum physician the writer may state that a generic\ncase of religious excitement or enthusiasm may most advisedly even be\nrestrained from religious functions until at least the acute symptoms\nhave subsided. There can be little doubt that no religious officer\nwould be likely to succeed in accomplishing much for patients without\nan accurate knowledge of insanity and the mental experiences of those\nwhom he seeks to influence. The fact that mental aberration forms a\nspecial study and phase of life increases his difficulties and limits\nhis possibilities. Where there is apparent failure both inside asylums\nand without, such failures may very possibly be attributed to the\ndeficiencies of the doctrine, the discipline of the religion itself,\nthe organisations peculiar to it, or the functionaries associated with\nit in our day. If the Christian religion is a true philosophy, it is\nthe duty of all who profess Christianity to assist in the practical\napplication of its precepts, where such can be judiciously and safely\napplied, taking religious things perforce as they find them, and\nutilising their own special knowledge to the best possible advantage,\naccording to the conditions they find.\n\nIs a person with deep religious conviction better equipped to face the\nstress of life than an unbeliever? An answer to this question was given\nby the writer in a paper read at the annual meeting of the British\nMedical Association held at Leicester in 1905. In stating that \u2018a true\nand philosophical religion raises the mind above a mere incidental\nemotionalism\u2019 he used the word \u2018religion\u2019 in its literal sense, as\nderived from _re_ and _lego_, to gather and consider, as opposed to\n_negligens_. He in no way extended its connotation so as to include\ndemonstrations of incidental emotionalism, superstition, or fanaticism.\nReligion and moral obligation he considered to be almost convertible\nterms, both equally compatible with intuitionalism, utilitarianism,\nor any other \u2018ism\u2019 derived from the study of the laws of life and\nmind. Moral laws are generally principles of thought and action, which\nan intelligent being must apply for himself in the guidance of his\nconduct, and the translation of such general principles (expressed\neither in general abstract form or in the form of a command) into\nparticular actions. Conformity with such precepts of morality may with\nreason be regarded as a safeguard against the \u2018lusts of the flesh.\u2019\n\nReligious enthusiasm in itself cannot justly be termed an evil.\nRather does it embody the most healthy and preservative development\nof our social forces. Like many other tendencies of the mind, it is\nsubject to exaggeration, misapplication, and a predominance of the\nemotions over the intellect. The typical cases of religious insanity\ndirectly developable from sectarian and even undenominational religious\nenthusiasm, from religious meditations, exercises, devotions, or\nsuperstitions, are by no means so common as they are supposed to be\nby the uninitiated observer. The true point lies in this, that very\nmany mental cases bear a strongly marked religious or at least moral\naspect. The psychology of the subject will show, for example, that\nacute depression--a predominant phase of abnormal emotional life--leads\nalmost necessarily to a religious interpretation. And this is even more\nthe case with many actual sense perversions. Such, I mean, as have\never been associated with the ideas of the supernatural.\n\nThese are not necessarily caused by religious over-excitement or\nenthusiasm. They may assume the appearance of it, because, being\nthe deepest and most real feelings, desires, and convictions of the\nperverted organic life or of the moral reaction which accompanies it,\nthey cannot well be expressed or described except in strong moral\nterms. Over and over again does this appear, and often among those\nleast likely to be suspected of any religious predisposition. That\nthese feelings should be clothed according to the prevailing ideas and\ncreed of the patient is an essential reproduction of the mind. But,\nafter all, this only relates to the form of their appearance, and there\nare many things which lie deeper.\n\nReligious excitement is not infrequently assigned as a cause of\ninsanity. The writer has stated elsewhere his belief that the\nphilosophy of the infinite, far from being a source of aberrations\nof thought which may be deemed insane, is the ultimate point of our\nmental evolution, and that a true and philosophical religion raises the\nmind above a mere incidental emotionalism and gives stability. With\nno religion and no moral obligation the organism is apt to become a\nprey to the lusts of the flesh and their consequences. Gasquet observes\nthat religion may either produce or tend to hinder unsoundness of mind;\nthat it may cause certain symptoms of insanity or modify them; and,\nlastly, that it may be employed as a means of moral prevention and\ntreatment. He believes that every form of religion, however widely it\nmay differ from our standard of the truth, if it enforces the precepts\nof morality, is a source of strength to the sound mind that sincerely\naccepts it.\n\nClouston has justly observed that far more depends upon the brain that\ngoes to church than upon what it may obtain in the church. That is to\nsay, there must be the predisposition to break down, the religious\ninfluence being often merely an accident. It must also be remembered\nthat religious over-enthusiasm may be merely a symptom and not a cause.\n\nMuch misconception through misquotation has arisen in connexion with\nthe writer\u2019s views as to the therapeutic value of prayer. Reference\nto the context of his views expressed before the Society for the\nStudy of Childhood will show that reference was made to the _habit_\nof prayer in childhood, and its therapeutic value was there urged\nmore as a preventive than as a curative agent. It was urged that the\nmental hygiene of childhood was not to be determined by any special\ndenominational method.\n\nSuch limited methods may result in the fixity of an idea or belief\nquite compatible with usefulness in any sphere of activity, but they do\nnot deal with the broader and deeper question of the preservation of\nthe mental health of the individual. The exaggerated importance of the\ndenominational question, which has engendered passive resistance, ought\nto give way to the question of mental health and engender a strong\nand active resistance to all that tends to narrow or circumscribe the\nmental life of the infant. It ought to be our object as teachers and\nphysicians to fight against all those influences which tend to produce\neither religious indifference or intemperance, and to subscribe as\nbest we may to that form of religious belief, so far as we can find\nit practically embodied or effective, which believes in \u2018the larger\nhope,\u2019 though it condemns unreservedly the demonstrable superstition\nand sentimentality which impede its progress and power. As an alienist,\nand as one whose whole life has been concerned with the sufferings of\nthe human mind, the writer believes that of all the hygienic measures\nto counteract disturbed sleep, depression of spirits, and all the\nmiserable sequel\u00e6 of a distrait mind, he would undoubtedly give the\nfirst place to the simple _habit_ of prayer. Let the child be taught to\nbelieve in an anthropomorphic God the Father, or in an all-pervading\nmedium of guidance and control, or in the integrity of a cosmic whole,\nwith its transmutations, evolutions, and indestructibilities. It\nmatters little, for they all lead in the same direction. Let there\nbut be a habit of nightly communion, not as a mendicant or repeater\nof words more adapted to the tongue of a sage, but as a humble\nindividual who submerges or asserts his individuality as an integral\npart of a greater whole. Such a habit does more to clean the spirit\nand strengthen the soul to overcome mere incidental emotionalism than\nany other therapeutic agent known to him. Our schools are as gardens\nfor the cultivating, judicious pruning and sustaining young life\nby gardeners who have, or who ought to have, full knowledge of the\ntender plants under their care. Our churches are to the moral welfare\nof the community as our schools are to the intellectual. The church\nhas been aptly termed \u2018God\u2019s Garden,\u2019 where the art of living good\nlives and the making of character is helped by specially appointed\ngardeners. It is needless to say, however, that the light of reason or\nsanity, as bestowed upon us by Nature, is the light to which all other\nconsiderations must give way lest we in our turn too soon pass the\nborderland of knowing things as they are.\n\n\n\n\nMEDICAL ASPECTS OF MENTAL HEALING\n\nBY\n\nH. G. G. MACKENZIE, M.A., M.B.\n\n\n\n\nMEDICAL ASPECTS OF MENTAL HEALING\n\nBY H. G. G. MACKENZIE, M.A., M.B.\n\n\nI. _Spiritual Healing in the Light of Modern Medical Science_\n\nI have been asked in this chapter to put together some recent\nexpressions of opinion by members of my own profession on the subject\nof \u2018mental\u2019 and \u2018spiritual\u2019 healing. No attempt whatever is made to\ngive an exhaustive summary. It will be sufficient for my purpose if I\ncan make clear to the non-medical reader--\n\n(1) That there is nothing new in the elaborate and confident\npretensions now being thrust forward by a variety of \u2018healers.\u2019\n\n(2) That, so far from scientific medicine \u2018standing helpless in the\npresence of a new phenomenon,\u2019 she is in possession of a very large\namount of clinical material on which quite definite conclusions have\nbeen formed; and, as always, she is perfectly ready to consider and\ninvestigate any new evidence which might tend to mitigate the force of\nsuch conclusions.\n\nNow, there are obviously two main lines of investigation. We may\nconsider (1) the _\u00e0 priori_ reasonableness of the claim that certain\nbodily diseases can be cured by \u2018mental\u2019 or spiritual processes, or we\nmay proceed to (2) an _\u00e0 posteriori_ investigation of cases of alleged\ncures. A third method of investigation, that which is, of course,\nadopted in _all_ cases of scientific treatment of disease by new\nmethods, viz. the tabulation of all cases treated, with the diagnosis,\nextent of disease, immediate and permanent results, negative as well\nas positive, noted in each case, is not usually possible, since no\npsychic or spiritual healer whom I have ever met seems to consider such\ntabulation at all necessary or even desirable.\n\nIn the first place, I submit a somewhat long quotation from an\nadmirable paper[11] by one of the greatest medical authorities in the\nEnglish-speaking world, Professor W. Osler.\n\n  [11] _The Treatment of Disease_, by W. Osler, M.D., F.R.S. London:\n  Henry Frowde. 1909.\n\n\u2018An influenza-like outbreak of faith-healing seems to have the public\nof the American continent in its grip. It is an old story, the oldest\nindeed in our history, and one in which we have a strong hereditary\ninterest, since scientific medicine took its origin in a system\nof faith-healing beside which all our modern attempts are feeble\nimitations.... Once or twice in each century the serpent entwining\nthe staff of \u00c6sculapius gets restless, contorts, and in his gambols\nswallows his tail, and all at once in full circle back upon us come old\nthoughts and old practices which for a time dominate alike doctors and\nlaity. As a profession we took origin in the cult of \u00c6sculapius ...\nwhose temples were at once magnificent shrines and hospitals.... Amid\nlovely surroundings, chosen for their salubrity, and connected with\nfamous springs, they were the sanatoriums of the ancient world. The\nritual of the cure is well known, and has been beautifully described\nby Pater in Marius the Epicurean.... The popular shrines of the\nCatholic Church to-day are in some ways the direct descendants of this\n\u00c6sculapian cult, and the cures and votive offerings at Lourdes and Ste.\nAnne are in every way analogous to those of Epidaurus.\u2019\n\nOsler goes on to speak with much tenderness of the apparently\nineradicable nature of the credulity evinced not merely by the\nmultitude but by persons educated widely, if not well, in the matter of\nthe healing of disease. It is indeed a portentous fact. The slightest\nacquaintance with the history of therapeutics, the most casual\nexamination of the evidence of alleged cures, the faintest stirring of\nthe reasoning faculty, as the votary asks himself whether the foremost\npathologists who work continuously with the best available material in\nan institution devoted to the scientific study of cancer will not be\nmore likely to arrive at a correct estimate of the probability of cure,\nby means other than extirpation, than a quite uninstructed _masseur_\nwho has taken to \u2018spiritual healing,\u2019 these, one would suppose, would\nbe sufficient to check the growth of credulity which we see in such\nevidence around us. Yet the reader will probably feel that Osler is not\ngoing beyond the warrant of easily ascertainable fact when he says:\n\n\u2018We must acknowledge its potency to-day as effective among the most\ncivilised people, the people with whom education is the most widely\nspread, yet who absorb with wholesale credulity delusions as childish\nas any that have enslaved the mind of man.\u2019\n\nProfessor Osler\u2019s conclusion is worth quoting:\n\n\u2018Having recently had to look over a large literature on the subject of\nmental healing, ancient and modern, I have tried to put the matter\nas succinctly as possible. In all ages and in all climes the prayer\nof faith has saved a certain number of the sick. The essentials are,\nfirst, a strong and hopeful belief in a dominant personality, which has\nvaried naturally in different countries and in different ages: Buddha\nin India and in Japan, where there are cults to match every recent\nvagary; \u00c6sculapius in ancient Greece and Rome; our Saviour and a host\nof Saints in Christian communities; and, lastly, an ordinary doctor\nhas served the purpose of common necessity very well. Faith is the\nmost precious asset in our stock-in-trade. Once lost, how long does a\ndoctor keep his clientele? Secondly, certain accessories--a shrine,\na grotto, a church, a temple, a hospital, a sanatorium [Osler might\nhave added the admirably devised entourage in such places as \u2018Physical\nCulture\u2019 Institutes and \u2018light cure\u2019 establishments], surroundings\nthat will impress favourably the imagination of the patient. Thirdly,\nsuggestion in one of its varied forms--whether the negation of disease\nand pain [as among the \u2018Eddyites\u2019], the simple trust in Christ of the\nPeculiar People, or the sweet reasonableness of the psychotherapeutist.\nBut there must be the will-to-believe attitude of mind, the mental\nreceptiveness--in a word, the faith which has made bread-pills\nfamous in the history of medicine.\u2019 We must, however, recognise the\nlimitations of \u2018mental healing.\u2019 \u2018Potent as is the influence of the\nmind on the body, and many as are the miracle-like cures which may be\nworked, all are in functional disorders, and we know only too well that\nnowadays the prayer of faith neither sets a broken thigh nor checks an\nepidemic of typhoid fever.\u2019\n\nThe following extract is from an article in the _British Medical\nJournal_ of March 13, 1909. The article begins by quoting from a paper\nby Dr. Allan Hamilton (U.S.A.) to the following effect:\n\n\u2018In all this agitation, it would almost seem as if the intelligent\nphysician had never made use of psychotherapy, but that he was a\nmechanical giver of drugs and took little or no interest in his\npatients. If the new critics of the medical profession, who have been\nso active of late, would take the trouble to investigate, they would\noften find, among the great and successful men of all times and of\nto-day, that the human side is very strongly developed, and that their\npatients are studied from every point of view, and treated accordingly.\u2019\n\n\u2018We would add,\u2019 says the writer of the article in the _British Medical\nJournal_, \u2018that the intelligent application of the physician\u2019s\nknowledge of the influence of the body on the mind is the one\ncondition of success in the difficult art of dealing with patients\nand reinforcing the curative power of Nature or, what comes to the\nsame thing, enabling sufferers to work out their own deliverance from\nthe thraldom of functional disease. All really great physicians have\nused this force, sometimes, it may be, unconsciously, but often with\ndeliberate intent. It is the power of influencing the mind of the\npatient or, in other words, of exciting confidence in his gift of\nhealing, that makes what is called \u201cpersonal magnetism.\u201d\u2019\n\nAt this point I may be permitted to offer one or two observations.\n\n(1) To speak quite strictly, it is not a question of _\u2018\u00e0 priori\u2019\npossibility or impossibility_. As Huxley pointed out, twenty years\nago, few things can be said to be _impossible_ except mathematical\nmisstatements or manifest contradictions. Thus 2 + 2 cannot possibly\nyield any result but 4. A square circle, a raised depression, are, in\nthe strictest sense of the term, _impossibilities_. But, with regard to\nan enormous number of alleged phenomena popularly styled _impossible_,\nwhat is really meant is either that they are not impossible at all, but\nonly in some high degree improbable, or that we have not sufficient\nknowledge to enable us to say whether or not they are impossible. In\nany case, before accepting them, we are bound as honest men to demand\nevidence which may be thoroughly sifted. The sort of stuff which we\nusually get, when we ask for such evidence, will be instanced at a\nlater stage.\n\n(2) Again, to speak quite strictly, I do not know that anyone would\ncare to draw a hard-and-fast line between what is \u2018functional\u2019 and\nwhat is \u2018organic.\u2019 These terms are extremely convenient, but we must\nremember that they are only terms. There is an oft-recurring danger,\nagainst which we all require to be continually on our guard, of falling\ninto the old error of the realists. \u2018Animate and inanimate\u2019 (assuming\nthat the recent claim to have demonstrated in metals a process of\nreproduction analogous to those observed in protoplasm is endorsed, as\nseems probable), \u2018genus and species,\u2019 \u2018animal and vegetable,\u2019 these\nand many others are eminently useful classifications, and the border\nline between each and its opposite varies from comparative precision to\nextreme vagueness. But in no case are they absolutely precise in the\nsense in which the distinction between an integer and a vulgar fraction\nis precise. And in the matter of the terms \u2018functional\u2019 and \u2018organic\u2019\nwe must walk very warily indeed. Is epilepsy a functional neurosis or\nan organic disease? Analogy suggests organic changes. No such changes\nhave been constantly demonstrated by _post mortem_ evidence; partly,\nof course, because _post mortem_ examinations of cases of death in\nthe epileptic or epileptiform condition have been extremely rare,\nand are not very common in cases where there is a well-authenticated\nhistory of attacks; but partly because our investigations into the\nminute anatomy of many morbid conditions are at present barred by the\nlimitations of microscopic vision. We have no right whatever to assert\ndogmatically that there is no organic change in a tissue because we\ncannot see it under a magnification of 1000 diameters--though for a\nvariety of reasons, which all pathologists will recognise, it is not\naltogether _probable_ that a magnification of 10,000 diameters would\nin such cases demonstrate a constant change. In any case, if we are\ntold by a spiritual or psychic healer that he cures cases of, let us\nsay, old-standing chronic nephritis or cirrhosis of the liver by his\nown peculiar methods, our reply must be, not that this is impossible\nbecause we are dealing with organic disease, but rather that--\n\n(1) If he claims to act mentally or spiritually on the higher centres\nof the brain and so to reach the diseased tissues, a cure is in the\nhighest degree unlikely, for a reason which will be given at a later\nstage;\n\n(2) If his method is avowedly quite empirical, and he only professes\nto exercise a power which he does not even dimly understand, we must\nrespectfully ask for evidence, which can be examined and tested to the\nsatisfaction of a competent and impartial mind.\n\nNow, as to the influence of \u2018suggestion,\u2019 whether or not accompanied\nby other methods, e.g. hypnotism, magnetism, electricity, &c., on\n(so-called) functional conditions, modern medical science speaks with\nno uncertain voice.\n\nAt a meeting of the Harveian Society held last October, much\ninteresting information was produced.\n\nA paper of great and permanent value was read by Dr. Claye Shaw on the\n\u2018Influence of Mind as a therapeutic agent.\u2019 It is impossible in the\nspace at my disposal to quote more than two brief extracts from his\npaper. He thus defines \u2018suggestion\u2019:\n\n\u2018Suggestion is the insinuation of a belief or impulse into the mind of\na subject by any means, or by words or questions, usually by emphatic\ndeclaration; also the impulse of trust and submission which leads to\nthe effectiveness of such incitement.\u2019\n\nOn the effects of treatment by suggestion, Dr. Claye Shaw writes:\n\n\u2018It is with such conditions as chronic inebriety, opium, or the drug\nhabit, that suggestion is most powerful; with acute insanity I have not\nseen it successful, and, though it has been fairly tested in asylum\npractice, it has not obtained general recognition as a therapeutic\nagent.\u2019\n\nA considerable number of medical men, alienists and others, took part\nin the discussion which followed the reading of the paper.\n\nDr. Bramwell cited many well-authenticated cases where a cure or marked\namelioration had followed treatment by suggestion in cases of this kind\nwhich had resisted all other treatment. Among these were instances\nof neurasthenia (\u2018la grande hyst\u00e9rie\u2019), claustrophobia, morphomania,\ntendency to suicide, a morbid fear of cats. Dr. Seymour Tuke said that\nhe had found \u2018suggestive treatment marvellously effective in cases\nof inebriety in which the will was under some sort of control,\u2019 but\nthat he was \u2018unable to make encouraging report of the use of hypnotism\nand suggestion amongst insane patients.\u2019 [A useful and discriminating\ntestimony.] Dr. Lloyd Tuckey had cured \u2018many cases of genuine\ndipsomania, which could not be reached by drugs, by hypnotism--as well\nas other intractable conditions, such as three cases of Meni\u00e8re\u2019s\ndisease.\u2019 Dr. R. H. Cole said that, twenty years ago, when he was\na House Physician, he first tried to hypnotise patients. Later, he\nwent to Paris and attended the \u2018Salp\u00e9tri\u00e8re and Bernheim\u2019s cliniques,\nbut was greatly disappointed in what he saw.... In his experience of\nmental diseases he had only seen it do good in one insane patient.\nIt had never had any effect in his experience upon people with fixed\ndelusions, but it would cure dipsomania.\u2019 Dr. T. F. Woods had treated\n4000 cases, and he described a few of them in which he had obtained\nremarkable results. One was that of a woman, with severe asthma and\ndelusions that she was going to be cut in pieces, who was cured by\nsuggestion at one sitting, and had kept well ever since. Another case\nof severe sciatica, which had resisted every line of treatment for\neight months, was also cured rapidly. He did not find it necessary to\ninduce hypnotic sleep. Dr. E. A. Ash thought that \u2018genuine hypnotism\n(the state of somnambulism) was unsatisfactory in practice. Only a\nsmall proportion of cases could be hypnotised, and these in his\nexperience did no better than those treated by simple suggestion. He\nquoted two cases of nocturnal enuresis, one of which he had failed\nto cure by hypnotism, whilst the other was cured by suggestion, and\na case of blepharospasm, which had been cured by suggestion, with\nlight massage on the eyelids, although a similar case treated only by\nsuggestion had not been relieved.\u2019 Dr. W. H. Blake described \u2018a series\nof cases in which he had used hypnotism with the utmost benefit.... His\nmost remarkable cures had been effected in a case of asthma, for which\nthe patient was accustomed to drench himself unavailingly with drugs,\nand in a severe case of dipsomania.\u2019\n\nHere we have grouped together the expression of the opinions of trained\nminds of responsible medical men. The differences are comparatively\nslight. The agreement is remarkable. Not one of them (though in one\ncase as many as 4000 records are in his hands) claims to have cured\nwhat are usually called organic conditions. The whole question is as\nto the best way in which suggestion can be brought to bear on patients\nwhose lives are in many cases rendered miserable by persistent, but\nnone the less \u2018functional,\u2019 ailments.\n\nMoreover, we observe that the result of years of patient clinical\ninvestigation is to lead them to treat every variety of psychic\ntherapeutics as a form of \u2018suggestion.\u2019 In no case is there so much\nas a hint that a new force, viz. \u2018spiritual healing,\u2019 has appeared,\ndifferent in kind not only from other varieties of suggestion but from\nthe countless cults of spiritual healing, which have flourished and\ndisappeared in the past or the relics of which still survive in many\ncontinental and eastern shrines.\n\nNow, with regard to \u2018spiritual healing\u2019 in its present manifestation\nin our own country the general attitude of medical science is well\ndescribed in an article which appeared in the _British Medical Journal_\nof January 9, 1909. The article begins by describing some meetings\nof different societies, in some cases mutually antagonistic, but\nall existing for the purpose of advancing the claims of healing by\n\u2018spiritual\u2019 means. It goes on to say:\n\n\u2018If all or any of them can show that they have discovered a new force,\nor a new method of applying one already known, to the cure of disease,\nrational medicine will welcome a new weapon. As we have often said,\nthe wise physician understands the action of the mind or the spirit\non the body, and uses it for the benefit of his patient. A man who\nfirmly believes in his doctor\u2019s skill, or in the efficacy of the\ntreatment to which he is subjected, is in the best possible condition\nfor the operation of curative forces. On the other hand, a patient\nwho believes that nothing can cure him helps to seal his own doom.\nAvicenna well said, _Plus interdum prodesse fiduciam in medicum quam\nipsam medicinam_. The \u201clady of the highest rank,\u201d who is reported to\nhave said that she would rather die under the care of Sir Henry Halford\nthan recover under that of any other physician, must have been a living\ntribute to his skill.\n\n\u2018The fact cannot be too much insisted upon that there is nothing in the\nleast new about faith healing. It is as old as medicine and religion,\nwhich in the beginning were one, as they still are among many savage\ntribes. Faith can move mountains, and it matters little on what it is\nbased or how it is excited. As John Hunter has told us, the touch of\na dead man\u2019s hand has charmed away a tumour. But there are limits to\nits action, and while willing to accept faith as an adjuvant, no one\nwho knows anything about disease will admit that by itself it can heal\nany but ailments the origin of which lies hid in the unknown recesses\nof the nervous system. By all means let us know the full power of\nthe spirit over the body. Only let us have facts that can be fairly\nand fully tested. A scientifically trained doctor takes nothing on\ntrust, and there can be no useful co-operation between medicine and\nspiritual healing unless the facts of each case are fully disclosed.\nThat is the point where science and faith part company; the former is\nas importunate as Arthur Clennam at the Circumlocution Office, and\nthe wonder workers are as painfully surprised at this as the youthful\nBarnacle was at the persistence of \u201cthe fella that wanted to know, you\nknow.\u201d\u2019\n\nLet us dispose at once of one simple question of fact. Modern medical\nscience has given the \u2018spiritual healers,\u2019 who claim to cure any\nand every disease by touch or prayer or unction, an absolutely\nfair hearing. Evidence is asked for, and, if it is forthcoming, is\npatiently investigated, no matter how antecedently unlikely may be the\npretensions which such evidence is brought forward to support.