Grappling with the Monster; Or, the Curse and the Cure of Strong DrinkArthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
Religion
Grappling with the Monster; Or, the Curse and the Cure of Strong Drink
Arthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
Temperance
In regard to some of the special influences brought to bear upon the
patients in this institution, we have the following. It is from a
communication (in answer to a letter of inquiry) received by us from Dr.
T.D. Crothers, formerly of Binghampton, but now superintendent of the
new Walnut Hill Asylum, at Hartford, Connecticut: "You have failed to do
us credit," he says, "in supposing that we do not use the spiritual
forces in our treatment. We depend largely upon them. We have a
regularly-appointed chaplain who lives in the building;, and gives his
entire time to the religious culture of the patients. Rev. Dr. Bush was
with us eight years. He died a few months ago. He was very devoted to
his work, and the good he did, both apparent to us and unknown, was
beyond estimate. His correspondence was very extensive, and continued
for years with patients and their families. He was the counselor and
adviser of many persons who did not know him personally, but through
patients. I have seen letters to him from patients in all conditions
asking counsel, both on secular and spiritual matters; also the most
heart-rending appeals and statements of fathers, mothers, wives and
children, all of which he religiously answered. He urged that the great
duty and obligation of every drunkard was to take care of his body; to
build up all the physical, to avoid all danger, and take no risks or
perils; that his only help and reliance were on _God and good health_;
that with regular living and healthy surroundings, and a mind full of
faith and hope in spiritual realities, the disorder would die out. Our
new chaplain holds daily service, as usual, and spends much of his time
among the patients. He lives in the building, pronounces grace at the
table and is personally identified as a power to help men towards
recovery. Quite a large number of patients become religious men here.
Our work and its influences have a strong tendency this way. I believe
in the force of a chaplain whose daily walk is with us; who, by example
and precept, can win men to higher thoughts. He is the receptacle of
secrets and much of the inner life of patients that physicians do not
reach."
In another letter to us, Dr. Crothers says: "Every asylum that I know of
is doing good work, and should be aided and encouraged by all means. The
time has not come yet, nor the experience or study to any one man or
asylum, necessary to build up a system of treatment to the exclusion of
all others. We want many years of study by competent men, and the
accumulated experience of many asylums before we can understand the
first principles of that moral and physical disorder we call
drunkenness."
TREATMENT.
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