The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1909-01-21
Necessary in Order to be Free
From Morbid Fear,
Says DIR. Barker
WHAT GAVE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
Mental Healing is Often Efllcacious
Where Medical Science Fails
The Once-iiorn DO Not Permit the
Problem of Life to Worry Them.

muCn III iuTlSliuu CNiShNN anu h'Sh
t.. healing, and that they are often
eflicucious where medical science
fails. is the statement made by DR..
Liewellyn f. Barker. successor to
L William Osler. professor OF the
principles and practice of medicine
p. Johns Hopkins University. DR..
Barker said:
Some one has classified people
into two great groups-those who
are born once and those who need
to be born twice in order to be well
and happy. The once born develop
straight and naturally and pass
through life cheerfully and hopeful
ly without morbid fears. compunc-
tions or crises. Men like Ralph Wal
do Emerson, Edward Everett Hale
and Walt Whitman are examples,
perhaps, OF the once born type. Such
men do not permit themselves to be
-vorried by the so called problem OF
lilo. DR.. Hale states that as a young
man he had no idea whatever OF
what the problem of life was.
IF the once born see or hear OF
0Ni lhCg ibhohO ohus ShSAA ~ Go
to IL. hush it up. Any yielding to
the unhapp, frame of mind they re-
gard as wrong, no matter what the
external circumstances may be;
nothing can be more base and un-
v,rthy to thsm than what they
speak Of as the pining, pulling.
humping mood 1t is injurious to
n.
does not help out Of difficulty. 1t
only makes troubles persist. Such
moods, they maintain. should never
be permitted to control US. We
should discourage them In ourselves
and in others.
THE sanest exponent perhaps OF
the religion of healthy mindedness
Is Stevenson. Those OF you who
have read deeply in him know what
i mean. Though q nervous man him
self. subject to periods OF depression.
he fought his nervousness bravely.
He would teach us to approach life
with fearless confidence. with the
idea that life has an intense mean
ing and that Its meaning is good.
AAO was SPPOoOd w thihhih6 wv
much about life. His motto was to
live and be done with 1t. rather than
to die daily in sick room.
The people who need to be twice
porn. on the other hand. cannot un-
der stand this systematic healthy
minded attitude. Their tendency is.
as James put 1t, to maximize the
owl rho world rat no dnl h
erately TO minimize 1t, as the once
born DO. For the twice-born the
evil OF the world seems to be the
Eost important thing In life and
the key TO its Interpretation. Such
people cannot throw off the burden
of the consciousness of evil. Litera-
ture is full OF the revelations OF
these morbid minds. l neeo only re-
call to You such works as those OF
Luther. Bunyan and Tolstoy to show
you through what depths OF misery
such minds pass before they solve
their difficulties.
Corresponding to the once born
and the twice born characters there
have been two practical ways OF
s eking deliverance from the NOR
bid mind. The once born people tell
that evil depends largely upon
tn way men understand it. They
would have US SO happy that we are
almost blind to evil.
Out OF such views have grown
up new religious and philosophic
movements. the athletic Christianity
OF our time. the refusal by many to
give credence to the old hell-fire
theology. the insistence upon the
dignity rather than upon the deprav-
ity OF man, are instances in point.
Moreover the whole mind cure
movement, as developed by the
Christian Scientists and by the men,
tal healers and TO a certain extent
ny physicians themselves, is evidence
oi the tendency | have described.
Apparently many men and wo-
men VINO Tor long periods have the
mehtai symptoms OF the twice born
can be markedly influenced by the
mlnd-curer's Ideas. The vogue of
Christian Science. of mental heal
IN and OF medical psychotherapy in
this country is proof enough of this
fact.
But there are many who apply
TO Christian Science and to mental
healing and even to medical psyche
therapy for that matter who do not
recover. who apparently cannot thus
be influenced. Solution OF the
problem. deliverance from the diff
cuities. often comes to such, 1t would
appear. through what is known to
religion as the second birth. Some
times this new birth is sudden. some
times 1t is more gradual. Read the
accounts OF the conversion OF Toll
stoy and Bunyan"