\n\nThe general attitude of mind of the supporters of the \u2018spiritual\nhealers\u2019 is shown by the following illuminating extract, quoted by Sir\nH. Morris in the course of a recent lecture on \u2018Looking back\u2019:\n\n\u2018We have no difficulty in believing that ulcers that have a malignant\naspect may be healed by the hope that comes from a potent suggestion.\nWe have ourselves known of more than one case in which every clinical\nsign of malignant disease of the stomach was present, and in which a\ncure was effected by means that could only have derived their potency\nfrom suggestion.\u2019\n\nPeople who are prepared to accept this _without clearly ascertained\nand properly sifted evidence_ will accept anything. They simply\nbelieve what they wish to believe. When one widely advertised \u2018case of\nspiritual healing\u2019 breaks down on investigation, another is put forward.\n\nIndeed, for the most part they have no idea as to what constitutes\nevidence in these matters. In many cases the unsupported statement of\na patient, as to the diagnosis pronounced by a medical man, is calmly\naccepted by them as though there were no need of further investigation.\nWe have heard, perhaps, more than enough of a highly placed dignitary\nof the Church who believes (no doubt quite sincerely) that he was cured\nof cancer by the ministrations of one of these \u2018healers,\u2019 after an\nabsolute diagnosis as to the existence of an inoperable tumour had been\nmade by a leading specialist. The repeated denial by the specialist in\nquestion, that he ever supposed the condition which he examined to\nbe cancerous, makes no difference. The patient continues to announce\nas a fact what is almost demonstrably untrue; and his followers will\nno doubt continue to accept his statement in preference to first-hand\nevidence, so long as this particular cult survives.\n\nBut, for those who are not blinded by ignorant credulity, the following\nextracts from a letter from Dr. Combe Atthill may be of interest. Dr.\nAtthill\u2019s experience could, of course, be paralleled by any medical man\nof long practice:\n\n\u2018Shortly after I retired from practice, some ten years ago, a\nwell-known clergyman wrote to me, saying that members of his\ncongregation were being much disturbed by the advent amongst them of\na lady professing herself to be a faith healer, and saying that her\nconversion was due to the fact of my having told her that she was\nsuffering from a dreadful disease, and that her sole hope of cure lay\nin the performance of a very dangerous operation. She refused to submit\nto this, and instead placed herself in the hands of \u201cthe healer,\u201d and\nwas cured. He concluded by asking me to give him particulars of her\ncase.\n\n\u2018I had no recollection of any such patient, but, as the name was given,\nI traced her, and found the following particulars recorded in my case\nbook.\n\n\u2018I had only seen the lady once in my own house, when she stated that\nshe was well past middle life, and for more than a year had been\nweakened by a well-known condition.\n\n\u2018On my telling her I must examine her she replied that she could not\nsubmit to it that day for sufficient reasons, so I arranged that when\nshe was in a condition for examination she would let me know, and I\nwould call on her and examine her. I made no diagnosis, and gave no\nopinion as to the nature of the case. I said no word about performing\nan operation.\n\n\u2018Instead of writing to me to call on her, she went to London. No doubt\nan examination would have revealed the fact that no disease ever\nexisted.\n\n\u2018It is impossible to deal with patients of this class. Their mental\nequilibrium is disturbed; they distort what the doctor may say, and not\ninfrequently invent and circulate statements he never made.\u2019\n\n\nII. _The Society of Emmanuel_\n\nSpecial attention has been directed of late to the claims of the\n\u2018Society of Emmanuel.\u2019 This society appears to profess adherence to\nthe tenets of the Church of England, though, except for Dr. Mylne\n(formerly Bishop of Bombay), no well-known churchman, lay or cleric,\nseems to be a member of the executive. The names of some ladies of\ntitle are given in the list of the General Committee. The president\nand principal \u2018healer\u2019 is a Mr. James M. Hickson. The objects of the\nsociety are closely akin to those of other similar societies, except\nthat they have a distinctly \u2018Church\u2019 flavour. For instance:\n\n\u2018To develop the Divine gifts left to His Church by the Master,\nespecially the gift of healing by prayer and laying on of hands, with\nthe object of using these Divine gifts ... for the healing of the body.\u2019\n\nA perusal of its literature reveals the usual pretension to cure and\nto have cured any and every disease. Nothing like a tabulated list of\ncases treated appears anywhere. The society has now opened a \u2018Hospice,\u2019\nwhere free treatment (by prayer and laying on of hands, &c.) is given\nby the aforesaid Mr. Hickson.\n\nFor some time the _British Medical Journal_, the official organ of the\nBritish Medical Association, called attention to widely advertised\n\u2018cures,\u2019 and asked for information which would make it possible for an\ninvestigation into the true facts to be carried out. The results were\nhardly satisfactory. Here are some of the cases:\n\n(1) In the _British Medical Journal_ (May 1, 1909) the following case\nis given as recorded in _The Healer_ (the organ of the Society of\nEmmanuel):\n\n\u2018The patient fell and injured the patella, which had previously been\nbroken four times--two doctors expressed the opinion that he would\nnever have full use of the knee again. It was very painful and quite\ncallous (_sic_) at the time of the first treatment by prayer, but in\ntwenty minutes he was able to bend it without help; the following day\nto walk about the house, and after four visits to resume ordinary\nduties.\u2019\n\nInquiries failed to elicit any details which would enable investigation\nto be made.\n\n(2) From the _British Medical Journal_ of June 5, 1909:\n\n\u2018Mr. Hickson is reported to have said that he has another case of\n\u201ccancer of the throat\u201d under his care; the patient had undergone two\noperations before going to him, and is now apparently getting well. We\nshould be glad to have particulars of so interesting a case, but we\ndoubt whether they will be forthcoming.\u2019\n\nApparently they were not. But the case was identified without\ndifficulty. A clergyman, the vicar of a country parish in the Oxford\ndiocese, was under \u2018treatment\u2019 by Mr. Hickson at this time for what\nwas undoubtedly cancer (epithelioma) of the larynx. A friend of mine\nwho saw him in the summer described him as being quite certain that he\nwas being cured, though he looked extremely ill and could hardly speak\nabove a whisper. A few weeks later the patient died. If Mr. Hickson\nhas anywhere publicly announced the failure of his \u2018treatment\u2019 in this\ncase, after having stated that the patient was \u2018apparently getting\nwell,\u2019 no such announcement has come under my notice.\n\n(3) In its issue of June 12, 1909, the _British Medical Journal_\npublished a quotation from the _Evening News_, which ran as follows:\n\n\u2018The following account of a cure of cancer is furnished by a lady\nmember of the Society of Emmanuel: \u201cThe patient was a Bishop of the\nChurch of England. The doctors abandoned all hope of a cure. Then Mr.\nHickson took the case in hand. He arrived on the morning of the day\non which the sufferer had to undergo an operation. Mr. Hickson prayed\nwith him and anointed him, followed by a laying on of hands (_sic_).\nIn the afternoon the surgeon arrived and made his examination. He was\ngreatly surprised. \u2018The case puzzles me,\u2019 he said. \u2018There is a mark\nof a new wound, but the cancer has gone!\u2019 The cleric in question is\nnow perfectly well, and was with us the other day, but I believe the\nsurgeon has not yet recovered from his surprise.\u201d\u2019\n\nThe usual request to Mr. Hickson or any member of the Society of\nEmmanuel to furnish details of this truly miraculous cure, which could\nserve as a basis of investigation, followed, but no reply came to hand.\nAgain, I ask, has Mr. Hickson publicly repudiated this account of his\nhealing powers?\n\n(4) The following is an extract from an article in the _British Medical\nJournal_ of May 22, 1909:\n\n\n\u2018SPIRITUAL HEALING AND CANCER.\n\n\u2018One of the most serious difficulties in arriving at a correct\nconclusion as to the curative powers claimed for spiritual healing\nis the intangible nature of the evidence. For instance, most of the\npatients on behalf of whom prayers were asked in the earlier numbers\nof _The Healer_--which is published by Mr. J. M. Hickson, and which,\nwe suppose, may be regarded as the organ of the Society of Emmanuel\nof which that gentleman is the president--are vaguely described\nas suffering from \u201crheumatism,\u201d \u201closs of nerve power,\u201d \u201cspinal\ntrouble,\u201d \u201cinternal weakness,\u201d \u201clow vitality and great weakness,\u201d\n\u201cheart trouble,\u201d \u201cinternal trouble.\u201d Some, indeed, are said to be the\nsubjects of \u201clocomotor ataxy\u201d and \u201cconsumption,\u201d but no particulars\nare given by which the diagnosis can be checked, and it is difficult\nor impossible to trace the result of the treatment. In a report of the\npast year published in the number for November 1908, Mr. Hickson does\ngive some details of a few cases. The two following taken at random\nmay be given as specimens: \u201cPriest. Cancer in bowel. Specialist,\nwho examined him nine months ago under an anaesthetic, said that an\noperation was impossible, and that he could not live for more than\nabout three months. He then sought help through Divine Healing, when\nhe was anointed with oil in the name of the Lord, and Mr. Hickson laid\nhis hands on him in prayer, after which he was examined by the same\nSpecialist, who found that a process of absorption was taking place.\nHe is now quite well.\u201d \u201cLady\u2019s Maid. Age about 28. Suffering from\nrupture, which gave great pain. One year under treatment at Middlesex\nHospital, and, while waiting for an in-patient\u2019s bed for operation,\nwas advised to seek help through Divine Healing. After three visits\nto Mr. Hickson, two months ago, she is now quite well and strong, with\nno pain or swelling. Her mistress also reports that serious defects of\nher character are no longer apparent and her whole spiritual nature is\nquickened and her duties are better done.\u201d\n\n\u2018These cases are sufficiently definite to be tested, and we should be\nglad if Mr. Hickson would supply us with the information necessary\nfor the purpose. We should undertake not to publish the names of the\npatients or any particulars by which they could be identified. We\nshould place the results of our investigation honestly before our\nreaders.\u2019\n\nResult: No reply. If the first of these cases is the one already\nreferred to, it will be observed that the clear and definite denial of\nthe specialist in question goes for nothing; also that, like all other\nstories of the kind, this has lost nothing in the telling.\n\n(5) The article goes on:\n\n\u2018In the meantime, we have succeeded in tracing a case more remarkable\nthan either of the two just cited, and the result is very instructive.\nIt was related in the third number of _The Healer_ (March 1908, p. 9)\nby the Right Rev. L. G. Mylne, D.D., formerly Bishop of Bombay, in\na paper entitled \u201cThe Anointing of the Sick for their Healing.\u201d It\nhas already been quoted in the _British Medical Journal_ of January\n9, 1909, p. 109; but, to enable the reader to form a correct judgment\non the subject, it must be repeated here. Bishop Mylne said: \u201cIn the\nlatest up-to-date book on cancer, which is in the hands of the most\nscientific men of to-day, there is a case quoted which is, I have no\ndoubt, correctly said to be a unique one of _abortive_ cancer. The\ncase is fully described from a medical point of view--how a patient,\nstricken unquestionably with cancer, was found to have, in place of the\ntumour, something which could only be called abortive cancer, the like\nof which was never heard of before. I happen to know the whole history\nof the case from the brother of the patient, himself a medical man.\nIt was this: The patient had been suffering from a serious affection\nof the throat. He went to one specialist after another. Three eminent\nmen told him without hesitation that he was suffering from a cancer\ngrowing on the vocal cords, and that nothing but their total excision\ncould save his life. He was a hard-working priest of our Church, and,\nof course, the operation meant that he would never utter a word again.\nHowever, his life had to be saved. The doctors came; the throat was\nlaid open; the operator had his knife in his hand to excise the vocal\ncords. He stopped dead. Instead of applying the blade of the knife, he\ntook hold, between his thumb and the handle, of all he found there, and\npeeled it off, just like the skin of a fruit. Between the diagnosis\nand the operation the patient had been anointed with oil in the name\nof the Lord. That is one of not a few cases which some of us know\nabout, but it is by far the best defined one I know of, and one that is\nactually celebrated in medical circles; not, of course, being quoted as\nan instance of what may be done by anointing, but as a case unique in\nsurgical experience.\u201d We went on to say that we should be glad to have\nfuller particulars, and we respectfully invited Bishop Mylne to furnish\nus with the name of the \u201clatest up-to-date book on cancer\u201d from which\nhe quoted.\n\n\u2018In the meantime, we had been put on the track of the case by a\ndistinguished physician, and had obtained a report of the case from\nthe surgeon who operated. All, therefore, that was wanting was the\nname of the book from which the quotation purported to be taken.\nWe communicated with Bishop Mylne on the subject, and we have to\nacknowledge the courtesy with which he received our request for\ninformation and the pains he took to procure it for us. _His Lordship\nwas, however, unable to gain the consent of those to whom he applied to\nhelp in any way in supplying an answer to a very simple question._[12]\nAs the matter is one of general interest not only to the medical\nprofession but to the whole of mankind, we think it right to give the\ntrue facts of the case, of course without disclosing the patient\u2019s\nidentity.\n\n  [12] The italics are mine. The Bishop is one whose statements, made\n  on behalf of \u2018spiritual healing,\u2019 have been accepted by persons at\n  any rate adequately educated. He writes a preposterous account of \u2018an\n  abortive cancer,\u2019 and professes to quote from \u2018the latest up-to-date\n  book on cancer, which is in the hands of the most scientific men of\n  to-day.\u2019 On being asked to give the name of the book, he says that he\n  cannot \u2018obtain the consent of those to whom he applied.\u2019\n\n\u2018The operator was Mr. Butlin, who has been good enough to give us\npermission to publish the following account. He saw the patient, who\nwas at that time thirty-seven years of age, in 1890. There was then a\nvery white patch, flat and sessile, on the middle of the left vocal\ncord, looking like a papillary growth. A month later the surface seemed\nto be ulcerated. The patient was seen by other well-known specialists,\nwho, like Mr. Butlin himself, were puzzled as to the nature of the\ndisease. Tubercle, papillary growth and malignant disease were in turn\nconsidered, but no definite conclusion was arrived at. The patient was\ntreated in various ways for four months before it was thought right to\nopen the larynx. Mr. Butlin then operated in the presence of an eminent\nspecialist, a distinguished surgeon, and another medical man, a friend\nof the patient.\u2019\n\nSomewhat to curtail the account, let me simply say that when the larynx\nwas opened it appeared that they had to do with a case either of what\nis known as leukoplakia or a rather rare form of papilloma. The latter\nseemed on the face of it to be the more probable, though evidently\nMr. Butlin did not think so. Whatever it was, it was certainly not\nmalignant. It was scraped away without difficulty: no signs of\ninfiltration were observed, and, when last heard of, the patient\u2019s\nrecovery seemed to be complete. The rest of the article in the\n_British Medical Journal_ consists of some criticisms of Dr. Mylne\u2019s\nproceedings, which certainly do not appear to me to err on the side of\nseverity.\n\nThe Society of Emmanuel has at last consented to allow the British\nMedical Association to carry out a full investigation into its alleged\ncures. The report will be interesting reading. Incidentally, it will be\ninstructive to note how many of the above cases have been submitted to\nthe investigators.\n\nMeanwhile, the danger is a real one. Probably an investigation into the\nfacts of the \u2018cures\u2019 reported by other \u2018psychotherapeutic\u2019 societies\nwould yield much the same results as have attended the inquiries into\nthe claims of the Society of Emmanuel. Not one of them, so far as I\nknow, even attempts to put its work on a scientific basis; and all\nclaim implicitly, if not explicitly, that they possess a power to cure\nthe most malignant organic diseases as well as functional neuroses.\n\nIf this cult is allowed to spread among the ignorant and credulous\n(and it seems to me that, _pari passu_ with waning faith, the most\nchildish credulity is rapidly increasing in our midst, often appearing\nin the most unexpected places), a golden opportunity will be offered\nto plausible impostors, without even the pretence of a scientific\ntraining, to set up as \u2018healers\u2019 and reap a rich harvest of gain. A few\nstartling successes will be widely advertised, and the huge tale of\nfailures quietly ignored. But a more serious danger lies behind.\n\nI take the following from the _British Medical Journal_ of May 1, 1909:\n\n\u2018A man with some slight symptoms of bladder trouble consulted an\neminent specialist, who discovered a small growth which could easily\nhave been removed. It was arranged that the patient should undergo an\noperation. In the meantime he fell among Christian Scientists, who\npersuaded him that he was quite well. And, indeed, for a time the\nsymptoms almost ceased. But the insidious disease remorselessly went\nits way, till the unfortunate patient was past all surgery.\u2019\n\nIf it be said that the societies I have mentioned repudiate all\nconnexion with Christian Science, I reply that by their fruits must\nthey be judged. Both Christian Science and the various associations\nfor spiritual healing profess to heal any and every disease, and offer\nproofs of their claim, which, whenever they have been tested, have been\nshown to be utterly without foundation.\n\n\nIII. _Spiritual Healing on a Scientific Basis_\n\nIn a book which has recently appeared, \u2018Body and Soul,\u2019 by the Rev.\nPercy Dearmer, we have a serious and able attempt to put \u2018spiritual\nhealing\u2019 on a scientific basis. Considerations of space do not permit\nme to deal as fully as I should wish with this really interesting\nbook, but, if I may try to put the general argument into a single\nparagraph, Mr. Dearmer\u2019s contention is as follows:\n\nBodily functions and bodily health are regulated and sustained by\nwhat may be called the lower nerve centres in the medulla of the\nbrain. It is by the exercise of these centres, which in turn control\nthe circulation, the secretion of various glands, &c., that the body\ncombats disease. This work is continually going on and we are for the\nmost part quite unconscious of it. But, says Mr. Dearmer, \u2018we now know\nthat these centres are in direct connexion with the higher centres of\nthe cortex of the brain.\u2019 I should think we do. So did our ancestors a\nhundred years ago. Their knowledge of the work of such centres as the\nvasomotor, the respiratory, the heat-regulating, &c., was fragmentary\nand imperfect to the last degree, but not one of them had any doubt\nthat myriads of nerve fibres connected the cortex with the medulla.\nLet us, therefore, know how to stimulate the cortex, and all disease\n(organic as well as functional) can be cured. Hence, when our Lord\ncured Bartim\u00e6us\u2019s blindness, and when a \u2018healer\u2019 cures locomotor ataxy,\nthey are performing a function quite as natural as in the case of a\ndoctor who cures malaria with quinine or restores the use of muscles\nin musculo-spiral paralysis by the use of the interrupted current.\n\nThis sounds plausible enough. There is nothing very new in it; indeed,\nwhen we come to analyse it, we shall see that, so far as general\nprinciples go, there is nothing which was not perfectly familiar in\nSydenham\u2019s day, or which the most materialistic practitioner of our\nown time would not admit without a moment\u2019s hesitation. But, of the\nlimitations of his process, Mr. Dearmer only seems to have a confused\nidea. Let us take one of the instances which he adduces in illustration\nof his argument. He is speaking (p. 33) of the familiar phenomenon of\nblushing. \u2018When a person blushes,\u2019 says our author, \u2018the small arteries\nare relaxed and dilate, the amount of blood in them is increased, and\nthis hot red fluid flows in such quantities through the capillaries\nof the skin that the skin itself becomes hot and red. It is strange\nthat the thought \u201cHe says I am a pretty girl\u201d should cause the small\narteries to behave in this way; but the physiological explanation is\nsimple enough. These arteries are supplied with muscles which regulate\nthem, and all muscles are worked by nerves. The thought in the higher\nconscious centres has somehow seen fit to hitch itself on to the\narterial muscles, just as when we telephone to a friend in the City\nthe exchange connects us on to his office. _Now, supposing it to be\npossible to cure a man, say of indigestion by thought, the process\nwould be the same._\u2019\n\n\u2018Supposing it to be possible to cure a man of indigestion by thought,\u2019\nthis is a statement which no one would wish to dispute. But I\nexpect Mr. Dearmer would be surprised to hear that the analogy of\nthe excitation of the vaso-dilator centre, which causes blushing,\ncan be applied to only a few varieties of indigestion. Roughly, the\ncommonest causes of indigestion might be said to be: (_a_) an\u00e6mia,\nor an insufficient supply of blood to the mucous membrane of the\nstomach; (_b_) an imperfect secretion of hydrochloric acid and the\ndigestive fluids owing to structural defects in the glands of the\nstomach, usually a hereditary condition; (_c_) a dilated organ; (_d_)\nsome pathological condition of the accessory large glands, e.g. liver\nand pancreas; (_e_) dyspepsia, owing to faulty balance of the nervous\nsystem. Any one of these five is fairly common, but only in the\nlast is there a shred of evidence for supposing that suggestion or\nany other factor which would cause the higher, and through them the\nlower, nervous centres to show a healthy activity, would bring about\namelioration or a cure, while there is much evidence against any\nsupposition of the kind.\n\nMr. Dearmer elsewhere lays it down that healing by excitation of the\n\u2018undermind\u2019 is only possible where the case is \u2018curable.\u2019 If, he says\nin effect, the case is incurable, then anything like spiritual or\nfaith healing or suggestion will fail to bring about a cure [will the\nfaith-healers kindly take note of this admission?], _but so will any\nother more material means_. To this one may be permitted to reply:\n\n(i) In many acute infections, e.g. scarlet fever, typhoid fever,\ncholera, where complete recovery may be expected if (_a_) the infection\nis not too virulent, (_b_) the resisting power of the tissues is\nvigorous and unimpaired, suggestion in any form--hope, the desire\nto live, the unexpected arrival of a much-loved friend, &c.--will\nmost certainly assist the patient to battle with the disease. But\nthese factors will always operate without the elaboration of a\npsychotherapeutic philosophy, and really I do not like the idea of\nencouraging the adoption of a solemn form of prayer, unction, and\nthe laying on of hands, when all the evidence to hand points to this\n\u2018treatment\u2019 having in acute infections just as much value as (but\nno more than) the realisation on the part of the patient that, if\nhe dies at that particular time, his business will be left in an\nunsatisfactory condition and perhaps in incompetent hands.\n\n(ii) In the case of what are usually termed chronic \u2018organic\u2019\nconditions, honours are no longer even. Let us take four crucial\nexamples.\n\n(_a_) Malignant tumours.\n\nCertainly we have no warrant for supposing that in any, except cases\nof the extremest rarity, the \u2018undermind\u2019 can possibly effect a cure.\nBut in a very large number of cases which are taken sufficiently early\nand are otherwise favourable, extirpation by the surgeon\u2019s knife can\nand does save the life of the individual and prevent recurrence of\nthe tumour. I say again that an attitude of hesitancy on this subject\nby those who, like Mr. Dearmer, approach the question in a scientific\nspirit, and their quasi-acceptance of the alleged cures of cancer by\nspiritual and other healers, which hopelessly break down when anything\nlike impartial investigation is brought to bear on them--all this is\nlikely to be productive of infinite harm. In the case of cancer or\nsarcoma a day\u2019s delay may make the whole difference between hope and\ndespair.\n\n(_b_) A class of disease of which a good example is tuberculous\naffections of bone.\n\nHere we have to do with what is strictly a non-malignant condition.\nThat is to say, there is always a fair ground for hoping that surgery\nmay operate like auxiliary steam power in the battleships of the\nCrimean period. Help nature (or the \u2018undermind\u2019) enough and, other\nconditions being favourable, a tolerably satisfactory result may be\nexpected. But, really, clinical experience in all civilised communities\nfor the past fifty or sixty years must be allowed to have some value;\nand the value surely lies in this, that the experienced surgeon knows\nmore or less exactly when to excise or scrape and when to refrain.\nThat anyone should prefer to this the services of some unqualified,\ninexperienced \u2018healer,\u2019 who bids his patient trust in prayer, unction,\nor whatever his method is, telling him that if his faith is sufficient\nthe largest sinus will be cleared up and the most distressing ankylosis\nbroken down, simply strikes me with amazement. If the \u2018healers\u2019 really\nwish us to believe their claims, let them produce a properly codified\nlist of cases which can be thoroughly investigated.\n\n(_c_) Diseases in which certain drugs are empirically known to act with\nmarked success, e.g. malaria. Here, properly graduated quantities of\nquinine _can_ and _do_ effect an absolute cure. There is no evidence\nwhatever that suggestion in any form can do the same.\n\n(_d_) What may be called progressive organic conditions, e.g. cirrhosis\nof the liver.\n\nI entirely agree that, in the conditions of which this is an example,\nscientific medicine can only hope to ameliorate and render life more\ntolerable to the sufferer.\n\nBut here I come to close grips with our author, whose close and fair\nreasoning it is a real pleasure to follow. In a very large proportion\nof the diseases from which people die, the pathological condition\nconsists in the deposition of fibrous tissue in some organ or part of\nthe general system. The causes and clinical varieties are endless, but\nthe result the same. To instance only a few, we have:\n\n(_a_) Granular kidney, i.e. chronic Bright\u2019s disease.\n\n(_b_) Cirrhotic liver.\n\n(_c_) Arterio-sclerosis, resulting in cerebral h\u00e6morrhage\n(stroke--apoplexy--paralysis).\n\n(_d_) Locomotor ataxy.\n\n(_e_) Tuberculous peritonitis with adhesions.\n\nNow, in all these, the fibrous tissue is first deposited as an\neffort on the part of Nature to repair the damage done by an acute\nor chronic inflammation. But, unfortunately, not only does this\nfibrous tissue take the place of normal cells, whose activity is of\nthe utmost importance in preserving the health of the individual, but\nit invariably tends after a time to contract; from which contraction\nfurther damage and the gravest results are likely to ensue. It will\nbe observed that in its simplest form a fibrotic change is of the\nnature of real repair. Thus, after a deep cut or extensive injury to\nthe skin, we all know that a \u2018scar\u2019 results. This affords admirable\nprotection to the damaged area. Nor does the subsequent contraction\nseriously matter. Care has to be taken to allow for it in the treatment\nof extensive burns, and considerable allowance is made for contraction\nin the suturing of skin incisions made in the course of an operation.