24 



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



suburb of London. I do not, however, allege that Spiritism, 

 in spite of many public exposures, is always mere human trickery : 

 for some who have been its votaries and through Christ's grace have 

 shaken loose from it, have testified that they really saw and Tieard 

 preternatural sights and sounds, and had knowledge of events in other 

 places that no human being could have given them, but that the aims 

 of their spirit guides were distinctly evil ; so that these spirits 

 were not ministering angels or spirits of good men, but quite the 

 reverse, even as the denunciations of witchcraft in the Bible would 

 lead us to expect. And such subjection to unknown and evil spirits 

 has undoubtedly led from time to time to utter mania. 



The true safeguard against all such delusions is not progress in 

 human learning, but real studying of the Scriptures and humble 

 prayer. 



As regards mania due to a really religious cause, it is remarkable 

 that in a report upon lunacy issued by our Government less than a 

 decade ago, only one case was set down to religious causes, while 

 forty-five out of a hundred cases were declared to be due to excessive 

 drinking of alcohol. 



It is interesting to note that the original meaning of common sense 

 was not, as now, the power of judgment common to the mass of 

 mankind, but a sense conceived of as uniting or being held in common 

 by all the five and making use of their impressions to arrive at a 

 judgment. (See Dictionary of Phrase and Fahle, s.v.) 



Lt.-Col. Macktnlay warmly thanked Dr. Schofield for his valuable 

 paper, and asked : Since S6//-control has been pointed out as essential, 

 is it permissible for a Christian to resort to suggestion or hypnotism 

 for relief in illness ? 



Lt.-Col. Alves considered that the reader of the paper had well 

 defined Christian Sanity. 



He attributed loss of mental balance in many cases to erroneous 

 and foggy teaching, commonly described as mystical teaching, in 

 spiritual matters. 



Mr. Arthur W. Sutton said that he wished to express his very 

 sincere thanks to Dr. Schofield, and appreciation of the most in- 

 teresting and valuable paper which he had read, but his special 

 object in rising was to suggest that Dr. Schofield probably wished to 



