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HOMOEOPATHY AND CHRIST


PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF A PHYSICIAN,

WITH

AN APPEAL TO THE MEDICAL AND CLERICAL PROFESSIONS;

AND

AN APPENDIX,

A REVIEW OF "CHRIST AND THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION"
IN THE CHRISTIAN UNION.

BY

JOHN ELLIS, M.D.




CONTENTS.


CHAPTER I.
PERSONAL MEDICAL EXPERIENCE OK A PHYSICIAN.

CHAPTER II.
WHY EVERY PHYSICIAN SHOULD EXAMINE HOMOEOPATHY.

CHAPTER III.
DANGERS THAT RESULT FROM THE ALLOPATHIC TREATMENT OF DISEASES.

CHAPTER IV.
PERSONAL RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE OF A PHYSICIAN.

CHAPTER V.
THE DAWN OF A NEW DISPENSATION.

CHAPTER VI.
A NEW DAY TO OUR EARTH.

CHAPTER VII.
THE WANTS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

CHAPTER VIII.
RESTRAINING AND CURING SPIRITUAL AND NATURAL DISEASES.

CHAPTER IX.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE CONTINUED AND EFFORTS.

CHAPTER X.
FINAL APPEAL TO THE CLERGY.

ADDENDUM.
A REVIEW OF "CHRIST AND THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION,"
IN THE "CHRISTIAN UNION."




PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF A PHYSICIAN.




CHAPTER I.


We all admit that every one who attempts to act as a physician, should
strive to qualify himself, or herself, for the work by obtaining the best
education which our medical schools afford; for to physicians are
intrusted, not simply the property or money, but the very lives of their
fellow-citizens. As the responsibility is great, so the duty of preparing
one's self before commencing practice, and of keeping fully abreast of all
new and valuable discoveries in the art of healing, is equally great. A
physician should not be led blindly by his teachers and prominent medical
writers, and so strongly confirm himself in the theories and views which
they proclaim that he cannot, without prejudice, examine new views and
theories with due care. It has been said that when Harvey discovered the
true course of the circulation of the blood, there was not a single
professor in the medical colleges of England over fifty years of age, who
ever believed "the heresy," as his discovery was called. However this may
have been, it is certain that professors and prominent medical writers are
not always the first to see and recognize the truth, even when it is
clearly presented to their notice.

A native of western Massachusetts, I studied medicine with an intelligent
and worthy physician in my native town, and attended two and one-half
courses of medical lectures at the Berkshire Medical College, at
Pittsfield, Mass., and graduated in 1841; and during the following winter I
attended the Medical College at Albany, N. Y., devoting a large portion of
my time to dissecting. After finishing at Albany, I visited various places
in western and central Massachusetts, and operated on eyes for strabismus
or cross-eyes,--an operation which had then been recently introduced for
that deformity; after which I settled at Chesterfield (Mass.), and
commenced practicing medicine, where I remained about one year.

One day I visited Northampton, and, calling on a physician with whom I was
acquainted, I found upon his table a homoeopathic book. "Why," I exclaimed
with astonishment, "you are not studying homoeopathy, are you?" "Yes," he
replied, "I am studying it, and trying the remedies cautiously;" and he
went on to describe cases which he had treated satisfactorily by the use of
the remedies, and among them a case of pleurisy and one of intermittent
fever, and he wound up by saying: "Now, if you will go down the street to a
book-store and purchase 'Hull's Jahr,' in two volumes, I will give you half
a dozen homoeopathic remedies, and you can try them for yourself."

Here was a dilemma. Never until that hour had I ever heard homoeopathy
spoken of, by either a medical professor or one of my professional
brethren, except with contempt and ridicule. "But," I said to myself, "if
there is any truth in homoeopathy I ought to know it, and I cannot treat
this physician's testimony with contempt; and it is a duty which I owe to
my fellow-men, and especially to my patients, to investigate the new system
carefully." I immediately went and purchased the books, and he give me six
bottles of medicine, and I took them back with me to Chesterfield. I
remember making but one Homoeopathic prescription before leaving
Chesterfield, and that was for a case of uterine hemorrhage, which I had
treated unsuccessfully for some time with allopathic remedies. I looked
over my Homoeopathic books carefully and found that China (cinchona) was
indicated. As that remedy was not among the bottles of medicated pellets
which my medical friend had given me, I directed that one drop of the
ordinary tincture of Peruvian bark should be dropped into a glass of water,
and that, after stirring it well, one teaspoonful of the solution thus made
should be given three or four times a day. The patient commenced improving
immediately, and was soon well.

Soon after that I removed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and commenced anew the
practice of medicine. I then had neither the knowledge nor the faith in
homoeopathy which I thought would justify me in treating any serious case
of disease with homoeopathic remedies; but I did not neglect to study the
new books. One day, a friend of my younger days, who was residing at Grand
Haven, came into my office and said that he had been suffering from the
toothache for several days, and that he did not like to have the tooth
extracted, and he wanted to know if I could do anything for it without
extracting it. I told him that I had recently obtained some homoeopathic
books and remedies, and that I had noticed that remedies were spoken of for
toothache. So I looked over my books and selected Belladonna as the remedy
suitable in his case, and gave him a dose of it and other doses to take
with him if he needed them. We talked in the office for a short time, and
then we walked up to the hotel where he was stopping; as we entered, he
stood still a moment and remarked: "Well, my tooth does not ache as
severely as it did." I saw him weeks afterward, and he told me that he had
not had the toothache from the hour he took the medicine.

Away in that new place, then a village of about one thousand inhabitants,
with no homoeopathic physician within a hundred miles of me, I commenced
cautiously the use of the new remedies; first in mild cases of disease, and
in cases where Allopathic treatment failed to produce the desired effect.
Among the first of the serious cases where I used the remedies was a case
of pneumonia. A young man had been very sick with that disease for many
days. I had resorted vigorously to the antiphlogistic treatment then in
vogue; a consulting physician was called, and at last we told the family
that our patient could not live until the next morning. I then said to the
consulting physician: "I have some homoeopathic remedies; suppose we try
them?" His reply was: "It does not make any difference what you try; he
will not live until morning." Under such circumstances I felt that I was
justified in trying the new remedies. I accordingly dissolved a few pellets
of Aconite in a glass of water, and of Bryonia alb. in another glass of
water, and directed that a teaspoonful of the solution of Aconite should be
given once an hour for five hours, and that a similar dose of Bryonia be
given instead of Aconite every sixth hour. I sat down by his bedside and
watched his case for two hours. At the end of that period I found that his
pulse was five beats less frequent in a minute, and that his breathing was
a little easier. The next morning all of his dangerous symptoms had
disappeared, and in a reasonable period of time he was restored to health.
I talked with the consulting physician about his unexpected recovery, and
we were, disposed to think that we had made a false prognosis, and that he
would have recovered any way. Still, the case made some impression on me;
so that in the next case of pneumonia to which I was called, I resolved to
try the same remedies in the same way. The patient was a man about forty
years of age. Under the action of the Aconite and Bryonia the patient about
held his own, neither gaining nor losing very perceptibly for about three
days. At the end of that period I became alarmed, and felt that if the
patient were to die I should be guilty of the crime of manslaughter. I
discontinued the treatment, and resorted to the then regular antiphlogistic
treatment; the patient immediately began to get worse, and at the end of
three days more he was a very sick man. I then came to the conclusion that
my patient had done much better under the homoeopathic treatment than he
had under the Allopathic, and I discontinued the latter and returned to the
former, giving the Aconite and Bryonia. The patient ceased to grow worse;
he held his own for two or three days, then he began to improve, and was
soon restored to health. From that day to this I have never bled a patient
suffering from either pneumonia or pleurisy, neither have I applied a
blister, or given a cathartic, or an Allopathic dose of tartar emetic, or
an opiate, or any form of alcoholic or fermented drinks, either during the
continuance of the above-named diseases or during convalescence; nor have I
ever regretted, in a single instance, not having done so.

During the fall of the year we had many cases of dysentery which were very
obstinate, continuing one or two weeks or longer, attended by a fever
approaching a typhoid character. I found the Allopathic treatment
unsatisfactory, as there were quite a number of deaths. So I consulted my
homoeopathic books and concluded to try the remedies; but at that time I
had only the six carefully prepared remedies given me by the physician in
Northampton, and I found that I needed some other remedies; so for
Arsenicum I used a drop of Fowler's solution of arsenic in a glassful of
water, giving a teaspoonful of the solution thus prepared for a dose, and I
also used the tincture of Colocynth and other remedies in the same manner.
Even with the help of such crude remedies I found that I could generally
control the disease far more speedily and with greater certainty and safety
than by Allopathic treatment.

I was called to attend a young man who, while stooping over to set a trap
in the woods, was mistaken for a bear by a comrade who was hunting with
him, and shot through the neck. To restrain secondary hemorrhage I was
obliged, in order to save the life of my patient, to ligature both carotid
arteries at the interval of only four and one-half days, which, at that
time, had never been done successfully at an interval of less than twelve
months between the operations. My patient did not suffer from head
symptoms, as I was fearful he would, but his lungs became seriously
congested. I resorted to the Allopathic treatment without affording any
relief; and, as he was steadily getting worse, I consulted my homoeopathic
works and gave him Aconite, a drop of the tincture in a glass of water; of
the solution thus made I directed a teaspoonful to be given every hour;
this gave prompt relief to the active symptoms of congestion. For a cough
which remained I gave a few doses of belladonna prepared in the same
manner, and all of the symptoms soon disappeared. I reported this case to
the New York Journal of Medicine, and it was transferred, even to the
homoeopathic prescriptions, to the American edition of Velpeau's great work
on surgery.

I found when I went to Grand Rapids that the intermittent, remittent, and
pernicious fevers, which prevailed in that place and in the surrounding
country, were generally treated by the resident physicians with mercurial
or other cathartic remedies, followed or accompanied by Quinine and brandy
or fermented drinks containing Alcohol, and opiates where they were
supposed to be necessary. As I began to look into homoeopathy, I first
prescribed Ipecac for the vomiting which sometimes attended these fevers,
one drop of the tincture in a glass of water, and giving a teaspoonful from
the glass for a dose. For watery diarrhoeas I gave Fowler's solution of
Arsenic in the same manner, and in both instances generally with very
satisfactory results. As my confidence in the homoeopathic treatment of
diseases increased, I sent to New York and obtained an assortment of the
remedies and more books, and was then much better prepared to prescribe
successfully. I soon found that by their use I could dispense with
cathartic remedies and thus avoid the danger of causing a medicinal
irritation of the bowels, which it is sometimes difficult to control. I
also found that I could do much better without Alcohol in any form, in the
treatment of these fevers, than with it; and I soon ceased to use brandy,
wine, beer, etc.

As to Quinine, that remedy will unquestionably interrupt the paroxysms of
intermittent and remittent fevers promptly if it is given at the proper
time and in suitable doses; and, if the attack is the first the patient has
ever had, a return of the disease may at least sometimes be prevented by
giving once a week in two or three doses, at an interval of twelve hours,
about the quantity which would be required to interrupt the disease in the
first instance. These doses should be given the day before the disease is
expected to return. I found it much better to give about two large doses of
quinine than to give the same quantity in 1 or 2 grain doses. I reported
the results of my experiments and observations in the use of Quinine at
Grand Rapids to the _New York Journal of Medicine_ (allopathic). In
all instances where life is in danger from a return of a paroxysm of
intermittent or remittent fever, the patient can be rescued from immediate
danger by giving Quinine in doses sufficient to prevent a return of the
paroxysm. In all other cases, and perhaps even in such, we can rely safely
on homoeopathic remedies in minute doses. Quinine in Allopathic doses will
rarely cure the disease, excepting, it may be, as named above, in a first
attack. If the patient has ever had more than one or two attacks, it is
almost sure to return again and again for two seasons, complicated with
symptoms caused by the remedy, in spite of Allopathic doses of quinine;
whereas by treating the patient homoeopathically, except in old cases, you
will not suddenly interrupt the paroxysms, for they may continue one or two
weeks, or even a few days longer, but when they cease there is generally
the end of the disease, and the patient speedily regains his ordinary state
of health instead of lingering along with frequent returns of the disease
for generally two seasons, as he does when quinine is used. Old cases of
intermittent fever are frequently cured promptly by infinitesimal doses of
homoeopathic remedies. I have never seen Allopathic doses of Quinine do any
good in typhoid fevers. And, as to the use of cathartics, from my
observation I soon became satisfied that a vast number of lives have been
lost by their use in cases of remittent and typhoid fevers, the tendency to
irritation of the mucous membrane, which exists especially in the latter
disease, being often fatally aggravated by cathartic remedies.