\nBut except when the scar is on the face, where it is objectionable\nfor cosmetic reasons, a contracting superficial scar is seldom a\ncause of serious inconvenience. But the case is very different in\nthe kidney or the spinal cord. Contraction there causes an extensive\ndestruction of delicate cells, and, by cutting off the blood supply, a\ngreat impairment of function, if not actual necrosis, of an infinite\nnumber of cells which were not directly affected by the preceding\ninflammation. And so the vicious circle goes on.\n\nDoes Nature make no effort to play the part of the spear of Achilles\nand \u2018heal the wounds which she herself has made\u2019? Only to a negligible\nextent, on account of the vicious circle just alluded to. So we have\nthe curious phenomenon that in the skin and round the broken ends of a\nfractured bone (for what is called callus is really only fibrous tissue\nwith special bony elements superimposed) fibrous tissue is very slowly\nbut more or less steadily absorbed; while in the places where such\nabsorption would be of the utmost value to the individual it hardly\ntakes place at all.\n\nNow, the reader will observe that this fibrous tissue is, in the first\ninstance, laid down by the activity of leucocytes acting, to some\nextent at any rate, in obedience to impulses from the circulatory\ncentres of the medulla, to which Mr. Dearmer quite rightly attaches\nconsiderable importance. They make up, in fact, his \u2018undermind.\u2019 I can\nonly say that, so far as any pathological evidence which we possess\njustifies us in coming to a definite conclusion, we can but suppose\nthat a stimulation of these lower centres to greater activity, by\nexcitation through suggestion of the higher ones, would lead to a\nfurther deposition of fibrous tissue, to the great detriment of the\ngeneral condition of the patient. Any attempt at subsequent absorption\nseems to be practically negligible.\n\nSo, in the case of blind Bartim\u00e6us, Mr. Dearmer\u2019s contention that our\nLord acted by suggestion is almost demonstrably untrue. At least, it\nis only even remotely probable on the supposition that Bartim\u00e6us was\nsuffering from snow blindness, toxic amblyopia, or one of those rare\nconditions following on such a sudden, but transitory, disturbance of\nthe nervous system as sea-sickness. And since snow blindness is for\nobvious reasons unknown in Palestine, and since he certainly did not\nuse tobacco, and probably, like most Jews, hated the sea, this does\nnot seem to be a likely explanation. If, on the other hand, it was a\ncase of corneal opacity following trachoma, cataract, or glaucoma,\nor some condition resulting in atrophy of the optic nerve, it may be\nsafely affirmed that the method of healing was emphatically not that so\ncarefully worked out by Mr. Dearmer.\n\n\nIV. _The \u2018Neurotic\u2019 Theory of the Miracles of the New Testament_\n\nThe whole question of our Lord\u2019s miracles of healing, regarded merely\nas so many faith cures, has been discussed in an admirable essay\ncontributed by Dr. R. J. Ryle to the _Hibbert Journal_ of April 1907.\nHe had before him no such systematic attempt to defend this view\nas that made by Mr. Dearmer, but only the rather loose theorising\nof certain \u2018Modernists\u2019 who, however competent they may be to deal\nwith textual criticism, are hardly in their element when reviewing\npathological probabilities. Dr. Ryle quotes Professor Harnack as saying:\n\n\u2018That the earth in its course stood still, that a she-ass spoke, that\na storm was quieted by a word, we do not believe, and we shall never\nagain believe; but that the lame walked, the blind saw, and the deaf\nheard will not be so summarily dismissed as an illusion.\u2019[13]\n\n  [13] _What is Christianity?_\n\nOthers write to the same effect. \u2018Progressive criticism,\u2019 says Dr.\nRyle, \u2018has adopted, with much assurance, the opinion that the diseases\nwhich were healed were what doctors commonly speak of as functional\ndiseases of the nervous system, and that the production of a strong\nmental impression was the means by which the miracles of healing were\nbrought about. Upon this point there seems to be a practical unanimity\nno less decided than that which has been reached among critics of\nthe liberal school upon the other two points. Thus Dr. Abbott tells\nus that the mighty works were simply \u201cacts of faith-healing on a\nmighty scale.\u201d The \u201cEncyclop\u00e6dia Biblica\u201d lays it down that \u201cit is\nquite permissible for us to regard as historical only those of the\nclass which, even at the present day, physicians are able to effect\nby psychical methods.\u201d Principal Estlin Carpenter (in the \u201cFirst\nThree Gospels\u201d) says, \u201cThe real force which worked the patient\u2019s cure\ndwelt in his own mind: the power of Jesus lay in the potency of his\npersonality to evoke this force.\u201d\n\n\u2018The writers have adopted what may be called, for brevity, the Neurotic\nTheory. It is for them to show by an actual examination of the records\nthat the ministry of healing which is admitted \u201cto stand on as firm\nhistorical ground as the best accredited parts of the teaching,\u201d\nconsisted in the curing of neurotic patients by strong mental\nimpressions. Have they done so?\u2019\n\nDr. Ryle has, of course, no difficulty in showing that they have done\nnothing of the kind.\n\n\u2018It is not too much to say that no one of the writers who has pinned\nhis faith to the Neurotic Theory has made any attempt to carry it out\nin detail. We are offered a number of quite commonplace allusions to\nthe power of mind over body, and we find a complacent conviction\nexpressed in several ways by several writers to the effect that a\ncertain class of disorders, which are vaguely alluded to as \u201cnervous,\u201d\nare promptly curable by emotional methods. But we do not find any\nrecognition of the fact that only a small portion of the diseases to\nwhich human flesh is heir are nervous diseases; and that of nervous\ndiseases, again, only a very small and unimportant group admit of cure\nin this way.\n\n\u2018What the critics have to do if they wish to convince their readers of\nthe Neurotic Theory of the miracles of healing is nothing less than\nthis:\n\n\u20181. They must show that the diseases which Christ is said to have\ncured were of the kind which experience proves to admit of psychical\ntreatment.\n\n\u20182. They must show some good grounds for the assertion that the way in\nwhich the cures of the healing ministry were effected was the way by\nwhich at the present day such cures are effected, when what has been\ncalled moral therapeutics has been the method employed.\u2019\n\nThe difficulty is obvious. If our Lord was merely a faith healer, the\nresults of long and laborious investigations into many faith-healing\nsystems, all presenting very much the same features both in methods of\ntreatment and effects, justify us in assuming that the number of cures\nwould have been strictly limited.\n\n\u2018But then, quickly enough, would follow the discovery that the powers\nof healing were available not for all, but only for a small and limited\ngroup of disorders; for in any casual collection of sick people, though\nthere might be perhaps here one and here another suitable patient for a\nfaith-healing exhibition, the majority would be unsuitable. What, then,\nof the failures?\n\n\u2018The difficulty here referred to has not been wholly overlooked, and it\nis worth while to notice how the attempt has been made to meet it. \u201cDid\na kind of instinct (asks Dr. Abbott) tell Him that the restoration of\na lost limb was not like the cure of a paralytic, not one of the works\nprepared for Him by His Father?\u201d and again, \u201cExperience and some kind\nof intuition may have enabled Him to distinguish those cases which He\ncould heal from those (a far more numerous class) which He could not.\u201d\n\n\u2018The suggestion would not commend itself to a medical reader as a\nvery happy way out of the difficulty. The na\u00efve supposition that\nin cases of disease which require unusually minute and scientific\ninvestigation diagnosis was made \u201cby a kind of instinct\u201d or \u201csome\nkind of intuition\u201d is quite on a par with the innocent conception of\nthe nature of diseases of the nervous system which Dr. Abbott shows\nelsewhere. Dr. Abbott would hesitate to allow that Jesus had a kind of\ninstinct to guide Him safely concerning the Davidic origin of a psalm\nor the date of the taking of Jerusalem. Why should he imagine that he\nwas less likely to be at fault in the presence of equally difficult\nproblems of another kind? The assumption of an infallible capacity\nfor discrimination, which could arrive at correct conclusions without\nthe use of any of the methods and appliances of scientific medicine,\nis merely to substitute one kind of \u201csupernaturalism\u201d for another.\nA miraculous faculty of diagnosis is no easier of acceptance than a\nmiraculous cure. A \u201ckind of instinct\u201d is an absurd supposition.\u2019\n\nDr. Ryle then examines in detail certain of the healing miracles as\nrelated by the Evangelists. The result is to leave the intelligent\nreader in no doubt that in nine out of ten of the cases of \u2018paralysis\u2019\nbrought to Him, our Lord would have been, on the \u2018neurotic\u2019 hypothesis,\nno more likely to effect a cure than (to take Dr. Abbott\u2019s example) in\n\u2018the restoration of a lost limb.\u2019 His clear account of the case of the\nman with the withered hand, which the non-medical reader will be able\nto follow without difficulty, is worth quoting in full.\n\n\u2018In the story of the man with the withered hand it is probable that we\nhave to do with another case of paralysis; and if so, we may assume\nwith considerable confidence that the case was one of \u201cinfantile\nparalysis.\u201d This is the affection to which at the present day nearly\nall the instances of \u201cwithered hand\u201d or of \u201cwithered leg\u201d are owing. A\nchild who has been in good health, or has suffered perhaps from a few\ndays of feverishness, is found to have lost power in an arm or leg.\nThe limb hangs flaccid and motionless. The muscles are found to be\nwasting when the limb is examined a week or two later, and the limb to\nbe cold. For a month or two there may be a little recovery of movement.\nThis soon stops, and the arm or leg remains ever after more or less\npowerless and shrunken and cold. Normal growth is largely checked,\nand, in addition to the actual atrophy and arrest of development,\nvarious contractions and deformities become established as time goes\non. After death the muscles are found to have become much diminished\nand shrunken, and throughout a certain portion of the spinal cord,\ncorresponding with the affected limb, destructive changes are found to\nhave occurred where the normal structure of ganglion cells and nerve\nfibres is replaced by the remains of the inflammatory process which\nhas been the cause of the palsy. Such is the ordinary history of a\nwithered hand. Here the very word \u201cwithered,\u201d which aptly describes\nthe condition of the limb, is the most appropriate description of the\nresult of the process which has taken place. If such was the pathology\nof the case described in Mark iii. 1, it is needless to say that,\nalthough it belongs to the group of the nervous diseases, it does not\nbelong to that class of nervous disease which admits of treatment by\nmoral impression or emotional shock.\u2019\n\nIf this is accepted in the case of what may truly be described as\n\u2018nervous diseases,\u2019 then _\u00e0 fortiori_ the improbability of the view\ntaken by \u2018progressive criticism\u2019 is enormously enhanced when we come to\nconsider the healing of the blind, the \u2018woman with an issue of blood,\u2019\nand others where the nervous system was not primarily, if at all,\naffected.\n\nThe conclusion of the whole matter seems to be this. Medical science\nhas at her command a vast accumulation of clinical material on which\nshe is able to form a clearly reasoned judgment. There is no such\nthing in Medicine as a \u2018chose jug\u00e9e.\u2019 No single verdict ever found\nbut is open to revision if the evidence is satisfactory. But we do\nclaim that it should be recognised, by all who have the interests of\ntruth at heart, that the limits of \u2018psychotherapeutics,\u2019 \u2018spiritual\u2019\nor otherwise, are, according to our present knowledge, sufficiently\nwell defined, and that nothing has yet been brought forward to warrant\nanyone in making an exception in favour of any one society or method.\n\n\nV. _Clergy and Doctors_\n\nSo much may be said on the critical side.\n\nA few words, for many are not needed, may be added as to the positive\nadvantages of a clear understanding between the Church and scientific\nMedicine, as to the spheres in which both may hope to operate in\nfulfilment of a genuine desire to cure or alleviate bodily disease.\n\n(1) The clergy have an unrivalled opportunity of taking the lead in\neducating public opinion on the subject. In no other religious body in\nthe world is the ministry of so high a class, not merely socially (a\nsmall matter) but intellectually, morally, and spiritually, as in the\nAnglican Communion. As a result, I know no body of men better able to\ncome to sane and balanced conclusions on any subjects, the details of\nwhich are within their own experience. They touch life at many points.\nTheir calling brings them into contact with vast numbers of people,\nand they usually show in their dealings with others a broad-minded\ntolerance and shrewd common-sense which is beyond praise. I do not\nhesitate to say that, if I were accused of a crime which I knew I had\nnot committed, I should feel safer if the trial were conducted before\na jury of Anglican clergymen than before men drawn from any other\nprofession; but in this matter of \u2018spiritual\u2019 or \u2018psychic\u2019 healing\nthey have not risen to the occasion. An article in the _Church Times_\nof February 18, 1910, lies before me. A dogmatic gentleman (or lady,\nperhaps--the style is essentially feminine) writes the most confident\nnonsense on the subject of the \u2018Gift of Healing\u2019 that ever filled two\ncolumns. Here is an extract, not by any means the most precious gem\nfrom the entire chaplet, but a fair example of the whole:\n\n\u2018The gift of healing is simply a human gift ... like the gift of\nmusic or any other gift, and also, like music, present in some people\nmore than in others, though probably present in some degree in nearly\neverybody.... The gift transcends all knowledge, it cures diseases\nconsidered incurable. Consumption, cancer, blindness, deafness,\ncripples (_sic_), &c., this is within our practical experience to-day,\nso that it stands to reason that the art of curing by medicine will\ngradually disappear as the gift of healing grows and develops. Not\nso the scientific knowledge of the doctors, which will be used more\nand more where it ought to be used, and that is _in the prevention of\ndisease_.\u2019\n\nComment would be quite superfluous. But what follows is instructive.\nIn the next issue of the _Church Times_ the irrepressible Mr. Hickson\nand the \u2018Warden of the Guild of Health\u2019 rush into print with some\nrather vague assertions about the \u2018spiritual nature\u2019 of this gift.\nThere is an extremely sensible letter from a doctor, pointing out with\ngreat moderation that, if there is any evidence for those confident\nassertions, he would be glad to know what it amounted to. No clergyman\nseems to have thought it worth his while to disclaim agreement with the\nwild statements of the writer of the article.\n\nIn the first place, then, I would appeal to the clergy to inform\nthemselves as to the limitation of \u2018spiritual healing,\u2019 according to\nthe immense mass of evidence which has been collected and does enable\nus to lay down those limitations with sufficient accuracy for the\npractical purpose of life; and to act as wise advisers to their people\nin this matter.\n\n(2) The clergy will do well to remember that a great deal of bodily\n_ill-health_ may exist quite independently of bodily _disease_. These\ncases are commoner than cases of organic malady. There is plenty of\nscope for ameliorative work in connexion with them. At the risk of\nbeing thought egotistical, I may be allowed to quote a case which\nrecently came under my own observation, and which is typical of a large\nnumber of others.\n\nA young man, who was clearly very far from being of a neurotic or\nhysterical type, came to me complaining of severe pain in the region of\nthe heart. It had, according to his account, been gradually increasing\nfor some time. It frequently came on after he had run upstairs, and on\none occasion had been intense after running to catch a train. It was\nsometimes accompanied by violent palpitation and breathlessness, and\nhad no relation to food. Would I tell him if his heart was all right? I\nexamined the heart and could find no trace of any abnormal condition.\nNor could I find any evidence of anything in the abdomen which would\nbe likely to account for the pain. I told him that his heart was\nabsolutely sound and that there appeared to be nothing to suggest\ndisease anywhere. A rather careful diet would do him no harm. If it\ndid not do any good, it would be easy enough to prescribe a tonic, but\nI did not think it necessary. I never expected to see him again. Five\nmonths later, however, he called and explained with much gravity that\nhe had come to thank me for \u2018curing his heart.\u2019 I then remembered the\ncase, and was fairly staggered. \u2018But bless my soul,\u2019 I said rather\nbrusquely, \u2018there never was anything the matter with your heart.\u2019 \u2018No,\u2019\nhe replied, this time with a quiet smile, \u2018I know there wasn\u2019t. All I\ncan say is that from the time you told me it was all right, the pain\ndisappeared, and I have never had any return of it. But, look here,\nwhen it was there, _the pain was real_.\u2019\n\nI have no doubt it was. To label all such cases as \u2018hysterical,\u2019\n\u2018neurotic,\u2019 and so on (in the ordinary connotation of these terms)\nis utterly unscientific. This young fellow was a sensible, cheerful,\nrather unimaginative youth without a trace of \u2018_neurasthenia_\u2019 about\nhim. Yet, by coming to believe that his heart was diseased, he had\nquite unconsciously so excited the higher centres that the vagus nerve\nreturned exactly the impressions to the brain which would be conveyed\nby various morbid organic conditions.\n\nNow, in such a case as this (and the number of them must be very large\nindeed) the parish clergyman has a great scope for quiet, useful work.\nLet him urge the patient not to dwell on his supposed condition, but\ngo at once to a competent practitioner and find out what exactly\n(if anything) is the matter. The clergyman will find that (if he\nhas the patient\u2019s consent) the doctor will make no difficulty about\naffording him the fullest information about the physical condition of\nthe patient, and from their co-operation the happiest results may be\nexpected.\n\n(3) Conversely, there are many cases where a sympathetic doctor would\nbe only too glad to be in touch with a parish clergyman. Occasionally\nwe get at the hospital a note from a clergyman, saying that X. Y. is to\ncall at the Out-Patients\u2019 Department to-day, and that the writer would\nbe glad to know in confidence what is the matter with him. I only wish\nwe had more. If there is no objection raised by the patient, there is\nno difficulty whatever about entering into the fullest particulars,\nand in those cases (and they are far from infrequent) where the\npatient complains of \u2018worries,\u2019 a sympathetic adviser on the spot\nwill probably do more to bring about an improvement in the physical\ncondition than all the compounds of iron, strychnine, &c., in the\nhospital pharmacop\u0153ia. The full consent of the patient is, of course,\nan indispensable preliminary. When this is obtained, the rest is easy\nenough.\n\n(4) In the same way, when there is a suspicion or fairly clear evidence\nthat health is being undermined by some evil habit, the sympathetic\nclergyman, who knows the patient well, can do far more for him than the\nmost skilled doctor who has probably only seen him once or twice. Why\nany clergyman should want to babble about a special \u2018gift of healing\u2019\nin dealing with these most distressing cases, considering what the\nevidence on the subject of a \u2018gift of healing\u2019 is, I cannot conceive.\nThe unostentatious, healthy influence of a cultured Christian gentleman\nhas a potency which no manipulation or ritual is in the least likely\nto enhance. If he will equip himself with the necessary information as\nto the \u2018patient\u2019s\u2019 actual physical condition, he can set to work to\nexercise his influence, with the knowledge that he will probably effect\nmore, so far as a permanent result goes, than all the self-styled\n\u2018healers\u2019 who ever supported scientific misstatements with bad logic,\nor clouded with frothy verbiage what intellect they possess.\n\n\n\n\nOUR LORD\u2019S ATTITUDE TOWARDS SICKNESS\n\nBY\n\nW. YORKE FAUSSET, M.A.\n\nVICAR OF CHEDDAR AND PREBENDARY OF WELLS\n\n\n\n\nOUR LORD\u2019S ATTITUDE TOWARDS SICKNESS\n\nBY W. YORKE FAUSSET, M.A.\n\n\n(1) Men are commonly influenced by actions and personal example much\nmore powerfully than by abstract teaching; and the Christian tradition\nconforms to this principle in placing the three Synoptic Gospels in\nthe forefront of the New Testament. For they set before us the mind\nof Christ in the words and acts of Jesus. Thus when the thoughtful\nChristian is asked, \u2018What is the Gospel view of disease?\u2019 he will be\ninclined to reply, \u2018The question is a difficult one, but we may say\nwith some confidence that our Lord answered it by His miracles of\nhealing.\u2019 A study of these and of their underlying principles may help\nus towards the definition we seek.\n\nThe records are fragmentary. Yet they are warm with living realism. The\ngreat facts of our Faith stand out before us in the moving drama of\nthe Synoptic Gospels,[14] just as truly as they are interpreted for\nus in the spiritual Gospel, the Fourth. Jesus Christ is portrayed as\nthe Son of Man: and whatever else that most significant title denotes,\nit speaks to us of His human activity, His practical and energetic\nsympathy with the sins and sorrows of men. And this activity found\nits exercise in two directions: teaching and healing. The association\nof the two things is noteworthy, as indicating a great principle. The\nsins of mankind are not unconnected with their sicknesses; spiritual\nrestoration with bodily relief. A calm of soul may bring rest to the\nbody. He who fulfilled in His earthly ministry the prophetic office\nwas also a \u2018Physician of extraordinary achievement.\u2019[15] To render\nProfessor Bousset\u2019s words, though we cannot reproduce their eloquence:\n\n  [14] Euseb. H. E. vi. 14. 7. So called first by Clement of Alexandria.\n\n  [15] Professor Bousset\u2019s _Jesus_ (3rd ed. 1907, p. 26).\n\n\u2018How the simple populace must have hailed this Deliverer in every time\nof need! With what unspeakable confidence they must have thronged\nhim! At his coming, despair lifted its head, dull eyes glistened,\nweary hands and arms reached forth towards him. They trusted him\nfor everything, all things became possible. Body and soul with all\ntheir needs they brought to him for healing. The cries of need and\nanguish, the confidence which knew no limitations, the craving for\nhelp, the faltering prayer, the shouts or sobs of joy, the tears of\ngratitude--daily he moved in the midst of it all.\u2019\n\nAre we then to conclude that our Lord attached no less importance to\nthe cure of bodily ailment than to the spiritual redemption of men?\nMuch has been written of late years which might seem to imply this.\nBut the whole trend of Christ\u2019s teaching forbids us to emphasise the\nvalue of physical well-being at the expense of the master claims of\nthe spirit: witness His words in the Sermon on the Mount about taking\nthought for the life or the body.[16] And therefore we must avoid mere\nrhetoric and special pleading.\n\n  [16] Matt. vi. 25.\n\n(i) It is plain, at the outset, that our Lord set certain limits to the\nexercise of His healing activity. What has often been said of miracles\nin general[17] may be said of the miracles of healing. There is a\nsevere economy in the exercise of such supernatural, or extranatural,\npowers. This is illustrated by our Lord\u2019s apparent reluctance to work\nmiracles when it is not certain that a true faith asks for it.[18]\nIn other words, the receptivity of men is necessary to the Divine\ntransaction with the sufferer.\n\n  [17] E.g. by Dr. Illingworth, _Divine Immanence_, p. 120.\n\n  [18] Cp. John iv. 48: \u2018Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not\n  believe.\u2019\n\nAgain, He is slow to exercise His power outside the boundaries of\nIsrael, within which He was pleased to confine His work of preaching\nand healing. Possibly He knew that there He would be welcomed as a mere\nwonder-working magician. He makes it a condition of His action that the\natmosphere should be one of real faith.[19] He could there do no mighty\nworks because of their unbelief.[20] Was it because of the waning\nfaith of the multitudes that, towards the end of His work on earth,\nthe Healing Ministry almost ceases?[21] Whether on this account, or in\nthe desire to escape the demonstrations of popular interest which the\nmiracles evoked, or because the full evidential effect of these \u2018signs\u2019\nwas now almost attained, He restricts His healing, life-giving power to\nsome four cases, one of them the raising of Lazarus. For each and all a\nspecial reason can be found.[22]\n\n  [19] On this see next chapter, p. 209.\n\n  [20] Mark vi. 5, 6; Matt. xiii. 58.\n\n  [21] Professor A. B. Bruce, _Miraculous Elements in the Gospels_, p.\n  265.\n\n  [22] Luke xiv. 3: Vindication of the true principle of the Sabbath;\n  John xi.: Lazarus, His \u2018friend,\u2019 the only brother of Martha and Mary;\n  also Trench\u2019s _Miracles_, p. 434 sq.; Luke xvii. 16: The universality\n  of His salvation; Mark x. 47: The appeal to the Son of David. (The\n  Healing of Malchus stands by itself.)\n\n(ii) Christ\u2019s healing activity was therefore strictly limited in\nscope. It may be asked, Was it a \u2018unique manifestation of a unique\nPersonality\u2019[23] or did it differ in degree rather than in kind from\nthe wonderful works of human healers, or, at all events, of healers\nwho have wrought \u2018in the name of Jesus Christ\u2019? The latter view by no\nmeans commits its advocates to a \u2018humanitarian\u2019 view of the Person of\nJesus Christ: while it amply satisfies the facts. Again, it is not\nnecessary, for the purpose of the present discussion, to digress into\nthe field of New Testament criticism. Renan, in his \u2018Vie de J\u00e9sus,\u2019\nfeels himself constrained to apologise for the miraculous action of\nChrist, on the ground that \u2018the r\u00f4le of thaumaturge was unwelcome to\nhim, but was imposed upon him by his contemporaries.\u2019[24] To Loisy, a\ncritic of profounder learning and far more reverent temper, it appears\nthat the miracles were in reality \u2018works of mercy ... and not a direct\nargument in favour of the Messiahship of the Saviour,\u2019 a complexion\nwhich was afterwards put upon them more or less unconsciously by\nthe Evangelists.[25] But it is quite consistent with a reverent\nacknowledgment of the Divinity of our Lord, and an acceptance of the\nGospel records in substance as they stand, to hold that the miracles\nof healing--with the nature-miracles we are not here concerned--were\nthe simple outcome of that all-embracing human pity which, in itself,\nbetokened the expected Messiah; rather than an immediate exercise of\nAlmighty power, and the utterance, within the physical order, of the\nEternal Word. We find our Lord proclaiming Himself, in the synagogue\nof Nazareth, the Fulfiller of that great prophecy of Isaiah in his\nsixty-first chapter, in which the Messianic mission is set forth\nin language in which a spiritual and a physical deliverance are\ninseparably intertwined.[26] Similarly, in answer to the Baptist\u2019s\nmessage, the same blending of evangelical teaching and spiritual\nhealing is to be noticed; and, once again, sin and disease stand out as\nthe dominant factors in the condition of this present world.\n\n  [23] Illingworth, _Divine Immanence_, p. 119.\n\n  [24] Renan, _Vie de J\u00e9sus_, p. 264.\n\n[25] Loisy, _L\u2019\u00c9vangile et l\u2019\u00c9glise_, p. 17.