The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-11-24
sCHLTATER AS A MESSIAH.

where has he SOut' w Hclc IL
Francis Schlatter, the Denver Healer
are question which may be answered
before these lines shall appear in print,
but where he really Is no one seems TO
know at this hour. His mysterious
withdrawal to the mountains or else
where is the talk OF the newspapers Of
all the land. His picture which Is
appearing in the metropolitan dailies
as taken from recent Denver photo
graph is an impressive one. But
whether In the mountains, on the
plains or In retirement with some
friend, he has taken up much of the
thought of many people for the past
few weeks That he Is a sincere man
few doubt. His face, his acts, and all
he says bear the impress Of sincerity.
He believes that he has gift to cure.
Schlatter Is in all likelihood humble,
ignorant, earnest Christian. If there
be any delusion In his career he Is the
chief victim of 1T. He comes Of q race
that has produced a remarkable list Of
mystic religionists from old John Taul-
er through the prince Of mystics, Jacob
Boehme, to George Muller of Halber-
stadt, who built the celebrated orphan
houses at Bristol, England.
There is nothing novel or unwonted
in the role played by Schlatter, al
though the phenomena came in a var
iety Of forms. Schlatter's pictures
remind one of those of Joseph, who
takes the part of Jesus in the miracle
play at Oberammergan. His contempt
of money is like that of Father Ivan,
who went from Cronstadt in 1894 to
heal the car.
1t seems that there is class Of dis
eases amenable to excitements, and
closely connected with nerve disorders
Paley, in his Christian Evidences a
century ago, classified them as sob
structive" diseases. The professed
miracles of the age he found to be
chiefly among this sort of maladies.
They We're in the nature of paresiS,
and had SYMPTOMS of lameness, i'm
paired vision, and even of organic ir-
Irregularities. Such is the character Of
the cures attributed to Schlatter for the
most part. In the modern studies of
hypnotism science has endeavored with
some success to encroach on this do
main of marvellous healing. But one
great trouble is that science has found
no way of introducing into pharmacy
the remedies of imagination, faith. |
personal magnetism, popular excite |
ment and reviyals. The situation is |
clear enough. Physicians will not deny |
the therapeutic efficacy of such in |
fiuences, but they can find no substi- |
tute for them. Nor can they reduce |
them to tablets and tinctures. The |
remedies that Father Ivan and Schlat- !
ter employ are not supernatural, nor |
even marvellous. They are distinctly
understood, but they are moral and
So long as there shall /
be this domain of passivity TO be
upon by personal or social
so long as there shall be Their
apeutic value in imagination and men
tai conditions. there will be scope for
wonderful cures and the rise Of mir
and false MeSsiahs. 1t
IS plainuiye and touching when men
arise, like the Denver Healer" who
are as much the victims of their own
illusions as the people who are cured
by them. The phenomena are harm
less; the benefits are often real; the
furore transitory: the results to medical
art or TO science. or even TO religion,
trivial