SPIRITUAL DYSPEPSIA.

THERE is not, perhaps, within the entire range of moral or spiritual ailments, a disease, in view of its frequency of occurrence, more difficult of accurate description, or more intractable in its remediate management, than that which forms the subject of our present inquiry, and which we have denominated Spiritual Dyspepsia. So perfectly protean is it in its type, that it assumes, at times, the form of almost every other spiritual malady. And oftentimes, so difficult of cure is it, that neither the mildest, nor yet the most heroic treatment, will always succeed in effecting a perfect cure. Indeed, to understand fully the pathology or intimate nature of this disease, would seem to require a general acquaintance with the whole class of spiritual ailments. But in view of the frequency of accompanying symptons, so discomforting to the patient, the truly miserable condition of the habitual spiritual dyspeptic, together with the often intractable nature of some of its forms, all of which conspire to make it necessarily a most interesting disease to the spiritual physician, and to present it as one having the strongest claims upon his attention and sympathy.

But before considering this form of spiritual disease, it would, perhaps, be well, in the first place, to inquire a little into that condition of the system constituting spiritual health. And in the second place, to consider those particular deviations from that condition, constituting spiritual dyspepsia.

Health, whether spiritual or physical, may be defined to consist in that state of the living body in which the parts are sound, well organized and disposed, and in which they all perform freely their proper functions.

In either case, then, whether it be physical or spiritual health, the condition of the living body, as above stated, must exist and be maintained in order to the continued enjoyment of health. But such a condition of the body, natural or spiritual, cannot be maintained unless in conformity to the laws of its own organization or constitution. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. The outward man is earth, earthy, and must subsist upon that which is earthy or material like itself. For doing this, it is furnished

with an admirable machinery for the reception, digestion, and assimilation of material nature, by which the health, vigor, and comfort of the physical man are promoted and sustained. Just so is it with the mind, as the inner or spiritual man. It, too, has its own peculiar nature, and an aliment as exactly adapted to its spiritual constitution, as the body has with which it is furnished; and faculties, too, of receiving, digesting, and assimilating whatever is spiritual like itself. Each, then, we perceive has its own peculiar aliment, and its own peculiar powers of appropriating and of assimilating it to itself. And thus each, in perfect harmony with its own peculiar organization, is fed and sustained. Health, then, whether physical or spiritual, whether of body or of mind, requires for its sustenance-first, a sound and well organized body; and in the second place, a regular and constant supply of aliment perfectly adapted to the peculiar organization of each.

Having now, in a very general manner, considered the condition of health, so far as it respects the necessity of sound organs and their proper adjustment in the body, in connection with the nature of the aliment appropriate thereto, we shall, in the next place, consider some of the symptoms or manifestations of good health.

We presume it is evident from what has been said, that the system of the inner or spiritual man must, in order to enjoy spiritual health, be fed and sustained in perfect harmony with its own peculiar organization. His organization then being spiritual, it follows as a matter of necessity, that the aliment which alone can nourish and sustain his life and health must also be spiritual. The communications of the Holy Spirit constitute his proper aliment. These are apprehended by faith. Thus received into his mind or spiritual system, they are assimilated to itself—they become spirit and life. Faith, trust, or reliance on God, is the principle of spiritual life. The divine testimony, the pabulum vitæ of the mind or inner man. Hence when he receives the words of Christ, he receives the bread of life-the only proper aliment of the spiritual man. The babe or new-born spiritual man receives them as the pure milk, that he may grow thereby. It is thus that both the babe and full grown man are fed and sustained upon the word and doctrine of

Christ and of God as their spiritual Head and Father. But as the outer man must daily receive, digest, and assimilate a suitable portion of material nature for the enjoyment of health, vigor, and comfort, so must also the inner or spiritual man. In order to his growth, health, vigor, and comfort, he too must daily drink in the pure milk of the word, and feed upon it as the bread of life. So long as he partakes of this spiritual food with exquisite zest, he has the evidence within himself, the evidence of feeling, that he enjoys health and vigor. But he has outward faculties as well as those which are inward and spiritual. For while in the body, he has also the organs and senses of the body, through which he holds communion with the material and spiritual world, with God, with nature, and with man; and through which they commune with him. By these outward faculties he manifests to others, to the world, that the character of the inner or spiritual man is holy and spiritual. His outward members are, as it were, spiritualized, and indeed consecrated to the service of the inner man. The eye, the ear, the tongue, the hand, the foot, all move in harmony with the will of the inner man. They are members of righteousness, because the functions which they perform accord with the feelings and emotions of the mind, or inner man. Hence their proper exercise always indicates the symptons of sound, spiritual health. The eye, when sound, never looks with concupiscence; the ear, when in health, never listens to evil suggestions; nor does the tongue, while spiritually sound, utter corrupt speech, but, on the contrary, that which is good for edifying. Its speech will always be with grace, seasoned with salt. Nor will the hand or the foot consent to become an instrument of evil or unrighteousness; but, contrariwise, an instrument of blessing one's neighbour. In a word, his mind is not more desirous of devising what is good, than are his outward members active in executing it. But in determining what is good and profitable to men, he will be content with nothing short of the highest standard of moral excellence. He will, therefore, always have recourse to the word of God, to ascertain the mind of the Spirit in relation to what he purposes; and what he purposes in this manner, he feels himself fully able

