Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1912-06-13
SOULS ARE NOT LOST;
ARE SIMPLY DISEASED.
Those Who Find Pleasure In
Drunkenness and Lust Pos
sess Diseased Souls.
BY DR.. Frank Gran.

BY DR.. Frank Crane.
We use the word Lost" in several
senses.
Grandmother has lost her spectaces.
They are upon her hair, but she cannot
find them. In this sense lost means SIM
ply misplaced
We may have lost an opportunity. a
day, bargain. in which case we refer
to what We might have had, but missed.
We may lose life or limb or money.
signfyng that something is no longer in
our possession
But what is meant when we sneak OF a
mans losing his own soul?
ones soul is ones self. and cannot lose
The little girl spoke accurately who.
when asked # She was lost. replied: NO,
ann not lost mamma is lost
he real significance of the saying that
one may lose his own soul is that the
soul may lose its health. and consequent
IS IT'S happiness in other words. that it
may drop from normal condition into
ahnormalitN and perverson.
In plain English salvation is mental,
spiritual health: damnaton Is spiritual
sickness In the one case the soul is
sound. sane. enjoys good digestion, Is
vigorous in its -mnotiuns and joyous in
ITS world. as are all healthy beings. In
the othe, case it IS fun of fevered fears,
siekly ranseas pains and spasms.
l'hos" who find their pleasure in cham
herring and wanionness in drunkenness
and cruelty. in other words all whose end
is tine qualification of the ply steal de
mands, simply il
Their souls are ILL., They correspond to
those Georgia crackers who eat clay to
the stnall child who sucks her thumb to
opium smokers and To all those unfortu-
mates who an. driven to crafty cravings
that destroy health
normal appetite differs from an abb
normal in that ii promotes those pleas
lres that are permanently pleasurable.
All ahnormalities produce those pleas
iiies that itch initiate burn and torment
What We term moral actions are simply
those which the experience of the race
has demonstrated to result in unreacting
pleasure. They have no reaction of dis
eased disgust
or course the best souls have their SUI
ferins and tragedies. but they are only
outward. they meyer affect the inward,
essential peace. pose and health-joy of
h. soul
Jesus was "a man of sorvows' but He
said My peace sive unto you" and
that He came that our Joy might be
full
So no soul can be lost by anything the
world can y" To it: only by what ii can
do IA itself
The implication in Ibsen. Oscar Wilde
and Bernard Shaw, and the whole run of
latte, day preachers of unmoralsm, to
he effect hat quite as much harm may
be done by good BIZ bad people, Is
merely confusion of thought They do
not distinguish between that pain which
is rr,lrmptive. purifying and deepening
~ human nature. and that palm which Is
the diseased product OF human nature
gone WRONG.
Rest assured. morality Is based on fact.
Just AS surely as chemistry Nobody in
vented IL Nobody viii! explain II away.
Says one of the cearest thinkers OF our
time: Moral duty consists in the OBJ
s..rvance of those rules of conduct which
contribute to the welfare of the society
and of the individuals who compose it.
These rules, like the other so-caled laws
Of nature are discoverable by observa-
tinn and experiment Some thousands OF
years of such experience have led to the
congratulations that stealing and murder.
for instance. are inconsistent with the
ends of society. There is no more doubt
they are than that unsupported stones
will fall"
The soul that does not believe this liz
lost That is to say he is as sure to lose
his souls health as he would by reRu
larly eating impure food be sure to lose
his bodily health.