22 ALFRED T. SCHOFIELD, M.D., ON CHRISTIAN SANITY. 



the burden light, and are greatly preserved from disturbance 

 of mind or nerves. 



The idee fixe, or the fixed mental background, is common 

 amongst extreme bigots. When this becomes dominant, the 

 person is no longer sane. In such there is an entire absence of 

 the first quality of sanity — " eVtet/ce^a or " sweet reasonable- 

 ness. This idee fixe may be produced in Christians when one 

 aspect of truth excludes all others, which is never the case when 

 God is the Teacher, for His Spirit leads into aU truth, and thus 

 preserves the balance. 



There are two times in life — puberty and the climacteric — 

 when " moderation in all things should be specially observed ; 

 for when there is any predisposition, there is special danger at 

 these periods of loss of balance. 



The narrow Puritan School, necessary though it may have 

 been at its institution, as a protest against the outrageous licence 

 of the day, is a great cultivator of the morbid conscience, which 

 after all is one of the most common beginnings of the disturbances 

 of Christian sanity. 



Practically, however, most cases of insanity resolve themselves 

 into one of two classes : those mainly due to disease, and those 

 due to heredity. 



Mere unsoand views, one-sided minds, prejudice, and erratic 

 or false teaching seldom lead to insanity by themselves ; though 

 they often play an active part in those already predisposed to 

 loss of balance by heredity. 



Sober Christianity is a powerful aid to sanity even in the ill- 

 balanced ; but a spiritual life, that neglects the safeguards so 

 clearly pointed out in the Bible, and which I have here carefully 

 indicated, especially if it rans in emotional channels, may con- 

 stitute a real danger to Christian sanity. 



The conclusion of the whole matter is perfectly obvious, and is 

 " that the true sanity of a well-balanced mind is the normal condi- 

 tion of every spiritual man taught of Godby His inspired Word." 



Discussion. 



' The Chairman (Dr. Fortescue Fox) commented upon the changes 

 in the standard of sanity of which history bore record. The great 

 process of mental and spiritual development, which some called 

 Evolution, and some preferred to look upon as the gradual fulfilment 

 of the divine destiny of humanity, was marked by many difficulties 