to execute. And as to what he proposes, he will always be found to be not less discriminating and conscientiously scrupulous, as to the means, than he is to the end proposed. His rule of action will never permit him to do evil that good may come. His standard of moral purity and excellence will not allow him to engage in any enterprise, though lawful in itself, that might, either in the pursuit or accomplishment of it, put in jeopardy his reputation as one that fears God and loves righteousness. He is, indeed, ever careful never to infringe the laws of spriritual health. A conscience void of offence is to him a constant spring of enjoyment. In his transactions with men his yea is ever yea, and his nay is always nay. The delightful law of kindness is ever seen and felt in his intercourse with men. He loves them that fear the Lord, but condemns the workers of iniquity. He loves and seeks the society of those who bear the moral image of him whom he delights to serve, and to commune with them in his holy sanctuary is the joy and rejoicing of his heart.

Such are some of the prominent and unequivocal symptons of spiritual health.

We are now, in the second place, to consider some of the deviations from this condition, constituting spiritual dyspepsia.

It is a remarkable fact that there is hardly any disease less understood than that which is so often presented to us, and known under the vague denominations of lukewarmness, worldly conformity, and spiritual apathy, which seems the more extraordinary, because there is none of greater importance, whether we regard its variety, its consequences, or its connection with other diseases. In the first place, then, we shall endeavor to present to the reader a review of the symptoms of spiritual indigestion, and its more immediate consequences; in the second place consider some of the proximate and remote causes of this disease, the manner in which they excite it, and the changes which take place in its progress; in the third and last place, detail the plan of treatment which has appeared to us most successful.

So gradual and successful is the approach of this disease, and so slight, at first, is the deviation from the con

dition of health, as above described, as scarcely to be perceived by the patient himself.

He may, indeed, continue as formerly, to partake daily of spiritual food, but with a relish somewhat diminished. This symptom, at first so very obscure, does not, however, continue long before there is also felt a slightly impaired appetite, accompanied by a slight impairment also of spiritual discernment. The occasion of the above symptons would seem not unfrequently to depend upon protracted abstinence from spiritual food; the functions of the inner faculties peculiar to the spiritual system, have consequently, from too long fasting, become weakened, while the outer senses have been, at "the same time, too long employed or exercised upon outward, secular objects." There is, consequently, a morbid reaction of the outer upon the inner senses. The outer senses have thus acquired a preternatural strength from protracted exercise, while the inward spiritual senses have become weakened from disuse. It is thus, we presume, that the spiritual functions of reflection, meditation, and assimilation, are disturbed, the appetite diminished, and spiritual discernment impaired. Hence it follows that from this undue excitement of the outward senses, the bread of life when received cannot be properly assimilated, because due time has not been taken for the restoration of the spiritual functions of reflection, discrimination, and adaptation of the word of life to the particular wants of the inner man.

Should, however, these morbid symptoms of the dyspeptic not be relieved, but permitted to run on unchecked, then we shall have, ere long, those of a more aggravated character. To the impaired appetite, will succeed a slight feeling of spiritual debility. His system becomes morbidly sensitive to the changes of the moral atmosphere around him. He cannot so well resist its oft deleterious influences upon the inner man. In his works of faith and labors of love he soon becomes weary. There is, indeed, apparent in his gait, a spiritual languor, indicating a great want of spiritual nourishment, and of tone and vigor to the system. When he takes his seat at table, to partake of a spiritual repast, although upon it is spread, in the richest profusion, the

greatest variety of the most delicious spiritual viands, he eats with but little relish, and with still less spiritual discrimination. He often, indeed, selects a portion of spiritual meat much too strong for his weakened powers of digestion, the effect of which is not to nourish, but unduly to excite the head and to produce paroxysms of spiritual delirium, in which the dyspeptic talks incoherently of election, reprobation, the final perseverance of the saints, and fancies himself to be rich, and increased in goods, and to have need of nothing.

