ANNUAL ADDIiESS. 



15 



^vas dead, sir ? " isaid the cross-examining counsel somewhat 

 sharply. " Well, sir," was the answer, " I do not know that he 

 is dead/' " Then why did you say he was dead ? " " Well, sir," 

 he said, " I do not exactly know he is dead, but I was at the 

 funeral when they buried him on suspicion." 



Neither have I much hesitation in referring to the examples 

 of quack advertisements with which we are all of us familiar. 

 One gentleman writes he "had overcome a severe attack of 



o ... 



gripe in thirty-six hours by obeying the scriptural saying 

 ' Physician, heal thyself ! ' " 



Then comes the case of a lady who, according to her own 

 account, was treated by eminent physicians for hereditary con- 

 sumption, torpid liver and many other diseases. 



She says her life was a ceaseless torture, but ultimately 

 she borrowed another lady's copy of Science and Health two 

 hours each day for eight days and was healed. The first day 

 she read Science and Hecdth she weighed about ninety-five 

 pounds. Three months later she weighed one hundred and 

 thirty-five pounds ! 



But I have said enough on this so-called Science in which I 

 discover as little Science as Christianity. I only refer to it at 

 all as one, and only one, of the many silly delusions which have 

 grown up from time to time and have demonstrated how infinite 

 is human folly. Joanna Southcott and Mr. Prince had their 

 followers, and judging from what I read lately Mr. Prince has his 

 followers even now. Nor will it do to set down all these things 

 as intentional falsehood and fraud. But some peop]e avail 

 themselves of the folly of others and where intentional fraud 

 exists there is invariably the accompanying desire of sordid gain 

 as its companion. 



But more dansjjerous and more difficult to deal with is the 

 question, when undoubted sincerity introduces the delusion, 

 and the unfortunate patient who describes her pitiable condition 

 as being treated for many diseases for years, may in truth have 

 been really cured by ceasing the profuse swallowing of drugs. 



The history of the Christian Churcli from its earliest 

 beginning contains one long catalogue of heresies, and it is 

 no new thing that great spiritual powers have been self- 

 proclaimed by very many impostors. But the patois of fraud 

 — and I believe I have used here before that phrase — lurks in 

 the sort of patchwork of scriptural language. Poets and saints 

 have alike used figurative phrases as " a death unto sin, and a 

 life unto righteousness." " There is no death — what seems so 

 is transition " — Longfellow. But no one really misunderstands 



