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conflict. There are no substitutes for it. not preach it in its essence, in its widest interpretation and in its fullest hope? To the world shall we go with such a Gospel. Shall we call every one to have faith in the Jesus of this Gospel, to receive his spirit and give the life to his service?

A further truth should be added which is that the message of Jesus covers the needs of the physical body to a degree not realized by many. His message was preeminently spiritual and the realm of the physical was only secondary, yet while he was on earth he exercised his divine power in cooperation with the eternal laws of God to effect the human body for health. While there is great danger in advocating anything along this line as possible today, for it opens the door to all sorts of vagary and fanaticism, yet we believe that Jesus would have us not only recognize the fact that there are mental and spiritual laws which cooperate with the physical in securing to man physical strength and health, but that he would call all mankind to know these laws, and to couple up with the psychic forces of the universe in order that he may be benefited in body and mind. Level-headedness is greatly needed here, but we should realize that there is something basic in all the successful mental and spiritual systems of healing which may be traced to fundamental laws of God's universe. These laws and forces were made and set in operation for man and are for us today. Sound physical constitutions are valuable potencies in moral and spiritual kingdom progress. It is "Good News" of a divine sort to be able to tell nervous, worn-out, worried, fearful, despondent and sick people, that they may expect all the laws and powers

of God, physical, mental and spiritual, to operate when the scientific physician is called, and that the prayer of faith or personal cooperation with and realization of those laws and forces, is not only possible but effective to the securing of health. And further, when one realizes that 85 percent of the diseases of mankind are either functional or imaginary, it may be safely assumed that mental and spiritual attitudes do determine something, that there is a wide field for their operation, and there are times when the physician can truthfully state, "I was not needed except to help them mentally and spiritually."

Without stimulating undue credulity and without advocating any systems of oriental philosophy in connection with bodily healing, we may reasonably assert that Jesus' Gospel message does include much for human kind in the realm of the physical. An excellent reading course on this phase of our subject would be as follows:

"The Law of Mental Medicine," by Hudson.

"The Physiology of Faith and Fear," by Sadler.

"The Life Power and How to Use It," by Elizabeth Towne. "Mind, Religion and Health," by MacDonald.

"Mind Power," by Atkinson.

"Christology," by O. C. Sabin.

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE RELIGION OF THE CHILD

NE day not long ago upon returning to my

child of some two years of age, toddling toward me on the sidewalk. The woman attendant was safely guarding the little one from any danger while he rambled onward. As I came to him, he stopped and looked up into my face. I stopped also and gazed into his. The symmetry and beauty of his features caused me to say, as admiration and love burst forth from my soul, "Oh you little sweetheart." I passed on with the vision of that face before me. It seemed to me that I had never seen anything more wonderful or beautiful in all my life. Such a perfect little form, such great eyes, such cheeks pinked by the bracing air, such curls of silken hair, and such an expression of mingled joy, inquiry and confidence on his upturned face. As I journeyed on, it seemed that I was a visitor to earth and did not know the genius of life on this planet but was inquiring about it. I looked toward Heaven and asked, "What was that beautiful creature?" God answered, "That was a child." "Just a human child. Made of the same material that all children are made of." I walked on lost in revery. The world seems new to me and in the very centre of it was the child. I was back in the first century and was standing with Jesus as

he placed the child in the midst. In my mind, I traveled all over this earth and visited the great art galleries and wonders of nature but there was nothing so exquisitely beautiful and divinely wonderful as this child. It seemed as if some artist were outlining, in the colors that never wear out, the picture of the human babe. There was nothing that could take his place. Everything receded before him. But this was not all. The Master was talking to me. He who knew human life as no one else did, was telling me the secrets of the soul, heart, mind and being of that child. How he did open up to me the genius of his nature, his powers, his possibilities and the life environment on earth into which he had been placed by a loving Heavenly Father. It was a revelation to me. The vision has never left me. To day the church is recognizing the child's right to the central place in her Christian thought and labors. Never was the world so thoroughly aroused to his importance. The church believes that she should make provision for his protection and full rounded development. She is interested in every phase of his life problem and promise. His religious development is so thoroughly appreciated, that her entire ecclesiastical machinery is being reconstructed to take care of it. Books by the scores concerning child culture, have been and are being written. This is all because the church believes that one of the great tasks which confronts us is that of religiously developing this same child who is in our midst. Pastors, evangelists, Christian workers of all sorts, are thus impressed, knowing that the future of Christianity in this world depends upon its power with the young. Time and time again, I hear such expressions as

these, "the best evangelism and the best Christian work are with the children." "The church must focus her attention more upon them." "Rescue work is not the normal service for Christ. He intended that we should win the child and hold him, making rescue work largely superfluous." With such sentiments we are in happiest accord. This being true, namely, that our work should be done largely with the children, developing them upward to Christian manhood and womanhood without any break, it appears necessary to have a right view of the religion of the child. Christian workers should understand him as Jesus did, should know what it is for him to be religious and should realize just what we are expected as Christian workers to do to develop him in this realm. It is for this reason that I write out what the Master seemed truly to tell me on that walk with him after seeing that beautiful child.

There is no question about the surpassing beauty of some children and the wonder of all, but what is the child? How shall we think of him? In a moment of rapture, one declares that he is an "angel" and shortly some one in a passion states that he is a little "devil." The mother fondly caresses her baby and coos to him and presses the cheek to hers while she says, "Sweetest thing in all the world," but it may not be very many months before she turns that baby on her knee and spanks him good and hard while she cries out, "You naughty, awful child." The beautiful baby now seems to be the incorrigible youngster. The angel has gone and the little devil has come in his place. Perhaps most parents would state that the child is a mixture of both angel and devil. Sometimes one is uppermost and sometimes

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