Article September 24, 1927 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from A. Grant Evans

[From "Echoes from a Gathering of Doctors," in Le Ralliement, Lausanne, Switzerland (translation)]

At a recent gathering of the British Medical Association a statement as to the therapeutic value of prayer was made which deserves recording. Dr. Theodore B. Hyslop, director of the Royal Hospital of Bethlehem in London, has a great reputation as a specialist for neurology and the treatment of mental diseases, which adds weight to his words. "From the experience I have acquired through a life given over to the treatment of mental diseases I declare that of all the means employed to overcome insomnia, melancholy, and all the deplorable symptoms of an unbalanced mentality—I should give without hesitation first place to prayer.... No matter," he adds, "as to the theological concept, anthropomorphic or rationalistic, which one holds of this Infinite with whom one tries to come into contact by prayer, the effect is the same. Let him have simply a habit of praying every evening—not as a beggar or as someone who repeats words while attributing to them magic power, but as a humble mortal.... Such a habit does more to clear the intelligence, fortify the soul, and preserve it from the dangers of a passing religious emotionalism than any therapeutic agent known to me.

"I believe," he continues, "that it is our duty, ours—professors and doctors—to fight against all influences which tend to produce either religious intemperance or indifference, and to support with all our power a form of religious belief which encourages hope in the hereafter while condemning all superstitions and sentimentality which would prevent its developing."

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