death. The worst part of it is that he
may induce some one else to make the same mistake with similar results.
In writing this opinion I am in no way denying the great significance
and value of faith nor of the prayerful and trustful mind. If it cannot
cure actual physical disease, faith can accomplish veritable miracles of
healing in the mind of the patient. No thoughtful or honest medical man
will deny it. Nor will most medical men deny that the course of almost
any physical illness may be modified by faith and prayer. I am almost
saying that there is no known medicine of such potency. Every bodily
function is the better for the conquering spirit that transcends the
earth and finds its necessary expression in prayer.

There really need be no issue or disagreement between medicine and faith
cure. At its best, one is not more wonderful than the other, and both
aim to accomplish the same end--the relief of human suffering. When the
two are merged, as some day they will be, we shall be surprised to
discover how alike they are. Christian Science is rightly scorned by
medical men because it is unscientific, because it makes absurd and
untenable claims outside its own field, and because it has not as yet
investigated that field in the scientific spirit. When proper study and
investigation have been made it will be found that faith cure, not in
its present state, but in some future development, will have an immense
field of usefulness. It will be worthy of as much respect in that field
as medicine proper in its own sphere. As a matter of fact both medicine
and faith cure are miraculous in a very real sense, as both depend for
efficiency now and always upon the same great laws which may be fairly
called divine. What is the discovery that the serum of a horse will
under certain circumstances cure diphtheria? Does it not mean that man
is tapping sources of power far beyond his understanding? Is man
responsible save as the agent? Did he produce the complex animal
chemistry that makes this cure possible? Did man make the horse, or the
laws that control the physiology and pathology of that animal? Here,
then, is faith cure in its largest and best sense. The biologist may not
be willing to admit it, but his faith in these great laws of God have
made possible the cure of a dread disease. Here, as in all matters of
pure religion, it is what men say and write, not the fact itself, that
makes all the misunderstanding; we make our judgme