The series of phenomena that may be grouped under the term "faith cures" represent the oldest, the most frequent, universal, and constantly recurring examples of the influence of the mind over the body for the healing of ills. Whenever men have believed deeply and with conviction that some other being {78} was able to help them, many of their ills, or at least the conditions from which they suffered severely, have dropped from them and their complaints, real or imaginary have disappeared. This was true whether it was the touch of another human being supposed to have some wonderful power that was the agent, or some persuasion of the interference of the supernatural that appealed to them. Religions of all kinds have always had their cures, and one of the main reasons why men have accepted the various religions has nearly always been because of the weight of these healing phenomena. Apparently it does not matter how debased the form of religion may be, whether it is exercised by the medicine man of a savage tribe with methods that appeal only to barbarous instincts, or by a highly cultured priest of a form of religion appealing to the loftiest feeling and the profoundest intellectuality, cures take place whenever devotees have complete and absolute faith in the possibility of divine or supernatural interference in their behalf. The very earliest history that we have tells us of such cures, and the daily papers bring us reports of them from all quarters among the high and the low, the educated and the uneducated. The phenomenon is universal and we come logically to the belief that the Supreme Being intended that confidence in Him, and above all recognition of the fact that somehow the world with all its ills has a meaning for good, should be rewarded. The argument that religion is a natural revelation should then apparently be extended to include also the thought of a healing power in connection with it. Many of the founders of religions that have meant much for uplift to mankind, have made healing a principal portion of their message to man--the proof of their missions. Indeed, there actually seems to be an extension of power, above what is natural, to those who in profound confidence in Divinity, turn to this source of strength for relief from the ills that flesh is heir to. In any of these cases, definite inquiry as to the significance of the particular incident is needed, and not any general principle of either acceptance or rejection. Faith healing is a fact, its meaning is of the greatest importance for psychotherapy and its phenomena deserve that specific study which alone can give any certainty in the matter.