\n\n  [26] Luke iv. 18: note the double sense in the words\n\n(iii) But if the source of the miracles is thus to be sought in the\nSacred Humanity, that Humanity is, after all, the perfect ideal and\nnorm of all humanity. Whatever exceptional powers of genius, whatever\nspecial faculties and latent gifts of mind and will have appeared at\nrare intervals among men, these we should expect to find exemplified,\none and all, in the Life of Christ, had that Life come down to us in\na complete form. Now, it cannot be questioned that in every age a few\nindividuals have been found, who were endowed with a preternatural\ntherapeutic power, connected generally with a very subtle power of\nsympathy, but, in some instances, if we may believe what we are told,\ninherent in a person who had no wish whatever to exercise it.[27] That\nsome such virtue resided in Christ, and accounts for some part of His\nhealing work, need not be questioned. The records may be said to imply\nit in two passages,[28] that which relates to the act of the woman who\ntouched the hem of His garment in the crowd, and that which speaks of\nthis method of cure as ofttimes repeated. They besought Him that they\nmight touch if it were but the border of his garment--and as many as\ntouched were made whole.\n\n  [27] See an article by Dr. A. T. Schofield in the _Contemporary\n  Review_, March 1909, for examples.\n\n  [28] Matt. ix. 20 (Mark v. 27); Matt. xiv. 36 (Mark vi. 56); also\n  Luke vi. 19: Power came forth from Him and healed them all. Cp.\n  Acts, xix. 11, 12 and v. 15; the Apostles and, apparently, our Lord\n  sanctioned a sort of sacramental medium of cure to meet the needs of\n  a simple populace.\n\nIt is possible, no doubt, to account for such cures on a purely\nnaturalistic hypothesis, such as that which Keim[29] accepts, viz.\nthat they were cases of faith-healing; a phenomenon which recurs in\nconnexion with nearly every form of religious belief, and in every\nstage of social development. The influence of the spiritual imagination\non the bodily state is undeniable. Everyone knows something about the\nphenomena of Lourdes and Bethshan, healing resorts which, theologically\nspeaking, lie at opposite poles. In a cruder form the same effects are\nfound in connexion with holy wells and relics of the saints.[30] We may\ngo back to the ancients and find wonderful cures reported in the pagan\nworld, from the shrines of Asclepius (the patron deity of physicians).\nA blind man touches the altar of Aesculapides (as he was called at\nRome) on the island of the Tiber and receives his sight.[31] The\nEmperors Hadrian and Vespasian used to touch for the \u2018King\u2019s evil.\u2019[32]\n\n  [29] See Bruce, _op. cit._ p. 275.\n\n  [30] See chaps. xxvi. and xxxi. in Rev. Percy Dearmer\u2019s _Body and\n  Soul_.\n\n  [31] O. Weinreich, _Antike Heilungswunden_, p. 63. Scholars will\n  remember how Plutus recovered his sight by incubation in the temple\n  of Asclepius in Aristophanes\u2019 play.\n\n  [32] Weinreich, p. 75.\n\nBut can anyone study the miracles of our Lord as a whole (for we must\nnot lose sight of those wrought upon inanimate nature) and feel that\nthey are sufficiently explained by a familiar truth in psychology,\nviz. that the religious imagination is able to stimulate the bodily\nforces, whatever may be the spiritual soil in which that imagination\nis bred? Faith, or a conscious receptivity in the mind of the patient,\nwas a frequent factor in the healing process; although there is really\nnothing in the records to make us predicate it of Jairus\u2019s daughter or\nthe centurion\u2019s slave or the nobleman\u2019s son. It is surely remarkable\nthat our Lord held Himself aloof from all those methods of cure which\nmight have suggested the enchanter and magician, particularly in the\ncase of demoniacs. The Jews, like other ancient nations, resorted to\nthe use of exorcism, incantation, and talismans, which owed their\npotency to their effect on the imagination. Christ does not hypnotise\nmen or throw them into an ecstasy. Where faith is present, He gladly\nworks through it towards the salvation of the whole man. But often\nthere is a mere flicker of faith, a spark in the flax. In the sick\nroom, when the vital forces are enfeebled, the brain clouded, and the\nspirits depressed by physical malady, it is a rare thing, surely, for\nthe flame of faith to burn brightly and the imagination to glow with\nthe consciousness of an unseen Presence. And the Church would have but\nlittle encouragement to invoke for her own ministries the healing Power\nof her Master, if it could only be enlisted on behalf of such patients\nas already possessed \u2018comfort and sure confidence in their Lord.\u2019\nWe believe that the Church has something less elusive to offer her\npeople in their hour of need: and we return to the records of Christ\u2019s\nmiracles in order to discover it.\n\n(iv) The value of what is called \u2018mental therapeutics\u2019 is no longer\ncontested; it receives, and has received for some time, the careful\nattention of the medical profession.[33] We approach the subject from\nthe religious standpoint, we base our study of it upon the teaching\nand practice of Jesus Christ. Accordingly, we must discriminate\nbetween psychic treatment and spiritual treatment. The former term,\nif applicable to religious treatment, can also denote forms of mental\ncure which are unconnected with religion, e.g. the use of hypnotism.\nBut Christ addresses Himself to the Spirit (\u03c0\u03bd\u03b5\u03c5\u03bc\u03b1), that highest\nelement of our nature, through which the mystics hold that we have\nkinship with God, and in unison with which the Holy Spirit attests\nour Divine sonship. His miracles are works of _spiritual_ healing,\nthey are wrought for the whole man, not only for soul, and certainly\nnot only for body. Christ\u2019s view of healing is relative to His view\nof disease, His view of disease to His view of human nature. Had\nhe attached to bodily health the supreme importance which it is the\ntendency of our day to assign to it, and regarded bodily pain as a\nthing at all costs to be effaced, we must suppose that His whole\nLife upon earth would have been devoted to the relief of sickness\nand pain, and that the \u2018Healing Ministry\u2019 of His Church would have\nbeen far more clearly defined. But no more does He abolish disease\nthan He abolishes pauperism. The tendency of His teaching is to\ninculcate self-sufficingness (the \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03b1\u03c1\u03ba\u03b5\u03af\u03b1, of St. Paul[34] and the\nGreek philosophers) in the face of all temporary evils and ailments,\nthe conquest of things material by the spirit, its supremacy in the\nhierarchy of human nature; in a word, the principle of inner control or\nautonomy, as the birthright of the human spirit. In his great picture\nof the Transfiguration, Raphael has caught this contrast between\nthe calm of the heavenly Mount above and the ineffective, agonised\ndistraction of suffering humanity here below, in the person of the\nlunatic boy and his father. But that heavenly calm of spirit is not the\nself-centred aloofness of the Stoic. The doctrine of the Incarnation\nbrings the Divine Saviour down to men, lifts man up to the peace of\nheaven,[35] and at the same time bids him find that peace in fulfilling\nthe bodily duties of his corporate Church life. It will not admit of a\nselfish quietism. But before this peace of God which Christ proclaims,\nthe worry and \u2018fear-thought\u2019 of our overstrung modern age, its neurotic\nsensationalism and morbid self-analysis, would retire abashed. Christ\nwould teach us that human nature is itself only when it is itself in\nits completeness, when the physical is truly the instrument of the\nspiritual. There is no dualism, no schism in human nature as Divinely\nplanned. The voluptuary and the ascetic are both at fault, the former\nmore so because he sins against the higher self. Christ is the Saviour\nof the whole man, and to the sick He restores \u2018perfect soundness,\u2019[36]\nnor does He refuse to be called the Saviour of the body.[37]\n\n  [33] See _British Medical Journal_, June 18, 1910.[**unmatched\n  footnote]\n\n  [34] Philippians, iv. 11.\n\n  [35] There is an adumbration of this in the four sublime truths of\n  Buddhism, which lead a man by the sacrifice of the lower self and the\n  helping of others to the final extinction of pain. Bishop Westcott\u2019s\n  _Gospel of Life_, pp. 162, 163. Hardwick, _Christ and other Masters_,\n  p. 168.\n\n  [36] Acts iii. 16: St. Peter and the lame man.\n\n  [37] Eph. v. 23.\n\n(v) It is a significant fact that in the Gospels the word for \u2018save\u2019\n(\u03c3\u1ff4\u03b6\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd) is applied to bodily as well as spiritual salvation; it\ndenotes \u2018to restore to health or sanity.\u2019[38] A protest may here be\nentered against the very prevalent opinion that God sent sickness upon\nman, by an Almighty fiat, in order to discipline him into patience\nand other Christian virtues. Such a view, crudely stated, has led to\nmuch perplexity and distress of faith, and it is not warranted by the\nteaching of the New Testament. God can bring good out of evil, even\nin its worst forms. But that is not to say that God by a deliberate\nact designs and causes evil. More than once in the New Testament\nsickness is attributed to Satanic agency, in the case of \u2018the woman\nwhich had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years,\u2019[39] and in that of\nSt. Paul\u2019s \u2018thorn in the flesh.\u2019[40] Disease is a disturbance of the\nbalance of human powers, mental and bodily, a derangement of faculties\nand functions. Consider the bearing of this upon life. Modern science\nteaches us the doctrine of the persistence of matter; in Sir Oliver\nLodge\u2019s words, \u2018a really existing thing never perishes, but only\nchanges its form\u2019--in the case of our complex human constitution,\nthat change of form is what we call death. It is vital force which\nmaintains that inner harmony which we call health: it is disease, an\naccident, which impairs it. This derangement and discord is but one\ninstance of that general disturbance of the world\u2019s harmony which sin\nhas introduced. Sometimes, as in the case of the impotent man of St.\nJohn v., disease is the direct consequence of sinful conduct. It is\nthe work of the Son of Man to restore harmony and repair the breaches\nin Nature\u2019s order. And this His healing power on its spiritual, which\nis its essential, side effects. Incidentally, miracles are \u2018signs,\u2019\nevidences of the Christian Revelation, but their primary character is\nthat of \u2018mighty works\u2019 (\u03b4\u03c5\u03bd\u03ac\u03bc\u03b5\u03b9\u03c2), particular manifestations of that\nPower (\u03b4\u03cd\u03bd\u03b1\u03bc\u03b9\u03c2) which resides in the Person of the Lord. As such they\nimpressed King Herod, though he attributed their authorship to the\nBaptist risen from the dead.[41]\n\n  [38] E.g. Mark v. 23, 28; vi. 56; James v. 15.\n\n  [39] Luke xiii. 16.\n\n  [40] 2 Cor. xii. 7.\n\n  [41] Mark vi. 14.\n\n(vi) This Healing Power of Christ stands in closest relation to His\nclaim to be \u2018the Life of them that believe and the Resurrection from\nthe dead.\u2019 It flows from His Personality. Though that Personality is\nveiled for us in profound mystery, we know that in It the Human will\nand the Divine will are in perfect accord; and, therefore, it does not\nsurprise us that, while a place is found in the Saviour\u2019s Life upon\nearth for weariness and pain, none is found for sickness; for, in all\nthings, He conformed to the Will of God for man, which is health, not\nsickness. Sickness is a violation of that normal condition which God\nhas appointed for man. When infection and disease entered into the\nworld, we must believe that they were part of that general imperfection\nwhich God can only be said to will as a means to an end, or as a\npassing stage in the evolution of good. God does not send sickness to\nscourge us, but overrules it to purge us. In saying this, we need not\ndeny the possible place of death in a perfect cosmos; a death which\nshould have been the gradual ebbing of physical vitality, not its\nsapping and undermining by the malignant forces of disease. We should\nexpect, then, that our Lord\u2019s healing power would be the action of the\nlife-giving Spirit of God upon the spirit of man, from the very fact\nthat in Christ man was brought into living contact with God.\n\nRecent psychology, especially in the investigations of Professor W.\nJames and the late F. W. H. Myers, has thrown a new light upon those\nrecesses of human nature in which our religious experiences take place.\nWe have learned that there is a subconscious self, a submerged portion\nof our faculties, which responds to spiritual impressions and accepts\nthose suggestions of a Higher Power, to which mind and intellect are\nsometimes deaf, a \u2018subliminal self,\u2019[42] in which religious faith\nand the inspirations of genius are alike rooted, and which is _en\nrapport_ with another world than that of the senses. We are reminded of\nTennyson\u2019s words:\n\n  [42] I.e. a self beneath the margin of consciousness. Mr. Dearmer has\n  named it the \u2018undermind.\u2019\n\n  Moreover, something is or seems,\n  That touches me with mystic gleams,\n  Like glimpses of forgotten dreams--\n  Of something felt, like something here;\n  Of something done, I know not where.[43]\n\n  [43] _The Two Voices_\n\nIt is through that under-self that mental cures appear to operate.[44]\n\n  [44] \u2018If the grace of God miraculously operates, it probably operates\n  through the subliminal door.\u2019--Professor James.\n\nThe theory certainly contributes something to our problem, making it\nconceivable, even to our finite intelligence, how the Divine Life of\nChrist should enter into man, sick of body and sad of soul, and this\nquite in the line of the order and natural law of God\u2019s universe.\nChrist is one with the Father; He came down from Heaven to do the will\nof the Father; His works are done in the Father\u2019s name (John x. 25).\nThe Father hath given the Son to have life in Himself (John v. 26).\nThe Divine Life is communicated to those who seek it in Christ. We\nare not to restrict the thought of that Life to the immaterial part\nof our nature; it is the more abundant life which floods the being of\nhim who \u2018liveth unto God.\u2019[45] We may not fathom its hidden processes:\nlike spiritual teaching, spiritual healing can come home only to the\n\u2018spiritual men\u2019 whose minds are \u2018in tune with the Infinite.\u2019[46] But\nsome desire for \u2018more life and fuller\u2019 is found in every man. Classical\nscholars will remember the pathetic lines written by the statesman\nM\u00e6cenas in his last illness:\n\n  [45] John x. 10; Rom. vi. 10.\n\n  [46] 1 Cor. ii. 14, 15.\n\n  Debilem facito manu,\n  Debilem pede, coxa ...\n  Vita dum superest, bene est.[47]\n\n  [47] _Seneca_, Ep. 101:\n\n  \u2018What matters crippled hand and halting thigh?\n  So life be left the cripple, what care I?\u2019\n\n\nIn this universal fact of human nature, this desire to live, which\nvaries infinitely among men from the mere craving of animal existence\nup to the desire for the life in God, we see man\u2019s response to the\nGiver of Life.\n\nThe appeal of the Good Physician is to human nature, and \u2018He knows\nwhat is in man.\u2019 He takes a natural emotion or faculty, vitalises\nand invigorates it. We have had to keep the connexion of spiritual\nhealth and physical health constantly before us. There is a parallelism\nbetween them which is no mere analogy, but is a sort of pre-established\nharmony; and therefore a wise interpretation of Scripture has seen in\nthe Miracle an \u2018acted parable.\u2019 Thus it is in regard to the \u2018desire to\nlive\u2019 which supports our bodily vitality. This categorical imperative\nor instinctive \u2018ought\u2019 of health is a primary instinct. The \u2018will to be\nwell\u2019 corresponds with the \u2018will to be good\u2019 which is the basis of the\nmoral life.\n\n(2) Bearing these principles in mind, we must turn to a closer\nexamination of some of the miracles, with a view to some practical\nconclusions in regard to the healing office of the Church of our own\nday.\n\n(i) Has the age of miracles long ceased? It has long been assumed by\nreligious minds, as a kind of axiomatic truth, that this is so. They\nhave seen in the healing miracles of Christ the unique exercise of a\npower specifically Divine, a power which was continued for a time,\nwith other extraordinary gifts, to the early Church for reasons which\nno longer held good when once she had taken firm root in the world.\nBut we have already shown reasons for the opinion that, unique as\nis our Lord\u2019s Humanity, we are to regard it as conditioned by those\nlaws of nature and material existence which are the expression in the\nvisible sphere of the Creative will. \u2018It behoved Him in all things\nto be made like unto His brethren.\u2019[48] And there is strong reason\nto hold that the true believer will be permitted, in virtue of his\nfellowship with Christ, to do \u2018greater works\u2019 than those which Christ\nHimself wrought,[49] greater, that is to say, not in a material but a\nspiritual way. That the works in question were wrought \u2018in the spirit\u2019\nis unquestioned. Consider what those \u2018spiritual\u2019 methods of the Great\nHealer were. He wrought His mighty works in the Father\u2019s name. Not only\ndoes He lay down for others the principle of intercessory prayer, but\nas Man He exercises it Himself. Of the demoniac boy He says: \u2018This kind\ngoeth forth not but by prayer and fasting.\u2019 St. Luke records the fact\nthat He made the importunity of the multitude, who sought His teaching\nand healing grace, a fresh occasion for retirement and prayer.[50] The\nsame Gospel tells us of a night spent in prayer before the election\nof the Twelve Apostles.[51] They received His commission to heal and\nto teach on the succeeding day, which saw also the vast concourse of\npeople resorting to Him once more from all quarters. In the account\nof the raising of Lazarus it is clearly laid down that Jesus Christ\nknew the Father\u2019s will in virtue of fellowship with Him in prayer\nand meditation, and that He exercised His own life-giving powers in\naccordance with that Will.\n\n  [48] Heb. ii. 17.\n\n  [49] John xiv. 12.\n\n  [50] Luke v. 15, 16.\n\n  [51] Luke vi. 12.\n\nHealth in itself is an ideal, the perfect harmony of all the elements,\nthe spiritual and the material, which constitutes a man. One of the\ngreatest living authorities writes: \u2018Health, like every other such\nname, is to be used in a relative sense; absolute health is an ideal\nconception.\u2019[52] This being so, it is apparent to any religious mind\nthat the true concept of the well-being, physical and even mental, of\nany person is only to be found in the Mind of God. And that is only an\nabstract way of saying that, if we follow Christ\u2019s example, we shall\nseek to enter into His fellowship with the Father. In that Divine\nfellowship we shall be able to pray for the true health and recovery\nof our sick people. \u2018The prayer of faith shall save the sick,\u2019 for\nfaith implies a whole-hearted acceptance of the Will of God for the\nuncertain future. This gives a man the tranquillity of soul which is no\nless needed for prayer than for action. Such an one possesses his own\nsoul. Our Lord promises to those, who \u2018have faith and doubt not,\u2019[53]\nthat they shall \u2018remove mountains,\u2019 a hyperbolic expression, but yet\none which seems to claim a certain power of acting upon inanimate\nnature.[54] Such a power need not carry with it a positive breach of\ncosmic law. It is impossible for any really reverent mind to wish, even\nin the supposed interest of his dearest friend, to bend the Will of\nGod to his own desire. Such a rash prayer involves the fatal flaw of\nthat \u2018doubting mind\u2019 which is forbidden us, the mind \u2018divided\u2019 between\nGod and self. The spirit which unites us to God, that unfathomed inner\nself, desires the universal good.\n\n  [52] Professor Clifford Allbutt, _System of Medicine_, vol. i.,\n  Intro. p. 22.\n\n  [53] Matt. xxi. 21. Cp. James i. 6: \u2018Nothing doubting.\u2019\n\n  [54] See Dr. Sanday, _Life of Christ in Recent Research_, pp. 223,\n  224.\n\n  Our wills are ours, we know not how:\n  Our wills are ours, to make them Thine.\n\nGod wills the true health and salvation of each human soul, as He alone\ncan view it, in its relation both to the vast whole of immaterial being\nand to the order of the material universe. \u2018His will He knoweth which\nway to accomplish.\u2019 Prayer is the act of resignation of our individual\ndesires and thoughts into His all-wise hands. Prayer universalises\na personal longing; and so wonderful is the magic of true prayer,\nfetching up from the deep of our being suggestions, inspirations,\nforces unperceived by man, that it can never fail to induce a sense of\ncalm, the most favourable for a physical recovery; and many a time it\nhas effectuated that recovery itself. Science may teach the \u2018reflex\naction of prayer\u2019; religion will always find authentic answers to\nprayer.\n\nPrayer is the spiritual instrument on which our Lord in His Human\nNature relies, and on which He encourages His Church to rely--\u2018a mighty\nengine of achievement.\u2019[55] His method was grounded in prayer, the\nprayer of that Divine fellowship, which is His, as it cannot belong\nto any of the sons of men, and yet in Him, \u2018in the Name of Christ,\u2019\nthe Church must still expect to accomplish the miracles of faith, in\nproportion to the degree of her own spirituality. Who, indeed, would\nhave looked for miracles of healing in the English Church of the\neighteenth century, unless it were among the non-jurors, who actually\nrevived the apostolic rite of unction,[56] and the pious followers of\nJohn Wesley?[57]\n\n  [55] Sir Oliver Lodge.\n\n  [56] The Rev. P. Dearmer, _Body and Soul_, p. 289 sq.\n\n  [57] _Ib._ 362, 363.\n\n(ii) But that spiritual power, thus resident in the Healer, has to\ncommunicate itself to the subjects of His grace; subjects they must be\nrather than objects. And His first purpose is to excite the dormant\nenergies of life and action. He does it as a wise physician will do\nit, by concentrating the patient\u2019s mind upon Himself.[58] This is done\nby a question, or other means, adapted, with His profound insight into\ncharacter, to the individual case. In the case of the deaf man who had\nan impediment, He effected this by isolating him,[59] and then using\nphysical means (with finger and saliva). Exactly parallel is the case\nof the blind man, which, like the former, is recorded by St. Mark\nalone.[60] He asks blind Bartim\u00e6us, \u2018What wilt thou that I should do\nunto thee?\u2019[61] And this is one of several cases in which the sovereign\nfaculty of will leaps forth, and the confession of faith attends\nit.[62] In the cure of the lame man by St. Peter (in Acts iii. 4, 5)\nthis concentration of the thought of the patient upon the healer is\nreciprocal (\u1f00\u03c4\u03b5\u03bd\u03af\u03c3\u03b1\u03c2 ... \u1f10\u03c0\u03b5\u03b9\u0311\u03c7\u03b5\u03bd).\n\n  [58] \u2018When the eye of the patient meets the eye of the physician, the\n  cure begins if it is likely to take place.\u2019--Dr. A. T. Schofield,\n  cited by Dr. Worcester in _Religion and Medicine_, p. 50.\n\n  [59] Mark vii. 33.\n\n  [60] _Ib._ viii. 23.\n\n  [61] Luke xviii. 41.\n\n  [62] John v. 6, 8.\n\nThe tonic influence of a healthy personality upon the hysterical,\nneurotic, and mentally diseased, not to speak of minds depressed in\na normal way, is familiar to everyone. In Dinah Morris\u2019s visit of\ncomfort to the widowed Lisbeth, we have a sample of that subtlest\nperception and \u2018subduing influence of the spirit\u2019 which we may call\ninspiration.[63] In the New Testament it appears at its highest in\ntreatment of those strong cases of dual personality, mental disorder,\nor hysteria, which we know as demoniacal possession. We cannot here\ndiscuss the question, whether the sufferer was the victim of the lower\nelements in his own nature or of a malignant outside influence (known\nin the language of the day as a \u2018demon\u2019). On the other hand, it has\nto be remembered that the Jews personified ordinary diseases; and our\nLord conformed to popular ideas when \u2018He rebuked the fever\u2019 of Simon\u2019s\nwife\u2019s mother, unless we hold that the evangelist has coloured the\nrecord of His action by his own mentality.[64] On the other hand, we\nknow little as yet of the psychological problems of civilised humanity\nand less of those of half-civilised or uncivilised peoples, such as\nthe Galileans of our Lord\u2019s day. But if we should allow that the demon\nwas merely the sufferer\u2019s lower ego, the marvel of the cure is not\nlessened. There is a great power of evil in the world; and the lower\nself was entirely dominated by it until Christ emancipated the man by\nHis sovereign demand upon his spirit. Inner harmony was restored. They\nfind the man \u2018sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right\nmind.\u2019 The bodily and the mental well-being are combined in the cure.\nThe sufferer\u2019s enfeebled will is braced up to respond to the Will of\nthe Healer, that ease shall expel disease. Within the man\u2019s being, as\ntruly as without it, \u2018imperavit ventis, et facta est tranquillitas\nmagna.\u2019[65]\n\n  [63] G. Eliot, _Adam Bede_, chap. x.\n\n  [64] Luke iv. 39: _ib._ viii. 24 raises a parallel question.\n\n  [65] Matt. viii. 26.\n\n(iii) An analysis of the miracles of Christ indicates His attitude\ntowards the material and outward means, on which the physician still so\nlargely relies. The letter of King Abgarus to our Lord (preserved by\nEusebius), genuine or not, indicates, we may believe, the feature in\nHis treatment which most impressed the men of His day. \u2018The story hath\nreached my ears of Thee and Thy healings as wrought by Thee without\ndrugs and simples.\u2019 Though this was so, He did not eschew the use of\nmaterial and visible signs, such as clay and saliva, which were adapted\nto convey to sick folk that \u2018mental suggestion\u2019 of returning health,\nwhich was His constant method of healing. In the following miracles\nthe use of such material means is recorded: the case of the deaf man\nwith an impediment (Mark vii. 33), of the blind man at Bethsaida (Mark\nviii. 24), of the man blind from his birth (John ix. 6), who also was\nsent to wash in the pool of Siloam. Of the Apostles, on their first\nmission, it is said that they anointed with oil many that were sick,\nand healed them (Mark vi. 13). Probably this element, which was in\nfrequent medicinal use, was in their hands ceremonial, a symbol of that\nhealing power of their Master which they were allowed in His name to\nexercise. He Himself is found, in the great majority of instances, to\nrely on the touch of the hand alone.[66] He knew that it spoke to the\nheart of a Divine effluence of power as well as a human sympathy. In\none of the frescoes of the Creation, on the roof of the Sistine Chapel,\nMichelangelo has pictured the form of the first man, perfect as a\nstatue, but lifeless until the Finger of God quickens it with a touch.\nAnd, after all, a universal instinct associates ideas of sympathy and\npositive relief with the movement of the hand. Thus in the Greek myth,\nthe distracted Io is comforted by the prophecy of Prometheus that the\nGod would restore her by his touch.[67]\n\n  [66] Thus Luke iv. 40; Mark i. 41, vi. 5; Matt. ix. 29; Luke xiii.\n  13. Mr. Dearmer gives a careful \u2018Table of the healing works of\n  Christ,\u2019 _Body and Soul_, chap. xiii.\n\n  [67] _Aesch._, Pr. V. 848, 849.\n\n(iv) The healing of the nobleman\u2019s son, of the centurion\u2019s slave,\nand that of the Syroph\u0153nician woman\u2019s daughter stand by themselves\nas instances of \u2018absent treatment.\u2019 The strong impression wrought\nin the mind of the father, the master, the mother, respectively, is\nconveyed by a sort of telepathy to the mind of the patient. \u2018Why\nherein,\u2019 surely, is a marvellous thing for those who cannot accept our\nLord\u2019s claim to be the Son of Man in a unique sense--that He should\nthus have possessed, 2000 years ago, a knowledge of the mysterious\nprocesses of human nature which modern science is only now beginning\nto divine. It is in that fact that the \u2018glory\u2019 (Luke xiii. 17; John\nxi. 40), the \u2018wonder\u2019 (Matt. xxi. 15), the \u2018strangeness\u2019 (Luke v. 26)\nof the miracles of Christ consist. They are \u2018works of power,\u2019[68]\n\u2018outcomings of that mighty power of God which was inherent in\nChrist,\u2019[69] and which He exerted within a region of human nature then\nunexplored. We cannot ponder too deeply on that great saying of St.