I found the prejudice so strong against homoeopathy when I commenced my
investigations, that I generally said nothing about the kind of remedies I
was using, and sometimes disguised the remedies by mixing with sugar or
pulverized liquorice root, or by mixing or dissolving them in water.

I have given the above details to show how carefully and patiently, step by
step, I commenced my investigations, and watched the action of remedies
when given in accordance with the Homoeopathic law of cure, and compared
the results with the results which followed the use of Allopathic remedies.

I remained at Grand Rapids two years. During that period I gradually
substituted the Homoeopathic treatment of diseases for the Allopathic, as
fast as I found I could cure the various diseases which came under my
observation with more safety and certainty by the former method of
treatment than by the latter.

Now I ask the intelligent, conscientious, and philanthropic reader, Did I
do right or did I do wrong in thus investigating homoeopathy and using
cautiously the remedies for the cure of the sick, as I found them more
efficacious and safe than the remedies which I had been taught to use and
had used previously? If it was my duty to thus critically examine the new
method of treatment, when my attention was seriously called to it, and to
cautiously try the remedies on the sick, is it not clearly the duty of
every Allopathic physician in our land to do the same? To thus earnestly
call the attention of physicians of every school to the importance of
investigating homoeopathy, and carefully using the remedies for the cure of
the sick, and to entreat them not to stop and be satisfied with crude
doses, such as drop doses of tinctures and the first, second or third
dilutions or triturations of remedies, as some have done, is my sole object
in writing these pages. The most decided and satisfactory cures which I
have ever witnessed have been effected by the thirtieth and two hundredth
dilutions. But, according to my experience, it is not well to confine one's
self absolutely to either high or low dilutions, as some have done; but if
you are satisfied that you have selected the right remedy, instead of
changing the remedy when you do not see relief from its use, change the
dilution from low to high or high to low, as the case may be. I could
detail many cases to show the importance of doing this. No physician should
labor specially to sustain either a theory or preconceived ideas, but to
cure his patients promptly. The health and lives of our fellow-beings are
too important to be trifled with.

During the early years of my practice of homoeopathy I was called to see a
young man recently attacked with "epileptic fits." As he was going
immediately to New York, with his sister, I advised them to call on the
late Dr. John F. Gray, with whom I became acquainted during my first visit
to New York. On reaching New York they called on Dr. Gray, and the young
man remained under his treatment for several weeks. Of Dr. Gray's treatment
of this patient, so far as remedies were concerned, I know only of a single
remedy which he gave, which was Nitrate of silver, which I understood was
given in a somewhat crude form, and not even in a low centesimal dilution.
The young man, finding little or no benefit from the treatment, went to his
home in Georgia, after which I received a letter stating that he had not
been essentially benefited by Dr. Gray's treatment, and requesting me to
prescribe for him. In response I sent him the 30th dilution of Nux vomica,
which he took and soon recovered from the disease, and never had any return
of the paroxysms. Dr. Gray was a low dilutionist.

On the other hand, during my second or third visit to New York I called on
Dr. Edward Bayard, who was a high dilutionist. I found him in poor health.
He had been suffering, as he told me, for some time from a subacute
irritation of the mucous membrane of the bowels, with loose passages, and
some febrile excitement. He asked me to prescribe for him. After a careful
inquiry as to existing symptoms I said to him, "Mercurius vivus ought to
cure you." He replied that he had taken it repeatedly without the slightest
effect. I asked him what dilution of this remedy he had taken. He replied
that he had taken the 30th and 200th dilutions. I suggested that he should
take the 3d trituration. "Why," he exclaimed, "I have not prescribed the 3d
trituration of mercury for many years, and I do not know as I have any in
my office." But, on looking around, he found a bottle of the second
centesimal trituration; and I said to him: "That will answer. You can take
a dose of that now [which he did] and repeat it three or four times between
now and to-morrow night, after which take a dose of the 30th or 200th
dilution of sulphur." The next time I saw him he told me that my
prescription cured him promptly.

That the careful treatment of diseases by the use of low dilutions of
Homoeopathic remedies, when compared with the Allopathic treatment, is
wonderfully successful I well know; for it was by the success which
attended the use of the low dilutions that I was led into the new practice,
as thousands of other graduates of allopathic colleges have been. Still, I
know very well by experience that the low dilutionists, in a very large
number of cases, fail to cure patients promptly, and in many cases fail to
cure them at all when they could cure them promptly by the use of the high
dilutions, often by the very same remedy which they have been using. I was
called to see a patient suffering from puerperal anaemia, with "nursing
sore mouth." She was greatly exhausted; her stomach, which was very acid,
would retain very little nourishment. She had been under Allopathic
treatment for some time without experiencing any relief. I gave her a low
dilution of Pulsatilla, which afforded her no relief. Then I selected other
remedies, from which she derived no benefit. After that I gave her the
200th dilution of Pulsatilla, the first dose of which produced, as she
declared, a change for the better within an hour, and she rapidly recovered
under its use. A lady who had for two winters been sent to Florida by her
Allopathic physician for a severe cough, attended by the physical signs of
induration of the summit of one of her lungs, called on me early in the
fall, saying that her physician advised her to go again to Florida, but
that she did not like to go, and wanted me to prescribe for her. After
examining her symptoms carefully I gave her a single dose of Sulphur, 200th
dilution; at the end of a week she was better, at the end of another week
much better, and at the end of the third week she had but few symptoms
remaining, for which I gave only one dose of Arsenicum, 200th, which
completed the cure.

Having practiced medicine for two years at Grand Rapids, I spent a winter
East and visited New York, making the Acquaintance of Homoeopathic
physicians, and conversing with them about the new system of treating
disease, attending medical lectures and clinics at the two Allopathic
colleges. I remember very well attending a clinic at the College of
Physicians and Surgeons, held by the late Prof. Willard Parker, when a
little child was brought in suffering from whooping cough. Prof. Parker,
looking around upon the students, said: "Here, gentlemen, is a case of
disease which, like the small-pox, measles, and scarlet fever, runs a
definite course; if you will let the patients alone they will generally get
well, but if you commence dosing them you will often bring on complications
and they will die." This statement, coming from a medical man of his
prominence, surely was worthy of consideration.

After spending the winter at the East I went to Detroit, Mich., and opened
an office in connection with Dr. P. M. Wheaton. I practiced in Detroit for
fifteen years, excepting that during the last six years of that time I
spent a part of each year at Cleveland, giving a course of lectures on the
Theory and Practice of Medicine at the Western Homoeopathic Medical
College, of Cleveland, Ohio.

When I went to Detroit the prejudice against homoeopathy was very strong,
especially among physicians. An attempt was made to pass a bill through the
Legislature of Michigan which would virtually prohibit the practice in the
State. The bill passed the Senate, but, owing to the prompt action of the
friends of homoeopathy in exposing the design of the advocates of the bill,
it was defeated in the House of Representatives. The presence of the
Asiatic cholera in 1849 in the city, and the success which attended the
homoeopathic treatment of that disease, was instrumental in calling the
attention of large numbers of the most intelligent and influential citizens
to the new practice and establishing it upon a firm basis. When the disease
first appeared in the city, we furnished the families which we were
accustomed to attend, and all others who desired them, with Veratrum album
and Cuprum metallicum, which had been earnestly recommended by Homoeopathic
physicians elsewhere, who had had experience in treating the disease, as
preventive remedies, a dose or two of each to be taken daily. As a result,
very few among the families which we were accustomed to attend were
attacked with the disease, and in such cases as occurred the disease was
generally readily controlled. As a rule, the most troublesome cases which
we had to treat were those in which Opium or morphine in some form had been
administered before we were called. In such cases it was exceedingly
difficult to get a satisfactory response from our remedies, however
carefully we selected them.

The Asiatic cholera is a violent disease and rapid in its progress, and if
severe cases of this disease are to be treated successfully, it must be by
remedies which are prompt in their action. It is here that homoeopathic
remedies show their superiority over all other remedies or methods of
treatment, for they act upon the diseased organs in the direction of the
disease, and thus excite a prompt reaction. Homoeopathic remedies, when
properly used, do not benumb, nor do they seriously aggravate existing
diseased action; and they neither cause diseased action in well organs, nor
reduce the quantity of blood, nor lessen the vitality of the organism and
the ability to react against the encroachment of diseased action, as does
the allopathic treatment; and, consequently, if a patient dies the
physician and his friends have the consolation, at least, of knowing that
he did not die from the treatment.

I well remember, while practicing in Detroit, attending a prominent
citizen, a lawyer, who had a severe attack of pneumonia; and, while
recovering from it, he went one night into a cold room to sleep, and this
brought on a relapse which involved both lungs, and my patient became very
sick. One day on visiting him I found an Allopathic physician sitting by
his bedside. I was told that he simply called as a friend. As I entered he
arose and walked out into the hall. I followed him, and asked him what he
thought of my patient. He replied very promptly: "He will die! he will die,
sir!! He ought to have been bled, blistered, and physicked long ago, but it
is too late now." I replied: "He will not die, sir, for the very reason
that he has not had the treatment you name; he has his blood and vital
energies, unimpaired by the treatment, to sustain him." And he did not die,
but recovered, and was appointed Governor of one of the Western Territories
long after that.

After having practiced medicine for fifteen years, except the months I was
absent at Cleveland the last six years of the time, I was invited to fill
the chair of Theory and Practice in the New York Homoeopathic Medical
College. This invitation I accepted, and removed to New York and took up my
residence there, and commenced practice again in a new field. About the
year 1868 I invented a new process for refining petroleum by the aid of
superheated steam, and spent eighteen months in developing the process at
Binghamton, N. Y., and then returned to my practice in New York City. In
the year 1873 I gave up the practice of medicine, and in connection with
two gentlemen who were interested in selling oils, I commenced the refining
of petroleum, manufacturing therefrom machinery and other oils; to which
business I have devoted my attention ever since. I have attended chiefly to
the manufacturing department and my partners to the selling.

I have been frequently asked: "Why did you quit the practice of medicine?
Was not that a useful business?" Yes, it was; but I had come to feel that
there were fields for greater usefulness--in fact, that it was vastly more
important to teach people the laws of health and life, and to strive to
lead them by precept and example to shun the causes of disease, than it was
to cure them when they were sick--that prevention was better than cure.
Consequently, when I saw before me a reasonably sure prospect of being able
to make a good deal more money at the refining business than I could ever
expect to make in the practice of medicine, I could but feel that, by the
aid of a reasonable portion of the money thus made, I could perform a far
greater use than I could by practicing medicine. This, then, was the reason
for my giving up a good and useful profession and practice for my present
business. What I have attempted to do for the benefit of suffering humanity
since I gave up the practice of medicine, I will name in a future chapter.




CHAPTER II.

WHY EVERY PHYSICIAN SHOULD EXAMINE AND TEST HOMOEOPATHY.


I was born in the year 1815, and on the 26th of November, 1891, was 76
years of age. I have not practiced medicine as a business for many years,
and I never expect to practice again. As to money, my present business
gives me all I need, and money to spare for benevolent purposes. I do not
expect, nor do I desire, to receive one cent, directly or indirectly, for
the writing of this pamphlet, or for the money which I expect to spend for
paper, printing, binding, and sending it, post paid, to every physician and
clergyman in the United States and Canada whose name I can get. I do it
because I believe and hope it will be a useful work and instrumental in
doing good, and that many who are willing and waiting will find useful
suggestions contained in its pages, and that through their instrumentality
humanity may be benefited.

A few years after I became a convert to Homoeopathy I met in a railroad car
a venerable professor from the college where I graduated. We were mutually
pleased to see each other, and after our congratulations were over I
remarked to him that, so far as the administration of remedies was
concerned, I had departed somewhat from the "general principles" which he
used to inculcate, and that I had become a Homoeopathist. The Professor
looked up with astonishment and exclaimed most earnestly: "I am sorry to
hear that! I am sorry to hear that!" He manifested not the slightest desire
to know why I had made the change, but was ready to denounce and condemn.
It would be useless to talk to such a man. Before one can see a new truth,
however plain it may be, he must be willing to either examine the question
carefully himself, or to heed the testimony of those who have examined it.
Fortunately, all physicians have not been like the above Professor; for
there have been thousands who were educated in and graduated from
Allopathic schools, some of them gray-haired men, who, like myself, have
carefully studied Homoeopathy and cautiously tested the remedies upon the
sick, who have become converts to the new practice, and who have ever after
relied upon its remedies in the treatment of the sick. No intelligent
physician of any other school has ever carefully read the Homoeopathic
works, and has to any considerable extent cautiously used the remedies in
the treatment of severe cases of various diseases, without being able to
see the vast superiority of the Homoeopathic over the Allopathic treatment
of disease; and no one, without prejudice, and willing to see the truth,
will ever do so without being convinced. Can a man, with eyes open, on a
clear day, go out at noon time and declare that the sun does not shine? He
may make such a declaration while shut up in a cellar or cavern, or if he
never opens his eyes. As one who has patiently and diligently studied and
practiced both systems, I say without the slightest hesitation that
Homoeopathy, as a system of practice, is as superior to Allopathy as the
direct light of the sun is to the reflected light of the moon; in fact,
much of the allopathic practice of to-day is but a reflection of the
homoeopathic light. What intelligent physician to-day bleeds, blisters,
salivates, or vomits his patients, as students were taught to do by
preceptors, professors, and books fifty years ago? And why is such
treatment so frequently, to say the least, discarded now by Allopathic
physicians? Is it not largely because the success which results from the
Homoeopathic treatment of diseases, has convinced Allopathic physicians and
their patients that such violent disease-creating measures and remedies are
unnecessary?

