16 ALFEKD T. SCHOPIELP^ M.D.^ ON CHRISTIAN SANITY. 



In the first place we may note that nowhere are deviations 

 from the normal less tolerated than in England. Amongst 

 the Latin nations, as we travel East, and in the Far West, and in 

 the South, in Asia, Africa, and America, all sorts of extravagances 

 ave tolerated which would certainly be judged to pass the 

 limits of sanity here. But in this paper we must accept the 

 meaning that is current in this country, while at the same time we 

 fully recognize that the word " sanity does not represent the 

 same condition everywhere ; but that the standard which decides 

 doubtful cases varies greatly with country and race. 



As I have pointed oat, the influx of the Divine into the human 

 soul tends to the disturbance of mental equilibrium. The 

 truth of God concerning time and eternity, heaven and hell, 

 death and life, is so tremendous and overwhelming in its efiect 

 that one cannot be surprised at any disturbance in the mental 

 sphere ; and it is on this account that Christians were accounted 

 mad, and that S. Paul devotes such extreme care as to their sanity. 



The same care is expressed in the dictum of the Keswick 

 Convention : " Our work is twofold — first to make natural 

 men spiritual, and then to make spiritual men natural." 



The fact is, the mental equipoise between reason and emotion, 

 which we call common sense, must never be lost, whatever the 

 supposed spirituality of the individual. It is not pure reason 

 alone that is sanity. On the contrary, as this is but one side of 

 the balance there is ground for believing, as has been pointed 

 out with great force by G. K. Chesterton, that a large number 

 who trust exclusively in this are in asylums. 



I saw a lady the other day who was brought to me because she 

 would do nothing but wash ; and in the same week a wealthy 

 barrister who would not wash at all. 



In stating their cases to me both were extremely reasonable. 

 Indeed by comparison I seemed to be almost irrational. The 

 lady explained that this is a diity world, laden with malignant 

 germs, which swarm everywhere, on every piece of furniture 

 or paper, on every article of clothing and on the skin. If she 

 touched a chair, or indeed any object, her hand was covered 

 with microbes. I could not deny it. " Therefore I wash,'' 

 said she, "and am always washing with disinfectant soap." 

 She smelt strongly of carbolic, and her hands were like a washer- 

 woman's. She was absolutely useless to anyone, and yet was 

 perfectly reasonable. The barrister no less so. He also found 

 it a dirty world. Micro-organisms everywhere ! Whatever you 



