The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-08-11
SOULS, MINDS AND BODIES.
Sermon by Rev. John Alabaster at
the Meridian-Street Church.
The Reciprocal Influence Of Moral, Mental
and Physical Existence The Great
Importance Of Faith


ing, Rev. John Alabaster, D. D., preached to a
large audience, his theme being Religious Elk
perience and Physical Inirmity, or "Pills and
Prayer He took as his text Psalm kxvii, 10:
'And said this is my infirmity but will remem-
Der the years Of the right hand Of the Most High"
DR. Alabaster spoke substantially as follows:
Said a college president to theological class of
| which was a member "In the course of your
ministry you will find cases that need pills more
| than prayers This fell strangely on my ear
did not then know that cases of spiritual de-
spondency are not uncommon, whose only or
/ chief cause is bodily infirmity. Cases Of spirit
! ual dependency are found among old and
| young. There are cases of luctuating expert
/ ence now characterized by great joy, then by
j dependency. The text is taken from one of
/ David's psalms, and affords an illustrious in
stance Of the influence of bodily disorder to
cloud religious enjoyment How bitterly the
/ psalmist bewails his condition before God 1t is
| an awful spiritual trial through which the royal
| believer is passing. He scarcely knows how to
account for it, for he is conscious of no special
sin But he finally solves the mystery: This is
my infrmity," and he says my sore ran in the
| night and ceased not
/ A wise puritan divine Rev. Richard Green
ham, once said to brother minister who was in
/ spiritual darkness There is great deal of
| wisdom requisite to consider both the state of
| the body and of the soul If a man that is
troubled in conscience comes to a minister it
may be he will look all to the soul and nothing
to the body if he cometh to physician he CON
sidereth the body and neglecteth the soul For
my part would never have the physicians
counsel despised nor the labor of the minister
neglected. because the soul and body dwelling
together, it is convenient that as the soul should
be cured by the word, by prayer, by fasting or
by comforting, so the body must be brought
into sane temperature by physic and diet, by
harmless diversions and such like ways; pro-
viding, always, that it be done in the fear of
God as not to think by these ordinary means
n11i 10 10Th 11,14+ 10
use them as preparations whereby our souls may
be made more capable of the spiritual methods
that are to follow afterward
Mr.. Wesley studied medicine that he might be
more successful as minister and in that
nobler, grander age of the world and of the
church, yet to come, it may be demanded that
the minister shall be physician, metaphysician
and philosopher, as well as theologian. The re-
ciprocal influences of the mind and body are
many and powerful Said the Scotch philoso-
pher, Reid: Medical cannot be separated from
moral science without reciprocal and essential
mutilation.
Consider some instances of the influence of
mind on body. No person acquainted with the
care of the sick can fail to know how materially
their recovery depends upon a hope exercised by
the patient. Every physician seeks to inspire
hope. do not think should hazard either my
judgment or veraclty, in the estimation of any
skilled physician, by saying that at least fifty
per cent of the success of medical practice de
ponds upon the hope which mingles with the
medicine 1t is a common observation in army
practice that the sick and wounded of the de-
feated side are more liable to die than those of
the victorious party. tits one of the annoying
facts to regular practitioners that quacks and
their nostrums so Otter succeed in effecting
cures. The reason is obvious While the
really skilled physician, who comprehends the
difficulties of the case ana hesitates to inspire
large hopes of recovery might fail. the quack
who knows little by his very assurance and the
hope he inspires, succeeds. So does the Bible
arlx- a. Of 1..k
of the deepest principles of the philosophy of
daily life when it says, I'VE are saved by hope
Not less potent is joy in its influence upon the
physical man. Solomon says: "A merry heart
doeth good likea medicine, but broken spirit
dryeth the bones. The excess of Joy has some.
times proved fatal by its too great influence upon
the circulatory or nervous systems
1t is not figure of speech to say that people
die of grief. The decision of the medical coun-
Gil that attended General Robert E. Lee of the
Southern Confederacy, was that he died of a
broken heart He found himself historically
connected with slost cause" Undoubtedly
many diseases and deaths are caused by a NOR
IBID condition of mind, operating on the vital
organs of the body. Fear is another of those
strange mental states which make their mark
upon the physical man. The fear Of disease has
often been known to produce disease.
We are all converSant with the power of mag
ination, 1t is not impossible for you even TO
scent the fragrance Of the cloverfelds, and smell
the new mown hay. in the graphic description of
the skillful speaker. Dumas the novelist, pub
lished one of his productions in parts in a Paris
paper. The heroine was consumptive. All
the slow and gradual symptoms were touchingly
described, and great interest was excited among
the readers of the story for the fate of the young
lady. One day the Marquis Dalomien called
on the novelist and said: Dumas, have You
composed the close of your story4n Yes said
the writer Does the heroine die in the end2"
'sOf course dies of consumption You must
change that,n said the MARQUIS land make her
live Il cannot Yes you must: for on your
heroine's life depends nv daughters. She has ali
the various symptoms which You have described
and watches mournfully for every part Of your
novel, reading her own fate in that of the con
sumptive Now, if you can make YOUR heroine
live, my daughter whose Imagination has been
deeply impressed, will live also.p Dumas CHANGED
his last chapter his heroine recovered and 5as