The morning journal-courier., 1908-03-09

| linl plia SttidllS liahC hNSh the greatest benefactors of the race
 venture to say that the leaders of the Emmanuel movement would not quarrel with President Eliot concern Ing this claim. They admit that or ganic disease is a terrible reality; but they would affirm that the greater number of maladies are not those of thls character. The leaders in this new school of religious therapeutic l would insist that there are more peo- Die in our American society who i'm agine themselves i'll. than there are i people who really are i'll. The craze Tor rapid gain, our system of social the foolish pursuit of pleasure, the use or drugs and stimulants and various 1 other causes-all have combined, rem der us a people whose national dis 1 ease is hysteria. It is the ills arising from these artificial conditions of life | that the Emmanuel treatment at temptS to remedy. Dr. McComb's own list of psychic ailments is impressive and includes "hysteria, which mani | Tests itself in exaggerated emotional | displays. such as intense craving for 1 sympathy and admiration. or in un- conscious stimulation of various dis eases, the fruit of an Unbalanced though by no means organically dis eased brain; hypochondria or the fix | ed but groundless belief that the sub ject is suffering from some particular disease; neurasthenia, which covers a vast variety or rierve-weaknesses from mild depression to extreme prostra- | ton; psycasthenia, in which the pa- tient has sense of incompleteness or of the unreality of time or of the strangeness of things In general, and is the subject of abnormal fears, and all kinds of practicalities; alcoholism. morphinism, cocainism and in general drug addictions which end in intel lectual and moral degeneration; in somnia. one of the terrible curses of modern life. and an aggravatlng fac tor in many diseases; religious melan- choly. in which the sufferer imagines himself to have committed the un- pardonable sin or believes that God has abandoned him; fits of anger. of hate, of groundless suspicion which the subject well recognizes but which he is powerlesss to conquer; and, final ly, suicidal impulses springing from utter disgust of life, sometimes from a sense of shame or despair"
 II Is such ailments as these, and these alone' I' mat the Emmanuel clinic under takes to treat. The evidence that 1t succeeds with great majority of such ailments is overwhelming They would not attempt to cure cancer or to heal broken leg. Indeed, they will take no case that has not received n thor ough diagnosis from a responsible phy- slcian. In It's philosophy it Is sharply II recognizes the realty of matter and the actual existence of disease. In its scientific attitude 1t affirms the value of anatomy, physiology and bateriology It's method, as I have said, is strictly sclentinc. It rests upon the teaching oi moral psychology that there is a mind beneath the mind; and to empha size this, use is made of the illustrations of the iceberg--the larger mass is beneath the waves. It is to this subconscious mind that the appeal is made in this method of suggestion. What is this bu,
 the same principle that Jesus used
 though he employed the religious word faith instead of the scientific word
 Faith, according to Jesus is curative agency-faith. I have said in the be. ginning, which operates in terms ol
 energizing will. What, may I ask, k this except prayer7 Modern psychologs believes firmly in prayer. The best sci, entihc minds have long recognized tha
 prayer has distinct hygienic value
 pr. Hyslop. the London specialist il
 neurology, gives this remarkable testi
 mony:
 AS one whose whole life has bee, concerned with the sufferlngs of tn,
 mind, I would state that of all hygi
 enio measures to counteract disturbed
 sleep, depressed spirits, and all the mis
 erable sequels of distressed mind
 would undoubtedly give the first plac,
 Here then, as clearly as I know how
 to outline it without going into tech
 nical detail, Is the claim of the Elm
 manuel movement set over against tha Of Christian Science Which is nor
 In accord with the healing ministry O Jesus? I answer, 1t depends entirel, on the view which you take of tn New Testament. If you accept the lit
 eral interpretation of the Gospel, rec
 ord, do not well see how you cal
 avoid the conclusion thtt Jesus heale all manner of diseases. I do not SC
 how you can escape the conviction ina he raised the dead. I do not see hoy you can get away from the statemen that he said his followers were to d , more wonderful works than he ha
 done. I do not see how you can explai the accounts of healing wrought b the disciples.
 Understand, I am not making an ar gument. l am not saying. just now that Jesus and his disciples did thes . wonderful things recorded, or that the 7 did them not. am simply af1rmin , that the Issue raised in this difference between the claims of Christian Scieno and the Emmanuel church demand that we face squarely the New Testa , ment problem. Is there any sound bas
 Is on which to conclude that Jesus an his disciples and the apostolic churc : generally succeeded in healing not on " functionel nervous disorders" bu
 organic diseases as well? The sstrengt
 Of Christian Science, on the side. Of it : teaching has sprung out of The Sfat f that it could point in the pages t , the New Testament to wonderful cure that parallelled it's widest 1Slainis l these wonderful acts of Jesus had bee I recorded of Jesus alone then we migl avoid the. difficulty by sayingJ Jthat | was absolutely unique But ,tney al 3 recorded of his followers. 0 cu, 3 by Peter, described in the J-s- of tf man at the gate of the temple wa , quite as sensational as this of Jest
 
 c 'Use rs.' connr on sense on Christja . Science. winnow out the good from If bad, admit that they have powers t cure a certain class of disea ses. whi B affirming that their claim to cure ever , disease outruns reason and makes |, mock of science I answer, Why the do not people use their common sen! on the New Testament? Why will the s not winnow out the grains of trut , from the chaff or tradition and supel U stition? Why is it such a ration e thing for the apostolic church to cul
 organic diseases and such an irration f thing for Christian Science to do i
 Why Is it such a rational thing for s - Paul to work a miracle and such 8 s irrational thing for Mrs. Eddy to f It? Let us be plain, that church whic :, brides itself upon the strctures of O thodoxy, that church which insists thi l. every page of the New Testament mu q be taken exactly as 1t Is written, tn . church which holds tenaciously to Il e 1 literal ipterrrata tiop of tg1a parpal -o