Editorial March 25, 1905 Issue

A Passing Anomaly

John B. Willis

It is doubtful if the present age presents a more surprising and incongruous spectacle than that of the pronounced opposition of many Christian ministers to the asserted possibility and experience of spiritual healing, The great body of evangelical clergymen accept the New Testament narrative of this healing as historically true, and, if questioned, they would probably say that all things are possible to him that believeth; nevertheless, both in their manifest removal from any thought of trying to profit by the privilege themselves, as well as in their ofttimes outspoken condemnation of those who are conscientiously endeavoring to fulfil our Lord's commands to heal the sick, they give unmistakable evidence of the entire absence, not only of faith, but of inquiring interest in the subject.

The effort to make this anomalous attitude appear justifiable to themselves and reasonable to others, is recorded today in what might be termed The Apologetics of Unfaith, chapters of which appear, every now and then, in current religious periodical. Questioning the adequacy, or availability of the means which Jesus and his disciples used for the cure of sickness, they seek to justify the propriety of their dependence upon drugs by processes of thought which for specious plausibility would take rank with the casuistry of the Middle Ages. For instance, despite the fact that the number of those who deny that Jesus and his disciples healed the sick without the use of material means, is a negligible quantity, it is frequently affirmed that drugs sustain the same relation to the body as does food, and hence that all the reasons adduced by Christian Scientists for the abandonment of the one, would apply with equal force to the giving up of the other. Said a good brother recently, "If Christian Scientists would but stop eating, and thus adjust their habits to their philosophy, they would be helped by their hunger to the attainment of saner ideas!" This type of mild raillery often furnishes critics a very relishable bit of amusement, while supplying Christian Scientists with opportunity to explain why in this, as in all other matters, they are seeking to follow the example of the Master.

It would be conceded by all, that the task set before every mortal, of working out his own salvation, is a very serious proposition. To so apprehend and apply spiritual truth as to overcome all evil,—bring every instinct and impulse, the sentiments, the affections, and the will, into subjection to Christ,—is, to human sense a supreme understanding, and in this "fight of faith" the average man does well to give himself the benefit of the most favorable conditions. Moreover, since the passing of the ascetic idea, people generally have not looked upon any distressing physical state, such as hunger, as an aid to one's spiritual advance. Jesus was constantly helping those about him into circumstances which were more conducive to their helping themselves, In feeding those that were hungry, as well as in healing those that were sick, he was "lending a band," and always with a view to their attainment of a higher spiritual end. It is impossible, therefore, to escape the conclusion that he looked upon normal conditions of health and comfort as the more favorable to spiritual progress.

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