Homoeopathy is strictly a scientific system of medicine. It is based upon a
law of nature--"_Similia similibus curantur_," or the law that
remedies will cure symptoms and diseases similar to those which they will
cause when taken by healthy persons. It is wonderful with what care, skill,
and perseverance the new Materia Medica has been developed, mostly by
intelligent physicians, commencing with Hahnemann, taking the different
remedies in varying doses, and carefully and patiently watching the
symptoms that follow, and writing them down day after day; and then, when
similar symptoms occur in case of disease, giving the remedies and
carefully watching and writing down the results. Allopathic physicians, as
a rule, have not the slightest conception of the vast amount of patient and
persevering labor in this direction which has been done by physicians as
well educated as they are, and most of whom have graduated in the same
schools, who have devoted their lives to this work. Are not these facts
worthy of the consideration of every physician in the world who desires the
highest good of his fellow men? It is well known to every intelligent
physician that there is some truth in the homoeopathic law of cure, and
that it has to some extent been recognized from the earliest periods of
medical history. A cathartic remedy, even in Allopathic doses, will
sometimes cure a diarrhoea, and an emetic will sometimes cure a nauseated
stomach; but such remedies when given in large doses do not always cure, or
they would generally be used by Allopathists; they sometimes seriously and
even dangerously aggravate the disease, so that the vital forces do not
react and thus effect a cure. Nitrate of silver and acetate of zinc, which
applied to well eyes will cause irritation and inflammation, are often
applied to inflamed eyes. The kine pox, which is a similar disease, is well
known to either prevent or materially modify smallpox; and so I could go on
enumerating cases where Allopathic physicians treat their patients in
accordance with the Homoeopathic law of cure. The great discovery of
Hahnemann was not so much the Homoeopathic law of cure, for some knowledge
of that was possessed before his day, but the practical application of that
law to the cure of disease. He found by careful experiments that diseases
can be cured by remedies, which when given to the well will produce similar
symptoms or diseases, in doses so small as not to seriously aggravate the
existing disease or symptoms; and that all diseases may be thus treated
with a success hitherto unknown. This discovery was accompanied by the most
careful experiments by him and his followers upon themselves, to ascertain
with the greatest possible care the effects of various remedies upon the
healthy, so as to be able to make accurate prescriptions for the sick. Here
you have most careful scientific investigation and experiments as to the
action of remedies upon the well and sick, made, not by pretenders or
quacks, but by well educated physicians, that should command the admiration
and respect of every intelligent man and educated physician.

As to the doses given to the sick, which have been such a stumbling-block
to our Allopathic brethren, their size is simply the result of the most
careful experiments. Everyone can understand that if we give an Allopathic
dose of Ipecac to a patient already sick and vomiting, or of Veratrum album
to a patient suffering from Asiatic cholera or cholera morbus, we will
almost certainly aggravate the disease, perhaps to a fatal extent; for it
is the reaction of the vital forces of the system against the new
excitement caused by the remedy, which overcomes this new excitement and
the diseased action at the same time. Now, if the action of the remedy is
so severe that no reaction follows, then, of course, no cure follows, and
even death may result.

The great beauty and excellence of the Homoeopathic system of medicine
consists in the ability to treat patients successfully thereby, without
making well organs sick, or aggravating existing diseased action, or
creating an opposite diseased state, as you do when you give a cathartic
remedy in a cathartic dose for constipation; in that case the reaction, if
reaction follows, is not in the right direction, consequently the
constipation is often aggravated. I have hardly ever seen, excepting in
cases of mechanical obstruction, a severe and troublesome case of
constipation that had not been caused by the use of cathartic remedies. So
if we give an opiate, or an astringent, for a diarrhoea, we can see that it
is a direct effort to restrain the disease by force, as it were, and we
necessarily have to give large doses; and, if the vital forces react
against this medicinal intrusion, the reaction is not in the direction of
health. It is true that the vital forces sometimes overcome the diseased
action in spite of the medicinal action; but it does not always do this,
and subacute and chronic diarrhoeas are the result of the use of such
remedies in some cases. To create disease of a well organ for the sake of
curing disease in another organ, as is done when blisters are applied to
the skin for diseases of internal organs, and when cathartics are given for
diseases of the head or lungs, every one can see is a roundabout treatment;
and while patients may sometimes be benefited by this calling off, as it
were, the attention of the vital forces from the diseased action in other
organs, still it is not a very satisfactory treatment as a whole; for you
may lessen the vital power of resistance against diseased action, and may
even cause serious disease of the organ assailed. I repeat, one of the
great beauties of Homoeopathy lies in the fact that when remedies are given
in accordance with its law of cure, they do not have to be given in
disease-creating doses.

Hahnemann tells us that a single dose of the 30th dilution of Aconite,
which contains but the decillionth of a drop of the tincture of the remedy,
will cure acute pleurisy in twenty-four hours. I have thus treated patients
suffering from pleurisy with a single dose of that remedy (it should be
given soon after the commencement of the disease), and at the end of
twenty-four hours have found the pain and fever all gone, and the skin
moist and cool; and in one instance within two days the patient was on his
way to California. I have never seen any such satisfactory cures of that
disease from any kind of Allopathic treatment, nor from the low dilutions
of Aconite or any other Homoeopathic remedy.

Hereafter I shall call attention of both physicians and the clergy to the
causes and different methods of restraining or curing both spiritual and
natural diseases; for there is the most beautiful analogy or correspondence
between the methods of treating natural and spiritual diseases, and they
must be considered in connection if we would clearly see the truth.




CHAPTER III.

THE DANGERS THAT RESULT FROM THE ALLOPATHIC TREATMENT OF DISEASES.


This treatment of diseases, more in the past than at present, consists
largely in giving and applying remedies in disease-creating doses. The
antiphlogistic treatment consists of blood-letting and the use and
application of reducing remedies which directly or indirectly lessen the
inflammatory or febrile action; but it is manifest that while it may lessen
the activity of the diseased symptoms it also lessens the vitality of the
system as a whole, and consequently its power to resist and overcome the
existing diseased action; so that it is a serious question whether in many
cases more is not lost than gained, and it is certain that, owing to the
loss of blood and strength, convalescence will be more tedious. Then the
use of remedies which cause active diseased action is not always safe. My
own mother, at the age of 51 years, while in delicate health, was taken
with a severe pain in her side. A physician was called. She thought an
emetic would do her good. The physician gave her one, and she died during
its operation, or immediately afterward. Her physician was so affected by
this sudden and unexpected result that he had to go and lie down. At that
time I was but 10 years old.

In typhoid fever there is a tendency to irritation of the mucous membrane
of the small intestines; and, as I have already stated, I am satisfied from
observation that when cathartics are given during this disease this
irritation is often most seriously aggravated, and death not unfrequently
follows as a result.

But the greatest danger and evil which result from the Allopathic treatment
of disease lie, not in the direction of the sudden deaths which sometimes
result from the use of its remedies, but in the liability of patients to be
led into the habitual use of a drug that has afforded them palliative
relief during sickness, and the countenance thus given for the use of such
drugs by the laity during health. Perhaps as a rule poisonous substances
palliate the symptoms which they cause, or which follow their use. A
cathartic remedy will palliate the costiveness which frequently follows the
use of cathartic remedies. Opium will palliate the sleeplessness and
suffering that follow when the patient leaves off the use of opiates which
he has been taking for disease; and alcohol and all fluids and remedies
which contain an appreciable quantity of alcohol will palliate the coldness
of the surface, craving, and distress which follow when a patient who has
been taking such remedies attempts to discontinue their use. And thus the
patient is led to continue the remedy because it makes him feel better
every time he takes it; and, consequently, he is led on as naturally as
water runs down hill, until he becomes a slave to his appetite.

Now, cannot every conscientious and intelligent man see what an immense
blessing to his fellow men it would be if all physicians were able to treat
their patients as successfully by the use of Homoeopathic remedies and
doses as by the use of the so-called Alcoholic stimulants and Narcotics,
which are enslaving and ruining so many, and thus be able to discard and
discountenance the use of all such remedies? How can honest, conscientious
physicians disregard and treat with contempt the testimony of physicians
who have been educated in the same schools with themselves, but who have
used their reason and freedom to investigate the new practice and test the
curative action of its remedies, when they assure them that they have
treated their patients far more successfully by the use of Homoeopathic
remedies than they ever have done by the use of narcotics, alcoholic and
fermented drinks, and other Allopathic remedies? How can physicians
disregard the testimony of multitudes of patients who have been thus cured?

Why should not every physician study Homoeopathy and test the remedies on
the sick? He can do it cautiously; he has all of his old remedies by him;
what has he to lose? If they do not relieve his patient's sufferings more
safely and promptly, he is not obliged to continue to use them. Is it a
sensible and rational course for any one to allow himself to be so strongly
confirmed in the views of prominent professors, teachers, and books, that
he cannot without prejudice examine new truths and new methods of treating
diseases, and even new theories? Should not a man strive to keep abreast of
the age in which he is living? Take it, for instance, in regard to the
action of alcohol on living structures. No other man has ever experimented
so carefully, patiently, and thoroughly as has Dr. Richardson, of England,
and the results of his experiments appeal to the common sense and
observation of every unbiased man. He shows conclusively by its action that
it should never have been given in a vast majority of the cases of disease
where it is given by physicians; yet what attention is paid to his
testimony and demonstrations, which every disinterested physician can see
to be true if he will?

Dr. Richardson has also shown conclusively that alcohol paralyzes the
minute capillary vessels, so that while the blood is forced into them
through the arteries by the heart, it does not flow out of these minute
vessels into the veins as rapidly as it does during their healthy action;
consequently these vessels are congested and unnaturally distended with
blood; the face and surface of the body become red, owing to the presence
of an unnatural quantity of blood in these vessels. Nor is this all. The
heat of the body is generated by changes going on in the blood and flows
with the blood, and consequently the surface of the body becomes, from the
presence of this excess of blood, unnaturally warm; but the heat is rapidly
radiated from the surface, consequently the body, as a whole, becomes
cooler. Dr. Richardson found by careful experiment that, while the surface
was warmer, internally the body was cooler and less able to stand the cold;
and he also substantiated the truth of his experiments by experiments on
pigeons.

I will allow Canon Wilberforce, of South Hampton, England, to describe his
experiment. While attending a reception during his recent visit to New York
he was asked the following question:--

Dr. E. P. Thwing: "I would like to ask the Canon, as a physician, if the
feeling as to alcoholic medication in England has changed for the better;
for instance, the aspect of the British Medical Association toward this
subject?"

Canon Wilberforce: "I believe that is one point in which we are going
furthest ahead. I think that the whole aspect of the medical question is
changing, mainly under the influence of that distinguished man of science,
Dr. Richardson. He is one of the leading scientific minds of Great Britain.
He has been successful in his experiments and as bold as a lion in his
utterances, and he is leading scientific thought in this direction. He has
proved over and over again, to use a common phrase, that from the monarch
on the throne down to the maggot in the cheese, every healthy being is
better without alcohol. The other day he was staying with me. I have the
greatest possible objection to experimenting upon living animals, but he
described to me an experiment on pigeons. It was not a very painful
experiment; indeed, there are some people who, I am afraid, would like to
have the experiment made upon them. He tried to induce the pigeons to take
peas soaked in alcohol. They refused to do so at first; but after a while
they were pleased, and they selected the peas saturated with alcohol. One
cold night he turned the pigeons out, and on the following day, when he was
examining them, strange to say, all those pigeons that ate the alcoholized
peas were frozen to death, and those that remained teetotalers were
perfectly safe and sound."

