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March 17, 1909. THE PRESBYTERL much profit, both by ministers who have the care of the soul, and by physicians who hpve the care of the body. Yet by both minister and physician, it should be read with caution and discrimination. Against the Emmanuel Movement, sane and reverent as it appeared to be in the hands of such men as Dr. Worcester and Dr. McComb, a strong protest has been made from the side of both religion and medicine. The Congregational ministers of Boston have unani mously condemned it. It was charged repeatedly by them that "the practice of psychotheraphy (healing the body through the mind) in the church, inverts the real values of religion. Dr. George A. Gordon, pastor of the New Old South church, declared that although Dr, * Worcester was his warm personal friend he had been obliged to tell the Emmanuel rector to his face that he was playing the quack." In order to counteract increasing criticism among the medical fraternity, Dr. Worcester and Dr. McComb asked four eminent physicians of Boston to confer with them, and advise them as to any changes of method that might be necessary to secure the approval of the medical profession. The judgment of these medical advisers was that many cases had been treated by the ministers without proper medical diagnosis, and that errors had been committed through misunderstanding of the ailments which they attempted to treat. The ministers had been trying to do that for which they had no preparation of education and training. The result is that the Emmanuel ministers have ceased their clinics, and discontinued medical examinations. They will no longer attempt to treat disease. In view of this step these physicians are ready to lend their name and influence to the Emmanuel movement with the understanding that they do not approve the treating of any one who is not actually and constantly the patient of some physician. "The physician must be in control throughout." The fact is we believe that the good physician, well and widely educated, and having large observation and experience, knows well the influence of the mind over the body, and the intimate and constant operation of mind and spirit through the nervous system, over the functions of the body. The old family physician has constant regard to these things, and uses them effectively in his treatment. Cheerfulness in the sick room, hopefulness, freedom from care, diversion of mind, are just good common sense,-and familiar experience as essentials to recovery from sickness. Suggestion and self-suggestion and appeals to sub-consciousness, and latent will power, are only new names for old things. Nor is the experienced physician without knowledge of the salutary influence of religion, of faith in God, and patience, and the peace and courage to be found in prayer. The physician and the minister may well learn from each other and work together in confidence. The physician who is himself an intelligent and devout believer may bring his faith, and patience, and his prayer to his patient's bed side, and far more be done by his religion than by his medicine. Out of these latter-day studies and experiments in the relations of spirit and body, psychotherapeutics, we doubt . *. \ V * (UNI OF THE SOUTH. 7 not good will come. Many more will be healed both in body and mind, some be lifted up to safer, happier lives, and many be brought to that health of soul, which is salvation itself. A FRESH TESTIMONIAL. In the "Christian Index" (Baptist) we find the following testimonial to the medieval prevalence of infant baptism in Northern Europe: The great traveler and student, Paul B. dvi Chaillu, says In hiss hnnlf "Thp Viklrc A p-p " thnt nmnnir thn ClnnnfiinnvBinc of the eighth and eleventh centuries, there was a sacred rite which consisted in pouring or sprinkling water over a newborn child. The Biblical Recorder quotes him as saying: "The ceremony was considered a most sacred rite and an integral part of Asa creed and consequently of great antiquity, antedating Christian baptism and most binding among ancestors of the English-speaking peoples. It was once no doubt practiced by the Franks, who belonged to the Northern tribes; and certain forms of Christian baptism of the present day may be^based upon this earlier form, which was only changed in name by the earlier Christian missionaries." We are equally pleased at the additional support given to this sacrament from the customs of the eighth century, and at the frankness of two Baptist journals in spreading the information. DEATH OF REV. R. P. BAIRD. A telegram brings the sad intelligence that one of our beloved missionaries, Rev. R. P. Baird, died on the train at Jesup, Ga., on the night of March 9. Dr. Baird was on his way to fulfill speaking engagements for the Executive Committee in the Synod of Florida. There are hundreds of Protestant Christians in the State of Ceara, Brazil, where Dr. Baird had labored, both as a preaching and a medical missionary for over ten years, to whom the news of his death will come as a most sorrowful announcement. About a year and a half ago Dr. Baird had a spell of illness in which his life was despaired of by all his friends, including the attending physician. He lay at death's door for months, and his final recovery was believed to be a direct answer to prayer. Since coming home on furlough he has seemed to be in good health, but has had occasional warnings of the return of the malady from which he suffered in Brazil. We are unable at the present time to give full particulars of his last illness. The telegram announced that he was to be buried in Fredericksburg, Va., on Saturday, March 13th. A Salem (Mass.) pastor, Dr. Parker, has lately published a fine study of the new "Christian Psychotherapy." He rightly pronounces it to be no new thing, so far as there is truth and power in it, but something which was embodied in Christ's teachings and known in all the history of the church and therefore demanding "no new large sounding name that calls attention to itself rather than to the truth of Christ." He also argues that it "puts too little emphasis on character and the method of achieving it through constant struggle, and not through a 'mere curing system that makes the gospel a spiritual Baden-Baden.'" And he declares that "it has no message for men of rugged health, for the 'three-meals-a-day men and women who are nevertheless looking for soul peace, for new strength, and for a solution not of queer nervous diseases but of life itself and its complications.' "