Contents Review

AUTHOR OF “THE YOUNG MAN’S AFYAIHS,” “THE SOCIAL MESSAGE OP THE MODERN PULPIT,” “THE MAIN POINTS,” AND “THE STRANGE WAYS OP GOD”

NEW YORK THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY

PUBLISHERS

THE HEALING MIRACLES OF CHRIST

MODERN FAITH CURES

THE PROS AND CONS OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

THE HEALING POWER OF SUGGESTION

Tnn EMMANUEL MOVEMENT

THE GOSPEL OF GOOD HEALTH

THE CHURCH AND DISEASE

THE wise man, were he alive to-day, could slightly amend his original statement and feel quite sure of winning general assent -“ Of the making of health books there is no end.” We find issuing from the press a steady stream of volumes written, some in support of and some in opposition to “Christian Science,” “The New Thought,” “The Emmanuel Move­ment,” “The Power of Suggestion,” and all the other forms in which a widespread popular interest is manifesting itself. The endeavor in these pages has been to bring together in a single volume and in simple language some of the main arguments which may be properly advanced in this general con­tention, and to indicate in briefer compass the line along which, in the judgment of the author, genuine progress may be expected in seeking increased physical efficiency through the aid of mental and spiritual forces.

The larger part of the material in the sixth chapter was formerly used in a little booklet entitled “The Gospel of Good Health,” pub­lisiied by The Pilgrim Press, Boston, in its “Envelope Series,” and it is republished here by their kind permission. It has been freely retouched.

IT is highly suggestive that in the Greek New Testament the word translated in cer­tarn passages “to save is translated in other passages “to heal” or “to make whole.” This would seem to indicate that the ultimate purpose of both these restorative processes is the same. Salvation is wholeness, soundness, complete­ness of life. And conversely, for a man to be truly “in good health” means not only that his digestion, circulation and other bodily functions are all working properly, but that he is also upright, aspiring and useful.

The one word applied to both processes also points back to the common source of heal­ing energy. The psalmist of old sang praises to his Lord who had forgiven all his iniquities and healed all his diseases. He was sound in his philosophy, for in the last analysis it is one and the same divine energy which operates upon the body and upon the soul. It is one divine energy which operates, now utilizing thoughts and desires, impulses and confi­dences; now utilizing fresh air and pure water, wholesome food and chemical sub­stances, useful exercise and congenial employ­ment. In either case we have the same divine energy at work restoring, up-building and completing the life according to a purpose eternally beneficent.

It is natural, therefore, it is inevitable, that the relations between religion and medicine should be close. It is altogether fitting that the pastor who ministers to the moral life, which in turn reacts upon physical health, and the physician who ministers to the body, which in turn reacts upon the formation of character, should be on sympathetic and cor­dial terms, each one doing his own work, and each one doing it better if he attempts only that for which he is adapted and trained. In these chapters I hope to indicate clearly how these two arms of a common service to human well-being may best be maintained in those forms and relations which shall be most ad­vantageous to the people who are to profit by such a combined ministry The Saviour of the soul is known also as the Great Physician. It is not inappropriate, therefore, in considering the relation of re­ligion to health to speak first of those acts in His life which are known as His healing miracles. It is inaccurate and unfair to define a miracle as “a violation of law,” or as a piece of magic introduced, no one knows how, for the amazement of the people. A miracle is a result wrought by divine power according to laws which at present lie outside the field of ordinary experience. In what we call the operation of natural law we find when we look closely “a divine purpose moving steadily across the ages, keeping its appointments with foreseen human needs” and ministering to them with differences of administration, but in the same abiding spirit of intelligent help­fulness. And in those events called miracu­lous, .we find this same divine energy mani­