ing.
Professor Coe had a number of persons of this class among his
seventy-seven subjects, and they almost all, when tested by hypnotism,
proved to belong to a subclass which he calls "spontaneous," that is,
fertile in self-suggestions, as distinguished from a "passive"
subclass, to which most of the subjects of striking transformation
belonged. His inference is that self-suggestion of impossibility had
prevented the influence upon these persons of an environment which, on
the more "passive" subjects, had easily brought forth the effects they
looked for. Sharp distinctions are difficult in these regions, and
Professor Coe's numbers are small. But his methods were careful, and
the results tally with what one might expect; and they seem, on the
whole, to justify his practical conclusion, which is that if you should
expose to a converting influence a subject in whom three factors unite:
first, pronounced emotional sensibility; second, tendency to
automatisms; and third, suggestibility of the passive type; you might
then safely predict the result: there would be a sudden conversion, a
transformation of the striking kind.

[127] In his book, The Spiritual Life, New York, 1900.

[128] Op. cit., p. 112.

Does this temperamental origin diminish the significance of the sudden
conversion when it has occurred? Not in the least, as Professor Coe
well says; for "the ultimate test of religious values is nothing
psychological, nothing definable in terms of HOW IT HAPPENS, but
something ethical, definable only in terms of WHAT IS ATTAINED."[129]

[129] Op. cit., p. 144

As we proceed farther in our inquiry we shall see that what is attained
is often an altogether new level of spiritual vitality, a relatively
heroic level, in which impossible things have become possible, and new
energies and endurances are shown. The personality is changed, the man
is born anew, whether or not his psychological idiosyncrasies are what
give the particular shape to his metamorphosis. "Sanctification" is
the technical name of this result; and erelong examples of it shall be
brought before you. In this lecture I have still only to add a few
remarks on the assurance and peace which fill the hour of change itself.

One word more, though, before proceeding to that point, lest the final
purpose of my explanation of suddenness by subliminal activity be
misunderstood. I do indeed believe that if the Subject have no
liability to such subcon