The drinking of alcoholic liquors generates no heat, it simply holds the
heat in the congested blood-vessels upon the surface of the body, where it
is wasted, and thus the temperature of the body as a whole is lowered.

The greatest mortality which results from the use of intoxicating drinks
does not result from what is recognized as drunkenness, but from what is
recognized as moderate but steady drinking. The drunkard after his sprees
usually has seasons of abstinence, during which he has a chance to
recuperate or regain strength and vigor, and consequently drunkards often
live to an advanced age; but the steady drinker has no such seasons of
rest, but his face, by its almost constantly congested appearance, shows
the condition of his internal organs; for the effect of alcohol is to
paralyze the minute capillary vessels throughout the body and fill them
with blood, which produces redness upon the surface and a sensation of
warmth. The separation of waste and worn-out materials and their removal is
largely effected through these minute blood-vessels, and it is through them
that nourishment reaches all the structures of the body; consequently, the
almost constant state of congestion of these minute vessels, which results
from regular, moderate drinking, interferes very seriously with this change
or purification and renewal of all the structures of the body. As a result,
while some drinkers die from drunkenness, many more die from apoplexy,
paralysis, laryngitis and bronchitis, heart failure, fatty degeneration of
the heart, diseases of the stomach and liver, Bright's disease of the
kidneys, etc., and especially from an inability to either resist or
withstand epidemic, contagious, or inflammatory diseases, or even
mechanical injuries.

There are life insurance companies that give special privileges to total
abstainers over moderate drinkers (they never insure drunkards). Such
companies find that they can give a bonus of from 17 to 23 per cent. to
total abstainers as compared with moderate drinkers.

I remember very well attending the family of a brewer. He was standing by
when I advised his wife not to drink beer, for it was not good for her, as
it would increase her debility and retard her recovery. With astonishment
and great emphasis he exclaimed: "Tell me that beer is not good for her!"
Striking his chest with his fist, he said: "Just look at me and see what
beer has done for me!" He was born in Scotland, and manifestly inherited a
good, strong constitution. I replied to him: "You are a large, strong man,
but a little too fleshy; what beer has done for you time will tell better
than I can." A few months, perhaps a year or two, after that conversation,
I was riding up a street which led toward his residence when I was called
in a hurry into a saloon to see a man who was said to have fallen down "in
a fit." On reaching his side I found the above brewer dead upon the floor.
Without much question he died of heart failure, from fatty degeneration
caused by the steady use of beer. I never heard of his being intoxicated.

Dr. W. B. Carpenter, who stands at the very head of the physiologists of
our century, says:--

"That the taking of alcoholic stimulants is in any way useful in keeping up
the heat of the body, may now be considered as a myth altogether exploded."

Again he says:--

"Now, it is the result of many observations that the introduction of
alcohol specially deranges the vaso-motor system; this derangement showing
itself alike in disturbance of the heart's action, and in relaxation of the
capillary vessels, which become filled with blood, especially in the
nervous system and in the skin. This causes one to feel that warmth and
exhilaration which is the first effect of the introduction of these
disturbing agencies, and which are appealed to as evidence that drink does
us good. Well, what are the facts? The fresh glow is simply the result of
relaxation of the capillary vessels of the skin, allowing a large quantity
of blood to come to the surface, so as to give the feeling of superficial
warmth. But if a larger amount of blood comes to the surface, it robs the
parts within; and the feeling of genial warmth gives way to a general
depression, especially when we are exposed to severe cold. The temporary
exhilaration of the nervous system, too, is followed by a corresponding
depression. Hence a person feels 'sick and sorry' the next morning after
taking alcoholic stimulant."

As to alcohol giving strength, it is well known that it supplies no
substance to the tissues; therefore it meets no want, and consequently can
give no strength. Every one can see that blood-vessels, when paralyzed and
congested with blood by alcohol, cannot perform their function in the
metamorphosis of the tissues of the body, or of conveying nourishment to
them and removing worn-out, effete substances from them, as during health.
If you would see the legitimate effects of alcohol, look at the permanently
congested face of the steady drinker, or his "rum blossoms," and remember
that the capillary vessels of his brain and other internal organs are in a
similar state, and then say if you think he has been strengthened by
alcoholic drinks.

I remember very well when a young man, when a neighboring farmer was sick
and unable to gather his hay, that the young men in the neighborhood set a
day when they would meet and gather his hay for him. When, on the day set,
we met in the field, and the neighboring young men noticed that my brother
and myself had no bottle of cider brandy with us, they exclaimed with
delight, "We will lay you out before noon." A spirited contest with our
scythes commenced in good earnest. But they did not lay us out; they were
glad to seek and lie in the shade of trees to rest, while we were able to
continue our work. It is well known that men who are preparing themselves
for, or engaging in, feats requiring great strength and endurance are
beginning to find that they must let intoxicating drinks alone. It is
something marvelous to see with what tenacity so many physicians hold on to
the idea that fermented wine, beer, brandy, and whiskey are strengthening.
This idea comes, to a great extent, from the custom which prevails of
giving such drinks to patients who are recovering from fevers, acute
diseases, and from the effects of other debilitating causes. Many
physicians have been so accustomed to give these drinks to patients, under
such circumstances, that they have not the slightest idea how much better
they would do without them.

A few years ago I met a German woman whose husband I knew well, and had
reason to fear that beer drinking was doing him great harm. I said to her
that, on her husband's account, she should never let another drop of beer
enter her house if she could help it. "Why," she exclaimed, "I cannot do
without beer. I suffer so much during and after confinement, and am so
weak, and have so little milk for my child, that my doctor says that I must
have beer to give me strength." She was then expecting to be confined
within a few months. I replied to her by saying: "I have attended a great
many more patients during confinement than your physician has ever
attended, and after the first three years of my practice, I never gave to a
single patient beer, fermented wine, whiskey, or brandy, or any other
intoxicating drink. Now, if you will follow my advice, you will have a very
different time from what you have ever had before; and my advice is that
from this time forth you do not taste a single drop of beer, wine, or any
other intoxicating drink." She said she would follow my suggestions. I met
her again when her child was a few months old, and she looked like another
woman. She came up to me and said: "Well, Doctor, I have followed your
advice strictly. I have not tasted beer, wine, or any other intoxicating
drink, and I never before had such a comfortable time during my
confinement. I never was so strong or gained my strength so rapidly. I
never had so much nurse for my child, and I never had such a good-natured
baby before." She was the mother of several children.

Such are the results of the two methods of treatment.

There is no surer way to retard and often prevent recovery than to give
patients drinks or even remedies which contain an appreciable quantity of
alcohol. Where the tendency to recovery is strong they will recover sooner
or later in spite of the treatment; but in some cases the physician may
keep a delicate, nervous patient sick as long as he gives alcohol in any
form; and in the most critical stage of typhoid fever, pneumonia, and other
diseases where the patient needs nourishment, and that impurities should be
removed, there is no more dangerous treatment than to give alcohol in any
form, which interferes with these processes by paralyzing and congesting
the capillary vessels. Hot water and nourishment, cautiously supplied, are
what such patients require, not alcoholic stimulants.

The habit of taking either opium or morphine in our country has very
generally resulted from the prescriptions of physicians. The patient may
obtain palliative relief from its use, but suffers when he attempts to
leave it off; consequently, without fully realizing the danger which he
incurs, he continues the remedy until he is enslaved.

With the exception of alcohol, I know of no more dangerous medicine to give
during the critical stages of inflammatory, febrile, and other diseases
than Allopathic doses of opium in any form. This anodyne, by its retarding,
benumbing, and stupefying effects upon the body, often destroys the power
of reaction at the critical stage of the disease when the vital forces
should be left free to act, and consequently in many cases patients die who
would not die if they were not under the influence of this drug. Patients
will often go very near to the border line and yet rally if kept free from
the so-called "stimulants" and narcotics, and simple, plain nourishment is
cautiously given and the body kept warm.

Physicians are sometimes responsible for the habit of using tobacco among
their patrons. It is generally in chronic cases of disease where tobacco is
prescribed, and, as a rule, when it is once prescribed by a physician the
patient never thinks of giving up the use of the remedy; nor, so far as I
have known, are physicians who prescribe tobacco often, if ever, careful to
direct patients to discontinue using the remedy as soon as the symptoms of
the disease from which they are suffering are relieved. Of course, a
physician who neglects to do this seriously neglects his duty. It is safe
to say that few physicians ever prescribe the smoking or chewing of tobacco
as a remedy for diseases who do not use the weed themselves, for they can
generally find much better and safer remedies.

If a physician loves intoxicating drinks and has become a slave to them, he
actually feels that they do him good every time he drinks, for by relieving
the symptoms temporarily which they have caused they actually make him feel
better; and what is more natural than that he should prescribe them for his
patients? Here, then, it can be clearly seen that there is great danger in
employing physicians who love intoxicating drinks, tobacco, or opium in any
form; for they believe in the efficacy of these poisons, and they will
often prescribe them when a physician not addicted to their use would not
think of doing so.

I have alluded to some of the dangers which attend and the evils which
often result from the Allopathic treatment of diseases. Every one can see
that they are formidable enough and that they merit the serious attention
of every lover of his race. The skillful homoeopathic physician is able to
avoid these dangers and evils, for he does not use disease-creating or
appetite-begetting doses of any remedy.

We notice that those having the management of our railroads are beginning
to see that, for the protection of the property of the owners and lives of
their patrons, it is not safe to employ men who drink intoxicating drinks
at all; for it is well known that large numbers of those who drink are
sooner or later sure to become unreliable and careless. Is it not time that
physicians should cease to accept as students, and that our medical
colleges should cease to graduate and send forth as physicians, men who
drink intoxicating drinks? Should not medical professors and teachers have
as much regard for the health and lives of men, women, and children as the
managers of our railroads?

Again, it is well known that the use of tobacco tends to prevent
development, impair health, and to make men moody, if not careless, and it
not unfrequently leads them, especially when young, to disregard the rights
and feelings of others. We see men and boys smoking wherever it is not
strictly prohibited, even lighting their cigars and cigarettes as they
leave our elevated railroad stations, and walking down the stairs before
ladies and gentlemen, thus compelling those who follow to breathe the
atmosphere which they have polluted. As a fair illustration of the spirit
so frequently manifested, I will describe a little incident which occurred
in my presence. A young man, perhaps twenty years old, stood in a line of
men approaching the paying teller's window in one of our banks, vigorously
smoking his cigar. An elderly gentleman behind him asked him if he would be
so kind as not to smoke. The young man immediately straightened himself up
in a most self-important manner and exclaimed: "What do you think I care if
it is offensive to you?"

In our railroad cars smokers have to separate themselves from wives,
children, and friends and go by themselves into a smoking-car or apartment,
and why? simply because tobacco smoke is unpleasant to every man, woman,
and child who is not accustomed to it; and the smoker's breath often smells
so strong of the smoke when his cigar is gone that it is exceedingly
unpleasant to sensitive persons. Why should our medical colleges graduate
young men to go forth for the purpose of attempting to heal sick,
sensitive, and nervous patients, who smoke or chew tobacco, and thus are
unpleasant to many and a bad example to all? Have we not enough cleanly
young men, of good habits, to supply all the physicians we need in our
country? A smoking physician, by his breath and bad example to the young,
may do a vast deal more harm than he can ever do good as a physician in the
world.

The use of an intoxicating wine as a communion wine in so many of our
churches, and the efforts of so many clergymen to justify its use, together
with the prescription of intoxicating drinks by physicians, are the chief
supports which to-day sustain our distilleries, breweries, and saloons, and
the prevalent drinking habits and consequent drunkenness. Let all of our
clergy, churches, and physicians withdraw their patronage and sanction of
intoxicating drinks, and it would not be many years before the manufacture
and sale of such drinks would be prohibited throughout the length and
breadth of our land. That day will surely come, for a new age is opening up
before us very different from the past. The Lord is coming at this day in
the "clouds of heaven" with power and great glory. Old things are passing
away and all things are being made new--new heavens and a new earth.

Sir Astley Cooper says: "I never suffer ardent spirits in my house,
thinking them evil spirits. If the poor could witness the white livers, the
dropsies, or the shattered nervous systems which I have seen, the
consequences of drinking, they would be aware that spirits and poisons are
synonymous terms."

Again he says: "We have all been in error in recommending wine as a tonic.
Ardent spirits and poisons are convertible terms."

Dr. Benj. Richardson declares it to be his opinion that the administration
of alcohol will become, like blood-letting, a thing of the past, that it is
passing into the same position as blood-letting. He, as a student, was
educated to bleed; he was educated in the employment of alcohol; he saw the
effects of the application of these tested by comparison, and he has, in
one instance as much as in the other, come to consider them as behind the
age, and both as remedies belonging to a departed and deceived
generation.--The Dawn (English), Nov. 19, 1891.