\nAugustine, \u2018Portentum fit non contra naturam, sed contra quam est nota\nnatura.\u2019[70] Who shall attempt to lay down the laws which govern the\noperation of the spiritual upon the material? and still more to delimit\nthe powers of the Personality and Will of Him, in whose name Apostles,\nSaints of the Church, and humble Christians unrecorded in history have\nwrought cures, which only a purblind scepticism can gainsay?\n\n  [68] Matt. xi. 20; Luke xxiv. 19; Acts ii. 22, &c.\n\n  [69] Abp. Trench, _Synonyms of New Testament_ (Art. xci.).\n\n  [70] _De Civitate Dei_, xxi. 8; quoted by Dr. Sanday, _Life of\n  Christ, &c._, viii., adding, \u2018miracle is not really a breach of the\n  order of nature; it is only an apparent breach of laws that we know,\n  in obedience to other and higher laws that we do not know.\u2019\n\n\n\n\nTHE PRINCIPLES OF MODERN CHRISTIAN HEALING\n\nBY\n\nW. YORKE FAUSSET, M.A.\n\nVICAR OF CHEDDAR AND PREBENDARY OF WELLS\n\n\n\n\nTHE PRINCIPLES OF MODERN CHRISTIAN HEALING\n\nBY W. YORKE FAUSSET, M.A.\n\n\nThe psychologists teach us that a man\u2019s \u2018self\u2019 is a larger thing than\nthe \u2018me\u2019 which, we might say, a child has in view when it puts out a\nhand to get a sweetmeat for itself. As Professor W. James says, \u2018The\nold saying that the human person is composed of three parts--soul,\nbody, and clothes--is more than a joke\u2019; and he goes on to include\nin that self the man\u2019s immediate family, his home, the property he\nhas collected.[71] And then we think of Aristotle\u2019s definition of man\nas a \u2018political\u2019 or social animal--the social self with its wider or\nnarrower reach--for \u2018properly speaking a man has as many social selves\nas there are individuals who recognise him.\u2019\n\n  [71] _Text Book of Psychology_, pp. 177, 178.\n\n(i) All this has an important bearing on the subject of health and\ndisease. We are all influenced by our environment for better or worse.\nThe material and visible conditions of life, our home, our friends and\nassociates, our country, our daily occupations, contribute to make us\nwhat we are. Life is defined by Herbert Spencer as \u2018the continuous\nadjustment of internal relations.\u2019 It may be difficult or even\nimpossible to attain to the stable equilibrium of perfect goodness,\nperfect health, perfect happiness; and, in fact, neither science nor\nreligion encourage us to expect such a consummation within the limits\nof this earthly existence.\n\nBut there may be a \u2018continuous adjustment\u2019; and it must be the\npractical aim alike of religion and of science to mould the individual\nby the environment which will best harmonise his personal good with\nthe good of the whole. We have to elevate the conditions of human\nexistence. The individual has not only to adapt himself to his\nenvironment, in the temper of _laisser faire_, but to adapt it to\nthe satisfaction of his highest good. \u2018Great religious consciences\nhave taken their post, confronting society, as representing in\nthemselves truth and right, because behind them was God, while behind\nexisting societies there is only man, nature, and circumstances. Far\nfrom consenting to identify himself with the social conscience, the\nreligious conscience disposes man to oppose the rights of God to those\nof C\u00e6sar, the dignity of the human person to public constraint.\u2019[72] In\nthe language of religion, \u2018No man hath seen God at any time: if we love\none another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.\u2019 That\nis the ideal of the Christian Society, the Body of Christ, actuated\nby the great principles of faith, hope, and love. And much might have\nbeen said of the duty of a Christian State to secure to all its members\nthe elementary conditions of a healthy, useful citizenship. Most of\nour disease is a disgrace to our Christian civilisation, because it is\npreventable. The ancient poet rightly associates the spectres of Care,\nHunger, and Fear with the grim forms of Disease at the portals of his\nInferno:\n\n  [72] Emile Boutroux, _Science et Religion_, p. 206.\n\n  Vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci\n  Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae:\n  Pallentis qua habitant Morbi, tristisque Senectus,\n  Et Metus et malesuada Fames, ac turpis Egestas.[73]\n\n  [73] Virg. _\u00c6neid_, vi. 273 sq. \u2018Right in front of the doorway and\n  in the entry of the jaws of hell Grief and avenging Cares have made\n  their bed; there dwell wan Sickness and gloomy Eld, and Fear, and\n  ill-counselling Hunger, and loathly Want.\u2019--J. W. Mackail.\n\n(ii) But the problem of the prevention of sickness scarcely concerns us\nhere, though it requires a passing reference. It has been sufficiently\nshown that you cannot isolate the individual from the society in\nwhich he moves; that were to make him an unreal abstraction. The\nChurch has never committed that mistake in her dealing with the sick.\nWhen we pray, in the Office for the Visitation of the Sick, that God\nwould \u2018preserve and continue this sick member in the unity of the\nChurch,\u2019 the prayer breathes the very spirit of ancient piety. It is\nan unspeakable help, in dealing with a sick man, to be able to appeal\nto his own conscious and sincere membership in the Body of Christ. The\nVisitation Office is \u2018peculiarly a ministration for those who have been\ntrained beforehand in the fulness of Church life and privileges.\u2019[74]\nHerein, as often, the Prayer-book sets up an ideal standard. But,\nhowever far our actual practice falls short of it, we must work towards\nit. It is said of St. Francis of Assisi that, \u2018in each one, with whom\nhe had to deal, he saw a possible Christ.\u2019 A bold saying, had it not\nbeen that the Master Himself had anticipated it.[75] In the Christian\nview of things, the sick and suffering, whatever their religious\nattainments and professions may have been, have a clear claim upon the\nother members of the One Body. Christian faith can only heighten human\nsympathy.\n\n  [74] Dean Savage, _Pastoral Visitation_, p. 76.\n\n  [75] Matt. xxv. 35, 36.\n\nAnd in the New Testament there are not wanting indications that the\nfaith of friends has a vicarious efficacy. In such faith the force of\nsuggestion is at work, but it is a collective suggestion. There is\nthe typical case of the four friends, who were not to be put off by\nthe crush at the doors, but resolutely stripped the roofing in order\nto lower the paralytic, as he lay on his pallet, into the Saviour\u2019s\nimmediate presence. Such unconventional faith was irresistible. \u2018When\nJesus saw their faith, He said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy\nsins be forgiven thee.\u2019[76] The bodily cure soon followed. The fact\nis, that such faith diffuses a spiritual atmosphere; it is contagious\nand works from mind to mind. \u2018Our bodies isolate us, our spirits unite\nus.\u2019[77]\n\n  [76] Mark ii. 5. Cp. T. T. Carter, _Holy Eucharist_, pp. 150, 151,\n  especially the words, \u2018To lean one\u2019s own failing faith on the more\n  trustful, assured faith and convictions of others. So that the same\n  spirit may communicate itself to the sad and darkened soul by a\n  mutually organic sympathy.\u2019\n\n  [77] Sir Oliver Lodge, _Man and the Universe_, p. 47.\n\nSimilarly, in the raising of Jairus\u2019s daughter an emphasis is laid on\nthe necessity of a sympathetic atmosphere: first, by the fact that only\nthree, the elect among the chosen Twelve, SS. Peter, James and John,\nwere allowed to attend their Lord; secondly, by the exclusion of all\nothers in the house, except the father and mother of the child. The\nprofessional mourners and musicians were turned out--not merely because\nthey \u2018insulted the dumbness of sincere sorrow and the patient majesty\nof death\u2019 (Farrar), but because they diffused, as their behaviour soon\nshowed (\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b5\u03b3\u03ad\u03bb\u03c9\u03bd \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5\u0311), an atmosphere of unbelief. The Lord wishes\nto remove all antagonistic and disturbing human presences and to speak\nHimself in power to the innermost soul of the departed maiden. On the\nother hand, if the air was charged with unbelief, if those He wished\nto help were without faith, as was the case in His own village of\nNazareth, \u2018He could there do no mighty work.\u2019[78]\n\n  [78] Mark vi. 5.\n\nWe trace the same principle in His dealing with those whom He had\nhealed. Sometimes He bids them \u2018go and tell their friends how great\nthings God has done for them,\u2019 as when he refused to keep the Gadarene\ndemoniac by His side. At another time he bids them tell no man of\nthe cure which had been wrought. This difference of treatment can be\nexplained most simply, if we suppose that in the one case Christ knew\nthat the patient\u2019s ordinary _milieu_ was favourable to his progress in\nbodily and spiritual health, in another case He knew that this was not\nso. So it was in the case of the leper of St. Mark i. 44. And, again,\nthis difference of treatment may have been \u2018grounded,\u2019 as Archbishop\nTrench says, \u2018on the different moral conditions of the persons healed.\u2019\nIt is so still, for human nature remains constant to certain broad\ntypes. Some overwrought people require the absolute isolation of a\n\u2018rest cure\u2019; others, who are moody and self-centred, can only rally\ntheir disused powers in contact with invigorating companionship.\nThey are the unhappy victims of that numbness of spirit of which R.\nL. Stevenson writes so pathetically in his essay entitled \u2018Ordered\nSouth.\u2019[79]\n\n  [79] Cp. the medieval complaint of \u2018accidie.\u2019\n\n(iii) This brings us naturally to consider the special value which\nChrist attaches in His teaching to a corporate act of prayer. For this\nis the meaning of the words \u2018If any two of you shall agree on earth\nas touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them\nof my Father which is in Heaven; for where two or three are gathered\ntogether in My Name, there am I in the midst of them.\u2019 And this it\nis which has moulded the form of the Lord\u2019s Prayer, and that of the\ngreat Sacrament of Unity, our highest act of intercession. Thus our\nLord enjoined upon His disciples the duty and the efficacy of combined\nspiritual effort.[80] There is a power intensive, as well as extensive,\nin collective prayer. In this, as well as in other activities of\nthe spirit, the total effect gained is larger than the sum total of\nunits of effort. There is a sort of analogy here with the force of\ncollective suggestion, which we have been considering above: but we\nmust not expect to find a complete philosophical explanation of any\ngreat spiritual principle. Our personal experience verifies the value\nof corporate prayer. If it were not so, religion would be an individual\nmatter alone; it would lack its most universal expression, that of\ncommon worship. It is because the Church in our country lost for a long\nperiod her corporate consciousness, at least in a large degree, that\nshe lost sight of the power of corporate intercession for the sick\nmembers of the Body of Christ. (Of the faithful departed we may not\nhere speak.) But her formulas and liturgy have been a standing witness\nagainst such obliviousness, with which the Church of to-day can hardly\nbe taxed, and those who profess their belief in the Communion of\nSaints find in such intercession its most practical expression.\n\n  [80] Bertroux, _op. cit._ p. 189: \u2018une volont\u00e9 collective est sans\n  rapport avec la somme alg\u00e9brique des volont\u00e9s individuelles.\u2019\n\nConsider the bearing of all this on our highest act of worship, the\nHoly Communion. There are few parish priests who cannot testify from\ntheir own experience to the wonderful--if not miraculous--effects of\nthe reception of the Sacrament upon apparently dying persons, who had\nbeen given up by medical science. There is nothing in this that need\nsurprise the Christian believer, nothing that is really repugnant\nto the findings of modern science. The Apostle Paul, writing to the\nCorinthians about the profanation of the Lord\u2019s Supper, attributes to\nthis cause certain physical consequences incurred by the offenders.\n\u2018For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few\nsleep.\u2019[81] There is a natural and proper antipathy in many minds to\nthe idea that the Sacramental Elements operate as a charm. Such an\nidea would be irrational and superstitious, and we are not intended\nto conceive of a vindication of the sanctity of the Lord\u2019s Supper by\nmaterial and simply magical penalties. The offence of the Corinthians\nwas the irreverence of \u2018not discerning (or discriminating) the Body,\u2019\nand Apostolic teaching plainly implies that a spiritual offence of\nitself acts upon the bodily organism, by a mysterious law of the Divine\ngovernment.[82] (Here again we must not say that God sent the disease.)\nSurely, then, it may be argued, per contra, that a reverent reception\nof the Eucharist makes for health and life, for it brings the failing\nbodily and spiritual powers of the sick into contact with the Divine\nand immortal life which animates the mystical Body of Christ. This line\nof argument may be illustrated by the words of the late F. W. H. Myers:\n\u2018To keep our chemical energy at work, we live in a warm environment and\nfrom time to time take food. By analogy, in order to keep the spiritual\nenergy at work, we should live in a spiritual environment, and possibly\nfrom time to time absorb some special influx of spiritual life.\u2019[83] It\nremains only to add that the words of administration in our Communion\nOffice embody the truth for which we are pleading. \u2018The Body of our\nLord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul\nunto everlasting life.\u2019\n\n  [81] 1 Cor. xi. 30.\n\n  [82] In the _Cambridge Bible_, note _ad locum_, Dr. Lias says we can\n  well understand how a crime against His Body and Blood would deprive\n  any Christian, who committed it, of His presence, and predispose it\n  to sickness and even death.\n\n  [83] _Human Personality_, i. 218; quoted by Dearmer, _Body and Soul_,\n  p. 123.\n\n(iv) The charisma, or gift, of healing, is named by St. Paul among the\nspiritual gifts of the Apostolic Church,[84] and is associated in one\nplace with the working of miracles (\u2018powers\u2019).[85] We have endeavoured\nto show that it was not intended as a transient but a permanent\nendowment of the Church. But, in the degree in which the Church\ncorporate falls short in spirituality, her spiritual powers wane. The\nEncyclical Letter and Report of the recent Lambeth Conference mark a\nstep in advance, though it may not be a long step, towards the revival\nof this healing agency of the Church. The Committee appointed to report\non this particular subject was of opinion \u2018that the prayers for the\nrestoration of health, which it recommends, may be fitly accompanied by\nthe apostolic act of the Laying-on-of-Hands.\u2019[86] We may be disposed\nto regret that this primitive rite is not mentioned in Resolution 35,\nwhich recommends \u2018the provision for use in Pastoral Visitation of some\nadditional prayers for the restoration of health more hopeful and\ndirect than those contained in the present Office for the Visitation\nof the Sick.\u2019 Desiring, as we do, to follow \u2018the example\u2019 of our\nLord Himself and not merely of \u2018His Holy Apostles,\u2019[87] we may most\nreasonably ask for authority to administer the blessing through one of\nthe outward signs which He employed. A ceremony, duly authorised by\nthe Church, would have much value, as regulating and controlling the\nimpulse to invoke the healing \u2018charisma,\u2019 which at present is often\nbestowed and received through \u2018spiritual healers\u2019 who lack the full\nofficial sanction of the Church.\n\n  [84] 1 Cor. xii. 9, 30.\n\n  [85] _Ibid._ 29.\n\n  [86] Report (1908), No. VII. iv. p. 137.\n\n  [87] Order of Confirmation, first Collect, Mark vi. 5.\n\n(v) There is another Ministry of Healing, which the Divine Love has\nprovided for the weary body and the careworn mind, which contributes\nits own part to the restoration of the sick. It is the silent ministry\nof Nature. Within the ailing body she exerts her healing power; the\ndoctor\u2019s best ally, on the physical side, is the _vis medicatrix\nnaturae_, that strange recuperative power which resides in organisms,\nand offers a standing resistance to the inroads of disease and age.[88]\nAnd then outside there are the soothing influences of the world of\nNature, which steals into the troubled spirit to bring the calm which\nWordsworth, in his poem on \u2018An Evening by the Sea,\u2019 likened to the\nhush of worship:\n\n  [88] Cp. Sir James Paget\u2019s words: \u2018The power to repair itself belongs\n  to the subject of injury in the same sense and degree as does its\n  power to develop itself and grow and live.\u2019--_Life_, p. 295.\n\n  The holy time is quiet as a nun\n  Breathless with adoration.\n\nHebrew literature shows little trace, even indirectly, of that sympathy\nwith Nature, which is the best contribution of what is called \u2018natural\nreligion\u2019 to the inheritance of the human spirit, except when Nature is\nregarded in her grander and more awe-inspiring aspects, those of the\nthunder-cloud, the whirlwind, the raging fire, the roaring sea. Yet it\nis not altogether fanciful to find, in our Lord\u2019s habit of retirement\nto the mountain\u2019s side for prayer, His invitation to the disciples to\ncome apart by themselves to rest awhile in a \u2018desert place,\u2019[89] His\nchoice of the evening hour, at the setting of the sun, for performing\nHis works of mercy, some sanction for that modern sense of the Divine\nbeauty and mystery of Nature in her quiet aspects.[90]\n\n  [89] Mark vi. 31.\n\n  [90] Compare also the nature-parables.\n\nWe must believe that Christ Himself was susceptible in a singular\ndegree to those natural influences. After the intense spiritual strain\nof the Temptation, \u2018angels came and ministered to Him.\u2019 A great\nmodern artist, M. Tissot, pictures the scene as only the imaginative\nsymbolism of genius would have done. The Saviour lies at full length,\nutterly exhausted, with every muscle, as it were, relaxed, and through\nthe twilight appear myriads of outstretched angel-hands, reviving\nthe Sacred Body with the touch of spirit-life. Here we have, as in a\nfigure, the expression of the unseen forces of Nature, ministering to\nthe Will of the God of Nature, on behalf of the heirs of salvation and\nof Him who is the author of our salvation and the Prince of Life.\n\nThere is no rule absolute about the influence of familiar scenes and\nold associations upon the weary or ailing spirit. For some people the\ncure lies in surroundings as novel and unfamiliar as possible. This is\nwhere tact and sympathy on the part of the doctor and nurse and friends\ncome in--questions which must not be confused with natural affection,\nfor in that case they would vary directly, whereas they have been known\nto vary inversely, with nearness of blood relationship. The quick\nintuition of sympathy can judge of the environment best adapted to the\npatient\u2019s individual need. The rigid order and routine of the hospital\nward may be torture to the sick person who comes from one sort of home\nand paradise to one who comes from another. The more we can bring of\nthe \u2018mind of Christ\u2019 into the tender care of the sick, the more right\nwe shall have to expect that the power of His name will bless our\nefforts.\n\n(vi) Again, our Lord\u2019s attention to details, i.e. the material\nconditions of health, calls for notice. We have referred to His\nprovision of rest for His tired followers. We find Him giving\ndirections, after the recall of Jairus\u2019s daughter to life, that food\nshould be given to her. \u2018Life restored by miracle must be supported\nby ordinary means.\u2019[91] The familiar routine of healthy life is to\nbe resumed as soon as possible. Lazarus is to be loosed from his\ncerements, when the awe of the bystanders blind them to the practical\nand obvious. And quite in line with this is Christ\u2019s readiness to\nconform, in His dealings with men, to the existing social and religious\nsystem. It was so notably in the case of the leper, who was bidden,\nafter his cure, to go and show himself to the priest and to make\nthe customary offerings.[92] At the pool of Bethesda Christ helps\nthe impotent man, who has no friend to help him. He leaves the rest\nof the multitude to the natural operation of the waters.[93] It was\na different matter when, as in the case of the Rabbinical rule of\nSabbath observance, the conventional practice was inimical to the\nfreedom of the spirit. Our Lord will never allow the spiritual and\nessential in things to be overlaid by the material and accidental.\nTraditionalism was then broken through. The principle, that we must\nrender to C\u00e6sar the things that are C\u00e6sar\u2019s and to God the things that\nare God\u2019s, manifests itself in various ways, and this is one of them.\nBut, on the whole, Christianity knows no revolutionary breaches in the\nestablished social order, as the history of its attitude towards the\ninstitution of slavery shows. Men were encouraged to work out their own\nsalvation under existing political and social conditions.\n\n  [91] Dr. Swete on Mark v. 43.\n\n  [92] Mark i. 44.\n\n  [93] John v. 2.\n\nThis spirit of conformity to the existing order in all lawful things,\nand especially our Lord\u2019s attitude towards priestly ceremonial, in the\ncase of the leper, throws a good deal of light upon the relation which\nshould subsist between the clergyman and the doctor in the treatment\nof sickness. The Christian doctor will gladly subscribe to the words\nof the favourite physician of Louis XIV, Ambroise Par\u00e9, \u2018I treated the\nwound, God healed it.\u2019 Reverently and thoughtfully he will acknowledge\nthe power of prayer and the tranquillising influences of the spirit,\nand will yield to the Church, acting by her representative duly\naccredited and trained, her proper part in the work of restoration. The\nparish priest will freely allow that the doctor and the nurse, with\nall the appliances of modern medical science, provide the largest part\nof the environment and conditions indispensable to recovery; and that\nit is an act of presumption to reject all these scientific aids in\nfavour of some process of healing by faith alone without expert medical\naid.[94]\n\n  [94] In Acts xxviii. 9, 10, there is an implication of co-operation\n  between St. Paul and St. Luke the physician; see _Religion and\n  Medicine_, pp. 365, 366; the language is technical.\n\nFinally, it must be remembered that we cannot expect to find many\nfavourable notices of medical practice in an age and country in which\nmedical skill was at a very low ebb. \u2018Medicorum optimus dignus est\nGehenna,\u2019 said the Rabbis of the later Judaism.[95] In nothing has\nhuman knowledge made more astonishing strides than in medical and in\nsurgical discovery; and, though we have been too prone in the past to\ncredit the medical profession with the whole of the healing work done\nin Christ\u2019s Church, the opposite extreme is to be avoided, and it is\nwell to acknowledge thankfully that \u2018discoveries in the region of\nmedicine and surgery come to man through Him who is the Light and the\nLife, the Divine Word.\u2019[96]\n\n  [95] See Dr. Swete on Mark v. 26; also Luke iv. 23; contrast Ecclus.\n  xxxviii. sq.\n\n  [96] _Lambeth Conference Report_, 1908 (vii. iii.).\n\n(vii) In a previous chapter we dwelt at some length on the Gospel\nconception of salvation (as illustrated by the words \u03c3\u1ff4\u03b6\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd \u1f41\u03bb\u03bf\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c1\u03af\u03b1),\nas a just equipoise of spiritual, mental, and physical faculties and\nfunctions. Two remarks may find a place here. The first is, that too\nmuch stress may be laid upon the distinction between functional and\norganic complaints. There are modern critics who wish to eliminate\nthe miraculous from the Gospel narrative, and deal with the sacred\ntext accordingly. For example, Professor Bousset says, in his vivid\nway, \u2018The community of the faithful drew the simple human picture of\nJesus on the golden background of the marvellous. But the picture can\nbe detached from that background with comparative ease.\u2019 In cases\nwhich are not to be explained simply by psychology, \u2018the historically\nintelligible is still close below the surface, and appears as soon as\nwe remove a few additions which are due to modern tradition.\u2019 We have\nto regard certain narratives as \u2018legendary accretions (_Wucherungen_).\u2019\n\nIf we cannot accept that position, it is not open to us to explain\nall the miraculous agency of our Lord and His Apostles and the later\nChurch as consisting in the power to deal with functional ailments by\nmental or psychic treatment. Nor is it open to us to limit the efficacy\nof prayer to the stimulation of function and the treatment of nervous\ndisorders. And as, with the progress of medical science, the sphere of\nthe organic is continually growing at the expense of the functional,\nthe ultimate effect of such a concession on the side of religion would\nbe to limit her action to a negligible minority of cases. How would\na place be found for the healing of Malchus\u2019s ear, if the organic be\nexcluded? But the Church believes that Christ is the Saviour of the\nbody and that the Holy Spirit is, as an early Father says, \u2018given that\nHe may dwell in our bodies and sanctify them, that in so doing He may\nbring them to eternity and to the resurrection of immortality, while He\naccustoms them in Himself to be conjoined with heavenly powers and to\nbe associated with the Divine eternity of the Spirit.\u2019[97]\n\n  [97] _Novatian de Trinitate_, xxix.\n\nA second remark is this. Whatever is allowed for the moulding force of\nenvironment, Christ plainly teaches that man is never the mere creature\nof circumstances. Christ is no fatalist philosopher. It is only the\nevil that man deliberately assimilates which defiles him. \u2018There is\nnothing from without a man that entering into him can defile him\u2019--a\nparabolic saying which has a deep meaning. As it is with sin, so it is\nwith disease. Wilful sin is lawlessness in the spiritual being; disease\nis disorder in the material being. Much remains yet to be done, which\nlies well within the range of the free human will, to combat this\nlawless disorder in the life of body and soul. We believe that the\nspirit can impose its own order and law and harmony upon the material\nelements of our bodily frame. This creed may be an ideal, but it is\nthe only really inspiring ideal; for beyond it lies the hope of final\nperfection. Therefore, with faith and courage, let us press forward.\n\n  Neither mourn if human creeds be lower than the heart\u2019s desire!\n  Thro\u2019 the gates that bar the distance comes a gleam of what is higher.[98]\n\n  [98] Tennyson, _Faith_.\n\n\n\n\nTHE CHURCH AND MENTAL HEALING\n\nBY\n\nELLIS ROBERTS\n\n\n\n\nTHE CHURCH AND MENTAL HEALING\n\nBY ELLIS ROBERTS\n\n\nThe object of this paper is to show and comment on the present\nattitude of the Church of England, and of the Churches in communion\nwith her, towards psychic healing: but it may be advisable to remove\nat the outset one or two misconceptions. With the theory and practice\nof the Church in this country before the Reformation I am not now\nconcerned. It did not differ essentially from that of the Churches on\nthe Continent. But it should be noticed that a large number of centres\nfor psychic healing, spiritual hospitals, if one may use the term,\nwere removed by the destruction of shrines. In the medieval Church the\nhealer, with his specific charisma, was generally one who was reputed a\nsaint; and usually he healed more people after his death than before.\nThe curious in this matter may consult the evidence gathered in Dr.\nAbbott\u2019s \u2018St. Thomas of Canterbury,\u2019 and I think an unprejudiced reader\nwill gather from that book conclusions somewhat different from those\nexpected by the author.\n\nAfter the Reformation what signs are there of psychic healing\nencouraged and sanctioned by the Church? We are compelled to answer\nthat, in spite of great need, there is very little evidence of an\nintelligent effort at mental therapeutics. \u2018In spite of great need,\u2019\nI say; for this country and Scotland were affected most terribly by\nthe disgraceful witch mania which raged over Europe, especially in the\nProtestant countries. There was ample material for the quiet, consoling\ninfluence of psychic healing; but alas! the unfortunate \u2018witches\u2019\nwere left to the mercy of scared judges and malicious finders, to the\nhorrors of the trial by floating, or the ordeal of the secret mark. The\nChurch was, apparently, bigoted and powerless.