Editorial December 26, 1903 Issue

A Protest from the Pew

Physicians who have been inveighing against spiritual healing because of its faith element, and who have declared that this renders its claim to be scientific "wholly ridiculous," have been vigorously called to order by the editor of a leading news journal who ventures to remind them that this faith element enters very largely into all "orthodox doctoring." He says:—

"That medicine is often given rather for its effect upon the mind of the patient or those concerned about him, than for its effect upon the body, will probably pass without much of any question; and it is still true, as it always has been, that a robust physique in the physician, or a cheerful, hearty confidence, or faith-inspiring manner in the sick-room, are often of more importance than drugs and medicines, in so far as their effects upon the body are concerned. Here, then, we have a large element of faith-cure, as it were, entering into regular medical practice."

Such a recognition of the undoubtedly increasing use of a faith-factor by medical practitioners,—the steady encroachment of the mental prescription upon the whilom domain of the material,—is both pertinent and prophetic. The change in this respect among physicians generally during the last twenty-five years has been very great, and it is a very natural result of the marked lapse of public faith in the remedial power of drugs, and the greater familiarity of the people with the undeniable healings achieved through Christian Science. There is a great multitude of those who are now strong and well, and actively engaged in business or professional life, who were once sufferers from maladies which are pronounced incurable by physicians. Their testimony is being voiced in all lands, and its convincing force is constantly leading even the most prejudiced doubters to the point where it requires decidedly more credulity to deny the facts than to accept the proposition which they substantiate; namely, that the Christ-truth is still able to heal the sick, even as Christian believers generally declare that it did in the first century.

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