THE RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 16 July 1938, Page 12

THE RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK

. RELATION OF RELIGION TO PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Dr. Burnett Rae, Honorary Physician for Psychological Medicine, Croydon General Hospital, addressed the fifth and last of the series of meetings which have been held at St. Andrew, Watford. Dr. Rae said that tile problem j of religion and psychological science ! might be approached' from different { view-points and in different ways. Of- ; ten, when man fell sick, he became de- j pressed and lost hope; he was apt to i think he had committed an unpardonable sin, and was past all mercy. The doctor knew it might be only his liver that was at fault! A mind filled with happy thoughts had a revitalising effect; glands and the supply of hormones were affected by the emotions. But it was necessary to approach that problem of health from rather a different angle; some disorders struck deeper than body or mind; the disorders of the heart or soul; more frequently than was realised, the origin of disorders was in man’s moral nature THE “SOUL” IS CENTRAL Some were apt to think of the soul as a kind of appendage to the body, but really it was something central, uniting life to the body. It was serious to have anything wrong with the body, but it was very serious to have anything wrong with the soul. Jesus was. very concerned that men should have strong, vigorous. healthy souls Doctors were beginning, not for moral or religious, but for health reasons, tj see the same thing. They were beginning to realise that unless a man was healthy in soul he could not be healthy in mind. If a man’s soul was sick, a gradual reconstruction of his thoughts was the only approach to cure. THREE THINGS ESSENTIAL Three things were essential for a healthy soul; firstly, the soul must control and direct the instincts of the body, not the other way round, That was not to say that the body was something to be suppressed or subdued. The body was the partner of the soul and had its rights and must be treated with consideration. Secondly, the soul must have power at its command before it could exercise authority. The soul must seek a single aim; otherwise its lot would be anxiety and worry. Saul of Tarsus was an example of a soul being at variance with the course of action originated by a mind. Judas Iscariot was another; he followed Christ, but never really gave his soul to Him. From physiology it was being learnt that the will was not a positive force which could be employed to overcome some obstacle or difficulty, but rather the opening of a door or sluice, through which power flowed of its own accord. That conception of the will was in keeping with all that the great religious mystics had maintained, that man was the channel of the divine, waiting for the divine to take the initiative in his life. If they could only get this release, if they could only free this power, what a wonderful access of life there would be! Often strain in some form was the cause of nervous breakdown; often the sti'ain followed not from the fact that an effort had been made, but because the effort was of a wrong kind. Dr. Rae was certain that there was a mind and an intelligence which understood life much better than man did, and that that mind had a plan and a purpose for everyone. If it were a benevolent mind, waiting to take the initiative in the lives of men, why not open their minds to that power, open their souls to that divine force? Religion was the relationship to that power, and sin was sin just because it hurt the relationship, and because it obstructed the flow of the divine spirit and power. Christ never made this flow difficult or abstract; the difficulty was always in ourselves. RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD That brought Dr. Rae to the third essential for the health of the soul, that it must recognise its dependence, or something outside it.- The body was dependent for its existence on things external to it—air, food, light, heat, and so forth; on its physical environment. But man did not live by bread alone, and it was just as essential that he should put his soul in the right relationship with his spiritual environment, which was God.

650 YEARS AGO In certain “Statutes of Synod” held at Exeter in 1287 medical men are admonished that it is their duty to see that the sick person sends for the physician of souls, “Since sometimes corporal disease proceeds from sin, and when the soul is heated, the corporal malady is more wholesomely treated.”