\n\nYet the existence of an official power, inherent in the Body and acting\nnormally through the Ministers of the Church, was recognised officially\nin the Canons of 1603\u20134, which, of course, are still of authority. In\nthe 72nd Canon we read:\n\n\u2018No Minister or Ministers shall, without the Licence and direction of\nthe Bishop of the diocese first obtained and had under his hand and\nseal, appoint or keep any solemn Fasts.... Neither shall any Minister\n... presume to appoint or hold any meetings for sermons ... nor,\nwithout such licence, to attempt upon any pretence whatsoever either of\npossession or obsession, by fasting and prayer, to cast out any Devil\nor Devils, under pain of the imputation of imposture or cosenage, and\ndeposition from the ministry.\u2019\n\nIt is evident from this that, however little it was used, the\nEpiscopate was regarded as possessing the power to licence exorcisers\nwho might deal with diseases that we should call mental.\n\nThere is one other piece of evidence--practical this time--that the\nhealing power of the Church was not entirely forgotten or neglected.\nUp to the time of the Hanoverian dynasty, the Kings of England touched\nfor scrofula, popularly known, from this method of cure, as \u2018The\nKing\u2019s evil.\u2019 The most celebrated patient I can call to mind is Dr.\nJohnson. It may be objected that this practice was not the work of the\nChurch\u2019s ministry; but it must be remembered that most Canonists regard\nthe King of England as _mixta persona_ (that is, semi-clerical) by\nvirtue of his Coronation; and also the position given the Sovereign as\n\u2018Supreme Governor\u2019 of the Church would appear to invest him with an\necclesiastical status.[99]\n\n  [99] With touching for scrofula may be compared the blessing of\n  \u2018cramp-rings.\u2019 The Sovereign of England used, on Good Friday, to\n  bless rings which afterwards were distributed to sufferers from cramp\n  or epilepsy. The last monarch to do this was Mary Tudor.\n\nI admit, however, as must all candid persons, that on the whole the\nChurch has grossly neglected all forms of psychic healing; and so\nwelcome the more gladly the definite stand taken in the Lambeth Report,\n1908.\n\nThat Report is the unanimous act, not merely of the Church of England,\nbut of those numerous bodies in communion with her: on the committee\nwhich drew up the report were bishops from America, India, Scotland,\nCentral Africa, New Zealand, and England--a fact that can vouch for the\nsignificance of the Report\u2019s admissions and contentions. This Report I\nshall take as the basis of my inquiry into the official attitude of the\nChurch of to-day towards Medicine and Psychic Healing.\n\nThe Report opens with a statement that is refreshing in its admission\nof ignorance after the ready words of many sciolists and \u2018quack\u2019\nhealers.\n\n\u2018Your Committee, which has had under consideration \u201cMinistries of\nHealing,\u201d has felt itself at a disadvantage in discussing phenomena\nwhich only in recent times have been the subject of scientific\ninvestigation. In the present stage of knowledge it would be premature\nfor any except experts to hazard an opinion upon such topics as\nthe powers of \u201cMental Suggestion,\u201d and the range of \u201cSubliminal\nConsciousness,\u201d or to attempt to forecast the possibilities of \u201cMental\u201d\nor \u201cSpiritual Healing.\u201d\u2019\n\nWhile, however, displaying this diffidence in dealing with the\nscientific side of their subject, the Committee is quite definite about\nthe spiritual aspect of pain, sickness, and suffering.\n\n\u2018The Committee believes that Christ still fulfils in Christian\nexperience His power to give life, and to give it more abundantly; and\nthat the faith, which realises His Presence, is capable of creating\na heightened vitality of spirit, which strengthens and sustains the\nhealth of the body. The Committee believes that sickness and disease\nare in one aspect a breach in the harmony of the Divine purpose, not\nonly analogous to, but sometimes at least caused by, want of moral\nharmony with the Divine Will; and that this restoration of harmony in\nmind and will often brings with it the restoration of the harmony of\nthe body. It believes that sickness has too often exclusively been\nregarded as a cross to be borne with passive resignation, whereas it\nshould have been regarded rather as a weakness to be overcome by the\npower of the Spirit.\u2019\n\nThen the Committee considers briefly the \u2018Mental Healing\u2019 movement\noutside the Church, and concludes the first part of their Report with a\nvery necessary warning \u2018against the peril of being thoughtlessly drawn\ninto alliance, in the desire for health, with any who, under whatever\nattractive name, are in antagonism with the Christian faith upon any\nsuch subject as the Incarnation, the Resurrection, the reality of Sin,\nand the use of the Holy Sacraments.\u2019\n\nIn the second part it discusses \u2018Spiritual Healing\u2019 in the Church, and\nmakes the following statement:\n\n\u2018The Committee would not wish to say a word in disparagement or\ndiscouragement of those who may be pioneers in a new branch of service,\nbut it believes it would for the present be unwise to depart from an\nattitude of watchfulness and reserve; and it is not therefore prepared\nto recommend that at the present stage any authoritative recognition\nshould be given to those who claim to exercise these \u201cGifts of\nHealing.\u201d\u2019\n\nIn the third part is a most welcome recognition of the position in the\nChurch of that profession which the Evangelist of the Nativity followed.\n\n\u2018The Committee believes that medical science is the handmaid of God\nand His Church, and should be fully recognised as the ordinary means\nappointed by Almighty God for the care and healing of the human body.\nThe Committee believes that discoveries in the region of medicine and\nsurgery come to man through Him who is the Light and the Life, the\nDivine Word.\u2019\n\nThen we have a brief recommendation that there should be an \u2018addition\nto the office for the Visitation of the Sick of more hopeful and less\nambiguous petitions for the restoration of health, always subject\nto the Will of God ...; and that these petitions be used in close\nconnection with prayer for pardon and peace.\u2019 And these prayers \u2018may be\nfitly accompanied by the Apostolic act of the Laying on of Hands.\u2019\n\nIn the final paragraph the Committee considers the suggestion \u2018that\nthese prayers should be accompanied by the anointing of the sufferer\nwith oil,\u2019 and after a brief historical _r\u00e9sum\u00e9_, concludes:\n\n\u2018In view of this evidence and the conditions prevailing in the Church\nat the present time, the Committee is not prepared to recommend the\nrestoration of the unction of the sick, but it does not wish to go so\nfar as to advise the prohibition of its use, if it be earnestly desired\nby the sick person. In all such cases the parish priest should seek the\ncounsel of the Bishop of the diocese. Care must be taken that no return\nbe made to the later custom of anointing as a preparation for death.\u2019\n\nWith unction I do not propose to deal here. The question is really\ntheological; and the discussion as to its revival does not come within\nthe scope of this book. It may be said, however, that the problem will\nprobably solve itself in the near future, as in many missionary and\ncolonial dioceses, and in not a few English ones, the oil is blessed\nby the Bishop, and may always be had by any parish priest whose sick\npeople desire this ancient rite.\n\nWith one exception, to which I shall return later, the Report may be\ncommended as a courageous, if rather jejune, effort to keep abreast\nof modern psychology and its more practical manifestations. Let me\nindicate briefly the encouraging signs in the Report.\n\n(1) We have the definite confession that our present visitation\nservice is not all that can be desired. That we should use more\ndefinite prayers for the recovery of the sick.\n\n(2) The Report lays emphasis on the important truth that there must be\nno banishing of the doctor. Enormous harm has been done by the crude\ndualism of \u2018Christian Science\u2019--a theory which, if logically applied,\nwould prevent persons renewing the tissues of their body by food, or\nremoving dirt by soap and water. A doctor\u2019s medicine is just as much a\nprayer, a spiritual thing, when it is properly used, as any formula of\nconsolation inculcated by folk in \u2018tune with the infinite,\u2019 or people\nwho indulge in \u2018higher thought.\u2019\n\n(3) The Report guards--though perhaps not quite strongly\nenough--against the modern tendency to lay too much stress on mere\nbodily health. As Christians and men of sense, we can have nothing to\ndo with a mode of thought that, by exaggerating the value of physical\nwell-being, would cheerfully have condemned to some lethal chamber an\nErasmus, a Coleridge, a Stevenson, or a Beardsley.\n\nNow in these three matters the Report does seem to represent the real\ncentral body of opinion in the Church of England. No living man,\nperhaps, better expresses the view of the \u2018man in the pew\u2019 than the\nBishop of London, and he has been one of the first to recognise the\nreality of the need for a greater recognition of the place of psychic\nhealing. Here is what Dr. Ingram said in his sermon on St. Luke\u2019s Day,\n1909:\n\n\u2018We have on the one side those who really seem to have forgotten the\nmessage of the Gospel of the body, who practically in their teaching\nand even in their own belief simply think of the Gospel as addressed to\nthe soul. They seem to have forgotten that, in our own Holy Communion\nService, we pray that our sinful bodies may be made clean by His\nBody, and some of St. Paul\u2019s most stirring passages are about the\nbody. \u201cGlorify God in your body.\u201d But in their teaching and in their\nbelief they have lost to a certain extent the idea that the Gospel\nhas a message to the body at all. While on the other hand--and it is\nso very characteristic of the history of the Church that this should\nhappen--outside the Church, with great exaggeration--and with, in my\nopinion, much false teaching--people are calling the attention of the\nChurch to a forgotten truth. Yes--but with two very grave mistakes.\nFirst, they ignore the learning and teaching which God has given us\nthrough medical study and investigation about His laws and about His\nwill, and still more they ignore those blessed means of grace which\nChrist Himself has laid down as the means of our communion with His\nlife.\u2019\n\nOr again, in a diocesan letter of May last year the Bishop of\nWinchester (who was Chairman of the Lambeth Committee) emphasises the\nright of medical science, of healing, and of nursing, to their due\nplace in the Church\u2019s spiritual life, to a part in her prayers and\nthanksgivings.\n\n\u2018At the recent Lambeth Conference the view was expressed that we as a\nChurch have failed to show sufficient sympathy with the great works of\nhealing, of conflict with disease, and of the alleviation of suffering\ncarried on by the medical and nursing profession. The Divine blessing\nvouchsafed in modern times, through the progress of knowledge and the\nadvancement of skill, have only in too small a degree been allowed to\nenter into the prayers and thanksgivings of the Christian Church. It is\nright that, with greater faith and a larger intelligence, the Church of\nChrist should acknowledge that the gifts of healing and the discoveries\nof science come from the Spirit of God, and should seek more\nsystematically to include this and kindred subjects in intercession and\npraise.\u2019\n\nNot only, however, do we find the Bishops laying stress on the Church\u2019s\nduty in the matter of healing; but we also find eminent physicians,\nwho are also Churchmen, welcoming the priest in the sick room. In a\nremarkable article contributed to the _Guardian_, Sir Dyce Duckworth\nwrote:\n\n\u2018Next, I will express my opinion that our twentieth-century Christendom\nis generally lax and feeble in offering earnest prayers for the sick in\nall stages and for a blessing on the remedial means employed. We should\nlook to a higher Power than that of man to aid us at the bedside, and\nas thoughtful physicians we do seek these means to aid us.\n\n\u2018Mental healing has a recognised and long-acknowledged basis of truth\nand fact, and may be employed by honourable and skilled doctors who\nhave the gift and power to use it. I do not regard it as a fitting\nduty for the \u201cpriests of the soul,\u201d but one to be employed in its\nappropriate place, as it becomes better understood in the course of\ntime as a part of legitimate ordinary treatment. I see no objection to\nthe practice of unction and laying-on of hands by Christian ministers\nfor those who desire it, but I regard this as an additional means of\nhelp, a solemn form of assurance and comfort, together with prayerful\nministration, in conjunction with, and as a reinforcement of, the\nbest skill of legitimate medicine. To replace the latter by the\nformer I regard as a withholding of God\u2019s gifts to man and therefore\nunjustifiable. I conceive and believe that the gifts of the Holy\nSpirit are capable of development in the course of the ages and under\nour present dispensation, and that they were not limited in form and\nexclusiveness to the age in which they were first somewhat crudely\nmanifested.\u2019\n\nWe may welcome particularly Sir Dyce Duckworth\u2019s emphatic pronouncement\nabout prayer. After all the basis of psychic healing is, and always\nhas been, prayer--whether the means used is oil, or water, or the\nrelics or even the shadow of holy men, as reported in the Acts of the\nApostles. The motive power that makes any of these means availing is\nsimply prayer. Prayer, whether spoken, desired, or acted, is the vital\nforce that gives the psychic movement all its validity. In insisting\non the importance and reality of prayer we have the support of such a\npsychologist as Professor James, who writes: \u2018As regards prayers for\nthe sick, if any medical fact can be considered to stand firm, it is\nthat in certain environments prayer may contribute to recovery and\nshould be encouraged as a therapeutic measure.\u2019\n\nAnd if the doctor is willing to recognise the great value of prayer,\nthe divine should not be backward in welcoming the doctor; nor should\nhe regard the medical man and the philosopher with suspicion if\nthey lay stress chiefly on the \u2018reflex\u2019 value of prayer; regard its\nsubjective effects, rather than investigate its real or objective power.\n\nOnce more let me quote the Bishop of London:\n\n\u2018If I was ill, I would send for the best doctor, and get my parish\npriest to come and pray by my side, believing that the double work of\nJesus Christ is shared by two great professions. It would be bad for\neither to be banished from the sick room.\u2019[100]\n\n  [100] Answer to a questioner. Lent Mission, 1910.\n\nThat is the position on which we should lay stress. The future, I am\nsure, lies with those who are willing to accept the religion of the\nIncarnation and all that it signifies; the men who proclaim joyfully\nand unwaveringly that Spirit has dwelt in flesh, but who also never\nhesitate to assert that it is real Flesh in which the Spirit dwelt.\nWe must have no quarter with the damnable heresy that denies to sin\nand suffering and disease a reality that it concedes to food and to\nfees: and we can have no truce with the hard materialism that will\nacknowledge the truth of nothing that is not revealed to the scalpel\nor the test-tube. We may be thankful to-day that so many of our leading\nphysicians are becoming more and more willing to admit the reality\nof prayer and the rights of the priest; we must take care that no\nheadstrong divines, in their new zeal for psychic healing, disparage or\ndespise the profession of St. Luke.\n\n\n\n\nTHE EUCHARIST AND BODILY\nWELL-BEING\n\nBY\n\nARTHUR W. ROBINSON, D.D.\n\nVICAR OF ALL HALLOWS BARKING, EXAMINING CHAPLAIN TO THE\nBISHOP OF LONDON, AND RURAL DEAN OF THE\nEAST CITY OF LONDON\n\n\n\n\nTHE EUCHARIST AND BODILY WELL-BEING\n\nBY ARTHUR W. ROBINSON, D.D.\n\n\nThe editor of this volume thinks that it should include a paper upon\nthe relation of the Eucharist to bodily well-being, and he has asked me\nto deal with the question. I am fully aware of the difficulty of doing\nso, and shall be well content if what I am able to say should lead\nothers to feel, as I do, that the subject is one which deserves much\nreverent and careful attention. Perhaps that is all that any of us who\nare taking part in the production of this book can hope to achieve. Our\ndesire is to be allowed to prepare the way for the clearer and stronger\naction of the future. Little by little we are coming to see that the\nscope of Christianity is bigger and more comprehensive than has for\nsome time been supposed. We can trace the steps by which religion and\nits benefits had got to be looked upon as chiefly, if not exclusively,\nconcerned with individuals and their souls. And we can recognise that\nthere have been, and are, counter-movements at work whose tendency is\nto raise us out of the limitations within which we had settled and to\nplace our feet in a larger room.\n\nTo begin with, there has been the revival of the Corporate aspect of\nthe faith, with an insistence upon the truth that the fullest life\nis only to be realised through fellowship. Very slowly we have been\nlearning that we are not meant to be perfected as individuals, but\nas parts of a whole of which Christ is the head and we are all of us\nmembers. Already this sense of a corporate ideal has made a great\ndifference to our thoughts about the Church and the Sacraments, and has\nbegun to work a change in our beliefs as to the importance of unity and\nthe possibilities of spiritual power. And now it looks as if we are\nbeing called to a yet farther enlargement of our conceptions and hopes.\nTo-day we are bidden to add to our knowledge in another direction.\nThis time it is the Corporal aspect of the Christian message which is\ncoming into view. We are to learn that our religion is not only for us\nall as a whole, but that it has to do with the whole of each of us.\nIn other words it is good for the body as well as for the soul. In\nsome degree, no doubt, we have been accustomed to admit that the fact\nof the Incarnation is a witness to the dignity of our bodies, and a\npledge of their ultimate glorification; but the admission has too often\nlacked the full force of a living conviction. At the present moment,\nhowever, many influences are combining in a remarkable way to send us\n\u2018back to Christ\u2019 with quite a new willingness to believe that He meant\nHis Church to stand in the forefront of all endeavours to bless men\u2019s\nbodies as well as to save their souls. Some day the world may be filled\nwith astonishment when it sees the fuller life of Christian fellowship\nbrought to bear upon the social and physical problems that are waiting\nall around us for the power that can successfully deal with them.\n\nNow, plainly such lines of thought must sooner or later converge upon\nthe Eucharist. We may confidently assert that if the fuller life,\ncorporate or corporal, is to be realised and manifested by us, it will\nbe through a more faithful and more intelligent use of the great means\nwhich our Lord has provided for establishing a vital inter-communion\nbetween Himself and His members.\n\nLet us, then, approach the consideration of the mystery patiently, and\nmake a serious effort to grasp what we can of its meaning in right\nperspective and due proportion. To this end it will be best to set\nbefore our minds a clear statement of the aims and objects of the\nhighest of all Christian services.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBriefly, we may say that the Eucharist is designed to fulfil a\nthreefold purpose for us. In the first place, it is a SIGN OF\nPROFESSION. Sacraments are \u2018not only badges or tokens of Christian\nmen\u2019s profession\u2019 (Art. xxv.); but this they most certainly are. Again\nand again our Lord laid stress upon the duty and necessity of an open\nacknowledgment of discipleship. From the earliest times the Sacrament\nof His Body and Blood has been regarded as the oath and pledge of a\nChristian\u2019s loyalty. We may be sure that Christ meant it to be this.\nPerhaps it is not altogether without significance that while the\nancient allegory of the Old Testament had made the test of obedience,\n\u2018Thou shalt not eat\u2019; in the sacred symbolism of the New Covenant it\nbecame, \u2018Do this,\u2019 \u2018Take eat.\u2019 Through the Eucharist we declare our\nreadiness to be known as members of the Christian fellowship, and our\ndetermination to be the true followers of Christ. That is its first and\nsimplest and most obvious signification.\n\nThen further the Eucharist is AN ACT OF WORSHIP. It has a Godward\naspect, as well as a bearing towards the Church and the world. The\noriginal institution had for its background the slaying of the lambs\nand the pouring out of the blood of the Passover sacrifices. This,\nsaid our Lord, is My way of celebrating the redemption, not merely of\na nation, but of a world. \u2018This is My Blood of the Covenant, which is\nshed for many.\u2019 And accordingly whenever we solemnly repeat His words\nand His acts, we do it in a Consecration Prayer addressed not to man\nbut to God. It has been thus that from the beginning the Church has\nmade the \u2018perpetual memory,\u2019 setting forth the finished sacrifice of\nthe Cross as the one and only ground and hope of man\u2019s salvation. It is\nthus that we draw nigh by the \u2018new and living way which He has prepared\nfor us\u2019 until we find ourselves amid all the company of heaven, nay\nmore, suppliants before the very throne of God, humbly but confidently\nasking for the grace to help us in our earthly need. The prayer is\nfreely granted. The very offerings we present are blessed and returned\nfor our enrichment.\n\nAnd so, finally, the Eucharist is a MEANS OF GRACE. The Altar becomes\na Table, and the Sacrifice ends in a Feast. We are bidden, not only\nto \u2018do this,\u2019 but to \u2018eat\u2019 and \u2018drink\u2019 the Body and Blood. Here it is\nthat we reach the most mysterious aspect of all. Christ died and rose\nagain for us that we might live by Him. In this holiest fellowship\nHe fulfils His promise to be with us; in this highest worship we are\nmade partakers of His very self. How the blessing is bestowed we are\nunable to explain. The explanations that have been attempted are not\nreally explanations, for they are not themselves intelligible. But we\ncan do better than explain. We can accept the fact, and look to prove\nit in experience. That is the way of our English Church teaching.\n\u2018The benefit is great,\u2019 we are assured, \u2018if with a true penitent\nheart and lively faith we receive this Holy Sacrament, for then we\nspiritually eat the Flesh of Christ and drink His Blood.\u2019 \u2018The Body\nand Blood of Christ are verily and indeed\u2019--not merely metaphorically\nand symbolically--\u2018taken and received by the faithful.\u2019 So it has been\nbelieved since the foundation of the Church. \u2018The doctrine of the\nreality of the gift bestowed in the Holy Communion is universal in\nthe writings of the early Christians.\u2019[101] And so it will be to the\nend, when the holy feast is to be royally \u2018fulfilled in the kingdom of\nGod.\u2019[102]\n\n  [101] Archbishop Temple, Primary Charge.\n\n  [102] St. Luke xxii. 16.\n\nIt is in connexion with this third aspect of the Eucharist that we are\nto attempt some further inquiry. Granted that \u2018the benefit is great,\u2019\nof what does it consist? When we meet together in the gladness of loyal\nfellowship to \u2018lift up our hearts\u2019 through the worship which unites us\nto the Great High Priest within the veil; when we receive, as from His\nhands, the more than tokens of our participation in His present life\nand coming triumph; when after meekly kneeling for the benediction of\nthe heavenly peace, we rise and go our way--what thoughts may we dare\nto cherish with regard to the blessing that has been granted to us?\n\nShall we answer that the gain must be of a spiritual character, that\nwhat we have received is \u2018the strengthening and refreshing of our\nsouls,\u2019 that this is what is intended when the Eucharist is spoken of\nas a \u2018means of grace\u2019? Assuredly we shall be right to answer thus. We\ncannot insist upon it too strongly, or claim it too confidently. We may\nnot feel at the moment that we are stronger and more able for our life\nand duty; but then we do not always feel the benefit of physical food\nand medicine the moment they have been taken. The gain may not appear\nfor hours or even days, when perhaps we have ceased to think of the\nsource from which it came. Strangely enough, too, the immediate effect\nof a medicine may be to bring out the mischief, and to make us imagine\nthat we are the worse for it rather than the better; and, as we know,\nthere have been times when it has almost seemed as if we had become\nmore distressingly conscious of our faults and failings as a result of\nour Communion. In spite of it all, faith takes and gives humble thanks\nfor the blessing which has been received.\n\nBut, when we say that the blessing is of a spiritual nature, does that\nmean that its effects are therefore limited to the spiritual sphere?\nCan we think that they could be so limited? Is not the spiritual the\ndominant factor in all our life, and must not the quickening and\ngladdening of our spirits be felt, sooner or later, through every\ndepartment of our being?\n\nIs it not true that the mind is profoundly influenced by the state of\nthe spirit; that, when the soul is at peace and in harmony with God\u2019s\nwill, light shines as it were from within upon the hardest and most\nperplexing problems around us? The good and wise Bishop Harold Browne\nonce declared at a Church Congress that he had never known what it\nwas to have intellectual doubts when present at the Holy Communion.\nSo, too, one of the most brilliant of our living teachers, speaking\nof what he owed to the school chapel at Eton, has said, \u2018There I\nmercifully gained the habit of constant Communion; and this habit was\nthe one permanent stronghold of my faith when in after years at Oxford\nthe violent storms of intellectual trouble broke over my mind.\u2019[103]\n\n  [103] Canon Scott Holland, _Commonwealth_, March 1908.\n\nIf the mind may be helped through blessing received by the spirit, why\nnot the body also? We are realising more and more forcibly every year\nhow intimate is the connexion between mental action and the physical\norganism. The two are so linked that every change in the one would\nseem to be accompanied by a change in the other. Moreover, we are\nassured by recent psychology that there are regions within us which lie\noutside--above and below--the levels of our ordinary consciousness; and\nthat influences exerted in these regions are determining causes, not\nmerely of mental, but of bodily states. The close connexion between\nthe spiritual and the physical is clearly insisted upon in the New\nTestament teaching. Our Lord showed plainly that the problem of bodily\ndisease was not to be treated apart from the more baffling needs of the\nsoul. In unhesitating terms He traced the miseries of morbid physical\nconditions to moral wrongdoing and the presence of spiritual forces of\nevil. The great word \u2018Salvation\u2019 strictly interpreted meant health; and\nit was applied to both body and soul. It is no small part of Christ\u2019s\nredemption to \u2018quicken your mortal bodies through His Spirit that\ndwelleth in you.\u2019[104]\n\n  [104] Romans viii. 2.\n\nThe fact that the body has its appointed part and share in the Holy\nCommunion is in itself significant of the honour to be paid to it, and\nmight be taken to imply that it too is to be partaker of the benefit.\nAnd when St. Paul declares that to receive \u2018unworthily\u2019 is to be in\ndanger of bodily sickness and even of death,[105] we can scarcely avoid\nthe inference that for the worthy recipient there might be expected\nsome corresponding advantage of quickened health and physical vitality.\n\n  [105] 1 Cor. xi. 30.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIf we ask what the thoughts of early Christianity were in regard\nto this matter, we need remain in no uncertainty as to the reply.