New-York tribune., 1919-06-10

cause she was afraid of slipping on
the wet, streets.
IN place of the gray business suit
ne mad been wearing since coming to
New York, Mr.. Hickson appeared yes
terday in black clerical-looking garb.
Despite the rain the chapel was
thronged with insistent crowds. Seven
hundred sick people are being treat
ed, and unless Mr.. Hickson extends the
period OF his stay in New York, scores
VINO are anxious to reach him will be
turned away unsatisfed.
The age of miracles is past" said
Or. A. A Brill, nerve specialist and
psychologist, when seen by Tribune
reporter yesterday. 81 sincerely wish
1T wese not. We need miracles very
nadly, and l would be the first to be-
lleve in them if my reason and expert
ence would allow me to. Speaking
frankly and without prejudice, do not
believe any case that is organic can be
cured by faith. 1t has never happened
within my knowledge. There are GER
tain functional psychic cases that can
be helped by psychic therapy. I'm
doubtedly there are people who can be
temporarily helped by religious faith.
have seen dozens of cases apparently
cured in this way, but the patients
always lapsed again.
1T is quite conceivable that a Grip
pied man might get up and run on his
reserve energy if he were sufficiently
excited or drawn out of himself" con-
tlnued DR.. Brill. "But his strength
wouldn't hold out. And his spurt
probably would leave him worse than
before.
understand, I am only generaliz-
ing. l have made no study of what
Mr.. Hickson is doing. l am speaking
OF the many cases which have come
under my own observation. To give
you an example of what l mean about
very sick people grasping at straws:
l once gave woman sugar pill and
she wrote twenty-five pages on the
beneficial effects it had had upon her.
"The functionally i'll may be helped
temporarily if they have sufficient re-
ligious faith, but for the organically
diseased it is out of the question"
Mr.. Hickson himself is frank on this
question. "The cases most benefited
by mental healing are those of weak
and nervous patients" he said. "In
these it presupposes and demands some
power of conscious cooperation; it
works, as it were, by self-sugge stion;
it is subjective and thus cannot af-
feet those cases most needing it where
the personality itself is affected, the
mind deranged, the will paralyzed, the
mental faculties obscured. Nothing
can rise above it's source; mental heal
ing cannot rise above the mental
plane.
Up to Fifth Century
up to the fifth century sacramental
healing was part of the ministry of
the church. 1t is recorded by ST. Mat
thew that Jesus healed all manner of
diseases and all manner of sickness.
After Pentecost the number of cases
of healing are startling, and until
about the fifth century the church re-
tanned more or less of it's power to
heal the body. Indications are not
wanting to-day of a desire in the
church to claim once more our Lords
promises of the gifts of healing by
the laying on of hands, with prayer.
Sometimes it is asked: How is it
that there are so few healers. and
why is the healing touch so seldom
used?' Chiefly because, having lost
faith in that touch, it is lying dormant
and unused in the majority of people
to whom it has been given; and, again,
some who feel they have this power
within them are kept from exercising
it by timidity and fear of appearing
preSumptuous"