Chapter VIII - Healing the Sick
379:1
regarded when employing a manipulator of the head,
regarded when employing a manipulator of the head,
that moulds mind and controls it, though less publicly
and suddenly, not less surely than the mesmerist who
comes more honestly before the foot-lights with his
performance. Through his mesmeric control over
minds, the mal-practitioner can hold his patients and
practice, whether he heals the sick or not, and he
moulds some of them into a belief they are healed, but
others he must keep moulding, that is, continue to treat,
or they will relapse. There are certain self-evident
facts; this is one of them. A student of science,
understanding its high requirements, cannot be un-
familiar with the fact that the teacher must have
reached it worthily who has grown to its discovery,
for this cannot be without pursuing faithfully the
straight and narrow path that leads to Truth. There-
fore, to know this and acknowledge it, is honesty and
understanding on the part of a student, and not to
know it, or acknowledge it, ignorance or dishonesty,
and every true student will bear testimony to this
statement. Paul said, "Live peaceably with all men
inasmuch as in you lies." This is wholesome counsel,
and a most desirable thing; but could he live peaceably
with all men, when "that which is perfect" had come
to his understanding, and that which is imperfect was
to be done away? Not the learning of a Roman student
spared him when he girded on the armor of Truth and
rushed to battle with the age. When he "fought the
good fight" and kept the faith, he passed from the
forum into toil and dishonor, and from a dungeon to a
scaffold and a crown.
379:32
If virtue forgives vice, it cannot love it; if charity
If virtue forgives vice, it cannot love it; if charity
380:1
overlooks a multitude of sins, it hath no fellowship with
overlooks a multitude of sins, it hath no fellowship with
sin; and if honesty endures patiently and long the
abuses of dishonesty, it hath the prudence at length to
get out of its hands. These are separate qualities of
character, that circumstance or duty compelling to meet
for a time, must part company through a law of being,
and often with a tremendous explosion.
380:8
The exhibitor of mesmerism startles you with his
The exhibitor of mesmerism startles you with his
power, but you are satisfied to conclude it is ridiculous,
and you are not its subject; his experiments, however,
are honorable, being open, and illustrative of the influ-
ence he has through it over the thoughts and actions of
others. But the dishonest mesmerist of which we speak,
is the mal-practitioner, who claims to take a place in
science, but sinks to a secret assassin in society. So
important are the rules of mental scientific healing, that
even repeated they do good, but we gather not grapes
of thorns, the tone of the individual's mind inculcating
them, overshadows them, and if his mind be not in
accordance with them, it imparts its own hue to the
patient; then who shall say which effect is strongest,
the good he says, or the evil behind it that he imparts.
If the mal-practitioner says mentally to the patient, as
he rubs his head, "be healed!" and she recovers, or is
improved morally, influenced in that direction, you
say this is a moral and physical gain, and behold the
proof that he practices very wisely. But suppose he
says to her mentally, as he rubs her head, something
wrong to do, or believe, and designates this wrong,
directing her thought and action in that channel, and
she unconsciously obeys him, feeling this hidden spring
to action as readily as the other. What, then, are your