Religious Excitements and Insanity.
THE recent annual report of the superintendent of the Canadian Insane Asylums contains, among other interesting matters, a tabular statement showing the number of inmates of the asylums furnished by the leading churches of the Province. The figures stand thus: |
Members. |
|---|
| Church of Rome, one lunatic for every....... |
626 |
| English Church “ “ “ “ “............ |
657 |
| Presbyterian “ “ “ “ “............ |
719 |
| Methodists “ “ “ “ “ ............1,260 |
|
This table should correct the impression, which obtains in some quarters, that revivals of religion and earnest religious experience are conducive to insanity. The Methodist Church, in which these most abound, furnish the least comparative percentage of the insane; while the Roman Catholic Church, which is the most carefully wedded to formal and ceremonial worship, furnishes the largest percentage. The report shows conclusively, what the most careful observers have long believed, that while great religious excitements may sometimes lead to insanity, they more frequently act as a preventive, proving a safety-valve to many a constitution. The report might have urged, if it had considered the question in all its bearings, that troubled consciences have much to do as causes of mental derangement; that earnest, practical piety—that which is accompanied by the richest testimonies of the Spirit—brings quiet to the conscience, and peace to the soul: and, therefore, that such piety—and, more remotely, the services which lead to it—must exert a most salutary influence upon the mental constitution. — Christian Advocate.