11 



THE 603rd ordinary MEETING, 



HELD IN COMMITTEE ROOM B, THE CENTRAL HALL, 

 WESTMINSTER, ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 2nd, 1918, 



AT 4.30 P.M. 



Dr. Fortescue Fox in the Chair. 



The Secretary read the Minutes of the previous Meeting, and the 

 flame were confirmed and signed. 



He also announced the election of Mr. B. R. Parkinson and Mr. T. A. 

 Gillespie as Members, and the Rev. E. C. Unmack and the Rev. Professor 

 Samuel A. B. Mercer, D.D., as Associates. 



CHRISTIAN SANITY, By Alfred T. Schofield, M.D., 



etc., etc. 



THE subject of this paper has not, I believe, been discussed at 

 this Institute, and to many Members may be quite new. 

 It is full of interest, as well as of difficulties of a very 

 practical kind which I trust both the paper and the discussion 

 will do something to remove. 



We must, of course, first define our terms. Christianity needs 

 no elaboration, but what is " Sanity " ? We may at first think 

 the question superfluous, for we surely all know the meaning of 

 the word. But that is precisely what we do not know, for its 

 exact definition has long been a standing puzzle to experts. 

 Dictionaries do not help us mucb with their wisdom, for even 

 Murray's monumental work can only define insanity as unsound 

 in mind.'' We surely might expect a little more from the 

 combined wisdom of philological experts ! 



Webster lengthily defines sanity as "possessing a rational 

 mind : having the mental faculties in such condition as to be 

 able to anticipate and judge of the effects of one's actions in an 

 ordinary manner." Surely this is a most cumbrous and untrue 

 definition, requiring itself much explanation. It is untrue, 

 because sanity may not deal with actions at all, and what 



