FAITH-HEALING A FACT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2051, 29 August 1885, Page 4

FAITH-HEALING A FACT.

There can be no question (the Lancet Bnjs) that faith healing is a fact. The brain is not simply the organ of the mind : it is also the chief cuitie, or series of centres, of the neivous .system by which the whole body isencigised, and its com ponent parts, with their several functions, are governed and regulated. There is no mnacle in healing by faith; wheieasit would be a tmtaclc, it the organism being constituted as it is, and the I.iws of hie such as they are, f.iith-liiahng did not under favomablc conditions oi cm. The fallacy ot those who pioclann faith heal ing as a religious tunction lies in the fact that they misunderstand and misinterpiet their own foi mula. It is the taith that heals, not the hypothecated souice, or object of faith outside the subject of faith. The whole process is self-con taiucd. Nothing is done for the believ er ; his act of believing is the motor force ot his cure. We all remember the old trick of m.ikini; a man ill by peisistently telling him ho is ill until he believes it. The contrary of this is making a man well by inducing him to believe himself to be so. The number of "miracles" poifoimed will be the precise nnmbei of the poisons who arc capable of beiug thiovwi into a state of mind and body in which "faith" dominates the organic state, i'athologists will limit the aiea of this process to the piovince of functional disease ; but we aie not sure that they aie justified by scientific facts in making this limitation. It must not lie foi Rotten that function goes before oiganism in (lev elopement, and that there are largo classes of cases in which the disabilities of a diseased organ for a fair performance of its functions aie mainly due to wantof povvirorineguiurit} in action. And it w a fact m pathology that, it the functions of an organ be maintained or icstored, much of the destine tne metamorphis due to prolifeiatiou of connective tissue, fatty deposit, oi even ceatawi foi ms of atiopnic change in which the nuclei of cell-life are rather denuded than destroyad may be arrested and to some extent repnued. The Vf, nuiltcnhu imttmc is a very potent factor in the amelioration of disease, if it only be nllowe 1 fair play. An excess of " faith " as a rule suspends the operation of adverse influences, and appeals strongly tliiough the consciousness to thr inner and iimler lying faculty of vital force. It is well that these poor pusons should le beiK hted by some means —it matteis little what ; and if they can he " healed by faith " we ought to bo very glad, and thankful too, for the mistaken /.e.il of those who, being weakmindtd themselves, make dupes of other weakminded folk to their advantage This is a blind lead ing of the blind in which they do not fall into the ditch, but, by ,i lupy combination of circumstances, actually escape the loss and gam something to boot.