There is at times also apparent a want of that harmonious healthy action between the mind, the heart, and the remote organs of seeing and hearing. The eye, when it sees that which is the property of another, looks with cupidity. The ear, when it hears evil suggestions or counsels, listens at first with but little dislike; then, after a time, with indifference; and finally, if this effect be not corrected by a healthy reaction of the mind, it goes on at length to approbation, terminating in perverted moral action. In like manner also is it with the tongue, when from under the salutary influence of the heart. Its perverted function will at first be seen in using lightness of speech, jesting, boasting, using words with double meanings; and unless these symptoms are timely remedied, they will shortly go on to exaggeration, prevarication, and confirmed falsification. So also is it with the hand and foot. They, too, if long deprived of the sensitive control of the heart, become perverted in their functions. The hand will offend, and the foot trespass, and will thus become the instruments of unrighteousness. The above symptoms, indicating the condition of the outward senses and organs, constitute the second stage of spiritual dyspepsia. The third and last stage indicates the condition of the heart itself, as the great fountain from which are the issues of life and health. We have indicated above, that love, joy, and hope are amongst the symptoms that denote spiritual health in general. These symptoms depend, however, upon the healthy condition of the heart in particular. The heart itself again depends upon the head for its healthy tone; and it is through the medium of this organ the heart is to receive the pabulum vitæ, the pure milk of the word, and from which it is to issue or be circulated as

66

the great centre of spiritual life, health, and vigor. It must, therefore, continue to receive a proper supply of this spiritual chyle or milk, that it may with vigor perform its functions; first, that of vitalizing or spiritualizing it, and afterwards of circulating it through the entire system of the spiritual man. From the great importance of its functions we see at once the propriety and necessity of the advice given once by a distinguished spiritual physician : Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." How serious, then, must be the injury to the whole spiritual constitution when this organ becomes diseased. The spiritual pathologist, however, has always found it difficult to discriminate properly the symptoms that denote functional, from those that indicate organic, disease of this organ. This, however, they have always found, that in every case where the heart was really diseased, the head was never found in a sound and healthy condition. This arises, indeed, necessarily from their physiological connection. The functions of the head and heart, whether in health or disease, always act and react upon each other. A. W. C.

NOTES OF LECTURES,

DELIVERED BY A. CAMPBELL.

Plato, in considering what man should | do all the days of his life, says, that a messenger from God must decide that question: so far were men from solving the problem in his time. Hence it was all-important that the Saviour should settle that question first, as the people's minds were excited upon it. In the commencement of his ministry on the Mount of Olives, He gives us nine beatitudes, which settle this question for ever. (Matthew v. 1-13 was then read.) Here are nine beatitudes, and they are perfect contrasts to the opinions of the learned of that day-they are just as new as the miracles he performed. You may search the world over, with the lamp of universal history in your hand, and you can find nothing like them before they were uttered by Jesus on Mount Olivet. The question is, then, whether these beatitudes will show the true path of present felicity? It is a self-evident proposition, that man cannot enjoy himself without knowing the laws of Nature; in fine, every law which affects him. Now he is affected by a world of mind and a world of matter, each of which has its own laws, and affects man's double nature.

First beatitude, (Mat. v. 3) “ Blessed (or happy) are the poor in spirit.' George Campbell has it, " Happy are those that repine not;" but we think he has erred in this instance, as the beatitude would seem to be restricted to a

CHRIST AGREE.-No. IX.

IN estimating the character of these miracles, we have said that mere miracles, apart from the message, are not sufficient to prove that the messenger is sent by God. There must always be a harmony existing between the doctrine and the miracle. If a person should perform a miracle, and yet teach us to commit murder, he undoubtedly proves himself not sent by God. Now we will take an extract from the doctrines or teachings of Christ, and see if his teachings and miracles agree. But first we have a few remarks to make worthy of notice. All the great teachers of that day were debating the question which Solomon had debated long before them, namely, what was the summum bonum, or chief happiness of man? Cicero says, that there were two hundred and seventeen opinions concerning the summum bonum at Rome in his day.

rendering, whereas we deem it universal in its application. The Saviour means a man who is not aspiring in his disposition, the characteristic of whose spirit is contentment. The people of that day thought that ascending in the scale of wealth was the true way to happiness; but the Saviour aims his blow at this supposition, and shows that it is false. Sir Humphrey Davy,, the greatest of modern philosophers—a man who has gone further into the analysis of human nature than any other man that ever lived-has said, that the poor and contented man, who had a firm, clear, and unwavering faith in God, and a sure hope of immortality, was the happiest man living. It is proverbial, that the Cæsars and Napoleons, those great aspirants after wealth and fame, were the most discontented and unhappy persons in the world.

Aspiring to be angels, men fell-
Aspiring to be gods, angels fell."