is base and frivolous in his life, and be content with all places, and any service he can render. “He will calmly front the morrow in the negligency of that trust which carries God with it, and so has the whole future in the bottom of his heart.' It is obvious this represents a high type of sanity, and there can be no doubt that the standard of the man who is in direct contact with Divine Wisdom is higher than the ordinary one. Two points may here be noted. First that we are speaking of the life in normal times. Times of stress and storm (as in the great War) call for exceptional conduct; and indeed often actions such as might be called mad in ordinary life. Secondly, we must allow for temperament. S. James, we presume, would always appear conspicuously sane, S. Peter certainly less so, and S. Paul at times perhaps least of all. Observe in the beautiful Phædrus of Plato how Socrates points out that those that seek God are accounted mad. They endeavour to discover of themselves the nature of God, and when they grasp Him with their memory (being inspired by Him) they receive from Him their manners and pursuits, so far as it is possible for man to participate of God . Anyone who is reminded of this time begins to recover his wings, and having recovered them, longs to soar aloft; but being unable to do so, looks upward like a bird [a striking and pathetic simile] and despising things below is deemed affected with madness. When they see any resemblance of things there [in heaven] they are amazed, and no longer masters of themselves [remembering] when they beheld in the pure light-perfect, simple, calm, and blessed visions." Surely Socrates here approaches very nearly to what we have quoted of S. Paul," Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God (II Cor. v, 13). Further light may be thrown upon our study of Christian sanity by considering a few of the ideals and objects in the normal average Christian life.* From childhood the general trend of Christian development is away from the self-assertiva " ego towards God and man, towards spiritual and altruistic activities. The Christian ideal is chiefly that of doing good to others. * These are mainly obtained from Dr. Starbuck's well-known statistics of Christian life. Over half of the large number of lives investigated have this object first. One-quarter had as ideals Christian perfection and pleasing God. It is well to note that the number of those whose ideals were objective and altruistic (out of 1000 carefully examined lives) is double those whose ideals were subjective, and partly egoistic. Nearly half had God as the leading aspiration, one-third Christ, and one-quarter the future life, while the rest had good conduct. Most Christians over forty set God and good conduct principally first. Dependence on God, reverence, and praise to God, were the three most prominent feelings; while faith, happiness and peace were secondary. Peace and holiness were the principal desires between twenty and fifty; afterwards interest in God, the general trend being from the subjective and egoistic to the objective and altruistic. These statistics are not given as absolutely accurate, but simply as representing the sober statements of a large number of educated Christian men and women, who voluntarily replied to a number of carefully arranged questions, and are quoted here to show the eminent sanity of Christianity per se. Danger really begins either in specializing, or in not closely following the Divine Guide in the Bible. Whenever there is any giving up or loss of self-control (éyκρáteιa) sanity is endangered. It is a mere quibble to object to the words "self-control" and substitute "God" or "Spirit" control, for it is the self which is controlled, the controller being the human will, energized doubtless by Divine power; but not, as false teachers assert, paralyzed and destroyed by the same power. Such ideas are of the greatest peril to Christian sanity. I am indeed fully persuaded that so far from surrender of selfcontrol aiding spiritual advance, that it is impossible to reach Paul true spiritual heights without this sane quality. S. himself declares that without it he would be utterly unfit for his high service (I Cor. ix, 27), and no trace of any such loss can be found in the life of our great Exemplar. Consider the marked sanity of leaders in the Christian Church -of Liddon, of Lightfoot, of Westcott and of countless others. In the mission field, of Hudson Taylor, of Paton, of Moffatt, of Carey, of Hannington, of Moody, of Torrey, of Pierson. My own brother was accounted mad for giving up his eminent scientific position in England to go as a missionary to China; but he was one of the most sober and sane men I ever knew. Look at what is known as the Keswick platform for the last twenty years, and observe how carefully in teaching the highest truths, reasonableness and self-control have ever been enforced. Religious mania, which so many erroneously believe is the result of Bible teaching, springs from one of two causes of a wholly different nature. It is either caused by a previously unbalanced mind being taught some religious dogmas, or by departing from the Divine Guide, and following some peculiar and specialized teaching, more or less unbiblical and unchristian ; and which unfortunately is only too common to-day. The truest sanity is that of Christians, for they alone obey Browning's words :— "Trust God, see all, be not afraid." Their lives are sane and full of good works. To be under the guiding eye of God produces real sobriety and steadiness of mind and action. To suppose otherwise would be to make God the