Practical Christianity.

VOL. XX.

KANSAS CITY, MO., APRIL, 1904.

No. 4.

MENTAL INFLUENCE.

BY HORATIO W. DRESSER.

JO MANY people it is an entirely new idea that states of mind have anything to do with bodily health. Instances of sponta

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neous or accidental mental influences are sometimes quoted as "interesting coincidences." It is well known that religious emotion affects the body. Nearly everybody is ready to admit that the imagination has something to do with the mental states which accompany physical disease. But the statement that disease has been both caused and cured by the mind is rather surprising to most everyone. When it is added that one may cultivate mental states which make for health, consciously put one's mind into a state to overcome disease, the claims made for the mind seem utterly foolish. But most surprising of all is the notion that metaphysical theories can have anything to do with therapeutics. Even to those who admit that there is great truth in mental healing practice it seems absurd that metaphysical doctrines should be connected with. such purely practical matters. Others complain because the mind cure theory is not separated from all religious considerations.

The explanation of all these riddles is easily made by reference to perfectly well known facts. Every philosophical or religious devotee knows that it makes a vast difference whether one has accepted or worked out a creed that brings the mind peace. If a person is harassed by doubts, the whole inner life is disturbed. Hence to resolve one's doubts is to lay the basis for tranquility. Now, it would be a surprising result if the change from conflict to peace

had no effect on the life of the individual as a whole. The effects of intellectual changes may be less apparent at first than the results of emotional religious conversation. But every person's faith is in due time expressed in the face, in the general attitude towards life, and of course in the conduct of life. Underlying most of our actions, even many that come under the head of impulse, is the particular belief by which our conscious life is shaped. A change at the center may effect everything, even to the remote circumference. For different beliefs possess different qualities; they give different tone to life. Whatever the tone, the life in general responds to it. People enter into experience according to the quality of their general belief. And the bodily life in large part reveals the inner variations

There are two kinds of mental states, then, which may greatly influence the bodily life Temporary and sudden emotions, such as the phenomena of religious conversion, may throw the physical organism into great disorder. Permanent beliefstend to give a general tone to the inner life, and hence have much to do with all acts of conduct which concern the body, to say nothing of the unconscious influences. The serene life is inevitably accompanied by a corresponding bodily state. The individual who has no intellectual or religious center is likely to be extremely unstable in all physical activities.

It has long been customary to regard the health as a purely physical affair, and hence no mental precautions have been taken, nothing has been done. mentally to aid the bodily tendencies. It is not strange, then, that it surprises people to be told that the mind affects the health. But let such people begin to look at the mind in another light, to note the indications of mental influence as above suggested, and the whole aspect of things is changed. It is not at all to be wondered at that metaphysics and religion are immediately brought into considera

tion, for whatever concerns the mind necessarily comes into the account. Moreover, the usual result of discoveries of this kind is the awakening of profound interest in idealistic philosophy, as opposed to medical materialism. It stands to reason that, if religious emotions and metaphysical beliefs affect the whole life, one must begin to exercise more care over one's emotions and beliefs. Hence the purely therapeutic inquiry develops into a religious and metaphysical investigation.

When one really pauses to consider it, there proves to be nothing surprising in the application of philosophy to health. Philosophy is applied to moral conduct, to the religious life; why should it not be applied to the health? A man is expected to understand and conquer temptation, to overcome his passions, and realize the moral ideal. To do this, he must acquire self control, must develop his better self. But the state of a man's passions is very closely connected with his state of health. It is difficult to see how he can solve either the moral or the therapeutic problem alone. In either case everything that enters into man's intimate life is concerned. To be thorough is to investigate the question of disease and the problem of sin side by side. In a sense the one is the other. Thus the larger issues of the religious life are intimately connected with the problem of health. To ask one to sunder one's mental healing practice from one's religion would be to ask one not to be thorough. Fundamentally, the real question is the true nature of man, and the powers that play upon him, their ultimate nature and value.

By a process as constant and immutable as gravitation, the ideal is ever in transmutation into the actual; mind indexes itself in body; thought builds itself into action; and the human imaging faculty erects its own mansion, stately or otherwise, and dwells within-- HENRY WOOD.

OBEDIENCE.

BY CORA MILLER.

IELDING to a command is not necessarily

obedience.

To yeild willingly is true

obedience; unwillingly, submission. Love is the dominant quality of obedience.

A

child will yield more willingly when requested to do a thing than when commanded. Human nature seems to rebel at being commanded. Probably this is due to the fact that human beings have greater reasoning powers than is to be found in the animal, whose reason cannot be appealed to, and therefore needs a command.

Fear of consequence will bring submission, but what is gained? To do right because it is right is the important thing, not because of a penalty attached to wrong-doing. There is a principle involved in obedience. To illustrate: One who would become an expert mathematician must be obedient to the principle which governs the science of numbers, and his experience will prove to him that the more he departs from that principle the more he will have to undo. Naturally he makes mistakes, as a beginner he knows very little about mathematics; therefore he must be taught, advised and reasoned with.

A command, and even the proverbial rod, would be of no avail. The student must be shown what to do and how to do it, rather than what not to do. Telling him repeatedly that two and two are not five, would be a poor way of trying to instill into his consciousness that two and two are four. When the mistake has been made a teacher naturally says, "No, that is not right." But in the training of children there is a continual "don't," and this reminds me of the little boy, who, when asked his name, replied, "My mother calls me Don't." If more time were devoted by parents to instructing their children in the highest principles of right-living there,

would not be so much occasion for "don'ts."

Obedience to principle is necessary to success in life. Our mistakes in departure from principle bring their consequences, and they are always unpleasant. Having no conception of the principle of Life and the Law of Being, we act according to our natural impulses, and by the result of our doing we learn what not to do. We may heed advice or follow our own desires and learn by experience. Experience is a sure teacher, but a merciless one.

Say to the child, "If you do so, such a result will follow;" reason with him, then if he will not heed the advice he must have the experience which will show him the way. Parents are not always obedient to their highest and best conceptions of truth and right, and should not therefore be too severe in the discipline of their children. The rod is not the only means, nor the best means of correction. In fact, it is, in many cases, the poorest method. Cruelty begets disobedience eventually; love begets love, and with it will come obedience. If there be a "prodigal," he will return if love draws him home.

Every living soul has departed from "God's way," and every one must meet the consequences of his mistakes; but over all stands the everlasting, unchanging, omnipotent Love which calls to every soul, "Come back to me." This Love is not capable of wrath; it is not vindictive; not merciless; it is without variableness or shadow of turning; it is divinely merciful. The way to the Father's heart is always open, "and whosoever will may come." When we realize that we must meet the consequences of our own beliefs and acts, that "as a man soweth so shall he reap," we shall make effort to find the right way, the true way, and live according to it. All mistakes can be wiped out. "Overcome evil with good;" overcome error with Truth.

The law punishes, and if there were no law there could be no stability in nature, and no purpose in existence. There would be no progress, no incentive