RELIGIOUS INSANITY

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 8, 1876

RELIGIOUS INSANITY.

“OBSERVER,” in the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, speaking of the numerous cases of insanity which can be traced to the influence of the modern popular revivals, closes his article thus:—

“Now the question arises, Do these revivalists preach the ‘gospel of glad tidings of great joy which shall be to all people?’ Or do they preach a doctrine ‘foreign’ to Scripture and which had its ‘origin’ in paganism? As every student of history is aware, the heathen had their Pluto with his infernal hell, and for ages prior to the Christian era they taught this monstrous doctrine which ‘revivalists’ are so fond of using, to frighten their victims either into insanity, or infidelity.

“Men and women who have not well-balanced minds frequently become hopelessly insane. Mothers have been known to drown their children to secure their salvation, and what causes me to write this article, is that I have intimate acquaintances who are to-day the inmates of insane asylums, who have been driven there by the doctrine of endless punishment, which is usually the ‘deadly weapon’ of the regular revival preachers. I cannot solve this enigma, or ascribe it to any other cause. Religious insanity was never produced by any other sentiment than endless punishment.

“Truly, ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.’ How plainly the fear of ‘endless punishment’ is the beginning of insanity, skepticism and infidelity.”