Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1893-03-12
EMOTIONS NOT ALWAYS WRONG


the Portland Oregonian attributes the
success of the revival to the "profes-
sional gospel singers who were present
to aid the revivalist." Commenting
upon the propensity of certain people
to yield to their emotions, the Ore
gonian says:
OThere is nothing in this revival that the
most superficial student of human nature
Of the emotional type cannot understand.
1t has been eXemplified a thousand times
at camp meetings, where between stanzas
of rhythmic alteration and eXhortation
rising in mighty chorus, sinners have
been urged to come forward, seek forgive
ness and make their peace, calling and
election sure" the whole reaching a eli
max OF mingled shouting, singing and
prayer more suggestive of temporary in
sanity of an infectious order than of the
calm and peace Of religious hope.
Here is a grand combination Of inllu-
ences that will exert a potent and tempo
rarily moving force upon a certain order
of minds as long as sagacious evangelists
and sweet-voiced gospel-singers choose to
evoke its power. Such scene, whether
tits enacted upon the camp ground, lighted
by the weird, uncertain glimmer Of pine
knots and torches, or under the glare Of
electric lights in a city tabernacle, pre-
sents the triumph Of the emotion 5, skill
fully and Systematically played upon,
over reason, temporarily silenced by the
clamor with which it has been assailed.
The proof of this, If proof is needed,
is seen in the return, in vast ajority of
cases, to a more practical view of life
present and reasonably prospective-of
the individual after the storm of emotion
has spent its force,
1t is evidently no injustice to the jour
nal from which the above quotation has
been taken to conclude that the writer
is opposed to emotional meetings"
and gives but little of his respect to the
Temporary insanity of the infectious
order" which assails those who yield to
the influence of their emotions. 1t is
notable that writers on this subject
generally have their critical faculty
awakened into activity over the results
Of emotional religious meetings." and
have little to say about the emotional
part of an audience at theater, or at
the stock exchange of Chicago or New
York, where more emotional insanity"
is crowded into any half hour of the
business period of the day than in any
week Of religious services. Neither is
the subject called forth over the "emo-
tional insanity" of a political meeting,
or when a regiment of soldiers, under
the inspiration of martial music, rush to
certain death in the heat of battle
Then emotional insanity is heroism
and worthy of all praise and COM
mendation.
Students of psychology generally
agree that the sensibility is higher than
the intellect in that it possesses the
intellect and contains in addition ele-
ments not possessed by the intellect,
and the day will not be a happy one
for the human race when it has reached
the ideal implied by the Oregonian,
when the emotions are so thoroughly
held in allegiance as to resist all conta-
gion of inspiration and enthusiasm. 1t
is all too cheap for certain writers to
sneer at the emotional part of human
nature as verging on the insane. The
Oregonian concludes its criticism by
saying that in such cases the reason of
the devotee has been Temporarily
silenced," the proof of which is "seen
in the return, in vast majority of
cases, to more practical view of life of
the individual after the storm of emo
ton has spent its force" If the writer
means that many converts prove false
to the professions made under the in
huence Of their emotions he is perfectly
safe, but his professedly keen insight
into human nature failed in
discerning the cause. Those who
desert the path dictated by their
aroused emotions do not always Weld
to the promptings of reawakened rea-
son so mucn as 10 the weakness of
character reasserting itself, and to the
inability of will too far destroyed by
selfishness and imbecility to continue
the higher life aspired to in the mo-
ment Of the aroused emotions, not
specially for religious or church life
but for nobler and better living and a
firmer discharge Of the responsibilities
common to every relationship of life
The implied declaration that when the
emotions are aroused reason is necessa-
rily held in allegiance shows a lament
able Ignorance on the part of the Ore
gonian's critic, in the light of psychol-
ogy, which asserts that human reason
has reached higher altitude of con-
ception in almost every branch of hu.