I cannot close this chapter without again earnestly calling the attention
of all physicians to the great danger to life which results from giving
alcohol in any form to patients in very critical cases, or as they are at
or approaching the crisis in their disease, in fevers and in inflammatory
diseases, such as pneumonia, etc.

Since writing the preceding pages, in fact, since most of them were in
type, my attention has been called by notices in our papers to the fact
that champagne was given to a starving man, and that a few drops of brandy
were mixed with the milk given to a child in a similar condition, or
suffering from marasmus; and within a week a physician who has traveled
extensively and lectured before medical, theological, and literary
organizations, and who has frequently been in consultation in critical
cases, described in my hearing several cases of pneumonia which he visited,
which were, as he expressed it, drunk. When asked by the attending
physician what he would suggest, he always replied, "Stop giving your
patients alcoholic liquids;" and with a single exception, out of a large
number, and that was a complicated case, recovery followed. While
practicing in Detroit I was called to see a prominent citizen who was
suffering from typhoid fever. His physicians had told his family that he
would die, but that the "stimulants" they were giving him might keep him
alive a few hours. I found him delirious, with cold, clammy extremities and
almost pulseless. I stopped his "stimulants" at once and gave him
Homoeopathic remedies and nourishment, and the next day he was out of
danger. No more dangerous treatment has ever been adopted than to give a
patient in a critical stage of disease alcohol in any form or quantity.
Every intelligent physician ought to be able to see that this is true. I
repeat, alcohol paralyzes the minute capillary vessels and veins (look at
the face of the drinker) on the surface of the body, in the brain (look at
a drinker's words and actions), stomach, lungs, and kidneys, and congests
them with blood, through which the structures are nourished with food and
drink and purified by the removal of decomposed and effete substances.
Cannot every one see that these vessels, when thus paralyzed and congested,
cannot perform their duty as well as they can in a natural state? Then,
again, the temperature of the body is lowered internally and its heat
wasted from the surface. What patients in the critical stages of disease
require are warmth applied, if needed, to the surface of the body and
limbs, and hot water (not scalding hot, of course), milk, unfermented wine,
and other simple, easily digested articles which will nourish and
strengthen the body taken internally.

It is possible that in sudden, severe cases of hemorrhage, alcohol may
sometimes rescue a patient from fainting and bleeding to death, by storing
the blood in the capillary vessels of the brain and surface of the body
temporarily while the bleeding vessels contract; but even in such cases
other remedies, if at hand, may prove more reliable.

In cases of marasmus in children, if Homoeopathic remedies and nourishing
articles fail to give relief, and the child becomes greatly emaciated, give
the child cautiously salt fat pork, fried, but not to a crisp; give him a
piece in his hand, too large for him to swallow, and see with what avidity
he will chew and suck it. The fat in combination with the salt will supply
a want in the child's system, and patients will often be restored by this
simple treatment after other measures have failed.

Even if alcohol were a stimulant, as some claim, we can certainly see that
to give it to a patient in a state of great exhaustion, either from lack of
nourishment or from an inability to take nourishment owing to diseased
action, is to most seriously endanger the life of the patient and often to
destroy life; for alcohol gives no nourishment, and all unnatural
excitement is necessarily followed by corresponding depression, which often
carries patients in critical cases below the living point, and death
follows.

I will close with the following from the _Health Monthly_:--"The
theory that whiskey is necessary in the treatment of pneumonia has received
a blow from Dr. Bull, of New York, who discovers that in the New York
hospitals sixty-five per cent. of the pneumonia patients die with alcoholic
treatment, while in London, at the Object Lesson Temperance Hospital, only
five per cent. die.--_Ex._"




CHAPTER IV.

PERSONAL RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE OF A PHYSICIAN; AND AN APPEAL IN BEHALF OF A
NEW DISPENSATION.


We know that in various ages of the world the Lord has revealed a knowledge
of Himself to man. In the Ten Commandments we have the laws of spiritual
life, in accordance with which we must live if we would enjoy spiritual
health, precisely as we must live in accordance with the laws of natural
life and health, if we would enjoy natural health.

We are dependent upon revelation for a knowledge of the laws of spiritual
health, and of the causes and methods for the cure of spiritual diseases;
but the Lord gives us, if we will keep His sayings, the ability, by careful
scientific study and investigation, to obtain a knowledge of the physical
laws of health, and the causes and methods of curing physical diseases. And
it is wonderful how the natural in all respects symbolizes or corresponds
to the spiritual.

To the Jewish Church the Lord revealed so much knowledge of Himself, and
how they should live if they would be prosperous and happy here and
hereafter, as that Church was prepared to receive; and He also promised to
manifest Himself in person. All Christians believe that He fulfilled His
promise when Jesus Christ appeared on earth; but He did not come in the
manner which the Jews at the time of His advent expected. He came, not as a
temporal ruler or prince; consequently they took Him for an impostor and
crucified Him. To His followers and disciples He promised to come again in
the clouds of heaven; but the clouds of heaven may not be the clouds of the
material earth, any more than the spiritual kingdom which He came to
establish was a natural kingdom; and it is possible that His second coming
may not be in the manner anticipated by the Christian Church at the time of
His second coming. He intimated as much when He inquired if He should find
faith on earth. Should Christians, then, not watch and pray, and heed the
signs of the times, lest they follow the example of the Jews, and reject
Him at His second coming? Should not clergymen, as well as physicians, be
led in freedom according to reason, and not blindly by prominent religious
professors, clergymen and writers, and creeds formulated in an age of
comparative darkness? Should the traditions and creeds of men be allowed to
make of none effect the Word of God? Do we not see all around us signs of a
most wonderful change going on in the world? Are these changes which we
behold from the Lord, or from man?

I was reared in the Baptist Church. My father was a deacon, and labored
faithfully to bring his children into the Church. I was taught that I must
be converted, or get religion, before being baptized or joining the Church.
What was meant by being converted I never fully comprehended, but I
inferred from the instruction I received that it meant a radical change in
one's feelings, the result of faith in the Lord's "atoning blood;" and that
when this change was effected, I should be able to tell an experience
similar to what I had heard others tell before joining the Church, which
sometimes seemed quite marvelous. I attended "protracted meetings" and
"revival meetings." And, one evening, I remember hoping and almost feeling
that I felt a little change, and I even thought of announcing my feelings
in the meeting; but caution prevailed, and I concluded to wait until the
next day and see if there really was any change in my feelings. When the
next day came, I could see no change, and consequently I made no
announcement. Thus, I grew up and continued, until I was over thirty years
of age, outside of the organized Church. I always respected religion, the
Bible, and religious teachers, but I never got converted.

I had many things during childhood and early youth to be thankful for. My
father and grandfather before him were accustomed to gather the family,
night and morning, and read, or have some member of the family read, a
chapter in the Bible, and then prayer was offered. Now, when this is done
regularly, and especially if the Bible is read, in course, with here and
there a few kindly remarks by the father or mother, no one can tell the
good impression which is made on the children; they learn to reverence the
Bible, and, what is of exceeding great moment, they hear it read through
and through several times before they reach manhood, and they become
comparatively familiar with the good and living precepts therein contained.
The Sabbath-school, once a week for an hour or two, is all very well; but,
in my estimation, it is very little, compared with daily family worship and
acknowledging the Lord, and asking a blessing. O, that all Christian men
and women could be aroused to the importance of such religious observances?

Some years ago, I went with my wife and a friend for a summer outing to the
Catskill Mountains, and spent a few days at the Mountain House. There were
a large number of guests there, of the various religious denominations.
Those religiously inclined had established the custom of meeting every
morning around a table, in a large room, when a chapter from the Bible was
read, followed by singing and prayer. There have been few, if any,
incidents of my whole life that I have more frequently thought of, or with
greater pleasure and delight, than of those large, non-sectarian, and, as
it were, family gatherings and simple services.

My mother died, as stated in the first part of this work, when I was ten
years old. After remaining a widower for three years, during which period
my grandparents, who lived with us, died and my only sister was married, my
father married a widow, the mother of several children, a good Christian
woman and a member of the Baptist Church.

I have always been thankful that I had a step-mother. No own mother could
have been more kind, or have exercised a stronger influence for good over a
son than she strove to exercise over me. She entered our home when I was
thirteen years of age, when I needed a mother's influence and care perhaps
as much as at any period of my life after I had ceased to draw my
nourishment from my mother's breasts. Tears come into my eyes as I recall
the pleasant, useful, and happy evenings and Sunday afternoons which I
spent with her, when we happened to be alone in the house, reading and
conversing about the interesting stories in the Bible and other religious
books and papers that she thought would interest me. She may have had
faults, yet I was about to say I do not remember one; but, unfortunately,
she had one--she was a smoker of tobacco. Years before she had been
troubled with "water brash," and a physician who, without much question,
was himself a smoker, advised her to smoke; so she commenced smoking. He
did not tell her to stop smoking as soon as she felt relief, as any
intelligent physician should have done, if he was so unwise as to make such
a prescription; but it is a question whether she ever experienced any
permanent relief; for she was a bright, intelligent woman, and would have
been likely to stop smoking of her own accord if she had been cured. In my
estimation the physician who made the prescription was much more to be
blamed than she was for the habit which followed. But seventy years ago
very little was known as to the fearful slavery and diseases and mortality
which result from the use of tobacco, compared with what is known to-day.
The sin of ignorance cannot be pleaded in extenuation of such habits
to-day, as it could then.

As to intoxicating drinks, I remember hearing my grandfather, when he was
over eighty years old, after taking a drink of cider-brandy, exclaim: "A
good gift of God, if taken with faith and prayer."

Fortunately, or providentially, I would say, the temperance reformation
commenced soon after, and my father and other prominent members and the
clergymen of the Baptist and Congregational churches in our town took an
active part in the new movement. My father signed the pledge not to drink
intoxicating drinks, and I followed his example; and I thank the Lord that
I did so, for it gave me the strength and courage to say, "No, I thank you,
I never drink," when invited and tempted to drink intoxicating drinks. No
intoxicating drinks have been publicly sold in that town (Ashfield, Mass.)
for many years. During a recent visit there I found that, within the past
three years, there have been 61 deaths in the town, of whom 15 only were
under 50 years of age, whereas 20 were over 80 years, of whom 4 were over
90 years of age. What do you think of that, Christian brother?

I remember very well the first ideas I had of God when a boy, which I
derived from the preaching and praying of ministers. It was that God and
our Lord Jesus Christ were two distinct Beings. We had for a time a
venerable gray-headed old man who preached one Sabbath, and a young man who
preached the next. I thought the old man represented God the Father and the
young man represented Jesus Christ.

When I arrived at manhood and came in contact with men of different
religious views, and read some of their writings, the doctrine of the
Trinity became more and more a mystery to me. At one time I was slightly
inclined to Unitarianism, but I could not reconcile their doctrines with
the Bible. Yet the Trinitarians seemed to teach distinctly that there are
either two Gods, possessing different attributes, or that Jesus Christ was
not God. It does not make any difference what we say with our lips; the
question is, What do we "think in our hearts"? When I heard a bishop of one
of the prevailing denominations stand up in his pulpit, as I have, and
represent Jesus Christ as standing with one hand upon the throne of
Jehovah, and the other hand resting upon the sinner's head, pleading with
the Father to forgive him for his (Christ's) sake, was there not in the
mind of that bishop a distinct idea of two Beings, possessing different
feelings and passions? Now, were both of them Gods, or was one of them not
God? And when I heard prayers so frequently terminated by the phrase,
"Forgive us for Christ's sake," the question naturally arose, to whom were
such prayers addressed? If there are any intelligent rational ideas
connected with the phrase in the mind of the one using it, has not his
prayer unquestionably been addressed to some God outside of the Lord Jesus
Christ? Who is that God? Can Christian men safely reject the express
teaching of our Lord Himself when on earth, when He declared: "I and my
Father are One;" "Whose hath seen me, hath seen the Father"? and the
apostle's teaching, that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto
Himself"? Is there any other way to the Father at this day except through
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ--God manifest in the flesh? Is He not
the "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last"?
Why, then, pray to an unknown God? In the Old Testament, we are told that
"I, Jehovah, am your Savior, and beside me there is no Savior," and in the
New Testament we are told that in Jesus Christ dwelt all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. He is "Immanuel--God with us." Let us, then, worship
Him--One God in One Divine Person.

The doctrine of election and predestination early troubled me. I could not
reconcile it with the loving kindness which the Sacred Scriptures proclaim
as characteristic of our Heavenly Father.

