The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-10-07

ones performance. Without ever pre-
senting anything which may rightfully be
called by the strong name of Evidence;
and sometimes without even mentioning
a reason for a deduction at all. it thun-
ders out the startling words, Il have
Proved" so and so! 1t takes the Pope
and all the great guns OF his church in
battery assembled to authoritatively set
tie and establish the meaning of sole
and single unclariied passage of scrip
ture, and this at vast cost of time and
study and reflection, but the author of
this work is superior to all that; she
finds the whole Book in an unclariied
condition, and at small expense of time
and no expense of mental effort she clari-
t1es it from lid to lid, reorganizes and
improves the meanings, then authorita-
lively settles and establishes them with
formulate which you cannot tell from Let
there be light" and Here you have iti''
1t is the first time since the dawn-days
of Creation that a Voice has gone crash
ing through space with such placid and
complacent confidence and command.
No one Enthusiastically not THAT
the mind exercises a powerful influence
over the body. From the beginning of
time, the sorcerer, the interpreter Of
dreams, the fortune teller, the charlatan,
the quack, the wild medicine man, the
educated physician, the mesmerist, and
the hypnotist, have made use of the eli
ent's imagination to help them in their
work. They have all recognized the po
tency and availability of that force. Ply
sicians cure many patients with a bread
pill; they know that where the dis
ease is only a fancy, the patients conf
dence in the doctor will make the bread
pill effective
Faith in the doctor. Perhaps that is the
entire thing. 1t seems to look like it.
In old time the King cured the kings
evil by the touch of the royal hand. He
frequently made extraordinary cures.
Could his footman have done it? No
not in his own clothes. Disguised as the
King could he have done it? l think we
may not doubt it. / think we may feel
sure that IT was not the Kings touch that
made the cure in any instance, but the
patients faith in the efficacy of Kings
touch. Genuine and remarkable cures
have been achieved through contact with
the relics of saint. Is it not likely that
any other bones would have done as we'll
il the substitution had been concealed
from the patient? When 1 was a boy
farmers wife who lived five miles from
our village had great fame as faith
doctor-that was what she called herself.
Sufferers came to her from all around,
and she laid her hand upon them and
said, Have faith-it is all that is neces-
sary," and they went away well of their
ailments. She was not religious woman,
and pretended to no occult powers. She
said that the patients faith in her did the
work. Several times l saw her make i'm
mediate cures of severe toothaches. My
mother was the patient In Austria there
is a peasant who drives a great trade
in this sort of industry and has both the
high and the low for patients. He gets
into prison every now and then for prac-
ticing without diploma, but his business
is as brisk as ever when he gets out for
his work is unquestionably successful and
keeps his reputation high. In Bavaria
there is man who performed so many
great cures that he had to retire from his
profession of stage carpentering in order
to meet the demand of his constantly in
creasing body of customers. He goes on
from year to year doing his miracles
and has become very rich. He pretends
to no religious helps, no supernatural
aids but thinks there is something in
his makeup which inspires the conf
dence of his patients, and that it is this
confidence which does. the work and not
some mysterious power issuing from
himself
Within the last quarter Of a century
in America, several sects of curers have
Or sod aTio nj how
done notable things in the way of heal
ing ailments without the use of medi-
clines. They are the Mind Cure, the Faith
Cure, the Prayer Cure, the Mental
Science Cure; and apparently they all
do their miracles with the same old pow
erful instrument-the patients imagi-
nation. Difference in names, but no diff
ference in the process. But they do not
give that instrument the credit; each sect
claims that its way differs from the
ways of the others.
They all achieve some cures, there is
no question about it. and the Faith Cure
and the Prayer Cure probably do no harm
when they do no good. since they do not
forbid the patient to help out the cure
with medicines if he wants to; but the
others bar medicines, and claim ability
to cure every conceivable human ailment
through the application of their mental
forces alone. They claim ability to cure
malignant cancer, and other affections
which have never been cured in the his
tory of the race. There would seem to
be an element of danger here. 1t has
the look of claiming too much, l think.
Public confidence would probably be in
creased if less were claimed.
l believe it might be shown that all
the mind sects except Christian Science
have lucid intervals; intervals in which
they betray some diffidence, and in eff
feet confess that they are not the equals
of the Deity; but if the Christian Scien-
fist even stops with being merely the
equal of the Deity it is not clearly prob
able by his Christian-Science Amended
Bible. In the usual Bible the Deity recog-
nzes pain, disease and death as facts,
but the Christian Scientist knows better
Knows better, and is not diffident about
saying So
The Christian Scientist was not able
to cure my stomach ache and my cold;
but the horse doctor did it. This con-
vinces me that Christian Science claims
too much. In my opinion it ought to let
diseases alone and confne itself to sur
gerry. There it would have everything