SCIENCE AND HYSTERIA

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13676, 19 August 1908, Page 7

SCIENCE AND HYSTERIA

Quite a number of good stories enlivened- the debate on Christian Science and Christian Truth, which crowded the Kensington Town Hall on Wednesday with Pan-Anglican delegates. One of the American representatives was the Kev. Dr McComb, of Boston, a tine orator with a fund of humour. Tllusaating the peculiar forms that obsessions sometimes take. Dr McComb- quoted the case of a brilliant lawyer who came to him suffering from a secret fear of travelling through a particular railway tunnel, which lay on a route, -by which he was compelled to journey daily, Ba~; fher than, do this he- eventually came to travel by a long detour, while his chead of the tunnel developed so that in cour.-.e of time he even refused to permit Ins letters to be carried by trains which used it. "In my district," he said, "we suffer largely from what 1 may term the New England Conscience, which consists in,i'exaggerating the most venal offences into deep crimes against society." He uelleved largely in the efficacy of prayer in inducing mental and physical health. The inconsistency o! Christian Scientists in " setting to work to heal people of some disease their own showing, hadn't got," was commented on by Mr. ; Oldroyd,• of Hanipstead,' who caused- milch amusement. He pleaded \for more-brightness in (he'visitation of the eick. • "At present," he said; " a clergyman is not admitted to the bedside in the early stages of illness, - because lie can do. no' good. He is admitted at the end! when it ia considered' he can <io no harm." Archdeacon Cunningham, of Ely, sounded a, warning against the undue i-liip of athletics. "By many," he said, amid applause, "it is made the supreme end of life. It is too-often, an excuse for laziness and iselfishness."Dean Hart, of Denver, at once won the hearts of his- listeners by opening his: speech with a- pretty well-known anecdote. "At a meeting in Denver,"' he said, "the chairman got up' and asked, 'Are there any Christian Scientists here?' ■i "A lady in the audience rose and said, 'I am a Christian Scientist.' '" Then, madam,' was the .reply, 'I wish you'd change places with-trie. I'm sitting in ~a draught'.',. " I commend that story," continued Dr , Hart, "to the gentleman .1 see on the window Bill over 'there with a, paper wrapped round his head." Dr Hart's remarks were punctuated with bursts of laughter from the uadience. " Look at that portrait of Archbishop Whately, in the stained-glass window there,' he said, pointing; upwards. "Well, I knew Archbishop Whately,':■' and I may tell you that he was as like that-as I am like the Apollo Belvedere." He gave the delegates a -practical" illus- ' tration of the power of suggestion. "Bring your attention to the tip of anyone of yo„ur-finger's," he said, ".and .before long, you'll-feel it begin to tingle. You try it." The idea of the grave clerical audience doing any such thing at the.moment was too much for Dr. Hart's listeners, whobroke into wild laughter.