The doctrine of justification by faith alone, "without the deeds of the
law," as the old hymn read, was not a doctrine which appealed to my reason,
but it was a very consoling doctrine. Every young man who has been
carefully reared by religious parents, and under the influences of a
church, expects to be converted and get religion some time before he dies,
and to join a church. But if he enjoys good health and the prospect of
living for many years, especially if he is taught that, by merely believing
or having faith at any time in the "atoning blood of Christ," he can escape
the consequences of his evil deeds, there is great danger of
procrastination.

A clergyman once said to me: "If a man repents and gets converted one hour
before his death, the worse he has been or lived, the happier he will be."
It seems to me better to be guided by the Word of the Lord, and to believe
that the evil doer shall not go unpunished. The Lord came into the world to
save men from sin and from the penalty only so far as they co-operate with
Him. Sin is the cause, the penalty is the effect; and effect follows cause
as a normal and necessary consequence.

The young, as well as the old, should be taught the great truth, that every
thought we harbor, and every word we speak, and every act we do, aid in
building up our spiritual organism, and will tell on our eternal destiny,
just as the natural food and drink we use, and the exercise we take, will
tell on the future health of our material bodies, for good or evil; and
there is no avoiding it. If a man or woman, young or old, would be right in
the future, he must do right in the present. No one should forget that,
even if we reach heaven, the mansion which we will occupy there will depend
on our lives here--every one will unite with those like Himself. No one can
tell the immense harm which has been done to our race, by teaching that
either by faith alone, or through the influence or efforts of the clergy,
men can be saved from the penalties or consequences which are sure to
follow an evil life. The "willing and obedient" shall eat the good of the
land. Our blessed Lord tells us: "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall
abide in my love" (John xv: 10). Thus beautiful, symmetrical, spiritual
organisms are built up, not by "sowing wild oats" during youth, and
disobeying the divine commandments during the subsequent period of life. It
is well for all, young or old, to remember the Word: "Be not deceived; God
is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." (Gal.
vi: 7.) At this day we need practical doctrines, which shall unite religion
and life, or faith and charity, and such alone will command the respect of
non-churchgoers.

While a young man my attention was early called to the doctrines of the
Universalists, but their doctrines did not seem to me to accord with the
Sacred Scriptures; nor did I think that all men could be equally happy
hereafter, when there is such a vast difference in their conduct and lives
here. Genuine happiness is the result of right willing and doing; in other
words, of keeping the commandments. I have no doubt but the Lord desires
that all men should thus live and be happy; but we know that all men are
not willing. Having created them free agents, God does not compel them here
to love the Lord and their neighbor, which loves manifestly constitute
heaven; what reason, then, have we to think He will compel them to do it
hereafter? If a man deliberately leads an evil life here, growing ever
stronger and more confirmed in that life, until he has made evil his good
and rejoices in it, what reason have we to suppose or assume that he will
change when he enters the next life? I am willing to leave him in the hands
of the Lord--he has passed from my sight. I well remember the remarks of my
grandmother when she was eighty-six years of age, a few days after the
death of her husband, my grandfather. She said: "I do not fear to die, for
I feel that God will do me no injustice." Within a few days she departed in
peace.

The Millerite excitement commenced when I was a young man. When I was about
twenty years old I was traveling in central Massachusetts. One night there
was a meeting of Millerites in the neighborhood where I was stopping, and I
attended the meeting. The speaker was very zealous and earnest in his
remarks. There was a comet with quite a long tail then visible, and he
seemed to think that that comet, with its tail, might sweep across the
track of our earth and work its destruction, which he anticipated. I
remember very well my reflections on leaving that meeting. A few days
before I had stood upon the side of a hill near the track, and had seen for
the first time a railroad train on its way from Boston to Worcester. I said
to myself: "Now we have railroads, steamboats, friction matches, temperance
societies, Sunday-schools, the Bible translated into various languages,
which but a few years ago were unknown. This great continent, from being a
wilderness, inhabited by a comparatively few wild Indians, has been
discovered and is being developed and cultivated by civilized and Christian
people, and gradually being made capable of containing and sustaining
hundreds of millions of inhabitants." With all these facts before me, I
said to myself, "It looks a great deal more as though the world is just
beginning to live; in fact, that a new era is dawning, than it does that
the world is going to be destroyed." From that night the Millerite doctrine
never troubled me any more, for I felt that I beheld, in all the wonderful
inventions being made and changes going on in the world, the dawning light
of a better day for the inhabitants of our earth.




CHAPTER V.

THE DAWN OF A NEW DISPENSATION.


We behold the dawn of a new day before we see the sun, from whence the
light proceeds.

The young in the Baptist Church, not having been baptized in infancy, are
brought up to feel that they are out of the Church, and that they have to
be converted, or "to get religion," before they join the Church, instead of
being brought up to feel that, having been baptized, they belong to the
Church and must believe its doctrines, and live the life which they teach.
Thus I remained out of the Church until I was over thirty years of age.
After I was twenty-three years old I attended different churches, as was
most convenient. For a time I attended the Episcopal Church, while studying
medicine; and after I graduated I attended the Congregational Church for
several years more frequently than any other; but I had no thought of
joining that Church, for during those days I always thought that immersion
was the only true mode of baptism.

While practicing medicine in Detroit, a gentleman whose family I was
attending asked me if I would not like to read a work on "Heaven and Hell,"
written by Emanuel Swedenborg, who claimed, he said, to have had open
intercourse with the spiritual world, and to have written of what he had
seen and heard in that world. He said that he had read it, and believed
that the views therein contained were rational and true. If I had ever
heard of them at all, at that time, I had never heard the writings of
Swendenborg spoken of favorably before. Out of respect to the gentleman, I
took the book home with me, but did not feel sufficient interest in it to
attempt to read it through in course, but read here and there a few pages;
and, after keeping it a few weeks, I returned it to the owner, feeling from
what I had read no interest in its contents. Not long after this a lady
whom I was attending asked me if I would not like to read Professor George
Bush's reasons for accepting as true the revelations contained in the
writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. Well, I thought to myself, if the gentleman
who lent me "Heaven and Hell," if my patient here, who is a very
intelligent woman, and Professor Bush, whom I had understood was a very
learned man, believe that Swedenborg's writings contain truths good and
useful, it may be well for me to read the pamphlet then before me. So I
took the book home with me and commenced reading it. About that time Rev.
George Field commenced the delivery of a course of lectures on Creation and
the first chapters of Genesis, treating the subject from the standpoint of
Swedenborg's writings. I attended his lectures, which added very much to my
interest, and I read Bush's reasons with care. Then I obtained "Heaven and
Hell," and read it carefully through with the greatest interest. When a
small boy I remember very well listening with fear and trembling to a
discourse delivered by a clergyman, on "God is angry with the wicked every
day," in which the speaker dwelt upon the fearful sufferings which the Lord
had in reserve for the wicked in a hell of fire and brimstone, where they
were to be tortured forever and ever.

When I came to read Swedenborg's "Heaven and Hell," I found a very
different and more rational doctrine taught--that heaven consists in loving
the Lord and the neighbor, or in religious obedience to the divine
commandments; and that hell consists in loving one's self and the world
supremely, or sensual and selfish gratification, without regard to use;
that either heaven or hell is within us, according to the character of our
ruling love; that the Lord casts no one into hell, but does all He can,
without interfering with man's freedom, to prevent men from going to hell;
if they go there, they go of their own free choice, among their like, where
selfishness in some form rules the hearts of the inhabitants; they would
not and could not be happy among those who are ruled by love to the Lord
and the neighbor; or by obedience to the divine commandments. The spiritual
world is a more real world than this; therefore, in that world the motives,
thoughts, and intentions of men cannot be hidden as readily as in this
world; consequently, there is a great gulf between heaven and hell. One is
opposite to the other. When love to the Lord and to the neighbor rules in
the hearts of all the inhabitants, there is no need of penal laws or
punishments, for each one is a law unto himself, and all are striving to do
good to each other and to all; consequently, unity, peace, and harmony
prevail.

How different from this is hell, where selfishness prevails; where the love
of dominion over others, or the love of vain show, the love of acquiring
unfairly that which belongs to others, the love of riches for the sake of
being rich, and of selfish and sensual gratification without regard to use,
rules in the hearts of all the inhabitants. We know that such perverted
passions make a hell hot enough here; and, as death does not change the
character of a man's ruling love, they will make a hell hot enough
hereafter. But the Lord, in His mercy which endureth forever, by His angels
governs the hells as well as the heavens, and does not permit vindictive
punishments. All punishments are for the benefit of evil doers, to restrain
and prevent them from doing evil to others and themselves, and from sinking
to greater depths of wickedness; we may, therefore, safely leave the
inhabitants of that world in His care.

No man or woman can read "Heaven and Hell" attentively, carefully, and
prayerfully without great benefit. It is clearly shown that, to escape
hell, an evil man has but to repent, to look to the Lord and shun evils as
sins against Him, and that the Lord is no respecter of persons, but that He
gives to every man the ability to do this, if he is willing. When we
examine ourselves carefully in the light of the Sacred Scriptures, and
discover an evil, if we shun that evil as a sin against the Lord, He keeps
us in the effort to shun all evils, and enables us more clearly to see
other evils to which we are inclined. Here is an open door for approaching
the Lord, free to all; there is no mystery about it. If an evil man is to
be reformed, he must repent or face about and commence a life of shunning
evils as sins against God; otherwise, there will be no radical change, but
a miserable shuffling from one evil habit to another. Even if a man shuns
one evil habit, like the smoking or chewing of tobacco, because it injures
his health and is likely to destroy his life, and not because it is a sin,
and without the acknowledgment that it is a sin, he is almost sure to seek
as a substitute some form of intoxicating drinks--opium, strong coffee, or
tea. We make a great mistake, as Christians, if we try to substitute
coffee- or tea-houses for saloons; not that the effects of coffee and tea
are as pernicious as intoxicants, but they are unnecessary, and often
diseases and great suffering result from their use. We should strive to
show men and women, in the light of this day, what substances are
unmistakably injurious to health and endanger life, and strive to lead
them, by precept and example, to shun their use as sins against God.

After reading "Heaven and Hell" I read the "True Christian Religion," which
is the last work that Swedenborg published, containing the essential
doctrines of the New Christian Church, or the New Jerusalem now descending
from God out of Heaven, "making all things new." In this work it is clearly
shown that God is one in essence and in person, and that in the Lord Jesus
Christ that one God is manifested to men. God is love. "In the beginning
was the Word and the Word was, with God and the Word was God." Here we have
the Father or Divine Love, the Son or Divine Wisdom, and the Holy Spirit or
Divine Proceeding, flowing from the Father because He is a being of
infinite love, wisdom, and power, through the Son, a trinity in unity. The
Divine Being is no more three persons than a man is three persons, because
he is created in the image of God and has affection or love, an
understanding, or thoughts, words, and acts that flow from his love through
his understanding out toward his fellow men. All the doctrines of the New
Christianity are based upon the Sacred Scriptures and appeal to our highest
reason; and we are to receive them because we see them to be true and in
strict harmony with the Word when the latter is correctly understood.

But I have neither time nor space to discuss these doctrines here. I will
simply say, that when we come to see clearly that there is but one God
whose name is one, who was manifested in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and that whoso seeth Him seeth the Father, then a number of false
doctrines which proceed from and cohere with the doctrine of a tri-personal
Deity will disappear like mists before the rising sun; and we shall be
prepared to see and understand the rest of the beautiful and rational
doctrines taught in "The True Christian Religion," and the mystery of
Babylon and all man-made creeds will disappear before this new revelation
from our Lord Jesus Christ.

After reading the "True Christian Religion" I read the work on Divine
Providence, which gives such a clear view of the Lord's providential care
over men that it strengthens and encourages the earnest seeker after truth
wonderfully. It is a book which should be read by every Christian man and
woman.

Next, "The Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Love and Wisdom" throws a
flood of light on the origin of the material universe and all created
things. In this work we are clearly shown that the Lord is Love itself,
because He is Life itself: and "that angels and men are recipients of
life;" and "that all created things in a certain image represent man," and
"that Love is the life of man."

But Swedenborg's "Apocalypse Revealed" was one of the most satisfactory
works I ever read. It opened up to me a new world of thought, of
expectation, hope and joy. The reading of this work and the first volume of
his "Arcana Celestia" satisfied me that the Sacred Scriptures are divine or
a special revelation from God to man, and differ from all merely human
writings as much as a living man differs from a statue; for they are filled
with a Divine spirit. The Lord says: "My words are spirit and life."

