Spiritual Energies in Daily LifeJones, Rufus M. (Rufus Matthew)
Religion
Spiritual Energies in Daily Life
Jones, Rufus M. (Rufus Matthew)
Spiritual life
There was perhaps never a time in the history of the world when an
application of this principle and method—God’s way—was so needed in
the social sphere of life. Whole countries have the symptoms which
appear in these nervous diseases. It is not merely an individual case
here and there; it takes on a corporate, a mass, form. The nerves are
overstrained, the emotional stress has been more than could be borne,
suppressed fears have produced disorganization. There are signs of
social “dissociation.” The remedy in such cases is not an application of
compelling force, not a resort to chains and fetters, not a screwing on
of the “lid,” not a method of starving out the victims. It is rather an
application of the principle which has always worked in individual cases
of “dissociation” or “possession” or “suppressed fear”—the principle
of sympathy, love and suggestion—what Jesus, in the book mentioned
above, calls “God’s way.” The “dissociation” of labor and employers in
the social group, with its hysterical signs of strikes and lockouts,
upheaval and threats, needs just now a very wise physician. Force,
restraint, compulsion, fastening down the “lid,” imprisonment of leaders,
drastic laws against propaganda, will not cure the disease, any more
than chains cured the poor sufferer on the shores of Gennesaret. The
situation must first of all be _understood_. The inner attitude behind
the acts and deeds must be taken into account. The social mental state
must be diagnosed. The remedy, to be a remedy, must remove the causes
which produce the dissociation. It can be accomplished only by one who
has an understanding heart, a good will, an unselfish purpose, and a
comprehending, i.e., a unifying, _suggestion_ of coöperation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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