\nRecent discovery of documents and the critical study of the primitive\nliturgies have given us a great deal of knowledge as to the religious\nconceptions of those who met for Christian worship in the centuries\nafter the Apostles. At first it was with reluctance that they\ncommitted their most sacred formularies to writing. Even as late as\nthe time of Athanasius the precise nature of the liturgy was kept as a\nsecret, to be revealed only to those who would be certain to regard it\nwith reverence and understanding. \u2018It is not permitted,\u2019 he wrote, \u2018to\ndescribe the mysteries to those who are not initiated.\u2019[106] Not until\nthis discipline of secrecy was gradually abandoned, as Christianity\ncame to be accepted throughout the empire, were the actual forms of\nservice allowed to become public property. From these we are able to\ngather much as to the place which the Eucharist held in the life of\nthe Church, and as to the hopes that were centred in it. These hopes,\nwithout question, were primarily of a spiritual sort. Intercession was\noffered with a fulness and intensity which witness to a wonderful power\nof sustained devotion and a boundless range of sympathy. There were\nmany and various prayers for the peace and perfecting of the Church\nand the enlightenment of the world, for the spread of true knowledge,\nfor the sanctification of all estates of believers, and above all, and\nmost of all, for the exaltation and glory of God in earth as in heaven.\nBut no one can so much as glance over these liturgies without being\nstrongly impressed by the fact that those who framed them and used\nthem had no notion of drawing any sharp line of distinction between\nthe spiritual and the material, between the blessing of the soul and\nthe good to be desired for the body. If they made intercession for the\nChurch that it might be \u2018kept sheltered from storms\u2019 and be \u2018preserved\nfounded upon the rock until the consummation of the world,\u2019 and were\ncareful to remember the higher needs of all classes of Christian\npeople, they were quick to add, \u2018Let us pray for our brethren exercised\nby sickness, that the Lord may deliver them from every disease and from\nevery infirmity, and may restore them whole to His Holy Church.\u2019[107]\nIn the prayer of Consecration they would ask that the Bread and the\nWine might be made to all who received them a means of \u2018faith, and\nwatchfulness, and healing, and sober-mindedness, and sanctification,\nand renovation of soul and body and spirit.\u2019[108] When they had\npartaken of the elements they implored that these might \u2018not be unto\ncondemnation but to salvation, for the benefit of soul and body.\u2019[109]\n\n  [106] _Apol. contra Arianos_, ii.\n\n  [107] Clementine Liturgy.\n\n  [108] Liturgy of St. Mark.\n\n  [109] Clementine Liturgy.\n\nJust ten years ago a very important addition was made to our store of\nearly liturgical documents by the publication of the Sacramentary of\nBishop Serapion, which dates from 350 A.D. The work consists of thirty\nprayers such as a bishop would be likely to use.[110] Of these the\nfirst six and the last twelve have to do with the celebration of the\nEucharist; the remainder relate to Baptism, Confirmation, Ordination,\nand Burial.\n\n  [110] A translation, with notes, has been edited by the Bishop of\n  Salisbury in a small volume issued by the S.P.C.K. (Early Church\n  Classics). The Greek text will be found in an article by the Rev. F.\n  E. Brightman, _Journal of Theological Studies_, October 1899.\n\n\u2018Life is a remarkable note of the collection,\u2019 and it is life in\nthe fullest sense of the word. A few quotations will indicate this,\nand will serve to strengthen the impression we have already sought\nto convey as to the content of the blessing to be expected in the\nEucharist. In the opening Offertory prayer we find the words, \u2018We\nbeseech Thee, make us living men.\u2019 At the invocation of the Word upon\nthe elements, \u2018Make all who communicate to receive a medicine of life\nfor the healing of any sickness.\u2019 In \u2018the prayer for those who have\nsuffered,\u2019 \u2018Grant health and soundness, and cheerfulness and all\nadvancement of soul and body.\u2019 And in the final Benediction, \u2018Let the\ncommunion of the Body and Blood go with this people. Let their bodies\nbe living bodies, and their souls be clean souls.\u2019 Provision is also\nmade for special prayer for the sick, and for the blessings of oils\nand waters for their benefit, and in these connexions we find such\nexpressions as the following: \u2018Be propitious, Master; assist and heal\nall that are sick. Rebuke the sicknesses.\u2019 \u2018Grant them to be counted\nworthy of health.\u2019 \u2018Make them to have perfect health of body and soul.\u2019\n\u2018Grant healing power upon these creatures that every power and every\nevil spirit and every sickness may depart.\u2019\n\nIt need scarcely be said that all such references to bodily wants\nare set in a context which is marked by the simplest and most ardent\nspiritual devotion. The physical is never allowed to usurp the first\nplace. But it is never forgotten. The early Christians believed that\nthe Life which was offered to them in fellowship with their Lord was\nto extend to every part of their constitution, to \u2018spirit and soul and\nbody.\u2019[111]\n\n  [111] These references to the Liturgies might be supplemented by\n  quotations from the patristic writings, e.g. those of Iren\u00e6us,\n  Tertullian, Cyril of Jerusalem, and Gregory of Nyssa. The last named\n  went so far as to make Baptism with faith to be the salvation of the\n  soul, and the partaking of the Eucharist the salvation of the body.\n  See Bishop Gore, _The Body of Christ_, p. 69; and Bethune Baker,\n  _Introduction to the History of Christian Doctrine_, pp. 399, 412.\n\nIn the light of our increasing knowledge of psychological processes,\nwe to-day are turning with new interest and sympathy to the old\nstories of marvellous healing that have come down to us from early and\nmedieval times; and we are doing our best, by careful investigation and\nanalysis, to separate the well-authenticated cases from those for which\nthe evidence is not satisfactory. Already it is clear beyond reasonable\ndoubt that the instances in which directly religious influences wrought\nextraordinary cures were far more numerous than have been generally\nadmitted by critical students of the history. In Mr. Percy Dearmer\u2019s\nvolume entitled \u2018Body and Soul\u2019 a large number of testimonies have been\ncollected relating to such experiences at various times throughout the\nChristian centuries. Thus the passage from St. Augustine is quoted,\nin which he said that in his days miracles were still being wrought,\n\u2018partly by the sacraments,\u2019 and partly through other instrumentalities.\nAnd instances of such miracles are described as they were recorded of\nBernard, and Francis, and Catherine of Siena; of Philip Neri, Fox,\nWesley, Cardinal Hohenlohe, Pastor Blumhardt, Father John of Cronstadt,\nand many more. At least two cases are given in which the benefit was\ndefinitely connected with the reception of Holy Communion.[112]\n\n  [112] pp. 370, 381. Compare also the witness of St. Thomas \u00e0 Kempis\n  in regard to the power of this Sacrament. \u2018The grace is sometimes so\n  great that out of the fulness of devotion here given not the mind\n  only but the weak body also feels great increase of strength bestowed\n  on it\u2019 (vires sibi praestitas sentiat ampliores). _De Imit._ iv. 1.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt remains now to ask how far we English Church people have any\nguidance to which we can appeal in our liturgical forms. We have to\nadmit that the well-being of the body does not receive the amount of\nconsideration in our Prayer-book that it did receive in more primitive\ndays. And yet the allusions are more frequent than many imagine. At\nthe outset of Morning and Evening Prayer we are reminded that we have\nmet \u2018to ask those things which are requisite and necessary as well\nfor the body as the soul.\u2019 Over and over we repeat the clause in the\nLord\u2019s Prayer--\u2018Give us this day our daily bread.\u2019 In the Creed we\njoyfully attest our belief in the \u2018resurrection of the body.\u2019 In the\nLitany we pray to be delivered from \u2018plague and pestilence.\u2019 A special\nintercession is appointed for use \u2018in the time of common plague or\nsickness,\u2019 as well as the more general one for all who are \u2018any ways\nafflicted, or distressed, in mind, body, or estate,\u2019 with a particular\nremembrance of \u2018those for whom our prayers are desired.\u2019 In the\nCollects, which were intended primarily for use at the Eucharist, we\nfind petitions for help in \u2018our infirmities,\u2019 for defence from \u2018all\nadversities which may happen to the body,\u2019 for preservation \u2018both in\nbody and soul,\u2019 and for readiness of \u2018body\u2019 to do the Divine will.\nIn the Office for Holy Communion we may be glad to note even clearer\ntraces of the Scriptural and primitive conception as to the place which\nthe physical part of our nature is entitled to hold in the religion of\nthe Incarnation.\n\nWhen we say the prayer for the whole Church, we humbly beseech God\n\u2018to comfort and succour all those who in this transitory life are\nin trouble, sorrow, need, sickness, or any other adversity.\u2019 In the\nPrayer of Humble Access there are petitions, first to be met with in\nthe earliest form of the English service (1548), which sound like an\necho from the already quoted Prayer-book of Serapion, \u2018that our sinful\nbodies may be made clean by His Body, and our souls washed through\nHis most precious Blood.\u2019 Even more intentionally significant are the\nwords of administration appointed to be addressed to every communicant,\n\u2018The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thy body and soul unto\neverlasting life\u2019; \u2018The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thy\nbody and soul unto everlasting life.\u2019 These references to the \u2018body\u2019\nappear to have been deliberately introduced into our service. In the\nLatin form the celebrant had said, \u2018custodiat animam meam in vitam\naeternam.\u2019[113] And as the body has its place of privilege, so also\nit has a share of the corresponding responsibility. In the Prayer of\nOblation \u2018we offer and present our souls and bodies to be a reasonable,\nholy, and lively sacrifice.\u2019 Finally, among the Collects suggested to\nbe said after the Offertory, and at other times \u2018as occasion shall\nserve,\u2019 the foremost place is given to two which are closely connected\nwith the thought of bodily welfare. The first, \u2018Assist us mercifully,\nO Lord,\u2019 was a prayer used in medieval times for persons who had gone\non a pilgrimage to seek physical as well as spiritual blessings; the\nsecond is for the sanctification and governance of \u2018both our hearts\nand bodies,\u2019 that we may be \u2018preserved in body and soul, through our\nLord and Saviour Jesus Christ.\u2019\n\n  [113] It would seem that the fuller form, \u2018corpus et animum meam,\u2019\n  was used by the priest at his own communion in the Mozarabic rite;\n  and that a similar form was prescribed in the Cologne use of the\n  fourteenth century for communicating the people. (Daniel, _Codex\n  Liturgicus_, i. pp. 105, 147.) Otherwise the rule was as stated\n  above. It is interesting to note, however, that the words \u2018corpus\n  et\u2019 were very generally employed in administering _to the sick_ in\n  medieval England (see the _York Manual_, Surtees, lxiii. pp. 51, 52).\n\nSo then, in our Prayer-book, as in the older service books, the benefit\nof the body is closely associated with the gain which is sought for the\nsoul. The physical effect is regarded as dependent upon the spiritual\ngift. As the Bishop of Birmingham has put it, \u2018though in the Holy\nCommunion the body is sanctified through the sanctification of our\nspirit, and transformed and endowed, in subtle and secret ways which\npass our comprehension, with capacity for the life immortal; yet it is\nthrough the spirit and not directly.\u2019[114] The blessing begins with the\nspirit, but it certainly does not end there.\n\n  [114] _Body of Christ_, p. 64.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThis sketch of a great subject, imperfect as it has been, may serve\nto turn the thoughts of some of us to an aspect of our religious\nprivileges which has not been very much before our minds. A friend\nwho had been spending a good deal of time on \u2018cures\u2019 on the continent\nas well as in this country, wrote to me lately to say that he was\nbeginning to think that he ought to get more assistance towards\nrecovery from his religion than he had been getting. That is an idea\nwhich accords with the temper of the first Christians, and is certainly\nencouraged by a careful study of our own Prayer-book. We dare not\nassert that all \u2018the ills that flesh is heir to\u2019 would disappear before\na quickened vitality of soul, and the mental soundness which might\nfollow from this; but we can well believe that the tendency of true\nreligion is all in the direction of physical health. Indeed, we may\ngo so far as to say that there is no restorative force that we know\nof to compare with the influence of spiritual peace and gladness. We\nhave amongst us those who are fully conscious that they have owed much\nbodily strength to prayers and to sacraments. And there are medical men\nwho would not hesitate to give their confirmatory testimony from what\nthey have seen in their experiences of the sick.\n\nSometimes we hear of small attendance at the weekly or daily Eucharist.\nIf this is to be remedied it will be because truer views have come to\nprevail again of the meaning of the greatest service of the Church. We\nshall recover the spiritual fervour and force of primitive Christianity\nwhen we learn once more to give the Eucharist its proper place in our\nworship and our life. We might be helped to do this if, like the first\nChristians, we accustomed ourselves to look to our Communions not only\nfor the blessing that they can bring to our souls, but for the lesser,\nand yet not less real, blessing which we may find in them for the\nsanctification and preservation of our bodies.\n\n\n\n\nPRAYER AND MENTAL HEALING\n\nBY\n\nARTHUR CHANDLER, D.D.\n\nBISHOP OF BLOEMFONTEIN\n\n\n\n\nPRAYER AND MENTAL HEALING\n\nBY THE BISHOP OF BLOEMFONTEIN\n\n\nThis paper is concerned with Mental Healing; its object is to suggest,\nin a tentative way, how Mental Healing may be effected by Mental\nPrayer. But, in order to do this, it is necessary (at the risk of\nrepeating what may have been written by others) to refer to certain\npremises leading up to the conclusion which I wish to draw.\n\n(1) In the first place it is coming to be recognised that\n\u2018consciousness\u2019 must be understood in a far wider and more general\nsense than we have been accustomed to associate with it. Alongside of\nthe active work of the intellect with which, e.g., we study mathematics\nor pursue our profession, there is a large, dreamy, half-conscious\ntract of mind, not sharpened to a single point, like the active\nintellect, but consisting in a multiplicity of mind-centres (mental\nganglia, as we might call them) diffused throughout the body. We knew\nbefore that our body was a microcosm or an epitome of the world in\nwhich it was found, and now we are learning that the same is true of\nour minds. Primitive kinds of consciousness have been carried up with\nus in our ascent from lower grades of being, and survive, dormant but\nreal, over against the intellect which is the palmary achievement of\nour race. This residual consciousness (the consciousness which exists\noutside of the rational intellect) consists largely of instincts and\ncapacities which regulate the lives of other animals, and which were\nemployed by man in his primitive state, but for which he has no use in\nhis present-day existence; modes of receptivity and reaction, which\nwere natural to him in his dreamy childhood, but which are discarded by\nhim in the aggressive, self-assertive, wide-awake condition in which\nhe now lives. Mr. Myers, in his \u2018Human Personality,\u2019 gives a very\nattractive and convincing account of this inheritance from our \u2018lowly\nancestors.\u2019 But probably we have to go deeper still to account for\nparts of the consciousness which we thus inherit. The rooted attachment\nto home, and the blind tenacity with which, in the teeth of reason,\nmen cling to life, exhibit a more primitive mode of consciousness than\nthat of animal life. Here we will quote some very suggestive words of\nProfessor Stewart:\n\n\u2018Transcendental feeling I would explain genetically as an effect\nproduced within consciousness by the persistence in us of that primeval\ncondition from which we are sprung, when life was still as sound asleep\nas death, and there was no time yet. That we should fall for a while,\nnow and then, from our waking, time-marking life, into the timeless\nslumber of this primeval life is easy to understand; for the principle\nsolely operative in that primeval life is indeed the fundamental\nprinciple of our nature, being that \u201cvegetative part of the soul\u201d which\nmade from the first, and still silently makes, the assumption on which\nour rational life of conduct and science rests--the assumption that\nlife is worth living. When to the \u201cvegetative\u201d the \u201csensitive\u201d soul\nis first added, the Imperative (Live thy Life) is obeyed by creatures\nwhich, experiencing only isolated feelings, and retaining no traces of\nthem in memory, still live a timeless life, without sense of past or\nfuture, and consequently without sense of selfhood. Then, with memory,\nthere comes, in the higher animals, some dim sense of a self dating\nback and prospecting forward. Time begins to be.\u2019\n\nThis, then, is our starting point; that besides the single, supreme,\nrational activity, which we call intellect, there exist in us other\nforms of consciousness similar to those which accompany the growth\nof the plant or the life of the animal; and that this residual\nconsciousness, however much we may discard or disown it, continues to\nlive and work, and does things which the proud intellect is unable\nto do. On the other hand, we must not forget that these forms of\nfeeling and instinct, of perception and reaction, which we regard as\nour heritage from lower grades of life, are enormously modified by\ntheir juxtaposition with a rational intellect. The unity of nature\nwhich comprehends both the intellect and them, makes itself felt;\nthis lower form of mentality is still the mentality of a rational\nbeing; and the general position may be described by saying that there\nexists a decentralised consciousness, diffused through the organism,\n\u2018irrational, but capable of sharing in reason, and of listening to\nit,\u2019 as Aristotle would say, and manifesting itself in a power of\nreceiving impressions, manipulating them, and reacting upon them, which\nin our present state of ignorance we describe by the convenient word\n\u2018abnormal.\u2019\n\n(2) Because the residual consciousness is thus diffused throughout the\nbody, it can exercise control over the various parts of the body, just\nas the central intellect exercises control over the body as a whole.\nAs the reason can set the body in motion by commands issued through\nthe brain and travelling down the motor nerves, so the departmental\nconsciousness can initiate changes and disturbances in the various\nnerve centres with which it is associated. This, we take it, is what\nhappens in all cases of mental healing. The phenomenon is physical\nas well as psychical; it consists not merely in the inhibition of\nthe feeling of pain, but in such a modification of the nerve tissues\nas removes the cause of the pain. A real cure is effected, and it\nis effected by the action of the residual consciousness upon that\nparticular part of the organism.\n\n(3) This decentralised, residual consciousness can work best when\nthe rational intellect is quiescent--when, we may say, the central\noffice is closed. At such times man ceases for the time to be an\nargumentative, striving creature; the placid, vegetative, ruminative\nlife, the life of growth and instinct, asserts itself; submerged modes\nof consciousness begin to stir and act, like fairies dancing when the\nsun has set.\n\nAnd as sleep is the typically quiescent state, it will be specially in\nsleep, natural or induced, that these lower modes of consciousness will\nexhibit their activity.\n\n(4) In order that they may act, a \u2018cue\u2019 or suggestion of some sort must\nbe given to them. The most marked characteristic of this residual\nconsciousness is its receptivity. It executes, but cannot originate.\nIt can retain in the memory the whole of a long poem which it has\nheard, and it can solve a problem by right adjustment of its elements;\nbut in each case the facts must be given to it in order that it may\ndeal with them. In itself it is dreamy and desultory; if it is to work\nefficiently, it must be stimulated and concentrated by the transmission\nto it of a clear and forcible suggestion.\n\n(5) On the other hand, although it must take its orders from the\nreason, it is only natural that one residual consciousness should\nbe more _en rapport_, feel more at home, with another residual\nconsciousness. The reason is like a parent or schoolmaster, and these\nconsciousnesses are like children. They receive their directions from\nabove, but are far more at home with each other, canvassing their\ninstructions, and sometimes parodying and making fun of them, as\nchildren do with the admonitions of their elders. In matter of fact\nthere is often something freakish and elfish about this consciousness,\nit reminds one of the submerged spirit of Dionysus reasserting itself\nin Denys l\u2019Auxerrois as described by Mr. Pater.\n\n(6) Now, if one residual consciousness can be brought into a\nrelationship of definite and serious purpose with another residual\nconsciousness, the influence thus exerted will be stronger than any\nwhich can be exerted directly by the reason itself. To revert to our\nformer illustrations, a monitor whose own character is receptive of the\nmaster\u2019s ideals can exert on other children an influence greater than\nthat of the master himself.\n\n(7) The reason of man, then, may be well able to convey clear\ninstructions to his own residual consciousness, and send it to\nassociate with, and work upon, some other residual consciousness. And\nif the instructions conveyed, and the work done, concern the curing of\nsome ailment, a case of mental healing will be the result.\n\nLet A be the healer and B the patient; let _a_ and _b_ represent\nthe residual consciousness of each of them; further, let A^1 be the\nrational intellect of A, and B^2 the seat of B\u2019s disease. In that case\nthe following diagram will illustrate the process:\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThat is, A concentrates his intellect (A^1) on transmitting a message\nto his own submerged consciousness (_a_); this submerged consciousness\nworks upon B\u2019s submerged consciousness and stimulates it to curative\naction on the seat of B\u2019s disease. Further, the best time for _a_ to\nthus work upon _b_ will be when A and B are both asleep. A will have\nconcentrated the reason on the idea of helping B just before going to\nsleep. Mr. Hudson, in his \u2018Psychic Phenomena,\u2019 gives many illustrations\nof cures thus effected.\n\n(8) But the capacity of A to exert a strong and right influence must\ndepend on the strength of his will and the clearness of his insight;\nand if he is a humble man, he will recognise his own weakness and\nignorance. In proportion, then, to his affection for B, he wants to\nbring to bear on B a stronger force and a higher wisdom than his own. A\nfew exceptionally strong and wise people may bring help, of themselves,\nto their friends in the manner described in the last section; but the\nmajority, being conscious of their own limitations, will turn elsewhere\nfor succour, i.e. will pray.\n\n(9) In very many cases prayer is a definite petition to God, that\nGod will Himself act directly on our friend by bestowing a definite\nblessing on him, e.g. recovery from a specific ailment. But that is not\nquite the highest or the best kind of prayer. God loves to act through\nus; Christ sends out his disciples, that through them He may continue\nto do His gracious works. We can combine a humble reliance on God with\nthe offer of ourselves as His instruments, if our prayer conforms to\nthat Prayer of Quiet or Silence of which mystical writers tell us.\nThen, instead of ourselves acting directly on our friend, and instead\nof asking God to act directly upon him, we shall just concentrate our\nattention upon God with special intention for our friend. We shall hope\nthat a Divine response from God will, during our sleep perhaps, enter\nour own subconscious self (which we have, through the concentration of\nour attention, made receptive of such responses) and through us work\nupon that of our friend. In such a case the diagram will be as follows:\n\n[Illustration]\n\nWe may add that this Prayer of Silence not only renders us receptive\nof Divine influences, which may then through us be transmitted\nto our friend; also it embodies the true attitude of humility in\nrelation to God. We know not what we should pray for as we ought.\nWe are not to dictate to God what blessing He is to send. We simply\nbring our friend\u2019s evil case before Him in the very act of our own\nloving concentration upon Him, and offer ourselves as the agents for\nthe transmission of that blessing, whatever it may be, which He in\nHis wisdom may will to send. By a strong act of sympathy we identify\nourselves with our friend, and trust God to provide the right remedy.\n\u2018Have mercy upon _me_,\u2019 said the woman in the Gospel, \u2018my daughter is\ngrievously vexed with a devil.\u2019\n\nIf we can combine this living sympathy for our friend with a humble\ntrust in God\u2019s power and wisdom, and further offer ourselves as the\ninstrument through which God may act, we shall be practising the\nhighest and purest form of intercession within our reach. And this form\nof intercession may be offered in a silent act of Contemplation, in\nwhich distracting thoughts are set aside, the favourable attitude of\nreceptivity is attained, and a loving and concentrated appeal is made\nto the love of God. It may, perhaps, encourage us to engage in this\nhighest form of prayer, if we recognise that it has this intercessory\nside. An objection is sometimes brought against the practice of\nContemplation as described by spiritual writers, on the ground that\nit is self-centred and selfish. There is never much force in such an\nobjection, since the contemplative who is concentrating his soul on God\nis thereby making himself a ladder down which Angels of Grace descend\non others as well as himself; he is diffusing an atmosphere of God\u2019s\npresence, with the blessings that flow from it.\n\nWhen, however, Contemplation is practised with definite intercessory\nintention, its beneficence is clearly and unmistakably emphasised.\n\n(10) It is well to dwell a little more on the quality of humility which\nshould characterise all such prayers. We have no right to dictate to\nGod what His answer shall be. We have no right to assume that it must\nbe His will to remove all pain and suffering. Any such assumption leads\nlogically to conclusions which those who make it might not be prepared\nto accept. If pain and suffering are contrary to God\u2019s will, and God\nis omnipotent, it follows that there can be no such thing as pain and\nsuffering; and as pain and suffering are located in the body, it will\nfurther be concluded that there is no such thing as a body; and here at\nonce we have Christian Science in a nutshell.\n\nWe may try to escape from this conclusion by distinguishing an absolute\nand a contingent will of God, and arguing that pain, as such, is\ncontrary, but under certain circumstances is not contrary, to the\nwill of God. But this really abandons the whole position, since we do\nnot know whether the case of our friend is covered by the \u2018certain\ncircumstances\u2019 or not, and therefore are unable to dogmatise as to\nGod\u2019s will in the matter. No one in his senses imagines that God wills\npain for the sake of pain. Everyone would agree that, if sin had not\ncome into the world, there would be no occasion for pain. But then sin\nhas come into the world; the only condition of man with which we are\nacquainted is his fallen condition; in that fallen condition sin and\nsuffering are mingled inextricably to a degree which utterly condemns\ndictation or dogmatism on our part. Ignorant people like ourselves\nmust, then, be humble in our prayers. We bring our friend\u2019s illness\nbefore God; \u2018Lord, he whom Thou lovest is sick\u2019; often God\u2019s love may\nbe shown in the removal of the suffering; sometimes in the provision of\ngrace sufficient to enable the sufferer to rejoice in his infirmities.