The Sacred Scriptures are written in accordance with the law of
correspondence between spiritual and natural things. The spiritual is the
cause, the natural is the effect; and effects must correspond to their
causes in every particular. The Lord is the sun of the spiritual world and
the creator of all things: consequently our natural sun corresponds to the
spiritual sun, or the Lord. From the Lord, or the spiritual sun, love and
wisdom proceed, and give life to man's spiritual body; from the natural sun
flow natural heat and light which enable the natural body to live; natural
heat and light therefore correspond to spiritual heat and light, or to love
and truth, which are heat and light to the spirit of man. Through the
natural clouds and atmosphere which surround the earth we receive natural
heat and light from the natural sun, as we receive spiritual heat and light
or love and truth from the Lord through the literal sense of the Sacred
Scriptures; Consequently the clouds of heaven in which the Lord was to come
are the literal sense of his holy Word, unfolding its spirit and life and
manifesting the Father clearly to His children. The sun which was to be
darkened was not the natural but the spiritual sun, or the Lord obscured to
man's spiritual perception. When men in their creeds separated the Lord
into three persons, and framed doctrines in accordance therewith, which, in
their estimation, would enable them to reach heaven by believing certain
dogmas, instead of by a life according to the Divine Commandments, then was
the sun indeed darkened in the minds of men. Then a true faith or knowledge
of the Lord was destroyed and the moon became as blood. A true faith
reflects the light or wisdom of the Lord upon man, as the natural moon
reflects the light of the natural sun. Water corresponds to truth upon the
natural plane of the mind, for it cleanses the natural body as truth
cleanses his spirit; it also circulates throughout the natural body,
conveying nourishment to all the structures of the body as truth circulates
through the spiritual body, conveying that which is good and true to
strengthen and develop the spiritual body. It is owing to this
correspondence that water is used in the ordinance of baptism, for it
performs the same office for the natural body that truth does for the
spiritual body; it cleanses and conveys nourishment; and therefore baptism
by water signifies that man is to be regenerated by receiving and living
according to the truth. It is also the Christian sign--a sign that one
baptized is of the Christian Church, or professes the Christian religion.

The "Fruit of the Vine," or pure unfermented or unleavened wine, has been
organized by the Lord in the vegetable kingdom; it therefore not only
contains water, but also organized nourishment for the structures of the
body, which supply in a most remarkable degree the wants of the body, like
a mother's milk to her infant child; it therefore most beautifully
symbolizes blood, and corresponds to spiritual truth, united with good from
the Lord, which nourishes and builds up the spirit of man, when he drinks
or appropriates it, or when he lives as divine truth teaches, shunning
evils as sins against God. It is consequently used appropriately in the
Most Holy Supper.

It has been my aim above to simply give the reader a glimpse of this most
wonderful and beautiful of all sciences, and really the foundation of all
sciences-the science of correspondence between natural and spiritual
things. He who reads carefully and without prejudice the "Apocalypse
Revealed" and the "Arcana Celestia," with a desire to know and live
according to the truth, cannot fail to see that the Sacred Scriptures are
plenarily inspired, and are a special revelation from God to man; and that,
different from all merely human writings, they contain within the letter a
connected spiritual sense. That the science of correspondences was once
understood by the inhabitants of our earth, is to be seen in the relics
which remain in a more or less perverted form in the hieroglyphics of
Egypt, the idolatry among many nations, and sun-worship, where the
spiritual signification has often been lost and men have come to worship
the natural objects instead of the spiritual, which they represent. The
mythological writings of many nations, and even Masonry, contain remains of
this once well known science. The first chapters of Genesis and the entire
Word are written in strict accordance with this science. The first chapters
of Genesis, like the Parables of our Lord, were not intended to be
understood literally; the very names therein show this clearly. A tree of
life, a tree of knowledge of good and evil, a talking serpent, how can any
man for a moment suppose these to be natural trees and a natural snake? Do
serpents ever talk? the garden eastward in Eden, and an Ark which would not
hold the hides and teeth of all the animals on earth--were these to be
understood literally?




CHAPTER VI.

A NEW DAY TO OUR EARTH.


"'Behold He cometh with clouds,' signifies that the Lord will reveal
Himself in the literal sense of the Word, and will open its spiritual sense
at the end of the church."--_A. R. 23._

A church, we are taught, comes to its end when the true doctrines of the
Word are falsified by its members, to justify evils of life; or when the
members of a church who are in the love of ruling over others in civil and
ecclesiastical affairs, for their own aggrandizement, or for vain show, or
who love money or sensual gratification without regard to use, strive to
justify the gratification of their perverted loves and appetites by an
appeal to the Sacred Scriptures, and thus frame creeds and doctrines which
exalt faith and ceremonials above a life of charity, and when men come to
live in accordance with such false doctrines the church comes to its end.
At the same time, there remain some who are still in the good of life, or
striving to live good lives in obedience to the Divine commandments. Such
comprise the common people who receive the Lord with joy at His coming, and
follow Him, among whom a New Dispensation of Divine Truth commences. Such
may be found both among the clergy and laity. The end of the world is the
end of the Dispensation or Age, and not of the material earth--"The earth
endureth forever."

We are told by Swedenborg that the angels rejoiced greatly that it had
pleased the Lord to reveal a knowledge of correspondences so deeply
concealed during some thousands of years; "and they said it was done in
order that the Christian Church which is founded on the Word, and is now at
its end, may again revive and draw breath through heaven from the
Lord."--_Conjugial Love_, 532.

So we are not to look for the destruction of the prevailing religious
organizations, but for the rejection of their false and irrational
doctrines, and the receiving of new light and life from the Lord. And how
is such a result to be brought about?

It was apparently the opinion of Swedenborg that his writings would be read
by the clergy, who would teach the doctrines therein contained to their
congregations; and thus the glorious truths for this new Era or crowning
Church would be spread among the people; for, in speaking of the descent of
the New Church, or New Jerusalem, from God out of Heaven, he says it can
only take place "in proportion as the falses of the former Church are
removed; for what is new cannot gain admission where falses have before
been implanted, unless those falses are first rooted out; and this must
first take place among the clergy, and by their means among the laity."

That Swedenborg's anticipations are surely and somewhat rapidly being
realized at this time seems beyond question; for over 30,000 clergymen of
the various religious denominations of our country have already sent for
and obtained Swedenborg's "True Christian Religion" and "Heaven and Hell,"
and over 25,000 have received his "Apocalypse Revealed." It is known that
large numbers are reading the above works with great interest, and that
hundreds if not thousands are full receivers of the doctrines therein
contained, and that they are teaching them to their people as fast as they
find they can receive them. In fact, many of Swedenborg's writings were
translated into English by the late Rev. John Clowes, Rector of St. John's
Church, Manchester, England, who, for many years, without ever being
required to sever his connection with the Church of England, openly and
boldly taught the doctrines revealed through Swedenborg. Mr. Clowes says:--

"Nothing, therefore, can be plainer than that the New Jerusalem
Dispensation is to be universal, and to extend unto all people, nations,
and languages on the face of the earth, to be a blessing unto such as are
meet to receive a blessing. Sects and sectarians, as such, can find no
place in this General Assembly of the ransomed of the Lord. All the little
distinctions of modes, forms, and particular expressions of devotion and
worship will be swallowed up and lost in the unlimited effusions of
heavenly love, charity, and benevolence with which the hearts of every
member of this glorious New Church and Body of Jesus Christ will overflow
one toward another. Men will no longer judge one another as to the mere
externals of church communion, be they perfect or imperfect; for they will
be taught that whosoever acknowledges the incarnate Jehovah in heart and
life, departing from evil, and doing what is right and good according to
the commandments, he is a member of the New Jerusalem, a living stone in
the Lord's new Temple, and a part of that great family in heaven and earth
whose common Father and Head is Jesus Christ. Every one, therefore, will
call his neighbor _Brother_, in whom he observes this spirit of pure
charity; and he will ask no questions concerning the form of words which
compose his creed, but will be satisfied with observing in him the purity
and power of a heavenly life."

"The Gentiles," says Swedenborg, "cannot profane the holy things of the
Church like Christians, because they are not acquainted with them." "They
are afraid of Christians on account of their lives." "Those who have lived
well, according to their religious principles, are instructed by the
angels, and easily receive the truths of faith, and acknowledge the Lord,"
"for they have not formed for themselves any principles of falsity opposed
to the truths of faith, which would need to be first removed."

"Although Gentiles are not in genuine truths during their life in the
world, they receive them in the other life from a principle of love."

"The Church of the Lord exists with all in the universe who live in good
according to their religious principles, and acknowledge the Divine Being;
and they are accepted of the Lord and go to heaven."

The above is in strict accordance with all that Swedenborg has written; for
he says:--

"In the spiritual world to which every man goes after death, it is not the
character of your faith into which inquiry is made, nor of your
_doctrine_, but of your _life_, whether it has been of this
character or that; for it is known that such as a man's _life_ is,
such is his faith--nay, more, such is his doctrine; for life forms its
doctrine and faith for itself." (_D. P._ 101.) "For the good of life
according to one's religion contains within it the affection of knowing
truths, which such persons also learn and receive when they come into the
other life." (_A. C._ 455.)

"Evils which belong to the will, are what condemn a man and sink him down
to hell; and falsities only so far as they become conjoined with evils;
then one follows the other. This is proved by numerous instances of persons
who are in falsities, and yet are saved." (_Ibid._ 845.)

"It has been provided that every one, in whatever heresy he may be as to
the understanding, can still be reformed and saved, provided he shuns evils
as sins, and does not confirm heretical falsities in himself; for by
shunning evils as sins the will is reformed, and through the will the
understanding, which then first comes out of darkness into light. There are
three essentials of the Church: the acknowledgment of the Divine of the
Lord, the acknowledgment of the holiness of the Word, and the life which is
called charity. According to the life, which is charity, every one has
faith; from the Word is the knowledge of what the life must be; and from
the Lord are reformation and salvation. If the Church had held these three
as essentials, intellectual dissensions would not have divided but only
varied it, as light varies its colors in beautiful objects, and as various
diadems give beauty in the crown of a king." (_D. P._ 259.)

Here, then, we have a broad spirit of charity which acknowledges every man
as a brother who believes in a Supreme Being, shuns evils as sins, and
strives to live conscientiously and honestly according to the light he
possesses.

As many who will be likely to receive this pamphlet may know little, if
anything, in regard to the claims which Swedenborg makes, that he was the
human instrument chosen by The Lord through whom to reveal to the world the
truths of a New Dispensation, even of the Second Coming of the Son of Man,
it may be well to allow this chosen servant to speak for himself as to his
mission. He says:--

"I have been called to a holy office by the Lord Himself. I can sacredly
and solemnly declare that the Lord Himself has been seen of me, and that He
has sent me to do what I do, and for such purpose has opened and
enlightened the interior part of my soul, which is my spirit, so that I can
see what is in the spiritual world and those that are therein; and this
privilege has now been continued to me for twenty-two years. But in the
present state of infidelity, can the most solemn oath make such a thing
credible or to be believed? Yet such as have received true Christian light
and understanding will be convinced of the truths contained in my writings,
which are particularly evident in the book of 'Revelations Revealed.' Who,
indeed, has hitherto known anything of importance of the spiritual sense of
the Word of God, of the spiritual world, or of heaven and hell; the nature
of the life of man, and the state of souls after the decease of the body?
Is it to be supposed that these, and other things of like consequence, are
to be eternally hidden from Christians?"

Again, in the "True Christian Religion," at a later date, toward the close
of his life in this world, he says:--

"I foresee that many who read the relations after the chapters, will
believe that they are inventions of the imagination; but I assert in truth
that they are not inventions, but were truly seen and heard; not seen and
heard in any state of mind buried in sleep, but in a state of full
wakefulness. For it has pleased the Lord to manifest Himself to me, and to
send me to teach those things which will be of His New Church, which is
meant by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation; for which end He has opened
the interiors of my mind or spirit, by which it has been given me to be in
the spiritual world with angels, and at the same time in the natural world
with men, and this now for twenty-seven years."

In a letter to the King of Sweden, with characteristic simplicity and
boldness, he says:--

"When my writings are read with attention and cool reflection (in which
many things are to be met with hitherto unknown) it is easy enough to
conclude that I could not come to such knowledge but by a real vision and
converse with those who are in the spiritual world. I am ready to testify
with the most solemn oath that can be offered in this matter, that I have
said nothing but essential and real truth, without any admixture of
deception. This knowledge is given to me by our Saviour, not for any
particular merit of mine, but for the great concern of all Christians'
salvation."