author of confusion. The man whose being is most controlled by God is farthest removed from ill-balanced or hasty thoughts or deeds. So far, then, I have used the words sanity and insanity in a somewhat loose and general way, and not in a medical or legal sense. This I have done purposely, as this paper is addressed to non-professional Christian men. In my closing remarks, however, I should like to say a word on the subject from a medical standpoint. I am persuaded that the perfect balance of Christian sanity is far too frequently upset by what is loosely termed nervous disorders, or more learnedly "psychasthenia," which is really due to another cause altogether. I find no trace of such a condition in the life of Christ, although the wearing unbelief and misunderstandings in Nazareth, and the vile slanders abroad were more than enough to cause it. I see, on the contrary, constant peace of spirit, and the perfect balance of sobriety and wisdom. I am persuaded, therefore, that most of the nervous breakdowns that one meets with are not due to Christianity, but to the want of it, in its true sane power. Those who go through life with the secret of Christ's yoke, find the burden light, and are greatly preserved from disturbance of mind or nerves. ( The idée fixe, or the fixed mental background, is common amongst extreme bigots. When this becomes dominant, the person is no longer sane. In such there is an entire absence of the first quality of sanity-"èmieĺkela or sweet reasonableness." This idée fixe may be produced in Christians when one aspect of truth excludes all others, which is never the case when God is the Teacher, for His Spirit leads into all truth, and thus preserves the balance. There are two times in life-puberty and the climacteric— when "moderation in all things" should be specially observed; for when there is any predisposition, there is special danger at these periods of loss of balance. The narrow Puritan School, necessary though it may have been at its institution, as a protest against the outrageous licence of the day, is a great cultivator of the morbid conscience, which after all is one of the most common beginnings of the disturbances of Christian sanity. Practically, however, most cases of insanity resolve themselves. into one of two classes: those mainly due to disease, and those due to heredity. Mere unsound views, one-sided minds, prejudice, and erratic or false teaching seldom lead to insanity by themselves; though they often play an active part in those already predisposed to loss of balance by heredity. Sober Christianity is a powerful aid to sanity even in the illbalanced; but a spiritual life, that neglects the safeguards so clearly pointed out in the Bible, and which I have here carefully indicated, especially if it runs in emotional channels, may constitute a real danger to Christian sanity. The conclusion of the whole matter is perfectly obvious, and is "that the true sanity of a well-balanced mind is the normal condition of every spiritual man taught of God by His inspired Word." DISCUSSION. The CHAIRMAN (Dr. FORTESCUE Fox) commented upon the changes in the standard of sanity of which history bore record. The great process of mental and spiritual development, which some called Evolution, and some preferred to look upon as the gradual fulfilment of the divine destiny of humanity, was marked by many difficulties. and disturbances. Delusions and unnecessary fears and depressions of the mind affected peoples, as well as individuals. In the Middle Ages some of these became epidemic manias, like the Dancing Mania and the barking Manias that went through Europe. In the same way, happier generations might look back upon these times as the strange days of the mania of Militarism. The effects of religion upon the equipoise of the mind was very great-and might operate both ways. It was well to remember that in the long run men needed encouragement. Nothing could be true or healthy that plunged men into fears and apprehensions. And now especially, after the long sufferings of the war, men needed encouraging. They needed to be made to see that life was good and glad, and that there was opening now upon the world a new day of unimaginable possibilities of progress and happiness. Mr. ROUSE asked whether the Christians whose aims were classified on page 20 belonged to the first or to the second original category, to the number which had mainly objective aims or to that which had mainly subjective ones. He further said :—Our Chairman has quoted Horace's description of the good and fearless man :— Integer vitae scelerisque purus, etc. But of course he did not mean that this was at all a description of that poet's own character. Horace would have done well if, as Burns did to a similar exhortation, he had appended : ،، And may you better reck the rede Than ever did th' adviser." Our Chairman thinks, as I understand him, that we of Britain. of North America, and of Western Europe have grown out of the credulous minds possessed by our mediæval ancestors. But like him I would refer to a striking utterance of Macaulay's: "A very common knowledge of history, a very little observation of life, will suffice to prove that no learning, no sagacity, affords a security against the greatest errors on subjects relating to the invisible world" (Essay on Ranke's History of the Popes). And this sentiment we shall fully indorse if we contemplate the recent amazing dissemination in America, Britain, and Western Europe of Mormonism, Christian science, clairvoyance and spiritism, the last named cult now announcing even weekly services services" of its own in my |