\n\n(11) What has been said in this paper is liable to an easy and\nobvious criticism. It will be said that the whole thing consists of\nguesses; and further, that these guesses are incapable of scientific\nverification. I cheerfully accept both statements, and am not\nparticularly affected by either. All increase of knowledge has been\nmade through guesses, and in the case of an intricate subject like\nthat before us, we must be content to go on guessing for a long time.\nFurther, there may be verification which would not conform to the\nmore rigorous methods, but which would be sufficient for practical\npurposes. If we find that such prayer as I have described is followed\nby relief, either physical or spiritual, to him for whom we pray; and\nif this sequence occurs again and again under different conditions, the\ncumulative weight of such experience will justify a humble belief that\nGod is indeed using us as vehicles of His grace and love.\n\n(12) Finally, I should like to add a few words as to the general\nattitude which, it seems to me, we should adopt with regard to facts\nof mental healing. I have assumed that we are face to face with\ncertain psychical facts which for the first time are winning general\nrecognition of their authenticity. That is, we are witnessing the\nbirth and development of a special branch of psychology. The whole\ninquiry into the phenomena of the subconscious, or subliminal, or\nsubjective, or residual consciousness (whatever we choose to call it)\nis a psychological inquiry. It is for the psychologist to investigate\nthe relation in which such phenomena stand to the normal working of the\nmind; and it is for the psychologist and physiologist together to probe\nthe method by which subconscious mentality affects the diseased tissue,\nand in many cases effects a cure. The facts are becoming patent to all;\nthe causes are a subject matter for science. Where, then, does religion\ncome in? I answer that whilst the forces at work are psychical, and the\ninquiry into their mode of operation is scientific, they can be best\nput in motion by religion.\n\nSome such demarcation of spheres seems to me to be essential. It would\nbe fatal to assume that all manifestation of subconscious activity is\nsupernatural; that all mental healing is necessarily spiritual healing.\nThe facts postulate neither a special spiritual gift, nor a special\ntheory of the universe (such as that of Christian Science) to account\nfor them. They are, we repeat, psychical facts, and come under the\ndomain of psychology.\n\nFurther, as I have suggested above, religion is not the only motive\npower by which they can be roused to action. A rigorous process of\nattention and concentration of the mind, which has been rendered\nquiescent by the elimination of other thoughts and ideas, seems to be\nthe condition under which the healer acts successfully; and such a\nprocess is not confined to the sphere of religion.\n\nBut, on the other hand, we Christians possess two great qualifications\nin this matter. First, in the higher forms of prayer we have ready to\nour hand a peculiarly effective method of concentration and attention;\nand, secondly, through the use of this method, we can link our own\naction with the action of God, correcting our ignorance by the wisdom\nof God, and supplementing our weakness by the power of God.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nNOTE.--In this article I have dealt with healing as exercised on the\nills of another, not on one\u2019s own ills; and the prayer associated with\nsuch healing has therefore been presented as intercessory prayer.\nBut of course the troubles which we have in view may be our own. In\nsuch a case the method will be much the same as that sketched above;\nrelief may be effected subconsciously through the medium of prayer.\nBut the procedure is now much simpler. Instead of sending out our\nsubconsciousness (the phraseology is necessarily materialistic and\nfearfully inadequate) to work on that of another, we merely commission\nit to work on the seat of our own malady. The method now becomes one\nof auto-suggestion, i.e. the healing suggestion is made by us to\nourselves. We know the power of this process in the moral sphere; we\nknow how, by fixing our minds on lofty and ennobling ideas, we can\nbreak the power of temptation, not by a frontal attack, but by getting\nround it and above it to a higher level of life and thought. This,\nin fact, is the main purpose and effect of meditation as ordinarily\npractised. The scope of meditations only have to be slightly extended\nin order to apply to our physical as well as our moral troubles. But,\nalthough this method of healing becomes simpler in procedure, because\napplied to ourselves, yet for the same success it demands still greater\nhumility and purity of intention. If, when we pray for others, it is\nhard for us to believe that the prayer may be really and effectually\nanswered in other ways than by the removal of the physical suffering,\nit is still harder for us to recognise this in our own case. To meet\nthis difficulty, it will be well that prayer for our own relief should\nbe as much as possible silent prayer. We shall concentrate our\nattention on God\u2019s love and power, as revealed in Christ, just spread\nout our trouble before Him, and resolve to trust Him to the uttermost.\nThe suggestion thus conveyed to our own subconscious life will be\ncharged with God\u2019s grace; if physical healing results, the restored\nhealth will be transformed by dedication to God\u2019s service; if the\nrelief takes the form of strength to endure, it will be none the less\nrelief, lifting us above the level of self-pity into tranquil communion\nwith Christ crucified, and may be none the less an instrument in God\u2019s\nhands for the doing of His blessed will.\n\n\n\n\nTHE METAPHYSICS OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE\n\nBY\n\nM. CARTA STURGE\n\n\n\n\nTHE METAPHYSICS OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE\n\nBY M. CARTA STURGE\n\n\nIn attempting to criticise the Metaphysics of Christian Science, as put\nforth in the book which claims to be the authority for its doctrine,\n\u2018Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures,\u2019 one is tempted to\nquote the famous chapter on \u2018Snakes in Iceland,\u2019 which runs \u2018There are\nno snakes in Iceland,\u2019 and to say at the outset that Christian Science\nhas no Metaphysics. Since, however, it claims to explain the Universe,\nand to give a theory of such metaphysical subjects as Matter and\nSpirit, as well as of Unity and Reality, it may be well to examine its\nstatements on these abstruse matters to see if they can justly claim\nto have value as Metaphysics, to search the island, as it were, before\npronouncing that there are no snakes in it.\n\nUndoubtedly Christian Science owes a good deal of its attractiveness\nto its teaching of a sort of popular Idealism. It was put forth at\na time when a great wave of Materialism had overspread the Christian\nworld, not owing only to discoveries in Natural Science, which seemed\nin the first flush of their triumph, before they had been adjusted with\nother fields of thought, to destroy all belief in Spirit, but owing\nalso to the fact that Religion had been for so long established and,\napparently, firmly seated upon a secure spiritual foundation, that it\nhad been loosely taught as to its fundamental basis. So little had its\nrelation with physical things been explained that the spiritual and\nphysical aspects of the Universe had become, as it were, separated\nin thought and shut up respectively in watertight compartments. The\nresult was that in the popular mind the two worlds, the spiritual and\nthe physical, stood in a merely artificial relation with each other,\nconnected, as it were, by unmeaning hooks, instead of standing in an\nintimate organic relation, so close that no true statement regarding\nthe one could possibly stand in collision with the truth of the other.\n\nIn consequence of this merely artificial relation of the two in the\npopular mind, at the first breath of the new scientific announcements\nthe two worlds in the minds of only too many fell apart, and the\nspiritual world floated away, if one may say so, to nowhere, whilst the\nphysical, with all its limitations, its ruthless laws, its indifference\nto the individual, its total disregard of pain, and its insurmountable\nbarriers, reigned alone. Materialism had triumphed with its apparently\nhard-and-fast solidity; whilst the ideals of Poetry, the truths hinted\nat by Art, the revelations of the prophet, the dreams of the young and\nthe visions of the old, and our intuitions of unseen realities which\ncannot be uttered, were consigned by many, supposed to be wise, to the\nregion of illusions, the realm of nothingness, and Man seemed indeed to\nbe nothing more than a creature helplessly subject to circumstance, the\nsport of every wind, and entirely beyond the region of hope wherever\nphysical aid failed.\n\nIt was in the midst of a state of things something like this that\nChristian Science came with its contrary announcement that all is\nSpirit, and this given forth with the energy and freshness which always\naccompanies the discovery of a new aspect of truth, or, as in this\ninstance, the rediscovery of a world-old truth which had been for a\ntime despised or forgotten. And with it came a message of hope, the\nassurance that we are not the creatures of mere circumstance, that we\nare not limited to physical life, nor altogether tied down by its\nlimitations, that things are not as hard and fast as they seem, and\nthat in the power of Spirit we can throw down many a barrier and rise\nabove circumstances. Most welcome teaching, and yet to those of us\naccustomed to singing, on the third evening of the month, \u2018With the\nhelp of my God I shall leap over the wall,\u2019 it seems strange that it\nshould appear quite so new! However, as before said, Materialism had\ndarkened much of this old truth and somewhat blinded our eyes. Whether,\ntherefore, it seems new or old to us, we can only welcome a powerful\nreassertion of Idealism, of the supremacy of Spirit, provided it come\nwith good credentials, and be so stated as to appeal to the best and\nsanest part of ourselves, and with the breadth and depth of treatment\nthat so wonderful a truth calls for. Unfortunately, it is here that\nChristian Science fails us. It is a cheap, too much ready-made Idealism\nthat is put before us, and one that rather appeals to our less sane\nmoments than to our more brilliantly illuminated ones.\n\nIdealism, by reason of its very greatness, by its perception of things\nthat lie outside our senses, by its apprehension of infinities far\nbeyond our grasp, has many and great difficulties to encounter as\nsoon as, leaving the inspired region of Poetry, and of prophetic\nvision, it tries to present itself as rational to our intellect, and as\nconformable with our knowledge of physical things. Had the foundress\nof Christian Science confined herself to the uninquiring assertions of\nSeership, and left the explanation of Spiritual truths (of which no one\ncan deny that she caught some luminous glimpses) to minds equipped with\nthe necessary knowledge and training, Christian Science would have been\nshorn of much of its incoherence and false teaching, and perhaps have\nproved itself a real ally to Christianity.\n\nBut the foundress was not content with the r\u00f4le of giving forth such\ninsight as she may have had as a Seer. She tries to explain it, and\nthe consequence is such a tangle of incoherent, inconsistent, confused\nstatements, contradictory to each other, as has, perhaps, never\nseriously been given to the world before. And where, occasionally, the\nstatements, at least as to their wording, are clear and unmistakable in\ntheir meaning, so far from clearing away the difficulties of Idealism,\nthey add much to the obscurity, and leave the subject in a position\nlikely to act in the long run in favour of Materialism rather than in\nthe direction intended.\n\nWe will take an instance. Mrs. Eddy lays great stress on the Oneness of\nthe Universe. Here we shall few of us quarrel with her, for Unity is\nthe root-idea of Thought, whether scientific or philosophic, or even\nthat of mere common-sense, since it is only by Unity that one thing\ncan be seen in relation to another. The Unity is, however, difficult\nof apprehension, since it is essentially an idea--although none the\nless real for that--being, from the physical point of view, never seen\nor apprehended as a material thing. Therefore it is non-material,\nsomething spiritual or mental to be realised by insight other than that\nof the senses. Mrs. Eddy has this insight, and has it very strongly.\n\nIdealism, however, is no sooner arrived at than it presents us with a\nvery hard knot to untie, and it is here that we shall see how far Mrs.\nEddy can give us any adequate metaphysical solution.\n\nShe realises, like much greater thinkers, how hard it is to understand\nhow our material world can be contained in a spiritual idea, and that\nMatter and Mind are of difficult reconciliation, although, if we grant\nthey both exist, they are so obviously related that they must be\nreconcilable within a Unity somehow. This reconciliation has cost much\nthought for thousands of years on the part of the deepest thinkers,\nbut the easy way of solving the difficulty in the case of shallow\nthinkers is to do it by throwing one or other of the members in this\npair of opposites away, to deny it existence, and so to attain a cheap\nconception of unity by pronouncing either matter or mind to be a mere\nillusion. The Materialist tries cancelling Mind. Mrs. Eddy throws out\nMatter and with it our entire physical world, not only the objects\nin it, but all mental conceptions in regard to it, such as the Laws\nof Nature, and all possible theories as to its being a manifestation\nof Mind. All our conceptions of its laws are errors conceived by the\nintellect, she teaches,[115] which is itself non-existent. In fact, the\nworld only _is_ because we falsely think it is. We have only to unthink\nit, and it will disappear. Spirit is One, and therefore the many\nobjects of the world cannot be included in it; and only Spirit is real,\ntherefore the material world cannot be real. Such is her argument, and\nshe cannot allow that Matter may be a manifestation of Mind or created\nby Mind, or have any relation with it of whatever sort. \u2018Spirit and\nMatter no more commingle,\u2019 she says, \u2018than light or darkness,\u2019 and she\nasserts that \u2018Science reveals nothing in Spirit out of which to create\nMatter.\u2019\n\n  [115] For proofs of my assertions regarding the teachings of _Science\n  and Health_, I must refer the reader to my book _The Truth and Error\n  of Christian Science_.\n\nWe have here attained, if we have attained it, Oneness at the expense\nof the Many. It is One simply by means of containing nothing, and, in\nplace of the inspiring conception of the true thinker of the Unity as\nOne because it includes the Many harmoniously related within itself--a\nUnity of infinite richness and fecundity--we have a dead, empty One,\nmisnamed Unity because there is nothing to unite. The worship of such a\nOneness, it has well been said, would be the worship of the None. Such\nan One would be all-exclusive instead of all-inclusive, and be gained\nby the annihilation of everything, instead of by the inclusion of all\nwithin Itself as the vital expression of Itself.\n\nIn yet another way Mrs. Eddy\u2019s statements concerning Unity contradict\nthemselves. We have seen that in her conception of Unity the whole\nworld, as we know it, has to be evaporated, as it were, into\nnothingness, and it has been roundly denied that Spirit had anything to\ndo with its creation. Yet the world has to be accounted for, and in the\nsequel we find that, according to \u2018Science and Health,\u2019 it _has_ been\ncreated--but by whom or what?\n\nIt has been created by the mind of Man, by his thinking power, but not,\nas we shall find if we read the book carefully, by that part of man\u2019s\nmind that is real, but by that part of it which is constantly asserted\nto be unreal, to be, in fact, as much nothing as the world itself is\nnothing. This part of Man, which is over and over again affirmed to be\nnothing, is the Mortal Mind, and is endowed with the most tremendous\ncreative powers; for by its thought, its false thought, which is again\nnothing, it has created for itself a world of objects, and objects\nconnected with each other, not in a state of chaos, as one would expect\nin a world created by false thought, but objects connected with each\nother in a marvellously ordered sequence, obeying exact laws with\nthe utmost obedience--laws so elaborate and complex in their results\nthat it has taken Man ages to understand them even a little (although\nin Mrs. Eddy\u2019s view his own creation), and yet, in their ordered\ncomplexity, so simple that they are reducible to a few heads. Such is\nthe wonderful world created by the Mortal Mind, and with which God, as\nAll-in-All, has nothing to do! Thus we have two Creators, two unrelated\nworlds, and we are landed in a Duality which is absolutely opposed to,\nand inconsistent with, the Oneness on which Mrs. Eddy lays so much\nemphasis, and which consequently disappears.\n\nAll the rest of Mrs. Eddy\u2019s so-called metaphysical ideas, her teaching\non Reality, on the nature of Man, on what constitutes truth and what\nerror, and so on, are equally contradictory, and we are driven to the\nconclusion that such a hopeless confusion of contradictions is scarcely\nworthy of the name of Metaphysics or of serious discussion.\n\nWe welcome, as we have said, so emphatic an announcement of Idealism,\nand of the truth of the supremacy of Spirit, but must deeply regret\nthat the Idealism is of so poor and thin a character, and the idea\nof Spirit and of the Eternal Unity so deplorably impoverished. For,\nindeed, thus presented, they could not long hold their own, and would\nsoon give place again to the darkness of Materialism.\n\nHowever, rather than criticise, let us welcome the recall to Idealism,\nto the recognition of Spirit as the supreme reality in which all\nphysical laws find their truth, and, by a careful study and meditation\nupon the length and breadth and depth of these great ideas, as set\nforth in Christianity and all that led up to it, endeavour to do our\nlittle part towards a better understanding of these things, and thus in\npractice we shall indeed find that many a seeming solid barrier can be\noverleapt, the crooked made straight and rough places plain.\n\n\n  PRINTED BY\n  SPOTTISWOODE AND CO. LTD., COLCHESTER\n  LONDON AND ETON\n\n\n\n\nRELIGION AND MEDICINE.\n\nBy SAMUEL MCCOMB, M.A. (Oxon.), D.D. (Glasgow), ELWOOD WORCESTER, D.D.,\nPh.D., and ISIDOR H. CORIAT, M.D.\n\nWith a Preface by SOMERSET E. PENNEFATHER, M.A., D.D., Vicar of\nKensington and Prebendary of St. Paul\u2019s.\n\nCrown 8vo. 6_s._ net.\n\nThis book sets forth in clear and non-technical language the\nprinciples, and the methods by which these principles have been\napplied, that underlie the notable experiment in practical Christianity\nknown as the Emmanuel Movement. The fundamental conception of the work\nis that a great number of disorders, half nervous and half moral, which\nare widely prevalent in American and English society, can be alleviated\nand cured by means which are psychological and religious. The book\nillustrates how an alliance between the highest neurological science of\nour time and the Christian religion in its primitive and simplest form,\nas modern Biblical scholarship has disclosed it, may become a powerful\nweapon with which to attack the causes that lie behind the neurotic and\nhysterical temperament that characterises the life of to-day.\n\nThe work is written by two scholars trained in scientific theology, and\na physician of high reputation as an expert in psychological medicine.\n\n_The Church Times_ says:--\u2018Dr. McComb\u2019s lecture, reported in our\ncolumns last week, has been speedily followed by the appearance of a\nbook, in which he and two of his colleagues give a complete account\nof the work of healing undertaken at Emmanuel Church, Boston. This\nseems to justify our suggestion that the limitations accepted were\ndesigned mainly with a view to the friendly co-operation of the medical\nprofession. Another reason for limitation is neatly expressed:--\n\n\u2018\u201cIn the treatment of functional nervous disorders, we make free use\nof moral and psychical agencies, but we do not believe in overtaxing\nthese valuable aids by expecting the mind to attain results which can\nbe effected more easily through physical instrumentalities.\u201d\n\n\u2018There speaks sanctified common sense, in exact agreement with\nthe dictum of St. Thomas Aquinas that miracles are not to be\nmultiplied _praeter necessitatem_. There is also a recognition of\nwhat is presumably true, that miraculous healing--for we prefer the\nold-fashioned term--is not an easy way of escape from doctors\u2019 bills,\nbut a process far more difficult, and involving far more expenditure\nof mind and will, than the use of drugs or splints. When this is\nunderstood, some prejudices will disappear. Meanwhile, the three\ndoctors--one of medicine and two of divinity--should have a respectful\nhearing for their record of work done.\u2019\n\n\nTHE HEALING MINISTRY OF THE CHURCH.\n\nBy Rev. SAMUEL MCCOMB, D.D.\n\nCrown 8vo. 32 pp. sewed, 6_d._ net.\n\nThis little book is published under the direction of the Emmanuel\nCommittee for Great Britain, and deals with the method and working of\nthe Emmanuel Clinic when brought into contact with persons suffering\nfrom maladies which appear to be primarily mental, moral and spiritual,\nand only secondarily physical, but which, nevertheless, defy the utmost\nefforts to console or to relieve.\n\n\nPSYCHIC HEALING:\n\nAn Account of the Work of the Church and Medical Union.\n\nCrown 8vo. sewed, 6_d._ net.\n\nNo one will deny that psychic healing is a question of paramount\ninterest at the present time. It is an everyday topic of conversation\nin the market place, the workshop, and in the schools. As a leader\nwriter in one of the chief medical papers pointed out the other day,\n\u2018spiritual or mental healing is going on all around us.\u2019\n\nThat psychic medicine is daily becoming of more value to the community\nmost people probably realise, but, if not properly controlled, it may\nlead to evils against which the public are entitled to be safeguarded.\n\nThis feeling prompted a small number of laymen to form themselves into\na Committee, and this Committee formed the nucleus of the Society now\nknown as the Church and Medical Union.\n\n\nLEGENDS OF OUR LORD & THE HOLY FAMILY.\n\nBy Mrs. ARTHUR BELL.\n\nWith 32 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. price 6_s._ net.\n\nThe present volume from the pen of the well-known author of \u2018The\nSaints in Christian Art\u2019 is an attempt to weave into a consecutive\nnarrative the more important of the many legends that have in the\ncourse of centuries gathered about the Gospel story, and reflect the\nnatural yearning of believers in Christ to learn all that is possible\nconcerning their LORD from those most closely associated with His\nlife on earth. Founded on a great variety of sources, including the\nApocryphal New Testament, the various MS. fragments of Gospels and\nSayings of Christ that have from time to time been discovered, with\nthe publications inspired by them, the book will, it is hoped, appeal\nalike to the serious student who delights in tracing tradition to its\nfountain-head and to the wider public able to recognise, without desire\nto analyse, the spiritual significance and poetic beauty of many of the\nquaint tales recited in it.\n\n\nARCHBISHOP TRENCH\u2019S WORKS.\n\nCOPYRIGHT EDITION.\n\n =SONNETS AND ELEGIACS.= With Portrait. Small pott 8vo. cloth, 1_s._\n 6_d._ net; lambskin, 2_s._ net. (_Dryden Library._)\n\nArchbishop Trench\u2019s poems have been well known and well loved for\nnearly half a century, and this little volume--which includes his\nprincipal shorter poems--should still further increase their popularity\nand make an acceptable gift-book.\n\n =THE STUDY OF WORDS.= Twenty-seventh Edition. Revised and Enlarged. By\n A. L. MAYHEW. 1_s._ 6_d._ net.\n\n =ENGLISH PAST AND PRESENT.= Fifteenth Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 1_s._ 6_d._\n net.\n\n =PROVERBS AND THEIR LESSONS.= Eleventh Edition. Enlarged. Fcap. 8vo.\n 1_s._ 6_d._ net.\n\n =NOTES ON THE PARABLES OF OUR LORD.= New and Cheaper Edition. Crown\n 8vo. 2_s._ net.\n\n =NOTES ON THE MIRACLES OF OUR LORD.= New and Cheaper Edition. Crown\n 8vo. 2_s._ net.\n\n\nTHE RESURRECTION NARRATIVES AND MODERN CRITICISM.\n\nBy THOMAS JAMES THORBURN, B.D., LL.D.\n\nDemy 8vo. 6_s._ net.\n\nIn this work, which is mainly a _critique_ of Professor Schmeidel\u2019s\ntheory that the recorded appearances of Jesus after His Crucifixion\nand Death were merely subjective hallucinations on the part of the\ndisciples and others, the writer endeavours to show that such a view is\nuntenable from a psychological point of view, as well as inconsistent\nwith the general tenor of the Narratives themselves.\n\nIn the Appendices he gives in addition the Extra-Canonical Versions of\nthe Resurrection, together with a critical abstract of all the various\ntheories which up to the present time have been proposed to explain\nthat event, including the most recent form of the original mythical\ntheory of Strauss.\n\nThe author hopes, and believes, that the work will be of especial\nuse, not only to parish clergy and ministers, but also to intelligent\nlaymen of all classes who wish to inform themselves regarding the\ndevelopments of theological thought, and to be able to form some idea\nof the value to be attached to modern critical theories dealing with\nthe Resurrection of Jesus.\n\n =THE DISCIPLES.= By Mrs. HAMILTON KING. Thirteenth Edition. Elzevir\n 8vo. cloth, 6_s._\n\n  Small crown 8vo. cloth, 5_s._\n  Dryden Library Edition. Pott 8vo. cloth, 1_s._ 6_d._ net.\n    \"       \"       \"         \"     leather, 2_s._ net.\n    \"       \"       \"         \"     velvet calf, 3_s._ net.\n\n =THE SERMON IN THE HOSPITAL= (from \u2018=The Disciples=\u2019). Fcap. 8vo.\n Leather, 2_s._ net. Cloth, 1_s._\n\n  Miniature Edition, leather, 1_s._ net.\n  Cheap Edition, sewed, 3_d._\n\n =WITHIN HOSPITAL WALLS.= By Lady LINDSAY. Miniature Edition, leather,\n 1_s._ net.\n\n =KEMPIS, THOMAS \u00c0.= =The Imitation of Christ.= Revised Translation.\n Elzevir 8vo. (_Parchment Library)_, vellum, 7_s._ 6_d._; parchment or\n cloth, 6_s._ Red Line Edition, fcap. 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._ Cabinet Edition,\n sm. 8vo. 1_s._ 6_d._; cloth limp, 1_s._ Miniature Edition, 32mo., with\n red lines, 1_s._ 6_d._; without red lines, 1_s._ Fancy Border Edition,\n 1_s._ 6_d._ net.\n\n =De Imitatione Christi.= Latin Text, Rhythmically Arranged, with\n Translation on Opposite Pages. Crown 8vo. 7_s._ 6_d._\n\n =Of the Imitation of Christ.= In four Books. Edition de Luxe Fcap.\n 4to. With fifteenth-century initial letters, printed in red and black\n on Aldwych hand-made paper. Edition limited to 500 copies for England\n and America. Bound in velvet roan and limp vellum. Price \u00a31. 1_s._ net.\n\n\nCOMPLETE WORKS.\n\n Vol. 1. =Prayers and Meditations on the Life of Christ.= A new and\n Complete Translation from the original Latin. By W. DUTHOIT, D.C.L.\n Fcap. 8vo. With Portrait. 5_s._ net in buckram; 10_s._ 6_d._ net in\n limp pigskin.\n\n Vol. 2. =Lives of the Followers of the New Devotion=: being the lives\n of Gerard Groote, Florentius Radewin, and their followers. Translated\n into English by J. P. ARTHUR. The Translation revised by the Prior of\n Downside. With Photogravure Frontispiece. Fcap. 8vo. 5_s._ net.\n\n Vol. 3. =The Chronicles of the Canons Regular of Mount St. Agnes.=\n Translated into English by J. P. ARTHUR. Crown 8vo. cloth, 5_s._ net.\n\n Vol. 4. =A Meditation on the Incarnation of Christ.= Sermons on the\n Life and Passion of our Lord; of Hearing and Speaking Good Words.\n Translated by Dom VINCENT SCULLY, C.R.L. Fcap. 8vo. 5_s._ net.\n\n Vol. 5. =Sermons to the Novices Regular.= Authorised Translation from\n the text of the edition of MICHAEL JOSEPH POHL, Ph.D., by Dom VINCENT\n SCULLY, C.R.L. Fcap. 8vo. 5_s._ net.\n\n Vol. 6. =The Imitation of Christ.= Fcap. 8vo. 5_s._ net.\n\n\nKEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TR\u00dcBNER & CO., LTD., London.","title":"Medicine and the Church: Being a series of studies on the relationship between the practice of medicine and the church's ministry to the sick","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":59879}