Editorial March 18, 1905 Issue

The Gospel of Healing

Archibald McLellan

Most of us can remember the time, not so very long ago, when the fortunate possessor of a strong and healthy body was looked upon as a person in whom the spiritual nature was entirely lacking or, at the most, only superficially developed, and the clergyman who happened to be blessed with an abundance of health and bodily vigor was secretly suspected of being no better than Friar Tuck. Perhaps this picture may seem rather vivid to some, but, in the main, it will be accepted as a just portrayal of the condition of religious thought which prevailed in no distant past. Happily those days have gone by, and the gospel of good health is now preached by ministers of the orthodox churches as well as by Christian Scientists.

A recent address delivered by a distinguished clergyman of the Episcopal Church is reported by The Boston Globe as follows:—

"At the service of the Boston Y. M. C. A. yesterday afternoon Bishop W. N. McVickar, D. D., bishop of Rhode Island, declared that Christianity had often been misrepresented, to the point of perversion, because saints had been pictured as thin, cadaverous products of humanity, physically, and correspondingly weak and eviscerated spiritually. The idea had been incorporated into art and was often seen in the art galleries of the old world.

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