Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1908-04-30

no hazy way, but very definitely, then.
we are our brothers keepers, respon-
sible for the worlds stock of cheer
and faith. The home is the peculiar
field for the operation Of this sub
conscious power. There the quickest
of sympathy exists, there influence Is
felt most readily and most deeply.
The atmosphere of home, although
a hackneyed term, expresses clearly
defined reality. The atmosphere Is
the spirit of the house, emanating
from the deep we'll OF the subcon-
scious mind Of the homekeeper. God
has created no more gracious figure
in His great world than that of the
wife and mother, who gives to the
very place of her abode her own
quiet, buoyant, soothing spirit. What
she Is in the unsounded deeps of her
being will appear in time In the house
where she dwells and in the faces OF
the little children that look up to
her. On the other hand, the home OF
the card-club woman and the home
of the gad-about! Who does not
know them and shudder at the
thought? Their atmosphere Is that
of restlessness and spiritual poverty.
Woe betide her children and her hus-
band: for she cannot give them, after
their day of temptations and vexa-
ton, that by which they are renewed,
the spirit of peace and quiet conf
dence in good.
II. Now, 1t will sometimes happen
that. despite our best endeavors, we
shall be overborne in the press. Ill
ness comes on, whatever the cause,
and the causes are often complex.
What are we to do? Every physician
would join with me, believe, in say
ing: make the spiritual attitude cor
rect. To use the Technology of the
books, give yourself the auto-sugges-
lions of courage, confidence in God.
faith in His willingness and power to
care for and restore you. Make 1t
the genuine conviction Of your spirit
that God does provide for all His
creatures. Rest in the promises OF
divine health with which the Scrip
lures abound. If there Is any cause
of irritation, remove 1t, II 1t be pos
sible, by the right action on your
part. Nothing is more irritating
than harboring vigorous grudge.
need not remind you how strictly
scriptural is all this method of Great
ing a correct mental attitude; and
believe that your own careful obser-
walton would come to my support In
the statement that the great majority
of the diseases from which our house
holds suffer can be finally traced 20
the fret and ambition of our present
life. As the pastor, then, of your
souls and the minister of the Lord
Jesus Christ, who, through faith, re-
stored the body, would exhort you
to cultivate to the utmost the virtues
that Christ always insisted upon
trust in God, humility, self-forgetful-
ness, forgiveness, sincerity.
Still, in many cases, the conditions
of i'll health will continue. What Is
to be done then? Manifestly, IL the
trouble be serious, 1t is the time to
employ the physician, who can dag
nose the case and prescribe the regu-
lations under which recovery can be
most rapid. I earnestly hope that In
the excitement of this new discovery
of the therapeutic power that is In
the mind no one here will believe that
he is privileged to sin against either
himself or his brother. All laws Of
action are laws of God. The best re-
suits ensue when we learn how to
use all Of Gods laws in harmony with
each other. Quinine is just as much
a creation of the divine spirit as Is
the mind of man, and we may as well
acknowledge that infection is
process likely to take place under pre-
vailing conditions, unless guarded
against.
The employment of mental healing
in cases of physical disorder Is the
employment Of a therapeutic agency.
You may use medicines IL you see fit
and they produce the results, al
though as matter Of fact medical
practice of the present day makes
less and less Of the treatment by
drugs and more and more of the
treatment by the natural agencies Of
rest, air and water. On the other
hand, you may employ the mental
healer, provided your own spirit Is so
attuned to the spiritual life that you
are able to receive its benefits. My
own belief is that those who are
wonted to the spiritual life-by which
l mean the life of communion with
God through prayer, the life Of faith
in a controlling power, and Of inter-
est in the life of the spirit In Its
higher manifestations--are best pre-
pared for the reception of these ben
efits. No one can be benefited who
sets himself even secretly against his
healer, who prefers his own willard
way to the will and way of God, or
who cherishes a false self pride in his
own condition. The only way of
restoration Is the sincere and humble
committal of oneself into the hands
&C God that He may work His restor-
ing will. One must learn the very
heart of the meaning OF the sixth
chapter of Matthew, the core of which
Is the insistence upon the necessity of
the genuine union of the life of man
with God. If there is one place in
which no deception is possible 1t is
in this relation of life with God.
Whoever the healer may be. the pre-
requisite to success Is the sincere de-
sire of the patient to be helped.
Greater than the desire of having
ones own way, and of cherishing
ones own foible, must be the desire
to receive that more abundant life
that Christ came to bring.
Therefore, while, on the one hand,
this Is only system of therapeutics,
on the other, 1t is system the sue
cess of which is so intimately related
to the attitude of a mans spirit to-
ward the infinite that 1t becomes a
matter of religion.