ALFRED r. SCFJOFIELDj M.D., ON CHRISTIAN SANITY. 15 



is used twelve times and is earnestly enforced in the New Testa- 

 ment as an essential quality of Christian life. 



S. Paul especially seems deeply impressed with the paramount 

 necessity of never allowing spiritual visions or transports to 

 obscure or unsettle in the smallest degree the essential sobriety 

 of the sane well-balanced man. 



Nothing in the whole range of apostolic teaching is more 

 truly remarkable than the fact that S. Paul should declare that 

 the first thing that Christ teaches us is to be sane, or in the 

 very words of Scripture, that " we should live soberly " (Titus 



11, 12): 



There is great need that this should be carefully pondered, 

 and emphatically emphasized to-day amongst all Christian men. 



This sanity further is seen to possess four remarkable qualities 

 (distinguished by four beautiful Greek words) which may help 

 us to recognize and define it. It is first " gentle (iirLelKeLa), 

 which is Matthew Arnold's " sweet reasonableness/' a most 

 fragrant quality, and one only possessed by a man who is 

 absolutely sure of himself ; in other words, perfectly sane. It 

 is the direct opposite of every form of obsession, violence of act 

 or speech and of bigotry. It is enjoined on us seven times. 



Sanity is secondly temperate {vt'j(^a\eo<). This is the soberness 

 of being on the watch and alert, and includes the sobriety that 

 comes from abstinence from all excess. This also occurs seven 

 times. 



The third word is " e^/c/oaTeta,'' which again means sober, but 

 in the special sense of seli-cont rolled. It is worthy of special 

 note as a qualtity that should always and everywhere characterize 

 Christian sanity ; being one of the nine f ruits of the Spirit 

 (Gal. V, 23), and the only one Jiot stated to be found in Christ : 

 this feature of sanity not being required in Him, inasmuch as 

 there was nothing to keep in check, no danger from within. It 

 is spoken of six times. 



The fourth and last of the words is " vyuavw," which means to 

 be healthy or whole, showing us thai sanity is not only wise, gentle, 

 alert, self -controlled, but healthy. Such is the full teaching of 

 the New Testament on Christian Sanity ; and I trust I have 

 already said enough to show that it is a subject that cannot be 

 passed over by any Christian Philosophical Society. 



How then can we best define the limits of Christian Sanity 

 in view of such a disturbing factor of the pre-existing balance, 

 as the higher spiritual life ? 



c 



