"A thriving trade!" said my venerable companion; "it always has
been, and always will, for Humanity is a many-headed fool, and
loves to be 'bamboozled.' These honest folk are probably paying
for bread pellets compounded with a little soap, yet will go
home, swallow them in all good faith, and think themselves a
great deal better for them."
"And therefore," said I, "probably derive as much benefit from
them as from any drug yet discovered."
"Young man," said my companion, giving me a sharp glance, "what
do you mean?"
"Plainly, sir, that a man who believes himself cured of a disease
is surely on the high road to recovery."
"But a belief in the efficacy of that rascal's bread pellets
cannot make them anything but bread pellets."
"No," said I, "but it may effect great things with the disease."
"Young man, don't tell me that you are a believer in Faith
Healing, and such-like tomfoolery; disease is a great and
terrible reality, and must be met and overcome by a real means."
"On the contrary, sir, may it not be rather the outcome of a
preconceived idea--of a belief that has been held universally for
many ages and generations of men? I do not deny disease--who
could? but suffering and disease have been looked upon from the
earliest days as punishments wrought out upon a man for his sins.
Now, may not the haunting fear of this retributive justice be
greatly responsible for suffering and disease of all kinds, since
the mind unquestionably reacts upon the body?"
"Probably, sir, probably, but since disease is with us, how would
you propose to remedy it?"
"By disbelieving in it; by regarding it as something abnormal and
utterly foreign to the divine order of things."
"Pooh!" exclaimed my venerable companion. "Bah!--quite, quite
impracticable!"
"They say the same of 'The Sermon on the Mount,' sir," I retorted.
"Can a man, wasting away in a decline, discredit the fact that he
is dying with every breath he draws?"
"Had you, or I, or any man, the Christ-power to teach him a
disbelief in his sickness, then would he be hale and well. The
Great Physician healed all diseases thus, without the aid of
drugs, seeking only to implant in the mind of each sufferer the
knowledge that he was whole and sound--that is to say, a total
disbelief in his malady. How many times do we read the words:
'Thy faith hath made thee whole'? All He demanded of them was
faith--or, as I say, a disbelief in their disease."