Prayer in Nervous Troubles.
IN the mad rush of our present-day civilization, we are developing all kinds of nervous diseases. The good old lady who thanked God that she was born before nerves came into fashion was gathered to her ancestors a long time ago. Ours is the neurotic age. An eminent doctor explained recently how he had studied physical culture to learn to relax his muscles, and then practised self-hypnotism to cure insomnia after a season of overwork. This recalls a statement made some time ago before the British Medical Association by Dr. T. B. Hyslop, superintendent of Bethlem Royal Hospital, London, in which he said: "As an alienist and one whose life has been concerned with the sufferings of the mind, I would state that of all hygienic measures to counteract disturbed sleep, depressed spirits, and all the miserable sequels of distressed mind, I would undoubtedly give the first place to the simple habit of prayer. "Let there be a habit of nightly communion; not as a mendicant or repeater of words adapted to the tongue of the sage, but as a humble individual who submerges or asserts his individuality as an integral part of the greater whole. Such a habit does more to clean the spirit and strengthen the soul to overcome mere incidental emotionalism than any other therapeutic agent known to me." Between these two methods of healing these troubles, the simpler and more efficient seems to be that of the Great Physician.—The Circle.