iENTAL THERAPEUTICS. 35 



Chronic Diseases Can Be Cured. Professor Charcot, the great 

 French scientist, once said that by persistent mental suggestion that 

 the cure is now begun and going on, and by the cultivation of a con- 

 fident belief in the fact, every chronic disease known can be cured. 

 The only obstacle lies in the patient's lack of confidence and lack of a 

 persistent mental attitude of belief and expectation. It has been 

 proved that the better way, usually, is to express the suggestion by 

 spoken words, repeated and persisted in. Colds, constipation, grip 

 and other diseases have been repeatedly cured by this means alone. 



Healing Shrines. Thousands upon thousands of chronic in- 

 valids have been permanently cured at the grotto of " Our Lady of 

 Lourdes," in Southern France, simply because of the long mental 

 attitude of hope and expectation that preceded their appearance be- 

 fore this famous shrine of the great Catholic church. It is really a 

 cure by Divine help, because the Divinity is the author of the natural 

 law which makes all such cures possible. By imitating the conditions, 

 and never for one moment allowing one's self to lose hope, expectancy 

 and trust, every individual sufferer can make a shrine like unto 

 " Lourdes " of his own home. It is equally true that failures are due 

 to loss of faith and effort, because immediate results are not apparent. 



Faith and Prayer Cures. That genuine cures have been and 

 still are being made by prayer and by a childlike and absolute faith 

 cannot be denied, however skeptical of the efficiency of the method we 

 may be. In view of what has been said, it is evident that the cure is 

 due to the effect of the suggestion to the subconscious mind while in 

 the most receptive attitude brought about by the concentration due to 

 the continued prayer or state of faith. 



Miracles Possible. The Rev. Edward Macomb Duff of the 

 Living Church, the leading religious newspaper of the Protestant 

 Episcopal Church in America, says, in commenting on the reports of 

 the British Society for Psychical Research, of which the Bishop of Car- 

 lisle is a member: " According to these evidences, the human mind in 

 a certain condition of passivity sometimes in hypnosis and sometimes 

 in a state superficially indistinguishable from normal wakefulness 

 manifests certain faculties and powers which are supersensory and 

 supernormal,. and at the same time manifests singular limitations and 

 weakness, in that it becomes the slave of the suggestion. The bear- 

 ings of these facts upon Christian evidence are, it seems to me, in 

 part self-evident, and, for the rest, apparent upon a little reflection. 



" The first self-evident conclusion derivable from the facts is, I 

 think, that the existence of a superphysical or of a supersensory, be- 

 comes a fact resting upon scientific demonstration." This, of course, 

 is fatal to skepticism of the materialistic kind. He also states that 

 it makes the miracles of Christ and the apostles more probable, as it is 

 proven that the miraculous is taking place every day. 



Christian Science. The theory of the Christian Scientist healer 

 is that matter is unreal, that, therefore,, our bodies are unreal and that 