When asked why a philosopher was chosen to this office he replied:--

"To the end that the spiritual knowledge which is revealed at this day
might be reasonably learned and naturally understood; because spiritual
truths answer unto natural ones, inasmuch as these originate and flow from
them, and serve as a foundation for the former."

To the Swedish clergymen who visited him a short time before his death, and
who urged him to recant what he had written if it was not true, he replied,
with great zeal and emphasis:--

"As true as you see me before you, so true is everything that I have
written, and I could have said more had I been permitted. When you come
into eternity you will see all things as I have stated and described them,
and we shall have much to discourse about with each other."

Here, then, we have in this illustrious seer the unparalleled instance of a
man, not in the enthusiasm of youth, but at the mature age of fifty-six
years, standing among the first in the philosophical world, with reputation
unsullied, high in office in his native country, with proffered promotion,
giving up all, and proclaiming to the world that he was called by the Lord
to the important office of revealing new truths of vast moment to his
fellow-men--even the truths of a new dispensation, or of the second coming
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Now, I appeal to you, one and all, Clergymen of the Christian Church, of
every name, to obtain and read his writings. In the good Providence of the
Lord, three among his most important works can be obtained without money
and without price by the clergy and theological students of our country, by
simply ordering them and sending the postage--as will be seen on the second
page of the cover of this pamphlet.

Swedenborg does not require or desire you to believe anything contained in
his writings on his simple declaration, but you are to believe the
statements made, and doctrines proclaimed, in his writings, only as you
perceive them to be true, and in strict accordance with the Sacred
Scriptures. What have you to lose by reading his writings? Thousands of
laymen and clergyman testify to you that they have found the greatest help
and strength from reading them, even where they may not have read enough to
fully recognize his claims.

Canon Wilberforce, of Southampton, England, one of the most distinguished
clergymen of the English Church, visited this country a few years ago; and
while he was here, being a prominent temperance man, the National
Temperance Society gave him a reception, during which some one introduced
me to him as a believer in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. Stopping a
moment, and looking steadily at me and those in the immediate vicinity, he
exclaimed, most emphatically: "Emanuel Swedenborg has done the Christian
Church an immense service! an immense service!! especially in his
explanation and illustration of the doctrine of the Lord." These words were
spoken manfully and boldly in the presence of members and clergymen of his
own and other Churches. The doctrine of the Lord is the chief corner-stone
of the New Jerusalem now descending from God out of Heaven. Let that
doctrine be accepted by our Churches, and their creeds, so far as they are
based on a tri-personal God, will need no revision; they will disappear.

"All things," says a great authority, "are of God, who hath reconciled us
to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath committed unto us the ministry of
reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto
Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." (2 Cor. v: 18, 19)

The late Professor George Bush and a large number of distinguished scholars
and clergymen, after a most thorough and careful examination of
Swedenborg's writings, assure us that in them they find the truths of a New
Dispensation, even of the Second Coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of
heaven. The light of a New Day is shining. Christian brethren, will you
close your eyes against it?

Was there ever any greater need of a new revelation from God to teach men
anew that, if they would reach heaven and happiness, they must repent and
shun evils as sins against God, and strive to live a life according to the
commandments? Look at the fearful evils which prevail in our beloved
country; the love of rule, civil and ecclesiastical; the miserly love of
money, selfishness, vanity and sensualism, in their worst and most
degrading forms! Customs and habits prevail which threaten the extinction
of at least the Protestant portion of the community in large sections of
our country. A Catholic bishop stated, a few years ago, that one quarter of
the inhabitants of New England are Catholics, and that one-fourth of the
population give birth to 70 per cent. of the children born in New England.
More recent inquiries, it is stated, show that the average number of
children in a family among the Canadian French settled in New England,
averages 5; whereas among the native New Englanders the average number of
children in a family is 1-1/2. It is not difficult to see by whom the land
of the Puritans will be ruled within the next quarter of a century. Seventy
years ago, the average number of children to a family among New Englanders
was fully equal to the number among the French to-day. Why this change?
Fashionable habits of dress--tight lacing, which is worse to-day than ever
before--has, to a large extent, destroyed the ability of the New England
and other native American women to bear healthy and well-developed
children, and to properly nurse them after they are born. Among our present
deformed women, child-bearing is attended with much more danger and
suffering than among well-developed, symmetrical, and beautifully formed
women. No man who desires peace, health, and happiness in his home, and
desires to leave children behind him, and to thus perform the most
important use which can be performed in this life, should ever think of
marrying a small-waisted woman.

Then again, to have a good family of children is thought not to be
fashionable, among those who are led by fashion, as it interferes too much
with one's selfish pleasures, they think; most dearly do they pay in after
life, if they live many years, for their folly. Children are a blessing;
and yet the most unnatural and injurious measures are adopted to prevent
bearing children, even to the destroying of the unborn. The Catholic
Church, through the confessional, holds some restraint over Catholics; but
what restraint do our Protestant Churches hold over their members in regard
to such evils? Look at the miserable caricatures of the female form printed
in our fashionable magazines, and even in our daily papers, and sent forth
and freely spread before our young girls, for them to pattern after, and
thus deform themselves.

Look at the drunkenness, the leaden and congested faces of our steady
drinkers of intoxicating drinks, and the innumerable deaths and the
wretchedness and sorrow which follow such drinking; and remember that the
chief support of such drinking at this day is the use of the drunkard's cup
instead of "the fruit of the vine" as a communion wine in so many of our
churches, and the example of so many of our clergy, backed up by the
prescribing of such drinks by so many of our doctors. Do away with these
two chief supports, and prohibition would be enacted and enforced
throughout our land within five years.

Look at the use of tobacco, which is to-day recognized as one of the most
deadly poisons, which when used by the young prevents the development of
the human body, and at all ages causes innumerable diseases and deaths and
an inability to withstand the encroachment of other causes of disease; and
the smoke and saliva from the nostrils and mouths of those who use it,
which are so unpleasant and disagreeable to those who are not accustomed to
them, but who yet are so frequently compelled to breathe a polluted
atmosphere. Please read the following and tell us whether to thus prevent
the development of the body and lessen one's ability to withstand the
causes of diseases should be shunned as a sin against God or not:--


SMOKING AND PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT.

From the records of the senior class of Yale College during the Past eight
years, the non-smokers have proved to have decidedly gained over the
smokers in height, weight, and lung capacity. All candidates for the crews
and other athletic sports were non-smokers. The non-smokers were 20 per
cent. taller than the smokers, 25 per cent. heavier, and had 62 per cent.
more lung capacity. In the graduating class of Amherst College of the
present year, those not using tobacco have in weight gained 24 per cent.
over those using tobacco, in height 37 per cent., in chest girth 42 per
cent., while they have a greater average lung capacity by 8.36 cubic
inches.--_Medical News._

Just see the countenance which is given to this habit by too many of our
clergymen--the example which they set! Yes, in many of our denominations,
young men who are known to be smokers, or chewers of tobacco, with their
breaths smelling of this filthy, poisonous weed, are deliberately licensed
and ordained by Clergymen, when it is known that they will go in and out
before young and old, setting them an example which will unquestionably do
untold injury to the rising generation, and confirm old smokers and chewers
in their injurious and destructive habits, and thus be instrumental in
destroying many lives. What are the fathers and mothers in our churches
thinking about when they consent to such an example being set before their
children? Is it not time that they awake to the importance of choosing and
introducing into office their own ministers, instead of entrusting this
duty to the clergy? Swedenborg has given us the true signification of
ordination by the laity. In speaking of the ordination of the Levites by
the laity he says: "By the sons of Israel laying their hands upon the
Levites was signified the transference of the power of ministering for
them, and the reception of it by the Levites, thus separation."--A. C.
10,023. It will be seen that it was not Aaron the priest who laid his hands
upon the Levites when they were introduced into the office of the
priesthood, but the laity, or the children of Israel; and we can all see
how appropriate and significative the ceremony was; and it was strictly in
accordance with republican usages of this day. It does not exalt the
officer above the office which he fills.

Is there a race of men on earth to-day who stand in greater need of light
on spiritual subjects, and of the services of good, earnest, clean,
pure-minded Christian Missionaries, who shall call men and women to
repentance, and by precept and example lead them to shun the fearful evils
named above, and many others, as sins against God, more than the people of
the United States? Look at our children, many of whom, if they live at all,
grow up with crooked legs and spines, delicate muscles and irritable
brains, imperfectly developed jaws and consequently crowded teeth, which
commence decaying and torturing the young before they are twenty years old,
instead of lasting during life as they should; all of which results
principally from feeding children with starvation bread, or superfine flour
bread, cakes, and puddings, instead of the "full corn in the ear," or
unbolted flour or meal, as the Lord has organized it in the kernel of
grain. Many years ago scientific investigation demonstrated the fact that
the portions of the grain which nourish the brain, muscles, and bones is
principally confined to the dark, hard portion of the kernel immediately
beneath the hull; this is not easily pulverized or rolled into superfine
flour, and if it were the flour would not be white; but it goes principally
into, the second and third runnings or as canal, shorts, and bran, and is
fed to the horses, cattle, and hogs, causing them to be well developed,
strong, and healthy, while our children, for the want of it, are half
starved. Even a dog, it has been found by experiment, will starve to death
on superfine flour bread, but will live well enough on Graham or unbolted
flour bread. I have seen a child come near starving to death on such bread,
and only rescued her from impending death by mixing mashed potatoes with
the flour from which the bread was made. The little girl thought she could
eat no other food but such bread, and if she ate anything else she threw it
up. And yet, strange to say, I have known in one or more institutions under
the care of physicians, which were devoted to the treatment of deformed and
crippled children, superfine flour bread to be given them to eat.

It is fashionable and customary to use superfine flour bread; and as a
physician, and an employer of men, I know how difficult it is to induce or
persuade fathers and mothers, even for the sake of their children, to use
Graham or unbolted flour bread, cakes, and puddings, which will give
nourishment to the brain, muscles, teeth and bones, and all the fat and
heat-producing material they need, instead of superfine white flour bread,
cakes, and puddings, which give comparatively little more than fat and
heat-producing material.

I remember very well when my wife and myself were traveling in Egypt up the
Nile, and were at ancient Thebes, mounted on donkeys, going to the tombs of
the kings, the young Arab girl, with a vessel of water upon her head,
balanced by the ends of the fingers of one hand, who ran beside us over the
sand, stones, and hills; for she was one of the most beautiful and
symmetrical female forms I have ever seen. There was no contracted waist or
humped shoulders, but a beautiful female figure, full of life, with
splendid teeth and sparkling eyes. And on a visit to the house of our Arab
dragoman, or guide, we saw how the flour or meal was made upon which that
young girl was fed. In the court-yard two women were grinding at a mill as
they ground thousands of years ago. There were two circular mill stones,
perhaps 20 inches in diameter, standing in a basin; through the centre of
the upper stone there was an opening through which the wheat was poured,
and upon two sides were erect wooden handles, by which the women turned the
stone round and round, and back and forth, and the meal escaped into the
pan at the circumference. I said to our dragoman: "We have not had a bit of
good bread in Egypt. We have been stopping at hotels where they think they
must give the Americans and Englishmen white bread. Now, I wish you would
bring me some bread made from that flour to-morrow morning;" and he brought
us some bread, and it was by far the best bread that we had in Egypt.

The fearful evils which I have hastily named in the preceding pages, and
many others which cause the prevailing deformities, diseases, insanity, and
premature deaths, are not to be dragged along into the Church of the New
Jerusalem now descending from God out of heaven; but our race is to be
purified, renovated, and developed into a healthy, noble, symmetrical,
graceful manhood by the new inflowing of truths from the Lord, pointing out
the evils and falses which are causing the present suffering and
wretchedness, and calling on men and women to shun such evils and falses as
sins against God. A reformation from worldly motives is but "skin deep,"
and generally only results in the changing of one bad habit for another.
Men and women must be earnestly called to repentance, and to the absolute
necessity of shunning the evils which prevent the development of the body,
impair health and reason, and so fearfully shorten the average duration of
human life, as sins against God, which will tell on their eternal destiny.
The fact that individuals who drink intoxicating drinks, smoke or chew
tobacco, or deform their bodies by tight dressing, sometimes live to old
age under otherwise favorable circumstances, amounts to nothing. The simple
question is, do such habits shorten the average duration of human life? If
they do, they are a violation of the laws of God as manifested in the
organization of the human body and in His Word.




CHAPTER VII.

THE WANTS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.


The Christian Church at this day, first of all, needs true doctrines which
are in harmony with the Sacred Scriptures, and which all men who are
willing to see and obey, using the reason with which God has endowed them,
can accept and see to be true.

Second, such a law or principle of interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures,
that when they are interpreted in accordance with it,