A Suggestive Claim

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 31, 1908

A Suggestive Claim

AND now a representative of the Roman Catholic Church comes forward with the claim that what is known as the Emmanuel Movement is really nothing new, but that the same principles and methods have been employed for centuries in the Church of Rome. No less an authority than Rev. Thomas E. Sherman, son of Gen. William T. Sherman, states this matter thus:—

There is nothing new to Catholics in the Emmanuel Movement, for our church has had, and used, the same method of healing through the mind for hundreds of years. Our confessional takes the place of suggestion. . . . For years and years the Catholic Church has used suggestion to ease the mind and mental troubles of our church-members.

If this analysis and estimate of the Emmanuel Movement is correct, it is sufficient to condemn it in the minds of all those who have any clear understanding of the place which the confessional occupies in the Roman Catholic Church, and of its fruits. There can be no justification of a Protestant confessional.