The Southland advocate., 1950-04-15

| Testament seems very real: Take
off thy shoes. for the place where
! thou art standing is holy ground -
! These moments of greatness, of
course are the moments when the
! preacher is able to bring the heal
| ing resources of the spiritual
world to bear upon a sick or bro
ken human life. Sorrow, sickness,
Illustration, bereavement. can peel
back a life to it's central core and
reveal there the raw wound that
only a spiritual therapy will heal.
The moment of greatness comes
when the minister becomes the
celebrant of the mystery, when
through word, a prayer, a verse
of scripture, he meditates between
God and man and becomes the
1nstrumentalilty by means of
which the LESSONS of the soul are
healed. No one who has ever con-
vinced would-be suicide that
life was worth living, or who has
| talked man out of murder. or
who has assured the parents of
three lovely children suddenly
snatched from this life in a street
accident, that it was not death
10 die, can ever forget the exper-
lence. The minister. in such cir
cumstances, can never feel sorry
for himself because he is in a pro-
fesslon which is poorly paid, peo-
pied with pious frauds. and held
IN genteel contempt by a major
ity Of the populace.
OF course, in order to experi-
! ence these high moments, the
| minister himself must know
that the spiritual world is a real
"orld-perhaps the only real
world - that its resources are
there, and that he can tap them
A large part of the disrepute in
which the ministry is held TODAY
is attributable to what Prof. Sor-
okin of Harvard has called "our
sensate culture" To the material
lst, to those whom Steve Benet
once called "the barren husbands
of the gold" the practitioner of the
! prlmacy of the spiritual world
(prIest, minister or rabbi) must
| appear to be a footing nincom
| poop chasing a will-o'-t wisp.
But our sensate culture is dis
appearing, along with behavioris-
nc psychology and materialistic
science and the spiritual world
the world on non-material value
Is taking on new stature and res
pectabiIity. The atomic scientists
nave discovered that there really
is no such thing as matter, and
the parapsychologists (studvinn
Phenomena that is beyond ex-
PLANTATION by ordinary psychology
are turning up, at Duke Univer.
slty and elsewhere, amazing nev
evidence of what one of them
Dr, j. B. Rhine, one of the conn.
try's most distinguished psvchoIo.
slsts. recently told an audience
at Town Hall in New York thai
according to minimum re1uire.
ments' the soul theory has beer
| confirmed"
Ihus, as the spiritual world ra.
covers the intellectual respectable.
lty 1t had in the Middle Ages
ministry priesthood and rabbi.
nate recover the repute in whicl
tney were once held.
That the resources of tbo s,,ir;+
uaI world are real and that there
Is healing power in them wa.
brought home to me very early ir
my ministry when, as a voune
preacher in the wilds of Montana
was called to the bedside Of .
uylng boy, 1t was a. m. of :
lee|lhg January morning when
arrived at the cabin where Jimm,
lay Ill of pneumonia. and if wa,
Ihe flrst time I had ever heo,
called on to solace the divine, anf
comfort the bereaved. I arrived
10 flnd the doctor drinking COFFEE
IN the kitchen.
Jimmy can't last the night
ne told me, "and it's not tb.
pneumonia that's killing him IT,
came through that all right -
PASSED the crisis several davs ago
but ne won't pick up. and nov
mes gone way back. don't nm.
uerstand it. It's just as though h,
olont figure life was worth FIGHT.
ing for, That's why we sent fo,
you He's got one chance in .
hundred, and that one chance !,
lor you or somebody to say some.
thlng to him that will make him
start to fight. You've GOT to fry
70 give him a sort of a transfus-
ION not of blood. but of faith
And frankly, l don't think Won
can do it,"
10 tell the truth. didn't think
so either. I hadn't the faintest
iuea or what to say. | was not
even sure Jimmy could hear me
Tor he was in a coma. His parents
were standing beside the bed,
| waiting for the miracle. Looking
at them, l knew that they had
PINNED all their hopes on me, and
l didn't believe in miracles,
stood beside the bed and pray
ed. 1 prayed quietly. not that the
boy might live, but that he might
know strength and peace. Then
repeated the LORDS Prayer. and
| the twenty-third Psalm. I read
from the Sermon on the Mount.
and from Pauls letters. The room
was calm. The boy did not open