Signs of the Times

Robert Tayler

The Christian World

Robert Tayler in The Christian World London, England

Has religion a vital part to play in the building up of the nation's health? The rapid development of psychosomatic medicine suggests that it has. One recalls the categorical statement of Dr. Carl Gustav Jung: "During the past thirty years, people from all the civilised countries of the world have consulted me. Among all my patients in the second half of life—that is to say over thirty-five —there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life."...

If a man can be freed from worry and mental and physical stress he will thereby have the best possible chance of being healthy in a comprehensive sense. It is also certain that a great deal of illness is caused by the failure of men and women to achieve that calm, confident frame of mind that comes most definitely and permanently from faith in a higher, benevolent Power that Christians call their Heavenly Father.

The great contribution that the Church can make to the spiritual, mental and physical health of men and women is to engender a faith in God and communion with Him that will bring happiness, trust and confidence, with a complete absence of fear and stress. The best thing that one can do for the healing of a sick and bewildered sufferer is to convince him that God loves him. If he surrenders to that great, never-changing divine love, he begins to release, for his succour and healing, those amazingly powerful healing powers that belong to God and because of God's love for him are available for his resuscitation when faith opens the door.

Are the Churches geared up to take full advantage of the opportunities afforded by this new situation? Can they offer to the seeker that Abundant Life of which their Founder, Jesus Christ, spoke nearly 2,000 years ago?... Some doctrines, such as those of the Fall of Man, Eternal Damnation, and the like are positively dangerous and psychologically and spiritually harmful. If the Churches are to give a lead in the new age to men and women who desperately need their help, they must preach a positive, healing gospel of God's love.

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December 10, 1960

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